Crispy Same-Day Sourdough Waffles

If you are like me you are always looking for more delicious ways to use your sourdough starter.  The benefits of properly prepared grains are many.  This is just one more of the ways our family gets to delight in the tasty sweet goodness of a whole grain breakfast without any regrets later.

Ingredients:

2 Farm Fresh Eggs, duck or chicken

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp. Real Salt

1/4 Cup Melted Butter or Coconut Oil

2 T Honey (melted if solid), Sucanat or other sweetener

2 Cup sourdough starter that has been fed within the last 12 hours

Combine well and then add 1t baking soda just prior to pouring on to the pre-heated waffle iron.

My note: I like to have a thicker starter for this recipe :)

Here is the easy recipe which I have doubled for our large family.  This freezes and reheats in the toaster AMAZINGLY well.  You can get the details and watch me prepare it here on our YouTube channel.  Post below to let me know how your family liked it!!

See y'all next time,
Melissa

Delicious Secret Ingredient Sourdough Chocolate Muffins Recipe

Welcome to another recipe here on Tasty Tuesday.  Because of the health benefits, we ferment our grains.  The main staple that is used to accomplish this is our sourdough starter.  You may find it strange to learn that I keep a few of these "pets" around for various uses.  I have an original wild yeast starter from 2007 that I keep around for mild flavoring and fermentation, I also own a purchased San Francisco sourdough starter that I keep for my baking that I desire to have that distinct "sourdough" flavor, and I have a third wild yeast or "natural yeast" starter that I captured for daily bread baking and recipes.
Today I want to share one of those recipes with you.  These delicious Sourdough Chocolate Muffins are an easy home-school breakfast staple and usually leave several available for snacking throughout the week as well. I am so glad to be able to include some of our summer squash in this recipe that was frozen from our summer garden harvest.  Sometimes you get one of those jumbo zucchinis that were hiding under a leaf that get HUGE.  This is the just the recipe for using them up.  We simply shred them into several 1 cup portions and place them in little snack-size baggies which are then stacked flat in the freezer.  They are perfect for thawing and using in these amazing muffins.

Catch the video on the Dixie Living YouTube Channel.  Here is the written recipe which I have adapted to suit our tastes from the original found in the Bread Beckers Cookbook:

Secret Ingredient Sourdough Chocolate Muffins

Overnight Ferment: In a bowl place 2c. of active starter.  This means make sure you fed it 8+ hours ago.  Add to this 1C. water and 3C. flours of your choosing.  Just make sure they are wheat flours.  You can use any combination of white or whole wheat, spelt, kammut, etc.  Mix this together, cover, allow to sit until the morning.

The Next Morning:
Step 1*Preheat oven to 400F and whisk together the following:
1t. Baking Soda
1t. Salt
1T. Baking Powder
1/3C. Cocoa Powder
Step 2*In a stand mixer or mixing bowl combine the following very well:
1/3C. Brown Sugar
1/3C. Honey
1/3C. Milk
1 Stick Melted Butter (or 1/2c. equivalent)
2 Eggs
1t. Vanilla Extract
Step 3*Add dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Step 4* Add overnight ferment mixture and combine well.
Step 5* Mix in the following as desired: 1C. chocolate chips, 2C. Shredded Zucchini, and 1C. Chopped Nuts.
Step 6* Fill prepared muffin tins.
Step 7* Bake until tops spring back when touched, approximately 20 minutes.  Enjoy!!

BAM!! Just Like That!

And...Bam!  Just like that my firstborn son turned 16 this week.  It was a day that arrived way too soon for me.  The two of us got to go on a date in the middle of the day to a local Brazilian steakhouse with an amazing salad bar of fresh greens, fruits, cheeses, and meats that are such a delight for the eyes as well as the taste buds.  A favorite was the Brazilian lemonade.  I am going to work on this recipe and see if we can enjoy some of it at  home this summer.  I'll post the recipe when I get it just right.  He was kind enough to pause for a quick shot here before we went inside.  I can't believe the amazing, capable young man he has become.  Sniff!

 Since it is still somewhat cool we are spending more of our days inside than we like to.  That does afford me some guilty pleasure time to spend with my embroidery machine though on fun projects.  Here are a couple pillows that I personalized for the girls beds to give their room a little more flair.  Both pillows are amazing thrift store finds that I knew would be perfect.

See you around the homestead soon!

-Melissa

It's Cold Outside

While I am very eager to get my hands in the dirt next spring, I am quite content to sit by the fireplace today and make this post.  This week we celebrated the 5th Birthday of Little Lyss by taking her to Papadeaux a favorite nearby seafood restaurant.  She loves to go there for the "red lobsters" in the tank.  She had a great time and her little one was very well behaved as well.

The Birthday Girl and her baby out to eat with Mom and Dad for her birthday dinner.

 Since it has been cold we also enjoyed a favorite warm, wintry dessert with Sunday dinner this week.  We grabbed some of the peaches we canned from this summer and had this delicious Peach Cobbler with some vanilla bean ice cream on the side.  I'm already anticipating peach season here in the South next summer.  I hope you'll try the recipe, it's a good one!

Yummy Peach Cobbler for my Sweet Georgia Peach!

Scratch-made Peach Cobbler

• 1 quart home canned peaches , peeled, cored and sliced (about 4 cups)
• 3/4 cup pure cane sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the topping

• 6 Tablespoons butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup pure cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• ground cinnamon for sprinkling

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Slice butter into pieces and add to a 9x13 baking dish. Allow the butter to melt in pan in oven as it preheats.  Remove the pan from the oven before the butter gets browned.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Gently add the milk until barely combined. Pour the mixture into the pan, over the melted butter and smooth it into an even layer. 
3. Ladle the peaches and juice on top of the batter. With a heavy hand, sprinkle the cinnamon over the top.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 38-40 minutes. Serve warm, with a scoop of ice cream, if that's what y'all like.

See y'all around the homestead!

Melissa

What Happened to the Water??

Well, it finally happened this week...we ran completely out. of. water.  As in, I'm standing in the shower mid-rinse and drip, drab, it's gone!  There have been two other times this has happened and we normally just switch over to the other well.  This time that did not work.  Eight people living in one house use quite a bit of water, not to mention our animals needs as well.  We will be sure to have a deep well when we build our next homestead.  There was a lightning strike a day ago that took out our router, computer monitor, and our Vonage device.  We are beginning to suspect it may have affected the well pump also.  In the meantime we are continuing to pray for rain since we are officially in a drought situation here with the average rainfall between 4 and 7 inches below average for this time of year.

Our sweet Muscovy Nellie Olson sitting on our Ancona eggs.  These Muscovy are great mothers!

Two day old fuzzy Ancona duckling with Little Lyss.  They already love the water!

Getting some sweet snuggles with the other duckling before he's eagerly back in the  pond!

Last week we were celebrating the arrival of our 4 sweet Ancona ducklings that hatched.  Sadly, only two of the little yellow fuzzies made it to this week.  We fear something came up from the woods behind the duckhouse and got them as there has been no sign of them.  The remaining two are getting huge in just one week's time.  They grow much more rapidly than baby chicks and the sight of them out in their little pond swimming around is the absolute cutest!


We'll see you 'round the homestead,
Melissa

Lazy Days of Summer

Chief chicken chaser on his way to find "his" chicken.

Here chicken, chicken...where are you?

Our silkies safe from hawks in the run.

Girls in the sandbox which - I am surprised to say - has not become a chicken dust bath ;-)

While the kids enjoy some time off from school and we don't have a lot of gardening or harvesting to do they love to play in the sandbox and Mama loves to play in her garden box!  This is one of my raised beds that is really having a bit of trouble this year.  Just a week ago it was FILLED with dense, thick foliage on the squash and tomatoes.  Now, just rot remains in most of the bed.  I have decided that with all of the rain we get here in the summers there was simply not enough air circulation to keep the leaves dry.  Hindsight tells me that I should prune the squash leaves and tomatoes heavily.  Lesson learned.

The nice thing about my raised beds though has been that the chickens do not get in them much at all.  They are much more concerned with pecking and scratching the ground than in digging up my raised bed plants.  The powdery mildew in this bed has been a constant battle.  With the abundance of rain and poor air flow due to density, this is one battle I have lost for sure.  Oh well, it's all part of Dixie Living, right?





See you around the Homestead,
-Melissa

Healthy Home Remedy: How to Make Elderberry Syrup

It always seems this time of year brings merriment, overindulging, and inevitable sickness.  Our family has found a wonderful remedy that we have begun making at home - Elderberry Syrup.  There are many Civil War time accounts of its use to aid with dysentery and other stomach maladies.  I have not been able to find any growing locally so I am buying mine from Shoshanna here.  Once the dried berries arrive it is a cinch to whip up this helpful remedy in no time.  Because black elderberries have been shown to ward off illness and hasten recovery, we keep a Mason jar full in the fridge and take some everyday with grape juice to avoid the stomach crud.  So far, so good!  Here is the recipe we are using to support our immune systems:

Elderberry Syrup

4c. Water, well-water, filtered, spring, etc.

1c. Dried Elderberries

1/3c. Dried Echinacea

Fresh Ginger, 2 thumb-size nubs, scraped and chopped

1-2t. Whole Cloves

1-2t. Dried Rosehips

Half a lemon

1 1/2 c. Raw Honey

*Leave out echinacea if using as a preventive, rather than to treat an active illness as echinacea should not be taken for more than two weeks at a time.

Bring elderberries and all spices/herbs to boil in water in a medium aluminum-free pot.   

Reduce heat, cover, and allow to simmer for an hour.  Stir from time to time to prevent sticking.

Allow to cook down until liquid has been reduced by half.  

Pour into strainer and allow to drain into pitcher or mason jar as liquid comes to room temperature.

Once COMPLETELY cooled, squeeze in juice of half lemon and stir in honey until dissolved.

Every adult (13+) gets 1T/day

Every kiddo gets 1t./day

Enjoying Dixie Living,

Melissa