Art in My World

Sourdough Molasses Spice Cake Want yet another way to use up your sourdough and create a healthy almost gluten free dessert? This will certainly please! To make it completely gluten free use brown rice sourdough. This is something I have never tried, but may be worth a shot if you like a good sourdough bread but cannot handle wheat products. If you don't have the other flours and starches, just use regular unbleached organic flour. 1 cup of sourdough starter 3/4 cups of white rice flour 1/4 cup sorghum flour 1/2 cup of potato starch 1/2 cup of butter 1/2 cup of succanat 1/2 cup of blackstrap molasses 2 eggs 3/4 teaspoon of sea salt 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 1 teaspoon of ginger 1 teaspoon of baking soda Prepare an 8x8 pan by spaying with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 350. Mix together sourdough starter, flours and potato starch and let sour for 8 hours. The dough will be thick. Cream together the butter, succanat and blackstrap molasses. Then add the eggs, sea s...

The Market Basket I kept wandering out to the garden this past summer and needed a basket to collect my produce...and so the this creation; a first of many. It is so nice to make just the right basket for the job. And they look so pretty! It will be hard to dirty them up with my garden tasks.

  Sourdough Carrot Cake w/Cream Cheese Icing When you are working with a sourdough starter, you will always be looking for ways to use it. It just seems to multiply and multiply. A few weeks ago I tried this unlikely way: in a carrot cake. This recipe enabled me to make this small cake and 18 muffins as well. I froze the muffins and they did beautifully. This really was one of the best tasting carrot cakes I have ever tasted! I didn't used sprouted grain flour, but regular unbleached flour. I used the sugar instead of the honey, but only 1 1/2 cups instead of 2 cups.     Ingredients: 1 cup coconut oil, melted 2 cups unrefined cane sugar (or 1½ cups honey) 1 cup fresh sourdough starter 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 large eggs 2½ cups sifted sprouted grain flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 2 cups grated carrots (about 3 large carrots) ½ cup canned crushed pineap...

I blame my sister Cherie for this new little interest and an actual need I have for specific functioning baskets. Years ago my sister took up the hobby of basket making with some teacher colleagues of hers. These ladies would get together and teach each other the art of basket making...and chat of course. Well one Christmas or birthday, I can't remember which, she sent me a cute basket to keep my crochet work in. Ever since then I wanted to learn. Of course life happened, and I never got around to learning, but this past summer Cherie brought some basket kits to work on at our annual beach vacation. Below is a picture of my first ever basket adventure. It is a cute little cat head basket. We spent the rainy day happily chatting away while we struggled to complete the project. OK, I was hooked and yet another hobby. But the usefulness of baskets for a gardener! From harvesting produce to laying out herbs for drying, I am picturing the baskets I need...and want. I saw the co...

I had never heard of this drink before, but recently bought a book that gave lots of ideas for probiotic drinks and this was one of them. Unlike the kombucha, which needs a scoby, and kefir, which needs special grains, this drink uses ingredients readily available. This drink is a much healthier, and tastier version of regular lemonade. I was skeptical at first, but after two batches, I am hooked. If you make your own yogurt you will be using the whey that you strain off of it, or if you don't, just buy some regular yogurt and strain it in a small mesh strainer. Not only will you have some wonderful thick greek yogurt, but you will gain the ingredient, whey, to use in this delicious recipe Probiotic-Lacto-Fermented Lemonade Ingredients Juice of 10 lemons or limes (should measure 1 1/2 cups) ¾-1 cup sugar 1 cup of whey 3 quarts of filtered water gallon size jar Instructions Pour the sugar into the gallon size glass jar and add just enough hot water to dissolve t...

If you live in the South your gardening doesn't have to stop during the Fall. Many vegetables can be planted again during the month of August: yellow squash, cucumbers, pumpkin, and butternut squash. You can also plant our fall crops of broccoli, cabbage, spinach and lettuces. These last will go on producing all winter long down here in our warm climate.  When planting lettuce it is good to keep planting a section every two weeks up until frost. This will allow you to have plenty of salads until you can plant again until the spring. Lettuce can be planted in pots, in rows or in above ground square foot gardens. It will come again and again. Just keep picking!