For Monday night’s dinner, I made a very big pot of soup, using the lentil/split pea/barley blend that Bob’s Red Mill sells as Vegi-Soup mix. I added some pearl barley, as well as onion, carrots from our garden (my husband has been harvesting them as we go and keeping them covered), sliced mushrooms, cooked ground turkey, and broth from the freezer that did not fit when we had to go from two refrigerator/freezers to one. We have plenty of leftovers for during the week.
I made a small hamburger steak with caramelized onions,cooked a small half head of cabbage with ham chunks out of the freezer(still some of that ham) and cubed potatoes like for potato salad drained most of water then added some butter and sour cream stirred up and it was like chunky mashed potatoes,went well with the cabbage.
It's time to get that Christmas baking underway--or so says the woman who, other than baking a snowflake cake in a mold last week, has yet to start hers. Today, I'm baking my version of Moonie's (Ellen's) buns as 10 sandwich buns. We will each have a leftover pork chip sandwich with them tonight.
I made a stir-fry for Friday night’s dinner, using leftover pork chops, frozen broccoli (have you seen the high prices on fresh broccoli?!), mushrooms, green onions, drippings from when my husband cooked the pork, and soba noodles. We have enough to repeat the meal on Saturday
We are Ellen's Halfpint Farm, in the Main Exhibition Hall. We just got a letter yesterday saying our booth space has changed (for the better!) next year. We will be in A12, which is about across the aisle from B13 which we have had for years. My sister Ellen hand paints fibers and yarns. I look forward to meeting you next spring!
Back in the day my husband loved rice a roni with beef. So I found a recipe for homemade rice a roni and added sautéed ground beef to it. This recipe called for orzo instead of broken spaghetti and it included walnuts. It definitely needed more spice but my husband who never has seconds (helpings) went back for more!!!!! Go figure.
The Artisan Fair was fun, educational, and interesting! It was very small, and I was just one of three food vendors (on sold jams and jellies, and another sold just cookies) so my baked goods sold pretty well, for a market that was mostly Christmas gift items, with some gorgeous pottery, jewelry, cutting boards and other woodcrafts, wooden bowls, photography - some very expensive items, and in a wealthy town. My husband's maple syrup, especially the bourbon barrel aged syrup sold really well, and was a great conversation starter. But preparing for the event was a ton of work (and I am well aware of the work of the show itself, as I do sheep and wool festivals, knitting/crochet conventions, etc. all year round all over the US, with my sister who hand-paints wool fibers, cloth, and yarn). I plan to do the same event again next year, and it will be easier - I will have my packaging issues worked out, and have recipes to hand out ready, ingredient labels, etc. The process is more difficult because it is the holiday season with lots of prep, and I made the huge mistake of going away the previous week for some fun time, but that required some recovery! I had thought about doing a local weekly farmers' market when I retired, just to give me something to do, but now know that I will not do that. I love to bake, but not "production" baking. I do miss the baking I used to do for my co-workers and am looking for events to share my goodies with once in a while. I've located a community elder coffee klatch that I now plan to bring goodies to. But I think once a month or so will be enough! Does anyone else here do this type of thing on a regular basis?
Saturday, I invented a carrot raisin thyme quick bread and it turned out well. Unlike a previous attempt last spring where the bread was too soggy with two much carrot. This is enough my own recipe that I can share it with all and I hope you can tell me what changes will work.
2 cups whole wheat flour sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp dried thyme
about 1/2 cup raisins ( all that was left in the package )
almost 1 cup grated carrots ( this was two carrots grated with a microplane )
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and oil small 8inch cast iron frying pan
Mix the flour, baking soda and baking powder together. Mix in the carrots and thyme. I thought the carrots would clump together if I added them after the liquids.
Beat the buttermilk, egg, honey, and oil together. Blend gently into the flour mixture. Stir in the raisins.
Pour the batter into the frying pan and bake for 30 minutes until done. This had a good texture and was tasty, but the thyme was a rather odd flavor.
So will this work if I use a whole cup of carrots? what other flavors would work instead of thyme. I don't know why I was set on carrot-thyme but I was tired of cinnamon. What about sage?
Dinner here was salmon on the grill (with the outdoor temp at 17* and going down), with mushroom risotto and broccoli from the freezer.
For lunch on Monday, I made a Lentil soup, using 4 cups potato water that I had frozen, 1 cup lentils, ¼ cup faro; 3 Tbs. defatted chicken drippings from last night’s chicken, chopped onion, celery, and carrots, parsley and thyme. I also made tomato sauce with the last of our now-ripened tomatoes (1 lb. 9 oz.), which I will use on the sourdough pizza I’m making tonight. Usually, I don’t make pizzas so close together, but I need to use up the mozzarella before it goes bad.
I made beef stock yesterday and today, and as soon as the remouillage (second wetting of the bones, which increases the output by about 25%) is cool enough to put in the fridge, I'm heading to bed.
Yes, I use cookie sheets, often with parchment. It is important to grip the parchment as well as the pan when removing it from the oven, as the parchment can slide off with the contents. I have once or twice lost the occasional cookie, so I am careful.
I'm not sure that I like the ovens that GBBS contestants must use. First, there is no window, so they can't see just how their product is baking unless they open the door. (Paul likes technical challenges that will be ruined if you open the door.) The ovens are also rather low to the ground, and I think that might be one reason for the tipping of contents. I also think that the time limits are unreasonable.
Len--Thanks for the overview. I will have to start wrapping my head around it after the first of the year. For my husband, Formula One racing is a must-have. The only online streaming is from the SKY network, and it is too expensive. I've been watching a lot less TV, since the only place we get reception without cable is in the garage apt. We're moving into it this weekend and will live there while the house renovations are in process, so we shall see if proximity increased my TV time.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by
BakerAunt.
I have 2 streaming devices (Roku and Amazon Fire Stick) as well as one smart TV. The streaming devices are better than the smart TV as it provides more apps. The Roku and Fire Stick are almost six of one and a half dozen of the other but the Fire Stick gets the edge. It offers apps like CBS (requires a fee), NBC and ABC both include live streaming for no fee, and it has 2 web browsers. So, you can visit some of your fav internet sites that way (it's not exactly a substitute for a computer and some sites show better on it than others). The Fire Stick is definitely optimized for Amazon Prime but you can view Amazon Prime easily on a smart TV and Roku. Roku has a 3 Stooges app that Fire Stick doesn't have, so there are differences. I have a TV that I don't use often and it's not connected to cable and the antenna reception is not good at all. So, when Amazon Prime day came around I saw the Fire Stick for half price ($20) I bought it for that TV. I'm glad I did. Since I got streaming devices, I've been watching a lot more on YouTube. There's all kinds of stuff there.
Interesting, Len. I think it would also have to wait for us to replace the television I bought twenty years ago. (It has a great picture, and I even had it repaired ten years ago--yes, I found someone who fixed televisions!) We're waiting on buying a modern television until the remodeling is complete. We also have never become Amazon Prime members. I'm going to have to investigate this brave new world of streaming.
I checked, and it's on ABC. Guess which station cannot be picked up on digital antenna where we live? 🙁 After reading about the hosts, however, I'm not sure that I am missing that much. Let's see what the rest of you think.
I've not watched Netflix, so I have not seen the British ones.
