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Combining vinegar and baking soda helps keep the sink drain pipe clear.
I actually started reducing the salt in recipes that call for baking soda. For my cornbread, I cut the salt in half.
After Thursday dinner, I baked Snickerdoodle Drops--an oatmeal variation from a recipe card that Quaker Oats included with a cookbook sometime in the 1980s. I've baked it once before, and my note says it was a hit at church and at home. They were as delicious as I remembered--a slightly crisp yet chewy cookie with just the right amount of cinnamon.
When I retired and moved to Indiana, I lost two major groups of test subjects for baked goods.
For Thursday breakfast, I baked Cherry Almond Muffins this morning, from The Baking Shet 20.4 (Summer 2009), p. 13. I've not baked this recipe in a while. I substituted in 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for a cup of the white flour, I reduced the sugar from 1/2 to 1/3 cup, and the salt from 1/2 to 1/4 tsp. I added 1/3 cup powdered milk ( to increase the calcium) and 1 Tbs. flax meal. It calls for an 8-10 oz. jar of "high-quality" cherry preserves. I use Kozlowski Farms Old Fashioned Cherry Jam (10.5 oz.), which Tuesday Morning and T.J. Maxx carry (part of the baking stash I brought with me to Indiana). I sprinkle them with the KAF sparkling white sugar. The recipe makes 14 muffins, so I had to grease two custard cups in addition to the muffin pan. I baked for 20 minutes--the recipe says 22-24 minutes--but probably 18-19 would be better.
I did see fruits and vegetables from Mexico and oranges from California. Of course, California is now having some issues with citrus due to an invasive insect. My sister says it affected her lemon tree.
They do make it hard to "shop local," don't they Joan?
Florida is having an issue with "greening," which is destroying trees. My husband was hoping to bring back a dwarf tangerine or Meyer lemon tree to go with our lime tree, but the only nursery we saw that was certified not to have the greening did not have dwarf trees available in a small enough size that we could get one into the car for the trip back.
Oddly enough, we got wonderful green beans at Aldi's here in Indiana before Christmas, which were grown in Florida.
When I make crackers, I use a pizza wheel to cut them all the way through before baking, but I do not separate them. The crackers I've made tend to pull away from each other as they bake, although some may still be joined a bit. When I take them out of the oven, I cut any that are still together, and I slide them off the parchment back onto the hot baking sheet. I push them apart from each other so that none are connected when they cool.
Now that everyone else has confessed to using buttermilk well past its expiration date, I will confess to doing so as well.
The date is 1/20/18, and it has been fine in the cornbread and the Buttermilk Grape Nuts Bread that I baked. I was able to excavate a quart canning jar, so I will make up a batch and set it in the front room near the wood stove, but I'll have to refrigerate it before I go to bed.Update: The canning jar is marked in milliliters, so I used 200 ml of buttermilk and 600 ml of 1% milk. That leaves some air space at the top. (Quart jars do not hold a liquid quart.) I followed Mrs. Cindy's lead and used an upside down cupcake paper to cover it and secured it with a rubber band. It's on the floor in front of the wood stove where it is warm, not hot, and pushed back enough (I hope) that neither we nor the dog will knock it over. If this works, I have enough buttermilk left to make a second batch.
Thanks to Skeptic7 for the link to the site with buttermilk directions.
Thanks to Rottiedogs for having saved the Baking Circle thread and for posting it here.
And once again, thanks to Mike for giving us this wonderful neighborhood of bakers and cooks.
If I can get to one of my quart canning jars, I will give this a try, since it will likely be at least a week before the roads are clear of snow and ice and salt, so that we make our grocery run to the larger town. My only concern is that the buttermilk I still have is a bit old.
