A few months ago I took a small class about sourdough and sourdough starters. It was all very, very intimidating to me, but I thought I would give it a try. Turns out, once you have a starter, it isn't so difficult after all, just a lot of planning ahead and waiting between steps. So far, I have made artisan sourdough bread, whole wheat sourdough crackers, and this AMAZINGLY delicious pizza crust. Hubster and I both enjoyed the artisan bread, but the kids didn't care much for it the first time around. The second time around they were a little more favorable because it was still warm, but they didn't care for it again once it cooled. I really enjoyed the crackers, but no one else seemed to enjoy them all that much. Then I made the pizza dough from the King Arthur Flour website. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Not only was it good, but it was the best homemade pizza dough I have EVER had. This recipe alone was worth the upkeep of a sourdough starter. I would make the dough about lunch time and it would be ready in time to make dinner. It isn't a "true" sourdough, since it does also require instant yeast, but the sourdough starter is what makes the texture and flavor so perfect. I also never used any of the optional pizza dough flavoring. Also, when it says hot water, it only means body temp warm. Test it out on your wrist like you would a baby bottle. It shouldn't feel hot or cold to the wrist. Too hot and you'll kill the yeasts. You can find the King Arthur Flour Sourdough Pizza Crust recipe here, and let me know what you think if you try it out
While scaling back can take a big chunk out of the burden of paying for Christmas, the burden won't be completely gone. We still have to buy gifts or materials to make them, and we want to do fun things around Christmas that sometimes cost money. Since I don't advocate going into credit card debt for anything short of the most dire emergencies, here are a couple suggestions on how to pay for Christmas. One way we have done it in the past is to set up an extra savings account at our credit union and transfer $10-$20 a paycheck into it depending on what we can afford. If things are really tight, we sometimes only move over $5. If we have a windfall (such as a bonus or tax return) we will take a portion of that money and add it to the Christmas account as well. This Christmas account pays for both gifts AND activities thorough the Christmas season. I know someone that insists that they are too poor to save even a few dollars a pay check, so they put everything they buy for ...
That pizza looks delicious!!
ReplyDelete:)Vicki