Search Results for '("C'

[BakerAunt]

Pre-pandemic, I used to get excellent deals on Scott bathroom tissue at CVS. I'd wait for the special to run every five or six weeks, then stock up. (My husband rolled his eyes--until the pandemic struck.) CVS must print ads far in advance, because even 5 months or so later, they were still advertising specials but had no Scott in stock.

A year into the pandemic, the deals are not back, although I recently used a CVS coupon to get a somewhat better deal on a 12-pack. The quality of the Scott tissue seems to have changed; I think it is more like the commercial paper. Note: we use this brand because in my husband's house in Texas, it helped with the wonky plumbing (although having the plumber address the problem solved that). When we bought our house here, it was on sceptic system, and Scott is recommended for sceptics. After a year, the sewer conservancy was established, with each house having a grinder. We decided to stick with what we know.

[BakerAunt]

The local store (only one in town) has occasionally good deals on some items. a 2 lb. bag of carrots was 99 cents. I had stopped buying large carrots after we moved here, as many tasted bitter, but when I started buying them during the pandemic, I found that the taste was the sweetness I expect. Avocados are hit and miss at that store; I have to choose them carefully. Sometimes the produce is overpriced: $3 for 8 oz. mushrooms. I wait to see if it goes down. Broccoli is very expensive there.

We go to Aldi's in the next town every three weeks or so. Their produce prices are better, and some of their produce superior. I also go by Kroger, which has excellent prices on organic kale and some other produce.

The local grocery has some good meat prices, as they cut their own meat. We wait for the specials, usually on chicken or nonfatty pork. We avoid their chicken breasts because of the whiting. We buy frozen seafood at Aldi's.

We have taken to spacing out the Walmart visits during the pandemic: too many people still managed to flaunt the mask rules.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm going to try a variant on the no-knead recipe from the slashing class, 40% semolina, 60% bread flour, using 20 grams of inoculant from my new rye starter to 100 grams of flour and 75 grams of water for the pre-ferment this morning, then another 300 grams of flour (same ratio), again at 75% hydration, plus 6 grams of salt tomorrow to build the final dough, I'll do the slashing and bake it in a Dutch oven on Wednesday.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm about 24 hours behind. Rolls just came out. I let them rise, as usual, with a sheet pan on top but then took it off to bake them. I like it better when I bake them with the top pan on but it was worth a try.

My bread is still rising and I'll let it go another hour maybe before I bake it.

I need more BA's crackers so I'll make those tonight or tomorrow.

I did not make pie because I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (and for breakfast today and tomorrow at least...). And then I made pizza. My daughter is spoiled and was not happy despite having pizza and chocolate chip pancakes!

[BakerAunt]

I have about a 5 lb. weight gain after this winter due to the baking and to not being able to get out to walk. Yesterday and today, I was able to persuade the dog to go for a walk with me. She is noise adverse, so on weekdays with construction, or if someone is out shooting somewhere, she panics, and then it takes weeks to get her out again. Earlier in the morning on weekends work pretty well.

It is hard to get good salad ingredients locally at this time of year, so soups are my go-to when I am looking to trim a few pounds.

For dinner on Monday, and into the week, I used a recipe from an email from Tasting Table (Does that site even still exist?) for Butternut Squash, Farro, and Kale Soup, which was adapted from a recipe in an Oprah Winfrey cookbook. (I first made this soup in December 2017, so I probably posted a link to the recipe at that time.) I replaced the leeks with onion—in this case 1 Tbs. dried Penzey’s onion that I rehydrate in water—as my husband does not do well with the fresh onion. The original recipe uses about 2 cups butternut squash. I used a large one (my next to the last from the farmers’ market last autumn), and I probably had about 5 cups. I decided that I would also brown a package of ground turkey to give the soup more protein. At the end, after I add the kale, I put in 2 tsp. cider vinegar. I do not know why, but it balances the flavors. (I owe this tip to the barley, butternut squash, and kale pork loin recipe that I also like to cook.) The soup came out as almost a stew, but we did not mind. We each grated a bit of Parmesan into our serving bowls. The weather is a little chilly this evening, so it was the perfect meal, and we have enough for at least two additional nights.

[cwcdesign]

I had my physical on Thursday and discovered that I gained 5 pounds during my LOA. So as soon as I got home I made a nice breakfast, scrambled egg in avocado oil, a turkey sausage and some raspberries. I probably would have eaten peanut butter on Will's sourdough. So no carbs and desserts for me for a while. I went back to work full time/light duty on Tuesday, so not much cooking.

This morning I went to Harris Teeter for the first time in almost a year (My 2 weeks after 2nd shot is Tuesday) to get much needed vegetables. Some you just want to pick out yourself, although I must say the shoppers have done a pretty good job. I went at 7:30 thinking that the time change might help to keep people away - it worked. It was very quiet, only 2 other people in produce. And, it took less than an hour round trip.

We are having artichokes for dinner with homemade ranch and will fill in with proteins individually.

[chocomouse]

We are in our 2nd day of winds 15-20 mph. Earlier, I watched one of the security cameras that was activated - it looked like strips of roofing paper, and possible like it was coming off the shed roof! The snow we got over night has disappeared (blown away, I guess, it's too cold to have melted) and the skies are blue. No baking here, we don't have any backup power.

[BakerAunt]

Follow-up Note on the Pear Ginger Bundt Cake:

I planned to use just 1 cup of powdered sugar for the glaze, but I got it too thin and needed to add about another ¼ cup. I used scant ¼ tsp. of the cinnamon and the ginger and just 1 tsp. vanilla. I used 2 Tbs. half and half (next time, I would use 1 ½ Tbs.). (I used half and half because I have it in the refrigerator for an upcoming recipe; otherwise I would have used 1% milk.) I wanted the glaze thicker so that I could highlight the design from the Chiffon Bundt pan. It made a gorgeous presentation.

My husband took a bite of the cake and said, “This is a keeper!” It is delicious and tender. I will be baking it again.

[Mike Nolan]

I suppose it was inevitable given the rise in baking (pun intended) in the last year.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

The young wizard's familiar is her sourdough starter.

[Mike Nolan]

We had a lavash pizza last night, with tomato chunks (instead of sauce), mushrooms, artichoke hearts, havarti, mozzarella and a sprinkling of 4 cheese blend.

We ate the whole thing, usually there's a piece or two left, but this one was REALLY good.

[Mike Nolan]

I am making an apple pie today, using more of the Cosmic Crisp apples I bought a few weeks ago that I've kept in the fridge. One of them developed a bad spot, the others appear just fine. The apple pie filling recipe I used (from SFBI) uses about 1125 grams of sliced apples, which is about 5 Cosmic Crisp apples.

I bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill white pastry flour and I'm seeing how that compares to the King Arthur pastry flour for pie crusts.

[BakerAunt]

Learning a new oven, alas, takes time, Chocomouse. Yes, that is a great bread.

I love baking with Bosc pears, but my favorite recipes involved lots of butter. I bought some Bosc pears and thought about trying to alter the recipes, but given how the butter works in those recipes, I decided it would be best to seek out new ones. On Friday, I baked Pear Ginger Bundt Cake, from the Imperial Sugar site:

http://www.imperialsugar.com/recipes/pear-ginger-bundt-cake

I tweaked the recipe by replacing a third of the AP flour with barley flour, adding 3 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill milk powder, replacing ¼ of the 1 cup of vegetable oil (I use canola) with buttermilk, and replacing the ½ cup of sour cream with nonfat Greek yogurt. I processed regular sugar in my small food processor to get the extrafine sugar specified. I used the Nordic Ware Chiffon Bundt pan (recipe calls for a 10-12 cup) because I have not used that one in a while and coated it with the pan grease. I checked it after an hour and decided, based on the tester to allow another 5 minutes. It’s cooling, so I will not be glazing it until tomorrow. I'll report back on the taste and flavor.

[chocomouse]

Today I made the buttermilk maple bread recipe posted by Baker Aunt, my 2nd time making it, but with my additional adaptations. I subbed in one cup of whole wheat, and used AP instead of bread flour. As BakerAunt noted, and I found before, this loaf gets a lot of oven spring! I baked it (2 loaves, in cast iron) in my new counter top oven. I had turned off the convection and set the temperature to 330*. I need to make more adjustments using this oven, as the tops actually burned this time, and the bottoms were pale white. I have not cut into them yet, but I do think they are done. I'm going to try moving the rack down to the bottom level next. Other than bread, the baking option has worked perfectly for cookies, muffins, and sticky buns.

[Italiancook]

I've been enjoying the effort of my past-Dose 2 vaccinated husband. A week or so ago, he went to the fresh produce store. I craved so many items that it's been a struggle to cook and eat them all before they can spoil. We've had hot artichokes with butter. I also tried a cold artichoke recipe in Better Homes & Garden 75th Anniversary cookbook. It suggests serving with a sour cream sauce that has a little Dijon mustard & a suggested herb choice. I used dried dill. I'm not ruling out the sauce, but next time I'll use more Dijon and more dill. We both like cold artichokes better than hot ones. As much as I'm grateful for the artichokes, I must say I had forgotten how much time it takes to prep them. The first time took the longest. Second time, I had developed a system, but still, prepping 4 artichokes is time-consuming.

I have been wanting to make Allrecipes slow-cooker pork loin & sauerkraut for quite some time. My mother-in-law believed Libby's sauerkraut is the best, and somewhere I read an article that agrees with her. No Libbey's around here. So I settled on an off-brand. The recipe calls for a 4-pound roast. I assumed that was bone-in. I had a 3.25 pound boneless butt in the freezer and used that. I cooked it for the shortest time in the recipe. My husband doesn't like this dinner, so I feasted on pork and mashed potatoes smothered in sauerkraut. I'll be enjoying this for several days.

Len has mushroom gravy, Joan has onion gravy, so I decided to make sauerkraut gravy when the sauerkraut is gone. I refrigerated all the liquid from the crockpot, and it has some sauerkraut in it. I'm going to use it as the liquid in gravy for mashed potatoes.

I have cooked broccoli in the refrigerator and roasted chicken and fresh spinach. Tomorrow's lunch will be those leftovers with wilted spinach.

I'll also make a double batch of The Neely's (Food Network) Asparagus Soup tomorrow. I'll still have Swiss Chard & great looking strawberries to process into meals and dessert. After that, I'll be ready to send my husband back to the market.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not sure how much longer we'll be getting lettuce from our Aerogarden, but I'm leaning towards starting more lettuce plants once the current plants stop producing. Even with the Aerogarden in a south-facing window, it is still more temperate inside in summer than in the yard.

I've got some cherry tomato pods that came with it, but we don't eat a lot of cherry tomatoes, and I think I'd rather grow lettuce and maybe some spinach. Besides, if the current lettuce plants keep producing for another month or two (the Aerogarden FAQ files suggest you can get up to about 5 months from lettuce and herbs), by the time we start getting cherry tomatoes it'll be close to the point where we get real tomatoes from our garden. The dill has grown well above the lights and bloomed, I'm curious to see if it sets seed.

I've grown cherry tomatoes in the garden a few times, we usually get overwhelmed with them, because it is hard to eat more than a handful a day. I have discovered that if you blanch them and freeze them, they work well in batches of stock.