Rising to the occasion

Last week i drove to Dolores, CO for a family reunion. It was a combination of my Schiess family, and my sister-in-law's Beracy family reunion (she planned it so she got to invite whoever she wanted!) So my parents and brothers were there (parents from the Phoenix area, one brother from Prescott AZ, and one brother from the Los Angeles area) along with most of their families.

My brother Brody (the Californian) has gotten obsessed with making sourdough bread making over the past couple of years. Brody gets very enthusiastic about his hobbies, and so it was no surprise that he planned to make sourdough bread for us while we were there.

At Christmas he had given me a sourdough bread cookbook and some powdered sourdough starter. I read and read and got more and more confused about it. I mean really...no yeast? How can that be? And no bread machine? My confidence level for bread making is pretty much non-existent (i call myself dough-challenged). I had emailed him repeatedly about how to go about getting the starter going and then how to make the bread. I have a whole folder of email replies from him with detailed instructions. Did that help? No.

I did manage to get the starter growing, and even fed it a few times before putting it into my alternate refrigerator where i didn't even have to be reminded of it by seeing it every time i opened the main refrigerator.

So, anyway, we went to Colorado. And Brody made bread. But then, being obsessed, he also held a daily sourdough bread making class for any of us who would listen.




I admit....we (being siblings) kinda made a joke out of Brody and his bread at first. But by the time our week was over i had attended his class multiple times (he kept dragging me in). I found out that the starter in the frig was probably still alive, just needed some feeding. And he also made it look easy (of course Kristy Yamaguchi made ice skating look easy too). By the end of the week even Casey had attended the class a few times.

As a parting gift, Brody divided up his special starter and sent some home with everyone who wanted some. Since i already had some at home, i didn't take any more, but Casey did. We even had to buy an ice chest and some ice on our way out of town to bring the dang stuff 1200 miles back home.

So, two days ago i start getting texts and phone calls from Casey about the details of the bread making process, and i'll be darned if he didn't bake a beautiful loaf of sourdough bread. Today, he is at it again, baking more. I am proud to report that i tried making my first loaf today as well. And, I DID IT!!! It actually tastes like sourdough bread!!! I am so proud of myself!!! I'm not going to say it came out perfectly, because i had a few learning issues, but with practice, i think i can do this.

So, Brody, I know you don't read my blog, but i just wanted to say thanks and i'm a little bit sorry about making fun of your Bro-dough behind your back. hehehehe