As promised, it was another Around the Ranch adventure Saturday morning I got up to find out if my sourdough experiment had paid off and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that not only had it paid off, but it was some of the best-tasting sourdough I’ve ever eaten. I only ate three 8-inch flapjacks, as I’m attempting to eat a bit less these days to shed an ounce or two, but they were really, really good.
Elaine thought they were light enough to make a good biscuit, too, but we’ll save that for another day.
We did have one minor problem: There was some batter left over, so Elaine put it in a large drinking glass. About four hours later, she opened the fridge, only to see the glass had overflowed as the sourdough kept on developing, spurred on, no doubt, by the addition of two tablespoons of sugar, teaspoon of baking soda, and two beaten eggs that went into the mixture. Vitamins for the sponge, so to speak.
This morning, I’ve whipped up another batch, and we’ll see how this one goes. It’s still something of a question, though, since the best-in-my-life benchmark is still aunt Isabel’s genuine pancakes, which – looking back on things – were more like a thick crepe than a high-rising pancake.
After this morning’s workout with the higher-rising variety, I’ll set to work tearing apart crepe recipes and figure up some way to build a lower-rising pancake – about 3/16th’s of an inch thick with very fine crumble-bubbles, as opposed to the 5/8ths to 3/4ths inch risers I have now.
The good news they are so light at the moment that you have to set a fork or knife on them, or they slowly rise up to the ceiling and stick there.
Yet Another Gout Cure?
From frequent contributor Chris:
Kris K sent this
Mix 1 part food grade (aluminum free) baking soda with three parts honey. Take one teaspoon a day.
Turns your system to alkaline from acid. Should prevent gout, which is caused by high acid buildup.
Some say it kills cancer too. Interesting. If you try it, let me know if it works.
I’ve actually read a fair amount about how turning the body basic (versus acidic) is a very healthy thing to do, but if I remember my chemistry right, the baking soda is high in sodium, which is you have any blood pressure issues may not be a good thing.
On the other hand, locally harvested honey is said to work miracles with allergies and hay fever. The detail level is that the honey has to be taken from hives within 50-miles (less is better) from where the allergy-suffer lives. But there seems to be something in honey that really works.
Reader’s Writes: On Management Style
In case you missed it, I posted my three lessons on effective management yesterday and – although I didn’t expect it – there was a very good counter on point number 2 in the post (here) from reader Dave:
George, I concur with your Three(3) lessons, however I have a personal issue with the example used for Lesson #2. Thirty Seven years ago, I and several hundred Engineers, Designers, Draftsmen, and Technicians, covering a multitude of disciplines, were working 12 hour days, Seven days a week, with every other weekend off for those away from home.
These off weekends sometimes only happened once a month. We worked for over a year on that schedule to meet a Dec 31, 1976 deadline to bring a $500million dollar production facility on line.