IT'S ALL GOOD!

 GOOD MORNING CALIFORNIA!  It's a new day and we are all bright and shiny like a new penny.  That's what my dad used to say, though I don't think I ever felt like a new penny!

The skies were weird and it was once again cold.  I can't complain however, because anything below 92 degrees is good ... and this morning it was a breezy 57.

Every day when I open the fridge, this is what I see.  Not one, but TWO jars of sourdough starter.  Actually, the one on the right makes THREE.  It's the newest one I whipped up to make another loaf of sourdough.  

I admit, it's beginning to taste like REAL sourdough now, but the amount of work involved is over the top.   There's no way those pioneer ladies made bread while bouncing across the country in a covered wagon.  Even in their log cabins, bread must have been a delicacy.  It's not even a one day affair, it takes TWO.

I measure with great accuracy, weighing out the starter, flour and water, then let it sit on the counter for four hours until it looks like this.  This is called the leaven.

While that finishes up, I make the autolyse.  This is just bread flour and water that sits on the counter for 30 minutes before dumping in the leaven.  

Once mixed (which takes a long time), you let it sit for 30 minutes, stretch and fold, another 30 minutes, stretch and fold ... and on and on.

Can you guess what this is?  ROASTED GARLIC.  This is the reason for the bread making today.  At our last lodge meeting, the sweet gal who makes all her own bread, asked if I had tried garlic sourdough.  No, no I haven't, but boy do I love the garlic sourdough you can buy in the store.  So I'm giving it a shot!

While the dough rested, I roasted and smashed up a bunch of garlic cloves.  This may be a recipe for disaster, but I'm trying it anyway.

Another stretch or two with the garlic thrown in, then it sits for another hour.  Yup it's 5:00 now and I've been working on it all day long.  At this point you make it into a nice round ... don't overwork it ... and into the towel lined basket it goes.  

It lives in the fridge for the next 12-14 hours.  Surely the pioneer women shortened this entire process, but then again, maybe they were out hunting squirrels for dinner and didn't care.  This morning it will go in the oven at 450 degrees.  Thank the Good Lord for SOLAR panels because my oven sucks up electricity like a champ.

I had a couple of other things on the list that needed to be done, including plugging the rig in to the battery minder.  That brought up THIS problem.  This is the open door on the passenger side.  That window cover is heavy duty to keep out the heat and the cold.  That means the tiny little magnets they put inside, do not hold it up long enough for you to close the door so it will STAY up.

I had attached one magnet on each window cover, but it needed two, so here's the second one.  Another chore finished.

Next up ... sew the binding on this quilt.  It's one of many sitting in a big pile on the floor that needed to be finished.  Because it's small, I finally decided to stitch it on by machine instead of by hand.  I had talked to one of the ladies at the repair shop and she showed me how she does it.  

By the way, the Tech called, apologized for the missing cord and said he would send it yesterday.  It's all good since I find my neighbors are not back from their trip.  I need their muscle to get the machine in the house, so I can't use it anyway.

Here's the finished product ... it took me an hour to stitch it on, one inch at a time.  You have to fold the hem over and hold it down with both hands in order to keep the needle going straight ... or at least as straight as possible.  

HOWEVER, while walking around the quilt repair shop, I noticed a quilt that had a decorative stitch on the binding, not just a straight stitch.  I decided to try that out instead.  I tested a couple of them before deciding on this one.

The one on the right is the "top" that you see while sewing.  Turn it to the backside and it looks like the one on the left.  Except for a couple of wobbly places, it came out pretty well.  I'm not sure I would want to do this on a queen sized quilt, but for smaller ones, an hour is definitely better than one or two days to get it done.  Especially when it comes to those 12 Veteran quilts.

The day ended on a high note.  I caught Mr. Cooper outside in the garden eating cat $hit.  Good grief ... what is wrong with dogs?????  He'll probably get scurvy or something worse!!  Just what I need, but at least he's already on antibiotics!!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I watched as the sun went down behind the clouds, trying to count my blessings with renewed energy, and  quit complaining about my laughable luck. 

On the morning menu ..... roasted garlic sourdough bread.  The time to BAKE has arrived.  It doesn't get any better than that!!!

IT'S ALL GOOD!!!!!