the sourdough experiment rocks on!
Dear readers, I bet you are all waiting with bated breath for the latest sourdough instalment. After all it’s exactly ten days (EEEKK!) since I embarked on this crazy experiment. SOOOOO…..Is it still alive? I hear you ask. Am I still nurturing it? Or have I thrown it in desperation down the toilet? Well….I am glad to report that all is well with Tomik. It (he?) is definitely a happy, contented little sourdough now that I have given him some rye flour to eat and started storing it in the much warmer airing cupboard (my kitchen was too cold). This morning I had proof that it is very much alive and behaving like a good, little sourdough should as, once I fed it, it doubled in size. OH YEAH! And in less than an hour! 
There are now loads of little bubbles on the surface and it finally looks like it ought to , according to the “official” pictures at any rate. So all’s well and the experiment would seem to have been a success. Mind you: now I must attempt my first sourdough loaf. I have in fact already started cooking with it even before it was completely ready. Two days ago I made a hybrid loaf (and by that I mean a loaf of bread which contained some sourdough and some normal flour with dried yeast). It came out really well! Well risen and soft. The sourdough definitely improved the texture of the bread. And now a confession: this constant feeding and generally messing about with the sourdough (this morning after feeding it I I also gave it a good whisking for a few minutes to help things along. Watever next?) is causing some frictions at home. I’ll be honest with you: now as soon as I get back from work the first thing I do is checking on my sourdough progress. “And how’s little Tomik doing? Did he miss his mummy”? Never mind my husband (who is feeling somewhat neglected AND fearing for my mental health) or my cats (they can take care of themselves)! They can all wait!! But what if Tomik is sad and needs some loving care? I must feed it, right? Speaking of which: here lies the other problem. Every time you feed it (with equal amount of flour and warm water) you are supposed to throw half of it away (or you would end up with a bathful!). But I feel bad about chucking away good sourdough so I’ve put it in other containers instead and fed them too (one is currently in the fridge and the other one in a small jar next to the “mother” one in the airing cupboard). I wish you were here , Candi, then you could adopt some of my sourdough babies and I wouldn’t have them scattered all over the place. I think I am going to have to be ruthless from now on and throw away what I don’t need or it will take over the house! Finally , I’ve decided that now that it’s established I will revert to feeding it once a day, instead of morning and evening like I have been doing. Then in a few days I’ll put it in the fridge , which is supposed to slow down the fermentation process, and only feed it once a week or so.
Please now admire all the different varieties of flour I have been purchasing lately…….just to see which one Tomik prefers. We are talking industrial quantities here. I don’t know where to store it all. HELP! Who is the insane person here?
By the way if any of my local friends wants a bit of sourdough starter all they need to do is come to see me with a jar! 
Suona tutto come il prologo di un film dell’orrore. La pasta umana crescerà crescerà fino a soffocare qualsiasi forma di vita della tua casa. Capisco i timori del povero Bill! Avvincente, voglio il seguito!