[BakerAunt]

I do have pictures of what the kitchen looked like before reno. Once we are done, I will attempt to post before and after pictures.

Today was very windy, so the contractor and crew arrived and realized that they could not work on the roof. They checked it, then the spent the morning unboxing all the cabinets. The lower ones have been roughly set in place. The upper ones are occupying the space where the washer and dryer will eventually be located.

[BakerAunt]

Sigh. I do miss the occasional good sausage, as well as most cheeses. I'm glad, however, that I can make a pizza we like that fits into current dietary parameters.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I made the dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers and fed my sourdough starter. I’ll bake the crackers in a few days.

On Thursday, I made the KAF Cinnamon-Apple Flatbread, using some of our remaining Winesaps. I replaced 2 cups of the AP flour with white whole wheat flour (Bob’s Red Mill Ivory) and reduced the salt to 1 tsp. and the yeast to 1 ½ tsp. For the topping, I used the entire half cup of the syrup that I drained off of the apples. (I’m not throwing those ingredients away!). I used 3 Tbs. sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon, which I mixed with 4 Tbs. ClearJel, in order to approximate the ¼ cup of KAF cinnamon filling. It’s cooling on the counter. We will have some for dessert tonight to celebrate, cautiously, my husband’s partial recovery from the sinus attack.

[BakerAunt]

The cabinets arrived for the kitchen this afternoon! We chose natural maple. At the moment, they are boxed and have filled up the entire kitchen area. I'm not sure when installation will start. The contractor and company have been working on the roof. They were doing shingles today, until it started raining, so they moved inside and did other tasks until the cabinets arrived.

The original Douglas Fir floors upstairs are not done yet. The floor guy started, but he had to order more sandpaper.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: spelling error

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Joan. I was on my own again last night for dinner, so I had some of the leftover black-eyed peas and made a half sandwich with part of a pork chop. I may be on my own again tonight, although my husband has been out of bed more today than yesterday. I credit the OTC medication he sent me to CVS to fetch.

[BakerAunt]

I've been focusing on healthy food habits, so I got this one right.

[BakerAunt]

Those muffins sound delicious, Chocomouse.

On Tuesday, I baked the Honey Italian Whole Wheat Breakfast Cookies to which I posted the link last year. I’m still playing with the recipe. This time, I substituted ½ cup of barley flour for that much of the whole wheat. I used 1 tsp. vanilla (original amount), and reconstituted ¼ tsp. Penzey’s dried orange peel with ¾ tsp. water. I'll add a note tomorrow about taste.

Note: The cookies are softer with the barley flour, and I like the texture. I am thinking that I will stop adding the orange peel unless I have fresh zest. I might go back to adding a bit of the Fiori de Sicilia.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

My husband went down on Monday with a sinus attack, so I was on my own for dinner last night (and probably for tonight as well). I pulled out some frozen black beans and some frozen meat drippings (beef? pork? The label is missing.) I had some leftover ground turkey from last week’s pizza. I added chopped onion, diced garlic, a can of diced tomatoes, celery, an orange bell pepper. I used ½ tsp. chili powder, about 1/8 tsp. old cayenne, and ¼ tsp. cumin. It was acidic, so I added 1 Tbs. of sugar. I also added some additional dried onion. I don't like a lot of hot spices, but it could have used more.

[BakerAunt]

I missed it because even though I do store a lot of food indefinitely (with the exception of meat and baked goods), I've never been sure that I should be doing so.

[BakerAunt]

The maple doughnuts are delicious.

Monday was a baking day while the contractor and his crew started work on re-roofing the house. In the morning, I baked another batch of seeded crispbread.

I also tried a new recipe for Buckwheat Granola, from Bob’s Red Mill, since I had bought a bag of buckwheat groats to try: https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/buckwheat-granola/

I made three changes: I used canola rather than coconut oil, I used raisins rather than dried cranberries, and I deleted 1 tsp vanilla as well as the optional almond extract. In the oven I’m currently using, the granola needed an additional 10 minutes of cooking time. I stirred in the raisins right after I removed the granola from the oven. I had a few bites, and it is delicious.

My last project for Monday is to bake a variation on my standard knead-in-the-bread machine bread. I’m making the 5-grain variation, using 1 ½ cup bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, ¼ cup dark rye flour, and ¼ cup white rye flour, and adding 2 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. special dried milk. As usual, the salt is cut to 1 tsp.

[BakerAunt]

Fortunately, I still have a stash of it. I'm also using less of it, since I had to cut back on items I bake with saturated fat, which is where I most used it. (I miss sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies.)

[BakerAunt]

Darn it, my educated guess was not as educated as I'd hoped. I narrowed it down to two, then chose the wrong one. Perhaps that makes sense, as I do not like marshmallows.

[BakerAunt]

I'll check the Kroger label next time I buy it there.

[BakerAunt]

I buy organic kale.

[BakerAunt]

I've had good results with Bob's Red Mill unbleached cake flour.

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