Search Results for '("C'

[BakerAunt]

Scott roasted the turkey for Thanksgiving, as he always does. I made dressing (Pepperidge Farm blue bag forever) and gravy. We had Cardamom, Cranberry, and Dried Cherry relish (or I did), applesauce, and green beans that I froze in August. The green beans did not come out as well as they usually do. We had pumpkin pie for dessert.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. Thanks BA.

Mike - I used to us a pinch of sugar in my pizza dough for the yeast. I've stopped and haven't noticed a difference. That may also be partly from shifting from ADY to instant. Challah has sugar in the recipe so adding a pinch wouldn't make a difference I suspect.

BA - One of the good things of the sourdough movement is slower, longer rises. My ciabatta from Jim Lahey uses .3% yeast. The rise is refrigerated for 18 or so hours. The rise after shaping really needs two or more hours. I'm not usually that patient but I still have a good, open crumb just not huge holes (which I don't like anyway).

[aaronatthedoublef]

I did an unintentional experiment when making challah. My recipe calls for 2% yeast which for my 14 loaves is 75g. I thought I had a lot more yeast with me than I did which was only 17g. 17g is about .45%.

I could have driven home and picked up more (I had a new, unopened 1lb package of SAFInstant yeast) but I just decided to see what would happen (kind of stupid in hindsight considering the cost of the other ingredients). But you all have talked about the strength of modern yeast and how we use more than we need so I wanted to see what would happen.

So I mixed it all and put it in the fridge for its usual overnight rise. I gave it a couple extra hours before I came in to cut and pre-shape it.

When I came in there was some rise but definitely nothing close to normal. I then cut the dough and shaped into balls. Normally these rest to loosen up but since I go back home for the rest I refrigerate them for a couple hours. This time I left them at room temp for three hours - more rise.

Then I came back for the braiding but turned on the oven first. I let them rise at room+oven temp for about 1 hour 45 minutes.

They might be a little denser than normal but they not so anyone other than I can distinguish - an advantage I suppose of not having regular "customers".

I think if this happens again I will go grab more yeast. I realized after the fact that I was only about five minutes from a Whole Foods. But it is also nice to know I can make this work if I have to.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't care if its trendy or not, I just think it tastes terrible. I know there are people for whom cilantro tastes like soap (my wife is one of them), but as far as I know that's not an issue with kale, we just haven't found any way to make it palatable to us. We had a farm share for a couple of years, some weeks half the box was kale.

[RiversideLen]

Mike Nolan wrote:

Almost anything would have to improve kale. 🙂

lol, I like to steam kale and then season it with a little soy sauce and sesame seed oil.

I just finished stuffing some peppers, they are sitting in the fridge waiting for dinner time. I think I'm going to make potato (Yukon gold), probably roast as they can go in the oven with the peppers, and some broccoli and cauliflower.

[BakerAunt]

I have been remiss in processing my pumpkins, and I noted a spot on one of the two peanut pumpkins on Saturday, so I went ahead and roasted and processed it after cutting out the bad parts. I will do the second one tomorrow. The sugar, or pie pumpkins, last much better, but I will be roasting two of those early next week for pumpkin pie.

Dinner tonight was a repeat of chicken salad sandwiches on the last sub roll. I also had some of my butternut squash soup.

Mike--uh, what did they do with what was left after they drained off the alcohol (part that did not freeze)?

[chocomouse]

I love using digital coupons! I can go to their (whoever) website at home, at my leisure, and select (click on) the coupons I will use. When the cashier runs those particular items through the scanner, the coupon deduction is done automatically. You do have to make sure you are buying the correct product, such as a 15 oz box, not the 20 oz box, for example. I find the grocery store staff are not able to make corrections, because the company that manages the system is usually on the other side of the country. What that has to do with it, I don't know! But I love not having to cut coupons and remember to take them shopping with me.

I'm pretty careful about sharing information, but I assume they already have access to most of it. And sometimes I will receive special "selected just for you" coupons, which are for things I buy often and are not posted publicly. If a company sends me an email requesting information, (e.g. my physical address) I do not respond. Rather, I go to their website and look at my account and then add the info - if I want them to have it.

[Mike Nolan]

Walgreens has pulled the digital coupon pricing only thing on me, too. Hy-vee has digital coupons but they're (in theory) tied to their preferred customer program, which they're in the process of modifying in ways that aren't clear yet.

I probably buy more things at Super Saver, which is closer and usually cheaper (chicken is one exception), but we don't like their dairy products.

We bought our turkey through the animal science graduate student association, not the cheapest option but it helps support a good group.

[Mike Nolan]

I was told by one of the workers behind the grocery store meat counter (I wouldn't call them butchers) that their meat comes in mostly pre-cut and pre-packaged, though they do get some things that are primal cuts or sections, but usually boneless. And, oddly enough, they grind some of their own ground beef.

About the only bone-in meat I see in the stores are ribs and some steaks (T-bone, Porterhouse and KC Strip.) Shanks and soup bones are usually available in the fall and winter but disappear come spring.

Fareway Beef gets primals and will cut to order, including bone-in steaks. (A 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch T-bone cooks and tastes so much different than the usual 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick cut.)

There's another high-end butcher shop (featuring Piedmontese beef) that opened on the other end of town and now has a location near us, though I haven't been there yet. And there's Del Gould, which caters mostly to the restaurants.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my first apple pie of the season, using some of the Winesaps that we bought at the orchard last week. The recipe is from Bernard Clayton's pastry book and is titled French Apple Pie. Instead of a top crust, it has a streusel crust. I have perfected a streusel crust that uses avocado oil rather than butter (3 Tbs. oil in place of 1/2 cup butter). I also cover the pie with foil for the first 45 minutes, so that the streusel does not get overbrowned. We will slice into the pie tomorrow at lunch.

Aaron--yes, nothing is worse than sitting around waiting for bread to rise. Another project needs to fill the time.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover beef stew for dinner.

I made another frittata for lunch on Tuesday, so that I could use up some roasted potato chunks that were not enough for another meal. I also used red onion, the two little green bell peppers we picked before the freeze, some sliced mushrooms, some kale, and the rest of a container of feta. I used three eggs this time but probably could have used a fourth. I really like that ceramic frying pan, as it makes it easy to invert the frittata onto a plate, then slice back into the frying pan. (Note: I will use a bit of non-stick spray on the plate next time, so that it slides back more easily.) I saved the leftover frittata to warm up for lunch tomorrow.

I also made chicken broth today, using the bones from last night's chicken breasts and from a previous time that I had frozen.

[chocomouse]

We had Cottage (aka Shepherd's Pie) Pie for dinner -- made with corn, ground beef, and mashed potato with garlic. Technically, when made with lamb instead of beef, it is Shepherd's Pie.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I've made ciabatta rolls for sandwiches so far. This is also a dozen week for challot (plural of challah). I have two KAs so I am bringing one with me and I am thinking about making some cookies while the challah does its second rise. Need something in the slack time.

[Mike Nolan]

I think there has to be a lot of rye in the dough (at least 50% of the flour) before there's much benefit to letting it age beyond the point where it is cool. 100% rye breads are more likely to call for a 24 hour wait.

[BakerAunt]

CWCdesign--I'm glad that your Rye Semolina Bread came out well.

I agree with Mike about rye breads. As for other yeast breads, I think it may be more a matter of practicality. once the loaf has cooled. The bread making process takes 4-5 hours, and then the loaf needs to cool completely before cutting, which means another 3-4 hours. My chances of timing that for a mealtime are not great unless I start very early in the morning and plan to have it for dinner.

As for cutting warm bread, Peter Reinhart once wrote that a warm loaf of bread is like a teenager on the verge of adulthood: the bread looks done, but inside it is still baking.

I will bite into warm rolls, although they have a much softer texture. However, rolls cool faster than a loaf of bread.

With my quick breads or cakes that are oil-based, I read an article from Bon Appetit or Epicurious (back before they erected the paywall), that gave hints for oil cakes, and one of them was to bake it the day before to give the spices time to infuse the bread. On the occasions when I have cut one the day I baked it, I have noted that the flavor and texture gets better with time. That is not true of butter cakes, which can begin to dry out.