Who cures their own black olives?

[mneeley490]

All true. I learned to cook that way and watched all family cook the same, pinch of this, handful of that. Which is fine but will drive you nuts with dough.

Not trying to turn the thread, but this just reminded me of an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats that I saw several years ago. He had his grandmother on the show, and they were going to do a biscuit bake-off. She didn't measure anything, and just threw it all together by hand, which totally frustrated Mr. scientific-method-precise-measurements-down-to-the-gram Brown. Guess which one had the better all-around biscuits?

 

[forktender]

No problem at all, I like when threads wonder in and out of the OG topic, as I am the KING of ADHD!!! My brain is almost always thinking about three or more different topics at once.

 

[forktender]

Aint that the truth. My mom suddenly died less than 2 weeks ago. By suddenly, she was 82, but it came out of the blue otherwise. Dad is/was devastated. I had them build a house next door to me so I could be there as they age-out. Problem is, they insisted on going to Florida half the year...guess where my mom decided to die? Yep, 4 day round trip road trip for us.

Just got back this weekend, nobody jumped in and cut the grass on the two properties for me while we were gone, so after some surprise work on the zero-turn I had to do, I found myself over there mowing their side and choking up as I maneuvered around mom's gardens...wishing I had never complained about it, calling the place a "gypsy encampment" with all the random crap everywhere.

She knew I was half-joking, both my parents raised me with a sense of humor, but damn...ya never know...dad will likely get rid of most of the gardens, as I planned to when they die...but, yea, we complain about some stupid shiznit...then "real" hits.

I tried to get in to my Aunt and uncle's recipes, and same deal as you, very hard to follow and not very precise measurements and even ingredients one is not likely to find at the local Walmart! I'm working to create my own recipes these days. I used to wing it all the time, then realized I couldn't replicate that last awesome thing I "threw together", so I started bieng more meticulous and writing and refining recipes. It's starting to pay off.

Look for no-knead sourdough recipes. My recipe/notes arent ready for prime-time quite yet or I would share, but what I'm doing is a two day process. Problem is I dont like to bake in the summer, so now I have to keep my starter alive for months, just to keep it alive. Good news is it's more resilient than most online recipes would have you believe. Being gone for well over a week and couldn't remember the last time I fed it before that, I just fed it yesterday and it bounced right back!

Damn sorry to hear about your Ma, that is my worse fear in life.
My Ma and I are super close, I'm close to my Pop's as well, but in all actuality I'm a self admitted Momma's boy. As far as having to keep your starter alive, you don't have to. The next time you feed it, pour your discard onto a sheet pan covered with wax paper, then dry it in the oven with no heat, just the oven light on. It will take up to a week to dry. Once it's dry, break it into small pieces then grind it into powder using a coffee grinder, food processor, or blender.
When it's time to start it up again, add a tsp of the dried starter to your flour that you would like to turn into a new starter, I've been doing this for yrs, it works great. I call it my rescue starter, I keep in a small plastic bag in the freezer, actually several of the guys that make pizza and bread here on the forum maintain a starter that they started using my rescue starter that I sent them yrs ago.

Godspeed to your Ma, and your loved ones, hang in there brother!!!

Dan.

 

[chef k-dude]

That is a great solution, Dan, thanks.

Yea, my mom was well loved. She and dad were a traveling music show (mostly gospel). She played piano and had a great voice...dad the guitar or mandolin and not a bad voice. They were requested to perform everywhere they went. At 82, they were still volunteer performing at old age homes!...or whatever they are called. They had some silly songs that really entertained the elderly.

Dad was most devastated. Never seen him so vulnerable. He said he cant continue on performing without her, SHE was the show. I have a very thick "emergency skin", partially thanks to mom...she raised me to be independent and she left written word that she was to be let go and we are all to remember but live-on. But when we have a meal together now, that empty 4th chair really pisses me off and brings the tears. We still hesitate when we go out to a restaurant to tell the hostess its only a "party of three" now. Hundreds of people mourn her, and I'm an only child, all those people didn't come from just me.

Thanks for caring.

Ken