Further Adventures in Sourdough- Naan and Hot Pockets

My brother-in-law enjoys using chatgpt to find recipes. One day, we decided to see how the artificial intelligence would handle "sourdough discard recipes". It provided a whole list, most of which I knew already. Somehow, I thought he said naan as an option. It wasn't, but we looked it up anyway. Here's what it came up with: 

Using sourdough discard in naan is a fantastic idea! Here's a simple recipe for sourdough discard naan:

Ingredients:

- 1 cup sourdough discard

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon sugar

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 cup warm water

- 2 tablespoons melted butter or ghee

- Optional: chopped garlic, chopped cilantro, or nigella seeds for topping

Instructions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the sourdough discard, flour, sugar, and salt.

2. Gradually add the warm water, mixing until a soft dough forms.

3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes until smooth.

4. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and let it rest in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until it doubles in size.

5. Once the dough has risen, divide it into 6-8 equal portions and roll each portion into a ball.

6. Heat a skillet or griddle over medium-high heat.

7. Roll out each dough ball into a thin circle or oval shape.

8. Place the rolled-out dough onto the hot skillet or griddle and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, until golden brown and puffy.

9. Brush each cooked naan with melted butter or ghee, and sprinkle with any optional toppings if desired.

10. Serve warm and enjoy your homemade sourdough discard naan!

Feel free to customize your naan by adding garlic, herbs, or seeds to the dough before cooking.

So... We made it! My sourdough discard was verrrrry old, so the naan didn't puff up much while cooking. Still, it had good char and good flavor. I would try it again!

My next adventure was making a sourdough pizza crust to use as the outer dough for a meal inspired by a runza/calzone recipe my mom liked to make when I was growing up. What I made is nothing like her's. 😅 I had leftovers/wrinkly potatoes to use up and wanted something G could grab and go for lunch during this busy week at the garden center.

What I came up with... Sourdough pizza crust on the outside and filling option one- shredded pork, shredded potatoes, shredded carrots; filling option two- sloppy joe meat, spinach, shredded potatoes, and cheese. 

The recipe involved using some active yeast to get a better rise. Here's the dough ready to rise. 

I forgot to take a picture after the rise before I rolled out the dough, but it definitely doubled in size! 

They turned a beautiful golden brown and tasted pretty good too! 

1st Grade

The student teacher is still with this class, but she's teaching fewer of the subjects, so I got to teach a little more: religion, one math class, music, and handwriting.

All went well. Music was actually my favorite class to teach. They have an online curriculum with short videos of songs to learn/rhythm games/music games to play. So I just had to click buttons and lead them. Catchy songs. Fun game.

Handwriting- Since it's the beginning of the month, they're doing some "see how much I've improved" handwriting exercises. One is an alphabet race. They have two minutes to write the alphabet, both upper and lowercase letters. If they finish before the timer, they do it again and see how many times they can write the alphabet. Then they wrote their full name on a paper. Most of the papers I saw didn't have too much variance in the handwriting (or some looked a little messier!).

They had an English test. A few of them asked for an 'office', a cardboard trifold that sets on top of their desk to block others' views and keeps their attention focused on their own papers. Such a cute way to phrase it!

It's teacher appreciation week at Mt. Olive. The school is decorated with road-signs and traveling themed displays. Each teacher has a suitcase sitting open outside his/her classroom door. Parents and others can bring in treats and gifts and favorite things for them. Another cute idea!

Other fun things today... someone brought donuts for the staff (which I was invited to partake as well) and a parent monitored lunch, so I was able to eat lunch in the classroom with the student teacher and have some adult conversation.

A grandma came in as a mystery reader and read a book to the class. She hung out with us the rest of the day and helped when the kids needed help. Our last activity was making David and Goliath bags, basically a foam purse to hold foam stones. They had to use yarn to sew the bags together. I had the idea to put tape on the end of the yarn to help it go through the tiny holes. That was the best idea I've had all day! Way smoother execution. The kids loved the bags and some wore them the rest of the day. The only downside are all the little blue foam dots littering the floor...

Kindergarten Day 3

ABC time today we were studying the difference between long vowels and short vowels, specifically how adding an e on the end of a word causes it to be a long vowel. The kindergarteners called it a "sneaky e". Their homework was a worksheet with a bunch of pictures on it. They were supposed to write the name of the picture (tag, name, vase, cat, bat, map, cape, etc.) and decide if there should be an e at the end of the word. 

Most of the class finished lickety-split, but one boy completely shut down after doing just one. He said it was too tricky and he didn't know how to do it. I tried everything I could think of to help him/get him started. Nothing worked, just tears and whining and shoving the paper away. 

I realized that I don't have much experience with kids refusing to do work. If 5-6th graders don't want to do something, they will sit there and pretend to do it. It's pretty rare for them to obstinately defy you. 

So, what did I do? 

First, I gave him the choice: you can do it now and then play at recess time, or you can sit here now and work on it at recess. He didn't know how to handle that, but he was NOT happy he would have to work on it during recess. Again, constant tears for the rest of class time until recess. Wailing as I grabbed a clipboard and a pencil for him and led the rest of the class outside. I gave him two choices of where to sit. He didn't choose any, so I picked the picnic table. 

For a while we both sat there, him crying, me trying to get him to work. Then I remembered a piece of advice from my Daily 5 curriculum. If kids are reluctant to do a task, 90% will do what they're supposed to after about 20 minutes of wasting time (could be less, but 20min is typically the max). Recess was thirty minutes long. So, I told him I was going to check on the other kids. Maybe 8-10 minutes later he turned around and got to work. He was finished with the worksheet with 12 minutes of recess to play! Woo! 

The rest of the day was simple. We finished our reading lesson after recess, watched a short video telling the story of Alice in Wonderland, ate lunch, and then got on the bus to go to the MLC play in New Ulm. 

They did a version of Alice in Wonderland. The costumes and the set were really neat, as always. The kids really enjoyed the play even though we were in the tip top seats in the auditorium. We made it back to school just a little past 2:30, just ahead of the New Ulm bus. 

Now all the kids have been picked up, the classroom is tidy, and I'm ready to head for home! The weather is gorgeous, so I think I'll do some outside work before supper. I have firewood to move in preparation for our new goat shed...

Kindergarten Day 2

Tears. Lots of tears today. None from me! Lots of emotions from the kindergarteners. 

Rain= indoor recess. Not enough cool toys to go around= tears. Not enough space and/or not paying attention to where other kids are= bumps, stomps, crashes= tears. Toy from home lost in the classroom= mega tears. Someone else took the comfy chair for reading time= tears. Got stuck with a partner he didn't want to be with= tears. 

There is a reason I chose older grades to teach. Whew! All these little people's emotions are exhausting! For me and them. 

Even with the big emotions, we accomplished Mrs. E's lesson plans. Today was Mm- Minute to Win it Day. They rotated among four stations. How many... chains can you link, cups can you stack, blocks can you stack, cubes can you connect... in one minute? They loved it. But some got frustrated *ahem*tears*ahem* when they didn't build a _fill in the blank_ as big as another group.

No butterflies hatched today. Hopefully tomorrow!

One more day! And tomorrow will be pretty easy, mostly wrapping up lessons we started today and then we're going to a play at MLC in the afternoon!

Homestead Update

Birthday card from our cat, Mopsy (assisted by my father-in-law 😂): 

Homestead updates: things are poking up out of the ground! I thought my asparagus died overwinter, but it's alive! All four stands!

Our psychological deer fence. If you look carefully, you can see our planted seedlings among the grass in the garden.

Onions coming up!

Kindergarten Day 1

It has been quite the day in kindergarten, going to the complete opposite end of the spectrum of students!

Mrs. E is going on the class trip with the 7th and 8th graders, so I am subbing for her the rest of the week. She had things laid out pretty well, but their attention spans are so short, there are lots of small segments of classes. Also they need a lot of help with things and there is not much independent work. 

Our themes of the week are tigers and butterflies. All the reading and writing lessons are about tigers. The class has a bunch of butterfly chrysalises that might hatch this week! So far, nothing yet. 

The 1-2nd graders are hatching ducks in an incubator. Four have already hatched and are ready for holding. The kids are pumped! One kid almost missed the bus because he wanted to see them before he went home. 

Speaking of ducks, I ordered three varieties of ducks for G and me to have at our homestead. He wants egg layers, so we are getting Khaki Campbells. There's a minimum order amount of 15 ducklings, so we're also getting Cayugas and Blue Swedish varieties, five of each kind. There's not enough room for 15 ducks on our place, so Dad will take all the extras. They are scheduled to hatch on May 20th and arrive within 48 hours!

7-8

Tuesday I was the 7-8th grade teacher at Immanuel. This class is a tough one, so I wasn't super looking forward to the day. I remembered I had been reading a book aloud with them that I hadn't finished. It hadn't been published yet when I first read to them, and it had been so long that the electronic file expired. Thankfully it is published now! G picked up a copy for me on his way home from work the day before. 

The day went very well. Everyone was respectful and quiet and riveted to the story. Before school one of the girls said the three 7th grade boys had been really excited for me to read aloud to them. The 1-2nd grade teacher said on the way to school her son (one of those 7th graders, one who gave me a run for my money last year) had said how much he was looking forward to having me teach their class and then, "Man, we really gotta get Miss H back next year." 

We read about 100 pages! Only 95 to go in the book. I think I'll come in a few days before the end of the year to finish reading the book.

Another funny moment from the day: the kids are working on their musical parts. One of the girls (a girl who gives a lot of attitude to everyone) is supposed to roll her eyes on one of her lines. She quite seriously told Mrs. L she didn't know how! A classmate said, "Just give a side eye instead."