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We had the short freeze on overnight Wednesday. My husband had brought in all the squash, even though there is still a lot of green in one of the big ones. I do not know if it will ripen on the enclosed porch. He missed one of the green tomatoes, and it froze. He covered the bell peppers to protect them. Our temperatures are supposed to soar into the 70s this weekend, so maybe they will get some sun and turn red.
The cherry tomato plant in its pot has been brough in and still has some tomatoes. The green onion pot is also on the enclosed porch.
My husband is trying to start some spinach on the porch. We will see if it germinates and thrives.
I am making a note about using a fan with rosemary, Mike. I have never been able to keep a plant going for very long in the house.
I made pizza sauce from the three ripe tomatoes we had from our garden, which have been on the counter. I froze the sauce until our next pizza night. Now I wait for the green tomatoes we brought inside to ripen, so I can make them into sauce. It is a disappointing tomato sauce season--and I had thought last year was bad.
We had a freeze last night. My husband protected the bell pepper plants, which is all we have left now in the garden.
Dinner was leftover stew, whole wheat oatmeal rolls, and whole wheat applesauce baked doughnuts for dessert.
On Wednesday, I adapted the King Arthur recipe for Honey Oatmeal Rolls to bake a pan of sixteen dinner rolls to go with stew. I replaced a cup of water with buttermilk and increased the water from 1/3 to ½ cup. I replaced 4 Tbs. butter with 3 Tbs. avocado oil. I reduced the yeast from 2 ½ to 2 tsp. and the salt from 1 ½ to 1 tsp. Instead of using all bread flour, I substituted 2 cups whole wheat for the same amount of bread flour and added 2 Tbs. special dried milk. I did not bother with glazing and topping. We really like the flavor, and the oats do not get lost behind the whole wheat.
On Wednesday, I also baked an adaptation of King Arthur's Whole Wheat Apple Cider Baked Doughnuts. I used white whole wheat and cut the salt to ½ tsp. I also cut the sugar by ¼ cup and added 1 Tbs. milk powder. I used unsweetened applesauce that I made and froze last year. I usually reduce the amount of boiled cider and vanilla, but I forgot to put those ingredients in, as I had three recipes going at once in the kitchen. However, the doughnuts are still delicious. When they were hot from the oven, I sprinkled them with Penzey's Cinnamon Sugar (blend includes vanilla), and it adhered nicely to the warm doughnuts.
I had to get my baking in today because tomorrow I go for the latest Covid-19 vaccine.
I made beef stew for Wednesday's dinner. I usually thicken it with Clearjel, but this time, I tried 2/3 cup quick oats ground to flour. I should probably have used just ½ cup, but it works well, and I will do it again.
No killing frost has hit our garden yet, but one of the local farmers market vendors, who is about 10 miles away had a freeze that destroyed a lot of their crops. Our weather has fluctuated rather than gradually cooled, so that was hard on the plants.
My husband brought in the rest of the green tomatoes. We will see if they ripen in the area where we have the woodstove. They certainly were not ripening on the vines! He picked all but two of the squashes, leaving one honey nut and one from the aberrant honey nut seed that produced the large, more butternut variety. We are hoping they will get closer to ripening before they must be picked.
I roasted some of our honey nut squash to go with leftover turkey-zucchini loaf and coleslaw for Tuesday night's dinner.
If I made the cookies smaller, I would eat more each time. 🙂
I made yogurt on Tuesday. As I am out of the Stonyfield full-fat yogurt that I use as the starter and cannot get more until we do our big grocery run out of town, probably next week, I used the last jar from my previous batch as the starter this time.
I'll add delicata to my list, Navlys! Thanks!
On Tuesday, I baked Big Lake Judy's Best Ever Molasses Cookies. I have been craving them since last week, when Aaron posted about baking his mother's molasses cookies with Violet for his son's track meet, and then Mike mentioned BLJ's recipe. These are perfect for autumn afternoons, especially the rainy, with occasional snow, northwest Indiana is experiencing today.
I made one change by adding 2 Tbs. Bob's Red Mill milk powder. I used a #40 scoop and ended up with 28 cookies, which I baked for 14 minutes, switching halfway through the time.
It was heartwarming to read about, and see pictures of, Violet helping to bake her grandmother's ginger or molasses cookies for her big brother's track meet. I was eyeing the cookies, and then Mike mentioned Big Judy's Molasses cookies, which I baked for the first time this summer, and I thought, these would be great for the fall weather....
Now you can read about it in my post for next week's baking!
That's great news about the windows arriving, and their installation beginning, CWCdesign!
I made coleslaw on Monday, which we had for dinner with the Oven Baked Crispy Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar sauce.
I roasted the turban squash yesterday, and I was underwhelmed. On the positive side, the flesh holds its shape, so if you want squash cubes, you can get them. On the negative side, there is a large interior cavity with lots and lots of seeds. The bumpy bottom did not have much by way of flesh, and so was a waste.
It is possible that my squash was a bit past its prime, as I did not find it any harder to cut than any other squashes. I use a serrated knife, made particularly for pumpkins and squash, made by Kuhn Rikon, which I picked up on year at T. J. Maxx.
After I cut off the skin from the roasted squash pieces (roasted at 400F for 50 minutes, skin side down), I returned them to a 375F oven for 15 minutes, while the rest of dinner cooked, then put them in a bowl and tossed them with maple syrup, since it needed some sweetness.
I will not be roasting another turban squash. It is not worth the effort it requires. I will stick to butternut, Honey Nut, spaghetti squash, and the flavorful varieties of pumpkins, with an occasional acorn squash.
On Saturday, I baked three loaves of my more whole wheat Grandma A's Ranch Hand Bread. Two will go into the freezer, and we will slice into the other one at lunch tomorrow.
We cut the cake I baked yesterday, and it is delicious. Although it is fine without the 1/4 cup of sugar I omitted, I think that I would include it next time to balance the citrus. The lemon I used was also large and half of it would also tame the more pronounced lemon flavor.
Looks delicious, Len!
Our dinner on Saturday was Turkey-Zucchini Loaf with Peach-Dijon Glaze, turban squash--cooked, then roasted after being cut into chunks and peeled, and tossed in maple syrup before serving--and the last six or seven beans from our garden, supplemented with some from the farmers' market.
I'm not sure that I would buy another turban squash. The flavor is nothing special, and it needed to be dressed up with some maple syrup. It also had a lot of seeds. There needs to be more reward for the effort.
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