[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Saturday, my husband cooked some boneless pork in a skillet on the stove. I roasted some cut-up sweet potatoes from the farmers market a couple of weeks ago, drizzling them with maple syrup halfway through. Next time I will cut the roasting time, since the sweet potatoes from the farmers market are more tender than what I find in the stores. We microwaved fresh broccoli as well. We ate dinner by candlelight on our enclosed porch while watching the moon rise. In the adjacent front room, we have a fire in the wood stove. Today is its first use of the season, a sign that fall has now arrived.

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

[BakerAunt]

I agree with Mike. As this bread recipe uses cinnamon and nutmeg, as well as light brown sugar, those flavors are enough. There has been too much mindless inclusion of vanilla.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I pulled out a recipe for “Nutty Oat Wheat Bread” that came from Simply from Scratch” (#20), a Pillsbury recipe booklet from over thirty years ago. It was one of my early forays into wholegrain baking, but I had not baked it in years. I made a few changes in that I reduced 2 packets of yeast to 3 ½ tsp. and reduced the salt from 1 Tbs. to 2 tsp. I replaced 1/3 cup margarine with 3 ½ Tbs. canola oil. I halved the honey from ½ to ¼ cup. As usual, I added 1/3 cup special dry milk and ¼ cup flax meal. I used a cup of sunflower seeds instead of nuts. I also replaced AP flour with bread flour, since the bread is heavy on whole grains. The recipe made two high-rising 9x5-inch loaves. I tried a different shaping method and had a blow-out one side of each loaf. I’ll go back to my other method, even though it occasionally gives me a hole in the interior. The loaves smell wonderful.

Note: The bread has a wonderful taste and light texture. I gave the second loaf to a friend and her family. My friend is recovering from a leg/knee injury.

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

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday evening, I baked my adaptation of Ken Haedrich’s Whole-Wheat and Oatmeal Zucchini Bread. The squash I’m using isn’t a Zucchini. I don’t know its name. It has a very long, curved neck, then a bulb at the bottom where the seeds are. I get them at the farmers’ market from an organic farmer who likes to do unusual produce in addition to the standards. I was looking through a Martha Stewart Living magazine earlier this week, and I think it’s the squash she uses to make it look like snakes are coming out of pumpkins. I’ve been using these since August in this recipe, and it works well since this squash is not as watery as regular zucchini. I’ve been reducing the oil by ¼ cup and replacing it with an equal amount of buttermilk which I also substitute for the regular milk in the recipe, and I add flax meal and milk powder. I don’t bother with the citrus zest. I find the bread a bit too sweet, so this time, I’ve reduced the granulated sugar by 25% but left the light brown sugar alone. I also forgot to add the vanilla, which I usually halve.

We had it for dessert on Friday, and the bread is very good without that ¼ cup granulated sugar. I will leave it out in the future. We didn’t miss the vanilla, so it could be optional.

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

[BakerAunt]

Most of us tend to be impatient patients who like our routines. Coming up with a plan that works for you is a good beginning to the healing journey.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--I, too, found the recipe a bit too sweet, so I reduce the brown sugar to 1/2 cup. I've not tried the recipe with regular oats. Sometimes the substitution works, as in the zucchini bread I made this evening. Other times, I've found that the resulting product is too chewy. You could lightly grind the oats in a food processor.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--Aaron is hoping to open a deli.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday afternoon, I’m making broth, using the remains of a turkey breast from the freezer and the rotisserie chicken we had last week. It will definitely be soup weather this weekend.

[BakerAunt]

Best wishes as you recover.

[BakerAunt]

Let us know how the recipe turns out, Skeptic.

For lunch on Wednesday, I made lentil-vegetable-barley soup. I used water, left over from cooking potatoes, and frozen a couple of weeks ago. I used carrots, onion, celery, and garlic that I first sautéed in a bit of olive oil. I used 1 tsp. of Penzey’s Ozark blend to season. (I think that it came in a gift box, so I look for ways to use it.) I had some kale that I needed to use, so I cut up those leaves and added it about ten minutes from the end. It’s a delicious soup, although a bit salty, since I forgot that I had salted the potato water. If I’d remembered, I would have used a salt-free seasoning blend.

Wednesday night dinner is Spaghetti Squash-Turkey Casserole—a recipe that I discovered and adapted last year. Think of it as a kind of lasagna that uses spaghetti squash rather than noodles. I had to start early because I make my own sauce, although it is from canned tomatoes due to our disappointing tomato crop this year. Then the spaghetti squash must be roasted for an hour, cooled slightly, and scooped out. In the meantime, I brown ground turkey, and add some chopped onion, a bit more garlic, and optional red bell pepper (because I have it!), then mix in the sauce. I layer it in a lasagna pan, put 4 oz. of diced mozzarella on top, grate some Parmesan over it, then bake for 30 minutes. I try to keep my husband from cutting into it for a standing time of 20 minutes.

[BakerAunt]

I'm going to have to try my sample of that topping, Len.

I’ve been craving ginger. Eating three ginger cookies at my husband’s family reunion only whetted my desire for more. I have a recipe for Double Ginger Biscotti with Pistachios from a Bon Appetit RSVP column in 1997. It uses butter, but last time I made it and substituted 1/3 cup canola oil for the ½ cup butter, and they came out well. I decided to see if I could tweak the recipe further on Wednesday afternoon. I substituted in ¾ cup of white whole wheat flour and added 2 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill milk powder. I increased the crystalized ginger to ½ cup. I didn’t bother with lemon flavoring. I tried a new technique for the recipe in that I mixed all the dry ingredients together, along with the pistachios and ginger. I whisked together 1/3 cup oil, with buttermilk added to make ½ cup. I next whisked in an egg and ½ tsp. vanilla. I made a well in the dry ingredients, poured the wet ones into it, then used my dough whisk to combine, switching to a bowl scraper at the end. I divided the mixture in half, and with slightly damp hands formed it into two logs. I decided to refrigerate for an hour, just as I would do with a butter version. I spritzed with water and sprinkled with demerara sugar before the first bake. Note: Next time use the regular, heavy baking sheet instead of the half-sheet pan, as the biscotti got too dark on the bottom. Also, move the rack up one level for cookies.

[BakerAunt]

Here's hoping for a successful surgery and relief from the pain. I was thinking what Joan said: if any of us lived nearby, we would be coming over to help process those tomatoes for you.

[BakerAunt]

Dinner on Monday was a stir-fry using soba noodles, leftover rotisserie chicken, green onion, celery, carrots; red bell pepper, eggplant, mushrooms, broccoli, and a tiny snow pea—the last one from our garden this year.

[BakerAunt]

In the past (over 5 years ago), I've bought 25-pound bags of King Arthur flour in Plymouth, IN and Rantoul, IL Walmart stores. However, we don't go through Rantoul anymore, and the Plymouth store, which did have 10-pound bags, usually only carries 5-pound ones now. The Plymouth store used to carry Montana Gold (I think that was the name) white, whole wheat, and white whole wheat. That has ended.

[BakerAunt]

When I buy flour, I empty it into the container and throw the bag away. Given the flour recalls of late, I may start writing down the lot information on a sticker to put on the flour containers. I'm not worried about what remains in my flour bucket because I don't eat raw dough, and I wash my hands after handling flour or dough.

It's interesting that 25-pound bags are also being recalled. (It has been years since I've seen a 25-pound bag.) I noted in Walmart, in Michigan City, Indiana yesterday, that there was not a single bag of King Arthur flour, and indeed, there were mostly empty shelves in the flour section. I'll have to look in our local Walmart when we go this week. I'm actually low on unbleached King Arthur flour.

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