I made it!

Sourdough bread that is.  I’ve been working with my starter from Mel’s instructions.   I fed it every day, made sure it was still bubbling along.  Then Monday night I declared it time to make bread!

While it wasn’t as sour as I thought it was going to be (I am still feeding the starter) it was pretty delicious.  But it was dark out and we cut it nearly as soon as it came out of the oven, so I have no pics!  But, I am hoping to put the starter in my fridge while we are on vacation and hope for the best.

I ended up using this kind of container, open just enough to let the carbon dioxide release.  The bubbles mean its fermenting!  This was I think day 2 or 3.

I’ll be sure to do a proper write up the next time I make it!

So we are getting close to leaving for vacation, its been interesting coming up with meal plans.  We still had leftover beef roast from Sunday, so I chopped some of that up and made an egg white breakfast sammie – I could actually taste the smokiness from the grill.  #awesome

I worked straight through lunch – super busy, but I actually like it that way so the day goes by fast.  The next two days should be much calmer.  When I was going through the fridge, I realized I had my leftovers from that Thai restaurant (Kung Pao Chicken)that Hannah and my Mom went to.  I ended up heating that up, and then adding 3/4 cup chopped cucumber for some crunch and to help tone down the heat – this was supa spicy!  And there wasn’t much chicken left, so I added a few slices of the roast to this dish too.

Later in the afternoon I was wondering what to make for dinner, when I realized I still had the second half of the sauerdough bread sitting on my counter.  I texted Tony and said “how does sausage and green olive pizza sound?”  I was shocked when I got a quick reply that said “sounds great!” 

While I could have pizza every day and never get sick of it, Tony isn’t on the pizza bandwagon like me, so when he gives me the thumbs up I go for it.

Now this dough has been sitting on my counter since Monday night, with just a lid on top, but not completely covered.  My camera battery was dead, so my iPhone had to step in.

See all those bubbles?  This dough is super wet and sticky.  I probably ended up adding about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of flour in order to get it the right consistency to roll out.  I love that I’ve left the unopened container of yeast on my counter for three days.  I am klassy like that.

Speaking of yeast, that was a two pack container that I bought from Sam’s Club for only $5 for both.  Once opened it just can hang out in your fridge until you are ready to use it – they say that 1/4 teaspoon is a serving, and there are like 576 servings in each package – 2 1/4 teaspoons is the equivalent to a packet of yeast you get in the three pack at the store – so this is a great deal.

I found we had mushrooms, green olives, pepperoni and sausage as our toppings.

I use a baking stone (that my MIL gave me – thanks Bonnie!) and heat the stove to 450 with the stone in there.  Once the oven comes to temp, I bake the dough blind for about 5-7 minutes.  Make sure you poke a fork in your dough so it doesn’t bubble up on you.

Exactly 12 minutes later – bam:

I topped my pizza with hot giardiniera, I am getting addicted to that stuff!

The crust was a bit crunchy, and doughy at the same time – kind of like a pan pizza.  Tony isn’t a fan of super thin crust like me – I love a cracker crust.  And kudos to me, no after dinner snacks or wine last night!

I ended up finding some asparagus in my crisper (that was for you Roz!) and while the ends were kind of iffy, the rest of it was fine.  I ended up making an asparagus quiche for my breakfast this morning, using up the last of the milk too.  If it turns out I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

Off to fold some laundry before getting ready for work.  Question of the Day:  Could you have pizza every day?  Make it a great day!