Homemade Italian Bread!

Here is my first attempt at Italian Bread, as requested by the Incredibly handsome man I live with : ) He just isn't into the whole wheat scene...

As you know I've been experimenting with Sourdough Starters, as to avoid using store bought yeast and limit ingredients, improve the healthiness of the bread and all that great stuff...and keep cost down!

During my web browsing I found authentic Italian recipes, and one that called for "pasta madre" which is actually a starter you make first and let ferment just like sourdough starter. I was so surprised and as you can imagine...happy to find Italian bread I can make with my sourdough starter!

Above are the results which look great so far, and the house smells sooooo good!

While I was doing laundry, cleaning, going out to the herb garden, pulling weeds in the flower beds and whatever...oh yes, I did take a nap too : ) Chuck stripped our front door with a heat gun, gave it a preliminary sanding and put it back up for now.  We are remodeling this house we just bought together and we decided we want to keep the original door, stain and varnish it and make stained glass pieces for it ourselves. The door was coated with more than a couple coats of white, and aqua paint, but it came off pretty easily...it's just time consuming. I helped a bit, but he did 95% of it himself. We love working on our house together. He was just as happy to know I was baking bread when I wasn't helping him with the door.
The guys at work tease him that I peel his oranges for his lunch, wait till they get a load of his homemade bread...hehe.

Next weekend I'll let you know how the bread actually was...I'm afraid it's too dense, but we'll see after it cools...this pic is taken while it's still warm. Chuck grins at me coming to the computer to post for you...I am having such a great time with this blog. I can't wait to get a few comments and maybe a follower or two! I'd love to hear about what your cooking or baking or...new things your learning about healthy cooking...or just healthy finds at the store.

I just read where we are better off not even having canned or boxed items of any kind...fresh produce meats and that's it. Makes sense I guess. The keeping and preserving methods are not good for us in the long run.

I just picked up a Prevention guide mini magazine at the store about Outsmarting Diabetes...no I'm not diabetic my numbers are just up a bit due to my weight so I'm trying to manage myself by making better choices...being more active...changing old habits...learning new ones that are better for me...and hopefully losing weight along the way...we all know how difficult that can be. Anyway, this book reverts back to their Flat Belly Diet which I have both the book and the cookbook and they are fantastic!!! I love the chocolate zucchini snack cake!!! I'm now looking at making their Rich Chocolate Layer Cake in the next couple weeks. No I don't need it...but its a MUFA fat, low fat, and antioxidant and looks INCREDIBLE.

Anyway would love to hear from you and what's on your mind or in your kitchen these days!

Until next weekend,

Janie