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

https://www.jessicagavin.com/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, 6 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.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday night, I made a stir-fry using the remaining turkey breast. We actually look forward to meat leftovers that can be turned into stir-fry. For vegetables, I used green onion (from farmers market), red bell pepper, carrots, celery, broccoli, snow peas (the last from our garden), the turkey, a bit of the drippings from when the turkey breast was roasted, and soba noodles. There is enough that we can have leftovers tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

I'm beginning to think he breads work better with a cover. I searched the KAF website, but did not find any recipes, probably because they only sold it for a short period. I do have a binder with recipes that I cut out of KAF catalogues over the years, so I may browse it and see what I can find. I think that I would need to do some steam to compensate for there being no lid.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--I found a vinegar one in the Frugal Gourmet Whole Family Cookbook. However, my husband and I think of cole slaw as using mayonnaise. (BTW, Jeff Smith hates mayonnaise based cole slaw, it turns out, and thus there are no recipes for it in his cookbooks!) I'd be interested in seeing your mother's recipe.

Chocomouse--ah, I suspected that your cole slaw might not be written down. The ingredients you list, however, strike me as what I am seeking.

[BakerAunt]

I narrowed it to two choices, then picked the wrong one. It's good information to have.

With some cheeses, you are more likely to eat more at one time than others. Parmesan, for example, has a lot of salt, but most of us do not chomp off a bite of Parmesan but grate a bit over food.

[BakerAunt]

We have been eating leftover turkey breast the last few days, and re-running cooking fresh green beans in the microwave, and having an ear each of sweet corn. My husband thinks that we have now eaten all the beans from this crop.

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

[BakerAunt]

I didn't get as much rise out of this bread as I recall in the past. Possibly it was my alteration, but I also noticed less of a rise with the Grape Nuts Bread I baked two weeks ago. I'm wondering if I need to lower the oven rack, which seems to be above the middle, when I bake bread. I don't seem to be getting that final oven spring. The loaves seem the same size when they come out as when they went in, but I don't think that I've let them rise too long.

The bread tastes good. The crumb is good, but it is not as light as in the past.

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

[BakerAunt]

Darn! Missed it.

[BakerAunt]

This Saturday evening, I'm baking Bernard Clayton's Dark Grains Bread, from his New Complete Book of Breads, a recipe that I've been tweaking but have not baked since last September. I read over my notes and made a couple more changes. I'll add a note tomorrow, after we slice into a loaf for lunch, about taste and texture--and also about whether I'm ready to post my revision of the recipe.

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