[BakerAunt]

Hmm--at the very least I should bring an oven thermometer, but I do have an infrared thermometer that I bought for testing pan temperature when I make English muffins....

Maybe we need a thread on cooking essentials needed when traveling. 🙂

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

[BakerAunt]

I roasted four whole chicken legs for dinner tonight. The oven at the place where we are staying was not accurate, and we ended up putting them into the microwave to finish cooking. We had the chicken with spinach noodles and steamed broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I made my adaptation of my mother’s hamburger stroganoff, which we had over brown rice with microwaved peas on the side. I find it handy to bring my rice cooker on vacation, since it is never certain what kitchen equipment will be available.

[BakerAunt]

I'm on vacation without my baking stuff, so I don't know that I will be doing much baking. We are across the alley from a French bakery and cafe. I tried to buy a wholegrain loaf there this morning, and the customer service gal must have been new, because when I got to the cashier, I learned it was garlic bread. I noted the basket for wholegrain was empty. I went ahead and bought it for $3.20, but I doubt my husband will eat it. I'll go earlier next time. They had been open for four hours.

[BakerAunt]

Wednesday evening, I baked Oat Bran Pumpkin muffins from a recipe I posted here. I made six large ones, so that we can have them for travel breakfasts. We stay at Day's Inns, mostly because they allow dogs, and there is a complimentary breakfast, but these vary. The first one really didn't have anything that we could eat. The second one had funny tasting oatmeal, which we both had. I had an egg, which must have been made from liquid eggs, as it was yellow and round, some orange juice, and a Yoplait non-fat vanilla yogurt. Then I went back to the room and had my own coffee and a muffin.

[BakerAunt]

My husband's cousins spatchcocked a turkey for our October family reunion. The cousin who cooked it also used a LOT of butter, and I think gauze was used, perhaps it was soaked in the butter then spread over the turkey? There were so many people in the kitchen that I kept out of the way. The turkey was delicious, but I did wonder what the butter was doing to my low-saturated fat diet.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I baked another recipe of the Easy Italian Honey Whole Wheat Breakfast Cookies. This time I again used ½ tsp. vanilla, but I only used 3 drops of the Fiori di Sicilia; I also baked the double recipe of Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made last week. As an experiment, I did not sprinkle them with Kosher salt. We will see if reducing the salt in this way works for us.

Thanks, Chocomouse. It's too late for this trip, but I'll check it out for baking when we get back. I've been buying my buckwheat flour (and much of my specialty flours and grains) from Bob's Red Mill by the case (four in a case), which reduces the individual package price. I wait to order from them until I'm buying enough for free shipping, and sometimes they run discounts.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--it is a cookie rather than a cracker, as it is soft on the interior. If you use the Fiori di Sicilia, you might want to use only 3 drops or so.

[BakerAunt]

Tuesday's dinner was a stir-fry using leftover pork chops that my husband cooked last night (along with the drippings), buckwheat noodles, red bell pepper, broccoli; mushrooms, celery, green onion, and parsley. I needed to use up all the vegetables in the refrigerator.

[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I baked my wholegrain pumpkin bread (a recipe low in saturated fat). I baked it as 6 small loaves and froze there. I used the recipe Lemonpoppy posted on the Baking Circle, and that Rottiedogs kindly posted here, but I made the changes noted in my comments on the recipe.

On Monday, I baked Malted Whole Grain Rolls, a KAF recipe:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/malted-whole-grain-rolls-recipe

I substituted in 1 cup buttermilk and soaked the malted whole wheat flakes for 30-40 minutes before combining ingredients. I don’t think rolled grains work so well when KAF recipes just throw everything together and mix. I added 1 Tbs. honey to help prevent staling (a tip from Cass in the past). I reduced the salt from 1 ½ tsp. to 1 tsp. I used my bread machine to mix the dough. After the initial 5 minutes of mixing, I waited a couple of minutes (it has a 5-minute rest), then added the 2 Tbs. of oil. That was another tip from Cass, about a year ago. Although I own the “Tear and Share” baker, I’ve no idea where it is, and it makes huge rolls. Instead, I used a 9x9-inch pottery baker that also came from KAF, but it was made by an old, established family pottery Hartstone Pottery in Zanesville, Ohio, that went out of business a couple of years ago, probably due to cheaper ceramic bakers and dishes from China. The rolls baked beautifully. I'll add a note after we taste them.

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

[BakerAunt]

I had to giggle, Skeptic, as I, too, often forget to include the prepping when tackling a recipe. We must remind ourselves that we have no sous chef!

Thanks for posting the result of your substitution of almond flour in the biscotti recipe. You might consider reducing it to 3/4 cups if it seems too crumbly.

[BakerAunt]

As of yesterday, all the new windows and the two new doors have been installed. We got rid of the sliding glass door next to the kitchen and put in a regular door so that we could gain some additional kitchen space. As the sliding glass door showed a view of the neighbor's solid wall, we sacrificed some light but no view. The door does have a window, and it's near a corner with another window. The change also makes use of what was mostly dead space.

We moved the door at the back of the kitchen to the side of the house, which will keep the cold wind from blowing into it in the winter. We put a window in the former door location. The new arrangement also makes it easier to enter into a mudroom area without congestion.

We are doing ash flooring in the kitchen--the last of the local Indiana ash that had to be lumbered due to the Emerald Ash Bore. It will be natural but clear coated to resist the spills that occur in all kitchens. The entry way in the back, which opens onto the laundry area will be tile.

[BakerAunt]

We are still eating delicious leftovers--no complaints about that!

We have had snow since this morning, and my husband is finally using the new snow shovel he bought in November.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I again baked the graham cracker recipe from Recipes from the Old Mill. As I did last time, I used graham flour, but I cut it from 3 ½ cups to 3 ¼ cups. That did make the dough somewhat easier to work, but it was still a bit crumbly, and I still needed to spray some water on it as I was rolling it out. I tasted one the next morning, and the taste and texture is improved. I may reduce the flour by another 2 Tbs. the next time I bake the recipe. I have hidden the container from my husband, because these are for our trip next week.

I tried a new recipe for Italian Breakfast Cookies, which I found on the internet at:
https://www.shelovesbiscotti.com/easy-italian-whole-wheat-honey-breakfast-cookies/

I followed the recipe, except that I used ½ tsp. vanilla rather than 1 tsp, and added 1/8 tsp. Fiori di Sicilia, in part because I did not have orange zest, and in part because I’ve only used my 4 oz. bottle of Fiori di Sicilia twice since I bought it a long time ago (yes, it is refrigerated). These are whole wheat and use honey and oil. I rolled the dough to an 8x8-inch square, then used a pizza cutter to make 16 (about 2x2-inches each). The next day, I found that they are a pleasantly soft cookie, with only .25g sat. fat. I had one with coffee at breakfast, after dutifully eating my usual steel-cut oats, but they would go well as a dessert or with tea. The Fiori di Sicilia is a wee bit strong. I’d likely cut it to a couple of drops next time, but they are still delicious.

I finished my Friday in the kitchen by mixing up dough for my Lower-Saturated Fat version of Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers (posted at Nebraska Kitchen) and feeding my starter. I’ll let the dough rest in the refrigerator for a couple of days, then bake crackers for our trip that I will need to hide from my husband until we travel.

[BakerAunt]

I roasted a kabocha squash on Wednesday morning, the pureed it. I may use some of it for pumpkin bread.

Navlys--I do miss cheese on this low saturated fat food approach. I let myself have some part-skim Mozzarella in some recipes, and occasionally I have a stick of low-fat string cheese. Sigh. When we go to Florida, I shall look for 2% cheese in the grocery.

We had our first real snow today since the one in early November.

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