Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

I think BakerAunt was trying to help KidPizza get back to posting, but it seems that he is still reading this site from time to time, he offers comments through her (and others) about threads that interest him. He's had to give up making cheesecakes due to his health.

[Mike Nolan]

I've been making Jeffrey Hamelman's semolina bread for around a year, he uses a 50-50 blend of semolina and bread flour, I've been increasing the semolina to about 63%.

His is an interesting recipe because it uses a 'flying' sponge, a term you don't run across very often. You take the yeast, mix it with about 1/3 of the flour blend and water, then let it sit for about an hour, by which time it isn't exactly bubbly but it is clearly active, then add the other ingredients.

True Altamura bread (which has PDO status in the EU, like parmigiano reggiano) is made with 4 different strains of locally grown Italian durum wheat (some call it reground semolina), there was a demo on it as part of the J&W bread symposium using a flour mix sold by Puratos and I ran across a take on that recipe in Andrew Whitley's book, Bread Matters. The original Altamura bread is made with a semolina sourdough, Whitley's recipe uses an overnight sponge, I'm building a semolina sourdough starter so that I can experiment with this recipe and some others.

My rye starter died this summer, fallout from the refrigerator failure. Considering that I was only using a few teaspoons of it to inoculate a levain for rye breads, I may try the semolina starter on some rye recipes rather than build a new rye starter. As cooler weather hits, I'm going to try to get back into the Ginsberg Rye project, though.

[chocomouse]

Today I made a carrot cake, but have not done a taste test yet. I used apple sauce in place of some of the oil, added chopped and smashed pineapple chunks (prefer crushed, but chunks is what I found in the pantry), 4 cups of shredded carrots, and walnuts. I'm telling myself this will be a healthy snack. Oh, I did forget about the cream cheese frosting!

[BakerAunt]

I had 3 cups of potato water left from the potatoes I cooked on Sunday, so I decided to make a soup for me for lunch that I can eat for the rest of the week. I proceeded as in the story of “Stone Soup,” by putting in whatever I could find in the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. I sauteed onion, celery, carrot, red bell pepper, and 2 cloves minced garlic, added the potato water, then added 2 cups of great northern beans that I had cooked and frozen a while back and about 1/3 cup black-eyed pea broth I had stuck in the freezer as well. I found a can of tomatoes with hatch chilis in the pantry to add. I added ½ tsp. chili powder and about ¼ tsp. cayenne (rather old cayenne), and a ½ tsp. Penzey’s Salsa & Pico. When it boiled, I stirred in ½ cup of bulgur, then let it simmer for 12 minutes covered. Given the ingredients, it is clearly a soup for me, since the onion, tomatoes, and great northern beans—not to mention the spices—make it unsuitable for my husband, who prefers his usual lunch sandwich anyway. The flavor is good, and the soup is nice on a cool day. The spices clear my head.

I am renewing my efforts to eat more vegetables and fruits, and include more beans, since my cholesterol numbers are stubbornly refusing to budge lower. (I also think that the frosting on that cake I had on each of three days before my doctor’s appointment made the numbers worse this time—it was made of butter, cream cheese, and white chocolate. I should have known better.) If diet and exercise cannot get the number down, I may have to take the statin.

[Mike Nolan]

The WSJ and other media run articles fairly frequently talking about how empty shelves have become commonplace throughout the USA. Doesn't seem to matter what it is, everything has supply line issues. I hear whiskey distillers are having trouble getting the 750 ml bottles they use.

Some of it is product availability, some of it is packaging, some of it is shipping issues. The dock workers in LA have recently agreed to go to 24 hour shifts, but will they find people willing to do the work on the overnight shifts?

Shutting most of the world down for many months is still causing major ripples, likely to last into 2023 and well beyond. In Europe empty shelves have been a problem for years, we hosted some French exchange students about 20 years ago; they were amazed at the amount of products (and the variety) on the shelves of stores, especially the big box ones. These days, the empty shelves here would probably make them feel more at home, I guess.

Some of the major players, like Walmart, are renting entire container ships so they have sufficient transport capabilities, and that can run into 7 digits per ship! The 40 foot containers are in limited supply, too.

[Mike Nolan]

Depending on what kind of cinnamon you buy, I find I need about 50% more than the recipe calls for to be able to taste it. Some of that may be that as you get older (I'm 72) you need stronger flavors to be able to taste them.

I tend to buy the 16/18 ounce containers from Tones or McCormick, which is pretty generic cinnamon. My wife likes the Watkins cinnamon for her oatmeal but it is hard finding a Watkins dealer these days, Amway dealers are even harder to find. A close friend has been selling Tupperware for many years, she's trying to wind that down and is slowly getting rid of her inventory.

[cwcdesign]

Will is out of town, so I have been creating for myself this week. I found a kale Caesar salad that I adapted - it had shredded kale (I like Lacinato or dinosaur kale), shredded Brussels sprouts and roasted sweet potato rounds. It also had roasted chickpeas, but I didn't include those. I added in avocado and I was able to have it for a few days.

On Monday, I made whipped feta with roasted olives to share with a friend over wine. The olives were incredible. I will definitely make again. My whipped feta didn't work quite as well as the last time, but it's still something I enjoy.

Last night I had planned to make a ramen dish, but I didn't want to work that hard. So, I took the butternut squash I had prepped for it, roasted the rest of the Brussels sprout in olive oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper. I removed the sprouts from the pan since they were done and then added the squash, cremini mushrooms and a couple of sliced apple bourbon chicken sausages with a little more olive oil, syrup and s&p. It was really good and I have dinner for tonight!

[BakerAunt]

I do not know if it is pandemic related, but when we did our shopping trip in the larger town northeast of us last week, Kroger was out of some items I normally buy there. The King Arthur flour (on sale) was gone; there were not the potatoes I usually buy, they did not have my full fat, plain Stonyfield yogurt (that happens periodically), and they have not had the low-fat Kemp's frozen vanilla yogurt that my husband likes for several months. I also checked the pasta shelf, and I noted that the nice selection of pasta from Italy was missing, so Italian Cook's thoughts about a shortage may indeed be correct. Aldi's did still have several varieties from Italy.

I received my Pfizer Covid-19 booster on Tuesday at my local CVS. The pharmacist gives very good shots, so I did not have the nerve issues in my arm that I experienced after the second shot at the hospital. It was more like the first time, with my arm being a little sore. I was a bit tired on Wednesday and a little chilled. It felt more like the first Covid-19 shot rather than what I experienced after the second one.

[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I baked Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread—Take III—as I continue my adaptation of Peter Reinhart’s recipe. This time I used half bread flour and did not substitute in any high-gluten flour. I kept the changes of using half whole wheat flour, grinding the oat bran, reducing the yeast to 1 ½ Tbs. and the salt to 1 Tbs. and using just 5 Tbs. honey. I increased the buttermilk substitution to 3 cups, using just ½ cup water. I ended up adding 1 Tbs. of water as the dough kneaded. Next time, I will use 5 oz. water. I reduced the olive oil that I add from 4 Tbs. to 3 Tbs. Instead of using two 9x5 pans (makes enormous loaves), I baked it as three slightly small 8x4 loaves, a size that works better for us. I started the baking at 375F for a couple of minutes, then lowered it to the 350F of the recipe. The loaves were done at about 42 minutes. Note: The flavor and crumb are very good. I think with the addition of another ounce of water (to make a total of 5 oz water), the recipe will be ready to be typed and added to my baking binder.

I felt ok enough after my Covid-19 booster on Wednesday to bake the Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough I had resting in the refrigerator. I have decided not to add any salt on top of these from now on. I was keeping a light hand, but there is plenty of sodium in the cheese powder, as well as some in the milk and milk powder.

[BakerAunt]

For lunch on Wednesday and into the week, I made soup with the Autumn Frost puree that I made yesterday. I had about 4 cups, which I combined with 2 cups of chicken/turkey broth, 1 ½ tsp. Penzey’s Now Curry, and a couple Tbs. of leftover Greek yogurt that I needed to use. The Autumn Frost squash is an acceptable substitute in the soup, but it is not as sweet as butternut squash, nor does its puree have as smooth of a texture. I will probably buy a couple more Autumn Frost to use for soup. The vendor tells me that their experience last year is that the squashes become sweeter the longer they are stored.

For Thursday’s dinner, I used the leftover pork and the drippings from when it was cooked. I chopped carrots, celery, and a red bell pepper from our garden in avocado oil, then added sliced mushrooms and chopped zucchini. I added the drippings, and a heaping ½ tsp. of dried onion that I had rehydrated, the pork, then some farro that I had cooked separately. (I cooked ½ cup dry farro, rinsed first in 1 ¾ cups water.) We have enough for a second meal tomorrow. The idea was to have less grain to more vegetables, and it worked very well.

Dinner on Saturday was panko coated chicken breast cutlets, noodles (Garden Herb Egg Tagliatelli for Aldi’s), and microwaved fresh broccoli.

I also made a batch of yogurt on Saturday. Unfortunately, when we shopped on Thursday in Plymouth, Kroger was out of plain Stonyfield yogurt—something which happens far too frequently.

[Mike Nolan]

It is getting cold here, the high today was in the lower 50's, and we could still have a real frost tomorrow night, for a while Accuweather said it would hit 32, then the upped it to 35 and now they've dropped it back to 33.

I didn't touch the green tomatoes but I picked enough ripe ones (mostly 4th of July, those really did well this season!) and got another 3 quarts of tomato juice canned.

Tonight we had chili out of the freezer, it was a nice warm supper.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm finally getting to the apple strudel today, it probably won't be as pretty as the last one, so I don't plan to post pictures. I had issues stretching the dough as it kept tearing. I used King Arthur AP flour, I don't know if I should be using a stronger flour or a weaker one! (Some research on the Internet suggests I should have used a higher gluten flour and kneaded it longer.)

If I make two for the freezer, as I have been thinking of doing, I may try two different types of flour for the dough, to see which works better for me. I think I'll also increase the amount of dough relative to the amount of filling, I would like to get more layers around the filling. The Li'l Vienna recipe I'm using has you spread the filling over about half of the dough, I think it should be more like a third.

I used a dish towel under the dough at the end to help get it rolling, that worked reasonably well. (Last time I think I tried parchment, which didn't work as well.)

I cut the quantity of apples down from about 2 pounds before peeling and slicing to 1 1/2 pounds, last time I wound up with filling I couldn't get inside the strudel. (It was tasty nonetheless, though.) I got all the filling in this time, but it was still trying to fall out the sides.

Another strudel recipe online seems to use 3-4 times as much dough relative to the filling as the Li'l Vienna recipe does, so I'm definitely making more dough next time, either doubling or tripling the dough recipe.

[chocomouse]

We had grilled salmon, baked potatoes, and asparagus from the freezer for dinner tonight. I rubbed the salmon with a garlic-citrus rub (fairly hot and spicy) and then brushed maple syrup on it for the last 4 minutes.

BakerAunt, I envy you "one last picking" of anything from the garden. We're finished gardening, and most of the plants are pulled up. It was not a great year, but our freezers are full!

[BakerAunt]

On Monday. I made tomato sauce from what will be the last large batch of tomatoes from our garden. I threw in a “ringer” tomato that we brought back from the family reunion. I cooked the sauce in my new 4-qt. All-Clad sauté pan with lid (but did not use the lid when cooking the sauce), which I found Friday at T.J. Maxx for the very good price of $119.99 (yes, for All-Clad that is a very good price). I had $40 in gift cards that I applied toward the purchase. For me, it is worth every penny.

Dinner on Monday was Salmon and Couscous, seasoned with Penzey’s Greek Seasoning, and yet more green beans from our garden. I doubt there will be enough for another meal, but we still might get a few to put into a soup.

[cwcdesign]

I made KAF’s No knead cheese burger buns for smashburgers tonight. For 1/3 of the AP I substituted in half WWW and sprouted wheat. I made the dough in the Zo. I made 8 buns instead of the usual 6. That was so we could have less dough in each but the same width. Because I had to bake them for less time (the thinness) they didn’t brown very much, but they still look good.