PUMPKIN BUTT

 Welcome back to Sourdough 101.  Isn't she beautiful????  This is one of the best looking ones for me because it's not over baked.  At 7:00 I had the oven on to a scorching 500 degrees.  Oops ... forgot to put the dutch oven in to heat up too.

Did I mention my oven is about 50 degrees off in temperature?  I bought a new temp gauge to keep inside, but who knows if those are accurate.  It's a good thing I took a look before I put the dough in.  The temperature read 500 degrees ... the same as the oven.  That's a first!!  I dropped the dough into the pot and grabbed my razor thingy to make the cuts.  

I'm new at this.  Previously, everything I used to cut didn't work well at all.  Can you see the pumpkin??  My main cut across the top was WAY too deep, so I tried to be nicer with the pumpkin.  So here she is .... PUMPKIN BUTT!!  That butt sticks out SO much further than the rest of the loaf!  LOL

The pros make all kinds of crazy cuts with this thing to make gorgeous looking loaves.  Hopefully I'll get a little bit better at the decorating part.

The crumb?  Not bad at all.  I used my handy dandy hand slicer so I could package it up for the freezer.

Yes of COURSE I had a piece freshly toasted from the oven and smothered in butter.  Oh my ... this is the best tasting loaf I have ever made.  The flavor is perfect!

Unfortunately, I made a big mistake.  I have two jars of starter.  Instead of using half of one and making another starter out of the rest .... I used it ALL for that loaf.  Too bad Charlie ... that is the one that had all the flavor.  The other starter ... not so much.  I split the other one into two jars and set up these two for the next loaves.  I know it just won't taste the same, but I guess time will tell.  

Here's another must-do for sourdough.  Yes, this is a nasty kitchen drain.  It will be clogged up completely if you make many loaves of bread without the little netting placed over it.  If you let any sourdough starter go down the drain, it will turn into concrete in the pipes and plug them up.  Pull it off and drop it in the trash ..... no bill from the plumber.

With that now done, I was determined to go on a shopping spree.  It's probably been a year since that happened.  I was headed out for Marshalls ... the only store we have in this town.  But first ... I was down to 1/8 tank fuel in my truck, and even less in the Jeep.  Time to get maybe half a tank of diesel.  Luckily for me, the highest priced place nearby was DOWN to $7.98 a gallon.  It was $9.00 two days ago.  I got $150 worth ... not even half a tank full.

That put the big kibosh on my shopping spree.  Good grief ... Marshalls has stocked up for Thanksgiving, so much so that you can barely walk through the aisles.  Mostly because people just pull stuff off the shelves and throw it on the floor. WHY do they do that????

The clothes were packed so tightly you couldn't even pull something out to see it.  I ended up with this $16.00 purse.

After picking up six bundles of washcloths off the floor, I found these stuffed way in the back.  I needed some new ones ... and a cute little bundle of two hand towels.  Do you have any idea how many little plastic things I had to cut off those towels to get them apart?  TEN .... TEN plastic thingies was definitely overkill!!!!

What a shopping spree.  That's all I got ... one cheap purse and these towels.

Dinner was of course a grilled cheese on sourdough.  I don't know about you, but I'm VERY careful about how I butter my bread so when it's put in the pan, the pieces fit perfectly.  Except this time.  I buttered the wrong side and of course it didn't fit the bottom piece.  Not even close.  Oh I ate it with no problem, but I got parts and pieces in my lap the entire time!!

As the sun set, I remembered it was a full moon night.  Time to get the camera out.

Oh but wait ... the batteries are all dead.  Truly, I haven't done much with photography lately, and it shows.  I plugged in both batteries, having no idea what the green lights meant.  I thought that was how much charge they had, but one never got above 50%, yet it was fully charged.  

I ran outside to get a few pictures ... it was just coming up amid the clouds.  But for the life of me, I could not remember which way the settings went.  It's a pro camera with dozens of buttons.  Oh I remembered which ones did what, but not the order.  My finger muscle memory is gone when it comes to that quick shot.  I guarantee you it won't look like this.

Also known as the freezing moon .... yup it's COLD .... and the falling leaf moon .... yup the leaves are falling .... it was when the Indians would hunt for deer after their corn harvest was done.  

It was a VERY nice moon, but I doubt I got any pictures worth posting.  I'll check them out this morning.

Cooper never liked the cold or the falling leaves.  He would much rather sit on the couch with his Mom ... and his ball!!