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I made another batch of yogurt on Tuesday.

[BakerAunt]

The description was mouthwatering, and the picture is making me drool onto my keyboard. 🙂

On Tuesday, I baked King Arthur’s Favorite Fudge Birthday Cake, which is my husband’s favorite cake. I baked it for his birthday tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

Pre-pandemic, I used to get excellent deals on Scott bathroom tissue at CVS. I'd wait for the special to run every five or six weeks, then stock up. (My husband rolled his eyes--until the pandemic struck.) CVS must print ads far in advance, because even 5 months or so later, they were still advertising specials but had no Scott in stock.

A year into the pandemic, the deals are not back, although I recently used a CVS coupon to get a somewhat better deal on a 12-pack. The quality of the Scott tissue seems to have changed; I think it is more like the commercial paper. Note: we use this brand because in my husband's house in Texas, it helped with the wonky plumbing (although having the plumber address the problem solved that). When we bought our house here, it was on sceptic system, and Scott is recommended for sceptics. After a year, the sewer conservancy was established, with each house having a grinder. We decided to stick with what we know.

[BakerAunt]

The local store (only one in town) has occasionally good deals on some items. a 2 lb. bag of carrots was 99 cents. I had stopped buying large carrots after we moved here, as many tasted bitter, but when I started buying them during the pandemic, I found that the taste was the sweetness I expect. Avocados are hit and miss at that store; I have to choose them carefully. Sometimes the produce is overpriced: $3 for 8 oz. mushrooms. I wait to see if it goes down. Broccoli is very expensive there.

We go to Aldi's in the next town every three weeks or so. Their produce prices are better, and some of their produce superior. I also go by Kroger, which has excellent prices on organic kale and some other produce.

The local grocery has some good meat prices, as they cut their own meat. We wait for the specials, usually on chicken or nonfatty pork. We avoid their chicken breasts because of the whiting. We buy frozen seafood at Aldi's.

We have taken to spacing out the Walmart visits during the pandemic: too many people still managed to flaunt the mask rules.

[BakerAunt]

Ah, another book to read. I read his Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore a few years back and enjoyed it.

[BakerAunt]

I have about a 5 lb. weight gain after this winter due to the baking and to not being able to get out to walk. Yesterday and today, I was able to persuade the dog to go for a walk with me. She is noise adverse, so on weekdays with construction, or if someone is out shooting somewhere, she panics, and then it takes weeks to get her out again. Earlier in the morning on weekends work pretty well.

It is hard to get good salad ingredients locally at this time of year, so soups are my go-to when I am looking to trim a few pounds.

For dinner on Monday, and into the week, I used a recipe from an email from Tasting Table (Does that site even still exist?) for Butternut Squash, Farro, and Kale Soup, which was adapted from a recipe in an Oprah Winfrey cookbook. (I first made this soup in December 2017, so I probably posted a link to the recipe at that time.) I replaced the leeks with onion—in this case 1 Tbs. dried Penzey’s onion that I rehydrate in water—as my husband does not do well with the fresh onion. The original recipe uses about 2 cups butternut squash. I used a large one (my next to the last from the farmers’ market last autumn), and I probably had about 5 cups. I decided that I would also brown a package of ground turkey to give the soup more protein. At the end, after I add the kale, I put in 2 tsp. cider vinegar. I do not know why, but it balances the flavors. (I owe this tip to the barley, butternut squash, and kale pork loin recipe that I also like to cook.) The soup came out as almost a stew, but we did not mind. We each grated a bit of Parmesan into our serving bowls. The weather is a little chilly this evening, so it was the perfect meal, and we have enough for at least two additional nights.

[BakerAunt]

Here the high was in the 50s, but a cold front has blown in this evening, although without the strong winds that Chocomouse is seeing.

On Sunday I baked another batch of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made last week.

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I am intrigued and may try to get a hold of it to read.

[BakerAunt]

Follow-up Note on the Pear Ginger Bundt Cake:

I planned to use just 1 cup of powdered sugar for the glaze, but I got it too thin and needed to add about another ¼ cup. I used scant ¼ tsp. of the cinnamon and the ginger and just 1 tsp. vanilla. I used 2 Tbs. half and half (next time, I would use 1 ½ Tbs.). (I used half and half because I have it in the refrigerator for an upcoming recipe; otherwise I would have used 1% milk.) I wanted the glaze thicker so that I could highlight the design from the Chiffon Bundt pan. It made a gorgeous presentation.

My husband took a bite of the cake and said, “This is a keeper!” It is delicious and tender. I will be baking it again.

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To go with leftover roasted chicken thighs for Friday night dinner, I cooked a cup of bulgur in 2 cups of turkey broth from the freezer. We also had microwaved frozen peas.

[BakerAunt]

Learning a new oven, alas, takes time, Chocomouse. Yes, that is a great bread.

I love baking with Bosc pears, but my favorite recipes involved lots of butter. I bought some Bosc pears and thought about trying to alter the recipes, but given how the butter works in those recipes, I decided it would be best to seek out new ones. On Friday, I baked Pear Ginger Bundt Cake, from the Imperial Sugar site:

http://www.imperialsugar.com/recipes/pear-ginger-bundt-cake

I tweaked the recipe by replacing a third of the AP flour with barley flour, adding 3 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill milk powder, replacing ¼ of the 1 cup of vegetable oil (I use canola) with buttermilk, and replacing the ½ cup of sour cream with nonfat Greek yogurt. I processed regular sugar in my small food processor to get the extrafine sugar specified. I used the Nordic Ware Chiffon Bundt pan (recipe calls for a 10-12 cup) because I have not used that one in a while and coated it with the pan grease. I checked it after an hour and decided, based on the tester to allow another 5 minutes. It’s cooling, so I will not be glazing it until tomorrow. I'll report back on the taste and flavor.

[BakerAunt]

To accompany leftover roasted chicken thigh for Thursday’s dinner, I thawed a brown and wild rice mix that I froze a couple of weeks ago and added it to carrots and celery sauteed in olive oil, then mixed in minced parsley at the end. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli

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My husband has some spinach growing in a planter on the enclosed porch. He worked out that if he opens one window, and puts a frame he made over it with clear sheet plastic, he can get light and heat on it for a few hours when the sun is shining. He also started pepper plants this winter. Those will be transplanted to the garden. We have figured out that bell peppers do not have enough time to grow here if started from seed in the ground.

He also has some green onions, and we've cut some of the green part off and let it grow back.

He will be thinking of starting some tomato plants soon.

[BakerAunt]

I made another batch of yogurt on Wednesday.

Today the ice went off the lake after a couple days of warm weather and strong winds. It won't be back again this season.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I baked “Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies No Butter,” a recipe from Jenny Can Cook. (I am grateful to Len for directing us to her website.) I made a double recipe and used white whole wheat flour in place of the AP and added 2 Tbs. milk powder and 1 Tbs. flax meal. I used the Zeroll #16 scoop to make 15 large cookies. I used regular (old-fashioned) oats, as the recipe did not specify. I found that I needed to flatten the dough somewhat before baking. I baked them on the third rack up in my oven (a little above halfway) and found that they needed 18 minutes, and I turned them around after 9 minutes. I taste tested a slightly warm one—yummy. These are big cookies, so a single cookie is satisfactory.

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