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Sunday dinner was roasted bone-in chicken breast, roasted sweet potato chunks, and microwaved frozen peas.
My husband felt that he had not started the bell peppers early enough, so he will plant those in pots so that they can overwinter in the house at the end of the season. Our beans have started coming up, as have plants for the two potatoes. We are still waiting on the squash to make its appearance. He also planted a few snow peas.
Two of the tomato plants got broken when a grow light got knocked on to them in the house, so Scott told me to go ahead and buy another tomato plant at the farmers market. There I encountered a self-proclaimed tomato geek, who had an amazing variety. As they were $3 apiece, or two for $5, I naturally came home with two. One is a Dester Indiana. The story is that the seeds were brought by a German man to Indiana, and he gave some to an Amish woman. I couldn't resist the story. The other plant, also an heirloom, is a Goliath, which is a variety that does not grow very tall. It's supposed to be sturdy and to continue producing fruit until a freeze. If we have a good season, I should have lots of different tomatoes with which to play in the kitchen.
My husband also bought seed for a fairy tale pumpkin--a variety I discovered at the farmers market a couple of years ago but have been unable to get since then. (There is someone else who likes the variety who usually gets there before the market opens and grabs the one or two that they have in their selection. The idea is to plant the seed in a large grow bag left over from when I used to plant a garden and place it on the side of the house, then let the vines run along the sunny side, and perhaps let any pumpkins that develop rest on the sidewalk. I got the idea after seeing a yard with lovely pumpkins a couple of years ago, even though most of the "yard" was pavers, with just a small spot of ground. We will have to protect the seeds until they germinate and get large enough that the chipmunks will leave the plant alone.
So far this year, we are getting regular rain and not too hot of temperatures. The black raspberry and blackberry crops look promising.
One of our two blueberry bushes has developed berries. For the second year in a row, the second one did not. If I can keep the birds off the one bush, I might get enough berries for muffins.
You hit the jackpot, Joan! I bought two Wilton doughnut pans at our local Thrift store a week ago and paid $2, so you definitely got the better bargain! I'm looking forward to your baking adventures with your new pans. Let me know if you need a baked doughnut recipe. I have two that I really like--one with applesauce and one with pumpkin.
Here is a quick analysis of the two new recipes I baked this week:
We each had a slice of Barley Orange Bread for dessert on Saturday. The flavor of the Cara Cara orange is just right and balances nicely with the barley, so I would make it again with my changes.
As for the Raisin Rye Bread: I had some slices for breakfast, and it is a nice hearty loaf. My husband later had a slice and he liked it as well. I want to bake the recipe again and see if I can correct the slightly depressed center, as well as not overbake it. I also think that the bread needs to rest about a day before cutting into it, as I thought it slightly gummy this morning, but that is no longer the case this evening.
That sounds good, Navlys!
I made yogurt on Saturday.
For dinner, I made Crispy Oven Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar Sauce. I had spinach, cherry tomato, onion, mushroom, and sunflower seed salad with mine. My husband had microwaved fresh broccoli
We re-ran the Turkey, Spinach, and Mushroom lasagna for dinner on Friday. We finished the chocolate cake that I thawed earlier in the week, along with the remaining strawberries I got at last week's farmers market. Chocolate and strawberry go very well together.
I baked a new recipe on Friday: Raisin Rye Bread. It originally appeared in Food and Wine in December 2007, but I printed it from the internet in April 2017, so it was in my pile of recipes to try. The recipe is by Lionel Vatinet, and the headnote says that he developed it "to satisfy his Eastern European customers.
I replaced the AP flour with Bob's Red Mill Artisan Bread flour and used Bob's dark rye flour. I reduced the salt from 1 1/4 to ¾ tsp., added 2 Tbs. milk powder, and added 2 Tbs. avocado oil, since breads without any fat do not last well. I also added a scant cup of walnuts. The recipe specifies a 9-inch enameled cast iron casserole. I used the bread bowl I bought from King Arthur some years ago, which is ideal for 3 ½ cups of flour recipes. As always, I greased it and sprinkled it with farina.
I did the mixing in the bread machine. It was a very sticky dough. The first rise took just an hour rather than ninety minutes, but that is not unusual. The loaf baked at 450 F. I let it go the 35 minutes specified, and that was a mistake. I should have checked it 5 minutes earlier, so it is darker on top than I would like, and the internal temperature was 211 F rather than 200 F. It's cooling on the rack. I plan to have a slice or two for breakfast tomorrow with cream cheese on it.
Joan--Your banana cake looks luscious. It reminds me that I have a banana cake recipe with a light cream cheese frosting. I need some people around so that I can bake it again.
I am in awe of your challah project, Aaron. It sounds as if it has been growing. The make two loaves and give one away would be a great way to involve more people.
I know that it is not always easy to get these activities started so that they root and flourish. I tried for years to establish a short coffee hour and treats for after services at my church in Texas, but there were only a couple of us who ever volunteered. I suspect that when I moved away, it ended.
It would be great to have a Dessert Nebraska Kitchen meet-up. We could all show off our desserts!
For Thursday night's dinner, I made Turkey, Spinach, and Mushroom Lasagna, which goes well with the cooler days we have had this week. We have planned overs for two more meals.
Your cheese bread sounds delicious, Skeptic.
I needed to use the last of my Cara Cara oranges, so I found a quick bread recipe, "Barley Orange Bread" in Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s New Complete Book of Breads (expanded 2nd edition, pp. 177-179). It uses just barley flour, which appealed to me, since my husband and I are both fond of barley. I baked it, with a few changes on Thursday. I reduced the baking powder from 1 Tbs. to 2 ½ tsp. because the larger amount always seems to me to leave an aftertaste, and I find that the Bakewell Cream baking powder outperforms other brands. The rise was fine on the baked bread, but the center of the loaf has a slight depression. I wonder if 2 tsp. baking powder and ¼ tsp. baking soda (to offset the acidity of the orange juice) would correct that slight defect. (Cass would have known!) The recipe has a complex boiling of orange rind and creating a kind of syrup with it and half the sugar, but the headnote in the 2nd edition of Clayton's book, unlike in the 1st, says that you can skip that if you do not mind assertive orange flavor. However, he does not say how to compensate for the syrup. I decided to cut the amount of water used to make the final syrup (which I did not make) in half, as I assume at least half would have evaporated in the 25-minute cooking time. I added 1 Tbs. milk powder, and I replaced 3 Tbs. of butter or shortening, melted, with 3 Tbs. avocado oil. I altered the mixing instructions to mix the wet ingredients first, along with the sugar into which I had mixed the orange zest. The pans called for were either a 9" x 5" or two 7" x 3". I used three 2 ½" x 5" loaf pans. I baked for 38 minutes but perhaps should have taken then out after 35, Once they have cooled, I will wrap up two for freezing, and the other I will wrap and allow to rest for a day or two, as Clayton says a richer flavor will develop if allowed to rest for at least a day. As we have dessert for the next two days, that works perfectly.
We went for a picnic lunch and hike at the Indiana Dunes on Wednesday, so I knew to plan an easy dinner for when we returned. I made Salmon and Couscous with Penzey's Greek Seasoning, which we had alongside microwaved fresh broccoli.
We finished the roast chicken breast meat tonight. My husband had his with the rest of the bulgur stir-fry, and I had mine with curried butternut squash soup from the freezer. I froze a lot of that soup; it is very handy to pull out a container whenever I want it.
We had leftovers from last night for dinner.
I like all the cookout foods mentioned. I might add a pasta salad.
On Sunday, I baked a double recipe of my no-butter drop sugar cookies and rolled them in red sugar in honor of the Memorial Day weekend. The cookies are soft enough that Scott will be able to eat them.
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