For lunch on Sunday, I made Creamy Tomato Soup (do not recall where I found this recipe), using fire roasted crushed tomatoes, evaporated milk, and 1 cup of turkey stock. I seasoned it with Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset and ¼ tsp. of their roasted garlic. I had some with a bowl of popcorn—one of my favorite rainy-day lunches.
It rained most of the night here, and we are still getting some light rain. It was 37F this morning. We needed the rain, and it is perfect weather for being in the kitchen.
I don't run, but I sure am glad the Lincoln Marathon was a week ago, it rained most of the night and the temperature at 7AM was around 40.
If I've got or can find some veal, I'll make veal Zurich for supper tonight (a white wine cream sauce, with mushrooms.)
I don't understand why the grocery stores in Pittsburgh all have three or four cuts of veal and I'm lucky to find even ground veal in a state that is among the largest beef producing states in the USA.
Saturday night, we had tempeh "burgers" that were more like falafel and really delicious. The recipe called for summer squash and kale, both of which came from the garden. It was all whirled up in the food processor. We served them on Will's sourdough with garden lettuce (at its end until fall) and avocado. The ranch dressing tasted great with them. We had tried tempeh once before, but this was a multi-grain version which added a nice flavor.
That's a lot of baking, Mike.
On Saturday, I baked Malted Whole Grain Rolls, a recipe from KABC (back when it was KAF) that uses the malted wheat flakes they sell. My changes were to cut the salt from 1 ½ tsp. to 1 tsp., substitute 1 cup buttermilk for that much water, and delete the wholegrain improver. kI use ¼ tsp. honey to proof the yeast. I baked it in a “tear and share” ceramic baker that KAF was selling at the time, and for which they developed the recipe, since the dish came from Mason and Cash, so it had British recipes on the box. It makes rather large buns, and sometimes I bake the dough as a 9x9 ceramic dish and make twelve rather than seven rolls. I baked them to go with the soup.
I made another batch of yogurt on Saturday.
I also made soup using the rest of the chicken broth, some potato water, 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Vegi Soup combo (lentils, split peas, and a bit of barley), and browned turkey and sauteed carrots, celery, and mushrooms, along with parsley, 2 Tbs. reconstituted dry onion, some dried garlic, and two different kinds of Herbs de Provence (using up a freebie and finishing it out with Penzeys). It is a good day for soup. We had another freeze last night, and it has been a day with highs in the mid-50s. A similarly cool week is predicted, so soup during the coming week is good. We are hoping that we will get rain tonight and tomorrow.
I had pulled up the ground cloth covering the garden earlier this week, and today it was dry enough that I was able to make two passes through the garden with our small rototiller. I put the ground cloth back down again, so now I'm basically ready to transplant tomatoes as soon as the soil temp is high enough, possibly later this week. (We're supposed to get some lows in the low 40's or high 30's for the next few days, but by Thursday it should stay above 50 for the next several weeks.)
It'd be nice to have the tomatoes in before the end of May for a change. Might actually get some fresh tomatoes in early July.
The thunderstorms rolled in as expected after sunset, so I'm glad I got the ground cloth back down.
Thanks Italian cook about my sister,she's home not great -but home.
Tonight we had BBQ'd chicken breast on the grill with baked beans and slaw.
I made a Blueberry Yum Yum dessert and a small chocolate cake for when our son and his girlfriend gets in tomorrow.The chocolate cake stuck to my pan(I didn't have the pan grease made up)so I greased it well with crisco and then floured.It stuck in several spots around the edge but I dug it out and iced it anyway.It's just a cake.I was tempted to do a trifle but didn't.
Adding more water made the dough much easier to roll out. I made an 11-strand braided challah and baked the rest in a 4x4x13 Pullman pan. I made two batches of dough, each using 650 grams of flour and around 330 grams of water. (Batches that use 1000 grams of flour are almost too much for my mixer.)
I also made some 'forgotten' chocolate meringue cookies. I baked these about 3 minutes longer than the last batch, which were definitely a bit underdone in the center, these might be just a tad too baked in the middle, but they're still tasty.
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This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by
Mike Nolan.
We have a 3 step ladder with a very sturdy safety handle that folds down, it is the 'little jumbo' by Wing. They also make a 2 step and a 4 step version. They used to make a 5 step version, though I don't see it on their website, but I'm not sure I'd want to climb up that high these days, anyway. If I can't reach it on the 3 step ladder I either use the big extension ladder or I hire someone to do it for me. 🙂
We bought it at the National Association of Home Builders show in Houston in 1997 just before we built our house. (We found a lot of interesting things at that show, our DCS range, ladders, laser cut floor insets, showers, I figure that show probably added at least $50,000 to the cost of our house.)
Here's the semolina pasta recipe I use (this is based on a half-recipe of the dough recipe that came with my KA pasta kit):
1 2/3 cups semolina (I use a 1/3 cup measure 5 times)
1/8 teaspoon salt (a small amount in the palm of my hand)
1 teaspoon oil
2 large eggs
enough water to make a medium stiff dough, probably 3-4 ounces. If I use too little water, it comes out crumbly the first few passes through the pasta roller, but eventually it comes together. If I use too much water, it doesn't separate well when I run it through the pasta cutter, and sometimes sticks together a bit in the pot of water, though it will break up if I stir it with a pasta fork.
This dough works well for spaghetti, wide noodles and lasagna noodles.
I also make a faux lasagna in spaghetti squash. You simply bake the squash (the way Mike does) and shred the strands. Then layer typical lasagna ingredients, minus the pasta, on top of the strands. Bake, I recall probably about 20 minutes at 350. I've also done the same thing using favorite pizza ingredients, and plan to try taco salad and chicken alfredo the same way. I should think most favorite casseroles with pasta would work for this, or a sauce you would serve on pasta.
I'm glad to hear that your sister is home from the hospital, Joan.
I bake my spaghetti squash the same way Mike does. I only have two recipes so far in which I like it: this faux lasagna, which is really a casserole, and a tart recipe that I found in Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker. (I use a deeper tart pan and my own oil crust in place of his butter one.)
Thanks for posting the link to the recipe, Janiebakes. It gives me some additional ideas for such faux lasagnas.
I will be making another batch of Challah tomorrow, my plan is to do an 11-strand braid with most of the dough (a full batch makes about 1600 grams, the 11-strand takes 11 strands of 100 grams) and bake the rest in a small Pullman pan to see if it makes much difference in flavor when cut up for croutons.
My wife will be taking the 11-strand to her sister's on Sunday, and splitting it with her, so we'll probably get half of it back.
I think last week's batch was not hydrated enough, and that made the strands harder to roll out, so I'll be making this batch with a bit more water.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, strawberries are currently selling at $18 wholesale per 8 pound flat.
Driscolls recommended its growers cut back on strawberry plants a year ago (it takes a year before new plants bear fruit) because in March of 2020 strawberries weren't selling well due to the pandemic. So, this year there's a shortage of berries.
Joan, I’m sorry to hear about your sister. I hope she is able to be comfortable.
Tomatillos were on sale at Harris Teeter, so I made enchiladas verdes (a day early). My recipe is usually just cheese, but we had leftover grilled chicken so I shredded that to add to the filling. Will made tortillas on Sunday so we used some of those.it was really good and we have leftovers for tomorrow.
