I got here late also, but I did see that David mentioned my garlic butter. Here's the recipe I use: Ingredients 1/2 head of Garlic, about 8-12 cloves 2-3 tbsp chopped fresh oregano 1-2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (all stems removed) 1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil 1/2 pound unsalted butter, room temperature 1 1-1/2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper 1/8 tsp ground cayenne (red pepper) 1 - 1-1/2 tsp salt 1/3 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil Directions Peel the cloves of garlic, remove stems, and chop coarsely, into about 4-6 pieces per clove. Put into a small food processor with the oregano, thyme, and basil. Process until the garlic has been finely chopped and then add one stick (1/2 cup or 1/4 lb.) butter and blend until smooth. Add peppers and salt and the remaining butter and blend. Lastly add olive oil, to make the butter easier to spread and for flavor. If you want the butter to be softer add more olive oil. *Note: The proportions of the herbs can be varied to taste. You may want to omit the basil in one batch and the thyme and oregano in another. Never substitute dried herbsit is better to leave them out if you do not have fresh. If you use salted butter, omit the salt. Store in a jar in the refrigerator. Mark the expiration date of the butter on the jar. ************ I also noticed in my file, under garlic, that I had written a recipe for Garlic Shrimp with Lime and Cilantro Ingredients 1-1/2 pounds of shrimp, deveined 2 cups water 2 dried red peppers, seed removed 2 tsp crab or lobster soup base (vegetable can be substituted) 5 tbsp unsalted butter 2-3 tbsp olive oil 4 tbsp flour 1/2 cup finely diced onions 1/2 cup finely diced celery 2 tablespoons minced garlic 3 tbsp fresh lime juice 3 tablespoons minced cilantro dash of hot sauce or cayenne, to taste Directions: Peel shrimp and place shells in a small saucepan with 2 cups water, the dried red peppers, and soup base. Set the shrimp aside. Bring the water to a boil and simmer covered while you chop the vegetables. Dice the onions and celery, mince the garlic and cilantro. Check the stock you are making, and when it has simmered enough, remove from heat and strain. Melt butter in saucepan with olive oil over medium heat. When melted, stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly about 3 minutes until the flour is golden brown. Add onions, celery and garlic. Continue to stir 3 to 5 minutes more, or until onions are translucent. Add 1 cup of strained stock. When well blended, add the shrimp and turn off the heat. Continue to stir until the shrimp has cooked approximately 5 minutes. Add lime juice and cilantro just before serving. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce or cayenne, if desired. If mixture is too thick, add more stock. Serve over rice. I think this recipe is loosely based on Crawfish Étouffée. I saved several recipes from this thread - thanks!! Lars

Starters - how people use them and what they put in them are as varied as the people that use them. Just Google - Care and Feeding of Sourdough Starters - for a real lesson in contradictions. The good news is you can try a wide variety of "starters" until you find the one/s you like. My favorite is a 100-year old starter method called Everlasting Yeast. I can feed it rye flour if I want a rye starter. I also use whole wheat flour or spelt.... I use what kind of flour I have on hand that might need to be used up, as well what type of starter might work best in a recipe. "Starter" is also called levain, desum, barm, or sourdough. According to "Crust & Crumb", those names indicate a certain method of creating the starter, and the level of acidity and complexity. "Old Dough" is also a starter method - where you keep a bit of dough from your last breadmaking to use as a starter for the next. For more information I'd suggest finding a copy of "Crust & Crumb" by Peter Reinhart and "The Bread Book" by Thom Leonard. Both men are experts in the world of naturally-leavened breads. I've also included a link below for more information. But when it comes to plain old fun and a lot of recipes, you can also choose "Friendship" or "Amish" Starters - which are a modern version of "starter" that includes using bakers' yeast along with flour and water. Starter "purests", flour/water ONLY - usually avoid the "modern" starter versions, but I say to each their own.... The bakers' yeast quickly dies out, and if you're lucky, naturally-occuring (aka wild) yeast will take over. In the book, "Sourdough Breads and Coffee Cakes" by Ada Lou Roberts, she has starter recipes for these starters, as well as recipes using them. She also includes a few homemade yeast recipes. -Grated Raw Potato Starter -Cooked Potato Starter -Peach Leaf Starter -Beer Starter -English Beer Starter -Hop Starter -Alaskan Sourdough Starter "Adventures in Sourdough Cooking & Baking" by Charles D. Wilford includes simple recipes for Primary Batter "A", and Primary Batter "B". Then there's the every popular, "World Sourdoughs From Antiquity" by Ed Wood. "CookWise" by Shirley O. Corriher includes information about: -Firm Sourdough Starter -Wet Sourdough Starter -Starter with Yeast -Sweet Yeast Starter I've found most types of starters I've made over the years can be used successfully in recipes that call for "starter". The differences come with hydration of the starters and the mixture of flour/water and any of a number of other ingredients used in them. But they all have the same thing in common, the naturally-occuring yeasts that make them work. When it comes to Sourdough English Muffins (and English Muffins in general), I cut my muffins - either with a circle cutter or to save time I'll cut them into squares with a pizza cutter (and eliminate second-cuts that are more tough than first-cuts), but I don't usually cut them with my English Muffin Rings. I've never made a "batter" English Muffin recipe, nor do I bake English Muffins with the ring around them. I bake them on an electric griddle without the ring. However, I bake Sourdough Crumpets on a griddle using 4 English Muffin Rings. It's a King Arthur recipe and one of the best uses for that 1-cup starter people toss. You can find the entire recipe in their recipe file entitled: Sourdough Crumpets Or How to Resurrect a Neglected Starter. Sourdough Crumpets (1 c. starter = 8 crumpets) Note: If you make 1 cup of starter into crumpet batter, place it in a 4-cup measuring cup (easy pouring), but the batter expands a LOT and you need that 4-cup volume. For each 1 cup of sourdough starter, sprinkle over the surface: 1 t. sugar 1/2 t. salt 1/2 t. baking soda Whisk these in thoroughly. Caution...the batter expands. On a pre-heated griddle (medium heat), place the greased rings. Fill rings with about 1/4-inch of batter and cook it over low heat until the tops are set and full of holes. Remove the rings and flip the crumpets over for a minute or two. After they've finished cooking, stockpile them on a cooling rack (don't stack them like pancakes, they stick together). When cool, pop them in a toaster or toaster oven to brown and crisp. Serve them with butter and jam. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Sourdough Home

I haven't had much time at the computer lately, and I missed this until now. Sorry. Thanks, LindaC, for answering in my stead, especially since I didn't know the answer! Loves2cook4six, I got the recipe from my King Arthur Flour Baking Companion, and their recipe for white bread calls for potato flakes, so that's what I copied down, and what I've done when I've made this recipe. (I'm only now getting to where I feel brave enough to experiment with changing bread recipes) There are others here that are much more expert on bread making than I am, but I can't imagine why you couldn't just use a different bread recipe, and just form the monkey bread as it's described, as Lowspark pointed out. I think a fairly light textured bread is called for, and I suspect the potato flakes might have something to do with helping the bread to keep a light texture. However, I don't really remember what the potato flakes do for the bread, other than they are a sugar source. I wish I could answer your question more clearly. Sally

Or seed the zucchini and make gratin. I might peel them too, if they are very large and tough: Gratin of Zucchini and Tomatoes (Eating Well) 3 cloves garlic, crushed 2/3 cup fresh basil leaves 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves 2 cups fresh whole-wheat breadcrumbs (see Tip), divided 1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion, such as Vidalia 3 large ripe tomatoes, diced 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar 1/4 teaspoon salt, divided 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided 3 medium zucchini (about 1 3/4 pounds total), sliced on the bias about 1/4 inch thick Freshly ground pepper to taste 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish (or similar gratin dish) with cooking spray. 2. Place garlic, basil and thyme on your chopping board; mince well. Spread half the breadcrumbs evenly in the prepared baking dish. Strew onion over the breadcrumbs. Distribute half the diced tomato over the onion, then sprinkle with half the garlic-herb mixture. Sprinkle with vinegar and 1/8 teaspoon salt. 3. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add a third of the zucchini; you want it to sauté, not stew, so don't crowd it. Sauté, turning the pieces once, until golden and not quite tender, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side. When the slices are done, use a fork to transfer them to the gratin, overlapping the slices. Cook the remaining zucchini in two batches, each time using 2 teaspoons oil. Strew the remaining tomatoes and garlic-herb mixture over the zucchini. Season with the remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and a grinding of pepper. Toss the remaining 1 cup breadcrumbs with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and sprinkle over the gratin. 4. Bake the gratin until bubbly hot, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with Parmesan. NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 302 calories; 15 g total fat (3 g sat, 9 g mono); 7 mg cholesterol; 35 g carbohydrate; 11 g protein; 7 g fiber; 532 mg sodium; 885 mg potassium. Annie