D'vorahDavida
Yetzirah

  Fall must be approaching. I mean it must be an intuition that one feels in the back of their monkey brain that the days are getting shorter and the sun is coming up in a different place on the horizon and it's time to start thinking about hibernation, or nut gathering, or getting your wood in. (Seems a little premature don't you think? It's hot out. There are thunderstorms. The forests are on fire. It's freaking summer Cupcake. Summer.) Yeah, well, my monkey brain is getting signals. (Oh what a delicious array of snappy comebacks is spread out before me. I don't know WHERE to begin...) While you are thinking that over, I'll continue my story. ANYWAY, I'm putting down my sudden desire to bake sourdough bread to the approach of autumn. I know it's a long way from frost on pumpkins, but I'm telling you, there are signs. I mixed up a nice fresh new sourdough starter, and added some whole wheat flour because I read that it can produce a more tangy bread. It bubbled away in a big bowl for a few days and finally I thought it was ready for a test run. My friend N. is letting me use her really cool little wooden bowls to rise the loaves in... Aren't they nifty? Seems an appropriate tool to practice sourdough alchemy with. Here are the loaves just out of the oven... Crusty goodness. They were very good. But not as sour as we like, so I'm going to try another method. Which is to let the dough rise slowly in the refrigerator. I'll let you know how that works out. There's nothing like baking bread. Nothing. (How about whipping up some monkey bread for your monkey brain?) I don't think I like monkey bread. (You ever had it?) Nope. (Then shut up.) No problem. I'm finished here anyway. And when I'm finished cranky pants.... so are you.  :-)