BakerAunt
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For Monday night's dinner, I roasted eight chicken thighs, which I found for 59 cents per pound at the grocery on Sunday. I like roasting a big batch so that we have enough for several more meals. I also cooked freekeh in chicken broth, and we had microwaved fresh broccoli.
I also made another batch of yogurt.
Back when I was making pot roast, I used a Dutch Oven, and it cooked for a long time at a low setting, so yes, that would be using the oven as a slow cooker. That is also the idea behind the pork roast recipe that I wrote about in the cooking thread. I'm now wondering if the pork roast recipe assumes an oven with a visible element, and that is why the author had no trouble getting the roast to cook, but the rest of us cannot.
I recall when my Thermador oven (left behind in Texas) developed a stuck relay while I was baking a chocolate cake. Fortunately, I was right there in the kitchen, saw the fire start, and turned off the oven.
A year or so ago, there was an oven fire in the South Bend/Mishawaka area that occurred when the husband set the oven to self-clean, then went out to run an errand. Fortunately, a neighbor saw the smoke and called in the alarm. The house was damaged but repairable.
Michael Pollen on coffee:
CI said it contacted the recipe's author, who states that the time (35 min!) and temperature (250F) is correct. The recipe is a braise, as the browned roast sits in 4 cups of chicken broth, with 1 cup of barley. The covered heavy Dutch oven--in my case a 5 1/2 qt. Le Creuset--sits on the bottom rack of the oven. I think it's supposed to be a slow cooker approach. I let the roast sit out a bit before I began browning it. I boiled the broth before adding it, then brought it and the barley to a boil before adding the roast. I even put the piece of foil between the lid and the pan. After 45 minutes, I had a reading of only around 109. I was looking for 135F, as it will rise to 145 while sitting on a platter covered for 15 minutes.
I agree that the roasting temperature is just too low. When I make it again (the taste is wonderful), I will set the oven to 325F. I'd like to get the timing figured out, so that I can use it as a company dish with confidence that it will be done around the expected time.
For dessert on Valentine’s day, I baked a Chocolate Heart Cake, using a La Forme pan from Kaiser Backform (Heart Flan Pan) that I bought some years ago and had only used once before. The beauty of being retired is that I have time to celebrate the holidays. One of the recipes that came with the pan is “Chocolate Strawberry Heart.” I was delighted that it did not use butter, only ¼ cup oil and ½ cup buttermilk. It also uses coffee liquor, and I still have a partial bottle of Kahlua. I used the Grease on the pan. At first, I was unsure if it was going to release, but I rapped the rack with the inverted pan on top on the counter, and it came out beautifully. The plan was to make a filling with fresh strawberries and glaze. However, dinner took so long, I didn’t get that done, so I came up with a Plan B. I mixed up 1 ½ recipes of the glaze I used earlier this week. I spread it in the center of the heart, pushing it up along the sides. I felt it needed something, so I rummaged through my stash and found some large crystal red sugar, which I sprinkled on it. The cake is more like a kind of brownie, which worked well with the glaze. We both liked it, and of course my husband had a second piece, oblivious to the Kahlua.
I have a heart-shaped platter--from King Arthur years ago--and the Kaiser heart fits on it perfectly.
