[BakerAunt]

That bread is spectacular, Len!

I think that breads that work best in Dutch ovens have a higher liquid content.

[BakerAunt]

I made yogurt on Tuesday. (I make it every six days.)

For dinner, I made my healthier version of my mom’s hamburger stroganoff, one of my favorite comfort foods, which we had over a mixture of brown and wild rice. It was particularly tasty, in part because I found a package of marked down ground sirloin. Our vegetable was microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

I have been looking at Made In, since I get emails from them. I am considering buying one of their stainless steel pans. For the most part, I also prefer metal lids, but I have a glass one from a pan that bit the dust that fits nicely on the small Calphalon pan I use for cooking my steel-cut oats in the morning.

[BakerAunt]

I'm sure that your neighbors are rejoicing over your now working oven, Joan! Enjoy your visit with your sister.

On Monday, I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers.

[BakerAunt]

I made a batch of tomato sauce on Monday using the tomatoes that have finally started piling up from our garden. Unlike Mike and Chocomouse, we only have a few tomato plants. That is just as well as I have not yet replaced the 4-qt. Calphalon saute pan I lost last year when the coating came off. I want a stainless steel pan, but they are pricy. I am reduced to using an All Clad round roaster pan, but it is not deep enough for more than 5 cups of tomatoes at a time.

Dinner on Monday was breaded chicken breasts, leftover rolls, and green beans from our garden. There may be a few more green beans, but not enough for another side dish.

[BakerAunt]

How much buttermilk I use depends on what I am baking in a given week. I substitute buttermilk for water in most of my bread recipes. I use buttermilk in place of milk (and adjust baking powder and baking soda accordingly) in most muffin and quick bread recipes. I use buttermilk in my oil pie crust. My coleslaw recipe has a buttermilk dressing. I probably go through half a gallon every 2 1/2 weeks or so.

Buttermilk, as S. Swirth always told us, improves the keeping qualities of baked goods. I started using it a lot when I needed to get more calcium into my diet.

[BakerAunt]

The thread is already here at Nebraska Kitchen. It is in the section titled "Threads Saved from the KAF Baking Circle (at the bottom of the forums listings on the right side of the page.

Here is the link to it:

The Quest for a True Southern Biscuit Thread

Note: Although I posted it, all the words are Mrs. Cindy's words.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--I was surprised to find non-sweetened kefir and might have overlooked it had I not been looking at the yogurt and not finding one that I considered ok to use to thin into a buttermilk consistency. I might have overlooked it except that my younger stepson likes to drink blueberry kefir, so I was familiar with the bottle shape and thought, oh, so NOW they get it when I don't need it, but then I noticed it was unsweetened.

The grocery store in our town has a mixed clientele. There are the townspeople who are not that particularly health conscious, but there are also the summer and weekend people, as well as the parents who have kids at the local prep boarding school, and some of the people who teach at the school. There is a small section of foods used for Asian cooking, and there are the occasional upscale cheeses, yogurts, and wines. There is a small gluten-free and Bob's Red Mill section. Last week, when the son was in town, I could only find a single small bottle of raspberry kefir for him, which tided him over until we made a grocery run to the town northeast of here. Whether the large bottles of kefir (there were two) are an aberration or a new stock item remains to be seen. I'm just glad that I found it this time.

[BakerAunt]

I have been meaning to ask you, Janiebakes: Do you use purchased yogurt as starter for your yogurt, or do you buy packs of yogurt culture? I've been using full-fat Stonyfield yogurt as my starter, as it is the only non-Greek yogurt I can get here that does not have modified starch added to it. When I first started making yogurt, years ago, I used to purchase little packets of starter for an initial batch, then use the yogurt I had made as starter until the culture started weakening, then I would use another packet. I have not found yogurt packets for sale around here. I make my yogurt, 6 (3/4 cup-jars) at a time, and I eat a jar of it with breakfast every morning to increase my calcium intake. I use such large amounts of buttermilk that it is not practical for me to use diluted yogurt.

[BakerAunt]

We ate the last of the Grape Nuts bread at lunch on Saturday. In the afternoon, I baked two loaves of Rye/Semolina/Whole Wheat bread, which is a doubled recipe of Len’s Semolina Rye Rolls baked as two 8x4 loaves. I had to use mostly 1% milk, since I only had about 1/3 cup of buttermilk.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for the duck details, Janiebakes. I've never tried to cook duck, and after reading your post, I do not think that I ever will.

Saturday night dinner was salmon and couscous with Penzey’s Greek seasoning, accompanied by microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

If the review is detailed with lots of specific information, then it may be reliable.

I would not go for an off-brand of mixer as a mixer is THE most important countertop tool in the kitchen, and as Len states, needs to be able to handle a range of tasks for serious bakers.

[BakerAunt]

I miss thrift stores. A local church does run one in our town, where I have found some good items (including one of my dough buckets), but I haven't been inside since the pandemic began. Right now, it is mask optional, and with a vaccination rate of only 39% in our county and cases increasing, I will not be going back inside any time soon.

I have a 5 1/2 qt. and a 7 1/2 qt. Le Creuset. I also have a 4 qt. Staub and a large oval Staub. I also have a 3 1/2 qt. Staub pumpkin-shaped (sale when Chef's went out of business) and a 3-qt. yellow bell pepper that was among my Mom's stuff but never used. I bought most of these at T.J. Maxx or Tuesday Morning. The 4 qt. was bought when KAF had a deal on them some years back (touting it for bread baking). The Staub's are not enamel coated on the inside. I rub them with a bit of oil after washing.

I love the pots for cooking soups, stews, beans, and roasts that go into the oven. They are one of the reasons I never bothered to update my small crockpot. I would just use them on days I would be around the house.

[BakerAunt]

Leftover split pea soup and freshly baked rolls was our Friday dinner.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I baked my Lime-Pecan Biscotti using two limes from my lime tree.

I also baked Malted Whole Grain Rolls (KABC recipe), using a flower-shaped clay dish that holds seven large balls of dough, that I bought from KAF who at that time was advertising the pan with the recipe. It makes some wonderfully light, but substantial, large rolls. I replace a cup of the water with buttermilk, delete the whole grain improver, add 1/4 tsp. honey, and reduce the salt by a third. The recipe uses the malted wheat flakes that KABC sells as well as malted milk powder (Carnation).

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