Search Results for ‘(“C’
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On Saturday afternoon, I baked Black Forest Brownies from Jenny Jones’ blog, as I fortuitously had a can of dark cherries in juice in the pantry. I made some slight changes: added 1 Tbs. flax meal, deleted the tablespoon of sugar, and used non-fat Chobani Greek yogurt, which is what I have in the house. (I’m hoping the flax meal will help, since the recipe says 2% Greek yogurt.) I baked in a parchment-lined pan. I used 30 grams of semi-sweet chocolate chips, which is less than the ¼ cup in the recipe. I calculated the saturated fat in my version at 19g per 9x9-inch pan. I cut the brownies into twelve servings, which means each has 1.58 g. saturated-fat and served them with a bit of frozen low-fat yogurt. These are pretty good. If I make them again, I would add ½ tsp. of espresso powder.
When I ran across Jenny on YouTube (Jenny Can Cook) I really didn't know who she was, I thought she was just another youtuber, but I liked the way she was doing stuff. It wasn't until I went to her site and read her bio that I realized who she is.
The apple recipe only calls for 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, I used a lot more than that, I didn't measure, I just poured it on. For my taste, it's hard to have to much when it comes to apples. But, I did run out of my good cinnamon and bought a jar of McCormick to tide me over until I put in an order at The Spice House. The McCormick is more mild.
I have used her oil crust several times, it's better than the oil crust I had been using. Her crusts call for equal parts of oil to milk, the crust I had previously used called for 2 to 1 oil to milk.
The apple bars on her site look better than mine, but I think mine look okay.
With a dollop of Greek yogurt.
I made Clam Chowder for lunch on Wednesday, using olive oil to sauté the onion. (I threw out the bacon grease when I went on the low-saturated fat diet). It was my usual recipe from an old Betty Crocker cookbook. I used two cups, unpeeled Kennebec potatoes from the farmers’ market. I used canned, chopped clams, but I prefer minced. The “secret” ingredient is celery seed, first added by my college roommate, who taught me to appreciate celery seed.
For Wednesday dinner, I soaked, then cooked a package of black-eyed peas—one of the few legumes that my husband enjoys. I also made a sauce for spinach noodles and broccoli using some defatted chicken-sweet potato drippings from the freezer, some onion, ½ tsp. dried sage, a couple Tbs. of my homemade pumpkin butter, Parmesan cheese, pepper, and a bit of the pasta water. Some rotisserie chicken completed the meal.
OK--it's time to get some baking going this week, especially here with highs in the 40s. (Update: it actually got into the lower 50s.)
On Tuesday morning, I baked a healthier version of my Harvest Pumpkin Cake. It comes from a recipe in King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (p. 194), but the texture is definitely that of a cake not a bar cookie, so I changed the name. It is a favorite of my younger stepson who often requested it for his birthday. I wanted to see if I could make some healthy tweaks to it, so I substituted ½ cup barley flour for that much AP flour, reduced the sugar to ¾ cup from 1 cup and the salt from 1 tsp. to ¾ tsp. I have always added ¼ cup powdered milk. I added 2 Tbs. chia seed and 1 Tbs. flax meal this time. I always use my own pumpkin puree. I will forgo the lovely low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel) frosting—which includes 3 Tbs. of butter—and serve pieces with pumpkin butter dollops on top.
I'll add a note this evening about how we like this version.
Note: The changes shifted the cake closer to a bar cookie, although it is still a cake. We liked the flavor, and we both enjoyed spreading a layer of pumpkin butter over the top. (Saturated fat content is 1.125 grams for 1/8 of the 9x9-inch cake.)For Sunday dinner, I roasted chicken thighs on a rack (and removed skin before eating). I made ratatouille for the last time this season, using our tomatoes, and two somewhat pitiful small bell peppers from our garden, along with yellow summer squash from the grocery, and two small eggplants, onion, and garlic from the farmers’ market. We had it over a mixture of brown and other rice.
Aurgh! I hate it when I do that!
For some reason, pumpkin pies are particularly susceptible to having ingredients accidentally omitted. I once put a pie into the oven, then turned to my left and saw the brown sugar in its cup on the table. (So much for mise en place when the ingredient stays en place!.) I pulled the pie out, ladled the filling back into the bowl, put in the brown sugar and mixed it, then put it back into the oven.
Len--maybe a small scoop of low-fat frozen vanilla yogurt on top would help?
Topic: Yeasted Pumpkin Bread
Stella Parks has an interesting yeasted pumpkin bread recipe at Serious Eats:
https://www.seriouseats.com/2018/10/how-to-make-a-pumpkin-loaf.html
She says that you must use a food processor, but I'm pretty sure that my food processor (30+ years and not that large) would not be able to handle it. I might try it in my 7-qt. Cuisinart stand mixer. I note that she is picky about the yeast, although I've not had any issues with active dry yeast. She is also doing the roll-up shaping. I've stopped doing that, unless I have a filling. Instead, I make an oval, let it rest for 5 minutes, then fold the oval over, seal the edges, flatten, and repeat, except the second time, I do not flatten, but roll into a cylinder, making sure that the seam is sealed on the bottom. I have much less of a problem with "blow outs," when I shape this way.
Thanks for digging into the story, Mike. I remember when I split the half breast in half, I was having trouble cutting it, but I figured that was because a fresh one is harder to cut than one that is mostly defrosted. The cooked one was also hard to slice, likely because of the membranes. What Joan noticed went right past me, because I had not seen it before. It makes me angry that I paid more for what is supposed to be a more healthy part of the chicken ($1.79 on sale), and what I bought is actually not flavorful and may not even be that good for me. Worst of all, I have another three halves in the freezer. I'll follow Joan's method and try to cut it out.
I wonder if this is why Navlys said, "I'm done with Perdue," in an earlier post about cooking a chicken breast.
I'm not surprised that two restaurant chains are not going to buy these chickens--it would degrade the food they serve. No company is listed on the package that I bought, which is typical of chicken available at the one grocery store in town. I've also had issues with beef that I've bought at that store.
Maybe sticking with the small chicken thighs is not such a bad idea.
Topic: And There were No Apples
My husband and I left Monday afternoon to go to the covered bridge festival in Parke County Indiana. We stayed outside the area and went Tuesday morning, arriving a little before 10 in Rockville, where he remembers attending the festival for the last time almost 50 years ago. It had definitely changed, and not for the better. He remembered apples for sale, but he had cautioned me that the orchards are dwindling in the area. Still, we thought there might be some, and certainly there would be apple cider. They used to have a press set up. Well, we could not even find apple butter, much less cider and fresh apples. There were a lot of the commercial food places that are found at various local fairs, selling the usual non-healthy foods. There was a large tent with vendors, but the booths held items that are mostly sold anywhere. I considered the Indiana maple syrup, but it did not specify light or dark, so I skipped it, and will mail order from Vermont Country Store. After quick look arounds (and we could not take our dog into the tent area), I browsed the local antique stores and came away with a darning egg with handle for $5. (It reminds me of my grandmother's, and I like old needlework tools, especially ones I can use.)
My husband browsed the local food area outside, and we patronized the Elks and bought a nice, grilled boneless pork chop. We took it to a local park, split it, and made it into sandwiches. It was delicious. We then headed toward Bridgeton, which has a re-built covered bridge (original was destroyed by arsonists), after stopping and touring our first bridge along the route. We did not realize that Bridgeton has become a major tourist-festival trap, with about five times what we saw in sedate Rockville. When we saw all the cars parked, and the people, we decided not to stop, although I would have liked to visit the still operating flour mill. We missed our turn and ended up on a different route but we had to go through Rockville, where traffic control was non-existent, and people casually walked in front of cars. That shot our nerves. Again, all we could see in the various booths were the same kind of commercial food places and other vendors that could be found anywhere.
The route we were on did turn out to be less traveled, perhaps because it had only two bridges, and none of the hoopla because these bridges were out of town. We were able to stop at one and walk across it and back and admire the construction. We then left behind bridges and went over to Turkey Run State Park and went hiking. I do not usually think of canyons when I think of Indiana, but this area has some spectacular ones created by glaciers, and the park has put in stairs to prevent erosion, so it is possible to go down into these canyons. We also saw some spectacularly large trees which escaped the logging that reduced so much of Indiana to second growth forest.
The next day, we skipped any festival activity--who knew that the local schools were on fall break?--and went hiking in Shades State Park in the morning and the adjacent Pines Nature Preserve in the afternoon. Again, the canyons were spectacular, and we got excellent cardio climbing the stairs, going up hills, etc. Our dog particularly enjoyed herself. We stopped at one last covered bridge at the edge of the park, and it was well worth doing so, as it is a double bridge, longer and wider than any others we saw. We marveled at the construction. We then drove home, stopping in Lafayette for Subway sandwiches. We saw a lot of harvesting of corn and soybeans along the highway on our trip. On the way back, I was surprised to discover that they harvest in the dark with lights on their machinery.
We will definitely go back to these two parks for more hiking. We also want to go back and see more of the covered bridges, but we will NEVER again go during festival time, which seems to be coordinated with fall breaks for all schools, and where there is nothing to interest us. The antique stores will be there year around, as will the bridges. (The graffiti on the bridges was also disappointing. Too many vandals and too many kids who think it is cool.) We had heard that over two million people come, but we thought the weekday would be less crowded. I was hoping to pick up some fresh produce, as it is farming country, but what we saw for sale was pumpkin after pumpkin. There was one farm stand on the way out of town, but no one was there, and the property had no trespassing signs all over the place. Unable to figure out the mixed message, we did not stop.
So, I am left with apples in the local grocery store, from Washington State, which are older, and some occasional bags of Michigan apples. The grocery store in the larger town north of us has a better selection, so I'll look there next time we shop. I will not, sadly, be canning any apple pie filling this year.
