BakerAunt
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In north-central Indiana, we have gone back to highs in the mid to upper 70s after the cold weather of last week. That is much harder on the plants than just some cold weather.
I'm reporting back on my orders from Vitacost and Joseph's Grainery. I placed both orders on Thursday, October 20.
Most of the Vitacost order arrived on Saturday, October 22. The remaining items arrived today, Monday, October 24. That is speedy shipping, and it was free because I bought over a certain amount. All items are in excellent condition, and the expiration dates are as far in the future as when I bought from BRM. I will definitely order from Vitacost again.
The Joseph's Grainery order for 8 lbs. of barley flour also arrived on Monday, so that again is free, speedy shipping, and it too arrived in excellent condition.
The bag states that the barley flour is stoneground, so I am very pleased. Once I start using it, I will post again about what I think of it.
Stay safe, Mike and Diane.
I made yogurt on Sunday. Because I am using one of the jars I made as the starter for the yogurt, I am making it every five days instead of every six. Once we do our big shopping run to the town northeast of us, I should have more Stonyfield full-fat yogurt to use as starter and can go back to the six-day schedule until I run out.
I made Turkey, Mushroom, and Spinach Lasagna for Sunday's dinner. I riffed off of a recipe for Turkey Sausage and Spinach Lasagna, which is at My Recipes. I use ground turkey instead of the turkey sausage and frozen rather than fresh spinach. I added 8 oz. sliced mushrooms. I use rehydrated onion and delete the garlic and bay leaf. For spices, I use 1 tsp. poultry seasoning and ¼ tsp. sweet curry. I used 15 oz. of low-fat ricotta, since by the time I used 1 ½ cups, I would have been left with ¼ cup and no use for it. I thickened the sauce with whole wheat flour and a bit of flax meal. I used olive oil rather than canola oil. I found that the recipe works best in a 9x9-inch deep ceramic dish. This was my second try with this recipe, and I am ready to type it up for my notebook collection.
We also had leftover coleslaw and more roasted honey nut squash.
I started the morning with baking. The pears that a vendor had at the farmers market for the past month have been sweet and delicious. Over a week ago, I bought a different kind that does not soften as much but was ready, so on Sunday I used one to bake Pear Cardamom Oatmeal Muffins, a recipe from Marisa Moore's website. My changes were to replace white whole wheat flour with whole wheat flour, reduce the cardamom to ½ tsp. (I pulverize the seeds before I use it, which makes the taste stronger than the pre-ground spice), reduce the salt by half, and the brown sugar from 1//2 to 1/3 cup. I delete the vanilla and add 1/3 cup chopped walnuts. I baked them as six large muffins, so they needed 17 minutes. I will freeze about half of the muffins.
On Saturday I made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, which I will bake next week.
We finished the beef stew and had more of the Whole Wheat Oatmeal Rolls with it.
I definitely feel better today. For some reason, even with the flu shot, I have a somewhat stronger reaction than my husband or others I know. However, it beats the alternative, and I would do it again.
I had a strong response to yesterday's Covid vaccination. It was not as strong as the second one in March 2020, but it sent me to bed early, and I felt terrible when I awoke on Friday morning, mostly from a stuffy head. I felt well enough near lunchtime to make one of my throw-together soups. I sauteed onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in olive oil, before adding a can of diced tomatoes with Hatch chilies, 3 ½ cups turkey broth and 15 oz. black beans (last two from the freezer). I added some chili powder, a dash of cumin, and ½ tsp. Penzey's Salsa & Pico. After it had cooked briefly, I added cut-up turnip greens that I needed to use. The spices, relatively mild for most people, help clear out my head.
Dinner on Friday was the Crispy Oven Baked Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar sauce again, along with more of the coleslaw. That is an easy dinner, especially since the Tartar sauce and coleslaw are already made.
I agree with Mike. How the flour is ground is important. I think that is why I prefer the BRM whole wheat flour to the KABC whole wheat flour.
I may write to the Jospeh's Grainery people and find out how their barley flour is processed.
They are quick on orders: mine shipped yesterday, the same day I place it.
I am also trying Vitacost, where I ordered yesterday. (Free shipping over $49, and 20% first time coupon discount.) Their BRM items were close to the price that BRM was charging before they got out of the shipping business. I'll report here on my experience with that company as well.
I know the points do expire. I had a message to that effect and put in an order to use 200 of them.
I had a message about renewing the KABC membership, which is usually automatic, and another that says members will receive double points if they place two $60 orders within a certain time frame, which I think is a month. The problem is that KABC carries less and less of what I need at reasonable prices. I can get better deals on BRM whole wheat flour and artisan bread flour, which I prefer. The only flours I buy from KABC are white whole wheat, pumpernickel, and medium rye. I pay less for King Arthur AP in the store than online.
I still need their special dry milk and cheese powder. Occasionally, I need the espresso powder.
I wish that they would offer some additional baking pans and tools, such as 10x10 USA pans or 11x11 ones.
I will go back and see what the emails I received from KABC say.
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.
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