Art in My World

Sourdough Waffles with Dried Blueberries When you have sourdough starter to feed and take care of, and don't have time to make bread, waffles are the answer. This batter also makes great pancakes. Sponge 2 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 2 tablespoons sugar 2 cups lukewarm buttermilk 1 cup sourdough starter Batter All of the prepared sponge 2 large eggs 1/4 cup melted butter 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda If you can get them, I love to add about 1/3 cups of blueberries. To make the sponge: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour(s), Hi-maize, sugar, buttermilk, and starter, stirring just to combine. Cover loosely and let rest at room temperature overnight. (Feed the "mother" starter as you usually do, using 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup water.) To make the batter: Beat together the eggs, butter or oil, salt, and baking soda. Blend this into the sponge. ...

Remember all those potholders made as a child? I loved making them and they lasted for decades, really! But they were always so small and I wished the colors were different. Well, looking for a gift for my poor niece going through knee surgery, I ran across this company which not only offered a large loom, 10 inches compared to the 7 inch loom, but they offered some real nice colors as well.  So sitting down one day, watching a little movie, I completed my first larger pot holder, the first one since a little girl. The company is Harrisville Designs

I began with this company because I wanted to try my hand at sourdough bread making and this company offered over ten varieties of sourdough cultures just for breads. They also offered cultures for buttermilk, yogurt, kombucha and kefir. The sourdough culture worked beautifully. I followed the easy directions and within 4 days I was making bread, and waffles, and pancakes, and even cakes. The directions were easy to follow and the website has many recipes to try. Basic Bread Recipe: I put these ingredients in my bread machine on the dough cycle. While the machine is running I watch the dough carefully and add flour a tablespoon at a time if needed. If you have ever made bread you know how bread should come together all silky like and stretchy. Sourdough bread is tricky, trickier than regular bread, because the starter can have various liquid content. 2 1/3 cups of sourdough starter 1 cup of water (spring or filtered water) 3 1/3 cups of regular organic unbleached flour scant ...

Dash Yogurt Maker This has been the neatest little machine. I found it at Sam's Club for only 14 dollars. Along with the machine comes two plastic containers to store the made yogurt and a top to these containers to store nuts or granola. It also comes with two pop up containers to make and store frozen yogurt.    This little machine is so easy to use. You heat up 5 cups of your milk of choice till it reaches 185 degrees, let it cool and then add 1/2 cups of yogurt, stir and then add to machine. This machine keeps the milk at the perfect temperature and no fiddling. Then to make a thick Greek-like yogurt you put the yogurt in a strainer and place it in the fridge to let it drain. Now you can flavor it to your hearts content or use it plain in smoothies. Why make yogurt? The best reason is the ability to use the milk of your choice. Whole Foods now sells a milk that is organic and from grass fed cows. Plus it is not homogenized. It is the closest to raw milk that I can ...

I have used this company for several years to create my photo books. Just love the way my prints turn out. But why I am sharing this video: for all those young artists out there just getting out of college or soon to be...this is a wonderful idea for creating a working space for artist. I have a dream for downtown Baton Rouge. There must be some neat old building space that can be used for this purpose. Just a thought...  

Fruit Tart My niece inspired this fruit tart experiment. Years ago I bought a tart pan in hopes of making a few tarts for the family, but it has been sitting underneath my cabinet collecting dust and grease until yesterday. If my niece can create a tempting tart why not her aunt. The custard of this tart was also made without milk, I used canned coconut milk instead. My son was skeptical at first, but he gave it the thumbs up and said it tasted great, not coconut flavor at all, just a nice creamy vanilla flavor. Below is the original recipe presented by Joy of Cooking and I will also give how I tweaked it.  Pastry Cream 1 ¼ cups of milk (whole or 2%) (I used coconut milk in a can) ½ vanilla bean, or 1 tsp of vanilla extract (I used a whole vanilla bean) 3 large egg yolks (I used 4 large egg yolks) ¼ cup granulated   sugar  (I used 1/3 cup) 2 tablespoons all purpose flour 2 tablespoons of corn flour 1 tablespoon of liqueur (I used brandy) ...

Kombucha Flavors As the summer came on and the berries, fruit and herbs were in abundance, it was time to try some new flavors of kombucha. For the past several years my mint patch has grown and provides me with enough to create teas, and other drinks, along with jellies too. A friend of mine said that her family enjoyed mint kombucha so since I had lots of growing....it is now one of my favorites. To make a nice minty flavor, I put in about 1/4 cups of crushed mint leaves. The next favorite flavor of my son is strawberry: I put in about 1/4 cup of crushed strawberries per bottle. This summer I finally was able to plant some blueberry bushes. These berries are full of anti-oxidants and leave these goodies in the kombucha. When the peaches came in they also went into the kombucha along with some pineapple sage. All so healthy and good!