[BakerAunt]

Ah, Len, you've waded into an area that has driven me nuts for some time now. I've scoured the internet, and there does not seem to be much agreement on olive oil vs. canola oil. One source (Livestrong) suggested that olive oil is only considered healthier because it is healthier than the butter it replaces. Supposedly canola lowers cholesterol. However, one of my sisters considers canola oil bad for you and avoids it. I don't think this question will be solved anytime soon.

So, what to do? I use both. In some breads, I like olive oil, and it's one that I reach for when sauteeing vegetables for soups, pizza, spaghetti sauce, roasting chicken or vegetables, etc.. If I'm browning meat, I use grapeseed oil, which seems to hold up better than the other two. I also prefer grapeseed oil (also 2g saturated fat per Tbs.) for brushing on my sourdough crackers before baking; canola seemed to have an aftertaste, and I did not care for olive oil on those.

Since the recipe, as I've now baked it, called for so much oil, I chose the canola. I was also uncertain about olive oil flavor in the cake. In a rye bread, however, I usually choose olive oil.

[BakerAunt]

I figured out that I like a dark roast, which is less acidic than a light roast. I've tried the occasional Peet's Christmas and Anniversary coffee, but I keep coming back to the French roast. It's a good roast also for people like me who prefer their coffee without milk or sugar. I use a French Press, make a 14 oz. cup in the morning, and that usually sets me for the day. Sometimes I'll have a smaller cup in the afternoon but more often I have some kind of tea. I always had sugar and milk in the tea, but I've cut the sugar in a 14 oz. cup back to 1/4 tsp. Occasionally I drink green tea--plain without add-ins, and summer brings on the iced tea. I like herbal or decaf teas in the evening.

[BakerAunt]

I got it wrong.

Texas Tech University, where I taught, has a long history of award winning meat judging teams.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Mike. I'll try it with regular oranges and the changes I noted above, then post about the results.

[BakerAunt]

My husband would say that some people have more money than brains.

I like my coffee, but I'm perfectly happy with Peet's French roast, a bag of which lasts me for several weeks.

[BakerAunt]

I also got it wrong.

[BakerAunt]

For Wednesday’s dinner, I roasted a chicken. I had forgotten just how much it smokes up the house when the oven door is opened and the chicken removed. (I suspect this is one reason--the other being cleaning the oven--that so many of us just buy rotisserie chickens.) I’m glad that there is a vent fan in our apartment kitchen. We had noodles made with some powdered mushrooms. I made a new vegetable dish, working off a recipe in a recent special magazine issue, Heart Smart Recipes. I put a 15x10 sheet pan into a 450F oven to heat up for about 5 minutes. I had cut asparagus into 1-inch pieces, sliced some white mushrooms, minced 4 cloves of garlic, then mixed in a package of cherry tomatoes. I tossed these with some olive oil. I pulled out the pan, put a sheet of parchment (oven safe to 450F) on the pan, put on the vegetable mixture, and roasted for 18 minutes. When I took them out, I drizzled a bit of olive oil on them, then sprinkled with Penzey’s Sunny Paris and stirred. My husband, who is not a big asparagus fan, really liked it prepared this way. Note: the original recipe did not use parchment paper, but I do my own clean-up, so I used it and lowered the temperature from 475F.

I also cooked a bag of garbanzo beans that I soaked for nearly a day. Some will be frozen, and some will be used in recipes to be noted here.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: Corrected magazine title

[BakerAunt]

The blueberry pie came out much better than last time. I used less filling and also preheated the filling with additional Clearjel. When we cut into it 2 hours and 15 minutes later, it held together well, although still a little warmer than I usually cut it. My husband had a little bit of seconds, so he liked it. The pie is good, but nothing beats a pie made with fresh blueberries.

[BakerAunt]

I actually stayed up to watch SNL's first hour (Emma Thompson is never to be missed!). The skit is even funnier watching it the second time.

[BakerAunt]

I missed it too. Thus endeth my winning streak. I'll console myself by reflecting that I never buy a gallon of whole milk and would have gotten the correct answer if it had been 1%. 🙂

[BakerAunt]

There was a company that specialized in little square towels that people could carry with them. I don't know if it still exists. The idea was to cut down on paper towel usage.

So, all those dishwashers with the hot water that is supposed to sanitize and kill germs--do they actually work?

[BakerAunt]

To cheer us up, I made a blueberry pie using that oil crust recipe that I tweaked from the King Arthur 200th Anniversary Cookbook. I substitute in some white whole wheat flour and use buttermilk. I made the larger recipe and kept some of it out as crumbs. I used a quart of blueberry pie filling that I canned last summer. I heated it up, after adding 2 Tbs. Clearjel, and I added ¼ tsp. allspice and a dash of nutmeg. After parbaking the crust, I sprinkled the bottom with some Panko before putting the hot filling into the hot crust, then I sprinkled the leftover crumbs from the crust (about ¼) over the top. I baked the pie at 425F for 15 minutes, then 25 minutes at 375F. I certainly bubbled up around the edges. We will give it two hours to cool, and then we will have it as a late dessert.

I'll add a note about whether this blueberry pie with an oil crust came out better than my previous attempt.

[BakerAunt]

Unless I want the glaze to soak in, I usually glaze when the cake or bread is completely cool. I've not tried freezing a glazed cake.

[BakerAunt]

I did some googling, and there have been issues for Subaru related to the electronics draining the battery. Subaru will take it in on a tow truck so that they can run a true test on the system. I would actually prefer a car that did not have such complicated electronics, but no one makes that kind of simple vehicle any more.

In the meantime, I think that a blueberry pie in an oil-buttermilk pie crust, with extra crust crumbs sprinkled on top would hit the spot and cheer us up, so I will head over to the kitchen and pull out a quart of the blueberry pie filling I canned last summer. This time, I will heat the filling and adjust for thickness before filling the parbaked crust. (Parbaking is necessary for an oil crust.) Details will follow.

[BakerAunt]

And now it comes in a spread!

https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/this-is-my-favorite-condiment-article?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=epi&utm_mailing=EPI_CTN_051219&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5c93032824c17c329bff212e&cndid=44882808&esrc=bounceX&utm_term=EPI_CTN

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