Sourdough and Sewing: A Glimpse of Life

Yes, I know that the title of today’s post is certainly not SEO-friendly, but I care more about writing for you, my faithful readers, than to catch the notice of some scrolling search engine on the web.

As I wrote last week, I decided to teach Ellie (6 years old) to make a quilt. We spent nearly an entire day working on it as I cut fabric on the dining room table, and she sewed at the piano bench that we brought out to use as a table for the sewing machine.

Emma (3 years old), of course, wanted to join in the fun, but I do not allow her to use a sewing machine yet. I require my girls to learn to sew by hand before using a machine.

Ellie started sewing on an inexpensive Brother machine that I had purchased from a friend a couple of years ago after she was finished using it to teach her girls to sew. But by the third or fifth time of dealing with thread and bobbin issues, I decided to let her use my Bernina 1090S. Sewing went much better after that!

Here is the first square that she completed.

And here are the next ones that she completed. She has finished more than these, but I haven’t photographed them. I cut all of the fabric into 4 1/2” squares and am letting her choose the fabric combination for each square. I explained that it is best to match dark and light fabrics, but when she doesn’t put fabrics together that meet that criteria, I don’t make her change it because we will be joining the blocks with a light fabric. It will all balance out in the end, I hope. Some of her seams are more precise than others.

In addition to teaching the girls to sew, I have been back in the kitchen cooking. After a two-week break while we enjoyed the gift of meals from ladies at our church while I recovered from my mystery illness, spending time in the kitchen felt a bit overwhelming for me again at first. Part of that was because my primary care provider told me recently to cut dairy out of my diet. I have been eating a gluten-free diet for over 13 years, and I was on a dairy-free diet when I nursed Emma because she couldn’t tolerate dairy as an infant, but we have been eating a lot of dairy for the past 18 months. Fortunately, I have some wonderful cookbooks that provide healthy inspiration. I have also found that a lot of whole-food vegan recipes are delicious, and I can add meat for more protein if I choose.

Here are the three cookbooks that I have been referring to the most recently. Again, I rarely follow a recipe exactly because I like to be creative when I cook, but I learn ratios of ingredients, flavor combinations, and helpful tips and information in cookbooks. (You can click on the image if you want more details about the cookbooks).

Sourdough bread became very popular last year, but I didn’t make any because I was able to purchase yeast at a local bulk food store. I still have yeast, but I have decided to start incorporating sourdough bread into our routine as well. Using the recipe from Cannelle et Vanille, I made sourdough boules for the first time. I had made gluten-free sourdough in the past, but without adding the artisan touch of baking them in a Dutch oven to produce a thick, crusty loaf. I pulled two antique cast iron Dutch ovens from their displayed perch on the top of my kitchen cabinets and dusted them off, realizing how badly my kitchen needs a good spring cleaning! The bread bakes at 500 degrees covered for 50 minutes and then 45 uncovered at 450 degrees. I pulled it out of the oven before the final 45 minutes was up because I didn’t want it to taste burned! While the bread was in the oven, I also finished up a batch of chicken bone broth that I had been slowly cooking for a day.

I was ecstatic that the sourdough boules turned out well, and that my family heartily appreciated them. One tip: to get my sourdough started, I used a bit of homemade kombucha in place of water.

The next day, I started soaking almonds in salted water, made another batch of chicken broth to put in the freezer, and chopped onions to put in the freezer to make meal prep go faster.

This onion chopper available from Amazon or your local kitchenwares store is a helpful addition to the kitchen to make chopping onions go quickly and to chop vegetables for soups or for canning diced tomatoes, salsa, diced peaches, etc.

I put the chopped onions into 1-cup portions in small bags and then into a larger freezer bag to try to minimize the smell in the freezer. Maybe even a few more layers of bags wouldn’t hurt! I dream of someday having enough small glass containers to freeze everything in, but I don’t have that yet.

The next day, I put the soaked almonds into the oven to dry. If you wonder why I go to this trouble, you can read about the benefits of soaking and drying nuts here: https://wellnessmama.com/59139/soaking-nuts-seeds/

In addition to the health benefits of soaking and drying the almonds, my family also prefers the taste of the almonds when they are prepared this way. My parents gave me this set of pans for my birthday last year, and I can’t find the exact set online, but here a link to a pan that is the same brand and size: Vollrath 2 1/2” Deep Full-Size Steam Pan

Other brands are available as well: full-size steam pans.

One really fun day this past week was going to the family farm again! I had not driven since the middle of December so getting out with the girls was a big adventure. I also took a walk while there, and the sunshine and exercise were balm for the soul. The girls met a little lamb that one of my nieces is bottle-feeding. Emma has been asking every day to go back and see the lamb again.

The girls were also excited to get back to their log cabin playhouse. I couldn’t resist taking this photo when I peered in to see the new table my Dad made and saw the “vase” of boxwoods in the window.

My plan for next week is to share a beginner quilt tutorial. Quite a few people have expressed interest in learning how to make quilts, and so I will start with the basics and build from there.

Please drop a comment below if you have any questions about cooking, sewing, or quilting that you would like me to address in future blog posts!

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