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Friday night dinner was Oven Crisp Fish and Chips with the Dill Tartar Sauce left over from last week. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli.
If I lived near Joan, I would need to learn how to play poker so that I could have a slice of her wonderful desserts!
We the pasta and chicken again. Last night, we ate it cold and enjoyed it, so we did the same tonight but added cherry tomatoes.
I also adapted a recipe for "Ooey Gooey Blackberry Brownies," which came from the website "Six Sisters Stuff." It used Smucker's Natural Blackberry Spread, but I used some Blackberry, Black Raspberry, and Raspberry Jam that I made and canned two years ago. I replaced the AP flour with white whole wheat and reduced the sugar from 1 cup to ¾ cup. I omitted the milk chocolate chips. I added 1 tsp. flax meal and 1 Tbs. milk powder. I cut the salt from ¾ to ½ tsp. The recipe called for one egg and one egg white. I used just one egg and increased the water from 1/3 cup to 6 oz. I replaced 5 Tbs. butter with 4 Tbs. avocado oil. I used a 7 ½ inch by 1l inch glass baking dish, because fruits mess up my metal pans. The recipe called for a 9 x 9" pan, but I do not have that size in glass, hence the substitution. I baked at the same temperature, but checked after 25 minutes, and it was done. I'll post a review after we taste them.
Thank you, Joan. He is having to work to increase how wide he can open his mouth on the side where they operated.
On Wednesday, I tried a recipe for Rieska (Finnish Flat Barley Bread) from the 2nd edition of Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s New Complete Book of Breads (pp. 176-177). I had happened to see the recipe when I was baking the Barley Orange Bread a week or two ago and glanced at the page next to it. It calls for a cup of evaporated milk (or half and half), and I had 2/3 cup to use up, so I added 1% milk to make up the difference. It's a very soft dough, indeed, more like a thick batter. I used a spatula to make it into two 8-inch circles on parchment and baked 13 minutes, turning halfway. I baked it to go with my lunch of Beans and Greens, but I ended up having one with lunch and the other, with strawberry jam, with my tea. My husband and I both like the taste of barley. I order it in 8 lb. bags from Jacob's Grainery in Washington state, as Bob's Red Mill ceased carrying barley flour three or four years ago. I'm always looking for ways to use more barley flour.
For lunch on Wednesday, I made Beans and Greens, using baby lima beans and turnip greens. I am excited that my farmers market vendor finally has turnips again. The winter crop was lost to voracious groundhogs. I had a bit of deglazing from pork that was in the freezer, so I added it. I will have lunch for the rest of the week.
Dinner tonight will be a re-run of last night's dinner.
When I tried a leash with the Siamese cat that I had years ago, her response was to sit down and not move.
I was hoping that we would get to taste the serviceberries this year. There were lovely red ones. They ripen when they turn purple. Yesterday and today, there were chipmunks climbing up the trunk and onto the branches. They cleaned out the red berries. Apparently, they do not mind if the berries are not completely ripe. The same thing happened last year with the cranberries my husband has in a pot.
For dinner on Tuesday, I used as a base a recipe for Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Lemon Pasta from Smitten Kitchen. Instead of asparagus (not a favorite of my husband), I used red bell pepper, mushrooms, and spinach, to which I added the leftover chicken breast meat from Sunday's dinner. I kept the same seasoning of tarragon but omitted the lemon in deference to my husband. I also added dried shallots, which was recommended by a commentator on the original recipe. I used cavatappi pasta. The recipe called for 5 oz. of goat cheese, but it is sold in 4 oz. logs, so I used 4 oz. When I make it again, I might cut the pasta back from a pound to ¾ of a pound and increase the spinach from 4 oz. to 6 oz.
Earlier today, I cooked some baby lima beans. I froze half and will use the other half to make a dish to have for lunches the rest of the week.
On Monday, I baked five mini-loaves of wholegrain pumpkin bread. I will freeze three loaves for fast desserts. We started having slices from one of the other two for dessert tonight.
I also made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. It has been over seven weeks since my starter was last fed and about six weeks since I baked the crackers. My husband thinks that he can manage their edges now, as long as he eats them slowly, so I will bake this batch later in the week.
We finished the turkey, spinach, and mushroom lasagna for dinner.
The strawberries from the Amish vendor at the farmers market are particularly good this year, so on Monday, I made a batch of strawberry jam. I ended up with four 8 oz. jars and one 4 oz. jar.
Joan--I just posted the pumpkin one and will get the applesauce one posted later. While I've tried King Artur's pumpkin doughnut recipe, it cannot hold a candle to this one.
Sunday dinner was roasted bone-in chicken breast, roasted sweet potato chunks, and microwaved frozen peas.
My husband felt that he had not started the bell peppers early enough, so he will plant those in pots so that they can overwinter in the house at the end of the season. Our beans have started coming up, as have plants for the two potatoes. We are still waiting on the squash to make its appearance. He also planted a few snow peas.
Two of the tomato plants got broken when a grow light got knocked on to them in the house, so Scott told me to go ahead and buy another tomato plant at the farmers market. There I encountered a self-proclaimed tomato geek, who had an amazing variety. As they were $3 apiece, or two for $5, I naturally came home with two. One is a Dester Indiana. The story is that the seeds were brought by a German man to Indiana, and he gave some to an Amish woman. I couldn't resist the story. The other plant, also an heirloom, is a Goliath, which is a variety that does not grow very tall. It's supposed to be sturdy and to continue producing fruit until a freeze. If we have a good season, I should have lots of different tomatoes with which to play in the kitchen.
My husband also bought seed for a fairy tale pumpkin--a variety I discovered at the farmers market a couple of years ago but have been unable to get since then. (There is someone else who likes the variety who usually gets there before the market opens and grabs the one or two that they have in their selection. The idea is to plant the seed in a large grow bag left over from when I used to plant a garden and place it on the side of the house, then let the vines run along the sunny side, and perhaps let any pumpkins that develop rest on the sidewalk. I got the idea after seeing a yard with lovely pumpkins a couple of years ago, even though most of the "yard" was pavers, with just a small spot of ground. We will have to protect the seeds until they germinate and get large enough that the chipmunks will leave the plant alone.
So far this year, we are getting regular rain and not too hot of temperatures. The black raspberry and blackberry crops look promising.
One of our two blueberry bushes has developed berries. For the second year in a row, the second one did not. If I can keep the birds off the one bush, I might get enough berries for muffins.
You hit the jackpot, Joan! I bought two Wilton doughnut pans at our local Thrift store a week ago and paid $2, so you definitely got the better bargain! I'm looking forward to your baking adventures with your new pans. Let me know if you need a baked doughnut recipe. I have two that I really like--one with applesauce and one with pumpkin.
Here is a quick analysis of the two new recipes I baked this week:
We each had a slice of Barley Orange Bread for dessert on Saturday. The flavor of the Cara Cara orange is just right and balances nicely with the barley, so I would make it again with my changes.
As for the Raisin Rye Bread: I had some slices for breakfast, and it is a nice hearty loaf. My husband later had a slice and he liked it as well. I want to bake the recipe again and see if I can correct the slightly depressed center, as well as not overbake it. I also think that the bread needs to rest about a day before cutting into it, as I thought it slightly gummy this morning, but that is no longer the case this evening.
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