Back to Blogging & Autumn Baking

Hello and welcome back to the blog! 

It seems that since August, I've been very scattered in my blogging... The only thing I've managed to put out are the housewife journals! Not that I'm complaining about that. I'm very happy I have those little journals to look back on. But somewhere along the way, I feel like my original style of blogging, the chatty, the deep, and more liturgical posts, have fallen to the wayside and that has been bothering me.

Last week, our family was down with the stomach bug. Nothing is worse than the stomach bug. And nothing feels better than being healthy after sickness. So this weekend, after everyone was feeling much better, I told myself I would begin again with blogging. And by that I mean I really want to put some effort into it; no matter who reads my blog, no matter what anyone thinks about the topics I choose to write about, even though I know I'm not an expert, I will try to write more. 

Because ultimately this blog is for myself. My creative outlet. It's a place to write down things I've been thinking about and things I'm passionate about. 

So today, dear reader, I am back. Feeling fresh after my sickness, and renewed in my determination to write! I've decided to do some Fall baking! This week I'm bringing the sourdough starter out of a long hibernation in the fridge, to make some cinnamon raisin bread! Jonathan has been asking for it since the last time I made some. I think it was in January or February. 

I found this recipe from Simplicity and a Starter blog. It looked more like the Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl bread my mom used to buy which makes the best toast. A little sweet with salty butter. Yum! I like that this recipe is a soft loaf instead of a crunchier loaf baked in a Dutch Oven. I'm also excited to see if this tastes anything like the Pepperidge Farm version without the preservatives and the added sourdough taste!

(Here is how it turned out! The ends had less cinnamon swirls, as you can see, I had to cut a few pieces to get the swirls in the picture, but other than that, this bread tastes amazing!! Just like the Pepperidge Farm bread!)

Thankfully my starter cooperated and gave me a nice rise with a little help from a slightly warmed oven. And this recipe was super easy to follow! I was able to make the dough before bed because it only called for one round of stretch and folds/kneading. The next morning, all I needed to do was add the cinnamon sugar, shape it, and let it rise for another two hours before baking. I will definitely be making this recipe again!! 

If I'm going to be in the kitchen, I like to do more than one thing. So I decided to also crisp up some pumpkin seeds that I had made before we got sick. Actually, it was right when I was sick that I started them, trying to be a good homemaker for my husband after he got back from work. They got a good 24 hour soak (oops) and I was still feeling pretty bad when I actually drained the water and baked them. I threw some olive oil, salt, paprika, and garlic powder on them and roasted them.

Here they are- tasty but not as crisp as they needed to be. I didn't dry them thoroughly. So this week I am fixing my mistake and crisping them up more. I just tossed them back on the baking sheet and roasted for 20 minutes at 375. I actually burnt them a little as I started writing this, (another oops) I won't show a picture of that, but they taste much better simply because of the crispiness! And thankfully we have two more pumpkins on the front porch so I will have another chance to make them perfect the first go around.

I think that's all for today! Just wanted to check in to say that my goal is to write a little more than I have been and share this delicious sourdough that tastes like Fall! Next time on the blog: planning for the busy season ahead of us!

Gina💕