I made a walnut crusted chicken from myrecipes.com on Thursday that we really enjoyed. We both agreed that the dijon mustard in the buttermilk/mustard marinade needed to be increased as well as marinating it as long as overnight. I need to make more of the crumb mixture and probably toast the walnuts for more flavor.
For St. Patrick's Day, I made a baked casserole of deli corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. I'm glad I know as much about cooking as I do because the recipe had a list of ingredients without telling you how to prep the individual ingredients, nor did it specify in the recipe! For example, it told you to cook the onion (medium) and the garlic (one clove), but did not say to chop or mince. Can you imagine the poor person who might have tried to cook the onion and garlic whole - or not slice the potatoes for layering in the pan? Anyway, it was really good and I will add it to my recipe file with the recipe corrections.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by
cwcdesign.
No matter how long you cook tomatoes, they don't turn into a smooth sauce unless you puree them either before or after cooking them. (A stick blender works very well for this.)
Most slow cookers don't get hot enough to melt the fat out of a fatty roast.
Last year we only put in 5 tomato plants, and they didn't do very well in the hot summer, but rebounded when things cooled off. Then we had a week where it rained every day and I didn't get out to pick and the fruit over-ripened and the vines shut down.
Fortunately, two of the graduate students at UNL had some test gardens (10 rows of tomatoes, each about 160 feet long) and they were picking 500-1000 pounds of fruit three times a week by late August, which was more than even the food pantry could handle, so we got several batches of 50-75 pounds of tomatoes, and I made a lot of tomato sauce, of which I think I've used less than half.
I think another duo of graduate students are doing tomatoes again this summer. We've been getting a few hothouse tomatoes during the winter, too.
I'm trying to decide what I want to try this year other than a few tomatoes. Lettuce and spinach have such a short growing season, because as soon as it starts to get hot, the plants bolt. I seldom have good luck with peppers or eggplants. I don't care much for cucumbers unless they're pickled, and salty pickles are off my diet. Doesn't leave much. (The problem with farm shares is you get lots of stuff we don't eat, like kale and beets.)
It's too early to plant, at least in northern Indiana, but it is not too early to plan. My husband and I have ordered some seeds--tomatoes, bell pepper, green onion, carrots, spinach. The garden won't be as large as we would like, since we will have renovation starting at the end of April or beginning of May. We have to fence the bottom to keep out the rabbits, and we will use old screens from the house to cover it at night when the deer like to come and graze.
We have also ordered two blueberry bushes--one that will eventually be 6 feet, and will work nicely to create some privacy between us and the neighbors' deck (houses here are very close), and a smaller one in front of it. My husband is trying to find a source for wild blueberries for the terrace, where we already have some blackberries and black raspberries.
I think my wife would agree with you on spaghetti squash as a less than perfect substitute for pasta, but it is a lot less carbs.
I think the type of oil you use makes a big difference. I used to use canola oil, but it can have a bitter undertaste, so I've switched back to corn oil. (Olive oil is too assertive for us, and both a close friend and my brother-in-law are allergic to olives, so I seldom cook with it.)
The first few times I tried spaghetti squash, I didn't really care for it, but I've grown to like it. I think I undercooked it a few times, it should NOT be crunchy!
(My wife tolerates it, but likes the meatballs and sauce I usually make to go with it.)
I simply cut the squash in half, dig out the seeds in the center, spray the inside with oil and season it, place it face down on parchment paper, oil the outside, and cook it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the inside separates from the outer shell. Let it cool for a little while (unless you have asbestos fingers), then scrape out the insides with a fork so that you get long strands.
I've only cooked spaghetti squash once. I just watched a video of how Ken Haedrich cooks spaghetti squash, and the method looks interesting (as well as the accompanying recipe).:
Spaghetti Squash and Parmesan Cheese Quiche
Did more cooking than baking this past week. Made pork meatballs w/brown sugar BBQ sauce (had some sauce frozen from previous attempt) to me, the BBQ sauce tasted more sweet and sour sauce than actual BBQ. Also ham fried rice, sauteed shrimp and ham in an attempt to use up a slice of ham steak. I like the Costco Ham Steaks - 3 slices individually packed per package. Last night I made corned beef w/baby potatoes, carrots, and instead of cabbage, I tried cooking some baby boy choy (it needed to be eaten first) in the corned beef liquid. Not bad as I had inadvertently rinsed the meat before cooking it. I think next time I boil the beef, I will add some extra spices and salt. And definitely de-fat the liquid as it was way too fatty and they were sticking to all the potatoes and veggies.
I thought the minestrone came out pretty good, though I think my wife would have preferred I left the summer squash and zucchini out and a finer dice on the other veggies. (Personally, I like veggies big enough that you can see them and bite into them.)
I think if I make it again I may start by making my own vegetable stock, the stock I bought had something in it that I can still taste in the soup, and home-made vegetable stock would have less salt in it.
Today I baked Nelson's Choice Rye Bread. The recipe is originally from Secrets of a Jewish Baker, but KAF had it on a package and on their website as Peasant-Style Rye Bread. They have since made some changes in the recipe--as the dough usually needed additional flour--by cutting the water. I have wondered if the type of rye flour might have been an issue. I've been baking the recipe for years, usually adding some extra flour. This time, I held back 2 Tbs. of the water. I still needed to add 3 Tbs. of clear flour, but I did not use the 2 Tbs. of vital wheat gluten, as I do not have it, and am not sure that I will ever purchase it again. I used dark rye flour (Bob's Red Mill, while the KAF version called for white rye or pumpernickel. I decided to add 1 Tbs. potato flour to see if it will help the bread stay softer longer. I also cut the salt from 1 1/2 tsp. to 1 tsp.
As usual, I baked it in an 8-inch round cake pan with 2-inch sides, as I do not trust my shaping, although it did do better this time. I did not let the second rise go past 40 minutes, and I slashed it five minutes before that, as I've had this bread deflate before. The timing worked, and it got excellent oven spring. The finished loaf is four inches tall at its highest point. I look forward to having it with the last of the turkey for sandwiches tomorrow.
Thanks Mike. That's pretty much how I did mine using canned cherries. I had never made a cherry pie before and got the recipe from the Oregon Fruit website (the brand of cherries I used). I didn't use the lemon juice or cinnamon but that sounds like a very good addition, will do that next time. I do have some frozen cherries that I want to use up so next time might be soon.
I'm making minestrone today (but with no garlic or olive oil.)
Today I made my cherry pie and I'm currently working on making bagel (Got to have something to go with corned beef on St. Patrick's Day.)
Joan--when you said pimento cheese sandwiches, suddenly I was back in the kitchen in Norfolk, Virginia as a child, while my mother made pimento cheese sandwiches....
The weather today has been rainy, snowy, sleety, and now there are ice pellets. Temperatures are in the 30s this early afternoon, so my husband went ahead and started a fire in the wood stove at lunchtime. Not one to waste a good wood fire, I pulled the turkey bones and those from a chicken out of the freezer, and now I'm making broth to restock the freezer, as I'm down to my last (4-cup) container of it.
I've only made one starter--and I still have it--one of those "soupy" ones. I followed the directions in an article on sourdough in Sunset Magazine over 25 years ago. It did use a bit of yeast to get it going.
Once we get the house remodeling done (it will need to be started first 🙂 ) I might attempt a rye starter. I'm just not sure how many starters my husband will tolerate, even with two refrigerators.
