The long, cold winters of America’s Siberia, otherwise known as Minnesota, offer plenty of time to hunker down indoors, pick up new hobbies, or revisit old ones. Lately, I’ve rekindled my love for baking bread. I can’t quite explain why it brings me so much joy. Perhaps it’s in my DNA. My Mom tells me she had an uncle who loved to bake, so maybe it runs in the family.
Like many others during the pandemic, I joined the sourdough craze. As much as I enjoy sourdough, keeping a starter alive felt like nearly as much responsibility as having a pet without the tail wagging and unconditional love. After scouring the internet for a shortcut, I stumbled upon a peculiar suggestion on Reddit: using kefir as a substitute for a sourdough starter. Supposedly, the probiotics in kefir could provide the necessary leavening. Intrigued, I had to give it a shot.
As you can see from the picture above it was a huge fail. Reddit is good for a lot of things but, apparently, recipes aren’t one of them. As you can see this loaf looked more like a UFO than bread and it weighed about two pounds. It probably could have used by an Olympic discus thrower. I decided the best use for this was to break it apart into small pieces and feed them. To my surprise, even the birds but they wouldn’t touch it!
Next, I decided to try my hand at Irish Soda bread in my new cast iron bread pan. I didn’t even know cast iron baking pans existed until a week ago but it performed flawlessly. The Lodge brand comes pre-seasoned with oil so the loaf slipped right out.
This soda bread was served with nearly every meal we had on our trip to Ireland a few years ago and I grew to love it. I feel like I redeemed myself somewhat with this loaf. Eating this, smothered with butter, brought me right back to our time on the Emerald Isle.
Wild Kingdom
You might remember that my wife and I moved about twenty minutes outside the city a few months ago. Life on the outskirts has been wonderfully peaceful, and the quiet is a welcome change. Over the past few weeks, we’ve spotted deer, bald eagles, and all kinds of wildlife wandering through the neighborhood.
But a few days ago, I opened the blinds and was caught off guard by this unexpected visitor in the field behind our house.
After a little research we learned the coyote pack will send a solitary scout out as bait to try to lure unsuspecting animals to chase them. Somewhere nearby the pack lies in waiting to attack whatever unfortunate animal gives chase, which is usually someones pet. We'll have to remember this when we get another dog. It's like the wild kingdom out here. Even the coyote wouldn't touch the bread.
A Real Pain
If you’re looking for something good to watch this weekend do yourself a favor and give this film a shot. We watched it last night and it was absolutely superb.
Although the plot was far from light-hearted, it was refreshing to see a mainstream film that wasn’t overtly violent or painted some dystopian future for humanity. If Kieran Culkin doesn’t win a shelf full of awards for this film Hollywood is even more out-of-touch than even I suspected.
Enjoy the weekend everyone!
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I love my lodge cast iron stuff. I have a bunch of it and I use it quite frequently. Probably not as much as I should though. That is crazy about the coyote. In Michigan they are considered varmints, so you can shoot them if you are in a safe place. I'm sure others have already alerted animal control about them roving around. Good luck on the bread. I have always had issues with yeast working the way I need it to.
I've had good luck with the Lodge products too. We have a local hardware store that carries, what I thought was, their full line of products but I've never seen the bread pans before. They say it's good for meatloaf also. We have strict laws against shooting wildlife here in MN, within the metro area anyway. Thanks! Bread can be tricky. Sourdough is the trickiest of them all. Enjoy the weekend Jay!
My mom and dad visited the Lodge factory store down in Kentucky or Tennessee or wherever it is. You would be surprised at the things they have! We have some outlets up around this way as well. I figured being so close to the city there would be some pretty strict rules :)
Probably the most bizarre Lodge item I own is a wok. It weighs at least thirty pounds.
That is crazy. My mom and dad used to have an old travel charcoal grill that they bought at the Lodge store. That thing was heavy too!
Oh, I'm salivating like Pavlov's puppy!!! I'm a lover of freshly baked bread and if it has butter in it, I feel like I'm in glory. hahahahaha. If that bread tastes like what it looks like, it's delicious. As for the other bread, I have read all the properties that kefir has and how they recommend consuming it daily, because of the amount of probiotics that our body needs. And I tell you that I already saw that movie and I loved it. I cried with that ending because I understood that there are diseases that are of the soul. And according to the forecasts, Kieran is the favorite to win the Oscar. We will see. I send you a hug, Eric!
There's not much better than fresh bread, still warm from the oven! It turned out pretty well this time! I really enjoyed that film, it was one of the best I've seen in a really long time. The one question I was left with was wether or not Keiran's character was homeless and living in the airport. I hope you've had a great weekend Nancy!
Looks like you redeemed yourself with the Soda bread. It is delicious and very popular in Ireland as you say!
The soda bread definitely was the opposite of the UFO loaf! Lol. I'll be making that soda bread again.
Yeah the UFO loaf was something else 🤣
Looks great! I love good bread. But everything available here is too soft and/or too sweet. I should learn to bake my own.
I've heard that about Japan's bread! A number of YouTuber's we watch rave about the egg salad sandwiches at Lawson but the bread reminds me of the Wonder bread we ate in the 1970s. I'd still like to try one of those sandwiches. : )
haha yeah, white bread is surprisingly popular and is pretty much the only option at convenience stores. All the same health information is available here as there and people are fully aware that white bread (and rice) is not exactly good for us, and that brown is much healthier. But industry in this country moves at a glacial pace and change only trickles in. The Lawson's sandwiches do taste good, mind you, just it's more like eating junk food... you get that sugar high and feel great, but it quickly goes away and you are left unsatisfied.
Oh dear I remember your flying saucerThere truly is something special about baking one's own bread. I'm trying to limit it, as it doesn't help my IBS. I'm sure it's the influence of our mother!
I think I've made a whole fleet of flying saucers in during my time baking! : ) This recent one was the most dense one ever. Do you have problems with sourdough? Usually the sourdough is more palatable for people with digestive issues.
Don't feel bad, I've made some very heavy loaves, some would have been good for weightlifting 😅
I only eat Sourdough, love it, but buy it, I've not mastered that art yet! I will try again, have not felt like baking lately but it will change one ofthesedays!
Have a great Sunday Eric!
Our property is surrounded on three sides by a nature preserve and we had a coyote family living close enough that we could hear the babies. We have more trouble with Bobcats.
My husband likes to bake bread, too. It has been a while since he made sourdough.
I can imagine bobcats are more trouble. Around here the coyotes keep their distance for the most part but they must be getting extra hungry as winter drags on.
Good morning dear friend @ericvancewalton
Great that you are enjoying your culinary knowledge, I'm sorry that not everything has turned out as you wished
I'm glad you are enjoying your new home and its surroundings, it's great to be close to wildlife
I didn't know that information about coyotes, I appreciate you sharing it
Have a wonderful weekend
Thanks and I hope you've enjoyed your weekend my friend!
I have heard about about lots of bread but first time I am hearing about the soda bread
Soda bread is really heavy and hearty. One slice, with butter, will fill you up!
The final result is very nice :)
!discovery 30
Thank you!
Nice one man, there's few things nicer than real butter spread on freshly baked bread. I'm actually actively trying to cut down on breads and sugars, so that picture of your bread is making me 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤
Bread is a hard one to resist!
I love bread a lot and this really looks nice eat.
Thanks!
#hive #posh
You like to bake bread, that's good. Your family has it, that's good too. The animal in the photo is a fox, I also see them sometimes in the crop fields.
That's actually a coyote, I bit bigger than a fox but they're distant cousins.
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