It's Pumpkin Time

Pumpkin Time of Year

It's that time of year: Pumpkin Time! Whether you grew them in the garden or bought them at a store or farmers' market, the pumpkins have been harvested and are ready to be carved into jack o'lanterns or painted: a fairly new trend involves painting a pumpkin teal blue to indicate that trick-or-treating children who have food allergies can get a non-food treat--a toy or something similar--and not feel left out of the festivities.

Pumpkins can also be made into many delectable dishes--pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pies, and other goodies. And, of course, you see pumpkin spice everything around this time of year.

Pumpkin time is the heart of autumn, when the weather is becoming cooler, there's a nip in the air, and the hearth beckons the family ever closer. It is a time for turning inward and nurturing the self and loved ones. It's a precious time, not to be wasted.

"Pumpkins Hancock Shaker village 2418". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pumpkins_Hancock_Shaker_village_2418.jpg#/media/File:Pumpkins_Hancock_Shaker_village_2418.jpg

Check out the Autumn Abundance Sale going on at Sol Luna Enterprises: enjoy 25% off on orders of $25 and over. The coupon code is FALLSAVINGS. This sale lasts through October 31, 2015, so don’t miss out!

One gift idea, just in time for the holidays: a membership to the Shining Biz + Life Academy, chock full of personal and business e-courses, videos, and meditations for just $497 a year for the complete package or for $197 a year for the Life Academy package (for those who don't have a business and are not interested in pursuing this route). This is a fantastic gift idea for a loved one, or even for yourself. Check out this opportunity today. Disclaimer: I am an affiliate for the Shining Biz + Life Academy and all of its services. I use.recommend, and heartily endorse this program.

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Bread and First Harvest

Bread as Staff of Life and More

This first weekend in August sees the arrival of Lammas, a time of early harvest. This is a time to celebrate the bounty of the season; since bread is widely regarded as the staff of life, this harvest time is also a time to celebrate the act of making and breaking bread.

Making bread is a time-honored process of transformation: the unassuming ingredients of flour, water, yeast or other leavening, sugar, and salt become a rising dough that, with the kiss of the oven's heat (or, as I discovered one summer, the barbecue pit's heat), becomes a wholesome loaf.

Many varieties of bread exist: you can choose, among other options, white or wheat bread, cornbread (my personal preference this time of year), multi-grain bread, even gluten-free bread. Flat breads such as tortillas, pita bread, or lefse bread are among the myriad of possibilities.

"Mixed bread loaves" by Flickr.com user "FotoDawg" - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotodawg/111052842/. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mixed_bread_loaves.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Mixed_bread_loaves.jpg

Quotes about Bread: Some Inspirational Food for Thought

“All sorrows are less with bread. ” -- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,/A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou/

Beside me singing in the Wilderness -/And Wilderness is Paradise enow.” -- Omar Khayyam

“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“In the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.” – Woodrow Wilson

“Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

“It is not accidental that all phenomena of human life are dominated by the search for daily bread - the oldest link connecting all living things, man included, with the surrounding nature.” – Ivan Pavlov

“‘A loaf of bread,’ the Walrus said, ‘is what we chiefly need: Pepper and vinegar besides are very good indeed.’” - Lewis Carroll

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.” – Robert Browning

“Deliberation, n.: The act of examining one’s bread to determine which side it is buttered on.” – Ambrose Bierce

Here's to making and breaking bread with those we love this weekend. Bon appetit!

Sourdough Starter: Fun Chemistry in the Kitchen

Why Make Sourdough Starter? 

If you enjoy baking on a regular basis and enjoy the tangy lift that sourdough brings to various breads and pancakes, then you will want to keep sourdough starter on hand. Making and using sourdough starter is easy and fun; besides, it's not with many other concoctions that the following exchange is possible:

You: You've gotta get a whiff of this.
Other person: What is it?
You: Just smell it.
Other person: Whoa! That's sour!

Making Sourdough Starter

You need a few basic ingredients, plus a little time, in order to make sourdough starter. Here's the recipe:

2 cups milk
1 2-oz package active dry yeast
2 TBSP plain yogurt
2 cups flour

Blend the milk and yeast; heat this mixture until the milk reaches about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Let cool a few minutes and then stir in the yogurt. Transfer this mixture to a glass container (I prefer using a large canning jar). Gradually beat in the flour. Cover the glass container with a dish cloth and then let sit in a warm place for the next 2 to 5 days; I like to place the container on a warm heating pad to ensure even temperature.

Check the mixture every day. If it bubbles and has a sour smell, that's great: the starter is fermenting beautifully. If the mixture turns pink, the fermentation process has broken down. You'll need to compost the mixture and start over.

After the mixture has fermented and is nice and bubbly, store the starter in the refrigerator. You'll probably want to use the starter at least once a week in order to keep it active.

Before using the starter, let it come to room temperature. Also, after using the starter, replace with equal amounts of warm milk and flour. So, if you use 1/2 cup of starter, you'll need to blend in 1/2 cup of warm milk and 1/2 cup of flour.

Masa_madre.jpg ‎(777 × 477 pixels, file size: 73 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Sourdough Starter                  This work is in the public domain