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Breakfast Favorites, Planning, Sourdough

Meal planning: breakfast

Lauren

I’m a planner. As a mother of seven children, I have to be. And with Mike frequently traveling cross-country for work, the kids and I are typically responsible for all the farm chores before we start school each day during the week. Milking cows and goats, feeding 500+ lbs of hay to everyone, and refilling water troughs is just part of what we do, all before 8 am.

I know without a good plan we could easily drag the morning out and have very little accomplished before having to start evening chores. My goal is to have chores done by 8:00/8:30 and then have a nice hot breakfast together before starting our school lessons. Eating from the bounty of our farm means we eat pretty seasonally, but even with that in mind I can stick us to a pretty simple method: protein, fat, fruit or veggie, carb. With the days getting shorter and shorter, our hens are laying less and less. This means we can’t have eggs on the menu every morning.

Luckily we also plan our butchering for the fall- so our freezers are full of breakfast sausage and beef bacon. Our protein options rotate between beef or deer sausage or beef bacon, eggs, and greek yogurt. Then I typically build out the rest of our breakfast with a combination of sourdough or oatmeal with cultured butter and a fruit we’ve preserved- spiced peaches or apples, applesauce, or frozen berries.

Some of us like a more savory breakfast, so I’ll change things up and make a quiche loaded with veggies and herbs and cheese, or serve breakfast tacos with salsa and avocados in the summer, and breakfast potatoes with sausage and peppers in the winter.

Once I have solid ideas and options, I create a fill-in-the-blank style plan that looks like this:

Sunday: quiche with cut fruit;

Monday: yogurt with granola and chicken sausage;

Tuesday: buttered sourdough toast and jam with scrambled eggs;

Wednesday: beef bacon with roasted potatoes and sliced pears;

Thursday: sourdough waffles with applesauce and greek yogurt;

Friday: sausage bagels with frozen berries;

Saturday: pumpkin donuts with greek yogurt or breakfast burritos

I try to rotate through whatever seasonal items we have here on the farm and a combination of whatever is in our grocery store. The cost of groceries is so expensive now that I’ve been particularly choosy about only buying items I KNOW my crew will eat. Last year Mike bought me a set of donut pans from King Arthur Baking and they have made it so fun and simple for us to make sourdough discard donuts- I rotate on Saturdays between muffins and donuts and the kids love those. With eggs being in lower supply, baking something for everyone with a recipe that uses just one or two eggs is incredibly economical.

I also make our yogurt using my instant pot- which is an enormous savings for us and lets us eat yogurt several times a week for breakfasts. Cora (my 14 year old) makes our granola each week on Sundays, and my boys take turns helping me with the sourdough. If the plan is written out a week in advance, it’s easy to identify what we need to buy, what we need to thaw, and what we need to prep ahead– and that means smooth sailing for breakfasts in the mornings.

What about you? Do you plan breakfasts? I’ll be sharing our lunch and dinner meal plans as well- because I can do a lot of things, but winging it isn’t one of them.

xoxo~

Lauren

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Feeding a sourdough starter

Lauren

Maintaining a starter is almost always the challenge that stops potential home bakers from tackling sourdough. There are so many posts on the internet encouraging homemakers and home cooks alike to develop a level of maintenance and care for their starter that rivals what some people do for their children or their dogs.

But friends, it really isn’t that complicated.

A sourdough starter is a living culture of yeast and bacteria- it wants to be alive! It’s true that like all living things, it needs to be fed and cared for…but I don’t believe that it’s nearly as complicated as the interwebs would have us believe. The real trick is taking the time up front to allow your starter to mature and become accustomed to your environment. This means the difference maker is you, and your own stick-to-it-iveness.

Making your own starter

To make your own sourdough starter, I recommend beginning with 20g of flour and 20g of water. Mix this combination together and store it in a jar with a loose fitting lid- I prefer a Weck jar with a glass lid resting on top, but you can use a mason jar with just the metal lid resting on top. In the morning retain 20g of this slurry, discarding the rest into your trash (not your drain!). Now feed 40g flour and 40g water to your 20g of starter, mix into a slurry, and allow it to rest in its jar with a loose fitting lid.

In the morning, retain 30g of the original starter and discard the rest. Feed 50g of flour and 50g of water and mix thoroughly, add back to your jar and cover with its lid. Repeat this process every day for two weeks, or until you begin to see your starter thicken into a rich, bubbly pancake batter texture. I find that taking 2-3 weeks to develop this starter is well worth it- because the microbes in this mixture are not only active, they’re also trained to your specific home environment and routine.

I live at 6500 feet elevation in the high desert of Utah. My starter took a great deal of time to get comfortable in this harsh environment, but now that it’s adapted, it needs no special treatment or procedures to stay active and happy. If you can maintain a strong and consistent routine in the beginning, you will grow all the right microbes to keep your starter going in a way that best serves YOU.

Here’s the schedule:

Day one: 20g flour, 20g water, mixed together and added to your jar

Day two: keep 20g of yesterday’s mixture, discard the rest. Add 40g flour and 40g water to what you retained of your starter. Keep in your jar, lightly covered with lid.

Day three: keep 30g of your starter and discard the rest. Add 50g flour and 50g water to your starter. Mix well and store in your jar, lightly covered with lid.

Day four-fifteen (or longer): keep 30g of your starter and discard the rest. Add 50g flour and 50g water to your retained starter. Mix well and store in your jar, lightly covered with the lid. Continue this routine daily until your starter thickens into a bubbly rising starter, doubling in size in the first 12 hours after feeding. It may take up to 3-4 weeks! Don’t stop!

There are many blogs that will tell you to feed twice a day or use special flours- I’d tell you to use the flour you plan to use the most for baking- because those are the microbes you want to harvest to fuel your starter. And I never feed twice a day because that’s a little high-maintenance for me. Nope, I prefer to feed at night before I put kids to bed, so I can follow up with my baking after they’re in bed and still get to bed myself.

My Feeding Schedule

I prepare my dough and feed my starter at the same time- meaning whenever I feed my starter, I go ahead and bake for my family. My feeding schedule allows me to retain enough starter for a complete feeding, while also preparing recipes using 200g of starter. For me this looks like one 100g starter sandwich loaf and one 100g artisan loaf (or batch of cinnamon rolls, or pizza dough, or…the list continues).

Here’s what that looks like:

Feeding the starter: 70g starter, 115g flour, 115g water

I combine my starter, flour, and water in a bowl and then wash my jar for a fresh start every time. Then I add my newly fed starter back to my clean jar and mark its starting level with a rubber band. Now I can clearly see its rise and fall.

After I’ve measured out my starter, I also measure out 100g into one mixing bowl and 100g of starter into another bowl. I use these as the base for whatever bread I need for family meals in the next two days. This is usually sandwich bread and some sort of breakfast item like bagels or babka, or dinner rolls or pizza dough.

By following this schedule, I can keep my starter on the counter and plan on feeding it every other day when I prepare my loaves. If I didn’t want to bake two separate recipes (or if I needed some other amount of starter) I can pour whatever starter I’m not using into a jar for the fridge as discard. I don’t have discard much, but when I do it goes to the fridge into my discard jar. Eventually I have enough to make my browned butter discard cookies, which are SO delicious and so simple to make ahead and freeze.

Bread, Sourdough

Master Sourdough Recipe

Lauren
Lauren's Master Sourdough
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Lauren’s Master Sourdough

Recipe by LaurenCuisine: American
Prep time

2

hours 
Cooking time

40

minutes

This master sourdough recipe starts with a healthy and active starter and leads to a beautiful airy loaf with a crisp crust on the outside and a soft, open crumb on the inside. Not sure where to begin? Check out my Sourdough for Everyone course to find videos and step by step tutorials of my method and recipes for all things sourdough.

Ingredients

  • 100g bubbly active sourdough starter

  • 375g water, room temperature

  • 20g sugar or honey (optional)

  • 500g bread flour (or all-purpose)

  • 10g salt

Directions

  • Combine starter, water, sugar, and flour in a large mixing bowl and work into a shaggy dough. Cover and allow to rest for 15-30 minutes.
  • Add salt and work into a smooth but sticky dough, stretching dough with your hands (or a bowl scraper) as you go. Cover and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes.
  • Begin the stretch and fold process: using hands wet with cool water, stretch your dough from each side up and over the middle of your dough, going north, east, south, and west until you’ve stretched and folded all sides of your dough in the bowl. Repeat this process every 15-20 minutes for one hour.
  • Bulk rise: after sufficient stretching and folding your dough should feel smooth and bouncy under your touch. Cover and allow to rise overnight or for 8-10 hours.
  • Shape and rise: In the morning, turn your dough out onto the counter, and using wet hands, stretch your dough thinly across your clean, unfloured countertop. Fold one side of your stretched dough from the edge to the center, repeating with the other side. You should now have an envelope-style rectangle of sourdough.
  • Beginning with one end, roll your dough into a thick log and tuck ends under one another, giving a round bowl shape. Build tension and strength in your dough by dragging this round shape along your countertop. Place top side down into a floured proofing basket or bowl. Cover and allow to rise another 1-2 hours.
  • Bake in a dutch oven with the lid on at 450*F for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until the top is as golden brown as you prefer. Allow to cool for an hour before slicing, and enjoy!

Notes

  • I prefer to use organic bread flour purchased at a local mill- I use Central Milling Company in Logan, Utah. But I’ve also made this recipe using all purpose flour with excellent results- it just may require a bit more stretching and folding.
  • This bread can be made ahead and frozen in an airtight bag, or stored in a bread bag for up to five days.
  • If you prefer to add fillings to this recipe (I love soaked raisins, herbs and cheese, pickled jalapeños, onions and seeds, etc) just add them when you add the salt, before stretching and folding.
  • If you’d like to work a swirl of cinnamon sugar or seasoning into your loaf, spread your seasoning during the shaping stage, when your dough has been stretched and folded into the envelope shape, prior to rolling into a log.
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Upcoming Classes: Bread and Cheese

Lauren

One of my favorite contributions to our homestead is offsetting our costs at the grocery store. Aside from raising our own meat (a HUGE cost savings!) we’ve also gotten to a place where I can produce all of the dairy and bread we consume. That’s a huge savings for a family our size.

Sourdough breadmaking isn’t just limited to beautifully-scored artisan loaves; it can also be used for making sandwich bread, pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, tortillas, and so much more. And like sourdough, cheesemaking is an old skill that requires a great deal of patience and practice, but it’s actually not as difficult as one might imagine. In fact, once you’ve made one or two simple cheeses, you can be well on your way to replacing all (or at least a good bit of) the dairy your family consumes.

I’m excited to finally be able to teach these beautiful homesteading arts- stay tuned for my Sourdough for Everyone class, debuting in December 2023, and my cheesemaking class coming in Spring 2024. These will be offered as a fully online video course, with a PDF companion loaded with recipes, techniques, full supply lists, and my own notes from experience.

I believe so whole-heartedly that anyone can learn these skills. These courses are not intended to show expertise in a narrow and perfection-minded way- instead they’re designed to help you build your confidence so that YOU can customize your own recipes and routines to fit your lifestyle. Because I know you can do it if you have the desire and the work ethic to practice.

I hope you’ll join me for one (or more)!

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My favorites cuts from the butcher

Lauren
This cut is a ranchera, also called flap steak, from the sirloin portion of the cow. Traditionally used for carne asada, I marinate it for a few hours before dinner and grill it to serve with Mexican rice and beans and a guacamole salad.

One of the best ways to support your local farmer AND know the quality of your meat is to order a whole or half cow from your local butcher or directly from the farm itself. When you place your order, you’ll most likely be given a list of cuts to choose from. While every cow has a variety of steaks and roasts to choose from, it’s also important to remember that 50-60% of your order will be made of ground beef. But that doesn’t limit your options! Here are my favorite cuts to request when we harvest our own beef:

From the chuck/front sections of the cow, I prefer flat iron steak and chuck roasts in 3 lb cuts. This lets me have a variety of steaks for fajitas as well as roasts for slow cooking. This portion of the cow also includes brisket which I ask to be cut in half.

Next is the rib and short plate section of the cow, where we get ribeyes, prime rib, rib roasts, short ribs and back ribs, and skirt steaks. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to get all these cuts from one cow, but choose a few options and talk with your butcher about how much you’re working with and what your priorities are. I actually forego the short ribs and request beef bacon instead, and I’m never sorry. Because our family likes steaks and we tend to have plentiful cuts of chuck for roasts, I skip the prime rib and ribeye roasts and go with ribeye steaks, beef bacon, and skirt steak.

Up next is the loin, sirloin and flank sections of the cow. From these cuts we have lots of options, but my favorites are New York steaks (also called strip steak), filet mignon, whole tenderloin, tri-tip steak and roast, sirloin steaks, flank steaks, and flap steaks (which my butcher calls ranchera- used for the best carne asada!) You should actually be able to request all of these cuts, with the exception of having to choose either a whole tenderloin or several filet mignon cuts (bc filets are just cut versions of the whole tenderloin).

Last is the round or rear section of the cow. This includes your rump roast, top and bottom round roasts, London broil, and round steaks. I prefer to have several cuts of round steak for making beef jerky, and I forgo several round roasts in favor of London broil. Round roasts and London broil make amazing lunch meat! And rump roast is another excellent cut for the slow cooker.

When it comes to ground beef, you can also request for your butcher to make hamburger patties, Polish or Italian sausage, or even beef chorizo or breakfast sausage. Don’t be afraid to ask your butcher what he recommends or prefers himself when there’s an abundance of ground beef. I’ve tried so many delicious options that I’ll never miss an opportunity to try a new sausage blend or seasoned hamburger patty option. These make for quick and flavorful dinners with limited prep from me.

The joy of farm fresh beef in a quantity as large as a whole or half cow also means learning new cooking skills and bringing a level of variety to your table that’s atypical for the modern table. Be sure to stay tuned for my recipes and tips for cooking each of the cuts of beef in a way you and your family can enjoy, any night of the week.

Sourdough, Uncategorized

Sourdough Basics

Lauren

Sourdough is such an art. But it can seem overwhelming and complicated with so many resources out there. As a busy mom and farmer with lots of children and animals to care for, I need a bread making process that works for me- not one that requires more work from me.

So here’s my easy bread making routine that works with my life, and lets us have bread at the ready whenever we need it. This particular routine or schedule has me feeding my starter at the same time that I make bread, so long as I make bread three days a week. My basic routine is to prepare my dough at night before I put kids to bed, allow it to ferment overnight, then shape the loaves and bake them in the morning,

In the evening after dinner:

  • Feed starter
  • Make one 100g starter recipe (typically sandwich bread, cinnamon rolls, or babka)
  • Make one 80g starter recipe (typically a boule or rustic bread with or without add-ins)
  • *OR* make one 200g starter option like bagels or English muffins
  • Gently knead/stretch and fold after tucking kids into bed/doing nighttime routines
  • Leave on the counter overnight for bulk rise

In the morning:

  • Allow dough to rest on the counter 10-15 minutes before shaping (I always make my coffee and read the news while I wait)
  • Shape into boule or loaf and place in basket or loaf pan (or other pan for cinnamon rolls or bagels)
  • Allow to rise and bake according to recipe

Starter feeding schedule:

  • Keep 70g starter, add 115g flour and 115g filtered water, feed every few days and store on counter or in fridge

I store my sourdough in a Weck Tulip Jar with the glass lid in place, and no rubber gasket attached. You can also store in a Quart Mason Jar with the metal lid resting on top. I find no matter where I live, after a week or two of consistent feeding, my starter happily adapts to my environment, and I can keep the feeding schedule the same. As long as I feed my starter every few days, I find it’s happy and active enough to make my loaves rise without any more babysitting than this.

You can find all the essential equipment I use on my amazon storefront. In addition to everything listed there, I also love my vintage Pyrex mixing bowls. I have the primary mixing bowl set and use the 404 size for artisan loaves, 403 for sandwich or pan loaves, the 402 for feeding my starter, and the 401 for preparing fillings or seasonings. You can make anything work for you! Just be sure to avoid using metal as it will affect the ability for the wild yeast in your starter to thrive.

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Welcome to the Farm!

Lauren

Hi! Welcome to Seven Wonders Farm, where our family enjoys the days spent with our animals, homeschooling and homesteading in harmony with the seasons the beautiful Uinta mountains of Utah bring to us. We enjoy long snowy winters and mild, sunny summers that let our animals flourish and our spirits soar. Our family has been farming here since 2021, and we’ve built this homestead from the ground up, while enjoying our 1898 farmhouse nestled in the most beautiful mountain meadows imaginable.

We hope you enjoy seeing and experiencing the farm life with us!