sourdough crumb

*Update: If you’re up for participating in doughvember and you’re on twitter, tweet me and I’ll add you to the twitter list @saltyseattle/doughvember. You can follow along with other participants there as well as via hashtag #doughvember.

No blog is ever truly a food blog, is it? Sometimes life gets in the way and you have to share a little of your current situation- even if it’s really embarrassing- along with your recipe for Beef Wellington.

I have a big month planned. I’m headed to Santa Monica to speak at IFBC (you should come!) and to visit family and friends in the LA area. I’m also putting the finishing touches on a book proposal. I’ve upped my freelance writing work and have deadlines looming. Then there’s Thanksgiving and the promise I made to singlehandedly cook for 20+ people. Despite a jam-packed month, I also wanted to include a fun little project my beautiful co-host Nicole from Pinch My Salt and I are calling “Doughvember”. It’s a whole month dedicated to raising awareness about sourdough with the end goal being that those of us who participate will become better sourdough bakers. If you live in the US, imagine how good your rolls will be come Thanksgiving? Read more

I finally broke down and bought a crock pot.  I can actually technically say crock pot, since crock pot is a proprietary term coined by Rival, the company who started the craze back in 1971, and that’s the brand I’ve got in my meaty clutches.   I had very little desire for one of these contraptions until we had a horrendous week-long heat wave in Seattle last July.  Since it’s Seattle and we hold steady in the temperate high 70’s for most of the summer, no one owns an air conditioner.  Consequently when the heat wave hit, everyone was ducking for cover in malls, lakes, pools, even staying late and arriving early at the office each day since a/c is like a mandate in the corporate office building world. 

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