How do you make sourdough? Let me share my secret!

Suddenly (it feels like), sourdough is a thing. I'm sure people made sourdough bread throughout history. 

But now it's a thing. It's trending. 

Is that the result of COVID? People were stuck home, so they learned how to make sourdough? Then they gave starter to all their friends? And now everyone makes it? Possible.

At least that's how it happened in our family. Shulamith's husband Mathew learned to make sourdough during COVID when he was working remotely from home. Of course, Matt's a culinary god, so it probably wasn't quite as hard for him as it would be for others to hone his skills and process, one loaf at a time, to utter perfection. And yes, he does make perfect sourdough.

If you're wondering when I'm going to get to the point here, the part about the secret to making sourdough, wait no longer.

What is my secret to making sourdough?

This girl....

Her name is Amanda, and she is one of my best friends. She is also Eli's very cool wife. Amanda is one of several recipients of Matt's sourdough starter, and she has worked diligently the past few months to perfect her own sourdough. If you haven't tried making sourdough, you may not know that it's a l-o-n-g process; for both Amanda and Matt, it takes two whole days! You have to worry about "proofing" (which, I think, means leaving the dough to rise just the right amount, at just the right temperature). You do this at least twice, maybe even more? Then you also have go through the "stretching and folding" process several times. I saw a meme that compared this to a "grownup's slime play," and yes, that's what it looks like.

How would a terrible cook like me ever do all this? She wouldn't. Not a chance. My secret to making delicious sourdough is beautifully simple. Get Amanda to make it for me. I know you're all shaking your heads while looking at your flour-covered hands and flour-covered kitchens and wondering. "Why didn't I think of this?"

I know, right? But too late. She's already taken. She's mine. Every few days, I get a fresh loaf of yummy sourdough. Made at home, it's about the healthiest bread you could eat. The ingredients are flour, water, and salt. That's it. I read that the fermentation process actually serves to stabilize blood sugar, which has proven true, as Shulamith's T1 diabetic son, Swen, experiences no spike at all after eating his dad's sourdough.

Eli and Amanda celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary a couple days ago. There is a long list of reasons why I'm grateful these two found each other and now I get to hang out with Amanda, but this sourdough is pretty dang high on that list.

I almost missed church!

Of all the church services of the year, it seems Easter would be the one not to miss. I mean isn't Easter the highest, most holy day on the Christian calendar? 

And yet......I almost missed it.

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning and glanced at my phone. "No. Nooooo! I am NOT getting up at 5:30 a.m." I turned over and pulled the warm covers over my head, adjusted my pillow just right, and closed my eyes. But sleep did not come. Instead, the long list of tasks I still needed to complete in preparation for our Easter celebration ruminated through my brain. Anxiety? Perhaps. Or maybe just normal "mom brain" on a major holiday. Either way, it was clear I wasn't going back to sleep. 

I got up and threw on my big Montana coat over my pajamas and took Waffles out to go to the bathroom. Back inside, I scrolled briefly through my favorite workout videos and selected one of the 30-minutes, full body ones with trainers Toya and Juice. I have several go-to videos with various trainers, but I love these two for a couple reasons: She (Toya) always demonstrates the more challenging options, while he (Juice) shows the easier modifications. She is so strong! Ooooh! But more importantly, neither of them chatters at me through the workout. I hate it when these trainers decide to be motivational inspirers. Stay in your own lane. If I want a life coach, I'll find me one. All I want from you is to model the strength training.

I planned to shower and get ready after working out, but it was so much earlier than I anticipated, you know, because it was never my plan to get up at 5:30 a.m. (Grrrrrrr!). So instead, I hid 63 candy-filled, plastic eggs all over the house and put finishing touches on baskets. Then I made green bean casserole, stuffing, and brownies. Finally, I put on sweats and a coat and headed out to walk. It had been overcast earlier when I took Waffles out, but now it was full on raining! What a perfect Easter morning! Rain, beautiful rain. I felt like I was home in the Pacific Northwest. I put in my AirPods and continued listening to my audiobook, as I walked. And walked. And walked. And totally lost track of time. 

Drenched, but happy, I glanced at my watch. Eeeek, it was 9:20 a.m., and I was supposed to be at Eli's church at 10:00 to attend sacrament meeting with him and Amanda and watch Amanda lead the music. I power-walked home, took the quickest shower of my life, got dressed, and did makeup and hair, all in about 20 minutes. By 9:50, I was in my car driving way too fast to Herriman. I arrived about 15 seconds before the meeting began. It was a good meeting. Their ward is huge, and with all the extra "Easter" people (like me!) the congregational hymns were lively and inspiring. We sang the standard "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" and "He is Risen," and the Primary kids sang "The Miracle," one of my favorites.

After church, I went to Eli and Amanda's house to eat crepes and watch Jane find eggs and open her Easter basket. 

Then I left the three of them to take naps, and returned home to finish my own Easter prep. At around 5:30, Seth and Isaiah arrived, followed by Shulamith and family, then Eli, Amanda, and Jane. Our home was filled to the brim with so many of my favorite people, so much noise, and so much scrambling to find the 63 plastic eggs the "Easter Bunny" had hidden. I'm so grateful my big kids still love to hunt for eggs; I'm pretty sure I'll cry if the day ever comes when they decide they're too old.

We decided to have "Thanksgiving dinner" for Easter, and Mathew smoked two turkeys on his amazing Traeger grill. All the food seemed extra good for some reason, and dessert was no exception. We had ice cream brownie sundaes, with toppings that included Thin Mint and Samoa Girl Scout cookies; Reese's Peanut Butter Cups; Kit Kat bars; fresh strawberries and raspberries and bananas (healthy, right?); hot fudge and caramel sauce; rainbow sprinkles; and whipped cream!

After eating all this food, I rolled myself upstairs and into bed, exhausted from the very early start to a very busy day. But grateful. So grateful to have the coolest family ever and that they all love to be together. And grateful for the risen Lord, whose selfless sacrifice offers us grace, redemption, and life eternal.

"Death is conquered; we are free. Christ has won the victory."