Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

We had a water/ice dispenser in the freezer for about 20 years (I actually won a side-by-size refrigerator/freezer in a drawing in around 1975), but these days we have a standalone icemaker that holds 20 pounds of ice. (We used to have two of them, one in the kitchen and one in the basement, but after replacing the icemaker downstairs twice, we decided it wasn't worth replacing a third time. They make a less expensive icemaker that is more like the one in most freezers, making half-moon 'cubes', but I don't know if we'd get enough usage out of even that.)

[cwcdesign]

I've been meaning to report back on the Broccoli Cheddar Casserole with Pretzels, but it has been a busy week -so what else is new.

Anyway, I took the dough and the casserole/soup out of the refrigerator about an hour before I wanted to cook. I should have shaped the dough at that point as it would have come to temp sooner. While it was a fun recipe, I would not make that particular one again. We like the version of Panera soup that we have been using forever better. As for the Pretzels, I would make them smaller and bake them separately as they were too much like a dumpling for our tastes. The top definitely pretzel-ed, the inside cooked, but the bottom was dense. Oh, and to answer Mike's question - yes, the recipe says to boil them in a baking soda solution for about 30 seconds - which may also have contributed to the bottom problem. Photo attached.

The appliances were delivered on Thursday - the stove is installed and so far, Will has made chicken thighs and stir fry on the stove and baked focaccia in the oven. Everything was delicious. It is an induction - my new pans work just fine. The oven temperature is accurate. It has a convection feature which Will did not use at my recommendation - I told him we needed to research what works best in convection. It will also convert traditional baking temperatures to convection and has a convection roast setting. It has an air fryer setting and a steam cleaning setting as well. My contact at the appliance store says that the other people who have gotten it are happy with it. I think we will be too.

As for the refrigerator, when the delivery people went to take the doors off to bring it in, he discovered that the waterline was cut - they even brought me out to put me on the tail lift to see it. They had called the warehouse manager first and then I talked to him. They took it back and are getting me a new one - it takes less time than ordering the part. I should have it by Wednesday - this is not the first time they have seen this. As a matter of fact, the last time, they discovered when they turned the water on in the fridge. I only have an icemaker, not a water dispenser (my choice).

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[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I made stir-fry using a mixture of brown and wild rice, leftover roast chicken, carrots, red bell pepper (from our garden), celery, green onion, sliced mushrooms, and the leftover gravy I made on Wednesday and additional drippings from the platter

[chocomouse]

We ate spinach and onions from our deck planters today. A low temp of 22* is predicted for tonight, so I covered the spinach with a sheet folded in half. Lows in the 40s are predicted for the next week or so. The spinach does grow back after I cut the bigger leaves, but it's slow so we get a meal only about every 10 days. I have eaten garden spinach in several past years with Thanksgiving dinner. Today my husband picked 4 bushels of apples (drops) to make cider this weekend. He got Empires, Cortland, and Northern Spy, which is our usual combo of sweet, tart, and tannic.

[Mike Nolan]

The vegetable garden has been cleaned out sufficiently for the winter. In the spring I'll move the cages, pull up the ground cloth, till in some peat for fertilizer and probably more gypsum and then put things back together again before planting.

I also started a new set of Aerogardens today, 9 leaf lettuce, 12 head lettuce (pelletized) and 3 pea pods.

Thinking ahead to 2023, I may do about the same mix of tomatoes as this year, will likely do white eggplant again, but maybe not the purple ones, not very good yield from them. If I do melon they'll likely be Athena or Kandy, we like those better. I might do a spaghetti squash, that's not something I've grown before.

[Mike Nolan]

Is this the sort of roll you're looking for:

https://leitesculinaria.com/282693/recipes-papo-secos-portuguese-rolls.html

This recipe reminds me of the Pao Frances link I posted earlier today, the dough recipe seems fairly standard (and this recipe and the one I posted earlier are quite similar to each other), the way it is shaped and risen appears to be key.

As someone who firmly believes that shape is the aspect of bread that gets the least attention with regards to its impact on taste, I'm always interested in a new form or shape.

[Mike Nolan]

Ran across a note on Pao Frances (Brazilian French bread) today, hadn't heard of it, so I googled it.

This site has a recipe for it, though I haven't tried it yet. The dough itself appears to be fairly ordinary, a slightly enriched dough (some sugar, some fat), the shaping appears to be the key.

https://www.oliviascuisine.com/pao-frances/

[BakerAunt]

I had some apples that needed to be used, a combination of the Spy Gold and Rubinette, a variety that the farmers market vendors say they would give to their church to use in its apple dumplings. I bought these as seconds, so there were some bad places to cut out. I decided on Tuesday to see if I could make a lower saturated fat version of the Butterscotch Apple Sweet Rolls that were featured in Sift (Fall 2015), p. 40, and which I think is on the KABC website.

In the rolls, I replaced the sour cream with fat-free Fage Greek yogurt and the butter with 2 Tbs. avocado oil. I used half whole wheat flour and added 2 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. special dry milk. I needed to add 2 Tbs. more water as the dough kneaded in the bread machine. I used special Gold yeast.

For the filling, I used 1 Tbs. butter and 2 Tbs. avocado oil, and I used regular Clear Jel. I probably put in too much apple. I had cut out bad places and thought I might need more, so I added another small one. It was hard to roll up the dough and cut the sweet rolls because there was so much filling. While the dough seemed a bit dry, I think that worked well with the filling. I used my own glaze recipe from my usual sweet rolls, which is about a third less than what the Sift recipe specifies.

We had had a busy day, since we did the big shopping trip today, and I got a late start on this baking project. I made the filling for the sweet rolls before dinner, then made the dough and baked them afterwards, so by the time they were glazed, it was after 10 p.m. Although it was late, we decided that a late-night treat was in order. I cannot remember the last time we have done that. These rolls are so good.

[Mike Nolan]

As I suspected, the 3 grass fires didn't get very far into Lancaster County and I think today's cooler weather and rain will take care of the fire threats for a while. Kind of weird to go from a day when it was in the high 80's (possibly 90) to a day where we might not get to 55.

Well, my father-in-law, who was trained as a meteorologist by the Army during WW2 (as part of the Manhattan Project) always said if you didn't like the weather in Nebraska, wait a day.

[cwcdesign]

I hope you stay safe Mike - fires scare me more than hurricanes.

I made half a recipe of a rice, artichoke, green olive salad that I haven't made in a long time. It was good, but I used brown rice instead of the white rice called for in the recipe - I think it's better with white rice which absorbs the dressing better.

The windows and slider are all in and are beautiful and tight - my bedroom is warm and I can't hear every single noise outside. The white trim inside (since they were very old Andersen windows, they were brown metal inside as well as out) makes the whole condo brighter.

[BakerAunt]

I started the morning with baking. The pears that a vendor had at the farmers market for the past month have been sweet and delicious. Over a week ago, I bought a different kind that does not soften as much but was ready, so on Sunday I used one to bake Pear Cardamom Oatmeal Muffins, a recipe from Marisa Moore's website. My changes were to replace white whole wheat flour with whole wheat flour, reduce the cardamom to ½ tsp. (I pulverize the seeds before I use it, which makes the taste stronger than the pre-ground spice), reduce the salt by half, and the brown sugar from 1//2 to 1/3 cup. I delete the vanilla and add 1/3 cup chopped walnuts. I baked them as six large muffins, so they needed 17 minutes. I will freeze about half of the muffins.

[BakerAunt]

I had a strong response to yesterday's Covid vaccination. It was not as strong as the second one in March 2020, but it sent me to bed early, and I felt terrible when I awoke on Friday morning, mostly from a stuffy head. I felt well enough near lunchtime to make one of my throw-together soups. I sauteed onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in olive oil, before adding a can of diced tomatoes with Hatch chilies, 3 ½ cups turkey broth and 15 oz. black beans (last two from the freezer). I added some chili powder, a dash of cumin, and ½ tsp. Penzey's Salsa & Pico. After it had cooked briefly, I added cut-up turnip greens that I needed to use. The spices, relatively mild for most people, help clear out my head.

Dinner on Friday was the Crispy Oven Baked Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar sauce again, along with more of the coleslaw. That is an easy dinner, especially since the Tartar sauce and coleslaw are already made.

[Mike Nolan]

The Chicago Tribune has an article today on how inflation is affecting the Chicago Hot Dog.

A typical price for a Chicago Hot Dog these days (Vienna beef dog, poppy seed bun, day-glo green relish, sport peppers, pickle slice, tomato wedge, onions and celery salt) is now around $6, fries extra.

[chocomouse]

I just received this message from KABC:

"Currently we offer two ways to get extra rewards, one based at our brick and mortar store here in Vermont, and one for online shoppers. Here are some helpful details on our in-store benefits.

Baker's Rewards: in Person purchases
Members shopping in our Norwich, Vermont Baker's Store and Café automatically receive:\
5% off purchases of $99.99 and under
10% off purchases of $100 and over.
This discount applies to every purchase with the exclusion of gift cards, Baker's Rewards Plus memberships, and Baking School classes."

This is the first I've heard of the change, but it is fine with me. I did use all my points (except the 5 I had earned at the time they made the change). I also got the notice about making two purchases within 60 days to earn double points, which is how I learned the point system was gone! However, that deal does not apply to in-store purchases!!!

I don't buy much there any more - my two 50 lb bags of Galahad and Lancelot each year, plus pumpernickel, rye, Harvest Grains, Super 10 and the lemon juice powder, which are regulars in my pantry. Of course, when I shop in the store, I always do a walk-about, and seem to always find something new and different to try. I also stock up on the standard flours when local grocery stores sell them for around $4 for 5 lbs, usually in Nov-Dec.

[Mike Nolan]

I found out what type of lettuce the curly lettuce my wife got from the hydroponics teacher at UNL was (picture upthread):

Salanova® Hydroponic Green Sweet Crisp, available at Johnny's Seeds.

It does not appear to keep in the refrigerator well, it wilted faster than UK Prime Minister Liz Truss (who was compared to a head of lettuce by the British press--the lettuce won.)

I've ordered a small amount (25 seeds for $6.70 plus shipping) of them to test in the Aerogarden, along with some hydroponic-ready butter crunch lettuce and some snow peas.