It’s not as dirty as it sounds. Well, yeah, it was dirty. But in the muddy kind of way. Danielle and Matt hosted a slip & slide party to celebrate her art show at Youngblood. We brought over our soft serve machine and I cranked out a huge batch of vegan waffle bowls. Yep, vegan waffle bowl sundaes. We know how to do things in Atlanta.
Here’s my waffle bowl making station. The vodka gimlet helped when I wasn’t pouring them all over the floor. D’oh.
Here’s a lovely waffle bowl sundae. Mmmmm….
Oh, and this isn’t the little plastic sheet of a slip & slide. This was an inflatable, 2-lane slip & slide, with palm trees and a pool at the end. Insane!
Oh, you need action shots? Here, they’re taking a cue from Wipeout and spinning around before heading for the slide. Kevin didn’t quite make it.
Most of yesterday was spent busting out cookies for Danielle Distefano’s art show opening at Youngblood. If you didn’t come down last night you missed the cookies, but the show runs through August 31st. So you can still check out all the lovely ladies. And I dare you to get out of Youngblood without buying something.
So what about those cookies? These cute little guys are Almond and Rosewater cookies. I even made Kevin decorate some of them.
Kevin suggested we do some thumbprint cookies. These are kind of a pecan shortbread filled with strawberry jam. All filled by Kevin!
Sometimes, you just have to make something ridiculously decadent. Chick-O-Stick white chocolate chip cookies are absolutely decadent. Where the heck do you get vegan white chocolate chips? From Cosmo’s of course! Chick-O-Sticks? Your local gas station or convenience store.
These were a last minute decision. How can you make a bunch of cookies without including any chocolate? So I made a batch of cappuccino cookies with chocolate chips.
Ever since I saw this picture, I’ve been obsessing over vibrantly colored cake batter. What better excuse than a 4th of July gathering to experiment. I gave the batter a light lemon flavor with zest and extract. The frosting was just vanilla, mainly because I ran out of lemon extract. Strawberries and blueberries on top rounded out the red, white and blue theme. All in all, it was a hit. I need more excuses to bake cakes. Excuses that involve it not being left in my house.
So what happens when you take an active sourdough starter, stick it in the fridge and ignore it for 6 months or more? Apparently nothing bad. This is exactly what I did. Actually, I have 4 starters in the fridge. Last week I decided to try and revive the Italian starter and attempt a batch of bread.
How did I do it? I pulled the starter out, stirred the hooch in (the liquid on top) and put it on the counter in a new bowl. Leaving it on the counter, I fed it with half a cup of flour and half a cup of water twice a day. At each feeding , I poured off about half the starter into a container of excess. But I’ll get to that later.
Friday night I began the Vermont Sourdough from Hamelman’s Bread. Saturday morning I worked through the shaping and then retarded the two loaves in the fridge overnight. Then Sunday morning I baked them off one at a time on my pizza stone. The first loaf I steamed once with ice cubes. The 2nd loaf I added a second steaming. The second steaming seemed to give the 2nd loaf a little more spring. The taste was mild but clearly the starter did its job. Nice rise, good crumb. Chewy crust. Sourdough bread is such a process that it’s even more satisfying when it all goes well.
So there have been sammichs, bread slice snacks, bread with salad, etc. And I haven’t cut into the second loaf yet! So what to do with the cast-off starter created when feeding? There are a bunch of things you can do with it, but this time I chose scones. (Obviously, I veganized that recipe.) It really doesn’t act to rise the scones, but flavors them a little and keeps you from having to throw the excess in the garbage.
tempeh salad sammichapple pie sourdough scones
It’s been a while, so I’m going to submit this post to WildYeast’s Yeastspotting. Head over there every Friday for a collection of baking porn from around the internets.
I really do love eating giant salads. I just don’t always feel like making them. So if I do feel like it, I go with it. This week has definitely been saladoriffic. Romaine is my favorite lettuce. It lasts pretty long in the fridge and stays nice and crispy. Carrots are always there. Red, orange or yellow bell pepper. After that, it’s really up to whim and what catches my eye at the market. This week I also had radishes, cucumber, summer squash, and cucumber. Then a sprinkling of almonds or walnuts. And this week I added protein, tofu or a fake chicken patty. All were tasty and satisfying. Maybe they make up for the parfait I ate and the chocolate chocolate chip coconut muffins I made. Probably not.
salad with marinated tofusalad with fake chicken pattysalad with grilled squash and tofu
