Here is the recipe for the SF bread I showed on the other post. You should have a digital scale and thermometer to get accurate weights and finished temp on bread. Note that there are ox as well as grams given for each item. You need to have your wild yeast already going well before you do this recipe . Then you make the starter and cont. with the dough. PLease ask any quesitons. c ( the yeast at the end of the recipe is opt. I did not need it. The starter is plenty of leavening. ) Sourdough Starter (SF Sourdough Bread) ### (### ounces) (### grams) xxx ### Golf ball size 3 oz. 85g "mother"starter (the "mother" starter can be cold from the refrigerator or at room temperature) 9 oz 255g Unbleached bread flour . 6 oz. 170g Water (room temperature 18 oz. Total 1. Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl with the paddle attachment (or mix by hand). Mix on slow speed for one minute and then increase to medium for about 30 seconds. The dough (which we will call "starter" from this point on) should feel like regular French bread dough, tacky or slightly sticky. Adjust flour or water, if needed. 2. Transfer the starter to a lightly floured work surface and hand knead for about 30 seconds. Place it in a lightly oiled bowl or container, cover the bowl (not the starter) with plastic wrap or a lid, and leave at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours, or until the starter increases in size by about 1 1/2 times. If you plan to use the starter on the same day, allow another hour of fermentation so that it nearly doubles in size. Otherwise, put the starter in the refrigerator. It will be good for up to four days. SF Sourdough Bread ### (### ounces) (### grams) xxx ### Use all 18 (1# 2 oz.) 510g Wild yeast starter (see below for instructions) 4 cups 20 oz. (1# 4 oz.) 567g Unbleached bread flour 2 teaspoons table salt; OR 2 1/2 teaspoons Mortons Kosher salt or 0.75 oz. 14g Salt 1 cup plus 5 ounces 13oz 369g Water (lukewarm) 2 1/4 teaspoons 0.25 oz 7g Instant yeast (optional) . 51.75 oz. (3# 3 oz.) Total 1. Build and ripen your starter according to the instructions above, at least one day and not more than three days prior to making this final dough. 2. Transfer the ripened starter to a lightly floured work surface and cut it up into about 10 pieces. In a mixing bowl, combine the starter pieces with the flour and salt. If using instant yeast, sprinkle it into the lukewarm water and whisk it to dissolve the yeast. Let it sit for 1 minute to hydrate, then pour the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients. If not using instant yeast, simply add the water to the mixing bowl. Mix with the dough hook on low speed for 2 minutes (or by hand, using a large spoon) to form a coarse ball of dough. It should be very tacky and slightly warm. Let the ball of dough sit for 5 minutes. 3. Resume mixing on low speed for 2 additional minutes, adding additional flour or water, if necessary, to make a soft, supple, very tacky ball of dough. Increase the speed to medium high for about 15 seconds to more fully develop the gluten (or, if mixing by hand, knead for an additional minute). 4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and hand knead for a few seconds to form it into a ball. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl (large enough to hold the dough when it doubles in size), cover the bowl tightly, not the dough, with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator. It will be ready to use the next day and for up to three days (Note: if you need to bake the dough on the same day that you mix it, for the yeasted version allow two hours for the first rise at room temperature, or 4 hours for the first rise if not using instant yeast, and then proceed to shaping and baking as described below). 5. Day of Baking: (Note: You do not have to use all of the dough, but can cut off, with a scissors or a knife, the amount of dough you wish to bake and return the remaining dough to the refrigerator where it will be good for up to 4 days.) For the no yeast version, remove the dough from the refrigerator 6 hours before you plan to bake it (4 hours to wake up and rise, then shape it, then 2 hours for final proofing). . For the no yeast version, after the 4 hour fermentation period, gently transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, degassing it as little as possible. 6. Shaping: Divide the dough with a pastry blade into the desired size (suggested size 16 oz. for a 1 pound loaf; 24 oz. for a 1 1/2 pound loaf, etc. You can also bake the entire dough as a large, 3 pound miche (round, country loaf) or as a large torpedo loaf. Shape and proof the loaf as shown on page 00 . You can raise the dough free-standing, or in floured bannetons (proofing baskets), or on couches (linen proofing cloths), the same as you would for traditional French bread. Allow 1 1/2 to 2 hours for the final proofing; the dough will increase in size by about 50%. It may spread as it rises, but it will rise as it bakes. 7. Allow 30 minutes to preheat the oven to 500 F./260 C.. If you have a baking stone, position it in the middle of the oven and preheat it along with the oven (allow an extra 15 minutes for preheating the stone thoroughly). Also, place a cast iron frying pan or a sheet pan on the lowest shelf to preheat along with the oven and stone, for steaming. Score the dough in the design style you prefer . 8. Transfer the dough to the oven either with a peel or on the pan in which it is rising (if free standing). Pour one cup of hot water into the steam pan (be careful to cover any glass oven windows with a towel in case of splash-back that could crack your window; also, wear an oven mitt to protect against steam burns). Reduce the temperature to 450 F./232 C. and bake for 12 minutes (note: if baking a large miche, reduce the oven another 25 °F.). Then, rotate the bread or the pan for even baking, and continue baking until the loaf is done, about 15 to 35 minutes, depending on the size of the loaf. The bread should have a rich, caramelized color, sound hollow when thumped on the bottom, and register approximately 210 F. /90 C. in the center of the loaf. Cool on a rack for at least one hour before serving.

OK Celine, after the whole foods parking lot video, I just will never think of quinoa the same way. Though I'll know how to pronounce it: rhymes with "bra". As it turns out, we crawled into the chocolate chip and pancakes camp. I've yet to make the granola. But dd1 insisted on making spice bars for a school potluck (to which I'm not invited? wha?) and dd2 needed to make choc chip cookies (though this hardly needed baking as all she wanted was the raw dough in truth) and there were some rotting bananas that I had to make into banana bread. Then it was father's day so verbotten meat (lamb) got roasted and eggs had to be scrambled because life without scrambled eggs is pretty close to a life not worth living....Last night, like mnerg, we actually had pancakes (p. 357, Diet 4 Sm Planet) for dinner; that's how syrup-starved we all were. We've been busy here today! And the other night we did the obligatory paper-on-the-cc-burner to great acclaim. The young, strapping hungry hombres just-back from the field had to settle on outdoor-grilled food because I couldn't quite tackle the new indoor beast at the time, but we all enjoyed the simmer-road-show. But truthfully, the very first thing that got made? It was boiled water for pasta. Isn't that pathetic? The second was to stew up some inedibly sour fruit. Funny how plebeian cooking turns out to be. Recipe for green chile stew? Here's for spice bars: boil 1 cp water and 1 cp raisins, remove from heat, stir in 1/2 cp apple sauce (or oil) and let cool; add 1/2 c sugar before all the way cool. Stir in 1 egg when cool. Sift tog dry ingred and add to wet above: 1.75 cp ww pastry flour, 3/4 t salt, 1/2 t cloves, 1 t soda, 1 t cinnamon, 1 t nutmeg (opt: chopped walnuts, 1 t allspice(ick)). Bake 20 min in 13x7x2 pan @ 375. When cool frost w/butter-cream: 2 cp confect sugar, 1/4 cp butter, 1 T milk, 1 t vanilla.

I've thought a few times about a pressure cooker and came close to making the plunge a couple times. But then I started seeing how the speed is not quite what it's hyped up by the manufacturers. Cook in 20 min... OK, but they fail to mention it also takes 20 min or so to bring it up to pressure, then another what, 10-20 min to depressurize so the time savings isn't as significant. I didn't grow up with one and haven't been with anyone who uses a pressure cooker to know what the food is like so I don't know how I'd like it. The other concern I have is whether I'd clean it well enough. Seems to me you have to be pretty careful to disassemble and clean all the seals, valve and other parts of it thoroughly or it wouldn't seal properly. I've also read that the electric units don't build up the same pressure as a manual one so it would be longer to cook than an old fashioned one, although I would think I'd much prefer an electric unit. Lastly, can't quite justify the cost although I've seen that Aldi occasionally has a unit at a pretty reasonable price. I need to get more of an education on them to make a decision. I enjoy reading about peoples' experiences and thoughts on them. Have watched a lot of videos on them already!

I'm glad someone finally brought induction into the discussion. I remodeled our kitchen about 10 years ago and put in an induction cooktop and I would echo everything sprtphntc says. It's hands-down the best option. In the last year we've moved to a new place that has a giant Viking gas range, and although many people look at it and say "You're a great cook, you must love that big gas range" Well "love" isn't the word I would choose. It's not awful, like some entry level gas ranges I have used, but in almost every way it is not as good as the induction cooktop I left behind. The Induction cooktop had settings from Low to 1 through 9 to Power Boost, and changing the power level nearly instantly changes the heat output (which is like gas), but the gas ranges highest high setting, compares to about 7 on the induction unit, and its lowest low setting is about a 3 on the induction unit. Plus much of the heat from the gas range goes up the side of the pot, either scorching food on the sides of the pot, or heating the pot handle to hand-searing levels or just heating the room. The burners are hard to ignite, sometimes taking 10 seconds of spewing gas and clicking before erupting in a cloud of fire. Conversely, more than a few times when I've turned the gas all the way down, the flame has simply gone out, sometimes unnoticed by me, and slowly started filling the room with gas. Yay. After ten years of frequent use, the induction cooktop still looks essentially new, except for some minor scratching on the stainless steel frame. Whereas the Viking range is older than that, but from the looks of it, it has never been cleaned.