[BakerAunt]

So far, I'm not noticing any shortages. I placed a regular stock-up order to Bob's Red Mill, and it arrived within a week--more like five days. Orders over $59 ship for free by UPS, which is a great deal for me. I buy cases (usually 4 bags to a case), which brings down the price below the grocery store price, even though BRM prices, like all grocery products, have increased.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic sent me the bread cloche, which arrived on Saturday. She did an excellent job of wrapping a fragile and odd shaped object. I am looking forward to baking experiments with it, but this week is already booked. Perhaps by the end of the month?

That would be a great experiment, Mike!

[BakerAunt]

I remember buying the Bordeaux cookies as an occasional treat when I was in graduate school, needed a treat, but had no time to bake it. I agree that they are not spicy.

On Sunday, I baked my Rye-Barley Crispbread. This time I added 2 Tbs. special dried milk to increase the nutritional value.

I also baked a double recipe of soft oatmeal raisin cookies, from Jenny Can Cook, with my usual changes.

[BakerAunt]

I made a lentil soup for Sunday dinner in one of my large Dutch ovens with carrots, celery, two yellow peppers from our garden (never turned red), ground turkey, mushrooms, frozen broth, 1 ¼ cups brown lentils, ¼ cup red lentils, 2 tsp. dehydrated onion, two small green zucchini, one large yellow squash, 1 tsp. thyme, 1 tsp. sage, ½ tsp. rosemary, and ¼ tsp. Penzey’s sweet curry. We have leftovers for at least two more meals.

I also made tomato sauce from some of our garden tomatoes.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--Have you tried frozen corn? I have a quinoa salad that I make. I microwave the frozen corn, then let it cool before adding to the salad. If you could keep a package in your freezer, then you would have some flexibility and could save that last can of corn for when you need it.

I have not noticed a canned corn shortage, but I have not bought canned corn in years.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I baked three loaves of my version of Grandma A’s Ranch Hand Bread. One will stay out to be sliced into tomorrow, and two will go into the freezer for later.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my version of that wholegrain pumpkin snacking cake for dessert on Friday and into the weekend.

For dinner, I baked my sourdough half-sheet pan pizza. The crust came out particularly light, maybe because I gave both rises two hours. I topped it with homemade pizza sauce from our garden, Canadian bacon, mozzarella, mushrooms, red bell pepper and green onion tops from our garden, and Parmesan. Yum.

[BakerAunt]

CWCdesign--I've now posted that Fish and Chips recipe here at Nebraska Kitchen. I'm sorry that it took so long.

[BakerAunt]

Here is the thread with Baker Irene's directions. I moved it here from the Baking Circle before it closed:

Baker Irene on Making Your Own Flavored Chips Thread

I miss Baker Irene and wish that she had joined us here.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--My favorite rolling pin is a wood cylinder that is 20 1/4 inches long and 1 1/8 inches in diameter. No handles. I bought it years ago with a square wood board that could be adjusted to different heights for rolling out dough evenly. As it turns out the square wood board (I think it was called a dobard) was not that useful--too small to roll out very much dough at one time and fussy to adjust. However, I LOVED the long rolling pin. I have a lovely, heavy maple one but rarely use it or any of my other collection. I use the longy cylindrical one with thin wood strips to roll out cracker dough evenly.

I seem to recall that Mike has a similar, non-tapered pin.

I keep my rolling pin collection in a wood wine bottle rack (bought at a thrift store!) on the kitchen counter.

[BakerAunt]

Butternut Squash Soup is a fitting way to christen a shiny new Dutch oven!

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I baked the Banana Cake recipe from a website titled “Cooking Made Healthy: Quick and Easy Recipes,” but I made it as banana bread in a Nordic Ware decorative 4-loaf pan (8 cups batter). It is the same recipe that I baked on Sept. 5. I replace the three cups of whole wheat flour with two cups of whole wheat pastry flour and 1 cup KAF AP. I halved the salt, from ½ to ¼ tsp., given that it has ¾ tsp. baking soda, in addition to baking powder. I reduced the vanilla from 1 Tbs. to 2 tsp. I usually add buttermilk in place of water, but this time I used 1% milk. I also added 2 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill milk powder. I plan to freeze three of these.

[BakerAunt]

The plot thickens--or perhaps I should say, curdles? We did our weekly grocery trip today, and again there was no buttermilk, but now there were about seven bottles of kefir. Sigh. I bought another one to tide me over.

I did ask the store manager, and she was surprised, especially when I told her there was none last week. The milk delivery had not come, but she said that she would call me if buttermilk arrived. I received no call, so it probably did not. She said that she would ask the delivery person.

Stay tuned for developments!

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--Is this the large sugar crystals or smaller ones? I've had nice results with the large crystals. I've also used demerara sugar with nice results.

[BakerAunt]

That bread is spectacular, Len!

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

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