BakerAunt
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Now that the pandemic is winding down (c'mon unvaccinated people, get your shots!), we have our first summer guest! My older stepson has come for ten days. So, there will be a lot of cooking and baking here! For dinner tonight, I made my Turkey Zucchini Meatloaf with Peach-Dijon Glaze along with roasted cut-up sweet potatoes that were tossed in olive oil. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli.
I agree about the coffee with chocolate, Janiebakes. I've been using the King Arthur espresso powder for years. My husband cannot stand coffee, but he does not detect it in chocolate items, because, as you say, it enhances the chocolate.
I tried coffee extract one time, and that he did not like.
What Janiebakes says makes sense. My favorite fudgy brownie recipe (no longer baked since butter can no longer be a major food group for me) called for melting the butter and heating the sugar with it. The melting of the sugar gave the fudginess, and I seem to recall that recipe also had 2 cups sugar. So, the more sugar to melt, the fudgier the brownies.
For dinner, on Wednesday, I made Salmon and Couscous with Penzey’s Greek Seasoning. We had microwaved frozen mixed vegetables on the side. We finished up the Strawberry-Blackberry Oat bars for dessert, but we also had fresh strawberries from yesterday’s farmers market. At $5 a quart, they are not inexpensive, but they are worth it. We no longer buy the tasteless supermarket fruit that passes for strawberries. We wait for the season and hope they show up at the farmers market.
Although it is in the 80s and humid, I baked Whole Grain Pumpkin Bread, a recipe posted at Nebraska Kitchen that I adapted. I baked it as 5 small loaves, so they required 40 minutes rather than the 30 minutes that six would, but I think they fill the pans better when I bake the recipe as five. I will freeze most of the loaves for quick desserts later.
CWCdesign--sometimes brownies improve on the second day, or maybe that's just the chocolate talking....
Tuesday’s dinner was fish and chips, using the last of the swai. (When we were at Aldi’s today, I looked at labels carefully and found the salmon.) I made a sauce for my fish to cover its flavor, using up the rest of some Greek yogurt to which I added 1 ½ tsp. Penzey’s Sunny Paris and ¼ tsp. garlic. It was tolerable, but I do not like the combination enough to make it again. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli.
On Monday, I made a batch of yogurt.
For Monday dinner, as we only had enough of the black-eyed peas w/ brown rice and ham for one, my husband ate that, and I pulled some frozen tomato sauce from last year’s garden. I sauteed onion, celery, and red bell pepper and mushrooms in olive oil, then added the sauce. I added 1 Tbs. tomato paste, 1 ½ tsp. Penzey’s Tuscan Italian seasoning, and a tablespoon each of Worcestershire sauce and red wine, along with some pepper. I mixed it with cooked Barilla Protein Plus pasta, which I bought on sale a while back and found in the pantry. It is a combination of semolina, grains and legumes. It holds together well when cooking. With freshly grated Parmesan, it made a nice dinner, and I have leftovers for lunches during the week.
My husband transplanted the three tomato plants into the garden today. It joins lettuce, a few radishes, carrots, snow peas, and green beans. Only the lettuce and a few radishes have produced this early. He planted some seed from the small spaghetti squash and honey nut butternut squash that I also bought at last year's farmers' market. We will see how they do.
The black raspberries on the terrace will be abundant if we continue to get rain, and the blackberries are finishing blooming and starting to fruit.
On Sunday, I baked the Apricot Oatmeal Bars (at Nebraska Kitchen), but I used my strawberry-blackberry jam. I also replace the AP flour with white whole wheat and reduce the light brown sugar to ½ cup. These will be dessert through Wednesday.
I don't have a separate freezer either, Joan. However, we have two refrigerators, which means two freezer compartments. It comes in handy for freezing pumpkin puree, blueberries, an extra loaf or two of bread. It is a half hour drive to better grocery stores in the larger town northeast of us, so we shop every three or four weeks and stock up.
The refrigerator in the garage apt. also stores most of my wholegrain flours.
On Saturday, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake the crackers next week.
I did not notice any difference in the Grape-Nuts bread with the lesser amount of salt, so I will make that change permanent.
I went ahead and ordered two of the Volrath pans. I will post back with a review once they arrive and I test bake them.
I agree that oil cookies are different, so as long as the eater knows that, they shine in their own right.
I had not expected to bake bread on Friday, but after lunch we were down to a single slice. I baked two loaves of my adaptation of Grape Nuts bread. I decided to cut the salt further to 1 ½ tsp. My concern is that both the Grape Nuts and the malted milk powder contain sodium, and I want to keep the bread in a healthy range. We will see how it tastes when we slice into a loaf tomorrow.
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