[BakerAunt]

We finished up the spaghetti sauce casserole (faux lasagna). We are now waiting patiently for the dessert to cool enough to eat. (I'll post more about it on the baking thread.)

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Navlys and Italian Cook for posting about your experiences with your slow cookers.

I was thinking that if I liked the apple butter recipe, maybe I would invest in a larger crockpot. Now I think that if I like the recipe, I will keep my eye out for a crockpot at a thrift store or a garage sale.

I roasted a bone-in chicken breast, that was marked down at the grocery this morning, for dinner on Saturday. It was enough for both of us, with enough left over for chicken salad sandwiches later. I also roasted sweet potato chunks separately in the countertop convection oven and microwaved frozen peas.

[BakerAunt]

Note: It expires today, but Vitacost's 20% off can be stacked with another 15% off of BRM products.

[BakerAunt]

We will have more of the spaghetti squash casserole for Friday dinner.

I brought in some seconds apples from the garage today. I want to make and can some apple butter, using the recipe to which Mike posted a link. My slow cooker (from Montgomery Wards, so it is old) is only 3 1/2-quarts, so I will make just a bit more than a half recipe. However, timing is such that I will need to wait to start it until late Saturday evening.

[BakerAunt]

The last time I planned to buy from Web Restaurant, the shipping left me floored. I ended up buying the item from them via Amazon and got free shipping.

I like Vitacost, not just for BRM items but also for items not easily found in my area.

Aaron--I think it was Mike who suggested the buttermilk, although the recipe I posted also calls for it.

I like the egg whites at this time of year for almond flour cookies. That gives me the issue of what to do with the yolks, but it is a good excuse to bake the challah recipe that Cass gave me.

I found The Cake Bible to be overly complex and fussy. I like Susan Purdy's cake book much better. A friend told me that a catering friend, while she would use The Cake Bible as needed, preferred Purdy's book for "crucial" cakes.

[BakerAunt]

I baked a large loaf of Rustic Sourdough bread using a large baking bowl and a cloche top. I have been adapting this recipe from an issue of Sift for a couple of years.The last time I baked the recipe, it was a bit dry from the Harvest Grains I added, so this time I poured ½ cup boiling water over the Harvest Grains and let them soak it up before adding to the dough. I also added 1 Tbs. of water to the levain last night. I ended up needing an additional tablespoon of water in the final dough. I also increased the special dry milk to 2 Tbs. and added a tablespoon of flax meal. This recipe has a cold oven start. At 50 minutes, it only registered 160F, so I replaced the cloche on the board and baked another 10 minutes, which got the temperature to 203F. We had some slices of the loaf with dinner tonight, and the flavor and texture are excellent.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you, Len. She is more of her old self today, and so far, we have made it through two days without her trying to remove her head bandage. We need to get to at least five days.

For dinner on Thursday, I made a spaghetti squash casserole. The original recipe calls it lasagna, although it has no noodles. The recipe might have been part of the "evil" carbs" movement. I left out the Italian spices in deference to my husband. I added 8 oz. sliced mushrooms, a stalk of chopped celery, three green onions I needed to use up, and one of our red bell peppers. The resulting casserole was good, but a bit watery. I might try the recipe next time with some no-boil lasagna noodles, since it is a bit watery. That would make it more of a "lasagna."

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday evening, I made a levain using my sourdough starter. I plan to make a loaf of Rustic Sourdough in the baking bowl with the cloche cover tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover turkey, vegetables, and noodles from last night. There is enough for me to have at lunch tomorrow.

For lunch on Wednesday, I made Smoky Beans and Greens, a recipe that I developed earlier this year to use turnip greens. However, there are no turnip greens at our local farmers' market, since the vendor's crop was wiped out by continuous groundhog invasions. Instead, I used kale from another vendor. Previously, I used white beans, but this time I used 15 oz. of garbanzos that I froze last time I cooked a pot. It made enough for today's lunch, and for lunch on Friday.

[BakerAunt]

I found an interesting recipe for Durum Rosemary Rolls:

Durum Rosemary Rolls

I've printed it to try in the future.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you, Chocomouse. Right now, we are trying to make sure that she does not remove her head wrap for at least five days. We are not sure how the injury happened, but I was a bit late letting her out last Friday morning. With duck hunters around, we need to get her out and back in before sunrise, when hunters are allowed to start shooting. It was before dawn, but we think some hunters fired before sunrise, causing her to panic and hit something with her ear, possibly the door. Due to the amount of blood vessels in a dog's ear, surgery was required.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I made yogurt. For dinner, I used the rest of the turkey, the gravy, and the giblet broth, along with carrots, red and yellow bell pepper, a bit of celery, parsley, and mushrooms to make a sauce which I mixed with spinach noodles. I lightly seasoned with sage and freshly ground pepper. We have enough left for dinner tomorrow.

It was a quick dinner to put together, which we needed as our dog had surgery today for an ear hematoma, and it was after 5 p.m. when we got home with her from the vet.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers.

[BakerAunt]

Navlys--I've never used King Arthur's alternative sugar and have not had reason to buy it. I'm skeptical of alternative sugars, as I once tried one when baking for someone who was trying to keep her sugar under control, and I hated the taste. It wasn't the King Arthur but something else that was all the rage about eight years ago.

Aaron--My favorite lemon cake recipe--and the one that got raves from the lemon fanatic in the office where I used to bake the birthday cakes--came from Susan Purdy's The Perfect Cake. It is a butter cake with a cream cheese lemon frosting. Even my husband, who is not a big citrus fan, loved it. Alas, I cannot bake it anymore due to the butter content, unless I have a lot of people who can eat most of it. That was the last cake I baked for the office staff, by popular request, when they ordered in Chinese for my retirement lunch.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover turkey and gravy, microwaved fresh broccoli, and the last of the muddled mashed potatoes for dinner.

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