[BakerAunt]

Beautiful.

[BakerAunt]

Our current favorite is the Ultra Thin Crust Pizza from KAF. However, the crust is not as thin as Mike was discussing.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/ultra-thin-durum-semolina-pizza-crust-recipe

When I made it this time, I mixed everything together except for the olive oil, then I dribbled it in with the mixer running and ran the mixer with paddle on speed 2 for 4 minutes. It was the best crust I've ever made. The crust seemed lighter and chewier. I'll use this technique from now on.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook: The rice maker does result in less sticky rice. I have two very simple Black and Decker ones that I bought at Ross. I bought the 4 cup one first, and I found myself carting it back and forth to our place in Indiana, so I left it there and bought a somewhat larger one for here, since at the time two of my stepchildren still lived with us. I continue to use the large for just the two of us, and it will cook just two cups. However, cooked rice can be frozen quite nicely. Rice reheated in the microwave is not sticky at all.

While many rice cookers have complicated bells and whistles, this one is simple: Push the button down and when it pops up, the rice is done. There are even different water fill lines for regular rice and brown rice. I have found that it is not a good idea to let cooked rice sit on the "warming" setting (what the rice cooker switches to when done). I pull the insert out and put it on a hot plate. My rice cooker also has a steamer insert, and I've occasionally steamed vegetables in the insert (although never while the rice was cooking). The nonstick pan is an improvement over the old ones that did not have nonstick.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Well, the writer needed to be told to put the modifying clause next to what it modifies. One can do that without diagraming a sentence.

[BakerAunt]

Reading this post made me smile. I've been to three conventions in Chicago, and the meals eaten out with friends are great memories.

[BakerAunt]

Oh, Italian Cook, we have all been there. (See my summer post about the perfect blueberry pie--where I found the thickener AFTER the pie was assembled and baking.) Anyone who has not forgotten a key ingredient at least once is someone who neither cooks nor bakes!

[BakerAunt]

I'm impressed by how the creations look. I wish that I could taste them!

Mike: Consider doing a postscript blog when you try some of these chocolate techniques at home.

[BakerAunt]

I renewed my Bakers' Rewards Program; we shall see if that gets me back on the email list. I write the expiration date of Bakers' Bucks on my desk calendar so that I remember to use them. KAF has some items that I've not found elsewhere--the Vermont Cheese Powder that is crucial to my sourdough crackers, the cinnamon chips, the first clear flour, durum wheat flour. Also, if I order three 10# bags of flour and use a rewards coupon, it's an excellent deal. I have branched out to Bob's Red Mill flours which often cost less than the KAF, and I've always preferred their dark rye. When I've checked out the KAF blog, I don't feel inspired, and I feel the friendly tone is a facade. Clearly, I have recipes from KAF that I like; look at how many I listed that started out from KAF, even though I fiddled with them. However, I sometimes think that KAF put in ingredients that are not really needed. For those rolls I baked this past week, I didn't have whole grain improver, so I didn't put it in, and clearly it wasn't needed.

Italian Cook: I think that you will enjoy keeping a cooking/baking log. I've been adding notes to mine for when I repeat recipes. I do think that the cooking thread shows that I'm in a rut, and I'm hoping to be inspired by all of you to be more creative on meals. My long baking day was motivated by a need to get ahead on some food (bread, crackers, scones), and to try out a couple of new recipes, since I am trying to sort through my stack. I admit that my lower back was tight by the time I finished, since I was standing a lot. I need to remember to put a stool in the kitchen (tight as the space is), so that I can change position while I work.

[BakerAunt]

My mom was influenced by the packaged food craze that really took off in the 1960s--and our family is large, so I can't blame her--,but she had certain specialties that were more from scratch, such as her spaghetti sauce. She would make a giant pot of it, and also make a giant pot of chili at the same time. Some of it she would freeze. I still make a variation of her spaghetti sauce (although my husband cannot eat it due to the heavy tomato sauce and spices). Before I was married, I'd make a big pot of it at the start of the semester, and freeze it in two-cup serving containers for fast meals. (I do miss being able to do that.) She also made an excellent turkey tetrazzini casserole, and I found that froze well too in small portions. Her other major claim to fame was her hamburger stroganoff, with its Campbell's cream of chicken soup. She made a mashed potato salad--without a recipe--that one of her grandmother's had made. That one I don't have, but it was yellow from the yolks and the mustard and had dill pickle and lettuce in it. She never let a turkey carcass go to waste but made broth.

She didn't do a lot of baking, but every now and then she would get excited and try a new recipe. The Coconut Bavarian Cream Pie with chocolate coconut crust was a favorite. I've made it in the past, until the fear of raw egg white put me off. I also bake her pumpkin pie recipe, and she usually made it from scratch--although she would use the leftover jack-o-lantern!

[BakerAunt]

I wish that I could enlarge the picture so that I could see every detail of the chocolate work. Those look like chocolate skulls, as well as some cute chocolate owls and ghosts. I also wish that I could reach into the computer screen and sample some of those creations!

[BakerAunt]

One reason that I enjoyed the story is that I don't have any great cooking (or baking) memories of my grandmothers. Both worked throughout their marriages, so maybe that is why there was not a lot of experimentation. In the case of my maternal grandmother, her mother-in-law lived with them, even after my grandmother was widowed and remarried, and my mom told me that she did the cooking. So, I only remember, as a child, having fried spam (hey, we thought it was great!), Kraft macaroni and cheese, and Velveta cheese, as well as eating either raw turnip or rutabaga as my grandmother peeled it.

[BakerAunt]

I'm trying to be patient as I look forward to this blog on chocolate--and it sounds like some neat bakery stuff as well.

[BakerAunt]

May you be baking soon.

[BakerAunt]

Update: The Maple Pound Cake with Maple Rum Glaze was very good. The Nordic War pan in which I baked it caused it to spread out more (nature of the wreath pans that are 10-inches wide) than it might have done in a 9 or 10 cup pan that is not as wide and is deeper. The glaze made it very moist. I'm not sure that the texture was that much different from any other cake I've baked with regular flour. We liked it, and I will bake it again--especially since I need to use that unbleached cake flour.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for the update. My husband and I have been watching the weather channel but could not tell how badly your area was hit. I hope you and the family are home soon and do not have too much cleaning up to do.

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