Sourdough Explorations

Earlier this year, I decided that I wanted to master sourdough baking. A few things drove me there. It resonates with me to use a more natural, wild yeast to bake with. As I read further about sourdough, the health benefits became clearer, at least what I perceive as health benefits.

But my goal to master sourdough was not limited to just mastering the handling of sourdough. I want also to master baking artisan-style breads, those beautiful, rustic breads baked "standalone," without bread pans. I also want to master using sourdough with whole wheat, since am limiting the amount of refined flour that I consume.

Yeah, that's quite a tall order.

But it turns out that getting going on sourdough isn't so difficult after all! Refining the use of the sourdough, getting bread like you want it, etc., yeah, that takes some time, but getting going on sourdough is pretty darn simple!

This Weekend's Baking

Last week, I got a starter to live and thrive. This weekend, I baked white sourdough break, whole wheat and rye sourdough break, sourdough hot cakes (whole wheat and rye, and white), and even some sourdough banana bread. Turns out that it's pretty easy to adjust recipes, too. It's just flour, water, and leven -- all supplied by the sourdough starter or sponge -- with whatever else you want. You'll need more flour, salt, maybe sugar. From there, it's an art of balancing those ingredients. I used a sourdough blueberry muffin recipe from Mike's site and adapted it for banana bread. Just get the dough / batter looking right, and things will be fine.

Me, my whole wheat bread was much better than my white bread. The white bread doesn't look pretty yet, but it tastes good. Some of Chef John's ideas may help (see below). I'll try those next weekend. The banana bread was to-die-for. The hot cakes were good. I'll keep tweaking those to get the sourdough flavor with the light, fluffy texture that my wife succeeds in getting with her whole wheat pancakes. Yes, she gets light, fluffy, buttermilk whole wheat pancakes. She's amazing!

The Starter

A sourdough "starter" is what you use to grow and maintain the live yeast. There are 2 way to build a starter: get one from someone who's already doing it, or make one yourself.

Mike Avery, from http://www.sourdoughhome.com, suggests that you not try to build your own starter if you're new to it. I followed his advice and got a starter from someone. Since I don't know anyone doing sourdough, I ordered a neat-sounding dry starter from Carl's Friends (www.carlsfriends.org). They send it out free. I also found one in my local kitchen gadgets store.

Mike and others will also tell you how to start one on your own. It's just flour and water and time. But there's some art to it. Mike has good instructions, and another good source is "Follow the Sourdough" at foodwishes.com. Where Chef John guides you through the process with blog posts and short videos.

Some Learning

Through that process I figured out a few things:

1. People build starts and maintain them in a great variety of ways. Some are very runny starters, some are very thick. Mike makes his with a 3 parts flour to 2 parts water ratio. Some do full 2:1, some 1:1. They all work, but it will change how you make break from them. With some reading and experimentation, you'll figure out whether you like break made with very wet dough or very dry dough, with lots of kneading or only a little kneading. It's all good, none of it is bad bread, so just keep baking until something really clicks for you.
   
2. I killed 2 starters in the beginning by not feeding often enough and not knowing quite what to look for. I confused the later feeding and "preparing to cook" instructions with the early "get it going" instructions. Mike maintains that if a starter can't double itself, it can't double your bread. But a brand new, young starter isn't going to double itself. I was looking for doubling when I should only have been looking for bubbles. Chef John's info above is a litle clearer in that regard. But beyond that, there's little more on that site. Mike's info is very extensive and very interesting. I use Mike's Sourdough ebook as my sourdough bible. I like his approach, his philosophy, his instructions, etc. I highly recommend it.
3. While all the instructions out there use bread flour, it works just as well with whole wheat or whole rye flour. Non-issue. I'm maintaining 2 starts right now, one white and one whole grain (switching between wheat and rye, depending on what I last ground). Both are fine.
4. You don't have to always throw away half the starter when feeding it. You only do that if you're only feeding it and not trying to grow it for baking. Once you want to get enough to bake with, you just feed it and grow it until you have enough.
   

The other thing to get used to is the timing. While some bakers whine out the unpredictability of sourdough, I think that's more about timing than failure. Sourdough is much more hardy than baker's yeast -- you can't use baker's yeast as a starter because it won't survive; hardier wild yeast will kill it! -- but sourdough can take longer to rise. The prep time, building it up, getting ready right when you want to start baking, and longer rise times -- well, it can take a little planning.

Health

But I think it's worth it. Mike writes that they document 40 or more compounds that are created as the wild sourdough starter works on the rising bread. Baker's yeast doesn't do that.

So much of health, says my chiropractor and esteemed friend, Greg Hansen, is about bacteria. If you're healthy and thriving, it's because the good and health bacteria in your body is thriving. If you're not healthy and thriving, the bad bacteria in your body are thriving. It's interesting that the sourdough relies not only on wild yeast but also on a handful of strains of good bacteria. It's necessary to the process.

Another friend of mine, SKye, warns of the adjustment your G.I. tract may undergo as you start consuming more sourdough. It's true. But I think that adjustment has been a good one for me and it probably would be for you. In fact, if I extrapolate on some of Greg's thinking, I suspect that those whose body's bacteria are in good shape may not undergo quite that big a G.I. adjustment as those of us who may be out of balance. I got the impression that the sourdough was fixing things that needed fixing. And I learned a long time ago to let that happen and encourage it.

Using these resources above, I'm confident you can figure out sourdough.

A Freedom I Cherish

When my wife told me that the school was actually providing a waiver form for parents to refuse to have their children listen to the President of the United States at school, I wasn't sure how to describe my response. At least, I told myself, it was to be an “opt-out” form. Things hadn't become so unreasonable that I would have to “opt in” to have my children hear the speech.

I was further chagrined to learn that people I know, admire, and love had somehow fallen prey to the rhetoric. It's as if otherwise reasonable people, passionately working to ensure that the people maintain our constitution-granted free voice, have surrendered their free voice to the angry right wing fringes.

As I continued listening to the rhetoric, it then became clear that the counter-arguments from the self-important far left were just as unreasonable and simple-minded as those from the far right, and that many otherwise reasonable left-leaning citizens had also surrendered their free voice to the fringes of their party.

Where is reason and respect to be found? Where are our statesmen? Why are not my local Republican leaders rising up in outrage that, in the name of their party, people are boycotting a speech by our President? Where is the reasonable (wo)man among our citizenry, that mythical but critical character upon which our democracy and economy depend so completely?

I don't know what the President's speech will contain on Tuesday. As a right-leaning independent – a “centrist” as I'm wont to call myself – it is probable that I will disagree with parts and agree with parts of the speech. It is also possible that I even find some strong emotions and opinions to some parts of the speech. Regardless, my children and I will review the speech together, discuss the issues, advice, and counsel. We'll compare the President's ideas with our own. Whatever the outcome, for better or worse, we'll have a greater understanding of the mind of our President.

That is a freedom that I cherish. That is the might of our nation. That is a right for which so many have risked and still risk life and limb to defend, and which so many in the world clamor to attain.

And opinions of otherwise reasonable people notwithstanding, I wouldn't trade or surrender that voice or that right for anything in the world. And that's what I'll teach my children on Tuesday.

Electronic Tithing Donations

I recently posted to Twitter and Facebook that I'd found the process for making tithing donations to the LDS church via electronic transfer. I've had a few questions about it since then, so I figured I'd post some info here.

The process, enrollment form, and contact information for the process is found at the following web site: https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/Electronic_donations.

Here is a short explanation.

More and more of us our bank or credit union electronic Bill Pay services to pay bills. These services usually try to transfer funds electronically, but most will also cut and send a check for you, some free of charge. If you use these tools (and are LDS), then you've probably tried to figure out how to pay tithing and fast offering (and other donations) this way. Now you can.

Tithing

You can use your Bill Pay service 2 ways to pay tithing.

1. You can use Bill Pay to cut a check to your local ward. In this case, either you or the ward clerk will fill out the usual donation slip, which must accompany any check or cash that the clerk processes.
   
2. You can use Bill Pay to make an electronic donation directly to the church. In this case, nothing is every processed at your local ward.
   

The electronic donation is sent to the church in such a way that to indicate what kind of donation it is. Your membership number is your account number. The church sends you monthly confirmation, and sends a tax appropriate receipt at year end. When you attend tithing settlement, you declare yourself appropriately (full tithe payer, partial tithe payer, etc.) There is no local record of donations. And that's OK.

This works, because Tithing is never held at the local unit. It is always transferred to the church. This is not the case with other donations, however.

Other Donations

You can make other donations electronically to the church. However, none of these come back to the local unit. So, for example, normally your Fast Offerings are used first locally to meet local welfare needs. Any surplus rolls up to the Stake for local needs, and eventually, any surplus rolls up to the church for broader welfare distribution. But if you make your Fast Offering donation to the church directly and electronically, then the local units do not get that funding. Most of us prefer, therefore, to donate Fast Offerings locally.

You can also make donations to the General Missionary Fund electronically, but you cannot make a donation to the local missionary fund. So, for example, if you're donating to help support a particular missionary, you must make that donation locally. If you send it directly to the church, it will never circle back to the local unit.

The Process

Lest I mis-document the process, I will not try to repeat it here. It is completely explained on the web site linked above. Here's the gist, but not enough for you to execute the process.

1. You'll fill out an enrollment form so that the church knows where to send the receipts, etc.
   
2. You'll configure your Bill Pay service in very specific configuration to allow electronic transfer. Very, very specific. Follow the instructions.
   
3. You'll make your first electronic donation.
4. A few days after your first donation, contact them to be sure that it was received electronically (not by check) and posted correctly.
   
5. That done, you can relax and send all your donations via that route in the future.
   

Don't let me cause you to hesitate. The process is easy, but you need to follow the instructions and follow up on your first donation.

Why?

This posting is very LDS-specific. Like most practicing members of most religions, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) also make donations to the church to contribute to the accomplishing of the mission of the church: To invite all to come to Christ; to save our kindred dead; and to strengthen the members of the church. Tithing is the primary means of accomplishing that goal. Other donations are also encouraged to meet other specific needs: welfare needs, missionary needs, humanitarian needs.

Many members of the church are beginning to prefer to make their donations more easily, via the same means they may other charitable donations and pay bills. Hence, this process, and hence, my own interest in it.

Good luck!

Pie. 'Nuff said.

I'm known for my pecan pie. In 2007, I posted all my recipes on my blog. I get requests for recipes from time to time and point to that posting. (I also use that posting when I have to "suddenly" bake a pie at someone else's home. No, I don't have them on my PDA. I don't have a PDA any more. But that's another story.)

Anyway, I get asked for the recipes at two times each year: Summer (usually preceding 4th of July and 24th of July time), and Thanksgiving through Christmas. So, I'm posting a new blog post here to point to the old blog post so that you can enjoy some really good pie this summer.

http://maxwalkerlens.blogspot.com/2007/11/thanksgiving-pies.html

Go ahead. You know you want to.

"I don't really drink." "Yeah, honey, now's the time to pretend!" (from Birdcage).

Surrogate Muscle Testing

I'm almost done with first library of the EFT training series. That's the EFT Foundational Library. That library has 3 title sets. The first, the Basic EFT Course, I've given to 2 people already, and others are asking. The second, Beyond the Basics, gets a bit kooky at points, but I gleaned some really good insights there. For example, after all these years muscle testing, I've finally figured out how to surrogate muscle test, or test by myself for myself or for others. So far, results are fairly consistent with my standard muscle testing. It's a bit more challenging to "get out of one's own way" when doing it, but it's working pretty well.

Surrogate testing is freeing me up to fix things for myself more quickly, without waiting for Wendy or one of the girls to walk by -- they're the ones I can muscle test with. It also gives me freedom to help the kids and others more quickly since I can zero in on the right works and techniques much more quickly than Q&A.

For example:

• Saturday at my niece's baptism, my sister was having head pain. She has bad TMJ. I quickly used my new surrogate muscle testing skills to judge the severity and start finding the words: head pain, headache, jaw pain, and finally jaw tension. The pain dropped with the latter, though all four words were "charged" and needed tapping. Her eyes relaxed. I had to leave quickly, but was satisfied with the spot result. I need to call her today to see how she did the rest of the day. This is a life-long thing for her, so I have no illusions that one 2-minute tapping session would solve this.
  
• Today, Elijah woke up with his wrist hurting. He said it as a '10' on the severity scale, maybe '11'. OK, he's 5 and judging that is a little haphazard. But the surrogate muscle testing confirmed that perception. So we tapped. No reversal (PR) was present to start, but after it dropped to a 6 (I judged a 4) it stalled, and reversal was present. We did a couple of rounds with full sequence and setup, and worked it down to zero. He's happily humming now while he plays Adventure Quest Worlds on the computer.

7:10 A.M. local time. I've left 2 messages to EMEA, done the morning email, sent out a couple of spot awards to staff, scheduled some staffing reviews, and made some notes and done some research on a staff training idea. And now I'm off to take the 15-year-old to her AP test for History.

My Metaphor for EFT

As I helped a few people with EFT last week, a couple of people made the immediate link between EFT, tapping, and energy-based stuff with "belief" or "being open to it." I refute that perception for the most part. I say that, having just viewed the next set of EFT DVDs that talk about belief and intention, but that's in a little different space.

The Metaphor

Instead, here's my metaphor. EFT is like an aspirin for a headache. One doesn't have to believe
that the aspirin will help the headache for it to work. The aspirin has a particular, predictable effect on the body. One does have to be open to taking the aspirin, but that's the extent of "open" that's needed for it to work.

EFT and related approaches are similar, I think. We all accept that the body is made up of mind and body. We accept that there are organs, glands, blood, vessels, systems, bone, fluid, nerves, etc. All parts of the body. It should be equally as evident that the body has energy and therefore energy systems. EFT affects that energy system. I don't have to believe that it's going to help for it to help; it just does. I do have to be open to trying it (taking the aspirin), but that's the extent of "open" that's needed for it to work.

Now, sometimes, one aspirin is insufficient to relieve the target pain. My daughter takes ibuprofen (Advil) for menstrual cramps. Sometimes, 1 Advil isn't enough. Sometimes it takes 2. Sometimes, it takes 3. But then it works, at least well enough to take the edge off. EFT is similar. Sometimes 1 round isn't enough. Maybe 2-3 rounds. Maybe more. Or maybe instead of more rounds, a slightly different EFT approach is needed. The 2nd pill may be treating "reversal." A third pill may be Collar Bone breathing treatment. EFT-types talk in terms of "persistence," which is valid, but for my prochains, the idea of 1-3 Advil is a more apt metaphor.

Exploration

But there is more to consider on the idea of belief. In my community, I see many people of faith who are open to new knowledge -- revelation -- and all that this implies. Until it comes to "alternative" medicine. A neighborhood may automatically hold a "doctor" in high esteem, and automatically hold a "chiropractor" in suspicion. Even people who knew Karl his entire life were sometimes heard to comment on "that weird stuff" he practiced. It seems too difficult to accept it.

As I consider why otherwise rational people react in such a way -- including myself until I was forced to other healing paths by chronic disease -- I think that part of it certainly has to do with how we perceive our physical body. If we do not include the energy system as part of the body, then energy-related treatments seem foreign. They seem to step into the domain of the religious, the spiritual, and that's trespassing and we don't like it.

You need to understand that I am a faithful Mormon. I measure all my knowledge against my understanding of the scriptures, of the words of prophets, and of the spiritual feelings that I get. God is the author and source of all good. He created this universe, this world, and me. He is the designer and architect of this body. And I've come to understand that the energy system of my body is part of his divine design.

And with that understanding, if I am comfortable taking an aspirin or antibiotic or other chemical treatment to help my body, then I should be equally as comfortable using EFT to help my body. Doesn't that become so obvious that it feels foolish to verbalize it?

Now, there is a great discomfort with may energy therapy practitioners. They speak in terms of energy, intention, connecting with the universe, or higher power, or source. And it begins to feel again like trespassing.

And yet, as I listen carefully, many sincere practitioners get a lot of things right, at least it seems right as I compare to my understanding of scriptures and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which I take unapologetically as a sure measuring rod. These practitioners often use different words and terms, different metaphors and models, but they stumble across many correct ideas -- and they mold and use them to help develop their and our understanding of this world in which we live, of the bodies we now inhabit, and how to make it all a little better. Noble, that is.

And they get some of it wrong. They observe and sense and try to frame an understanding around things, and sometimes they get it wrong. Oh, well. Why is that more troublesome to us than taking medical advice from a doctor who may be atheist, who may believe firmly in the randomness of creation, big bang theory, evolution, etc. This doctor has observed, studied, thought, and made conclusions. And some of it he gets right, and some of it he gets wrong. And yet I am comfortable letting him cut into my body to remove an infected appendix or gall bladder, or to fix a faulty heart valve. How can I rationalize being comfortable with that and not being comfortable with a "kook" who works on the body's energy systems. He has observed, studied, thought, and made conclusions. And some it he gets right, and some it he gets wrong. Is the one more noble than the other? Is the one more of a threat than the other? Is either a threat? Can they help me? Can I glean helpful understanding?

No to the threat, yes to the understanding, I believe. I can filter out the scientist's rampage about his view of the universe, then tune back in when he's making sense again about a particular treatment. I find that I can also filter out the energy therapist's odd verbiage and models that may collide with my understanding of scripture and tune back in when he is making sense about a particular method of treatment.

Duh.

Brigham Young (Mormon prophet) taught that all truth, from wherever it may come, belongs to the kingdom of God, belongs to the Saints (members of the church). All truth is part of one whole. Some of that truth pertains particularly to eternal salvation, and that truth is taught most authoritatively -- and most correctly -- by true prophets of the Almighty God. But there is other truth of which God is also author and source. That may be truth about creation, truth about how light bulbs work, truth about mechanical engines, truth about medicine and healing. And I believe that God has often inspired men and women of all walks of life with such truths. Many of our greatest Western scientists comment on the sense of inspiration they felt during the scientific (creative) process of inventing the first light bulb or television, for example. These are not truths of salvation, but they are truths, and God knows them. And I am convinced that He shares them for the benefit of all. And I believe that Brigham was right, that all truth belongs to us, or to personalize it further, it belongs to me, it is my right as a son of God (as it is yours) to explore an know that truth, whether that truth is aspirin, advil, or EFT.

And it would be a terrible, terrible in gratitude for me to shut the door on that truth.

As a baptized and confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ, I enjoy the covenant right to the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit, as long as I live worthy of that companionship. So I can explore with confidence that I will not be led astray by strange ideas, winds of doctrine, and can filter error from truth and glean truth from all walks of life and add it to my whole.

So, I choose to leave that door of understanding open, walking in faith, learning by both study and faith. Not just faith in myself. Not just faith in the proces. Not just faith in study. Not just faith in faith. But faith in the Almighty Himself. A sure faith. And in that walk, I find that all sorts of truths land in my path regularly. They enrich my life and that of my family.

Weird stuff, indeed. :-)

Tapping more with EFT

I've been using EFT (www.emofree.com) in a very light, surface manner for a couple of years now. Recently, I decided that it was time for me to train up on this technique as thoroughly as possible so that I could fully leverage its benefits for my family. In particular, Donella's struggles with mystery abdominal pain needs some attention. The medics are giving her a blank stare, and I've exhausted all my chiropractice, applied kinesiology, and nutritional supplement knowledge to little avail. EFT is the last tool in my arsenal, so I decided to get better at it.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I ordered the full 3-volume EFT training video set on DVD from www.emofree.com. I've completed teh 2-DVD EFT Basic Course and already am able to use EFT with much better results. Here are some examples:

• Justina left dance class the other night and complained of stiffness in her hips, an increasingly common complaint for her. On the way home, I coached her on tapping for it. She initially judged it an 8 on a 0-10 scale. After 1 short round of EFT, it was only a 5. We kept going, and by the time we got home (10 minutes), it was at 0. She said it may increase again after she walked around a bit, so a few minutes later when she was in the kitchen making a late evening snack, I asked her about it. It was a 1. We quickly put it back to 0. She was very pleased.
• Earlier that same evening, Justina complained of a headache as we walked into the school for an IB program meeting for Donella. I had her do 2 rounds of the 3-point shortcut, and it was gone. Poof!
• I respond much more slowly than Donella, but I also have been getting some relief. For example, I lost my first 20 pounds, then weight loss stopped completely. Plateau. I gained back 2 pounds, but hadn't changed my diet. EFT training led me to believe that I was "reversed" on the idea of losing more weight, and muscle testing confirmed. I spent a couple of days fixing the reversal, and now am losing weight again. Total weight loss is now 22 pounds, with 2-3 pounds this week.
• Today, I've had a bit more fat in my diet than normal since I've spent the day at my sister's hours and don't have the same foods available. After a delicious but not-lean steak for dinner, I was suddenly very, very tired. It took me a while to figure it out, but once I figured out (with muscle testing) that this increased fat intake was the culprit, I was able to fix it quickly with EFT.
• Donella's contact was hurting her right eye tonight, and we were able to tap that down from a 7 to a 0. Earlier, she and I were experimenting and I was teaching her some about it. She judged her overall, normal, all-the-time stress level to be a 7. We tapped it down to a 0. That will continue to surface, of course, but she knows now by experience that she can act on it. I told her that she's so used to it that she considers it to be normal. It's not, and it's time to fix it and change that experience for her. :)
• Last week, a good friend tripped and fell, face-planting right into a paved driveway. She was worried about it, possible concussion, etc. She called me, since she and I both know many of Karl's methods and often use them. That day, I added some EFT tapping to it. We used muscle testing to check things, and my R.N. wife was there with me to help judge the purely medical situation. We used some of Karl's trauma techniques, then I used EFT, and she visibly relaxed and got comfortably tired and began resting more easily. She went to work the next evening on schedule.

You'll see my references to muscle testing, a technique I began learning from my good friend Karl in 2000. Karl has passed on now, and I'm very grateful that he broke some professional rules to teach me this technique. It helps me a lot. But the cool thing with EFT is that it's not necessary. I was able to get there faster by testing things, but without testing, I still would have gotten there. Without testing, I still would have been tapping for fatigue, weakness, etc., found little improvement, and had to keep searching. I knew it had set in after dinner, so I could have done EFT for all the foods I ate. With muscle testing, I saved some time, but could have still gotten there.

There are myriad techniques like EFT that a variety of practitioners and healers and physicians all use. EFT has the advantage of being built as a self-service tool. It's basic approach is highly successful, as I'm confirming within my own family now, but requires no diagnostic abilities. I like that.

I'm on DVD 3 now, the first of the "Beyond the Basics" series. It gets a little strange at times for my taste, and I'm a bit chagrinned that it seems now to be focused more on the psych therapist types instead of on end users like me. I can still get some insights from it, I think, though it takes a little "filtering" to ignore the psycho-babble and just get to the meat of things.

Still, I would readily recommend EFT to anyone.