BakerAunt
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I decided to bake bread on Thursday, as Scott finished the current loaf for lunch. Although I still have a loaf of bread in the freezer, I have been wanting to try "Clay's Multigrain Sourdough Sandwich Bread," which was featured in a King Arthur catalogue and is on their website. I made a few changes by increasing the whole wheat flour and using bread flour instead of AP and replacing the sugar with honey. I also reduced the salt to ¾ tsp. I inadvertently put in too much flour, but as I have a soupier starter than most people, it came out ok. The catalogue called for it to be baked in King Arthur's stoneware loaf pan, but there is not enough dough for an 11 x 5 x 31/2-inch pan. I used an Emile Henry 8 ½ x 4 ½-inch loaf pan (greased and coated with semolina), but the loaf is small. The bread got rave reviews in the comments, so I will see what we think we I slice it tomorrow.
We had more of the roasted chicken breast and ate the rest of the vegetable stir-fry. The bok choy is rather strong, and Scott prefers that I not buy any more of it.
Now that we are done dashing west and north, my husband has been planting the garden. On Saturday, I bought a Dester Indiana tomato plant, two purple cherry tomato plants, and a red cherry tomato plant, along with a dill plant. Those are in the garden. We had four organic potatoes that were past eating, so my husband planted those. Two years ago, we got a nice potato crop; last year's did not do well. My husband also started some Dester tomatoes, but those are not large enough for transplant yet. The green beans are planted. The cucumbers for pickles are planted. In addition to the dill plant I bought, we had some volunteer from last year come up. We are also trying fairy tale pumpkin again. My husband is considering planting some Early Girls tomatoes.
The garden was a bit slowed down when we got back from our trip to the wedding in San Diego because Scott started hoeing, and the ground suddenly exploded as two larger baby bunnies and two smaller ones bounded out of a nest. Scott managed to put the two smaller ones back, but the best he could do with the larger ones was herd them away from our road on which people drive too fast. He left the garden alone for five days or so after that, then discovered that the bunnies are all gone.
Mike--The package both said "chicken breasts" on the wrapping, and "split chicken" on the sales tag. I first started seeing these conflicting labels earlier this year. Up until then, it was just labeled chicken breasts, sometimes saying "bone-in."
That sounds delicious, Skeptic. I hope that we will have local strawberries this year. Last year, was not a great strawberry year in my area.
When we went to the local grocery store yesterday, I found a package of chicken breasts, with a May 19 sell-by date, marked down $3, The package was also marked "split chicken," which I have bought before. I speculate that these are the ones cut by the trainees. So, for dinner on Wednesday, I roasted them with a bit of olive oil and a coating of Penzey's Justice seasoning. To go with the chicken, I used some of the broth I made on Monday and cooked farro in it, which I added to a stir-fry of carrots, bell pepper, celery, and some bok choy I found at the farmers market last Saturday. I added some poultry seasoning. We have leftovers for tomorrow and beyond. For dessert, I pulled out the small Chocolate Blood Orange cake I had frozen and glazed it.
There are some fine-looking dinners showing up on this thread!
Our Tuesday night dinner was the rest of the turkey-spinach loaf and a nice salad.
I placed the order yesterday morning, and it arrived today! That's fast. All items arrived in excellent condition, including the two glass jars of almond butter that were carefully wrapped. Based on the first order, I'm impressed. A lot will depend on whether they continue to offer good coupons and free shipping over a certain amount. I did not need to buy any 5-lb. bags of flour, as I am nicely stocked with whole wheat and bread flour (BRM) from my last Vitacost order, but I noted that there were no 5-lb bags of flour offered, just the smaller bags of BRM rye, cornmeal, etc. It will be a bummer if I cannot get those two flours when I need to reorder.
A regular feature of Scott's cousins' reunion is that we always have "Thanksgiving" with a turkey. When we held the reunion in October, that was seasonable, but we still had turkey and stuffing for a special meal this May. I am the only one who wants to deal with the turkey bones once the meat is removed, so we brought it back with us. On Monday, I made it into broth, adding some chicken bones that I had in the freezer.
I roasted sweet potato chunks for dinner to go with more of the turkey-spinach loaf, which we had with microwaved fresh broccoli as well.
We had moderate heat with humidity today, but we got some light rain, which cooled us down a little.
We began Sunday with Cornmeal-Pumpernickel Waffles. After a month where we were driving all over the place and away from home, it felt good to settle down with one of our favorite breakfasts.
In the afternoon, I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough I made before we attended the family reunion last week.
Glad to hear that you got some rain, Mike. I hope that the severe weather stays away from your area.
I made yogurt on Sunday. For dinner, I made Turkey-Spinach meatloaf. I added yellow and orange diced bell pepper and some chopped celery. I cooked some farro in Penzey's chicken base, as I currently have no broth. After setting aside a bit for Annie, I mixed it with the remaining brown and wild rice from the past two night's meals, then stirred in the remaining apple cider and mushroom liquid. It was a good way to use up those leftovers.
Thank you, Italian Cook for the detailed description of how to do a frittata. I plan to copy it and put it in my binder cookbook. I pretty much do what you do, but I am riffing off of an online recipe that does not use as many vegetables as I do, and which uses potatoes. I usually dollop goat cheese over the top of the frittata before I put it in the oven. I think that I need to let it rest for 10 minutes, as you suggest. Five minutes did not do it.
Italian Cook--I wish your husband as speedy of a recovery as possible.
I made a frittata on Saturday, using the leftover roasted vegetables, and had some of it for lunch. I have enough for another three meals. Directions on frittatas always say to serve immediately, but when I try to remove a slice immediately, it falls apart. When I move the rest out of the pan later, it stays together. Does anyone have any pointers on this for me?
Usually, I have bread in the freezer when we have gone on a trip, but this time, I did not, so on Friday afternoon, once we had lunch, I baked my version of "Ron's Irish Porridge Bread, a recipe that King Arthur attributes to Ronald W. Swan of Scituate, Massachusetts. I use steel cut oats, substitute in 3 ½ cups of whole wheat flour and use bread flour for the rest. I also add 14 cup flax meal, use the maple syrup option and replace ¼ cup buttermilk with 4 Tbs. avocado oil. I also replace the water with buttermilk. With the Ankarsrum mixer, I need to add ¼ cup of water. I look forward to slicing one loaf, and to having the other tucked away in the freezer for future use.
Mike--I'm going to have to try making marbled rye bread, as we went back to a rest in New Buffalo at the cousins' reunion, and I again had the Rueben on marbled rye bread. The entire sandwich was wonderful, as were the onion rings I had with it. If any of you are ever in that Michigan town, I recommend a visit to The Stray Dog. It's a great restaurant, even if it does not serve desserts!
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