[BakerAunt]

We had more of the leftover roasted chicken breast, the rest of the Greek pasta salad, microwaved fresh broccoli, and slices of Barley Pumpkin Bread for dessert.

[BakerAunt]

I have also noticed that fruit flies find sourdough starters attractive. With bread dough, I think the yeast attracts them, so when the bread bakes, and the yeast is gone, so is their interest.

[BakerAunt]

I have been eying Roxana Jullapat's book, Mother Grains, ever since its publication in 2021. I was reluctant to spend $40 on a book without knowing if it would work with my dietary parameters, but Barnes & Noble had a reduce price and a 20% savings for members last week, so I bought it for $25.

The book arrived on Friday, and on Sunday, I baked my first recipe, "Barley Pumpkin Bread." It made an 8 ½ x 4 ½ -inch loaf. I modified the recipe by reducing the sugar from 1 1/3 cups to 1 cup and the oil from ¾ cup to ½ cup and adding a tablespoon of Bob's Red Mill milk powder. I used half the salt, since the recipe called for kosher salt. I did not include the golden raisins or the optional candied fruit, since I like my pumpkin bread without add-ins. I also did not use the optional barley malt syrup topping.

I changed the mixing instructions, since for oil cakes, etc. I now like to combine the sugar with the oil first, using my hand mixer, add the rest of the wet ingredients, and then, by hand, stir in the dry ingredients. I also did not use the parchment sling to line the pan but relied on The Grease, which worked perfectly. The bread was to bake for 45 minutes at 325, but it did not test done until 57 minutes. I let it cool for 10 minutes rather than an hour before turning it out of the pan without a problem.

In comparing my bread to the cookbook picture, I note that the one in the picture is relatively flat on top, where my loaf has the usual quick bread rise. I attribute the difference to reducing the sugar. Cass always reminded me that structure suffers when the sugar outweighs the flour.

We let it cool and had a slice for dessert tonight, although it probably would have been best to wait until tomorrow. My husband and I find it has just the right amount of sweetness. I will be baking this recipe, with my changes, again.

While some of the recipes in Mother Grains are not within my dietary parameters, there are enough other interesting recipes that are, so I consider the purchase of the book worthwhile.

[BakerAunt]

We had more of last week's soup with some of the Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers for Sunday dinner.

[BakerAunt]

I knew that the Chewy Semolina Rye Bread is good, and I like the changes I made, but the best change was using pumpernickel in place of the medium rye. Delicious!

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover roasted chicken breast, leftover Greek Pasta Salad, and microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

I realized at lunch on Saturday that we would be needing bread for tomorrow. I wanted to bake a large single loaf because right now the freezers are full. I remembered the Chewy Semolina Rye Bread because CWCdesign baked it earlier this week. I made a few more tweaks. This time, I used 1 ½ cups of buttermilk and ¾ cup of water. I added 2 Tbs. special dry milk. Instead of the medium rye flour, I used pumpernickel. I used 2 Tbs. First Clear Flour in place of the vital wheat gluten. I reduced the yeast to 3 ½ tsp. and the salt to 2 ¼ tsp. I did not add the dried onion. As I was kneading it in the mixer, it seemed a bit dry, so I added 1 Tbs. of water. I did not do the topping, as my husband would dislike it. The loaf is lovely, and I look forward to slicing it tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

We had more of the leftover soup from earlier this week for dinner on Friday.

I had some tomatoes that needed to be used, so I made pizza sauce on Friday and froze it.

[BakerAunt]

I realize zucchini season has ended, but I wanted to share this comic from The New 60 that I receive in a weekly email. I can't send the specific comic (or perhaps cannot figure out how to do so), but if you go to the site and go to the September 13 strips, there is a great take on using all that zucchini:

https://www.thenew60comic.com/

[BakerAunt]

We attended a fundraiser Trivia Night on Thursday, so we ate an early dinner of leftover roasted chicken breast, Greek pasta salad, and microwaved green beans.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--We are also dealing with an invasion of fruit flies, and we, too, have found that the vinegar traps are only somewhat effective. Some of the flies look larger than the usual fruit flies. I'm wondering if I need to use larger holes in the traps.

Does the Black Flag bug zapper make a noise when you use it? I ask because our dog is very sensitive to sounds such as hammering, gun shots (hunting season and people target shooting is a problem here), or even the smack of a rolled-up magazine or a fly swatter.

[BakerAunt]

CWCdesign: I recently bought Roxana Jullapat's Mother Grains. She says the following about corn flour:

"I don't recommend exchanging corn flour for corn meal in recipes, because corn flour is finer and more compact and therefore yields different results."

Alas, she does not specify what those results are.

You can order Bob's Red Mill medium cornmeal from Vitacost. They have some good deals on Bob's Red Mill products, as well as other food, and they often have discounts. It requires $49 to get free shipping, so I usually wait and stock up when I can.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Chocomouse. I am thinking that it will be fine, although not very relish-like. Perhaps I will mix a jar with pasta for a salad when I open one in a few weeks.

My vegetables were floating when I put them into the canning jars, with the liquid on the bottom. Clearly, there was too much liquid and the vegetables were not soaking it up.

I roasted three bone-in chicken breasts on Wednesday that I got at a good price over the weekend. We had some of the chicken with microwaved green beans from the garden and, for my husband. leftover roasted potatoes, patty-pan squash, and carrots, and for me some of a Greek Pasta Salad I made today and will be eating into the week.

I made yogurt earlier in the day.

[BakerAunt]

I have been using Google to try and figure out my relish issue. I found this comment at Backwoods Home Magazine:

My fruit or tomatoes are floating in liquid in the jars
This is nothing to worry about, although many beginning home canners are distressed to find this happening. The fruit crowds near the top of the jar with lots of syrup or juice below it. Raw packing the fruit is generally what causes this. If you simply heat your fruit (or tomatoes) in their syrup or juice, they won't float in the jars. Be sure to pack your fruit well without smashing it into your jars. The fruit will slightly shrink in processing.

The cooking times in the Ball recipe were short: the vinegar-sugar solution at 180F for 10 minutes, then "simmer" with added vegetables, which I took to mean another 10 minutes at 180F. Maybe I should have used a higher cooking temperature?

[BakerAunt]

I looked at my canned relish today. The bottom of the jar is the liquid. The vegetables are still bunched at the top. I'm not sure that this would be ok to eat, since in most canning, the liquid is supposed to cover the other contents. The recipe says to let the relish age in the jars for 4-6 weeks to develop flavor. However, I do not see the vegetables sinking down.

I'm not sure what to do with this batch. I hate throwing away food. I also do not want to get sick from my canning attempt.

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