Seesaw

I just wanted to show off my pretty bowl

Today I played on the housework seesaw. I was on one end, and the two boys were on the other. And they are so much better at this game than I am. Today I concentrated on a few pet projects; making room for the new things I bought yesterday and working on my ferments. I had to reorganize 5 of my 9 cabinets to find the room for my new bowls. That took most of my morning. So while I did this:

 

They did that:

 That is our sensory box, with rice

While I did this:   

In the crockpot is beef stock,  jar on the left is sourdough, the wrapped jars are kraut and carrots, the jar on the right is water kefir

They did this:

 Two against one, no fair!

I knew they were making a mess, since I could see them at the sensory bin while I was chopping the carrots. But they were happy and playing together nicely, so really the 7 minutes it took me to clean up that mess were well worth the peace I enjoyed while doing something I needed to get done.

Today I started a batch of lacto-fermented carrots. This is a new recipe for me. I have made saurkraut, yogurt, milk kefir, and water kefir before, so I have had some practice with home fermentation. Eating naturally fermented, raw foods is a fantastic and inexpensive source of probiotics and other nutrients. If you are interested in the subject, please see this article by Sally Fallon. 

For supper I planned to use one of the freezer meals I cooked earlier in the week, but since I felt so accomplished and energetic, I decided to make some sourdough pancakes. I've never had much luck (okay, ANY luck) with sourdough in the past, but I decided to give it a second chance. My inspiration was an episode of "Man vs Food" where he goes to Alaska and has this massive breakfast at a genuine roadhouse at the base of Mt McKinley. The breakfast included sourdough pancakes that looked so tender and tempting I haven't been able to get them out of my head for a week. I knew, thanks to one of my favorite blogs, Cooking Traditional Foods, that you can use equal parts water kefir and flour to make an "instant" sourdough starter. 

So this morning I fed my starter a cup of whole wheat flour and a cup of filtered water, I figured that in 8 hours it would be just perfect for these Yukon Sourdough Flapjacks. Instead of adding baking soda, I did the optional steps 10 and 11 and let it prove in my microwave, which I made into a sourdough sauna by microwaving a little water for 5 minutes. (Just make sure you check the microwave temp with your hand, it shouldn't be uncomfortably warm, but a few degrees cooler than your own body.)

The result? A nice, light, bubbly batter that looked very promising. I fired up the stove and used a 1/3 cup measure to dip the batter gently (trying to disrupt the batter as little as possible, to preserve the air bubbles). 

I was tearing into the first flapjack before I even remembered to pour another one out, it smelled so nice. The finished pancake (flapjack? are they the same thing?) was AMAZING!! It was so delicate it melted in my mouth, and so flavorful that I didn't need butter or syrup. By the time my second pancake was cooking I was dialing my sister to share the discovery. It is nice to have friends and sisters to share these dorky little things with. Shared joy is double joy, right?

The flapjacks were a huge hit with the family as well. Even my picky 3 year old, Jack, finished a whole one without coercion. Now I just need to figure out how to have the batter ready for me in the morning. There is no way I can keep my hungry crew from eating their own shoes for an hour or more in the morning!