[BakerAunt]

Leftover stir fry is on the menu at my house.

[BakerAunt]

I subscribe to a public radio newsletter (Marketplace). It mentioned the Land o' Lakes bankruptcy. I thought the following "By the Numbers" facts were interesting:

26%--how much milk consumption has declined

1.6 billion: money brought in by "alternative milk" products.

While some people have milk allergies or are lactose intolerant, and some may be vegan, I wonder if this is the equivalent of the carbohydrate scare that that shook up the bakery industry a few years ago. I've been surprised at the number of alternative "milks" at Aldi's and Kroger, even as I have to scrounge to find buttermilk. Most of the alternative "milks" don't have the calcium content of regular milk.

I'm wondering why butter is having such a hard time. I had to give it up, almost completely, due to high cholesterol, but most of the dessert recipes out there are rolling in butter.

I hope Land o' Lakes light butter-canola spread continues to be available because I don't see another option for me.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I answered correctly.

[BakerAunt]

We used up the rest of the bread on Thursday, so it was time to head to the kitchen. I baked two loaves of my Buttermilk Grape Nuts bread (an adaptation of the Grape Nuts Bread by Dachshundlady ). I’ve subbed in a cup of barley flour and a cup of whole wheat in the past, but this time I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour and used bread flour for the rest. I tried letting it rise in a dough bucket on the dining room table, but ended up putting it on a tray table in the front room where the wood stove keeps the area warmer. I did the same for the second rise. The loaves came out well. I’ll freeze one, and we will cut the other one for lunch tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

I made our favorite quinoa salad (Ensalada de Quinoa—on Bob’s Red Mill site with a few personal adaptations) this afternoon. We will have it at dinner with a rotisserie chicken.

[BakerAunt]

I came, I guessed, I missed.

[BakerAunt]

That Seattle kitchen sounds lovely, Aaron. We went with an ash floor in our kitchen--the last the local place had. There will not be more in Indiana for a long time, thanks to the Emerald Ash Bore.

[BakerAunt]

Wednesday night’s dinner was a stir-fry with leftover pork, soba noodles, onion, celery, carrots, red bell pepper, mushrooms, broccoli, and kale. I deglazed the pan when my husband cooked the pork chops earlier in the week, and I used that as a sauce.

Our high today was in the mid-20s, and the 4 inches of snow is still here. I could do without the ice on the sidewalk.

[BakerAunt]

I managed to guess the correct answer.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic: Here's the link on this site:

Moomie’s Famous Burger Buns by Used2BMoomie

People know the recipe as Moomie's Buns, but my understanding is that the recipe creator now prefers to go by Ellen, so I try to respect that, but it does make it confusing to locate. You can also find it on her site as "Ellen's Famous Burger Buns."

I make these changes:
replace 3/4 cup water with buttermilk
use 2 Tbs. oil in place of 2 Tbs. butter
use 1 3/4 cups AP flour, 1 cup whole wheat; 1/2 cup white whole wheat
I add 2 Tbs. flax meal
I add 2 Tbs. dried milk

I reduce the yeast to 2 tsp.
I replace 1/4 cup sugar with 2 Tbs. honey
I reduce the salt to 3/4 tsp.

I've tried them with more regular whole wheat flour, but I prefer the taste a bit lighter, so I use some white whole wheat to up the whole grain.

[BakerAunt]

Great Experimentation, Len. I will definitely do the turn over when I try the Kaiser stamp.

I like those braided rolls.

[BakerAunt]

Great minds think alike, Joan!

Tuesday temperatures never rose above 20F, and they are on their way down. I made soup, using the broth I made from that rotisserie chicken last week. I started by sauteeing the onion, celery, and carrots in olive oil, then added the broth and a combination of brown and red lentils. I cooked it for 40 minutes, then added some small torn pieces of kale, a 6 oz. can of white chicken meat, and 1 heaping cup of “autumn pasta” (pumpkins and leaves) and low boiled for 6 minutes. We had it with some of the rolls I baked yesterday.

[BakerAunt]

Knowing our first contractor, who has three sons, I suspect that someone put a hot pan down on it. We never got the details.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I like the Deans brand of milk, so I hope that they can reorganize.

[BakerAunt]

It was 19F here this morning, and it is 20F now. We had over four inches of snow yesterday.

We do have the oven on its own circuit. We also had the refrigerator moved to its own circuit after the inspector insisted that the counter on the opposite side of the kitchen had to have outlets that were GFCI, even though they are far enough away to meet code. Our contractor realized the refrigerator was on that circuit, so we gave it its own.

I have good outlet position everywhere but at the end of the peninsula. We did make sure that the microwave had its own, and we thought carefully about where to put it.

Skeptic--For baking sheets, I selected a tall lower cabinet that is about 11 inches wide (10 inches entry). I took out the silly, silly half shelf the manufacturer had put in, and reused it in another cabinet. I stand my large baking sheets upright in it, with the ones I use the most at the right side.

Cabinet manufacturers like to give only half shelves on lower cabinets. The ide is that you can see everything at once and don't have to get down low. I, however, would use that low space for long items, so I would know what is in them. It took me a while to figure out the best configuration for the shelves that I had--and they were designed so that you can't just add a half shelf in front of another half shelf.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

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