Sourdough goodness

I've been feeding a sourdough starter now for over a month. I noticed it was producing some larger bubbles so I ventured to adjust a favorite bread recipe to use some of my starter. So this bread used some organic sourdough flour from Mary Jane Farms and half organic white whole wheat flour. Both flours would have wild yeast in them adding to the rising factor which is huge when you're using natural yeast. More is better!
To bake this luscious loaf I use my Emile Henri clay pot. I use it in a hot oven, 400º. The pot containing the dough is put in the preheated oven cold. This take about 40 minutes to bake. I then take the lid off and let the bread brown to make a crispy crust. This 4 quart pot holds a 2 pound loaf. That's 6-7 cup flour recipe.
I love how the bread turned out. It looked gorgeous. It's almost gone now. The family men, big and little have been gobbling it up!

Tinted Mason Jars

You're supposed to have some mason jars you can no longer use for canning. They've got chips, dings, whatever. Somehow all of mine are in good shape. So I checked the canning jar cupboard and found some real old ones with icky labels. First challenge, remove labels. I did. Gathered up some Mod Podge, high gloss variety, food coloring, some water, a jelly roll pan and popsicle sticks. Make sure your jars are really clean.

You put 1 tablespoon of Mod Podge, 1 teaspoon water and 9 or more drops of food color of your choice in a pint mason jar. My goal was to make some pastel colors. I used a small mixing spoon and mixed and mixed and mixed. It was hard to mix but a little challenging. Then you twirl the color all over the inside of the jar and around the top. You'll lose some so do this over a sink. After completely coating the entire inside of the jar, turn it upside down on top of a popsicle sticks place inside of a jelly roll pan and let it drip. The pan has a lip to contain the extra color mixture that will drip out. Let them sit for at least two hours. Patience my little friend, patience. Heat your oven to 200º. Turn jars right side up and put them on a clean cookie sheet. You're going to bake them for an hour. Under an hour, you might have streaks. Around an hour, nice smooth colored glass. Let them cool completely before touching.
Now you can have some fun decorating them for Spring or Easter.

I did a batch of these for our chapter meeting. Here's how some were decorated.