The anniversary swap was almost several weeks ago, but I continue to enjoy the goodies and, at least for some of them, will continue to for awhile. Many thanks to my fellow swappers for the earrings …
The handmade soap…
And Aimee’s sourdough starter (see below for a link to her blog, Red Garden Clogs)…
revelgardener 
That bread looks great. I used to tinker with sour dough but never got a nice tasting starter going. That was one time I should have bought a good one from somebody. If you kept any starter take care of it!
Thank you! You’re welcome to some of my starter! I am trying to keep up with it this time. This is actually the second starter I’ve gotten from Aimee. The first time I made the mistake of getting it around the holidays when I was really too swamped and wrapped up in other things to take care of it. Hopefully I’ll have better results (and better dedication) this time. I have plenty. Just let me know.
I don’t want to post all the information here, but I’ll see if Katee can email it to you. It’s been quite a while since I played with sour dough, but I did plenty of research at the time. One way I used to ‘get rid’ of excess starter was to pour it into home made pancake batter.
Especially in warm weather I used to put my starter in the refrigerator. It didn’t kill it but slowed it down enough that it didn’t need as much attention. It had to be warmed back up a day or more to get it going enough for use. Another method which I only tried once or twice was when the starter is really bubbling away, spread a thin coat of it on wax paper and lightly cover the top. When it dries, scrape it off the wax paper, put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer. The freezer method was to store starter long term in case the active batch got contaminated or killed off. Here are some links that may be of interest.
http://www.rangerville.com/sourdough/
http://allrecipes.com/cook/13785880/blogentry.aspx?postid=119603
http://amnottheonlyone.blogspot.com/2011/03/pet-sourdough.html
Thanks for the links. I’ve been keeping mine in the fridge, and plan to do so. I don’t know that my baking will slow down all that much in the summer months. I have to admit, though, since I’ve been SUPER busy lately, I am missing my old bread machine. I did let it go when I started doing the handmade method. Before I was using commercial yeast, but I’m finding now that I’ve been using the sourdough that I prefer it. As with everything, though, there’s a balance, and that’s what I’m looking for now. Maybe a little sourdough, a little packet yeast, sometimes the oven, maybe replace my machine. I’d like to find a good source for yeast in the jar, too, since I find that when I do use the yeast packets I go through them way too quickly.
I know it’s a ‘big box’ store, but Costco sells 2 pound packages of yeast. Keep an empty yeast jar and fill it from the large pack & put the rest in the freezer until the jar empties again. It’s also way cheaper in the large pack. I would imagine you can find large packs elsewhere too. If not, stop in your friendly neighborhood bakery and ask if they have one you can buy.
The foil packs of yeast are way too expensive for what amounts to a couple spoons of yeast. A minor advantage to using bulk is you can just measure out however much you need with a measuring spoon rather than do conversions to how many packages you need. It seems to vary by machine, but some use about 1 1/4 tsp per loaf while some use 2 or more. It may have something to do with the machine’s timers. Rising time varies between machine types, some raise once, some do a double rise with a short mix between them. Once you find that ‘magical’ amount of yeast (usually the one used in the recipe book for your machine), you will probably find if you get a recipe from another source that doesn’t use ‘the magical’ amount, the loaf will be too small or large. It takes a bit of trial and error to tune recipes, so I write down any modifications on the recipe each time until it’s fine tuned.
I don’t have a Costco membership but I’ve been thinking about getting one. I also find taking notes during the baking process, and then writing comments as soon as I can really makes for a greatly improved recipe. I also write down the date that I’ve made something to keep track of how the recipe has morphed.