Ooh snap!

Congregation Ale House.

Italian sub from Togo's

Tonight will be homemade pizza with a sourdough crust. My sourdough starter has been lots of fun to experiment with but this is the first pizza crust so... But it's pizza so even if it's a bit wonky it's probably still good.

That sounds yummy! Gary wants me to get a starter going but I've never done it before. Is it difficult to keep alive and does it taste good?

It's easy to keep alive - just have to add more flour water mixture every few days. It's good - but not anywhere near as good as a san francisco sourdough is.

The pizza dough tasted great - but it did not firm up the way it should have and the crust was fairly floppy even though it was browned on the bottom.

The thing about sourdough is that everyone's is a different consistantsy. Some people like theirs more like oatmeal and some like theirs much more on the liquidy side - so it's hard to tell exactly how much regular flour to add until you're actually in the recipe. You have to do it by knowing what bread dough is supposed to look/feel like and adding more flour or liquid.

The pizza dough recipes just use the starter for flavor and not for levening power - or at least the one I tried. It also had yeast in it. Anyway, it'll probably take a few batches to figure it out - just like it did with the bread.

If you have a WinCo near you, they have a great bulk section with all sorts of flours you can play around with pretty inexpensively. I bought some semolina to add to the next batch which is supposed to make it more chewy. We'll see.

Try the sourdough starter using the pineapple juice method you can find online. I couldn't get one going the traditional way and I think using yeast is cheating.

Use a glass jar with a lid that can be left a little loose and make sure to put a little plate under it. You don't want it to ooze out on the shelf in your cupboard should it overflow.

Gazpacho, my mom's unbeatable recipe, and grilled chicken with a fresh basil/mint dressing. Summer eats at its best.