Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

Carrot cake is out and needs to cool before I can frost it, I used Wingboy's recipe posted here but not his choice of spices. (I used 2 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of allspice, 1/4 tsp of nutmeg and 1/4 tsp of clove.)

About half way through baking it, my wife said it smells like it needs raisins. :sigh:

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I made another batch of yogurt. This time I used 900ml of milk, which should fill the jars evenly. I discovered that if, after heating the milk and holding it at 190F for 10 minutes on the stove, I pour it out into a large measuring cup (covered with a double-folded dishcloth, to cool, the pan in which I heated the milk is much easier to clean. The milk will also cool down to 112F more quickly.

For dinner on Saturday, I roasted chicken thighs, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Penzey’s poultry seasoning and sweet curry powder, on a rack in the main oven. I used my countertop, small convection oven to roast cut-up, unskinned red potatoes, tossed in olive oil, and sprinkled with a bit of salt and Penzey’s Bavarian seasoning. The Bavarian Seasoning was either a free sample or in a gift box I received, and I’m experimenting with the miscellaneous spices I have on hand,. We like it on the roasted potatoes, so I’ll be using it again.

By the way, Penzey's is having a 15% off sale with the code "Don't". I was low on some key spices, and I had a gift card, so I replenished those.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Mike Nolan]

My guess is that the next sour cream raisin pie will borrow a little from all 3 of the recipes I've tried in the last year or so. This filling would probably make a pretty good banana cream pie, though. (BTW, if you want that recipe, search for 'a pie worth waiting 40 years for'. I refuse to give the URL because it's one of those sites that makes you create a log-in just to print something, and I consider that at best obnoxious. And, personally, I don't think it was worth the wait.)

But I think pie is on hold for a little while, I've got some bread plans for the weekend and maybe carrot cake, since I'll be juicing a bunch of carrots to make carrot vinegar using the Noma book methods. I'll also be making celery vinegar.

[BakerAunt]

Well, it's a good sign, Mike, that there will be a next time for the recipe.

We were out of bread, so I baked two loaves of Buttermilk Harvest Grains Whole Wheat Bread, using the proportions I used last time. However, I added ½ cup of a mix of oat bran and Scottish Oatmeal as well. (It’s a long story, but the two got mixed, and I need to use up that mistake.) The dough was a bit dry, so I added 1 Tbs. of water near the end and kneaded it in. The first rise took 90 minutes. The second rise took about an hour, and the bread baked in 40 minutes. I look forward to slicing it tomorrow.

[RiversideLen]

Re streaming, I have a Roku (the least expensive one they offer) on 2 TV's and an Amazon Fire stick on another. They both offer the same and different content. And the offerings are different than what's offered on the smart TV streaming apps. I used to watch Netflix on the smart TV but when I got the Roku on it I starting using it instead. I liked the presentation better and found it more reliable. And then there are stations that you can subscribe to (besides Netflix) and there are also stations that you can get for free provided you also have them on your cable subscription. For example, Turner Classic Movies and many others. On the Amazon Fire I can get ABC and NBC, including live content, for free. CBS is also available including live content but for a fee. The Amazon Fire also has a web browser. So, it's six of one and a half dozen of another.

[BakerAunt]

The apple had pies sound delicious, Joan.

Thursday’s dinner was stir-fry, made with leftover roast chicken (and a 6 oz. can of chicken), carrots, celery, red bell pepper, mushrooms, broccoli, parsley, and soba noodles. There is enough for a re-run tomorrow night.

[BakerAunt]

We could get cable but are unsure whether a streaming services, which my elder stepson thinks is the wave of the future, would be the better choice. One of the issues with Cable is that the company bundles the choices, and we often find ourselves with channels we will never watch, and not necessarily getting the ones we want to watch. I think that satellite dish companies are the same way. Curiously, we are in an "ABC" desert, even a digital antenna will not pick that station up here. We did figure out how to stream the PBS News Hour and the Democratic Primary Debates on the computer.

My husband's wish list is the Weather Channel (although it has gone downhill since its glory days), and whatever channel shows Formula 1 racing. I wouldn't mind the SciFi Channel, classic film, and the BBC, and whatever channel shows bicycle racing--at least Le Tour de France. It might be nice to pick up the Chicago PBS. My husband would like to be able to watch the occasional football game that isn't on NBC or CBS.

We will also need to figure out what television to buy, which is confusing as figuring out cable vs. streaming.

[BakerAunt]

When I first posted about this recipe on Nov. 23, 2019, I didn't think that it would take me until February 27, 2020 to get around to trying it. I decided that today (Thursday) was the day. It resulted in a rather late but tasty lunch.

I made the oil crust that I have posted here, except that I made only 75% of the recipe, and I used 3/4 c plus 2 Tbs. AP and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (cut down on the Tbs. measuring, and I a bit more whole wheat is not a problem). After mixing up the dough, I rolled it out to 1/8th thickness and decided that it would not fold over like a galette after being refrigerated before it is filled, so I eased it into an 8 1/2 inch Emile Henry ceramic tart dish, folding over the sides to make it thicker around the inner rim. I refrigerated it for an hour, then blind baked it for 11 minutes.

While the crust was chilling, I made the filling. I had two small butternut squash. One was a pound and the other was 12 oz. I decided just to use both. After cutting them up, I microwaved them for 8 minutes--or so I tried to do. This microwave seems to do its own thing sometimes, and when I looked over at it, expecting it to be done soon, and saw 7 minutes, I knew something was amiss. Thankfully the squash did not overcook. I put the torn kale leaves on top of it, recovered it, and let it sit. I cooked the red onion, then stirred in the squash and kale and a heaping 1/8th tsp dried oregano. (My oregano did not have a lot of odor; it's quite old, since my husband does not care for the spice. I only got a hint of the flavor, but that is ok.) I didn't have crème fraiche, so I mixed together 1 Tbs. whole yogurt and 1 Tbs. 1% milk. I don't have sherry vinegar, so I used 1 tsp. sherry. I ground just a bit of salt over it, as well as some pepper. I replaced 3 oz. gruyere, which I'm sure is lovely in its saturated fat glory, with 28g (about 1/4 cup) pre-grated 2% cheese (only way I can get 2% around here), which I stirred in last.

I put the filling into the crust, hot from the oven, pressing it down. I used a coarse grater to top it with some Parmesan cheese. I then baked it for 40 minutes, let it cool for 10, and cut a slice for myself. It's tasty, and I think that it should warm up well. The seasonings blend quite nicely. I will keep my version of the recipe to make for lunches during the fall and winter when butternut squash is abundant.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Mike Nolan]

Not all suppliers will sell to walk-in customers like Stover does. Some (like Restaurant Depot) require you show a retail tax permit.

Stover's prices are why I have probably 40 pounds of chocolate in the coolest part of the house.

Callebaut's website has a list of wholesalers, but I find it not very helpful.

There's a new chocolate shop near us, they're buying Valhrona chocolate in large enough quantities that they can have it trucked in. I hope they do better than the last chocolatier in Lincoln.

[Mike Nolan]

'Original Hawaiian Chocolate' was the place my son visited, in Kona.

They're growing criollo cacao, which many (but not all) chocolate experts consider the highest grade, only about 3% of the worldwide cacao crop is criollo.

Criollo has some interesting flavor notes in it. I found it a bit gritty on the tongue, which is a processing choice. Personally, I like my chocolate smoother.

At chocolate school we tasted chocolates made from all 3 types of beans (the ruby chocolate products hadn't been announced yet.) Most chocolates are blended from more than one type of bean, but single-source chocolates are a growing trend.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife suggested I start using IrfanView, a PC tool for image manipulation (resizing and cropping photos, etc) and so far I really like it. It has a tool for viewing thumbnails of the images in a directory that makes it really easy to find photos. (I took hundreds of photos during the steam tests, for example.)

I tend to take my pictures at the highest resolution my camera offers (6000 x 4000) and downsize them to 600x400 for posting. I'm sure it has hundreds of options I'll never need.

Her biggest complaint is that it is for PCs only, no Mac version.

[Mike Nolan]

Is there no cable operator? Satellite dishes should still work, or you could go the streaming services route assuming you've got enough Internet bandwidth for it, though IMHO that's starting to be as expensive as the other options.

It cracks me up that one of the streaming services advertises a lot on the Game Show Network, but that's not one of the channels they provide.

Aside from sports, the channels we watch the most are the Game Show Network and some of the channels showing reruns of old syndicated shows. Project Runway is probably the only series in current production that we watch, and it isn't on one of the major networks. I used to watch the Food Network a lot, but there's not much cooking information there any more. I've lost interest in the cooking competition shows, though I will occasionally watch Chopped, mainly to see what weird ingredients they make them use. (A few Chopped episodes have led to quiz questions here.)

[chocomouse]

The cookies are very good, although there is little to no flavor of the espresso or the Kahlua. I baked (from a double batch) 32 2"cookies, and then scooped and then freezing about 30 more balls of dough for later. These cookies are not quite what I had hope for; my preference is a thinner cookie with crisp edges and a chewy center. I had thought the dough was a little dry and that may be at least part of the problem. I'll make them again, and reduce the amount of flour.

[Mike Nolan]

I tried a number of spray misters for oil, the Evo mister has worked well for me for several years. It comes in two sizes, I think the smaller one makes more sense. I think they're intended for use as oil and vinegar salad spray sets, but I put oil (currently a blend of canola and soybean oils) in one and water in the other, because that's what I use the most when cooking.

I use the fan spray setting, it does a good job covering the entire width of a loaf.

I also keep a spray bottle of bleach solution handy for sanitizing the sink and countertops, but those sprayers seem to wear out in a year or two.

As I gear up for trying some of the fermentation recipes in the Noma book, I've now got a spray bottle with 60% grain alcohol in it. They recommend that for sanitizing large surfaces or ones that you can't sanitize in a dishwasher, like a 5 gallon crock.

[Mike Nolan]

When we were in Hawaii my son found a chocolate company on the big island that is growing their own cacao plants. I've had a number of single-bean chocolates, this one had some interesting notes to it. It was kind of pricey, but I guess they're going for the tourist trade.

Stover (in western PA) has 11 pound bags of Callebaut dark chocolate for $43.99, plus shipping, though I usually buy the 2.5 kg bags, currently $22.37. I've not found a local suppliers (as far as Des Moines or Kansas City) whose prices come close to that.