~ The Crystal Dish ~

Have I ever told you how much my kids love applesauce? Or how much I use to make them applesauce? It use to be an annual thing I would do every fall, but for some reason the last 3 years, I haven't been making it.  This year I decided to bring it back, and I'm bringing it back for good. The kids love it and I would rather the kids have homemade than store-bought, that way I know what is going into the applesauce that they are eating and I know that it's not filled with any extra un-needed sugar. I keep my applesauce super simple and depending on how much they eat, which, if I let them, they can polish it off pretty quickly because I mean let's face it, who doesn't like homemade applesauce. Homemade Applesauce with Love, now that's an even different story. My applesauce is not your regular applesauce either. I add a few extra spices in mine as well that kind of kick it up a notch and give it an extra little flavor which my kids love.  This years applesauce recipe...

  As our sourdough starter finished ripening, or should I say coming alive, I was ready and waiting to bake and cook away with that starter and try new things. I still have a Sourdough Starter and bread bucket list that consists of challah, English muffins, crumpets, croissants, etc, but for now, I tried two different things and I finally got it right.  I tried two different recipes, One Artisan recipe and one regular sourdough recipe. Our family liked the regular sourdough recipe better. I may need to give the Artisan recipe another shot, but for now we're going to stick to this sourdough recipe that was a pretty basic recipe. It was easy to follow and I made some few minor tweaks which I'm still working a few more tweaks out to make everything perfect.  If you couldn't already tell, I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my cooking and using sourdough was no different. I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted the bread to be like that Sourdough Bread you get...

 To say I love bread would be an understatement. This year we decided on more than one occasion to take up the joy of undertaking the art of sourdough. Earlier in the year, my little starter went rancid because I forgot to feed my baby, but this time around, I am committed and I plan on keeping my starter for years.  This time around with my, or should I say our Sourdough Starter, because I wanted to teach my kids some life skills and what better way to teach them these amazing life skills, then with the art of making this amazing sourdough starter. It's fun too!!!! Nicholas was totally into it! He wanted to be the "SOURDOUGH MASTER" as he called it.  So, I let him join me in the kitchen for this fun little adventure. And it's been quite the adventure of feeding our little Sourdough Baby/babies... I'll get into the babies later... Just don't do what I did and go overboard. I had I think about 6 starters at once going. I didn't think it through. LOL I have ...

  As I came here today, to my place of peace, my place of writing, I looked at the date of my last draft. The date of the last time I was to write. There was a draft. A draft I hadn't posted. A draft dated 12/30/2019. As I look at that date now, and I reflect back on what happened that day a year ago and why I didn't finish the post, so many things go through my head.  The post I was writing was about a catering event I had done.  I remember the event so clearly, the meals I made, the beauty I created on the plate, but at the same time as I was catering, I was conflicted at the same time, because I knew my best friend was in that hospital bed fighting for her life. Still I endured and I put on a happy face. I didn't show my pain. That's something that I am very good at. I seem to bottle up a lot of my feelings and brush it under until one day the emotions come pouring out at once. I know, that is probably not the healthiest thing to do, but it's something t...