Mom & Dad

Mom and Dad just left to go back home. They came for a short visit. (Sorry about there not being a lot of food here). They came late Friday night and we stayed up talking. Jack loves his grandma and kept shaking hands with her and sitting near her and staring at her. Bear kept sitting next to her as well. Mom and Dad said they slept really well. I'm glad they had a better experience on the air mattress than we did!!

On Saturday, Mom and Dad had to exchange their rental car because of some maintenance lights. Afterward, we drove to the gorge near here. it's beautiful but I didn't have my camera with me so I have no pictures of it still. We got out of the car for only a minute because there were bugs all over the place. I was really hoping there were some roads following the river but one way seemed to end at some buildings and the other ended at a dirt road so we didn't take that one. We headed back to Boise for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Mom tried turnip greens and said she liked them but by the next time she took a bite, she had definitely changed her mind. I love them. Then, we stopped at Payless for some shoes for Dad but Mom found a pair instead which ended up matching a skirt she later bought at Walmart. We went bowling next. All three of us were sore in various places afterward. Dad won both times. Mom beat me the second time. We used the bumpers since they were up when we got there. We were looking good! We got 137 (Dad), 128 (Me) and 115 (Mom). The second game was similar with me and Mom switching places and me way below 100. :o) It was a lot of fun. Back at home, we had dinner then later went out for dessert at Dairy Queen. People were pretty tired so we were in bed by 10:30.

Today, we went to church, had lunch afterward and they were on their way. Love you guys. I'll miss you. And to everyone else, please know, you are welcome to come any time. We love visitors.

So before they got here, I discovered that two of my yeast starters went bad. I found mold growing on a raisin in the water and the other one made me want to gag when I sniffed it. I can't imagine it possibly being any good so I tossed them both and started over. This is why I shouldn't have procrastinated. It's going to be the end of the month before I know it and I won't have anything positive to share. Well, the sourdough seems to be doing what it's supposed to so I hope at least that one turns out well.

I tried the powdered milk and I was surprised by how okay it was. I wouldn't want to drink a glass by itself but as long as I drank it with a meal, it wasn't too bad. There was only a slight aftertaste when you swallow that gave it away when drunk while eating. So now I just need to calculate costs and see if it actually does save money and by how much. I don't know if it would be worth it to switch. (But the milk has to be cold so I don't know how you could ge the same results without a fridge.)

In my ward, there's a deaf woman. There were two ladies sitting in front taking turns interpreting for her. I watched them through most of the meeting. It was fun. Some signs came back pretty quickly...I learned a couple new signs but there were some I knew I knew but I just couldn't figure it out. Oh, and there were plenty of signs I didn't know. There is a sign language class every Monday so I will be starting that this week. :o) One of the woman is trying to get me to help with the primary program in 2 weeks. Well, once she sees how little I can remember, I think she'll change her mind.

Wild Yeast

Well...way too much of my time today was spent hovering over the 2 yeast starters I have. Currently, I have two started. I'll start the other 2 kinds tomorrow. The water one was started on Monday. The dough one was started this morning, bright & early after dropping Adam off at the airport. The raisins in the water are supposed to all rise to the surface. They slowly move up and look as though they are suspended in gelatin but it's just water. Kind of weird. No bubbles in that one yet though. The other one has some small bubbles in it already(dark bumps are an ingredient in the starter), though certainly not enough to rise a loaf of bread yet. It's a science experiment. It's a lot of fun! :o) I'll give more details later since Valerie is part of the challange group and I don't want to give anything away.

The other experiment I've got going on right now has to do with powdered milk. I was reading someone's blog. This guy hasn't used a fridge in over 30 years. I made a comment on his blog that there was no way I could give up a fridge because I have to have my cold milk. He said that "you CAN get used to using powdered milk". So, for the sake of giving it a shot, here goes nothing! Following some instruction he gave me, I mixed the first batch up tonight and I'll have it with breakfast in the morning. Wish me luck! Childhood memories of powdered milk don't sit so well with me so it will be interesting. Though two thing make me feel better about drinking it now than when I was a child. 1. Powdered milk tastes better the fresher it is...more than a year old is no longer good for drinking, only for cooking. Well, if memory serves me correctly, we had that Eureka milk for a long time before we started drinking it. and 2. The flavor is supposed to have gotten better in the last few years. I don't know if that's true or not but it gives me hope. So I'll let you know my verdict later.

When Adam's out of town, it's always time for food experimentation because I can eat just about anything I make.