Science projects and grow lights

Well, I dumped science project #2 in the sink today.  I tried another sourdough starter and instead of following my own advice and making bread when it first started smelling yeasty, I kept it the full four days and today it stunk so bad I gagged when I smelled it.  After making and tasting the first batch, I know what smell ends up as tastes in the bread and I know what I was smelling was not something I wanted to taste.  Maybe I'm not keeping the starter warm enough.  It is hard to keep anywhere in the kitchen 80 degrees consistently this time of year.  I think I will try the sourdough starter again in the late spring when it is warmer.  As for now, I'll chalk the pursuit up to failure and maybe hunt around on the internet for a good sourdough starter.

My husband ordered the seeds for the garden last week and they have slowly been trickling in. I bought him a shelf and he bought some used fluorescent lights and we are in the process of building a grow light stand so that we can start the plants from seeds early.  This weekend will be the right time to start the early crops like peas and cauliflower from seed (I'm dreaming of pickled cauliflower...yum, yum).  I can't believe the garden is creeping up on us like this.  I also want to get a cold frame built for when the plants get beyond seedling size.  We have two big double hung windows that we will use for the top of the cold frame and then probably scavenge some wood to make the sides.  The ground is so sloppy right now, it might be a great time to start digging out the pit for them.

I want to start trying to make soap, but I keep getting scared about it.  I guess the scariest part is having to use the lye.  I keep telling myself that I use cleaners that are just as harsh as lye is all the time, I shouldn't freak out too much, but it's not helping.  I have deer fat and duck fat stored that I need to use soon.  Maybe this weekend or next will be my soap making weekend.

Finally, a recipe for good sandwich bread

My main goal with all this bread baking recently has been to find a recipe for a good, solid sandwich bread.  If I can make my own bread, that is one less thing that I need to make frequent trips to the grocery for.  I know, I could buy bread in bulk and freeze it, but honestly, I'm not that crazy about thawed out bread.  It's cheaper to bake my own, too.

With my current attempt at a sour dough starter heading the same direction as the last one did, I decided to give a different bread recipe a try.  I made the Whole Wheat Bread recipe from The Joy of Cooking and it turned out pretty good.  It definitely has a dense enough texture to make a fine sandwich bread.  The taste is a little lacking, but I think next time I'll use the upper range of the honey suggested (she suggests 1/4 to 1/2 cup of honey and I used 1/4).  I think some add ins would be nice too, like flax seeds or sunflower seeds or maybe some wheat germ.  The recipe makes three loaves, which is cool because I like to make a bunch of bread at once, but it may have been a little much for my stand mixer to knead.  Yes, gasp, the happy homesteader has given up hand kneading and instead kneads her bread in a stand mixer.  Well...unless I'm mad at someone, then I knead bread.  Kneading bread by hand should be reserved for therapeutic purposes.  I'm a little nervous, though, because I heard a weird grinding sound from my mixer and I hope I didn't hurt it.  Keep your fingers crossed for my mixer.