Search Results for '("C'

[cwcdesign]

Baker Aunt, this is why I jury rigged my latest crockpot to use my chef alarm for my timer. Chicken breasts (boneless) cook in approximately 3 ½ - 4 hours on low. You can imagine the first time I used it and hammered the chicken. Mine has a manual option, so I can set the temperature where I want it with no timer. There are handles that snap in place for transporting it. I put the chef alarm in the largest chicken breasts, clamp the handles down on the cord (the lid won't seal if I don't) and set the alarm to 163. I can only use it when I'm home for the day -

[Mike Nolan]

I did a pizza, this time I used my 14" pizza steel but still did the pizza in my 12" pizza pan, after rolling it out on a baking mat then dusting the pan with corn meal for lubrication before transferring the dough to the pan.

Underside could have been a bit more done (it is fully baked but not crisp), but it came out of the pan nicely. I may try baking the next one directly on the pizza steel, or I may drop the oven temperature just before putting the pizza in, so that the bottom gets more done than the top due to the residual heat from the pizza steel. Another option is to put the steel on the lowest rack rather than the middle one. :sigh: So many options to try, I'll just have to keep making pizzas.

Toppings were my tomato sauce, artichoke hearts, red peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese and romano cheese.

Now I get to see how long the pizza steel takes to cool down.

[Mike Nolan]

Our kitchen needs a serious 'spring cleaning'. That's probably going to happen in the next two weeks, as we've already scheduled having someone come in to steam clean the tile floors on the 7th of October, which means removing everything that's on the floor in the kitchen, butler's pantry, mud room and back hall closet; my guess is some stuff won't make it back to those rooms. These tiles have a textured surface that holds dirt (I think that was one of our few serious interior design mistakes in the house.)

Also, it's the time of year when mice try to get inside. I've already caught two down in the basement. I haven't seen any signs of mice in the kitchen yet, but our new cat is a serious mouser, and if there are mice in the kitchen, he'll chase them, jumping on counters and wreaking havoc. So we need to get the counter surfaces uncluttered, too. Also, I've bought many new ingredients for keto-friendly cooking and baking that I need to figure out how to organize better.

[Mike Nolan]

Here's a new category to discuss the monthly recipe challenge project. It doesn't have to be a recipe out of a cookbook you own if it can be found online.

I suggest that we start in November with a savory item (side dish or bread) that could accompany Thanksgiving dinner. That's far enough away that it gives whoever's first up some time to do any necessary research.

In December let's do something for the cookie/sweets Christmas platter.

January would be a savory main dish.

February another sweet item, for Valentines Day, we may need to start that one a little early.

March - a bread you haven't made before. (Maybe Injera?)

My first preference would be the January main dish. Who wants to tackle November or December?

[Mike Nolan]

We both had left over spaghetti squash 'lasagna' with some extra sauce and cheese. I also had a salad.

Tonight I'm making another batch of custard and more cheddar cheese 'crackers'. (Those things are too easy to gobble down, though.) Tomorrow I will be making forgotten chocolate meringue cookies using the egg whites from tonight's custard.

[BakerAunt]

Good plan, Joan. I hope all will be well.

We had the rest of the Turkey-Zucchini loaf with roasted potato chunks (our potatoes again), and microwaved frozen peas.

[Mike Nolan]

There was a time I when I was trying to collect all the major revisions of The Joy of Cooking, but I gave up in the 90's because, quite honestly, I though the latter revisions weren't as good. I haven't looked at a recent edition in over a decade.

I use my 1943 and 1946 editions the most. I have one edition from the 1930's, it is not in good shape. I don't have a first edition (they're very rare and expensive) but it has been reissued. I've been told that the original author didn't actually cook most of the recipes in any of the editions she put out in her lifetime, though I've found them pretty reliable over the years.

IMHO, that's one big difference between The Joy of Cooking and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child and her co-authors tested every recipe in the book many times. The 2nd volume goes into great lengths on her attempts to make authentic French baguettes from American flours. (Her autobiography goes even a bit further.)

[BakerAunt]

Yes, it is fully ceramic (that is, not a lined ceramic).

[Mike Nolan]

A cookbook challenge could be fun, we could alternate between breads, savory (main courses or sides) and sweet items. Let's hash out the details and then plan to pick the first one by the end of October and see if a monthly schedule works, even through the holiday season.

[BakerAunt]

The pictures of pizza that have been appearing here at Nebraska kitchen have had me yearning for pizza. The weather has cooled enough that I baked Sourdough Pan Pizza on Wednesday. It has been so long since I baked a pizza that I forgot to include the red bell pepper in the toppings. It was still great with Canadian bacon, mozzarella, mushrooms, green onions, and Greek olives (the latter on my half only), with grated Parmesan on top.

[Joan Simpson]

Cwcdesign thank you, I'm praying for you too.I'm prepared but I don't have a generator but I have everything I need (I think).I'm staying here with my doggy, I have great neighbors and my sister in law lives right by me too.Praying everyone in the path of the storm will be safe.I'm praying no trees come down, ground is still wet.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron's challah experience reminded me of a pastor at a church I attended before moving here. He built an important sermon point around his idea of barley bread as "the bread of the poor," in a sermon on the New Testament story. (I think it was the feeding of the 5000.) I told him he was incorrect because "barley" is listed as one of the wonderful attributes of the promised land in the older scriptures. He was basing his argument on the white bread vs. whole grain breads of the Medieval and later periods.

At that church, people baked bread for communion. He decided that we should experiment with all kinds of bread, including cornbread. At that point, I suggested that he could vacuum up the crumbs, of which there would be many.

I was a member of Altar Guild, and I did bake a nice wholegrain bread that held together well when it was my turn. However, I ended up resigning when the woman who was in charge of Altar Guild decided we had to move to unleavened bread during Lent using her recipe. (I'm not sure if the pastor was behind this decision or not, as he never mentioned it.)

When I told the story to a Jewish friend, also a baker, she laughed, as she had a Catholic friend who had resigned from her Altar Guild due to a similarly controlling head. My Jewish friend got out of her temple's Latke brigade during Hanukah due to the dominating woman who headed up the endeavor.

My friend did stay in the knitting group, however, in spite of the criticism of a woman about my friend, who knitted in the European manner. That woman could only grumble and had no power to force compliance.

I'm not sure what it is that brings out the would-be dictator in some people when it comes to the internal groups in a place of worship.

[BakerAunt]

I should have clarified that it is not metal but is the standard removeable crockery dish that goes into the metal slow cooker. I had not known that it was possible to scratch the interior. The scratches look like a light white film, which is why I thought it was food residue.

Mike--I now have two ceramic frying pans (Green Pan), a 10-inch and an 8-inch. They are wonderful. Both replaced non-stick coated pans, one of which had built up residue, and the other, a small Teflon skillet from my husband's parents that worried me because of new info on Teflon coatings.

I'm not big on crock pots, but that apple butter recipe is really good.

[Mike Nolan]

What kind of finish is it, a non-stick coating? You could try putting something like water in it, let it cook for 24 hours, and seeing if anything is flaking off. If you take the temperature a few times, that'd give you some idea of performance, too.

I stopped buying anything with a non-stick coating on it years ago, because it always comes off over time. I prefer cast iron, stainless steel, aluminum (non-coated) or, increasingly, silicone baking pans. I haven't bought any of the ceramic frying/baking pans yet, one of these days I will. (My wife says we should be getting rid of stuff, not buying more of it.)

I have some 'ironstone' muffin pans that were great at first, I'd invert the pan and they'd all fall out, but now stuff sticks to them too often, even if I butter/grease them first.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks everyone. I hardly consider myself an expert. There are so many people who know so much more than I do. But I do use the temple kitchen once or twice a month to make 15 1lb loaves of bread so I know more than both our rabbis.

Mike and Len are right, this is ill advised but it's not my show and even when I was "leading" it the rabbis were going to do what they wanted to do.

They will go home with one or two braided loaves (the original plan was two) and a lump of dough that needs to rise.

Of course I am not sure how they will get the dough to braid. There is some number of volunteers bringing in enough dough to make two or four loaves that has been rising in the refrigerator some amount of time. I am delivering my dough at 8:45 in a disposable container. I'll use a turkey roasting bag as that is what I use to raise dough. Religious school begins at 9 and there is a 15-20 minute service. So between 8:45 and 9:30 we'll need to:

cut and pre-shape the dough.

Then the dough will need to rest and relax so people can roll it into ropes and braid it.

Then after we've braided it we're going to let it rise while someone walks us through mixing bread dough.

I am not clear if we're going to egg wash it at temple and I am not clear how we'll transport it back to our houses. I have bus tubs and roasting bags so my daughter and I will be okay. Not sure what others are going to do and no one has given me, as a dad participating in this with his daughter, any thing up front about what is happening.

Maybe I over plan but this is not the way I would do it. But they did not want to do it my way. I am doing what I can to support it.

I am hoping for the best.