I roasted a chicken breast which I marinated with oil, vinegar and spices. The spice I used peculiar to Florida (I think) was "Everglades". The spice is also known as "Monkey Dust"! It's mostly salt with a little msg, papain and spices. I roasted the breast for 20 minutes @ 450 and then topped it with a little honey mustard. It was perfect. I had marinated green beans to which I added roasted cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and chopped basil. Not having a toaster oven has been a real challenge. I did have to purchase a grill pan and small sheet pan. Oh well I will have something to look forward to when we go back April 1. The weather is an improvement over home.
BA your cake sounds delicious and Joan, your dinner looks yummy!
I baked some chicken meatballs by making the ones for piccata and subbing in Greek seasonings. I served them with sautéed zucchini and the end of my spinach arugula mix and tzatziki sauce (Boar's Head). I have some more for tomorrow and I froze the rest of the meatballs for future meals.
The time differences between underproofed, fully proofed and overproofed are not that large, and environmental factors (proofing temp, humidity and barometric pressure) all have their own impact.
I made two loaves of my Harvest Grains Bread (adapted from KAF) I've doubled the recipe and use half bread flour and half WWW. This time I decided to use the 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch pans recommended. I really took the time to let it rise - because it was chilly here, it took a long time. I did put it in when it was ½ " over the rim instead of the full inch. It did rise, but looking at the slight blowout on the side I probably still underproofed it a little.
Question - should I expect a dough with lots of whole wheat and grains in it (it has the harvest grains and cornmeal) to take longer in the second proving? And should the finished temp be around 200?
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On Friday I had a chicken patty (the kind that comes frozen) sandwich, mashed potatoes, broccoli and mushroom sauce. To make the sauce, I sauteed fresh mushrooms, deglazed the pan with a shot of sherry, after the sherry reduced to about nothing, I added some mushroom soup (Amy's mushroom bisque), thinned it out with just a little of the potato water and heated it through. That was yummy, the nuttiness of the sherry made a difference.
Not sure why it's failing maybe they're too large, so I increased the maximum image size.
If it still fails, try emailing me the image (nolan at tssi.com)
We had meatloaf again, just one slice left.
It began to snow on Wednesday morning, a lake-effect snow from Lake Michigan, and it snowed most of the day and overnight. Scott estimates that as of this Thursday morning, we have had at least eight inches. It is fluffy snow, so he finds it easier to shovel. I woke up around seven this morning, so I had time to bake Whole Wheat Apple Muffins for breakfast. The recipe first appeared in Sift (Fall 2019), p. 24, the short-lived King Arthur baking magazine that replaced the beloved The Baking Sheet. The original recipe was more cupcake than muffin, with all of the unhealthy implications of that difference. I replaced ½ cup of butter with ¼ cup canola oil, reduced the brown sugar from ¾ to ½ cup, and halved the salt from ½ to ¼ tsp. I added ¼ cup Bob's Red Mill milk powder and 2 Tbs. flax meal to increase nutritional value. I reduce the boiled cider from 2 Tbs. to 1 Tbs., as I have found it otherwise overwhelms the other flavors. The recipe calls for ½ cup dried or fresh chopped apples. I used two small Winesaps, cutting out a bad place on one, so I had about 1 ½ cups. I reduced the walnuts from ¾ to ½ cup and deleted ½ cup raisins. The muffins are so good warm from the oven, especially on such a cold morning, and they are also good at room temperature. As finished this post, the sun broke through, but it will likely go behind the clouds again.
My meat loaf recipe is very simple:
2 pounds of ground beef
1 egg
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 can mushrooms, chopped
about a cup of cheese, plus more to sprinkle on top later on
Some kind of tomato product such as ketchup or tomato paste. Recently I've been using the tomato relish that I made from last year's tomato crop (tomatoes, red peppers, onions, sugar, salt, vinegar) it works great in a meatloaf, a half-cup of salsa would probably work well, too.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Mix it thoroughly, put it in a 9 inch loaf pan and bake it at 350 for about an hour or until it reaches 180 degrees. Towards the end, I usually sprinkle cheese on top, sometime I brush ketchup on first.
As it cools, I drain off the excess grease.
This makes about 9 1" slices weighing around 5.5 ounces each. I usually log it as 10 carbs and 300 calories.
BA, I sympathize with you. A few years ago I was at my neighbors for Christmas Eve, after everyone had gone they were putting away the food. I saw that the cookies I had brought were uncovered so not wanting them to dry out I covered them. Then, a few moments later, she was taking the pasta sauce to the fridge and the handle of the pot broke off, causing the pot to fly to the floor and getting sauce all over the kitchen. The cookies I had just covered had sauce on the cover (yea, the cookies were saved!). Anyway, they bid me farewell and spent the next 30 minutes or so cleaning up sauce.
The meatloaf, I made a half recipe as I only had 1 pound of ground beef. I divided the meatloaf into 3 equal loaves so to take the guesswork out of how much to have at any one meal. It came out pretty good, I enjoyed it. I'll make it again. I'm thinking this might be good with ground turkey or chicken.
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For Sunday breakfast (for me) and Sunday teatime (for my husband) I baked the shaped Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Rolls I had resting overnight in the refrigerator. I like this version with no spices in the dough, only the cinnamon and the crystalized ginger rolled up in it, so I will make it this way from now on. We had lake effect snow overnight (from Lake Michigan) and into this morning, so it was lovely to sit with my sweet rolls and coffee. The rolls are wonderfully tender, and I am beginning to think that is the result of the Ankarsurm mixer, although with this recipe, as I noted in Saturday night's post requires some adaptation no matter how it is mixed and kneaded. It could be that I was better able to judge the correct amount of flour with the Ankarsrum.
Sometimes I buy sandwich cookies (Oreo knockoffs) from Whole Foods, 365 brand. The 365 brand is, in my opinion, the best tasting Oreo type cookie. They had been sold in a 20 ounce package, now they have shrunk to 12.5 ounces. I wonder if the decision to shrink them was influenced by tariffs as they come from Canada.
For dinner on Thursday, I made chicken salad from the rest of our roast chicken. I use a mixture of light mayonnaise and nonfat Greek yogurt, along with Dijon mustard, freshly ground black pepper, and dried dill for the dressing. I did not have any green onion, so I used some Penzey's dried onion. (Scott does not do well with regular onion.) I had three small red bell peppers, from the plants we brought in to overwinter on the porch, that were in the refrigerator, so I added those and some celery. I should have bought more celery last time we did the big shopping trip, as I prefer it be organically farmed. We had the chicken salad as open-faced sandwiches on the last of the Butternut Squash and Pepita Bread. I might try that recipe as buns for sandwiches.
Len--Salmon patties go extremely well with your Whole Wheat/Rye/Semolina buns.
Your turkey breast sounds delicious, BA!
I made salmon patties from a recipe that I saw on the internet a little while back. Not bad but just a little dry. I had it with mac and cheese (from frozen, Amy's) and some sugar snap peas, carrots and cauliflower.
For dinner on Wednesday, I roasted a bone-in, half turkey breast that we found at the grocery store yesterday. I checked the internet for recipes and directions, and the directions are all over the place, with some sites not allowing me to look unless I lower my ad blocker (not going to happen). I rejected those that required overnight brining, as I needed it for dinner, as well as those with copious amounts of butter. Suggested temperatures ranged from 325-400 F with times for 20 minutes per pound up to a lot longer. In the end, I did a hodgepodge. I rubbed it with olive oil, sprinkled on dried sage and thyme, then put some sprigs from my rosemary plant atop it. I started it on a rack at 385 F for 10 minutes, then lowered the heat to 325 F. I checked after 30 minutes, then after another 20, then at two or three more 15-minute intervals to get to 165 F. I splashed it twice with some white wine to make sure it did not dry out. The meat was moist and tender, so I would certainly roast it the same way again, but I will take better notes next time. We had a phone call from one of the kids, so I lost track of the timing. I made a sauce out of the drippings after deglazing with white wine.
To go with the turkey breast, I boiled some cavatappi pasta that I combined with a 4 oz. broken up log of goat cheese and some olive oil, with a sprinkle of black pepper on mine. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli. For dessert, I pulled out a small loaf of zucchini bread that I made in the autumn.
I've been reading about everyone's delicious meals and glad to hear that colonoscopies are over. I'll have mine in the spring (I think).
On Monday, I made a mushroom stroganoff from NYT - I read all the comments and incorporated several into the recipe which I think made it easier. The recipe recommended serving over mashed potatoes or buttered noodles, but I had two sweet potatoes I needed to use (baked than mashed) and they don't need butter. I enjoyed it for 3 nights and put the rest of the mushrooms in the freezer to enjoy over pasta some night when I don't feel like cooking.
We finally have a confirmed date for my reverse shoulder surgery. February 12th at 12:30 pm - a long time to be fasting 🙄 I am looking forward to getting rid of the pain.
