It certainly does happen very often, so when the spirit moves me to bake, I go with it. It is hot here right now, and absolutely not the weather for such activities. More like smoothie weather.

But I wanted to bake bread.

And really, the only kind of bread worth baking is sourdough bread. Those of you who have not experienced REAL sourdough bread, I can only pity.

Sourdough is associated with gold rushes, and my home state of Alaska is associated with gold rushes too. During the Alaska gold rush, it was practically illegal to enter the state without sourdough. It kept you alive.

In fact, old-timers in Alaska are called "Sourdough." Well, old timers that know what they're doing. You can be an old-timer and still not have a clue. Those types would not be sourdoughs. Even though I was born in alaska, I would not be an old Sourdough.

Allman's book, Alaskan Sourdough, explains a lot of this. She gives some lore, and more importantly, she gives the right recipes for how to make and cook sourdough.

Let me tell you, that frenchbready stuff they sell in the store is NOT sourdough bread. It's more like sourdough flavored bread. And flavored wrong, actually. Real sourdough is not sour to the taste, it's a very unique kind of sweet.

Now that I think about it, the subtlety of the flavor reminds me of good wine.

Unfortunately, most peopleare unaware of the many OTHER uses of sourdough. In my opinion, the pinnacle of sourdough excellence is the sourdough waffle.

Fortunately, it is also the easiest recipe to make. Once you have the starter, the waffle recipe is hardly any more difficult to make than bisquick.

It is the lightest, fluffiest, tastiest waffle you will ever have. I have never met anyone outside of alaska that has even heard of this delicacy, let alone tasted it.

If anyone reading this is an adventurous cook, you really MUST try this stuff. It's the coolest thing in the world, and very worth the work.