BakerAunt
Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
I made Chocolate Zucchini Bread on Monday from the last green zucchini of the season. I reduced the baking powder by ¼ tsp., and the loaves now bake more evenly in the USA 8-mini-loaves pan. I will freeze some for the future and leave out two for tomorrow and Wednesday.
Scott, Annie, and I went for a long walk in our woods on Monday morning to see the autumn splendor and lovely colors. When we got back, I made Sage Squash Soup, using the squash I roasted and pureed on Monday. I kept it simple, just adding turkey broth from the freezer, a drizzle of maple syrup, 1/ tsp. dried sage, and freshly ground black pepper. I have enough for several more lunches.
For dinner, I roasted three bone-in chicken breasts. There will be plenty of meat for most of this week. We had it with a large salad of mixed greens from the farmers market with carrots, mushrooms, crumbled goat cheese, sunflower seed, and pumpkin seed.
Late Sunday afternoon, I tried a new recipe from Bob's Red Mill for "Everything Crackers." I was intrigued because it uses flax meal, onion and garlic powder, salt, poppy and sesame seed, and water. It mixes up fast and bakes at 400 F for 25-30 minutes. I did the shorter time, but the center ones were softer than they should be, so the additional five minutes might have been a good idea. However, the crackers just do not have much taste, and indeed they have a lingering aftertaste. I think that ¼ tsp. each of garlic powder and onion powder is not nearly enough. I also think that some of King Arthur's Everything Bagel might improve them. I'm not sure that it is worth trying the recipe again, although I had hoped to have a vegan and gluten-free cracker in my repertoire for various relatives.
We finished up the beef stew on Sunday. We had it with some flax crackers that I made. (See cracker details in the baking thread.)
Mike--You have a space between the "o" and the "b" in the thread title.
Your dinner looks both delicious and lovely, Len.
I made a batch of Maple Granola on Saturday, as we are nearly out of it. I also wanted to take advantage of the sunny day and the energy generated by the solar panels.
We had beef stew and the rest of the little Irish scones for dinner on Saturday.
In the afternoon, after my granola came out of the oven, I roasted a squash I am not sure of the variety, but it looks somewhat like a small pumpkin. I plan to use it tomorrow to make soup for lunch.
We had beef stew, along with the little biscuit scones again for dinner on Friday.
I baked a pear crisp on Friday using some pears from the farmers market. I have bought pears from two different vendors, and in both cases, the pears just do not soften even though they are sitting out. They did get more yellow in color, and a couple were getting bad spots, so I used eight of them in the crisp. They just do not have the flavor that a nicely ripened pear has. I wonder if they were picked a little too early, even though I know that pears need to ripen off the tree. I do not know what kind of pears they are. People here seem to move into places that have pear trees that someone planted in the past. The crisp was just ok due to the pears not being juicy enough, and probably not being ripe enough.
First, a note on the bread I baked. It is soft but firm, so I may not need to change much, but I still might add a little more water to the dough.
On Thursday, I made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, which I will bake next week.
I also baked a half batch of Rory's Irish Scones, which is a quick recipe, so that we could have them warm with the beef stew.
I made beef stew on Thursday, so we are now in autumn mode, although for the most part the weather is warmer than expected, with daily highs in the lower 70s. The stew used meat from the farmers market, red bell pepper and garlic from the market, and a "hill" of our potatoes from the ones Scott planted last spring. The carrots, mushrooms, and frozen peas were from the grocery store. I use Penzey's beef base, as well as the smokey paprika and Tsardust Memories blend for seasoning, but I also used some of my rosemary. Dried onion, a bit of sugar, Worcestershire sauce, 1 ¼ cups of Merlot, and tomato paste, along with freshly ground pepper were the other seasonings. I always thicken it with a slurry made of ground oats. The flavor was perfect this time.
While the stew was simmering, after I had added the bell pepper, carrots, and potatoes, and knew that I had an hour, Scott and I took our last boat ride of the season. Tomorrow, the guy, who helps Scott with the boat, will come to take it out and prepare it for storage in our shed for the winter.
I made yogurt on Wednesday. I got a late start, so it was not done until 10:20 that evening. For dinner, I roasted a honey nut squash, which we had with the rest of the pork and the rest of the green bean salad and applesauce.
We needed more bread for tomorrow, so I decided on Tuesday that I would try the recipe on the King Arthur Rolled Six Grain mix bag. However, it was for a single loaf, and I like to save time, and electricity, by baking at least two loaves, so I worked out a doubled recipe. I also used bread flour rather than AP and made the white whole wheat and the bread flour a 1:1 ratio rather than 2:1. I replaced the sugar with honey, replaced some of the water with buttermilk, reduced the milk powder, and salt. I was not sure how much yeast to use and settled on 3 ¼ tsp. (single loaf used 2 tsp.). I also baked them in 8 x 4 rather than 9 x 5 pans. The house is cooler than it has been, with drier weather, so that may have given them less rise than I expected, and I did increase the wholegrains. I think that the dough could have used another ounce of water. I ended up with two respectable small loaves. They may be denser than I would like, but I will not know until I slice one tomorrow.
Kimbob--I've done that with potatoes from the store, but I never thougt to do it with green onions. I'm making a note for next year.
Your dinner looks delicious, Len, and yes, easy clean-up makes it the sweeter.
I was able to get a pound of beans and more cherry tomatoes at last Saturday's farmers market, so I made the Green Bean, Cherry Tomato, and Feta salad again for Tuesday's dinner. We had it with leftover pecan pork from last night and applesauce, with zucchini bread from the freezer for dessert.
I made pecan coated boneless pork chops for dinner on Monday. We had it with a large salad, topped with the rest of the bean salad. We also had applesauce from the freezer.
-
AuthorPosts
