My older son sent me an early Christmas present, an AeroGarden Farm (24 pod) system.
We set it up after Thanksgiving and the first set of plants we put in was their 'herb' kit, which is actually a mixture of herbs and lettuces. 11 of 12 sprouted. (A black seeded Simpson lettuce did not, we'll ask for a replacement next week, they'll replace any of the pods from their kits that don't sprout in 21 days.)
Less than 3 weeks into the first garden, we had our first salads from it at supper today, they were very good. The left garden has one of their 7-pod Romaine kits plus 5 do-it-yourself pods with buttercrunch lettuce. It's been in a little over a week, all the romaine plants are up and several of the buttercrunch, which has a long germination time. We should be harvesting from it early in the new year.
Here's a picture of what it looked like before today's harvest, I suspect we'll be harvesting from it every 2-3 days for at least a month, probably several months.
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On Monday, I continued refining my maple cookie recipe (no butter). I used the same proportions as last Halloween, but I added a tablespoon of granulated sugar. I refrigerated the stamped cookies for an hour before baking. I am pleased with the taste and texture, so I am ready to put this one in my low-fat baking book.
I also baked No Butter Cranberry Scones. The original recipe is from Biscuits and Scones, by Elizabeth Alston. I used half Irish Wholemeal flour from KABC and half King Arthur flour. I reduce the baking powder by 1 tsp. (4 tsp. always seemed too much) and cut the salt in half. I combined the dry ingredients, then in a measuring cup whisked together the oil, buttermilk, and egg. I bake the scones in my scone pan. To make them festive, I sprinkled the tops with red and green large crystal sugars.
Skeptic--You could assign a certain amount of exercise to each treat you consume....
Harvest Grains is my favorite KAF product!! I sent a chat message to them asking if this is temporary or permanent and is it being discontinued and why. I reminded them how many, many bakers love the product and are so disappointed. My husband is going to drop by the store this morning to see if they have any product on the shelves out back - in the past, he has sometimes been able to get things that are "out of stock" from the mail orders or on the store shelves.
I used to make my own grain mix. Anyone remember the old, old Baking Circle? We had a sort of mini-contest, a "He who dies with the most flour and grains, wins?" and many of us counted the bags of stuff in our pantries. I had almost 30, don't remember exactly. So I hauled most everything out to the kitchen and spread them out on the counter. Then I selected and pretty much randomly "measured" (handfuls) varying amounts of each into a large mason jar. I also added lots of seeds. Of course, I would never meet KAF's standards of consistency, but I never mixed up a batch that didn't add a lot of flavor, and nutrition, to a loaf of bread. Not sure I could do that today, since I no longer stock the huge variety of ingredients that I used to have. But you could buy small bags of each of the grains/seeds and sort of replicate the Harvest Grains mix.
My broccoli cheddar soup is almost finished - I'm a little late since I watched a Christmas movie. I haven't made it in a few years and it's perfect for tonight.
There will be 3 of us for Christmas (test for guest was done yesterday). We've figured out our simple menu - salmon (probably grilled), broccoli and rice Christmas Eve; Eggs Benedict Christmas brunch (late breakfast) and a charcuterie board, stuffed dates and whatever other appetizers we decide to have for Christmas dinner. We haven't decided sweets yet. I work Christmas Eve 10-6 and the day after 9:30-5:30, so simple is good and Will does so much of the cooking which is great.
Kimbob--For Pfeffernusse, you need high quality candied citron, which is difficult to find. King Arthur carried an excellent European one a long time ago, but of course they stopped carrying it, as they have done many specialty items. The citron I used is special ordered from a place I cannot recall. At least it keeps well refrigerated (five years old). The other critical ingredient is anise extract, which is not always easy to find. I have been using the King Arthur non-melting sugar to coat them, but after reading the ingredients, I think that I shall return to regular powdered sugar, even if it does sometimes get soaked into the cookies. The King Arthur non-melting sugar also seems not as white as in the past, which makes me wonder if it has been re-formulated.
If you would like the recipe, I will post it. There are a great many varieties of Pfeffernusse--I have a small cookbook that is only Peppernut recipes, each one different. I wanted one that was like the cookies someone mailed to us when I was a child. After a couple of disappointments, I found a recipe in the Los Angeles Times that hit the memory taste and texture exactly. These cookies keep well, which is good, as my husband does not care for them.
I find it amazing, CWCdesign, how many recipes leave out all those vital details. (And they wonder why some people give up on cooking and baking after having a failure because they did not have that background knowledge, and the recipe did not give it.) Thank you for adding your notes.
I made a Maple Apple Upside down cake from the Food and Wine link I posted in the maple syrup thread. It's a recipe from Joanne Chang.
It called for 3 Granny Smith apples, but I cut 4 as I figured mine were smaller than hers probably were - it was a good call. I didn't have a 10" round pan, so I used a 10" springform - I put a piece of parchment under it which was a good call as it did leak a little while I was making the cake. I put it on a sheet pan with parchment to bake (another good call). One of the directions said to add the dry and wet ingredients in 3 batches which I found a little confusing. But in the end, I added half the flour mixture, the whole buttermilk/egg mixture and then the last half of flour - I made the right call. It came out beautifully, but we haven't tasted it yet. I used up my Trader Joe's syrup so now we can start enjoying Chocomouse's syrup - I gave one of the containers to a friend for his birthday - all for him - his wife doesn't like liquidy soft food. I also gave him the canning directions just in case he wanted to put it in pints.
I had already begun holiday baking back on December 13, when I made my Lucia Buns. I made Pfeffernusse (and forgot the pepper!) later that week. Pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner is my husband's tradition, so I will bake one on Christmas Eve.
I'm still thinking about other cookies. I splurged on the Pfeffernusse and used butter, so I need to confine myself to oil-based ones.
According to King Arthur, the harvest grains blend has four grains (whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes, and wheat flakes) and four seeds (flax, poppy, sesame, and sunflower).
The Bob's Red Mill 10 grain cereal mix has whole grain wheat;corn;whole grain rye;whole grain triticale;whole grain oats;soy beans;whole grain millet;barley;whole grain brown rice;oat bran;flaxseed, which isn't very close.
No cooking plans for the day, not even sure what we're doing about Christmas here. If I can find a non-brined turkey breast, I may make that.
We usually do oyster stew and chili for Christmas Eve, but with just two of us that sounds like too much work. I'm leaning towards making potato leek soup, possibly with the vegetable stock I made a few weeks ago. (Otherwise I'll have to start by making chicken stock.)
We haven't had a toaster oven in a looooong time. There was a recent thread on the BBGA forum about kitchen appliances and someone who put in several Wolf appliances got a Wolf toaster oven as a thank-you and says it is great. (It's $600+, it better be!)
The last Breville thing I bought was probably a stick blender, and I went through about five stick blenders, none of which lasted very long, before I spent the extra money to buy a Bamix. (They invented the stick blender and IMHO still make a good one.)
One of the ones I bought I took apart after it broke. The coupler between the motor and the blade was a cheap piece of plastic that had cracked.
aargh! I just recently placed an order with KABC - got sprouted wheat flour and semolina but totally forgot to order the Harvest Grains blend. I also recently got some more McCann's steel cut oats (my favorite) and was getting ready to make Mrs. Cindy's Irish Oatmeal bread. It calls for 2/3 cup Harvest Grains and I have none.
You mix ½ cup steel cut oats with 2 cups milk (boil, remove from heat, add salt, butter, the grains and honey or maple syrup - let cool to room temperature. The flours are WWW and AP.
Can anyone think of anything I could substitute from what I have on hand - sprouted wheat, Irish whole meal, sunflower seeds (that would be too much), chopped nuts? Do you think I could make it without them? Is it time to shelve the recipe until my next order? Or something I might find in the grocery or health food store locally?
Thanks!
I measured out the dried fruit for 2 stollens and am soaking it in rum. I'm planning on making the stollens on Monday or Tuesday.
I pulled out 2 sticks of butter from the freezer for a batch of Martha Stewart's Noel Nut Balls that I plan on making tomorrow.
I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies using an Alton Brown recipe (The Puffy), portioned it out and froze it for baking later in the week. I did hold out a few and baked them tonight.
Am also contemplating an easy fruitcake that I saw in a video on youtube from Joy of Baking. This is a long shot but it is in the back of my head.
I made another batch of yogurt on Saturday.
To go with leftover Turkey-Zucchini Loaf for Saturday's dinner, I cooked 1 cup of farro in 3 ½ cups of chicken broth from the freezer. I find it works best to bring the broth to a boil, then add the rinsed farro, return to a boil, then set the burner to medium boil for 30 minutes, leaving the pot uncovered. After the farro was done, I let it rest while I sautéed chopped red bell pepper in olive oil, then added 8 oz. of sliced mushrooms. I added the farro and ½ tsp. reconstituted dried onion (my husband cannot tolerate the fresh, sigh), then added 1 cup frozen peas that I had microwaved. It was delicious, and the red and green colors made it festive. It made enough to go with the rest of the meatloaf tomorrow.
I keep both on hand, and I use the baker's powdered milk in yeast breads and the regular powdered milk in yogurt and other baking, such as quick breads, muffins, cakes, and now cookies. The price is about the same for King Arthur's dried milk for baking and Bob's Red Mill milk powder.
Someone asked, in a roundabout way under the questions under the Bob's Red Mill product, about whether it was treated for high heat--and clearly that person was thinking about the special dry milk King ARthur produces (an no one else?) but not naming it. The answer from the company seemed to hedge. I'm not sure how much of that was not identifying their process or trying to avoid getting in trouble with another company.
I do not care for the granular powdered milk, although before I found BRM, which is a powder, the granular was what I bought. I would usually grind it to powder, which was a bit of a mess. Of course, the granular dried milk is easily reconstituted. Perhaps that is a clue? The BRM milk powder also can be reconstituted, but the King Arthur special dry milk cannot be reconstituted and must be mixed in with dry ingredients.
