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Cold weather here--in the teens all day and now in the single digits and heading down to negative numbers tonight.
I baked Lime Pecan Biscotti on Sunday, using some more of the limes that we harvested from my tree, as well as some zest I froze in the autumn. These cookies go very well with tea in the afternoon.
About a week and a half ago, Vitacost had a 20% off sale on everything, as well as an additional percentage off of some other items. I noted that they had the King Arthur Whole Wheat flour blend that is regeneratively grown, 2 pounds for $5.95, which is the King Arthur website price, but I got 20% off and free shipping due to the amount of my total order, so I decided to buy it. I experimented with it on Sunday, using the "Climate Blend Sandwich Bread" recipe on the King Arthur website. I knew that I would have to make some changes, as the recipe calls for mixing the flour with the water, allowing it to rest for 20 minutes, then adding the instant yeast and the rest of the ingredients. However, my mixer does a poor job on single loaves, and I did not have active yeast. I also wanted to substitute in a cup of buttermilk for that much water. So, I mixed the flour with a cup of the buttermilk plus a tablespoon of water, since buttermilk is thicker. After the rest, I added it to the yeast, proofed in the remaining ¼ cup of water and honey in the bread machine. I used avocado oil for the vegetable oil and reduced the salt from 1 ¼ tsp. to 1 tsp. I did not think the dough was the correct consistency, which the recipe warns about. I ended up adding 3 teaspoons of water at various intervals as the machine kneaded. The recipe specifies that the dough should be "tacky" not sticky. The first rise took 80 minutes. The second rise took an hour. The loaf did not have much oven spring. However, it has a pleasant aroma which differs from regular whole wheat flour. I will report on texture and crumb when we slice it tomorrow.
One issue that I have with King Arthur's recipes is that the flour weight never agrees with the volume measurement, and I am always careful to fluff the flour and spoon it in gently. In this case, 3 1/2 cups of the flour did not equal 402 g, as the recipe states but 456 g. I stuck to the volume measurement because in the past, when I follow King Arthur's weight measurements, the bread needs more flour. Has anyone else had this issue?
We had more of the turkey, gravy, and dressing but switched out the vegetable to microwaved frozen peas.
I had a bag of cranberries to use, so on Sunday, I made Cranberry-Orange Relish, which uses raw cranberries and a Naval orange. The original recipe is "Cranberry Relish to Remember" from Jane Brody's Good Food Book. She only uses 2 Tbs. or sugar, although she adds 2-3 Tbs. orange liquor, which is not something that I have around the house. I increase the sugar to ½ cup, and that works for me.
I noticed that one of my spaghetti squashes had developed a soft spot, so I roasted it after lunch on Saturday, then refrigerated the strings. I will decide in a couple of days how I will use it.
Dinner on Saturday was turkey with blue bag Pepperidge Farm dressing, the last of my cranberry-cherry sauce, and microwaved fresh broccoli. I also made gravy with the defatted turkey drippings after deglazing the pan with a couple of splashes of white wine. I thickened it with some flour, but I also tried adding 2 Tbs. of flax meal, which worked very well. For dessert, we had more of the Pecan Pumpkin Squares that I baked yesterday. I like a "Thanksgiving in January" and am looking forward to the leftovers.
If we had done the turkey yesterday, as planned, we would have coordinated with Chocomouse and husband's Thanksgiving in January!
Our temperatures are also heading down. We have three days of subzero temperatures, at least overnight, predicted.
Len, I'm sure that Joan's cake tasted just as good as it looked!
I had hoped that the two small fairy tale pumpkins would produce enough for a pie, but the amount was about 100 grams short. That gave me the idea to try making a recipe, "Walnut Pumpkin Squares," attributed to Joan Drake in the Los Angeles Times food section, probably over thirty-five years ago. It was an occasional favorite of mine, although I always replaced walnuts with pecans. As I used my own pumpkin puree, I reduced and eventually eliminated the 1 cup hot water the recipe specifies. I have not made it in a long time because it calls for butter in the nut-flour crust, as well as 4 oz. cream cheese and a can of sweetened condensed milk, none of which fits current dietary parameters. However, I had a can of sweetened condensed milk in the pantry, so I decided that I might as well use it and see if I could improve on the nutritional value of the recipe.
I replaced AP flour with white whole wheat flour. As has been my practice in the past, when making the crust, I replaced ½ cup of finely chopped nuts with 1/3 cup pecan meal. This time, I replaced 1/3 cup butter with 4 Tbs. avocado oil, with enough buttermilk added to make 1/3 cup. For the filling, I googled replacements for cream cheese. Even if I wanted to go to the store today, which I do not, I know that they only have 8 oz. bricks, and they do not have a low-fat variety. Several sites said that Greek yogurt could be used in its place; although they strongly suggested it include fat, I only have nonfat Chobani Greek yogurt in the house, and the local store only carries nonfat. I followed the rest of the recipe. The bars are baked in an 8 x 8-inch dish. I used a decorated Fire King dish that was my grandmother's. I baked it for 38 minutes, but I probably should have stuck with the 35 minutes that I have done in the past, as it would likely have been set by then. We each had a piece for dinner tonight. I thought that the spices were a bit understated, but that might be because it has not yet rested overnight. The texture does not have the density that cream cheese would give it, but it is still quite nice.
I made yogurt on Friday.
For Friday dinner, I decided to try a new recipe for salmon, so I adapted "Honey-Dijon and Pecan Baked Salmon with Asparagus," a recipe from when I subscribed to The Washington Post. I made some changes, as my husband does not care for asparagus, which is not in season anyway. I replaced the honey with maple syrup and deleted the garlic. I used Panko rather than Italian breadcrumbs, and I replaced the finely chopped pecans with some of the pecan meal that I bought in Georgia on our way home from Florida. It was fast to make, and we both agree it should be in our dinner rotation. To go with the salmon, I roasted sweet potato chunks in my countertop oven and microwaved frozen peas.
We finished up the black-eyed peas, rice, and ham--and yes, we also ate it yesterday.
On Thursday, I made Cauliflower soup for lunch, a favorite recipe since graduate school. I froze one serving and have two servings for lunches this weekend.
I also roasted and processed the two small fairy tale pumpkins that my husband grew over the summer and fall. They did not get very large, and had it not been for the hard freeze not arriving until late November, they might not have ripened enough to use, as happened with two smaller ones we lost. The plants will need to be started much earlier. Between the two pumpkins, I got 571 g of pumpkin puree. I am thinking about what I will bake with it.
Aaron--I cannot imagine cracking 10 dozen eggs. When I crack an egg, I usually hit it on the side of the bowl, then pull the shell apart with each hand.
That's great that you volunteer your cooking and baking skills.
Skeptic--Trader Joe's prices tend to be high. However, I noticed that Aldi's egg prices have increased lately--more than at my local supermarket. I try to keep an eye out for good deals. Eggs last pretty well, even past the so-called expiration date.
On Tuesday, we paid $4.89 for a carton of 18 eggs from Eggland's Best at our local grocery, which is a good price. I had been buying Eggland's cage-free eggs (1 dozen) for $4, because, ironically, they were cheaper than those from other companies. Our local farmers market was selling a dozen eggs for $4 when I last went three weeks ago. Some of the eggs are smaller than standard eggs.
So, I would say, look around. In the meantime, there are lots of bread recipes that do not require eggs. Cookie recipes are another matter! However, using an egg or two in a recipe is still not a bad deal.
We are in for a long-haul, especially if bird flu persists.
I baked two loaves of Pumpkin Mixed Grains Bread on Wednesday. One goes into the freezer, and the other we will begin slicing for lunches tomorrow. The recipe started as a Jane Brody recipe for Pumpkin Rye Bread, but I have made so many changes, it is now my recipe.
I also have not noticed any problems with powdered sugar after the "best by" dates. I'm still using up some of the glazing sugar I bought from King Arthur (almost done!), and they haven't sold it in years. I liked it because it dried clear. I recently ordered some confectioners sugar from Vitacost (they had a 20% off sale) called Wholesome powdered confectioners sugar It uses cane sugar and tapioca starch. When I get around to using it, I'll report back. I am hoping it will dry clear, which I like for some glaze recipes.
Yes, it is already banned in Europe.
Those are lovely loaves, Chocomouse!
I baked Whole Wheat Apple Muffins in the afternoon on Tuesday. I adapted this recipe from King Arthur's defunct magazine, Sift (Fall 2019), p. 24. It uses all whole wheat flour. I replaced 8 Tbs. butter with ¼ cup of canola oil, cut the salt in half, added ¼ cup Bob's Red Mill milk powder, and added 2 Tbs. flax meal. I used double the chopped apple, omitted ½ cup raisins, and reduced the walnuts from ¾ to ½ cup. I sprinkled the top with Penzey's Cinnamon Sugar, which has a bit of vanilla in it. As I was using some of my leftover homemade sweetened applesauce, I cut the sugar in half. I added 1 Tbs. of King Arthur's boiled cider rather than 2. I did not have any in the refrigerator, but I had an unopened bottle in the pantry, so I pulled it out to use. While it has a best by date of 2022, I used it anyway. We had a lot of snow this morning, although we were still able to make our local grocery run. My husband has been shoveling snow, so he was happy to have a freshly baked muffin with his afternoon tea, and Annie, our dog, was happy to get some pieces from it.
I am working on using my Winesap apples. For some reason, the ones we got this year are not lasting as well as previous year's crops. Late last week, when I baked the Swedish Apple Pie, I found four rotted ones in the bag. I now have them on a large half sheet pan and will make baking with them a priority.
Thanks, Len. I always cook the rice separately in my rice cooker, then add it and the sauteed vegetables and ham to the black-eyed peas. That way, the rice and beans have their distinct cooking times.
We plan to have more of it for dinner on Tuesday, but we have turkey in our future later this week.
We had to go to Indianapolis this morning and returned home midafternoon. However, I prepared by putting black-eyed peas to soak before we left. That made it easy to make Black-Eyed Peas with Ham and Brown Rice for dinner tonight. I also added sauteed chopped celery, yellow bell pepper, and kale, as well as thyme, rehydrated dried onion, and freshly ground black pepper.
On Sunday, I made a small pot of chicken broth with some bones from the freezer. For dinner, my husband had the rest of the chicken with noodles and mushrooms. For me, I roasted my last acorn squash, then stuffed it with a filling of bulgur cooked in chicken broth, onion, garlic, and kale sauteed in olive oil, dried sage, toasted sliced almonds, and mozzarella, which I sprinkled on top. I ate one of the halves for dinner. I will warm up the other later in the week for lunch. My husband is not fond of acorn squash, but I like to have it occasionally. It works out well on such occasions as this one.
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