BakerAunt
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I went to the Bob's Red Mill site. Lots of products are out of stock, still. However, if you click on some of the flours, there is a message that they should be back in stock April 26.
I mixed leftover cooked ground turkey that I'd frozen after we had pizza a couple weeks ago and combined it with the leftover spinach noodles, broccoli, and mushroom mixture I made two nights ago. All dinner leftovers are gone, and we begin anew tomorrow.
I falsed when I should have trued.
I made another batch of yogurt.
I worked out the correct answer, perhaps because my younger stepson spent six weeks there (back before the pandemic).
Good point about the amount of cheese, Italian Cook. When I cut back for dietary reasons, I was surprised that I still enjoyed the recipes. I think that cheese is to cooking as vanilla is to baking: people tend to overdo it.
No, it's not ramsoms. My husband is trying to remember the name our botanist friend told him. They look almost like chives.
On another note, the morel mushrooms have been under stress due to the spread of an invasive plant called garlic mustard, which sterilizes the soil so that mushrooms cannot grow. It's a major problem, and it's one of the invasive plants that my husband fights in his woodlands. Others are multiflora rose, honeysuckle, and the Asian bittersweet.
On Friday, I also baked Grape Nuts Bread. We liked the more whole wheat version that I had done last time, so I followed those changes. I wanted to use up some of the high gluten flour, so I used 1 cup bread flour, one cup high gluten flour, and one cup AP (all KAF). I kneaded at speed 3 on my Cuisinart mixer for 6 minutes and 30 seconds before getting a windowpane. The dough had great rises, and oven spring was good. They are now cooling on a rack. We will cut one tomorrow; the other will be frozen for later.
To go with leftover roasted chicken thighs, I cooked a package of spinach noodles and several minutes before they would be done, I emptied a package of frozen broccoli florets into the water. Meanwhile, I sautéed 8 oz of sliced mushrooms in olive oil, then sprinkled with 2 Tbs. flour. I added a bit of half and half that I’m trying to use up, and some pasta water. After I added the drained pasta-broccoli mixture to the noodles, I used a coarse grater to add some Parmesan, then freshly ground pepper. It was delicious, and we will have leftovers for the next two days, although on the third day, I’ll re-purpose them.
My husband and I looked at the picture. What we have are not ramps. We think they are a kind of garlic, although it has a taste reminiscent of green onion.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by
BakerAunt.
We actually like lima beans--dry ones I cook or frozen ones. I've not tried canned. My sister bought some to use in a lima bean casserole she wanted to try. She said the dry and frozen ones were sold out.
My husband and I noticed that our York apples need to be used, so I used eight of the remaining ten to bake an apple pie. I used my oil crust, which I roll out before fitting into the Emile Henry deep-dish pie plate, and I use Bernard Clayton’s French Apple Pie recipe, which is an apple pie with a streusel topping instead of a top crust. I reduce the streusel ingredients by 25%, except for the butter, which I reduce by half. I always par-cook the filling, since I need to par-bake the oil crust. It should rest until tomorrow, but I suspect that my husband will want to cut into it for dessert tonight.
Update on the fruited sourdough bread: it is delicious, especially with Land o' Lakes Light Butter Canola Spread, or the Greek Yogurt-Cream Cheese Blend that Kroger makes. My husband and I both had some at breakfast. I though that perhaps I should have added more sugar in the dough, but my husband says it is fine as it is. It has a soft interior texture. The crust did get "wrinkly" as it cooled, but the taste is what is important.
Out of curiosity, I also consulted Bernard Clayton. In the first edition of his The Complete Book of Breads, he says that "the phrase salt-rising refers to the old kitchen practice of keeping the bowl of starter nested overnight in a bed of warm salt, which retains heat nicely. It does not refer to the bread's peculiar taste" (p. 306).
He notes, as did Beard, that the starter can be "temperamental" and warns: "
. . . if it doesn't bubble up during the night to produce its oddly sweet odor, have no patience. It is only a sacrifice of cornmeal and milk. Begin again, but put it together in another way. Use a different milk, or another kind of cornmeal. There is no easy explanation of why one combination will work and another will not" (p. 306).
Like Beard (and unlike that article that got us started on this topic), Clayton emphasizes warmth when making the starter. Indeed, he days to "warm everything it touches, the bowl, the cups, and the spoon" (306). He instructs readers to find a spot in their house which is between 90F-95F and notes that in his house "that is on a shelf near the hot water heater in the utility room." He, like Beard, also recommends the pilot light of the oven, but of course our ovens don't have pilot lights anymore.
He suggests using pasteurized whole milk and notes he has had no success with non-fat dry milk.
He goes on to give three different recipes. He notes in the first one that the dough "will have a strong smell not unlike a soft ripe cheese, and it is here the lovers of salt-rising bread are usually sorted out from among those who are not. To the former, it is a glorious aroma; to the latter, an unpleasant smell" (p. 307). Clayton also includes two of the three recipes in the revised second edition of his book.
A lot of foraging for morels goes on in our area and in the state parks when they are in season.
There are some wild green onions that come up in the woods at this time of year as well. They have to be eaten close to when they are harvested, as the flavor fades rapidly.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by
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