[BakerAunt]

Here are a multitude of ideas. The coca cola one is interesting--for all the wrong reasons.

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-restore-a-rusty-cast-iron-skillet-cleaning-lessons-from-the-kitchn-203086

Good point about the garbage bag, Mike. I found some oven cleaner under the sink in the apt., but now I wonder what would be safe to the pan inside. I have plenty of cardboard boxes.

[BakerAunt]

I started with a semi-coarse sponge and Kosher salt. It was slow going, not so much because of rust but the crud cooked onto the skillet. I remembered that there were some SOS pads (left there in the house when we bought it), so I have now used three of the four, wearing the down to nothingness. It has helped, and I can see the actual skillet, but I am now going to see if there is any oven cleaner around here (we never use the stuff), spray the skillet and put it in a garbage bag for a couple of days, and see if that will get me there faster.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Mike and Len. I'm going to start with the kosher salt and a coarse sponge. The skillet seems to have mostly black crud with some areas of rust. It almost looks like something burned onto it, or that it was used over a fire.

350F seems to be the suggested temperature. I have both canola and grapeseed oil, so either should work.

[BakerAunt]

Wow, Skeptic, I've only seen the 9-inch with the drip rims. I don't know that 7-inch pans are readily available anymore. I have at least one with a narrow rim, and it is exactly the right size for my light cheesecake recipe.

[BakerAunt]

I made my personal sourdough pizza crust on Wednesday.

I also baked my adaptation of Rustic Sourdough (KAF in the Spring 2016 Sift but probably also on their website) I used Irish Wholemeal flour, as I did last time. I was short 2 cups, so I used spelt flour to make up the difference. I increased the dark rye flour to ¾ cups and added 2 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. special dried milk. As I did last time, I reduced the salt to 1 ¾ tsp. In spite of increasing the amount of dark rye flour, I still had to add ¼ cup KAF AP in addition to the 2 ½ Cups. I slashed it before baking, and I also misted the loaf before putting it in to bake, and then after 5 minutes, and then another 5 minutes. The loaf had great oven spring, but it blew out along one side. I’ve not had such a dramatic blowout in a long time. Possibly it was slightly under proofed when I put it in the oven. It could be that my shaping or my slashing was not good enough. It may be this oven. I also think I should have put the loaf in width-wise (I used a hearth bread pan). This bread will still be a delicious loaf to eat and to use for sandwiches.

[BakerAunt]

We had pizza for Wednesday dinner. I made my sourdough pizza crust, and I topped it with sliced tomatoes (yes, we still have some that have ripened inside), cooked ground turkey, sliced mushrooms, and mozzarella cut into small pieces and sprinkled on top. I also sprinkled it with Penzey's Tuscan Sunset (salt-free blend). I make it in a half-sheet pan.

[BakerAunt]

I baked an Apple Crisp on Tuesday. The recipe comes from Baking Illustrated (2004), p. 290. I made a few changes. I used a combination of Jonathan and Winesap apples instead of Granny Smith and McIntosh. I decided not to peel them. I reduced the topping by about 25%, slightly more for the butter, as I used 3 Tbs., reduced the salt to 1/8 tsp. and used Penzey’s Apple Pie spice (a free sample). I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of AP flour. I used my pastry cutter, not the food processor, to incorporate the butter, and I used ¼ cup pecan meal in place of ¾ cups nuts, which would have been ground in. Instead of a 9x9 inch pan or a 9-inch deep pie plate, I baked it in a ceramic 8x11 rectangular dish. We had it with some frozen low-fat vanilla yogurt. We enjoyed it tonight and will enjoy it for the next two nights as well.

[BakerAunt]

Given all the problems that have arisen, that new labeling standard is long overdue.

[BakerAunt]

Monday afternoon was devoted to cooking up a lot of the formerly green tomatoes that we picked before the first freeze. We cut the vine branches and left them attached, which seems to have helped the ripening. We’ve had them in the front room where they can get some sun, and where the woodstove keeps them reasonably warm during the day but not hot. I did have to cut out some bad places, and toss a few that were too far gone, but I was able to use close to four pounds, and we still have some to ripen.

I made the ones I cut up into sauce, by adding them to some onion and minced garlic sautéed in olive oil, then cooking them down. I used that sauce to make spaghetti sauce by adding some tomato paste, cooked ground turkey leftover from last night. I sautéed chopped celery, red bell pepper, and mushrooms in olive oil, then added those to the pot. I used 2 tsp. Penzey’s salt-free Tuscan Seasoning and simmered with a bay leaf. I did add 1 Tbs. of sugar, as these were not as sweet as the ones that mostly ripened on the vine. I added ¼ cup red wine in the last 40 minutes of cooking. I mixed it with 12 oz. whole wheat penne.

[BakerAunt]

I bought marked down bananas at the grocery yesterday. The store sells them for 69 cents a pound, but when they begin to turn, they are marked down to 29 cents. Given how many of their bananas end up marked for reduction, I’m not sure why they don’t just lower the price to a reasonable amount before they go brown.

Usually the ones I get are fine for eating, but these were a little too ripe, so I used two on Monday morning to try a new recipe for Oat Bran Banana Bread, from North Dakota State University Extension Services. It's one that Italian Baker might like because it uses baking soda for the leavening, not baking powder.

https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/foodpreparation/recipes/grains/oat-bran-banana-bread/files/oat-bran-banana-bread.pdf

As usual, I modified it. I ground the oat bran in the food processor, and I substituted in ½ cup of whole wheat flour for the 1 cup of AP specified. I added 4 Tbs. powdered milk. I used buttermilk instead of skim milk. I left out the optional salt. The recipe didn’t specify a pan size, so I used a 9x5 inch loaf pan. It’s not an overly high quick bread, so possibly 8x4 inch would work as well. I sprinkled the top with demerara sugar. It baked in 50 minutes in my oven in a USA loaf pan coated with THE grease, and it released beautifully. We had some for dessert this evening, and we like it. I might add some walnuts next time.

The loaf has about 8.75 g saturated fat and 222.5 mg calcium.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Although we still have leftover soup and some slices of turkey, for Sunday dinner I made acorn squash halves stuffed with a combination of bulgur, cooked ground turkey, mozzarella, sliced mushrooms, onion, parsley, and sage. We had steamed broccoli on the side.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I found a review of the Wolf and the Viking, which seems to indicate they are comparable:

https://www.remodelista.com/posts/remodeling-101-viking-vs-wolf-ranges/

[BakerAunt]

Oh, no! For those of you reading, who were not on the KA Baking Circle, you can find a number of GinaG's recipes in the recipe section. She is an extraordinary baker.

[BakerAunt]

We are almost out of bread, so I baked two loaves of my Buttermilk Barley Whole Wheat Grape Nuts bread. One will go into the freezer.

[BakerAunt]

For Friday night’s dinner, I tried a new recipe, “Oprah’s Kale and Farro Soup,” which I got from an email sent by Tasting Table. I tweaked it slightly, in that I cannot find leeks in the grocery store here. I also did not have a 3-inch Parmesan rind to add. I used close to 3 rather than 2 lbs. of butternut squash. I deleted the can of tomatoes because tonight I felt like a non-tomato soup. I didn’t add any salt. It seemed to be missing something, so, taking a hint from a barley-butternut recipe I like, I added 2 tsp. cider vinegar. It made a very chunky soup, but we like chunky soups. It’s the first time we’ve tried farro. It is chewy and mild. We had the soup with a turkey sandwich (our hosts and hostess last night kindly sent some turkey home with us) on a yeasted pumpkin roll.

Here's a link to the recipe:

https://www.tastingtable.com/cook/recipes/oprah-kale-farro-soup-recipe

And in case you are wondering what the heck farro is, I did some googling. I'm not sure that this story explains it, but it is a start:

https://www.npr.org/2013/10/02/227838385/farro-an-ancient-if-complicated-grain-worth-figuring-out

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by BakerAunt.

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