My late night surprise!

This is whate greeted me at 10pm Friday night when hubby and I came home from a wine tasting night at the school. 

When I left at 7pm my sour dough was bubbling happily, about 1/2 way up the side of the 2 litre (2 quart) jar...but 3 hours later (and only 48 hours since I began the starter) it had erupted all over the kitchen counter! It seems our very warm winter days in the tropics will be yielding very fast culturing. 

Once I had cleaned up the bench, I salvaged what I could of the starter and used half to knead some bread dough for the next day, and the other half I put in a clean jar and fed more rye flour.

The following morning I had a sour dough focaccia bread ready to bake....

...which was YUM! 

We enjoyed it with fresh Quark cheese I had bought that day at the health food store in town. 

It's 44 hours since the bubbling over of the starter, and already the little I saved to begin a new batch of sour dough starter is bubbling near the top of the jar again! This time I'm on top of things and will knead it tonight into a loaf for tomorrow's lunch. At this rate I'll have fresh sour dough bread every second day - just perfect! 

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Remember I decided to make my own buttermilk? It worked!!

Only 18 hours after I started I had a thick layer of 'creme fraiche' on top of the new buttermilk. It smelt wonderful, and today I used 3/4 of it to make buttermilk scones, and the rest I have used to culture the next batch of buttermilk. 

Can you see the thick layer of 'creme fraiche' on top?

This weekend I also made a double batch of fresh chicken stock. Half was used last night in my Chicken and Lemon Pilaf, and the rest will be used tonight for a big pot of Chicken Noodle soup. We still have a little bit of sour dough Foccacia to eat with it.

I am really encouraged by the amount of money we are not spending - all due to making as much of my own food items as possible. It means that when I do need grocery items I can purchase the best quality organic available in our small town. 

How are you going with your own dietary overhaul? What things would you like to learn about to help you along the path of healthy, nutritous meals? 

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In the next few days I am going to show you how to make a really beautiful baked breakfast using freshly juiced apples, and organic oats. It's so nice you can also serve it for dessert with cream or custard. :-)

Healthy Hugs

Jenny

xx