Sourdough, Rainbow Eggs, Movies, and a Giveaway: Mid-Week Miscellany

After seeing my instagram feed filled with beautiful loaves of sourdough bread that apparently everyone bakes, I decided to give it a shot - at the very least, trying to make our own starter would be science, right?

My feed has been filled with beautiful pictures of sourdough recently - do you ALL bake it??? Anyway, it's long been one of my goals to make it myself, but the whole "starter" thing intimidates me... However! Science!!! So I enlisted John Paul, because I knew he'd find this fascinating, and he's helping me under the pretense of "science" (and because this way it'll count for this week's AND next week's science experiment, a homeschool component he insists upon). We'll see if it works... But if it does, my sourdough-loving husband will be excited! And if it doesn't, I still love my regular old no-knead recipe 😊

A post shared by Rosie Hill (@rosiehill425) on Mar 16, 2017 at 1:55pm PDT

Well, we've actually been having a lot of fun! We started by using the starter for a few "cheater" recipes that aren't real sourdough - oatmeal muffins (delicious, though we replaced the raisins with cinnamon chips), chocolate cake (also delicious - not too sweet, and not too crumbly either), and sandwich bread (we were not fans...). Then today I finally took the plunge and made "real" sourdough bread - there are about a million recipes out there on the internet, and I don't think I love the one I used (so fussy! So many steps! Does it have to be this way?), so I'll be trying another next time. Any suggestions?


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Did I ever tell you I started an instagram for our farm/homestead/whatever we're calling this place? You should check it out if you're one who likes to live vicariously through our adventures!

We're looking forward to dying our gorgeous rainbow eggs come Easter! The brown eggs turn pastel dyes into jewel tones, but it almost looks like they don't need dying at all... If you're local, let us know if you'd like to reserve a few dozen for your own egg dying! . . . 

A post shared by Peregrine Hills Farm (@peregrinehillsfarm) on Mar 23, 2017 at 7:14am PDT

Right now we're getting excited to see how it goes dying all these different colors of eggs - we've done natural and conventional dyes in the past, and Cecilia's convinced a lot of these don't need to be dyed at all because they're already so beautiful. She might be right!

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Dying eggs makes me think about Easter baskets (affiliate links below!) - this year everyone's getting sun hats (these and these) and I've ordered some nice new crayons and colored pencils. Beyond that... I'm not sure! Maybe new watercolor paper and watercolors? I also just purged most of our coloring books, so maaaaybe a few new ones, but probably not. These eggs are super-fun and a big hit with everybody who comes to visit. What are you getting?

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How amazing does this film look? The Zookeeper's Wife (click here for the trailer) comes out Friday, and follows the story of Antonina and Jan Żabiński, a Christian couple in Poland during World War II, who join the resistance and use the zoo as a refuge for Jews, saving hundreds during the war. 

I imagine we all have an amazing historic woman we look up to - St. Edith Stein, for whom our youngest is named, demonstrated great courage during WWII as well.

You can win a $25 Fandango gift card to go see the movie (and seriously, go watch the trailer, it looks awesome)! Just click the rafflecopter below for entry options. Thanks to Grace Hill Media for providing the giveaway prize!

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