La Mammina

Shaped loaves

The loaves have now been shaped and wrapped in tea towels which have been rubbed with rye flour.
And now all they need to do is hang around in a warm spot for four hours.

Starting to look like bread dough

Ok, so here we are after the second refresh.

You can see the network of little bubbles that are starting to form under the surface. This means that it is good and active.

Now just add flour (I used a mix of wholemeal and plain), water and salt. Nothing else.

Mix it all together briefly and leave it for 10 minutes.

After which time you give it 3 quick kneads and then leave it for another 10 minutes. And repeat twice.

Then come a series of 3 quick stretches. Basically pulling the dough and folding it once, leaving it to rest half an hour between each stretch.

Next comes the shaping....

Got it wrong.

So that wasn't the beginning of a loaf of sour dough. No, that was just me refreshing my starter. But at least I got a good comparison shot of what happens to it after 12 hours. See, it has pretty much doubled in size. I just left it on the bench top to do its stuff, but it was a bit cold last night so that looks a but sluggish to me, so I've got it sitting outside in a nice warm spot to go a bit longer. After that it will go into the fridge until I next need to make bread.

I got a bit confused because I have 3 thing going at once. There is the refreshed starter in the glass jar, the beginning of the bread which is actually in the yellow bowl and the start of some sourdough crumpets I am going to try. Confused yet?

This is what the bread dough looks like after it has been proving over night. Some nice little bubbles, but not as full on as I would like. But I did go on to the next step anyway which was to add the starter to 75gr of flour and 75 gr of water.

Here is what it looks like .

Told you it was like paint drying.

Pane

There is often talk of making bread in the blogs I read. I made a sour dough starter about 6 months ago which I have been refreshing sporadically over that time. I have had some pretty dismal loaves come of it, but also some real successes.
It is not particularly hard to make and kneading time is minimal, almost non-existent. It just has to sit around fermenting quite a lot. And if you are labouring in a small, badly planned kitchen like I am, it's not always appealing to have a big bowl of dough getting in the way all day, or worse, shaped loaves that grow and grow all over the place. But the result is sometimes worth it, so I persevere.

In the hope that it isn't as boring as watching paint dry, (and that this loaf turns our well, or at least slightly photogenic) I thought I might document the process here.

So this is my refreshed starter. To get this, all I did was take a tablespoon of the 15gr of the starter I have hanging around at the back of my fridge and added it to 30gr of flour mixed with 30gr of water.

It looks pretty innocuous now, but tomorrow morning should be a different story.

The top picture was an attempt to glamourise the photo of my starter which has aesthetic qualities not too dissimilar to a pot of glue. I picked up the button pin, Clover transfers (which feature loaves of bread!) and alphabet tape from our little monthly blogmeet. Belinda also included some cute pear fabric and a sashiko kit too, but I couldn't work out how to make them look good with the glue. Thanks Belinda, I think I did really well out of the lucky dip this time. I pity Marina who got my contribution. I made a little needle case (because I really need one, and I thought it would be easy to whip up two at the same time) using an Angry Chicken Mail Order paper piecing template for the outer part.
Nice idea, poorly executed.

(And I only made the one because it was soooo hard, so my needles are still getting lost into the depths of my pin cushion and poking me through the other side.)

I took a hurried photo in the car park on the way to the blogmeet which will never see the light of day. I mean, how can anyone expect a photo taken in a dark car park to turn out even remotely attractive????

Wearing thin

Another birthday party, another night staying up late in front of the sewing machine to make a gift. We attend so many birthdays and I think I'm running out of steam with the scarf and banner making.
This particular birthday boy is quite dear to our hearts so I made an extra effort and the banner is definitely one of the best I have made, but I do think I am going to have to come up with some different ideas. Got to keep myself interested somehow.

So this boy likes red, and he is pretty keen on catching bugs. So why not a bug scarf. Both scarf and banner are made from supplies I had on hand. (It's been a while now that I issued myself the challenge to use up what I have, money is a bit tight at the moment so it makes good financial sense).

Talking of wearing thin...my fabric choice. I still have quite a bit of stuff to work through, but I'm just tired of looking at it. I really want to make a quilt to cover our lounge with maybe I should just cut everything up and use it all up. I mean, I'm probably going to make a heap of mistakes, so why not use the crap fabric for practice.

Hmmmm, we'll see.

Please Handle With Care

I thought this set up was quite appropriate, given my last post.
We were in a furniture showroom and Tilly went and snuggled under the throw. I actually took a few close up shots of her before I stood back and realised the text was there.

She had a great time getting in and out of the gorgeous baths that were on display there. As did Feather.

Well.

Tilly is recovering very well from her operation. I must say, I was a little overcome with emotion when she went under the anesthetic and I had to leave her. I hadn't expected it and I was sure glad to have Hospital Cat with me to cling on to.

Tilly's little friend Finn was admitted to hospital earlier in the year in the middle of the night with breathing difficulties, while he was there he was given this knitted toy by the Red Cross Volunteers. Finn is not particularly fond of bears and so he insisted that it was a cat. Even when he had the gas mask over his face he was insisting "it's not a bear, it's a cat".

When Finn found out Tilly was going to hospital, he wanted Hospital Cat to go with her to look after her. She was allowed to take him into theatre with her for the anesthetic but when she was under they gave him to me to take away.

So there I was, watery eyed, wandering the hospital corridors clinging on to Hospital Cat, who was all warm and soft, thinking about my beautiful girl and all she means to me.

Of course, 45 minutes later, they came to tell me that all was well and I could go and sit with her in recovery. Then I had to go through the horrible moment of her coming out of the anesthetic and being in pain. She was able to somehow eat a lemonade icy-pole while half unconscious and was soon sleeping peacefully again.

I am quite aware that there are many mothers who have to endure far worse hospital experiences and I wonder at how they manage. I admire their courage and I wish none of them had to go through it.

I experienced only a glimpse of the anguish that those mothers feel and I can tell you that it is not pleasant. I'm so glad she is on the mend and that I can give her a happy place to come home to.

And now I am going to ruin my mood. When we were waiting in the Ambulatory Care ward before she went into theatre we had a bed next to an eleven year old boy. He was lying on the bed, having no use of his legs. He was the size of a five year old. His facial features were not properly formed. I was under the impression that he was born with a condition and his parents who were with him had a life of taking him to hospital for operation after operation.

Only they weren't his parents. I later discovered that they are his foster parents who have had him in their care for a couple of years. Before that he had been cared for by a string of different foster homes.

The terribly sad part is that he was born perfectly healthy and normal. When he was just 2 months old he was abused by his parents which gave him some of his injuries. Then at 4 months he was abused again which ultimately reduced him to his current state. At that point he was taken away from his parents.

What could a baby of two or four months have done to warrant such a beating? Cried for food, cried for warmth, cried for love? How does a mother have any feelings other than the desire to nurture her baby? As a parent I would say the love for my children is overwhelming; it is something that is greater than me that I have no control over. How does someone give birth and not have that? Is it drugs? Is their state of mind altered?

It made me realise that Tilly is extremely lucky. She got to go to hospital with her mother by her side. She was never alone. She is engulfed in warmth. Her mother loves her.

This girl

Young Tilly has been making me very proud lately.
For a little while now I have been concerned about her because she had become a nail biter. I was worried that she was becoming anxious and I wasn't really sure why.
Yesterday as we were speaking to a lady who lives up the road from us, Tilly was holding up three fingers to show how old she was (though not too far off turning four) and I noticed that her fingernails had all grown.
Yay!!!! She had stopped biting her nails. I'm very proud of her. She managed to do it without too much nagging on my part and just the incentive of not being allowed to have her nails painted until she stopped chewing them.

She is also a brave girl. She is booked in to hospital next Tuesday to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. She is well aware of what is going on and is taking it all in her stride. She has to spend the night in hospital after the operation and I will be staying with her. Little Feather will be winging it at home with Andrew.

We have been watching a video put together by the Sydney Children's Hospital about having an anesthetic and an operation and we have talked about what will happen together.
I've tried to find some children's books on going to hospital at the local library but have not had much luck.

I'm also collecting together fresh new markers, coloured paper, scissors, glue and a green sticky tape dispenser from Smiggle so that she can have a good time snipping and colouring and sticking during her stay in hospital.
I'm going to get her a new toothbrush and a special overnight bag to take with her and she will also have a new pair of pyjamas.

I hope I bring everything she needs, I'm feeling a bit unprepared or are those just nerves?

Fresh from my oven

My sourdough baking has been coming along nicely and I've been coming up with some really good loaves which I somehow never manage to photograph.
My latest experiment was sourdough bagels, and I can happily say, they have been heartily gobbled down by the whole family

Blue Bird Baby

Look at these gorgeous shorts from Blue Bird Baby!!!!!
I love them. They are in denim but I'd love a thick woolen pair for Tilly. To be worn with warm tights underneath.
Oh yes, just delicious!.