[BakerAunt]

Annie is an Australian Cattle Dog who weighs 40 pounds and can stretch out to a long length. She has been a bit bored since we had 8-10 inches of snow last Saturday, and an additional 3 inches or so yesterday morning, which curtailed our walks, in part because of ice. We don't have a fenced yard, so she has to be taken out on lead. We did have a fairly mild morning today so she got a walk. A tired Cattle Dog is a good Cattle Dog.

[BakerAunt]

My husband cooked pork chops tonight. I used the remainder of that quick-cooking barley, along with my homemade turkey broth, to make a pilaf with carrots, celery, garlic, red bell pepper, mushrooms, green onion, parsley, and poultry seasoning.

[BakerAunt]

According to my dog, she was just standing her ground. She reached up a paw, the 1/2 Tbs. of butter "attacked" her and would not let go, so she had to eat it!

[BakerAunt]

Tuesday evening, I baked Swedish Lucia buns to celebrate Saint Lucia's day on December 13. I never had the chance to know my Swedish grandmother, as she died when my father was an infant, so I try to recover some of those traditions.

The bake was not without incident. (See discussion thread about never turning your back on softening butter.) I have not baked this recipe for at least a year, and perhaps it has been two years. The basic recipe comes from Betty Crocker's International Cookbook, but I have played around with it over the years. I now use the special Gold yeast and substituted in a cup of white whole wheat flour. I've found that I also use a cup less flour (4 1/2 rather than 5 1/2) than in the book's recipe. I added 2 Tbs. potato flour because I have it and want to use it up. I'm not sure that I will order that ingredient again. They came out well, but they perhaps should have baked another minute or two. They are still good.

[BakerAunt]

A brief article about dry aging meat:

https://www.tastingtable.com/dine/national/dry-age-steak-prime-beef-nyc?utm_medium=email&utm_source=TT&utm_campaign=Daily&utm_content=Editorial

[BakerAunt]

Hi, Rascals! It's good to know that you are reading the posts. Thank you Jan for keeping us informed.

[BakerAunt]

Monday I made Maple Glazed Rosemary Chicken and Sweet Potatoes for dinner. We had it with steamed broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

Monday morning, I baked an 8x4 loaf of Donna German's Austrian Malt bread that Mike Nolan has posted here. I followed one of his variations by substituting in 1 cup of semolina flour. I also grated the 1.1 ounce of Asiago cheese left over from two other bread recipes and added it. I did substitute 3/4 cup buttermilk for that much water, and I used 1 1/2 Tbs. honey in place of the sugar. I reduced the yeast to 2 1/4 tsp. and the salt to 1 1/4 tsp. The loaf needed to bake 40 minutes to get to 200F. It looks and smells lovely, so I look forward to cutting into it tomorrow.

Thanks for the suggestion, Mike!

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

[BakerAunt]

When I was a sophomore in high school, my father bought a raffle ticket from a man in his car pool whose son was in the marching band. One of the prizes was a side of beef--and my father had the winning ticket. That was what my mother needed to persuade my father to buy a full upright freezer for the garage. (It was southern California, so that was an ok location.) The meat came pre-cut. As I come from a large family, I am sure that my mother used every bit of it, but I do not recall what we ate or how it was prepared. I've come a long way in my attention to food. Back then, my focus was completely on baking cookies or banana bread.

[BakerAunt]

I do have a recipe for "muddled potatoes," in which red potatoes are cut up and roasted, then mashed with the skins on. They are not meant to be creamy.

[BakerAunt]

At my husband's family reunion last October, one cousin's wife made twice baked potatoes. She baked potatoes, then scooped out the potato. It was mashed and mixed with some other ingredients, then scooped back into the potato skins and baked again. They were delicious.

[BakerAunt]

It was also a good day to bake in northern Indiana, as we had between 8-10 inches of snow yesterday. The temperature did get above freezing, but it is on the way back down.

Sunday afternoon, I again baked a brownie variation called Brickle Bars (Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book, p. 219). I reduced the amount of almond brickle and mini-chocolate chips that I sprinkled on top and instead used some green candy sprinkles with red ball sprinkles. These somewhat melted into the top, but there is still a festive red and green.

In addition, I baked a new recipe, Cherry Cardamom Loaves, which came with a Nordic Ware Christmas pan that makes eight mini-loaves (6 cup capacity). I'll add an addendum to this post once we have tasted them. It was rather nice that all the mixing is by hand, and it uses melted butter.

Note: the loaves are definitely better the day after they are baked when the flavors have had a chance to blend. However, I can take these or leave them, so I doubt that I'll bake them again.

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

[BakerAunt]

The same happens to me.

[BakerAunt]

Saturday afternoon, I began a pot of stew on the kitchen stove, then moved it to the wood stove to simmer the meat, before adding the vegetables and thickening it with regular Clearjel. Stew is a perfect meal for tonight, as we have had 8-9 inches of snow since morning, and it is not over yet. My husband has shoveled the walks and driveway three times. He is now talking about buying his cousin's snow blower. (That cousin and his wife now spend the winters in Arizona.)

Mike, that discussion about rolling pins and pigeon-holes has started me thinking about the cabinets in our kitchen remodel. Having a place for various wraps other than a drawer would be good.

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

[BakerAunt]

Darn! I let my husband talk me into getting rid of the wine rack when we moved. I've been wondering how to coral my collection of rolling pins--soon to be increased by a knakkebrod pin for Scandinavian flat bread--that I ordered earlier this week.

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