What are you Cooking the Week of May 2, 2021?

[Italiancook]

Joan, I'm glad your sister is doing better. I know what you mean about the dust. I skim the Food Network website every day. Not to glean recipes, but to see what products for sale they're featuring. I've found a few products that were just what I needed. One of them is a 3-step ladder that has wide steps. I wish the handle at the top was taller, but the ladder is what I had been looking for. I used it last night to clean the top of the refrigerator. I don't know when it was last cleaned, but not during year 1 of the pandemic. Consequently, there was a ton of dust on the top. I can't believe I was cooking and baking with such a dusty mess. Windex and paper towels caught all the dust bunnies, and now it's health department clean.

I made blueberry pancakes yesterday. I threw caution to the wind and used baking powder instead of my medically necessary substitution of baking soda & cream of tartar. I wanted to have pancakes with rise instead of flat pancakes. They were pleasantly high and looked beautiful. Tasted good, too. But I can't make a habit of using baking powder.

Mike, do you have a recipe for semolina pasta using volume that you'd be willing to share. I bought a friend the KitchenAid pasta extruder that makes pasta with holes in the middle. After I bought it, I read the reviews. Some people had issues with the recipe that came with the extruder. So I bought her some semolina and suggested she sub some of the flour with semolina. She didn't say this, but I think I confused the issue. I tried the website KitchenAid recommended, but the recipe for semolina pasta there is by weight. So if you have one by volume you can share, I'd like to give it to her. If not, that's fine. I know you bake by weight.

[Mike Nolan]

Here's the semolina pasta recipe I use (this is based on a half-recipe of the dough recipe that came with my KA pasta kit):

1 2/3 cups semolina (I use a 1/3 cup measure 5 times)
1/8 teaspoon salt (a small amount in the palm of my hand)
1 teaspoon oil
2 large eggs
enough water to make a medium stiff dough, probably 3-4 ounces. If I use too little water, it comes out crumbly the first few passes through the pasta roller, but eventually it comes together. If I use too much water, it doesn't separate well when I run it through the pasta cutter, and sometimes sticks together a bit in the pot of water, though it will break up if I stir it with a pasta fork.

This dough works well for spaghetti, wide noodles and lasagna noodles.

[Mike Nolan]

We have a 3 step ladder with a very sturdy safety handle that folds down, it is the 'little jumbo' by Wing. They also make a 2 step and a 4 step version. They used to make a 5 step version, though I don't see it on their website, but I'm not sure I'd want to climb up that high these days, anyway. If I can't reach it on the 3 step ladder I either use the big extension ladder or I hire someone to do it for me. 🙂

We bought it at the National Association of Home Builders show in Houston in 1997 just before we built our house. (We found a lot of interesting things at that show, our DCS range, ladders, laser cut floor insets, showers, I figure that show probably added at least $50,000 to the cost of our house.)

[Joan Simpson]

Thanks Italian cook about my sister,she's home not great -but home.
Tonight we had BBQ'd chicken breast on the grill with baked beans and slaw.

I made a Blueberry Yum Yum dessert and a small chocolate cake for when our son and his girlfriend gets in tomorrow.The chocolate cake stuck to my pan(I didn't have the pan grease made up)so I greased it well with crisco and then floured.It stuck in several spots around the edge but I dug it out and iced it anyway.It's just a cake.I was tempted to do a trifle but didn't.

[BakerAunt]

I made another batch of yogurt on Saturday.

I also made soup using the rest of the chicken broth, some potato water, 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Vegi Soup combo (lentils, split peas, and a bit of barley), and browned turkey and sauteed carrots, celery, and mushrooms, along with parsley, 2 Tbs. reconstituted dry onion, some dried garlic, and two different kinds of Herbs de Provence (using up a freebie and finishing it out with Penzeys). It is a good day for soup. We had another freeze last night, and it has been a day with highs in the mid-50s. A similarly cool week is predicted, so soup during the coming week is good. We are hoping that we will get rain tonight and tomorrow.

[cwcdesign]

Saturday night, we had tempeh "burgers" that were more like falafel and really delicious. The recipe called for summer squash and kale, both of which came from the garden. It was all whirled up in the food processor. We served them on Will's sourdough with garden lettuce (at its end until fall) and avocado. The ranch dressing tasted great with them. We had tried tempeh once before, but this was a multi-grain version which added a nice flavor.

[Italiancook]

Thanks for your generosity, Mike. I'll give the semolina pasta recipe to my friend tomorrow, when the holiday is over. I'll be sure and tell her where it came from.

[Author]

Posts