[BakerAunt]

I’m in a rut with chicken recipes, which is why I shook it up last week with a new recipe, Caramelized Baked Chicken Legs. For this week, I found chicken thighs on sale at the grocery, so I turned again to the internet, and on a site, SweetCs designs (blogger Courtney O’Dell), I found “Baked Ranch Chicken Thighs.” It included a tip that for crisper skin, blot the chicken pieces with a paper towel. She used a 1 oz. packet of Ranch salad dressing mix. I used .8 oz. of Penzey’s Ranch dressing mix and increased the olive oil to about 2 ½ Tbs. I deleted the garlic, as I hear Mike Nolan’s lament: why is there garlic in EVERYTHING. (I suspect it is already in the Ranch seasoning.) Our verdict, after dinner, is too salty. Perhaps it works better with the packaged mix. Next time, I will brush the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle a bit of the seasoning on each piece of chicken, and I will use less.

We had it with the last of the sweet corn and some green beans from the farmers market. We noticed last night that these green beans were tough, even after being microwaved for longer than usual. We chewed through them last night, but this evening, I put the leftover cooked ones in a skillet with some butter and sautéed them, along with some sliced almonds. We liked it.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday afternoon, I again baked a variation on my husband's mother's blueberry cobbler. This time, I substituted 25% barley flour and only added 1 tsp. flax meal. I meant to add a bit of lemon juice to the topping, but I forgot.

[BakerAunt]

I baked a second batch of large zucchini muffins on Monday. I again used Ruth Bass’ recipe as my base and added 1/2 cup cinnamon chips. I tried adding ¼ tsp. baking soda, but it barely affected the rise, so I will leave it out in the future. I also reduced the canola oil to ¼ cup. I will add a note to this post tomorrow about taste and texture.

Promised Note: Reducing the oil further did help the texture, as I thought the first batch was too wet. Next time, I might try reducing the sugar from 1/2 to 1/3 cup, since I do add cinnamon chips.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

The KAF Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread has good flavor. It seems a bit dry to me, even though the dough was wet. I baked it in an Emile Henry long bread baker. I removed the lid at 25 minutes (recipe states 25-30).

I may experiment with refrigerating the levain, especially when the weather is hotter.

[BakerAunt]

Finally, one of the tomatoes is beginning its path towards redness. I have bacon, and will have great bread, on hand for that moment. Next year, my husband plans to start the plants earlier on our sun porch. We delayed because we had been told the contractor would start no later than March....(still waiting).

[BakerAunt]

I fed my sourdough on Saturday, and I made up the dough for another batch of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. Between my husband and my stepson, the last batch rapidly disappeared. The dough will need to sit in the refrigerator until Wednesday or Thursday.

[BakerAunt]

I found a not overly sweet zucchini muffin recipe, “Zucchini Muffins with Lemon Thyme,” in a cookbook, Herbs Love Tomatoes, Pepper, Onions and Zucchini, by Ruth Bass (p. 169). KAF recently featured a lemon-zucchini muffin recipe as well. I compared the two, and overall quantity of ingredients were about the same although ingredients varied. In addition to using lemon zest, the KAF recipe used regular milk rather than buttermilk, granulated rather than brown sugar, more baking powder. 4x the salt (!), slightly less oil, no ginger, and no lemon thyme.

After reading the reviews of the KAF recipe, I used Bass’s recipe as my base. I substituted half whole wheat flour, reduced the oil from ½ to 1/3 cup. I do not have lemon thyme. I considered using lemon extract, but I decided not to do so and to delete the ginger. I added ½ cup of KAF cinnamon chips from my stash (KAF sells something different now.). I baked these as six large muffins, in part because I realized that my regular muffin pans have yet to be unpacked. I sprinkled them with demerara sugar. I had used THE grease on the pan, and they popped out just fine. They are a bit flat on the top. Next time, I will add ¼ tsp. baking soda to offset the buttermilk; I'll leave the baking powder as is.

I baked these for a quick grab-and-go breakfast for tomorrow, as my husband and younger stepson need to leave here at 6 a.m. in order to drive to Michigan City, so my stepson can take the bus to the airport. He can also take one to have as a snack while he is waiting for his plane. If the taste is good--as the aroma promises--I will bake another batch tomorrow and freeze some, since I have leftover grated zucchini.

Next Morning Tasting Note: The muffins are very good, although slightly dense. I'll try another batch with added baking soda.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

We picked our first red bell pepper a couple of days ago and cooked with it tonight! We have two little ones now forming, but it will probably take a couple of months for them to ripen.

[BakerAunt]

We picked the first red bell pepper from the garden, so it had a starring spot in tonight’s stir fry. I roasted a large chicken half-breast for 30 minutes at 375F, using a minimal mayonnaise and panko coating. I then stir fried some separated onion slices, added celery and the red bell pepper, then halved mushrooms, the cut-up chicken, and broccoli florets. I had about two cups of the sauce left from the Caramelized Chicken Legs recipe I made on Tuesday and re-ran on Wednesday, so I heated it up, then thickened it with 2 Tbs. of cornstarch. I poured that over the vegetable mixture. We ate it over brown rice. Delicious!

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Mike. As I read the article, I thought about how manufacturing meat conflicts with the local food movement and the emphasis on "natural." I do, however, get the point about the amount of resources that are needed to raise animals.

And would they also manufacture eggs if they get rid of the chickens?

And what of county fairs and 4H clubs? It would certainly be a cultural shift.

The ground beef that I'm getting at the local farmers' market is exceptional, and at $4 a pound, a bit less expensive than what I can get in the groceries around here.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--Whatever you fixed has now created the same issue for me that Len was having with the link--I now just see who liked it.

[BakerAunt]

Maybe we should freeze lemon juice while we can. Of course, that is no help for all the recipes that want fresh zest.

I also told my husband that we need to get a lemon tree that can grow in a pot here. (Well, we need to get one if the contractor ever starts and finishes our renovation. Sigh.)

I suspect that the California drought is also why broccoli prices have increased.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my variation of Ellen's (once Moomie) Famous Buns on Thursday afternoon. My husband will grill hamburgers this evening. I made the recipe as ten buns, rather than eight, which are large enough for us. I usually use this recipe for rolls when we are traveling, so I look forward to sampling them with hamburgers. Added Note: I really like the softness of these buns with hamburgers.

I'm very pleased with my blueberry pie. I have started using all butter in my buttermilk crust rather than using Crisco and adding 2 Tbs. sugar to the crust for a fruit pie. Instead of brushing the crust with beaten egg, I've been brushing it with heavy cream. That gives the crust a lovely golden color, and it also seems to help with flakiness.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

This Wednesday evening, I'm baking a blueberry pie.

[BakerAunt]

It's good to hear from you again, Aaron.

Beef is more expensive here in northern Indiana than it was in the lower panhandle of Texas, even at Walmart. My husband and I do not eat a lot of beef and tend to wait for specials. I've bought our last three pounds of ground beef at the farmers' market. It's local, probably not grass fed, as I doubt that anyone has that kind of land for cattle here in corn and soybean country, but it is hormone-free and processed and packed in a USDA plant. We think it tastes better than what the grocery store carries, and it's even slightly less expensive at $4 a pound.

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