[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, with three inches of snow on the ground outside, I made pea soup for lunch. I had to use green split peas, as I have not been able to find yellow ones locally or at a reasonable shipping cost, but I like green pea soup as well. My husband is not a fan, so I get to eat the whole batch myself. It goes well with the crispbread that I baked last week.

[BakerAunt]

I got this.

[BakerAunt]

I do use the Baker's Special dry milk in my yeast breads. In all my other baking, I use Bob's Red Mill milk powder, which I prefer to the granular stuff I find in stores. I don't taste the powdered milk in what I bake. I did try adding a tsp. to my oatmeal, and I did notice and not care for it. I'll only do that again if we are out of milk.

My mother liked to mix powdered milk and combine it with regular milk to stretch it. We kids drank it but preferred the straight milk at my grandmother's house. I'm not sure if it were a matter of cost or nutrition or both with my mother's mixing of the two.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Mike. I thought it was rather odd. I looked up the recipe I plan to bake on the KAF website:

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/raisin-pecan-rye-bread-recipe

The recipe there states "salt," not "artisan bread salt." I've noticed with KAF recipes that the catalog will often list a specific ingredient that would need to be ordered, but if I go to the website, there is usually a substitution available.

I use "sea salt," so I'm not going to worry about a special salt for this bread. I also never try to bake with Kosher salt or any large crystal salt. I save it for cracker topping.

[BakerAunt]

We're having leftover hamburger stroganoff on brown and mixed rice, with microwaved mixed vegetables from the freezer. I like having leftovers.

[BakerAunt]

Ah, but I want to know who put the tribbles in the quadrotriticale?

[BakerAunt]

I ate a jar of the yogurt at breakfast the next morning. It has a mild taste and a creamy texture. I am happy with the result and will make it again.

At some point, I will experiment with using Greek yogurt as the starter to see if a good nonfat Greek yogurt will also give me good results with less saturated fat.

[BakerAunt]

I have never heard of it, so I guessed and answered incorrectly. Interesting!

[BakerAunt]

Peter Reinhart does the cheese on the dough in his pizza book and KAF has also picked up on it. I thought of trying it, but I have to use less rather than more cheese on my pizzas. I also suspect my husband would not like the chewy cheese.

[BakerAunt]

I checked the yogurt after five hours, and it didn't seem quite set, so I let it go another hour, and it seems fine. I've refrigerated it and will try it at breakfast tomorrow. I also had the yogurt maker sitting on the cold counter until the last hour. It occurred to me that it was likely losing some heat, so I put it on one of those fold up "dish mats," which I've never used for dishes but have used for containers of dough for either rising.

One of my gripes with a lot of store yogurt is the added thickeners--pectin, food starch. I dislike how it feels in my mouth. I prefer my yogurt slightly creamy, which is why I liked Stonyfield regular and Chobani Greek yogurt. (I saw plain nonfat Stonyfield Greek yogurt in Walmart, but it was over $6 per carton.) Greek yogurt is higher in protein but lower in calcium, so it's a trade-off. A good yogurt should taste good without additives. Sometimes I stir in some of my homemade jam. Lately I've been sprinkling a bit of my homemade maple granola on my Chobani Greek yogurt, so I'll try it with the homemade yogurt.

Each jar is about 200mg calcium and 2g saturated fat.

[BakerAunt]

Actually, there is a Gordon Food Services in South Bend, although it seemed limited in what it carries.

[BakerAunt]

Enjoy your time in Florida, Navlys. We're not going this year.

I never got to that Penzey's, as it was not close to where we traveled or stayed, but I still dream of getting to a real Penzey's. Until then, there is always mail order, and I have gift cards to use.

With their pre-made blends, I found that the Tuscan Sunset is one my husband is able to eat--unlike the spices I would use for my spaghetti sauce--so that one I do buy. Curiously, he and his daughter do not do well with the "frozen pizza" blend, which I don't buy but was in some gift boxes I received, so I have to eat it up by myself. I also got hooked on the Greek Seasoning and the Sunny Paris, like Chocomouse, when those were included in a gift box. And I like the Bouquet Garni and the Herbs Provance.

Otherwise, I stick to single spices.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Our snow seems to have ended this evening. My husband estimates we got about 2 1/2 inches, although it's hard to tell because it's the wet snow. For dinner, I made comfort food: my healthier version of my mother's hamburger stroganoff over brown rice and a wild rice medley, along with fresh broccoli steamed in the microwave.

[BakerAunt]

I used to make my own yogurt all the time, beginning in the late 1980s. I went through two yogurt makers because I used them so frequently. I also have one packed away that makes a large quart container. I may pull it out and give it another go as well.

Yogurt was inexpensive for a while, and so was not worth my time to make it, but now that milk prices are relatively low, and I live in a rural area where it is hard to get what I consider healthy yogurt--i.e. no added sugar, no thickeners, live cultures, and low or nonfat--it makes sense to make my own. It will also cut down on the number of non-recyclable yogurt containers I have to throw away. I can only find uses for just so many of them, although a small string of Christmas lights packed nicely into a quart-sized Chobani yogurt container, and its clear lid makes it easy to find them in the decorations. We also used some of those containers when we were painting.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I know this one. One of my college roommates was from India.

[Author]

Posts