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Joan, your husband and you continue to be in my prayers.
I was able to read the article because my weekly email from Smitten Kitchen had the article unlocked. I was startled by the prices. I am not sure that I would pay $20 for a basket of bread. I would be thinking, "I can bake great bread for less!" I also noted that many of the breads trended to be enriched, so the butter content is likely higher than my current way of eating allows.
I would be more likely to splurge on a special dessert that I would not be making at home.
I baked cornbread on Tuesday to go with beef stew for dinner.
We have had a cold start to May in north central Indiana. We even had wet snow flurries yesterday. Tuesday was a perfect day for me to make my beef stew.
The link did not work for me.
Often the breadbasket was put out to keep diners occupied while food is prepared. That results in some underwhelming contents. Some diners would ignore the baskets because they were told that weight loss meant giving up all bread, so the bread would be wasted. At the very least, servers should ask if diners actually want bread with their meal.
One restaurant I recall from when we lived in Lubbock had a marvelous selection of three different kinds of bread in their basket, and I would certainly have paid for it.
Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, from the dough I made last week, is on my baking agenda for Sunday.
We will have leftover Vegetable, Turkey, Farro stir-fry tonight, which will give me time for baking this afternoon.
On Sunday, I made another batch of yogurt.
Dinner on Saturday was stir-fry made from farro cooked in turkey broth and combined with browned ground turkey, carrots, celery, yellow bell pepper, mushrooms, and napa cabbage. I used too much broth when cooking the farro, so the stir-fry was too wet. I knew that I had about a half cup too much broth, but I did not want it getting forgotten in the refrigerator. If my mind had not been on other serious matters, I would have increased the dry farro by ¼ cup.
I baked Blackberry-Strawberry Jam Oatmeal Bars on Friday, using my homemade jam. The recipe is an adaptation of Apricot Oatmeal Bars, posted at Nebraska Kitchen. I cut the brown sugar in the crust to 1/2 cup and the salt to 1/8 tsp. I also replace the AP flour with white whole wheat flour.
I roasted potato chunks tossed in olive oil to have with the remaining chicken thighs for Friday dinner. I sprinkled some Chicago Steak Seasoning on my warm chunks since I could not roast them with spices in deference to my husband. We also had microwaved frozen lima beans.
Enjoy your trip with your brothers, Aaron!
Last summer, I baked "Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies," from the blog, The Simple Veganista. I, however, did not make them vegan, as I used regular milk instead of almond milk, as no vegans would be eating them. On Thursday, I baked the recipe again, this time using almond butter that I got on sale and needed to use up. I again used milk. I cut the sugar (used regular not "cane") to 2/3 cup; the recipe called for 1 cup but said it could be cut to ¾, which is what I did last time. I used spelt flour, which was the first on her list. I used 1/8 tsp. salt as my nut butter was unsalted. I did the traditional crisscross pattern with a fork dipped in sugar. I suspect that my husband will sample one at tea tie, but I will wait for dessert tonight.
Update: The cookies have a milder flavor than when I used peanut butter, but sometimes it is good not to have the assertiveness of peanut butter. My husband and I both like them, so I will be typing up my version of the recipe for myself for future use.
I cooked one of our regular dinners on Tuesday: roasted chicken thighs, roasted sweet potato chunks, and microwaved fresh broccoli. I made enough chicken for two more meals.
The bread is delicious, but the filling leaked, and I had to soak the pans overnight. When I bake this bread again, probably in another year when the Cara Cara oranges are in season, I will carefully keep the filling away from the edges and try to seal them effectively, although I suspect there will still be leakage. A bit more hydration in the dough might also make sealing it easier. The orange flavor did not show up that much, probably due to the amount of whole wheat flour. I might try white whole wheat next time.
I used my stand mixer twice today. The first time I mixed up dough for my crackers. The second time, I mixed and kneaded dough for two loaves of cinnamon swirl bread. I'm not sure, but I think the mixer sounds a little different, but it did fine with both projects and did not overheat. I am hoping that it has plenty of dough mixing in its future, although I will be cautious about heavy doughs, particularly large amounts of heavy dough.
On Monday, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them at the end of the week.
I also pulled out Bernard Clayton's first edition of The Complete Book of Breads and baked "Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread," a recipe that I have only baked once some years ago. It did not get a fair trial, as that was the evening my oven central panel malfunctioned while I was baking a cake before the bread, so I ended up freezing the dough and baking it later. the taste was good, although the rise was not so great.
I chose the recipe because I wanted to take advantage of the last of the Cara Cara oranges for their zest, so out came the recipe. I replaced 4 ¼ cups of the AP with whole wheat flour and used 2 ¼ cups bread flour. I replaced milk with buttermilk and ¼ cup of shortening with 4 tbs. avocado oil. I added 3 Tbs. flax meal and 3 Tbs. special dry milk. I cut the salt from 1 ½ tsp. to 1 ¼ tsp. I used special gold yeast, as the dough has ½ cup sugar. I changed the directions in that I mixed the zest with the sugar before adding it. The baking instructions were 10 minutes at 375F and 30 minutes at 325F.
I chose to bake at 350F, although I pre-heated to 375 and turned down the temperature after putting the loaves into the oven. I am keeping an eye on the loaves, which have about 25 minutes left. I will report on them tomorrow, as I plan to slice one to have at breakfast.
My mixer did fine with the dough.
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