[BakerAunt]

I baked my whole wheat sourdough cheese crackers on Wednesday.

In the evening, I baked a streusel blueberry pie in honor of my younger stepson. (He’s the one on the strict blueberry pie and blueberry cobbler diet.) This time I used the convection setting at 375F.

[BakerAunt]

I'm sorry Mike that you are waiting on parts for the freezer and refrigerator. I hope they will arrive quickly.

For dinner on Tuesday, I made the Cook’s Country All-American Potato Salad. (It is so nice to have the right kind of pickles stocked at my house for it!) I also roasted chicken thighs. We also had microwaved fresh green beans from our garden, as the bean plants are still producing.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I baked my adaptation of Pumpkin Snacking Cake, a recipe that I got several years ago from a special issue fall baking magazine. I had reduced the sugar by 25%; this time I reduced it by a third from the original amount. I also reduced the oil from ½ to 1/3 cup. I like that the recipe uses some spelt, some buckwheat flour, and chia seed. I baked it in a glass dish this time, which worked better than a metal pan, and I used the countertop convection oven so as not to heat up the house on a day when temperatures soared to 88F.

[BakerAunt]

Dinner on Tuesday as my adaptation of a Martha Stewart recipe for shepherd’s pie that I worked out some years ago. It was a good way to use up leftover mashed potatoes for the topping, and a bit of leftover gravy in the filling, which I made with ground turkey, some green onion, a bit of garlic, a cup of broth from the freezer, sliced mushrooms, and mixed vegetables. I was able to use the countertop convection oven, so I did not heat up the house. We had some sprinkles of rain this evening, so it is supposed to cool down a bit tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I cooked a few of our tomatoes that needed to be used quickly to make pizza sauce. If the weather cools a bit, we may have pizza later in the week. Otherwise, I will freeze it.

We are still having warm weather here, and we could use some rain again. The changes we see in the garden are due to the shortening days.

[BakerAunt]

My husband drove my stepdaughter to the airport in Indianapolis late this morning. Early this evening, my younger stepson drove in from Colorado. I was not sure when he would arrive, so I planned an easy dinner of salmon patties, with sweet corn (still available!), leftover quinoa salad, and multigrain crackers.

[BakerAunt]

As it turns out, my stepdaughter's I-phone is a water resistant model. It was in water, in the canoe (on its side) for only seconds. It rested for 24 hours in organic brown rice (sigh, only rice I had), and it is now working well. Whether that continues remains to be seen. She was able to hold up her camera when the canoe tipped on its side, so it stayed dry. All of this was due to trying to pull a can off the bottom of the lake (water was about 3-4 feet deep), clearly not something two people should try to do with their paddles while in a canoe, although I understand the environmental impulse.

[BakerAunt]

I envy your proximity to the King Arthur store, Chocomouse!

On Saturday, I baked the whole grain cracker recipe that I adapted from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book. I also baked a batch of Skeptic’s Pumpkin Biscotti. I was inspired to do so because I went to the farmer’s market this morning and bought a large “peanut” pumpkin and two pie pumpkins. It is now time to start using up any pumpkin in the freezer from last year. Autumn will be coming, but that is hard to believe on a day when the high temperature was 86F.

[BakerAunt]

I thought that the bread flour was Sir Lancelot and the high-gluten flour was yet another step up.

I bought a three-pack of high-gluten flour for a recipe I have never baked. I have been using it up, a cup here or there, in bread recipes where I am using a lot of whole grains.

[BakerAunt]

After dinner this evening, my husband and his daughter were on the lake in the canoe and ended up tipping over. Of course it was when she had her Iphone out for a picture. She retrieved it quickly, and it was not in the water long, but water and electronics never mix well. It is currently sitting under a pile of brown rice--although online sources are divided on whether that is the way to handle it.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I baked my variation on Blueberry Cobbler from a King Arthur cookbook. I reduce sugar, substitute 1 1/2 Tbs. avocado oil for butter, use buttermilk, and use half barley flour.

We were running out of bread, so I baked three loaves of my variation on Grandma A’s Ranch Hand Bread. I will freeze two loaves.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I made yogurt.

For dinner, I made a quinoa salad (recipe adapted from Bob’s Red Mill) that includes corn, baby lima beans, green onion, and feta. We will have it as a main dish tonight, but it also works as a side dish.

[BakerAunt]

Any bread that tastes good is good bread, Italian Cook, no matter what it looks like!

I did a lot of baking on Wednesday. I used a banana cake recipe and baked it in my 4-loaf Nordic Ware baker. They came out very well, and I froze two. I baked a double batch of the oatmeal cookies without butter from Jenny Can Cook. I baked Oat Bran Banana muffins as 6 large muffins and froze three. After dinner, I baked 16 of Ellen’s Buns as Rolls. The cookies and rolls are for a picnic tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

For Wednesday dinner, I made Lentils and Vegetables Chicken Soup.

[BakerAunt]

Joan--elements burn out after a while. I am glad that you got your cheesecake baked before it decided to go out in a blaze of glory. With a previous oven, I had turned it on to preheat, and I saw it flare up in a small fire and then go out. The appliance repair guy was impressed: he said that people almost never see them flame out.

In early July, we discovered that the faucet at the washing machine hook-up was leaking. My husband tightened it, and it leaked some more. He then turned the water off at the house, and got a cap for the line. A magnifying lens showed a hairline crack in the the screw part. Of course the local hardware store did not have it, so we had to wait to pick it up when we went on our regular shopping jaunt to the next town, which has a Lowe's. That part was also two years old.

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