Interesting coincidence, I had a colonoscopy today, too, so I'm still eating a bit light. (I'm hoping to get back on a more keto-friendly diet, too.)
There's a new edition of the Food Pyramid and it is close to a total inversion of the one I remember from high school.
Meats, proteins and healthy fats (yes, including butter!) are back on top, and grains are at the bottom.
The new pyramid probably doesn't go as far as it should in resuscitating the reputation of butter and other 'healthy-again' fats, but it's a definite improvement over the last 30 or so years of recommendations.
A low carb diet is recommended, but it doesn't quite endorse the keto plan.
This page is kind of busy, but eventually you can get to the food pyramid on it:
https://realfood.gov/
Skeptic--Put a rack in a pot on the stove. (I have small circular racks that I use.) Set the jar in the pot, without its lid. Add water to the pan, up to about 1/4 to 1/3 of the jar height, and heat over medium heat. The crystals will dissolve, just as with honey, and you will have pourable maple syrup again. Let it cool before putting the lid back on the jar.
I awoke on Monday to the lovely smell of spice from the apple mixture in the crockpots. I let them go for about an hour longer, as I was busy. The big crockpot switches to warm after ten hours. The little one (Montgomery Wards) chugs along until I turn it off. I put the contents of the big one into my largest, deepest bowl before using my stick blender. The contents were nicely contained; had I done it in the crock, I would still be cleaning up. I put the pureed apple mixture back into the big crockpot, added the vanilla, then moved the contents of the smaller crockpot to the large, deep bowl and pureed it, before adding it to the big crockpot. It fit perfectly. I tasted it and decided to add another ¼ cup brown sugar and another 1/4 cup white sugar, as well as 2 tsp. more of cinnamon and ½ tsp. additional nutmeg. I also added another ½ tsp. vanilla. I asked Scott to taste it, and he thought it was fine. I then let the mixture simmer in the uncovered crockpot.
Although the recipe states two hours, I was cooking down a recipe and a half, and these apples were watery, so I kept an eye on it and kept stirring occasionally. As it approached three hours, the mixture mounded nicely on a spoon. I transported the crockpot out to the Annex, where I had the electric canner set up with sterilized jars. I ended up with six pints and a single 1-cup jar.
As Mike notes, the spices need to be increased from the base recipe, and I also add allspice and cloves. I think that the spices, and the amount of sugar and vanilla, depend in part on the apple variety. These were seconds, and I did not recognize many of the names. There were also more yellow apples than I usually like to use.
I roasted a large chicken, about 6 ½ lbs. for New Year's Day dinner. I also made Pepperidge Farm dressing to go with it. (I bought two extra bags at Thanksgiving, so we are set.) To make the broth for the dressing, I pulled out some bones from chicken breasts that were in the freezer. Annie was beside herself, as she had been smelling chicken all day, but her reward awaited her. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli. Dessert was pumpkin pie.
I baked three loaves of Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread, using my new Ankarsrum mixer. Although Pleasant Hill Grain sent me a quick start guide with a bread recipe, it called for freshly ground whole wheat flour, gluten, and bread enhancer, none of which are found in my kitchen. However, the recipe was helpful in that I looked at the amounts of flour and liquid. I decided that the four-loaf recipe was close to my recipe which makes three loaves. (I think their loaves are smaller.) I added another 2 oz. of water to the 6 oz. in my recipe, and I ended up using about 40 g less of the bread flour. I also included a rest after adding the whole grain ingredients and half the bread flour. I'm still learning about how long to knead it. Speed 2 seems to be the correct one for bread, although I mixed at Speed 1. It required about 9 minutes. The loaves baked up beautifully, and my husband was impressed. The mixer requires less hands-on time than my Cuisinart did, and it is much easier to clean.
To go with soup for dinner, I baked a half recipe of Rory's Irish Scones, a recipe from the newer Baking Sheet series that I first baked this summer. I managed a much lighter texture this time.
After dinner, I baked a pumpkin pie. We had too many other goodies around for me to bake it for Christmas, but New Year's Day works!
On Saturday, I roasted two butternut squash, scooped out the squash and pureed it. I froze a cup to use for muffins in the future, set aside a half cup to use in a recipe that I want to try, and then used a cup to bake Butternut Squash Crumb Muffins, a recipe from Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker (34-35). I make some changes by using white whole wheat flour, reducing the brown sugar in the muffins from ¾ to ½ cup, replacing the milk with buttermilk and adjusting the baking powder and adding baking soda. I add 2 Tbs. milk powder and 2 Tbs. flax meal. I delete a teaspoon of vanilla. I do a streusel with 3 Tbs. brown sugar, 5 Tbs. King Arthur AP, ½ Tbs. melted butter, and 1/2 Tbs. avocado oil, to which I added a bit of pecan meal. The recipe made 13 muffins, so I put a muffin paper in small ceramic dish for the extra one. It took about 5 minutes longer to bake than the ones in the muffin pan. I am looking forward to having these for breakfast over the next few days. Scott will likely have one with his afternoon tea.
I baked Pfeffernusse on Wednesday (Christmas Eve) because for me it is not Christmas without Pfeffernusse.
On Tuesday, I baked my oil-based sugar cookies. This time, I used whole wheat pastry flour in place of the white whole wheat flour and King Arthur AP in place of the Pillsbury or Gold Medal AP. I flattened the balls with a juice glass, after spraying the bottom with non-stick spray. (I had to repeat every six cookies.) I put mixed red, green, and white sprinkles in the center of each one, then used my finger to spread it over the surface. I will wait until tomorrow to taste one, as the nutmeg and vanilla need an overnight in oil baking to develop the flavor.
Follow-Up Note: the cookies came out very well. They are not quite as soft as before, but they are also not oily. I think pastry flour absorbs oil more effectively. I will continue using half whole wheat pastry flour, but I will use Pillsbury or Gold Medal flour rather than King Arthur AP next time in order to product a lighter cookie.
For dinner on Tuesday, I had thawed a cooked half turkey breast from Thanksgiving and the leftover gravy I had frozen as well. I sauteed sliced carrots and celery, chopped red bell peppers (the ones that finally ripened on the plants we brought inside to overwinter), and a half pound of sliced mushrooms in avocado oil. I added the gravy and simmered, then added the cut-up turkey (prepared by Scott). I boiled some noodles, being sure to drain the about two minutes early, then combined them with the turkey mixture. We have enough for a couple more dinners.
Aaron--Yes, cream of tartar is necessary for a good snickerdoodle. I checked my favorite snickerdoodle recipe, Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, from Martha Stewart Living (November 2015). I was paging through the magazine before a dental appointment ten years ago, and the staff kindly xeroxed the recipe for me. The recipe called for melted butter, which makes me wonder if I can work up an oil version....
The winter solstice is in a few hours. (10 AM eastern, I think)
I baked a test angel food cake today, using egg white protein powder and dextrose. It might be a bit on the dense side, but it's intended for a trifle so that won't matter much. I'll also be testing pastry cream made with dextrose instead of sucrose. (Food sensitivity issues.)
I also made a batch of Christmas chocolates using Lily semi-sweet chocolate chips. (Same reason.)
All Trumps was mentioned in the class as a high gluten flour but all three places we visited used Sir Lancelot and maybe some others mixed with it.
KAB sells small bags of high gluten flour (and Amazon sells it too) but it is pretty expensive. I'll have to find a less expensive source.
I was planning to do a pot roast but the Nebraska volleyball game went on longer than I expected (they lost in 5 sets to Texas A&M) so we went with takeout pizza/lasagna instead for tonight, I'll probably do the pot roast on Tuesday.
