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We had another great rainy morning and drizzly afternoon, so Sunday was opportune for baking, which was good, since we are out of bread. I baked three loaves of my Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread, which came out fine. However, I realized as it was on the first rise that I had forgotten to incorporate the half cup of flax meal. It made no difference in the dough, which did not need additional flour. I will note when we cut it tomorrow if the omission affected the texture.
I also baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers on Sunday from dough that was resting in the refrigerator.
On Saturday, I baked another blueberry coffee cake, using the same recipe as I did on Wednesday. The recipe can easily be doubled, but blueberry items can go bad fast when it is hot, so two separate bakes in the week work best.
We have green tomatoes on the plant I bought from the farmers' market, but the other two (from Gurney's and initially stunted by the grow lights) have only just flowered. My husband is thinking ahead about how we might protect them in September and October if cold weather occurs then.
We are eating red bell peppers from the plant that was started in a pot a year before it was planted outside. The green bell peppers that were on it when it was dormant on the enclosed porch turned red in the garden, but they also had what looked like green bell pepper inside. One was almost completely full of a green bell pepper, so I cut it up and used it along with the red.
My husband bought some honey nut squash from Gurney's. These are the small butternut squash. He planted those seeds. He then found some seed he had saved from some honey nuts we bought at the farmers' market and planted it. We have squash forming, but one of the Gurney's plants has produced two squashes with long necks that are definitely not honey nuts, and that vine is more aggressive. The other Gurney's seed and that from the farmers' market is producing fruit as expected.
Good one, Navlys!
Mike--my husband says that he has seen that aberration before, but rarely.
Our local sweet corn should be available any day now. However, this Saturday morning, we are having a thunderstorm with lots of rain.
Dinner on Friday was baby lima beans with brown rice, kale (from farmers market), red bell pepper (from our garden), celery, thyme, rehydrated onion, and ham. As always, I cooked the lima beans and the rice separately, then sautéed the vegetables and ham, before combining. The ham was left by my stepson, who left yesterday for California, and it needed to be used; otherwise, I would not have made this meal on a warmer day. We have enough leftovers for the next four days.
I also went to our woods with my husband in the morning and picked more wild blackberries. This year, we have picked about 5 quarts, so it is a great blackberry season, and the rain forecast for tomorrow should lengthen it. I seeded all the blackberries and made two batches of four jars of blackberry jam. I have enough seeded blackberries for an additional batch, although I only have three half-pint jars left. I have another 2/3 cup seeded blackberry, so I will need to find a use for it, and to decide if I want to continue picking blackberries.
My husband says it is a genetic aberration that allowed the leaf at each female flower to develop instead of being suppressed. While it wouldn't hurt to eat it, corn leaves do not taste good, so cutting it off was the way to go.
On Thursday, I baked a double recipe of the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Jenny Can Cook. The cookies are trip food for my older stepson who begins driving back to California tomorrow.
I made yogurt on Thursday.
For dinner, I made the Michiana Green Bean Salad again (have green beans, will use them), roasted some sweet potato chunks, and roasted some chicken thighs. I did the sweet potato chunks in the countertop convection oven at 350F for an hour. The lower temperature and longer roasting time made them soft and delicious.
The jam sounds wonderful, Chocomouse.
On Wednesday, I baked a Blueberry Coffee Cake from another recipe that I adapted from Recipes from the Old Mill. I baked it in a round ceramic dish that I bought a few years ago from King Arthur, so I dropped the baking temperature to 350F from 375F, and I baked it for 35 minutes in the countertop convection oven, so as not to heat up the house. We had some for dessert, and it came out better than any time I have made it in the past. That may be because I used my oil cake method of mixing the sugar with the oil, buttermilk, an egg before adding in the dry ingredients.
We had leftover zucchini-turkey loaf, leftover farro and yellow squash stir-fry, and microwaved fresh green beans from our garden.
We had leftover turkey-zucchini loaf for dinner on Tuesday. To go with it, I made a stir-fry with farro, yellow summer squash, red bell pepper from our garden, some mushrooms, and a bit of dill from our garden.
Some farmers markets--and venders--are better than others. Our small local farmers market does not have particularly good prices on many items. The quality, however, is usually excellent. I paid $7 for a quart of mixed cherry tomatoes, and that might be about what the grocery store has, but the flavor is superior. The organic potatoes I buy are also more expensive, but there is a notably much better texture and flavor. The strawberries I bought earlier this year, at $6 per quart, were somewhat more expensive, but since there were more small berries, I think that I actually paid about the same amount as in-store. The strawberries I have bought there the last few seasons has led me to swear off of ever buying what the stores sell.
Aaron--the blueberry sweet rolls are made like regular cinnamon rolls. I sprinkled the cinnamon sugar directly on the dough, then evenly put the blueberries on top of it and slightly press them into the dough. It can be a bit challenging to roll the dough to be sliced. I think that is why the recipe specifies dividing the dough and rolling each piece into 14x8 inches, spreading with the cinnamon sugar and blueberries, then rolling up the long side. The blueberries hold their shape, which is very nice
For dinner on Monday, I made a doubled recipe of my Turkey and Zucchini Meatloaf with Peach-Dijon mustard. I roasted cut up small red potatoes, tossed in olive oil and seasoned with Penzey's Chicago Steak blend. We had the rest of the Michiana Bean salad with it.
Kimbob--My husband, older stepson, and I went blueberry picking last week. I froze ten (4 cup) bags. I baked a blueberry crumb-topped pie last week. This morning, I baked blueberry cinnamon rolls from dough I made and shaped last night. Blueberry muffins or bread is on the agenda. We plan to go back and pick more berries, so that my husband has plenty for his oatmeal, I can use some on my oatmeal occasionally, and I can bake with them. The frozen ones work well in muffins and in my pie recipe. The sweet rolls I made must have fresh blueberries.
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