[BakerAunt]

This afternoon I baked King Arthur's Maple Granola again--using the online recipe rather than the version in their Whole Grains baking book. The online recipe uses less oil and adds 1/2 cup powdered milk. (They use special dry milk; I use Bob's Red Mill powdered milk.) I chose pecans rather than walnuts because we still have plenty of pecans. I delete the vanilla (why spoil that great maple flavor?), and I add 1/2 cup pumpkin seed. I decided to bake it in my giant half-sheet pan with 2-inch sides (the one I used for Party Mix back when it could be in my diet). I lined it with parchment (Reynolds, since I wanted to cover the sides, and the KAF half-sheet parchment won't do that). I let it cool briefly, then stir in 2 cups raisins.

I like to sprinkle this granola over the nonfat Greek yogurt that I have as part of my lunch, and sometimes I eat it plain as a breakfast cereal. My husband has taken to snacking on it, and so I have no problem with making such a large batch.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--I envy you your walk-in pantry. My dream kitchen would have one, just as my grandmoher's large kitchen did, but we had a space limitation here. Open shelves are great when you want to find and grab just the right bowl and pot. My grandmother's narrow walk-in pantry had a window at the back that looked onto the backyard, and a wooden step stool. It had curtains that could be drawn across the door, and I found it a wonderful retreat for when I wanted to sit and think about something.

That was a large kitchen. It had two sets of tall utility cabinets that as young kids we could stand in--we played "phone booth" with them. she had a white painted "Hoosier," that fascinated us, as we were used to built-in cabinetry. It was a single room in the back of the house, but it had doors leading into the dining room and into the main living area. The back door went onto a covered utility porch where the coal scuttle was kept, although the house had not used coal in years.

[BakerAunt]

I had no frame of reference, so I missed it. I've never eaten any of these birds and don't expect that I ever will.

[BakerAunt]

I've never been fond of eat-in counters. What I had in my house in Texas before I got married was an alcove at the end of the kitchen where I had a kitchen table. I liked that for informal eating, working the crossword or reading the paper while eating breakfast, or for the extra space it gave for major cooking projects, like lots of cookies. I still have that kitchen table, which has been in my family for most of my life--the kind with the hard, "faux wood grain" on top--but because this kitchen is so small, it had to go into our apt. The dining room in my Texas house was off the other side of the kitchen and was open to the small living room.

I like having a formal dining room or area. Our initial phase of home renovation here in Indiana created a formal dining area in the open concept and has a lovely view of the lake. For informal eating, go down two steps and cross the living area to the sunroom at the front of the house, and take in the view.

HGTV just finished a contest for "$250,000" toward "your dream kitchen." Uh, I didn't spend anywhere close to that amount. HGTV puts too much focus on bells and whistles, and I often wonder how many of those people actually cook or bake. One of the installers of our new range said that it was really nice to be installing such a great stove for people who actually intend to make good use of it.

[BakerAunt]

Hi, Cass! I never knew that cole slaw is one of your areas of expertise. I'll look forward to hearing from you--and I'll make sure that I have pen and paper nearby.

My mom had some great recipes, but when it came to cole slaw, she either bought it or bought the pre-grated, shredded mix in a bag, along with a bottle of "cole slaw dressing."

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for posting the link to the article, Mike. I read it to my husband, who found it fascinating as well. It certainly had to be a different yeast from modern yeast, which can expire. I hope that there is a follow-up article at some point after they analyze the bread.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--I do have a small countertop, convection oven that I bought a few years ago when my range was out for over a month. I need to unpack it and find a space for it in this kitchen. The small oven's one failing is that it is ridiculously difficult to set, but it does bake well, and I've used it for occasional vegetable side dishes.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I missed it. Now I must go dazzle my plant physiologist husband with my new plant knowledge....

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--We live on a bluff that has a steep hill down to the lake. We think that the cottage owners in the 1930s may have put in the terrace because a nearby neighbor remembers the woman's flowers from when she was a child. That woman's initials, A.M. (Anna Minas) are carved in the cement of the top of the concrete steps, so they certainly did the steps. The walls are stone, but may have been changed around by the people who bought the place in the 1950s. The terraces' original purpose may have been erosion control. (I've been researching the owners of the house and its history. It might make a good writing project.) When we moved in, there were a lot of an ancient reed plant on the various levels, some flowers, and two large trees. The black oak is still there, but we had to have the sassafras removed because it had heart rot, and had it come down in a hard blow it would have hit the neighbor's house.

My husband wants the terraces to be a natural landscape, which makes us stand out with the "suburbites" here. He has planted various native wildflowers and plants, as well as a couple more trees. He introduced the black raspberries and the blackberries, and now the blueberries. We actually got more black raspberries on the other side this time, so we shall see what happens in the future. I am allowed to pull a couple of kinds of weeds, but mostly I leave it alone, as once I pulled out a plant he wanted. Oops. My husband has been carting gravel out of each level, as well as plastic that was put down under the gravel by the 1950s-2004 residents to deter weeds. (It didn't work.)

It's a bit on the wild side, and once the house is complete, my husband will have more time to devote to it. We have columbine in the spring, black-eyed Susans, some day lilies, and other plants that attract butterflies, bees, and even hummingbirds.

I would like to start composting, both for the terrace and for our garden in the back. Once we are more settled, I plan to learn about how to do it.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Mike. I have the book, and I'll have to look at that one. The recipe I currently used was adapted from one in the Los Angeles Times weekly recipe section.

[BakerAunt]

On our Tuesday shopping trip, we came upon a good price on whole chicken legs, so I roasted the package of six for dinner. We had microwaved fresh broccoli as well I had bought fingerling potatoes at the farmers market about ten days ago, so I looked at internet recipes and chose this one:

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

My biggest problem is that I cannot fit my skillet (All-Clad not cast iron) into the oven with the roasting chicken. What to do? Cook the potatoes for 25 minutes after the chicken comes out? Or carry a hot skillet over to the apt. and use that oven there while the chicken finishes up in the house, then carry an even hotter one back? (If I could have fit a second oven into this kitchen, I would have done so.) I settled for using the apt. oven as well. The fingerling potato recipe is excellent. I will be making it again. However, I cut back the garlic, as a little goes a long way.

[BakerAunt]

We've had cooler weather this Tuesday, so I baked my Hot Cross Buns recipe (one I have fiddled with for years to make it more wholegrain) with fresh blueberries. It does get a bit messy incorporating them, but we both like the results. Once they cool, I'll frost them (no cross, just frosting!). We will have one for dessert tonight, and happily eat them whenever for the rest of the week.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you, Italian Cook. There is, alas, no Miracle Whip in the house, only low-fat Kraft mayonnaise. I wonder what that chemical reaction was. (Is there a quiz question here?) If Miracle Whip is essential, the slaw would need to wait until we do another grocery run to the town north of us. I'd also need to use low-fat. (I never use nonfat--that stuff is yucky.)

That makes sense that the cole slaw would need to sit for a day. I find the same is true of my potato salad.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I missed it, but I learned something new. 🙂

[BakerAunt]

We have finished (and frozen some) of our bean crop. Our snow peas have finished up as well.

So far, I've gotten two tomatoes off the "Carbon" tomato plant. One was past its useful life; these tomatoes tend to have a dusky red he and dark green around the top when ripe, and so we missed seeing it was ripe. The other I used in a salad, and it is delicious. There are plenty of green tomatoes yet on the plant, as well as on the ones that my husband started from seed. I suspect that there will be a mad tomato rush at some point.

Some kind of caterpillar has been chomping my husband's broccoli plants, which have not developed any flowers. With the construction, the grass around the fenced garden perimeter is rather long. Next year we will try a "clear" zone around the perimeter. For now, my husband is executing any caterpillars he finds.

There are four peppers on my bell pepper plant. We are waiting for them to turn red, as we do not care for green ones. The plant has some flowers, so there may be more.

My husband never got to the woods to pick black raspberries, due to the construction, so we only ended up with a few from there. I was only able to make 3 1/2 cups black raspberry jam. However, 90& of the berries came from our front terrace. When my stepdaughter was here, she went out to the woods with my husband and tasted some of the last of the black raspberries and loved them, so I included the 1/2 cup jar with the birthday present we sent.

I'd hoped for lots of blackberries, since I always seed them; thus, I need lots in order to make straight blackberry jam. My husband's woods used to have some nice ones, but the trees have now come up and shaded them out. I've been picking what we have on the front terrace. I expect those to finish up this week. If I don't have quite enough, I'll sneak in some blueberries to make up the shortage.

Some of our wild blueberries on the terrace produced a bit of fruit, but my husband is saving those for seed. Our two commercial plants are young, and so had very little fruit--and one has been crowded by the construction scaffolding. I expect that they will do better next year.

My husband is going to try one more small bean crop. While it seems strange to think of a freeze when we are sweltering in August, the reality is that it could happen by the time they are producing, so he will put them toward the center where he can cover them if necessary.

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