BakerAunt

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Viewing 15 posts - 271 through 285 (of 7,564 total)
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  • in reply to: 2024 Gardening #43772
    BakerAunt
    Participant

      Our Early Girls have been a disappointment. They start to go bad on the vine.

      Better Boy is doing well.

      Dester Indiana is doing well but we have learned needs more sun. We may put it in a pot on the side of the house next year. The Goliath bush is forming some nice large tomatoes.

      The cherry tomatoes are abundant.

      in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43771
      BakerAunt
      Participant

        Italian Cook: I think that the recipes with the stuffing on top of the pork are designed to keep the pork from drying out. The cream soup and milk are also probably there for preventing the pork from drying out. The old temperatures for when pork is done were actually too high, so drying out was a real possibility. I agree with you that this particular workaround is not the best solution.

        As for your recipe. You could probably use prepared Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix as the bottom layer. It might need more liquid if it needs to bake longer than the usual baking time for a pan of stuffing. For reference, I bake my Pepperidge Farm stuffing at 350 F for about 20 minutes. Depending on the thickness of the pork, you might need to bake your stuffing and pork chops longer than that.

        As long at the pork registers at a safe temperature, there should not be a problem with the stuffing. 145F is recommended.

        https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2011/05/25/cooking-meat-check-new-recommended-temperatures#:~:text=minute%20rest%20time.-,Cook%20pork%2C%20roasts%2C%20and%20chops%20to%20145%20%C2%BAF%20as%20measured,best%20quality%E2%80%94juicy%20and%20tender.

        If you want to make your own stuffing, King Arthur has a recipe for a "stuffing" bread in which the spices are in the bread, then the bread is turned into stuffing.

        Best wishes as you work to recreate a recipe that hits all the memory circuits. I've learned when doing so that it does not have to be the exact recipe, just one that tastes good, is healthy, and invokes the past.

        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43770
        BakerAunt
        Participant

          Saturday night's dinner was roasted chicken thighs, microwaved frozen green beans, and an ear of corn each.

          in reply to: 2024 Gardening #43758
          BakerAunt
          Participant

            In May, my husband planted two organic potatoes that were sprouting. The potatoes came from Kroger. Today, he presented me with a big bowl of potatoes: the fruits of his labor. I took a picture and will see if I can figure out how to post it. I am thrilled with how great the potatoes turned out.

            Our Fairy Tale pumpkin finally produced a female flower. My husband hand pollinated it. We now have the start of a small pumpkin!

            The beans are starting to produce again! Hurrah!

            There are now four Honey Nut squashes. That is a low number, but since we had thought there were only two, it is nice to have double!

            The tomatoes are producing, but not at a fast rate. However, the cherry tomatoes are going strong. I should have enough soon to make the green bean salad again.

            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43757
            BakerAunt
            Participant

              We had another meal of leftovers on Friday: pork, the rest of the coleslaw, some more of the pasta salad, and an ear of corn each.

              in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43748
              BakerAunt
              Participant

                Beautiful cake, Joan! It is good to have recipe testers!

                Thanks, Mike. I will start looking at freezers.

                in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43747
                BakerAunt
                Participant

                  We did a mostly leftover meal on Thursday of coleslaw and pork with an ear of sweet corn each.

                  Egg prices seem to fluctuate. I, too, noticed an increase this past week at the local grocery.

                  in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43737
                  BakerAunt
                  Participant

                    Chocomouse--I seem to recall a King Arthur blog post on baking with almond flour that suggested adding a certain amount but not decreasing the amount of flour. My memory is hazy on the point, but it suggested that the almond flour made for a more tender baked product.

                    It is great to learn here about how others are experimenting with the recipes. I miss that from the now defunct Baking Circle.

                    I wish that I could have baked the full two dozen, but our freezer space is limited. My husband has suggested that we could get a smaller freezer for the garage, but it would need to be a "front door" one that could sit up on a built-in work area that was in the garage when we bought the house (before a previous owner moved his "shop" to the shed he built across the street). I'm not sure that they make such a thing as a small front door freezer, but I will do some internet searching.

                    He was impressed by Len's solution to finding space for the chest freezer in the dining room, but we do not have space there either.

                    in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43736
                    BakerAunt
                    Participant

                      On Wednesday, my husband pan-cooked boneless pork, which we had with two ears of sweet corn each (it is the end of the season!) and microwaved frozen peas. My husband reports that eating sweet corn on the cob is great physical therapy for stretching out his mouth area where he had surgery. Too bad that sweet corn season is so short.

                      in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43729
                      BakerAunt
                      Participant

                        Oatmeal Scotchies are so good, Joan!

                        I was able to buy another dozen lovely Michigan peaches at the farmers market last weekend. On Wednesday morning, I used them in a recipe that I adapted from King Arthur's "Just Peachy Peach Muffins," to make a half recipe (original made 24) and am calling Peachy Keen Muffins. Among other changes, mine has half the sugar (their version produces cupcakes for all intents and purposes) and uses white whole wheat flour. I also deleted the vanilla, which King Arthur tends to use liberally. In a few of their recipes, lately, a lot of vanilla is used to cover up other problems with a recipe. I erred this morning, as I had intended to adjust the 2 ¼ tsp. baking powder to accommodate the buttermilk I used in place of milk. I meant to use 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder and ¼ tsp. baking soda. However, I had not had my coffee before I started baking and realized that I had put in 1 tsp. baking soda rather than baking powder. So, I added 1 tsp. baking powder and hoped for the best. The muffins rose perfectly, so I will keep the "error." I baked them as six large muffins. I will freeze a few of these for fast breakfasts. I will post my recipe adaptation here at Nebraska Kitchen in case anyone is interested in that I changed.

                        I finished out Wednesday morning by baking Squash Whole Wheat and Oat Quick Bread, a recipe that I adapted from Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker. I needed to use up 2 cups of shredded zucchini left over from when I made turkey-zucchini loaf last week, as well as a partial egg (added 1 Tbs. of water to replace the other half). I baked the recipe as four loaves in a 4-well Nordic Ware loaf pan. I will leave one out for dessert tonight and tomorrow. I will freeze the other three. While it was a little warm for baking today, it is about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday.

                        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43726
                        BakerAunt
                        Participant

                          I made yogurt on Tuesday.

                          I also made a Greek Pasta Salad, working off of a recipe from Olive/Tomato. I used whole grain penne for the pasta and added green onion, cucumber, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes from our garden, and black olives. We had it with leftover maple glazed pork tenderloin. It is far too hot today to turn on an oven.

                          in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43720
                          BakerAunt
                          Participant

                            After we returned from taking the bonus kid to the airport, we had leftover maple glazed pork tenderloin, the rest of the muddled mashed potatoes, and microwaved frozen mixed vegetables.

                            in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43711
                            BakerAunt
                            Participant

                              Good to see you resurfacing, Aaron! BTW, your thoughts a while ago about forming spread out buns rather than tight rolls helped me figure out why my sandwich buns were not coming out flatter.

                              I would say that with oil for butter in cookies, it depends. When I bake the Soft Oatmeal Cookies (use canola oil) from Jenny Can Bake, I find that it helps to press them down gently so that they spread out a bit rather than remaining as haystacks. The King Arthur Spiced Rye Cookies that I baked last week use oil (I use avocado for these) spread of their own accord, as do Big Lake Judy's Best Ever Molasses Cookies (use canola oil in these). The Drop Sugar Cookie recipe that I adapted from Betty Crocker online--I reduced the oil and use avocado oil--needs to be pressed down.

                              Perhaps it depends on the ingredients and their proportions? I do not think it is the oil itself. I favor avocado oil when I want a bit more fat (double what canola oil has) as I removed what the butter has.

                              I use white whole wheat flour for most of my cookies these days, so that may make a difference as well.

                              in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43709
                              BakerAunt
                              Participant

                                Good for you, Joan! It will also keep the ticks from spreading.

                                in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of August 25, 2024? #43702
                                BakerAunt
                                Participant

                                  The bonus kid heads home tomorrow. At his request, I baked cinnamon rolls on Sunday afternoon, which we began eating for dessert tonight. I baked my usual recipe, but I wanted to see if I could make fifteen rather than twelve sweet rolls. Instead of rolling it up from the short end, I rolled up the dough from the long end, which made rolls that were not as wide. It worked well, so when we go my husband's cousins' reunion in a couple of months, I will bake the recipe as fifteen, as two pans of twelve each is usually too much, and we have fewer people who will be able to come this year. I also decided to replace 1 Tbs. of the 1/4 cup of sugar with a tablespoon of honey. Sweet rolls stale fast, so I hope to slow that process down.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 271 through 285 (of 7,564 total)