Seasons Are A'Changing

I decided to dedicate this past week to season my baking stone.  I needed to clean it first, and since you can't use soap without making your food taste soapy, I opted for the baking soda & warm water method.  I then oiled it, and baked it for two hours at 350.

Squeaky clean, no soapy taste.  Time to season!

To highlight this project, I also got to baking some sourdough.  This is a HUGE step for me, as I have the attention span of a housefly and I needed to create my own starter.  I did this by placing one cup warm water and one cup flour in a closed, but not air-tight container on my kitchen counter.  I took some daily photos as I "fed" the starter- just remove half and add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour back in.  

In addition to being a housefly, I'm also an eager beaver.  Day one for me went something like this: 'Okay, I'll start it as the directions say, but why should I throw away half of my starter every day?  If I adjust my additions, I'll have s*** tons of sourdough and I can take it all to the homeless shelter.  That will be awesome!'

Ignorance is Bliss until it comes back to bite you in the arse.

Now I still can NOT figure out how this worked out, but at the end of day two, I had 5 cups of starter.  To compensate, I threw away 3 cups of it and went back to the original formula.  Some waste, to me, is a fine price for sanity.  I spelled out instructions for myself so I wouldn't have to think about it for the rest of the week, and by day 4, my starter was beautifully frothy, a sign that it's ready.

Next time:  oh, the wonders of baking blindly... not to be confused with "blind baking."