I finally had success with my sourdough starter. I used the pineapple method shown here and I guess the trick is to really just follow the instructions. After the fifth day, my starter was foamy and alive! I made a test loaf seen above and while the starter doesn’t seem to have a lot of leavening power, it sure tastes good.

I used some of the starter that I would have thrown away during a feeding to make waffle batter. The waffles didn’t taste that tangy or tart, but they did have a good complex flavor, which wasn’t something we got with just a regular waffle batter. The waffles were also incredibly airy, which was good if we got it right off the iron, but bad because it got soggy very quickly.

I also made an egg salad sandwich using the bread. There’s just something so satisfying about taking a freshly baked loaf of bread out of the oven and cutting into it and seeing the steam rise up. Maybe I should let bread cool a little longer before cutting it, but it’s one of my favorite parts about baking bread.

I didn’t want the egg salad to taste too rich, so I whipped up a batch of mango salad to go along with it. Mango, although sweet, actually tastes really good with some salt, cayenne pepper, and olive oil mixed in with it.