Joyfully, I spoke to Lucille: "Vacation's Over!"

For those of you who may have come on board just recently, Lucille is my sourdough. I read in The Lost Art of Real Cooking, that one of the authors, Rosanna Nafziger, named her sourdough after a goddess. I thought that was a fine idea, so sought a name for mine, as well. Considering that at the time, I was quite new to the real sourdough scene, I had little confidence that I would succeed and therefore named my sourdough, "Lucille". This, in case I flubbed it up really badly, at which point I would bring myself solace by singing, "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Lucille". My reasoning was that if I were sad, and I knew on such an occasion I would be, this song would surely put things back into their proper perspective by causing me to laugh at myself.

I discovered since the start of the sourdough adventure, that it is really much more difficult to kill off sourdough than most people think. Sourdough has a way of playing dead when it doesn't really want to work. But all you have to do is look beneath the surface, as we so often in life must do, to find a thriving culture that maybe needs just a little bit of TLC. You have neglected this living organism and like any other living organism, it dislikes being ignored. So, when you suddenly decide you want and need it, it pretends to be useless. But, most of the time, it really isn't. See what I mean by all this by reading the post, "Hooch Leaves Lucille for Dead".

And so, we all understand who Lucille is. As 'the aproned lady', it is my duty to keep Lucille alive. I make her work hard but then, I feed her well and keep her well-dressed. She gets plenty of fresh-air, fresh water and flour, and about once a week, I throw her a few grapes-a kind of aphrodisiac to sourdough-producing yeasties. So, I see our relationship as one of even exchange. But along with summer came four grandchildren and much running from activity to activity. I started feeling stressed about all the care I was giving Lucille without making her work. Then, I found myself slacking in her care. If you've read the post given above, you know my remedy for Lucille's resulting ailments. Having nursed her well back to health in the manner described there, I decided we needed a vacation from each other.


I gave Lucille her last feeding and stirring exercise and off into the recesses of our refrigerator she went. Lucille  has spent the hot summer in cool isolation. I know she missed me. Every now and then, she called out to me and I would visit her for a little while, talk to her and tell her I just wasn't ready to commit to full-time care yet. She said she was enjoying her vacation too much to come back, anyway, but just wanted a reminder that she was still loved. Reassured, fed, watered and exercised, she would return to her summer home.

But today, the last day of summer, I reached in and pulled her out. She was napping. She opened a tiny eye, and yawned a sleepy, "Hi!"
"Hi, yourself, Sleepyhead," I laughed.
"Well, I guess it's about time you got around to feeding me," she said a bit grumpily. "...Where's my flour?"
"Oh, it's right here. Ready?"
She giggled, "Always ready!"
"And here's your water."
"Ah, nice!"
"And let's exercise a little." I stirred Lucille gently, then surprised Lucille with an offering of her favorite...grapes.
"Grapes! Wow, what's the occasion?"
I laughed. I couldn't help it. Lucille should have known I wasn't going to be that nice for nothing.
"Vacation's over, Baby...You ready to work?"
"And how!" she replied, and it was my turn to be surprised. "...But first...another nap?"
"Certainly," I replied as I poured her into a larger container.
"Whee, that was fun!" she squealed. "Maybe I don't need a nap after all."
"Oh, yes you do, little one. We have to grow you and get you good and strong after all your lax time this summer, so you can make me some killer bread!"
"Sounds good to me," Lucille yawned. "Sounds...really....good....to......"

And so, Lucille is being weaned off vacation. After I strengthen her well by feeding, watering and 'exercising' her twice a day for a week to ten days, I'll see how well she can handle bread in a loaf pan. Before too long, she should be strong enough to stand on her own...that's when we get to wax really creative!

I'm glad Lucille's so ready to get back to work, because I know I sure am. ;)

Soak the Flour while you Soak Up Some Sun, Fun, or ZZZ's

This recipe turned out so well, I already have folks asking for the recipe!

 If you are interested in the many health benefits of soaked/fermented grains, check out the links below. If you just want tips on this soaked grain bread recipe and the link to the original recipe, scroll down past the links.


Wolves In Sheep's Clothing
Pleasing Porridge Hot
The Easy Art of Soaking Nuts
Hooch Leaves Lucille for Dead
The Whys and Hows of Sourdough


I have to admit, I tired of my sourdough.

I was happy with it's goodness, taste-wise, texture-wise and health-wise. But I had to work hard to keep it in top form, especially in these warmer months. Not only do I have to feed it more when it's warm, we alternate from AC to no AC whenever possible, so our indoor temp. fluctuates a lot. Just when I think I'm safe, we have a cooler day and we open the windows, and doggone if I don't forget that extra feeding. So, I'll either feed it in the fridge just enough to keep it alive until the cooler months, or I'll start over then. I'm not a real big fan of the startover, though...At least, not since I read about a family that had maintained their sourdough for over 40 years. That made my nearly one year seem really piddly.

But, I needed to find a bread substitute. Part of the answer was in my soaked grain, home-made crackers. The recipe is flexible so there are a variety of tastes that can be created. But there are some things that require bread, and my husband actually went to the store and bought his old favorite, which is neither soaked nor sprouted grain. AND since a big part of the reason we started eating this way in the first place was his digestive health, I countered by buying Ezekiel bread, which I am satisfied with. Still, he wasn't eating it as often as his favorite, and I knew the only way to get him to eat the really good stuff was to make home-made.

So, in the midst of adjusting to him being home more, our starting a business in CPR/AED and First Aid Training, the grandchildrens' release from school for the summer and my summer 'job' of caring for them during the week starting, I was thinking of how I needed to find a recipe for soaked grain bread.

Unlike many, we are, as far as any of us can tell at this point, not allergic to yeast or gluten. So, I didn't have to make the extra effort to find a bread recipe that really tastes good while being free of these things. But I didn't want to waste my fresh milled flour OR my time, by creating bread that smelled good while baking, but tasted mediocre in the end. So I did read several recipes before settling on this one to try. It ended up being a good choice.

I'm going to tell you a few of my thoughts about the recipe and then give you the link to "Health Banquet", which is where I found it.

~First of all, be fully aware the recipe may be halved. You may not want to make 5 or 6 loaves the first time, especially if you aren't sure you'll like it.

~Next, be sure you have PLENTY of flour on hand. The soaked flour is very moist. I used a ladle to skim off puddles of collected liquid at the soaked flour's surface, but still had to add 6 more cups of flour. Eryn says this amount varies with environment and apparently, my added amount is at the high end of the scope.

~Don't be afraid of this additional flour. Why? 1) What you've already soaked makes it far better than store bread. 2) Because if you allow the bread to rise in the bowl TWICE and AGAIN after shaping, as recommended, you will be giving those ingredients extra intermingling time as well. You won't break down all the phytic acid in that additional flour, but you'll still be decreasing the amount. For more information on the goodness/health of this bread, as well as a link to how to make it right for the total purist, see here.

~ I would definitely NOT use this recipe without a bread mixer of some kind. I think I would, however, feel comfortable with hand-kneading if using it halved.

~At one point, Eryn speaks of "well-greased" pans. Heed those words and when you think it's good enough, add a little more.

~Use the freshest-milled flour possible. If it's not possible to mill your own or if you don't have a source for fresh milled, try brands like King Arthur's and store in the freezer until time of use.

~Have plenty of honey on hand, since this recipe uses 2/3 of a cup, and get the best quality you can, but it needn't be raw. Remember, enzymes in raw won't remain after the heat of baking. Unless raw is your norm, in this case, organic is just fine, (costs less, too)...That means no pesticides or other artificial stuff. (We hope.)

~Be sure to bake the full time...or longer. Eryn recommends using an oven thermometer to test the bread temp. Inserted into the middle of the loaf, it's supposed to reach 200 degrees. I was five minutes from 'done time', and my thermometer was only registering 150. She says if you test it and it reads less than 200, put it back in, so I did. But my oven leans towards the fast side, so I was getting a little concerned. But I did wait another five minutes. By then, the tops looked perfect and the loaves echoed with a hollow sound upon my usual thumping to determine for doneness. I took them out, basted their tops with butter, gave them a few minutes cooling time, removed them from their pans (except for the one dome loaf), and set them on racks to cool.

~Butter: If I remember correctly, Eryn doesn't tell you to spread butter over the bread crust when it's taken from the oven. But I do this no matter what recipe I'm using. My family loves it this way.

I know for some, the idea of taking more than a day to bake bread is ludicrous. We all think we're performing a major feat just by baking bread. (And we are!) However, making soaked-grain bread in stages is not more difficult, it just takes more time...BUT not involved time! Really, you start the soak and it sits there doing all the work by itself while you go spend 12 to 24 hours doing something else.

You do have to be more attentive on baking day, so plan ahead for a 'home day', or at least a 'home evening'. I was busy with grandchildren at Busch Gardens most of the day yesterday. I didn't even start the mixing process until about 5 o'clock last evening. The dough was done and in it's first rise when we sat down to eat dinner. I cleaned the kitchen, finished up some laundry, and it was ready for a little more kneading and into it's second rise. An hour later, shaped it, and it was rising for the last time. By then, I was pretty tired and actually ready for bed, so I vegged out with a movie...the first hour was rising time, the last half hour was baking time.

My hubby and I had a slice somewhere between 10 and 10:30...A great bedtime snack.

Here's the link to "Health Banquet"...My last interjection: If you're not interested in advertisements, skip the first part and just scroll down to the actual recipe. ...Hope you enjoy!