Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

Interesting technique from Chinese cooking using baking soda (or possibly cornstarch) to soften meat before cooking it, I will have to play with it.

Tenderise beef for stir fries (Velveting Beef)

[Mike Nolan]

I made a keto fudge yesterday using a recipe I found online, but it isn't setting well, so it's more like a spoon fudge. But I think it'll heat up decently for hot fudge sauce.

Followup: Not quite hot fudge, but pretty good and 3.5 carbs per serving. (And it'd be fewer carbs if I used the Guittard Sante chips, which I haven't found locally yet; I found ones that were similar at Target, just a little higher in carbs.)

[BakerAunt]

We awoke to a cooler day on Monday. I took advantage of it by baking 35 mini-chocolate chip banana mini-muffins. I will freeze some of these, and we will have the rest at teatime.

I then baked a tomato quiche recipe that came last year in an email from Stonyfield Yogurt that I have wanted to try since last year. I used my oil-buttermilk partly wholegrain crust, rolled 1/8th-inch thick and fitted into a 12 x 12 inch La Forme quiche pan with removeable bottom. I'm not sure that I have ever used that pan before. I had to adapt the recipe a bit as I did not have Stonyfield full-fat Greek yogurt but Chobani non-fat Greek yogurt, which is what is sold in my area. I replaced the halved Roma tomatoes with thick slices of tomatoes from our garden. I used 3 tsp. dried basil, as I did not have ¼ cup fresh basil. (If I had planned in advance, I could have bought fresh basil at the market this past weekend. Sigh.) I also halved the salt from ½ tsp. to ¼ tsp., as the Parmesan and crust would have enough salt on their own. I par-baked the crust at 400 F for 10 minutes. The quiche itself baked for 23 minutes. I cut it into fourths and had a quarter for lunch. The rest if for lunches, or even breakfast, the rest of this week.

Once the quiche came out, I mixed up a batch of maple granola that bakes at a lower temperature for an hour before being stirred and baking for another hour. My husband tackled the pile of dishes. I think he was grateful for the mini-muffins and the maple granola.

[Mike Nolan]

I bought a bunch of 4 and 8 ounce freezer jars and froze both of the batches of tomato sauce I made, and I've got enough jars left for a third batch. I also want to freeze some quart-size containers for things like spaghetti and lasagna (both made low-carb), so I'm hoping I get another 3 or 4 batches of sauce made from this year's garden.

My Celebrity and Rutgers tomatoes are doing so-so this year, but that's true of well over half of the plants I started in March. I don't think it's just me, I've talked to others in Lincoln and their tomatoes are not having great seasons, either.

I'm probably going to try Defiance tomatoes next year instead of First Lady, for which I haven't found a reliable supplier, but will probably stick with the 4th of July, Italian Heirloom and Amish Paste varieties, though I'm getting a lot of shoulder splits on the Amish Paste tomatoes this year. Not sure if I'll do Porter next year, though it has been a reliable producer, a lot of little ones but the weight adds up. I haven't done Big Boy or Better Boy in a while, I might try them, and I am tempted to try the Burpee Supersauce tomato, though my experience has been that when tomatoes get over a pound in size, they aren't as flavorful.

The UNL urban soil improvement project we're in ends with a third set of soil samples next spring, so I will probably pull the cages and landscape cloth afterwards and re-till the garden for 2025, most likely throwing in a few bags of peat or sphagnum moss.

[Mike Nolan]

Pork is underutilized nearly as much as it is misunderstood. Aside from bacon and ham, I probably only cook pork 3 or 4 times a year.

I used to buy the Smithfield smoked pork chops and cook them on the outdoor grill, where they only take a few minutes, but they're really high in sodium and when I started cutting back on sodium (per doctor) that was one of the things that got dropped from the menu.

They're fairly keto-friendly, though. There also seems to be a consensus among those on keto that increasing electrolytes is a key to avoiding the 'keto flu', and that usually includes going well over the recommended levels on salt. I may work them back into the repertoire, they're a fast meal prep. (I like them with applesauce, though, and applesauce is NOT very keto-friendly, but if I limit it to a tablespoon or two, it shouldn't break the carb bank.)

[Italiancook]

I baked Trisha Yearwood's Pork Chops and Rice. The rice goes under the pork chops with broth/water. I baked mine for 55 minutes to make sure the pork didn't have any pinkness. Broiled for a few minutes, not to brown as recipe says, but to give the chops a little color. We enjoyed this. The reviews on Food Network are mixed, with some saying it didn't have much flavor. We didn't find that fault. Maybe because I used meat market chops and a blend of rice (white, brown, wild & red). I'll make this again baking it for only 50 minutes, since I will run it under the broiler.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/trisha-yearwood/pork-chops-and-rice-recipe-2124315

Making this reminded me of something my mom baked that I liked a lot. She put homemade (from scratch) Thanksgiving dressing in the bottom of a pan, put pork chops on top & baked. Don't know at what temp or how long. I've decided I want to bake this, but couldn't find a recipe online. I need a recipe for the scratch stuffing, since I've always used Pepperidge Farm or Stove Top at Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, almost everything I found has the stuffing on top of the pork chops in a mound, instead of a layer of stuffing on the bottom. Plus, the recipes use a can of cream soup and milk. I can't use either. I did find 2 recipes with the stuffing on the bottom in a layer, but those were for cornbread stuffing. I don't like cornbread stuffing.

Do any of you have a recipe for baked pork chops with stuffing as a bottom layer. Without sausage.?

I thought maybe the reason so many people were putting the stuffing on top of the pork chops was that the food police had declared stuffing under the pork chops to be unsafe in the way that stuffing inside a turkey is now frowned on. I Googled and the answer I found is that it is safe.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[chocomouse]

Our Early Girl and Amish paste are loaded with tomatoes that are turning red rapidly now, enough for tomato and/or BLT sandwiches several times a week. I'm also freezing sauce in small batches, and waiting to go to the market to get jalapenos for salsa. I will be picking today from the third planting of green beans. Of course, I planted way too many kinds of salad greens and they're the most successful of my gardening efforts this summer. Today I will start shutting down my deck gardening for the season - pulling up old plants/flowers, refilling my buckets of soil and compost for next spring, bringing inside to the sunroom the mandevillas, some calibrachoas, ivy geranium, etc to overwinter. If the weather pattern holds (70s, no rain) I'll trim and transplant herbs into fresh containers for winter, and start salad greens inside.

[Mike Nolan]

The oven-baked chicken thighs were good enough that Diane actually ate the breading/skin, which is unusual for her.

There was sage in the mix of herbs and spices I used, but I think it made the breading taste more like a stuffing. Not a bad taste, just not a 'fried chicken' taste. Next time I'll leave it out. A simple salt-and-pepper blend is worth trying, too.

The rest of the dredge blend was: salt, pepper, oregano, paprika, ginger, celery salt, dry mustard. Diane thought the chicken needed salt, I'm not sure adding more to the dredge would have helped.

I didn't have quite enough of the KA keto flour mix and didn't want to open another bag yet, so I added some oat fiber. Not sure that was worth repeating, though.

The dip had egg, diluted cream (instead of milk) and paprika. That seemed to work well. I need to practice my breading technique a bit, though.

[Mike Nolan]

A number of Italian Heirloom and Amish Paste set in the cool spell a few weeks ago, today I picked 5 Amish Paste, and had one on my salad. The Italian Heirlooms are a day or two away.

I may have enough smaller tomatoes (3 or 4 different varieties) ripening to do another batch of tomato sauce on Sunday or Monday. I can do up to about 10 pounds at a time in my 8 quart induction-ready stock pot. I'm freezing a lot of it in small batches (4-8 ounces) which is the right amount for a pizza or other dishes that need just a little tomato in them, and I'll probably freeze some larger batches for things like spaghetti or lasagna.

[Mike Nolan]

We had salami and tomato sandwiches tonight.

I'm planning to do oven baked chicken thighs (bone in, skin on) on Friday, using the King Arthur Keto Flour for breading.

[Mike Nolan]

Yes, they make 2-3 cubic foot upright freezers, most seem to be around 27-33 inches high, 18 inches wide and 20 inches deep. Check the big box stores (Lowes, Home Depot, WalMart) near you, might have to order them for pickup in a week or so.

Ideally it should be garage-ready, or maybe that's more of an issue with refrigerators.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--I seem to recall a King Arthur blog post on baking with almond flour that suggested adding a certain amount but not decreasing the amount of flour. My memory is hazy on the point, but it suggested that the almond flour made for a more tender baked product.

It is great to learn here about how others are experimenting with the recipes. I miss that from the now defunct Baking Circle.

I wish that I could have baked the full two dozen, but our freezer space is limited. My husband has suggested that we could get a smaller freezer for the garage, but it would need to be a "front door" one that could sit up on a built-in work area that was in the garage when we bought the house (before a previous owner moved his "shop" to the shed he built across the street). I'm not sure that they make such a thing as a small front door freezer, but I will do some internet searching.

He was impressed by Len's solution to finding space for the chest freezer in the dining room, but we do not have space there either.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, my husband pan-cooked boneless pork, which we had with two ears of sweet corn each (it is the end of the season!) and microwaved frozen peas. My husband reports that eating sweet corn on the cob is great physical therapy for stretching out his mouth area where he had surgery. Too bad that sweet corn season is so short.

[BakerAunt]

Peachy Keen Muffins makes 12 regular or 6 large

Marliss Desens made major changes to "Just Peachy Peach Muffins," from King Arthur.

2 ¼ cup white whole wheat flour
2 Tbs. flax meal
2 Tbs. milk powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ (heaping) tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. nutmeg

2 peaches, diced but not peeled

1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup buttermilk

Optional coarse sparkling sugar or cinnamon sugar

Grease a 12-cup or large 6-cup muffin pan, or line with muffin papers spritzed with no-stick spray. Preheat oven to 375 F, with rack in center

In a 4-qt. bowl, combine dry ingredients in the first column and stir well. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, and buttermilk.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the egg mixture and combine gently with a Danish whisk until mostly incorporated. Add the peaches, and carefully use a spatula to incorporate them.

Divide the thick batter between muffin cups. Sprinkle the top with coarse sparkling sugar, if desired. Bake for 25 minutes for large muffins and a bit less for smaller ones. Allow to cool briefly, then remove the muffins to a rack to cool.

What I Changed: I made a half recipe but adjusted the ¼ plus 2 Tbs. of oil with 1/3 cup of oil. I replaced milk with buttermilk and adjusted it from ½ cup plus 2 Tbs. to ¾ cup of buttermilk. I replaced AP flour with white whole wheat. I reduced the salt from ½ plus 1/8 tsp. to ¼ tsp. I halved the brown sugar and used light instead of dark. I deleted 2 tsp. of vanilla, as it is not needed. I added 2 Tbs milk powder and 2 Tbs. flax meal. I intended to adjust the baking powder from 2 ¼ tsp. to 1 ¼ tsp. and add ¼ tsp. baking soda, but I accidentally added 1 tsp. baking soda, so I then added 1 tsp. baking powder. The muffins came out well, so I will leave the error.

[BakerAunt]

Oatmeal Scotchies are so good, Joan!

I was able to buy another dozen lovely Michigan peaches at the farmers market last weekend. On Wednesday morning, I used them in a recipe that I adapted from King Arthur's "Just Peachy Peach Muffins," to make a half recipe (original made 24) and am calling Peachy Keen Muffins. Among other changes, mine has half the sugar (their version produces cupcakes for all intents and purposes) and uses white whole wheat flour. I also deleted the vanilla, which King Arthur tends to use liberally. In a few of their recipes, lately, a lot of vanilla is used to cover up other problems with a recipe. I erred this morning, as I had intended to adjust the 2 ¼ tsp. baking powder to accommodate the buttermilk I used in place of milk. I meant to use 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder and ¼ tsp. baking soda. However, I had not had my coffee before I started baking and realized that I had put in 1 tsp. baking soda rather than baking powder. So, I added 1 tsp. baking powder and hoped for the best. The muffins rose perfectly, so I will keep the "error." I baked them as six large muffins. I will freeze a few of these for fast breakfasts. I will post my recipe adaptation here at Nebraska Kitchen in case anyone is interested in that I changed.

I finished out Wednesday morning by baking Squash Whole Wheat and Oat Quick Bread, a recipe that I adapted from Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker. I needed to use up 2 cups of shredded zucchini left over from when I made turkey-zucchini loaf last week, as well as a partial egg (added 1 Tbs. of water to replace the other half). I baked the recipe as four loaves in a 4-well Nordic Ware loaf pan. I will leave one out for dessert tonight and tomorrow. I will freeze the other three. While it was a little warm for baking today, it is about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday.