I miss garage and estate sales, but then, this area was never as good for these as the place I lived in Texas. There is one next weekend in town that might be of interest (same place I got the bread machine last fall). Masks are required, as is physical distancing. I've not made up my mind on whether to go.
I made another batch of yogurt on Sunday. I have had to use nonfat Chobani Greek yogurt as the starter, but when we went to the next town for groceries for the first time since lockdown, I was able to get Stonyfield full-fat Greek yogurt again. I use ¾ cup (170g), so when added with the 1% milk, it is low enough in saturated fat. I like the taste of the Stonyfield yogurt better.
I have a loaf of pan de pie kneading in the bread machine - a variation on KAF honey oat recipe with half WWW and half the amount of yeast (I also halved the salt). We'll see how it goes.
Kimbob, you made me laugh. There is no way in H*** I'd let my 89yo Mom cut my hair! It's hard because her dementia/forgetfulness is really kicking in. She told me she couldn't go anywhere because she doesn't have her car (we took her privileges away a year ago) and we sold it March JUST before the lockdown - phew! I pointed out that she couldn't go anywhere because her senior living community won't let her leave - she said they won't? I got a million of these stories! I only live 5 minutes away but haven't been there since March 11th because I was still working before the lockdown.
We were furloughed on March 23rd, but our Market (retail/deli part of Sea Island resort) never fully shut down. So, I took my online course and started making surface patterns with Adobe Illustrator and also have been creating new artwork to upload - it's been great and I can't wait till I'm in a position to make my income with it. A group of us got a plot at the community garden so we have been very busy with that - Friday and Saturday we had to deal with powdery mildew, squash borers AND aphids, but it looked much better this morning.
Cooking, baking, daily walks, online yoga, emails, FaceTime and a few projects take up the rest. I am scheduled to go back to work on the 12th and can't say I'm not nervous - the county numbers went up a lot over last week - we've had so many tourists, it's crazy. We will just have to make the best of it.
For Sunday breakfast, I made my buttermilk wholegrain waffles (whole wheat, cornmeal, buckwheat flour; flax meal), with oil rather than butter. I had mine with maple syrup. My husband had his with honey.
Last night I made another recipe from Half Baked Harvest - Black Bean and Sweet Potato Nachos which I have adapted quite a bit. The sweet potato wedges (roasted) are supposed to be the nachos, but we eat it with a fork. Recipe calls for cauliflower, which I didn't have the first time, but did the second and this time I used squash from the garden. She has a yummy sounding salsa which I haven't made yet, so we just use Green Mountain.
I also made KAF Mocha Madness ice cream on Friday (for the second time this month).
We made 3 batches of Cardinal preserves today. We did it using our standalone induction burner rather than the gas range, which kept the kitchen a lot cooler.
I think this may be the way we make jams, jellies and preserves from now on. (We tried 3 different sized induction-capable pans, I think the 6 quart pot worked best.)
The strawberry preserves sound delicious, Mike.
I made The Neely's Broccoli Soup (Food Network). It's for a few meals; I didn't freeze any of it, which is unusual. I had mine with a dinner roll from the freezer. I longed for chocolate chip cookies to finish it off. I plan on making those tomorrow.
I've been thinking about this topic all day, Kimbob. I'm also retired, so the biggest changes for me have been not venturing to the next town for groceries or having friends and my stepchildren visit. I also miss the farmers market, which did open up today, but as there is still not a lot of produce available, and they want exact change (which I didn't think to get before lockdown), I didn't go. Otherwise, it's the usual baking and cooking and home chores. I haven't done as much reading as I'd expected, but I write more emails to friends and family. The rural location makes it easy to get out for a walk or hike. We live on a lake, so I'm practicing my kayaking (sit-upon) on quiet weekday mornings when the weekend influx of visitors--and large boat waves from said visitors--abate.
I pulled out some sewing projects, and of course made a mask. I finished a strawberry table topper that I have been cross stitching on and off for sixteen years. (The outline stitching at the end was very repetitive, as the pattern is repeated four times around each side.) If we at Nebraska Kitchen end up doing a tea party, I'll use it along with a china strawberry teapot and cups and saucers. I'm exploring needlepoint and have completed the front for an embroidery scissors case and am debating whether I want to attempt a more complicated needlebook. I have enough stitching projects stashed to get me through years of sheltering in place.
I had planned on seeking more community engagement this summer. When we moved here three years ago, we were in a holding pattern for the first year, until we realized the contractor was just not that into us and replaced him with another contractor, and we were under construction and living in the small garage apt. for seven months, and the house was only completed three months after we were back inside. Now I'm ready to have dinner parties, but given that our county which is opening up--and has double the cases today that it had a week ago, that will not be happening soon for us.
I do miss travel and the short day trips and several days jaunts we enjoy, especially when school is in session, as that reduces the crowds.
For Saturday dinner (and dinners beyond), I cooked black-eyed peas from scratch (soaked overnight in salted water, drained, then cooked in salted water). After they had cooked for an hour, I sautéed chopped celery, chopped yellow bell pepper, and 8 oz. pre-packaged cubed ham in grapeseed oil, then added 2 cloves minced garlic, before adding the black-eyed peas, 1 ½ Tbs. Penzey’s dried onion that I had rehydrated, and 1 1/4 cups brown rice. After bringing it to a boil, I let it simmer for 45 minutes, then I added some torn kale. The flavors really came together well; no additional spices were needed. I think that sautéing the ham gives depth of flavor.
So what are you doing besides baking and cooking? Luckily, I'm retired so don't have to work from home. Besides taking care of mom and my husband, mowing, weed whacking, cleaning, laundry, keeping up with friends, etc. I keep busy with knitting and reading. Since the library has been closed I've gotten a lot of cheapie books from ebay and thriftbooks.com. I read mostly (pretty much exclusively) mysteries and am currently on an Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot kick. Got to choose a free book from thriftbooks and chose the 2003 edition of Dr. Oetker German Baking Today the original. That's another thing I love to do -- read cookbooks!
We use a recipe out of the Better Homes & Gardens Barbecue Book (Warren's BBQ sauce), though I've tinkered with it a little over the years, including cooking it several hours longer. It's a Carolina sauce (vinegar-based).
I've also taken some of it, added some honey, and cooked it down to a thick sauce for steak.
We made candied nuts in chocolate school, we boiled them in simple syrup for several minutes then dried them out in the oven. They aren't sticky and they last a long time. I've done it with almond slices and with pecans, I haven't tried it with (English) walnuts yet.
At a time in the past, we had a neighbor who grilled a lot. He even grilled their Thanksgiving turkeys inside the garage (with garage door open) regardless of snow or cold weather. When I asked for it, he graciously gave me his barbecue recipe and I've been using it ever since.
At the start of sheltering in place, I bought another bag of brown rice (organic at that!) at the local grocery store because I was afraid of getting caught short. Well, they still have it to sell here. It's interesting how some parts of the country are short on some items and others on different items.
