I have mentioned that my husband is sensitive to onion, which causes lower GI distress for him. Cooking the onion or sauteing it does not help. However, he is fine if I use dehydrated onion, which I rehydrate, or onion powder (my new favorite is Penzey's Roasted Onion Powder). Note: he also does fine with green onions.
I am wondering if the kind of heat involved in dehydrating onion and making onion powder removes a substance that would otherwise cause him distress. Perhaps it is a substance that exists in the liquid that is removed?
I have done some googling for an answer, but I am having difficulty formulating the question in a form that Google understands.
I'm still working out the details of my cinnamon experiment, maybe I'll get it done this week. (The goal is to see if varying amounts of cinnamon in the dough do have a measurable impact on how it rises.)
What's rising in your kitchen?
We have seen an unusually large number of eagles this January, including some who were fighting over what we think was a fish. A very large eagle was particularly aggressive. The eagles like the lake, which is mostly frozen (and yes, the ice fishermen are out in spots), but there is still some open water that has attracted various kinds of ducks, as well as coots, geese, and swans. It is not a pretty sight when an eagle gets a bird.
On Tuesday, I made some Korean style tacos from HBH which were fun, easy and good. I cooked the flank steak (short ribs were the other option, but too pricy) in a marinade in the crockpot, sliced thinly, then broiled to caramelize the sauce. The go withs were a cabbage slaw with cilantro, green onions, a little bit of pepper with lime juice, rice wine and soy sauce, a yum yum sauce and a slightly doctored salsa verde. I would definitely make them again. We had enough for leftovers last night.
I made a batch of banana nut muffins today and one of them, well, exploded.
Here's a closer shot.
My best guess is the raisins were fairly moist (it was a new bag) and some of them exploded.
As Maxwell Smart might have said, "Ah, the old exploding muffin trick. I should have known."
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This morning I made the KABC recipe Perfectly Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls, their Recipe for 2021. I was disappointed. First, because it made only 8 (although I cut 9 slices to fit perfectly into a 9 x 9 pan) rolls. In this house, they won't last 2-3 days so I can test the claim about maintaining their softness. Secondly, the texture of the dough wasn't outstanding, not what I expected. I felt like perhaps they should have risen longer, or baked longer. I may try the recipe again sometime, but maybe I'll just stick with the one I've been using.
I made pizza bagels for supper. This time I added some mushrooms to the filling, because I had a bit more space than last time since these were 4 ounce bagels rather than my usual 3 ounce ones. I still cut out a little of the bagel to widen the center a bit. I topped them with some mozzarella and some 3 cheese blend that I got at the grocery store. (I'm still searching for a replacement for the 4 cheese blend we used to get at Sams.)
There's been a discussion on thin crust pizzas on the BBGA forum, one recommendation is to use a lower hydration dough and press it really flat. Bagel dough might work for that.
I baked Apple, Barley, and Olive Oil Bundt Cake on Monday in a Nordic Ware Quartet pan (makes 4 small Bundt cakes). I adapted the recipe from one that came to my email from Zester, which has since ceased to exist. The barley flour was one of my innovations. For the apples, I use grated, unpeeled Winesaps. I plan to leave two of the cakes out for desserts this week and to freeze the other two.
I like to make pizza about once a month. On Monday, I made my sourdough pan pizza with the usual toppings of tomato sauce, Canadian Bacon, mozzarella, mushrooms, red bell pepper, green onion, and, on my half, black olives. I made the tomato sauce by cooking down a can of Muir Organic fire roasted tomatoes, after first sauteing some olive oil in the pan. We accompanied the pizza with coleslaw.
I had leftover schnitzel, ravioli (ricotta and spinach) and broccoli.
Last October, my husband finished picking the cranberries that grew on the little wild plant that came in the soil along with some trees he ordered for planting. He put it in a pot, and in 2021, it produced about 1/3 cup of wild cranberries. These kept well in the refrigerator in a closed container. I used them on Sunday to bake an adaptation of a recipe for Pecan, Orange & Cranberry Muffins, which I found in a neat little book, Muffin Magic (Ryland, Peters, & Small, 2010), p. 23, which I picked up in the remainder section at Barnes & Noble in 2012. It's a great little cookbook; most of the muffins use oil and limit the sugar to 1/3 cup and include whole grains and a variety of fruit.
My changes to the recipe were to use buttermilk in place of milk (increased by 1 Tbs.), reduce baking powder to 2 tsp. and add 1/4 tsp. baking soda, add 1 Tbs. flax meal and 1 Tbs. BRM milk powder, and replaced the orange peel and 2 tsp. orange juice that I did not have with1/8 tsp. Fiori di Sicilia. I used the third of a cup of cranberries that I had rather than the 1 cup the recipe specifies. I baked these as six large muffins rather than twelve small ones, and I reduced the temperature to 400F from 425F (using a large USA muffin pan which is more heat efficient). Baking time was still 20 minutes. Scott and I both had one at breakfast These are delicious, and we have the satisfaction of using our own cranberries. Sprayed, quality paper liners made clean-up easy.
We had cheese tortellini with diced tomatoes and some cheese toast. Fast, warm and yummy.
I'm working on emptying our big upright freezer because it needs a full defrost. I found some minestrone I had made some time ago in it and got it out for another day. As I recall, I liked it and Diane was so-so on it. (I had put some summer squash and other veggies in it.)
I am making bagels today, the plan is to make 6 normal bagels (around 3 ounces each) and 2 pizza cups (about 4.5 ounces each.)
My wife thawed out one of the tangzhong cinnamon rolls yesterday, it was still nice and soft. I definitely plan to make another batch of these, probably freezing most of them.
I've got some bananas that are past the best eating point, so some more banana nut muffins are coming, probably not for a day or two.
This is a link I found on the BBGA site.
tang mian sponge cake
It is similar to what I do with the Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake, so I plan to try it soon. My wife has been getting into making German's Sweet Chocolate Cake lately, that may be how I try it.
I just put a raspberry-cinnamon swirl coffeecake into the oven. For Christmas, I gave my husband a canning jar full (52+) slips of paper, each labeled with a baked "sweet treat". He is to pick one slip each week all year, so he picked the first time last night (we had to eat up all the holiday sweets plus his birthday cake first). What do you suppose he drew? Maple Walnut ice cream! At that time, the outdoor temperature was -5, and this morning it was -9. We agreed - put the slip back and draw another for this week. Thus, the coffee cake. Much more appropriate this time of year.
I don't eat shrimp either, I had a bad reaction to some shrimp creole many years ago and whether it's psychological or physical I just don't care for it. I haven't had a problem with fish, nor with crab or lobster, though our younger son can't eat shellfish.
The Red Lobster in Lincoln closed during the pandemic, aside from a few sushi places there aren't a lot of places specializing in fish here. My wife doesn't like salmon or red snapper, so when we have fish other than canned tuna she usually has orange roughy and I have salmon. (Around here frozen salmon is cheaper than frozen orange roughy.) Cod (or whatever they make fish sticks from) is OK for both of us.
Living on the coast probably wouldn't increase our fish intake much. I'm a steak and potatoes guy.
