[BakerAunt]

I baked the Soft Barley Cookies on Friday afternoon. The recipe made eleven large ones. We each had one for teatime. Scott had his with a bit of blackberry jam. To each his own.

[BakerAunt]

That sandwich looks very good, Mike. I love a good Reuben.

Using my trusty Cuisinart food processor, I grated a large yellow zucchini from the farmers market on Friday. That gave me four cups of grated zucchini. I have set aside two cups for muffins and one cup for something else. I used the other cup to make Turkey-Zucchini Loaf with Peach-Dijon Mustard. We had some of it with our first roasted honey nut squash of the season (cut into chunks, tossed in olive oil, and roasted at 375 F for 45 minutes). And microwaved frozen peas.

We are having cooler days, but they are muggy. We have a forecast for torrential rain starting early tomorrow morning and lasting through Sunday. I am hoping that it is not that bad, as I enjoy my Saturday morning farmers market visit.

[BakerAunt]

I made dough for soft, barley sugar cookies on Thursday evening. I adapted this recipe from one in the King Arthur Wholegrain Baking Book, but I replace butter with avocado oil and sour cream with nonfat Greek yogurt. the dough rests overnight in the refrigerator, as per the original recipe, to allow the barley to absorb liquid. I will bake them tomorrow morning.

[BakerAunt]

I thought that your salmon balls looked great, Len. I usually make patties.

Kimbob--home renovation projects always seem to take forever.

That is sad about your tomatoes, Mike.

We had leftover shrimp with pasta and vegetables for dinner on Thursday. We did our big shopping trip this morning, so an easy meal is always great.

[BakerAunt]

Hey, Joan, we all need the occasional treat! My guilty pleasure this week has been having real bacon on my tomato sandwiches. It came from the farmers market. It is too fatty for me, but I cook it well and drain the grease. I should be able to get a couple of packages of turkey bacon when we do our big grocery run tomorrow. I actually prefer the taste of the turkey bacon, even if it is a more processed food. It was not so easy eating the sandwich today, since I had a dental appointment this morning to remove a crown on a tooth that had developed a cavity under it. I have a temporary crown until I go back for the new one in about two weeks.

For dinner tonight, I made Pasta Estate (Italian word for summer). with caramelized zucchini, red bell pepper (half of it from our garden), green onions, garlic, halved cherry tomatoes, black pepper, and a bag of fully cooked, shelled shrimp from the freezer. The pasta was fettuccini. Some of the cherry tomatoes are from our plants, but most were from the farmers market.

I've started using small vegetable serving bowls from my various sets of dishes for large salads and for pasta. It keeps the vegetables, and in the case of tonight's dinner, the pasta, under control.

[BakerAunt]

I had leftover soup for dinner on Tuesday, and Scott finished the barbecued pork with rice, to which he added some microwaved frozen vegetables.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made last week.

[BakerAunt]

I made another jar of refrigerator dill pickles on Monday. They should be ready in a few days when the current jar is gone. We have more in the garden.

Dinner was more of the crock pot barbecued pork and rice. along with the rest of the yellow zucchini that I cooked last week and some microwaved frozen mixed vegetables.

[BakerAunt]

We had more of the chicken vegetable soup for dinner on Sunday.

[BakerAunt]

I made Cornmeal Pumpernickel Waffles for Sunday morning breakfast. Annie was thrilled. I am happy to have six left over for the freezer. I like to toast them and spread them with maple cream, which works better on the toasted waffles than the fresh ones on which I use maple syrup.

[BakerAunt]

We had some of the crock pot barbecued pork, cut up and mixed with brown and wild rice for dinner on Saturday, along with side salads using lettuce and cherry tomatoes from the farmers market.

[BakerAunt]

I was pleased with the crust on the pecan pie bars. I used white whole wheat pastry flour in the crust, and it is firm but tender.

On Friday, I baked my version of Ron's Irish Porridge Bread, which I adapted from a recipe that King Arthur published from a customer. I use steel-cut oats, substitute in whole wheat flour and use bread flour for the rest. I used honey this time instead of maple syrup because I wanted to clean out a honey jar. I also cut the salt. Instead of 1 cup of water, I use a cup of buttermilk plus ¼ cup of water, but I needed to add an additional 3 Tbs. of water. It is hard to judge with cooked oatmeal and the whole wheat requires more water. Additional water also works better with my mixer. One loaf is for the freezer, and we will start slicing the other one for lunch tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

I made another batch of yogurt on Friday.

[BakerAunt]

We had a muggy Thursday morning, but I still baked Pecan Pumpkin bars, because I have been craving them, and because I need to make some room in the freezer. That will take care of dessert for five nights. The afternoon cooled down after we had some intermittent rain. Tomorrow should be a good baking day.

[BakerAunt]

Your avocado shrimp salad looks so good, Joan!

For dinner on Thursday, I made Crock Pot Barbecue Country Ribs, a recipe that I tried earlier this summer and re-named since I altered the one I found online. I played around with the spices a bit, and we liked the flavor better. I let it go for 8 hours on low instead of six, and that was maybe a bit too long as much of the sauce evaporated, and the meat was a bit dry. However, the taste was excellent, so next time, I will cut the time to 7 hours and add ¼ cup of water with the ketchup. We had it with a mixture of brown and wild rice, and I chopped up the leftover meat and added it with ½ cup of water to the rest of the rice, so that we can warm it up for another dinner. I made caramelized yellow zucchini to go with it.

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