[BakerAunt]

For New Year's Eve dinner, I made pea soup, using a hambone from the freezer. We had it with some scones I baked. We had snow on Sunday to Monday, then a break before more snow Tuesday night and today. It may not have been a snowy white Christmas, but it will be a snowy New Year's Day. Earlier, for lunch, I made curried butternut squash soup from the rest of the puree I made last week.

[BakerAunt]

My baking plans for Tuesday afternoon were derailed by a pantry shelf collapsing, which collapsed the shelf below it. Fortunately, I was right there, so only one item fell out before I held the doors. I passed items to Scott. We were fortunate nothing broke. I have had it with these cabinets and their plastic holders for shelves. Scott is researching metal holders to replace the plastic ones.

[BakerAunt]

Dinner on Tuesday was pecan coated roasted salmon, leftover mashed potatoes, and microwaved fresh broccoli. It was an easy meal after our big shopping trip to the larger town about thirty minutes away, where we dropped off the recyclables, shopped Aldi's, Walmart, and Kroger, and did a run by Ross and Marshall's. After lunch we shopped our local grocery store. We had hoped to find a turkey, but not a single store had one, so we have settled on a chicken to roast for New Year's Day.

[BakerAunt]

We repeated last night's dinner of salad and pork tenderloin on buns.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers using my new mixer. With my husband's blessing, I bought an Ankarsrum to replace the Cuisinart mixer which died in November. It arrived on Christmas Eve, but I only opened the box today, when I had time to devote my full attention to it. I watched some of the videos on YouTube, before making the cracker dough. I am pleased with how the mixer handled the dough. I wanted to start with an easy recipe before moving on to bread.

[BakerAunt]

It's challenging, Mike, to bake in someone else's kitchen with their tools.

I baked my adaptation of the recipe for Ellen's buns, but I made them as 12 rolls, which I baked in a 10 x 10-inch pan. We used some of the rolls for pork tenderloin sandwiches this evening, and we will have them again tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

I made yogurt on Sunday. I really missed my homemade yogurt when we were in Florida.

For dinner, we had pork tenderloin sandwiches on the rolls I baked today, along with a salad. I let Scott finish the applesauce.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I roasted two butternut squash, scooped out the squash and pureed it. I froze a cup to use for muffins in the future, set aside a half cup to use in a recipe that I want to try, and then used a cup to bake Butternut Squash Crumb Muffins, a recipe from Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker (34-35). I make some changes by using white whole wheat flour, reducing the brown sugar in the muffins from ¾ to ½ cup, replacing the milk with buttermilk and adjusting the baking powder and adding baking soda. I add 2 Tbs. milk powder and 2 Tbs. flax meal. I delete a teaspoon of vanilla. I do a streusel with 3 Tbs. brown sugar, 5 Tbs. King Arthur AP, ½ Tbs. melted butter, and 1/2 Tbs. avocado oil, to which I added a bit of pecan meal. The recipe made 13 muffins, so I put a muffin paper in small ceramic dish for the extra one. It took about 5 minutes longer to bake than the ones in the muffin pan. I am looking forward to having these for breakfast over the next few days. Scott will likely have one with his afternoon tea.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover pork tenderloin and muddled mashed potatoes with microwaved frozen mixed vegetables, as well as more of the applesauce.

[BakerAunt]

Bagels are on my baking list for 2026, Mike.

I was pleased with how my Pfeffernusse turned out this year. I was able to order the candied citron from Sal and Frank back in November. Thanks to Italian Cook for recommending the company to me. This is the second time I've ordered from them.

This year, I did not use the Boynton Anise extract that I used last year. It was just not the right flavor. I had an older small bottle of it as well, and it did not have any Anise smell to it. I dumped both of them. However, I had some Loran Anise oil that smelled fine. I googled and found that I should use a quarter of the measurement for anise extract, so I used 1/8 tsp., and that was just right. Scott says he does not care for anise, but I note that he eats the Pfeffernusse, maybe because of the powdered sugar.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover noodles with turkey and vegetables from a few nights ago for dinner on Friday.

[BakerAunt]

The trifle is beautiful, Mike.

Merry Christmas to all my baking friends at Nebraska Kitchen.

[BakerAunt]

For Christmas dinner on Thursday, I made Maple-Glazed Pork Tenderloin and muddled mashed potatoes. We also had apple sauce from the freezer and microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Pfeffernusse on Wednesday (Christmas Eve) because for me it is not Christmas without Pfeffernusse.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I baked my oil-based sugar cookies. This time, I used whole wheat pastry flour in place of the white whole wheat flour and King Arthur AP in place of the Pillsbury or Gold Medal AP. I flattened the balls with a juice glass, after spraying the bottom with non-stick spray. (I had to repeat every six cookies.) I put mixed red, green, and white sprinkles in the center of each one, then used my finger to spread it over the surface. I will wait until tomorrow to taste one, as the nutmeg and vanilla need an overnight in oil baking to develop the flavor.

Follow-Up Note: the cookies came out very well. They are not quite as soft as before, but they are also not oily. I think pastry flour absorbs oil more effectively. I will continue using half whole wheat pastry flour, but I will use Pillsbury or Gold Medal flour rather than King Arthur AP next time in order to product a lighter cookie.

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