Search Results for '("C'

[chocomouse]

Peach cobbler sounds so good, Joan. I just pulled the "crust" for an ice cream pie out of the oven. It's a box cake mix (chocolate), half a container of canned frosting mix (chocolate), 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup oil baked in 2 pie plates. After it cools, I'll fill one with caramel/chocolate swirl ice cream. I'd never heard of doing this, but my sister rather easily talked me into trying one. I'll freeze the other for later. Maybe chocolate mint chip ice cream?

[Mike Nolan]

It's 101 here today, supposed to be a lot cooler tomorrow, possibly with some rain, then it gets warmer again.

In addition to the high heat, it is pretty windy, Accuweather shows gusts in the high 20's but we had one a few minutes ago (coming from the east based on the way the trees were bent) that was strong enough it rattled windows.

[Mike Nolan]

Seed companies don't appear to be as reliable as they were in the past. I got some lettuce seeds (rouge d'hiver and black seeded simpson) from a mail order house, they're doing fine in my Aerogarden, but some samples they sent of another lettuce variety hasn't even sprouted in two tries, and neither did the iceberg lettuce seeds I bought at a local store. (Yes, they were labeled for 2022 use.)

When I was talking to the UNL professor who teaches the hydroponics course, he said the tomato seeds he uses for his hydroponics plants cost $1 PER SEED! But he had one that was like 20 feet long. It ran along the floor and then up a tall rack. Apparently as the plant matures, the newer tomatoes are at the far end of the vine, so the earlier sections are trimmed down and lowered to the floor and the plant is essentially moved further down the row.

[BakerAunt]

We have green tomatoes on the plant I bought from the farmers' market, but the other two (from Gurney's and initially stunted by the grow lights) have only just flowered. My husband is thinking ahead about how we might protect them in September and October if cold weather occurs then.

We are eating red bell peppers from the plant that was started in a pot a year before it was planted outside. The green bell peppers that were on it when it was dormant on the enclosed porch turned red in the garden, but they also had what looked like green bell pepper inside. One was almost completely full of a green bell pepper, so I cut it up and used it along with the red.

My husband bought some honey nut squash from Gurney's. These are the small butternut squash. He planted those seeds. He then found some seed he had saved from some honey nuts we bought at the farmers' market and planted it. We have squash forming, but one of the Gurney's plants has produced two squashes with long necks that are definitely not honey nuts, and that vine is more aggressive. The other Gurney's seed and that from the farmers' market is producing fruit as expected.

[BakerAunt]

Dinner on Friday was baby lima beans with brown rice, kale (from farmers market), red bell pepper (from our garden), celery, thyme, rehydrated onion, and ham. As always, I cooked the lima beans and the rice separately, then sautéed the vegetables and ham, before combining. The ham was left by my stepson, who left yesterday for California, and it needed to be used; otherwise, I would not have made this meal on a warmer day. We have enough leftovers for the next four days.

I also went to our woods with my husband in the morning and picked more wild blackberries. This year, we have picked about 5 quarts, so it is a great blackberry season, and the rain forecast for tomorrow should lengthen it. I seeded all the blackberries and made two batches of four jars of blackberry jam. I have enough seeded blackberries for an additional batch, although I only have three half-pint jars left. I have another 2/3 cup seeded blackberry, so I will need to find a use for it, and to decide if I want to continue picking blackberries.

[BakerAunt]

I made yogurt on Thursday.

For dinner, I made the Michiana Green Bean Salad again (have green beans, will use them), roasted some sweet potato chunks, and roasted some chicken thighs. I did the sweet potato chunks in the countertop convection oven at 350F for an hour. The lower temperature and longer roasting time made them soft and delicious.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The farmers' market we went to in Thousand Oaks was HUGE. It took up large part of the mall parking lot. We bought flats of the most beautiful strawberries for $5. And the avacados were wonderful and $0.50 (but that may have been because Kate had a crush on the farmer).

[Mike Nolan]

If you're browning sugar in a sauce pan, it works better with a pan that isn't iron or steel; there's a chemical reaction that occurs between iron molecules and sugar that you want to avoid. It doesn't seem to make as much difference if you're taking the sugar all the way to caramel, though I'm not sure why.

If you're doing it in the oven, there was a thread on that a while back.

If I had a non-stick pan, especially one of those ceramic ones, I'd probably use that. (I'm gonna break down and buy one some time.)

[Mike Nolan]

We had some more sweet corn (the ears are still pretty small, so we both had two ears) plus the last of the cantaloupe I bought a few days ago. I also had some leftovers.

[BakerAunt]

Kimbob--My husband, older stepson, and I went blueberry picking last week. I froze ten (4 cup) bags. I baked a blueberry crumb-topped pie last week. This morning, I baked blueberry cinnamon rolls from dough I made and shaped last night. Blueberry muffins or bread is on the agenda. We plan to go back and pick more berries, so that my husband has plenty for his oatmeal, I can use some on my oatmeal occasionally, and I can bake with them. The frozen ones work well in muffins and in my pie recipe. The sweet rolls I made must have fresh blueberries.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't know if there's anyone growing blueberries locally here, I don't think I've ever see them at a farmer's market.

Frozen blueberries and fresh blueberries from the store (grown who knows where!) are enough different that there are things I just wouldn't try with frozen ones. Pancakes and muffins both seem to work with either type, though.

[kimbob]

Made some Canterbury Farm Blueberry Muffins. Got the recipe from a family circle magazine I don't know how many years ago (the paper is brown!). The recipe is online, too, so if you're interested google it. My husband has been requesting these muffins for 2 weeks and I finally had the time this morning.
Anyone baking with blueberries?

[BakerAunt]

As Mike Nolan foretold yesterday, north-central Indiana on Sunday had a drizzly day and, in the evening, some serious rain, which made for a great baking day. I made the little oat cakes (cookies/biscuit/cracker), a recipe adapted from a Bob's Red Mill recipe, that my husband and I like so much.

I also baked the multigrain cracker recipe that I adapted from King Arthur’s Whole Grain Cookbook.

In the evening, I started Blueberry Sweet Rolls, a recipe that I adapted from Recipes from the Old Mill. I made the dough, and after the second rise, shaped the sweet rolls and put them in a large glass baking dish. I will let the dish rest overnight in the refrigerator, then bake the rolls tomorrow morning. the rolls are packed tight. I am second guessing whether I should have used an additional baking dish.

[Mike Nolan]

A nice thunderstorm is coming through here now, so maybe you'll have some more wet and not overly hot weather soon, bakeraunt. (I watered the chestnut trees on my front lawn this evening, so of course it is raining now.)

[Mike Nolan]

I've seen vinegar used as a marinade prior to putting the dry rub on, that is supposed to help the ribs tissue break down faster, making the ribs more tender.

Wrapping the ribs in foil (called the Texas crutch) is something that seems to be one of those love-it or hate-it things. A friend of ours does a lot of smoking (he's thought about opening a food truck more than once), I think he's in the 'hate-it' camp.

I need to experiment with my ribs technique, the Texas crutch will be in my tool kit at some point. I think I learned a lot about my grill today, hopefully that will show up in future meals.

Tonight's ribs didn't have quite the flavor profile I'm after, not sweet enough and, while peppery, not spicy enough, either. (At least for me.)

Back when Lincoln had an annual Ribfest (it died in part because of the pandemic), my favorite vendor was Awesome Aussie, they had a mild fruit-based sauce that was just fantastic.