I just finished making a sourdough starter. I had tossed around the idea of buying one from the fine folks at King Arthur Flour but in the end decided to take a DIY approach. Some quick googling on the subject revealed that a simple mixture of yeast, water and flour ought to do the trick and every recipe had just about the same proportions: 1 tablespoon of yeast, two cups of warm water and two cups of flour mixed in an earthenware or glass container. After 48 hours of bubbling away at room temperature on the kitchen counter it should be ready to use, depending upon the cooperation of the wild yeasts in the air here in Charlottesville. One recipe, much more complicated than the others, used green grapes to start the fermentation process - I bet it's fantastic, resulting in a very yeasty, winey bread but for my purposes I think I'll stick with the simple and familiar. If all goes well, I'll have homemade sourdough bread on Thursday. My, but that seems like a long way away, doesn't it?


The only other cooking project on tap for today is the making of pizzelles for my husband's Wednesday lab meeting. We had originally planned on sugar cookies but, realizing that good pizzelle weather (that is, clear and non-humid) is likely to be ending soon, changed our minds. Homemade pizzelles do not do well in the spring and summer - they just get all floppy and moist so we're going to take advantage of the last of the "pizzelle season". They have another advantage over sugar cookies in that they are quick to make and therefore perfect for squeezing into an infant's nap time.


This afternoon I will be accompanying the Boy Wonder to the library. He's asked for more "airplane and train books" on the grounds that he's memorized the ones he has and wanted to go to Barnes and Noble for their acquisition. Given my current non-income-earning status we've decided that the time is a good one to introduce the joys of borrowing rather than purchasing books. Although I don't wish to rein in his enthusiasm for reading and books I'm thinking that I might limit his selections to three or four books for this initial visit. Not only would I like to teach him prioritization and that he cannot have everything he wants, but I think that three or four is all I'll be able to track on any given day. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he picks out to bring home.