[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I baked my version of the Lemon Ricotta cookies from the Olive Tomato website. I always use half white whole wheat flour and part-skim ricotta cheese, as well as a large rather than a medium egg.

I also made Sourdough Pan pizza for Sunday dinner with sauce made from a can of Muir fire-roasted tomatoes, Canadian bacon, part-skim mozzarella, mushrooms, green onions, black olives (on my half), and grated Parmesan. Usually, I include chopped red bell pepper, but I used the last one in last week's stir-fry.

[BakerAunt]

Your dinner sounds delicious, CWCdesign. We are months away from asparagus in northern Indiana.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I cooked a package of black beans that I had soaked overnight. I used three pounds of them to make my Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup for lunch today and into next week. Instead of pumpkin, I roasted a kobacha squash and used it instead of pumpkin. I think that pumpkin gives it a slightly sweeter flavor, but the soup is still delicious, especially on a day when the temperature has not risen above the high teens.

I froze a scant pound of cooked black beans to use later.

[BakerAunt]

I agree with you, Joan--no wasting food!

We had leftover pork tenderloin. I made some more of the boiled/steamed little red potatoes and again tossed them in olive oil with some salt. We also had microwaved frozen vegetables. We had potatoes left over from this meal, so they will return as part of a future meal.

I also made yogurt today.

[BakerAunt]

Dinner on Thursday was stir-fry made with the rest of the turkey. As usual, I used soba noodles with carrots, celery, green onion, red bell pepper, mushrooms, and broccoli. I used some Penzey's chicken base (free sample a while back) mixed with 1/4 cup boiling water, since I did not have any deglazing liquid to add, and it worked out well.

[BakerAunt]

KABC is currently selling some smaller handled lames which require the blade to be bent. Supposedly those work better for making swirling patterns. I usually do a tic-tac-toe setup for round loaves.

We are in the midst of another Winter Weather Warning on this Thursday. It began with rain, which created ice onto which snow has now been falling. We may get major snowfalls. (Predictions are all over the place.) With that indeterminate forecast, I retrieved the rest of our Winesap apples from the garage yesterday, and I baked an apple pie with streusel topping. I joked to my husband that if we do have a power failure, we can survive on apple pie!

[BakerAunt]

I have the walnut lame from KAF also, Italian Cook. It is good for straight slashes. I have had the same experience as you, depending on whether the dough is delicate or sturdy, and it may be my own trepidation. I have found that with a delicate dough, it helps to slash about 10 minutes before you will bake it, as that gives it a bit of recovery time.

I'm glad you had a lovely outcome with your Cuban bread!

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook: I buy low-fat mozzarella balls, cut them into 4 oz. sections, then wrap and freeze the section s I'm not using. For a half-sheet pan pizza, I cut a 4 oz. chunk into small, diced pieces, then sprinkle it over the pizza after I have spread on the sauce and placed the Canadian bacon on the sauce. I then add the other toppings (mushrooms, chopped red bell pepper, green onions, black olives on my side, then the whole pizza gets topped with grated Parmesan before going into a 450F oven for 15 minutes. The cheese melts well.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover turkey, leftover brown rice mixed with gravy, and microwaved frozen peas for dinner. It was good that I did not have to cook a new meal because I spent all afternoon on the phone with Tracfone, most of it on hold, and did not get the problem resolved of their website not allowing me to log into my account. I will give it a rest and try again tomorrow. I suspect their website is having some kind of major problem, but the people I talked to would not admit it, and they did not want to go off script to resolve the problem.

[BakerAunt]

For our Valentine's Day dinner on Monday, I made Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin, small red potatoes boiled in their skins, then tossed in olive oil and salt. We had microwaved frozen mixed vegetables. Dessert was two of the little Hazelnut Cakes I baked yesterday and coated with vanilla glaze and Valentine's sprinkles.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough that I made last week.

I also baked bread on Monday. The base recipe was the Pumpkin Rye Bread in Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet, and I had already done a major re-working when I baked it a few months ago to make it 2/3 whole grain. This time, I replaced 1 cup of the dark rye flour in my adaptation with pumpernickel, and I reduced the salt to 2 1/2 tsp. from the original tablespoon. As it made three rather small loaves in 8x4 pans, this time I used two 9x5 loaf pans. The bread rose well and filled out the pans nicely, so that was a good decision. I baked at 400F for 40 minutes, then an additional 5 minutes at 375F to get the internal temperature to 195F. The loaves were a bit dark on top. Depending on taste when we slice into them tomorrow, I may drop the temperature to 375F next time.

[BakerAunt]

Sunday was a busy baking day. I baked my Rye Barley Crispbread. I discovered that it is easier if I roll out the dough on my Silpat mat, with saran over the top, then flip it over and carefully peel off the Silpat and replace it with parchment paper, then carefully flip it back over and peel off the saran before proceeding.

I also baked Hazelnut Heart Cakelets, using half buttermilk and replacing ¼ cup of the oil with buttermilk. These are baked in a 6-well Nordic Ware cakelet pan. Tomorrow, I will put a vanilla glaze and some Valentine’s sprinkles on them. I was happy that I could locate this pan. Our contractor has had delays, and no doubt more lucrative projects, so the reno of the space above our garage has been dragging out since late summer, and our house is still piled up with items that belong out there.

[BakerAunt]

You are certainly spoiling your husband in a birthday week of treats, Joan!

I cut open our second Pumpkin-Spaghetti Squash hybrid from our garden. It has lasted well. It had a very hard shell, so it took some effort to get it cut into halves, so that I could roast it. This is the one that started out green (see 2021 Garden Thread), then slowly ripened in late August and early September. My husband cut it from the vine sometime in October. I will use 2 cups of it in bread I plan to bake tomorrow, and I froze a 2-cup and an 11.4 oz. container. My plan is to use it solely in sandwich breads, as it is fairly bland.

[BakerAunt]

I made yogurt on Saturday.

[BakerAunt]

I made "Stone Soup" on Friday for lunches into next week; in other words, I improvised. I sauteed some onion and garlic in olive oil, then added the leftover potato water from the potatoes I cooked on Wednesday, the broth I made from boiling the giblets, and the rest of the fluids that came out of the turkey that I had not used when I made gravy. I added sliced carrots and celery, chopped red bell pepper, ½ cup pearl barley, a 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes with Hatch chilis, and a 14 oz. can of kidney beans. After I had boiled, then simmered for 40 minutes, I added some kale for the last five minutes, then a teaspoon of cider vinegar and freshly grated black pepper. I sprinkled some dried basil on top of the soup in my bowl. It was a nice warm lunch on a rainy, cool day in the high 30Fs.

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