Sour Dough Bread recipe

I've not made a post here in forever, but I was asked to post some information about the sour dough bread recipe and thought this would be the best place to post it. So, here it is:

SOUR DOUGH BREAD

Take starter out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature (I usually let it stay out all day). Feed the starter with the following:

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons instant potatoes
1 cup lukewarm water

Mix well and add to starter. Let stand out of refrigerator all day (another 8 to 12 hours). Keep top on container.

Stir starter. Take out 1 ¼ cups of starter to make bread, returning the remainder to the refrigerator (and store for 3-5 days and then feed again – I feed mine once a week). If not making bread after feeding starter, throw away 1 cup. This is to avoid deflating your starter.

BREAD:

In a larger bowl, make a stiff batter of the following:

1/3 cup sugar 1 1/4 cup starter
1/2 cup oil 1 1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt 6 cups bread flour *

* For whole wheat, substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour and 5 cups flour. Also, I use PILLSBURY BREAD FLOUR; it works much better than regular flour.

Grease a large bowl with oil. Put dough in and turn over (oily side up); cover with saran wrap and then a towel and let stand overnight (do not refrigerate). If dough has not risen, you may let it stand longer. Next morning, punch it down and knead a little. Divide into three equal parts and knead each part on a floured surface 8 – 10 times. Put in to greased loaf pans and brush tops with oil. Cover pans with saran wrap and towel again and let rise (it will sometimes rise in a few hours and sometimes it will take 12 – 24 hours – I let mine rise until it reaches tops of pan—in the winter it takes longer than it does in the summer).

Bake at 350 deg. for 30 – 45 min. depending upon your oven. I bake mine for 30 min. and have to lower my top rack, because my oven bakes the top of the bread too fast. Remove from pans and brush with butter. Cool on rack. Wrap well and store in refrigerator—I freeze mine. I wrap in saran wrap and then in aluminum foil before freezing.

BE SURE TO FEED STARTER ON REGULAR BASIS! -- Even if not making bread.

Saving private frejole

My green beans have been ate up. I treated them with sevin dust today. I gave some the other plants that have been nibbled on a quick shake too.

Everthing seem to bee doing very well. I planted one jalapeno and two tomatoes that were left. I still have so many more seedlings left that will go to waste. All the celery that I planted in peat pods came up. I need to find a place for them. I really want celery for the stews and jambalaya. The carrots, radishes and turnips are kicking butt too.

I will be getting some more pics soon.

Radished and Turnips

I came home from work yesterday. The radishes and turnips have already germinated. That only 4 days!!!! I may be eating radishes before June.....

Garden Update 5-2-2009

There's been lots of changes. Check 'um out.















Here's a new bed. I planted radishes, turnips and carrots here.
















Here are the potato bags. They're doing great.
















I have 3 bags total.
















My bird house gourds are coming up.
















For the first time, our grape vine has baby grapes.
















The okra is doing awesome!
















The beans are just about to start climbing.
















Some tomatoes.
















The first tomato of the year.































More maters.
















The cucumbers are starting to flower.

I planted some cantaloupe in the mound of dirt that was created when I removed the sod from the beds.

Herbies

The wife wanted to create a herb bed. We planted some lemon balm and then all of the seedlings below. This little flower bed faces north so I'm anxious to see how well it does.

Here's what we planted:














Here's some mint. I've read that it will grow to take over the entire bed.
















A little sweet basil
















Some Thyme. I've heard it is also a runner. So now we have a competition.
















Lavender
















Oregano (Greek)
















Lemon basil
















Cilantro
















Thai basil

I don't know what this vine is but it is carpeted with purple and yellow flowers. I have taken some cuttings to see if I could get it to take root.
















Here's a close up
















And another. I'd love to identify this.
















The potatoes are doing awesome. If they all come in, I'll be buried in them.
















Here's a lonely little strawberry. We've already ate a couple of them. They are not getting very big, but at least they are ripening.
















The blackberry is blooming. It won't be long now!!!
















Here's the greens before I cut them. Yummie, that was a good salad.
















The grocery store garlic is doing excellent.
















The okra has germinated
















The beans have somewhere to climb now.
















Here's a few of the beans
















The crow perch
















Here's the tomato bed. I have planted some basil seed at each end (between the orange flags).
















The elephant garlic (leek) are getting huge.
















The onions kickin' as usual
















I have 3 peanuts plants. I had 4, but the wife picked one thinking it was a weed. At least that's the story I'm sticking too.
















The potato bed.

drive way bed, cantaloupe, blackberry cutting

I created a new bed in the front yard (beside my driveway) this past weekend. I figured that seeing the driveway garden everyday when I come home will keep me energized about getting into the backyard where the "real" work is. I planted 3 tomatoes and 3 pepper in that bed. Surprisingly, that spot gets plenty of sun. There use to be a huge hickory tree in this area that dropped hickory nuts on our cars and driveway. It fell last year during a bad wind storm. The soil seems very good. I guess 50 years of decomposing nuts helps and what hasn't decomposed keeps the soil airy.

Today, I planted some cantaloupe on the mound of dirt that I created from the sod removal of the new garden beds. I also thought I'd add some basil seeds to each end of the tomato bed. I read that basil is a great companion plant to tomatoes. I planted some rosemary in the bean bed; once again, companions. Finally, I planted some chives in the corner of the 8x8 bed. Hopefully something will come up.

I have been experimenting with blackberry cuttings. I did not have good luck with the rose cuttings, but maybe blackberries will do better.

I noticed the first flower on my cucumber today, yippie! I don't know why i'm so happy, i hate cucumber.