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Well, the best laid plans have gone awry. We expected to pick up my younger bonus son and his family at the South Bend airport, but he called this morning to say that their plane out of Colorado had been delayed, so they would miss their connecting flight. They were re-routed and were to arrive this evening. Then, he called back at noon to say the flight had been cancelled due to the airline's not being able to replace a part. They are now re-scheduled to arrive tomorrow evening. The upshot is that they have lost a day and a half they would have had here.
That also meant that I had to scramble dinner plans for tonight and tomorrow. I roasted the chicken thighs that were to be Thursday's dinner, since the meat needed to be cooked. We will warm up the leftovers for Friday's dinner. I also roasted small potatoes, carrot chunks, and chunks of a flying saucer-shaped squash after coating them with vinegar and some Penzey's Mural Seasoning. We had more of the broccoli salad with it, but there is enough left for it to be part of tomorrow's Sloppy Joe meal.
On Tuesday evening, I again baked that recipe for Bittersweet Blackberry Brownies that I first tried a couple of weeks ago. This time, I added 1 tsp. espresso powder. I used the countertop convection oven.
I needed protein to go with leftover Cherry Tomato Sauce with Vegetables and Rigatoni, and with the broccoli salad I made last night, and it needed to be a one-night dinner on Tuesday, since my younger bonus son, daughter-in-law, and the soon to be four-month-old grandson arrive tomorrow for a six-day visit. I found a boneless, half chicken breast at the grocery this morning. I briefly soaked it in buttermilk, then coated it with Panko that I had first toasted for 5 minutes. I sprinkled Penzey's Justice blend on it, then roasted it. There is even a little left over for me to have for lunch tomorrow. That broccoli salad that I wrote about yesterday is excellent with the changes I noted. My husband loved it, so I will be making it again.
Joan--definitely try the broccoli salad! Yum! Also, I now am picturing you going to the mailbox, prepared to do battle, as were the knights of old!
Chocomouse--I am so glad that you are getting better. Some years ago, a friend's son had a similar, unknown spider bite, which needed emergency care.
We had leftover roast chicken and the Cherry Tomato Sauce with Vegetables and Rotini.
Our garden is producing a lot of beans, so I blanched and froze three 1 ½ pint containers on Monday. It will be nice to have these in the fall and early winter.
After dinner, I tried a new recipe, the Best Broccoli Salad, by Holly Nilsson at Spend with Pennies:
I used her suggestion to substitute Greek yogurt for half the mayonnaise in the dressing. I used low-fat mayonnaise and Chobani nonfat Greek yogurt. The recipe says salt and pepper to taste, so I settled for ¼ tsp. salt and some freshly ground pepper. I used some sliced green onion rather than the red onion that my husband cannot eat. Instead of regular bacon, I cooked five slices of turkey bacon and crumpled it in. The salad is supposed to rest for a day, so we will try it at dinner tomorrow.
For Sunday dinner, I roasted a small chicken. We also had Cherry Tomato Sauce with Vegetables (yellow squash, green squash, mushrooms, red and purple bell pepper), and Rotini the recipe that I wrote about the week of August 6. As we were eating, I thought that it did not taste as good as I recalled. Then, I realized that I had forgotten the splash of balsamic vinegar and added it. The balsamic vinegar makes all the difference! We also had the last two ears of sweet corn.
I have posted the Cherry Tomato Sauce with Vegetables and Rigatoni.
Earlier in the day, I made yogurt.
I do love that bread, Chocomouse!
For Sunday breakfast, I made Cornmeal-Pumpernickel Waffles, which we had with maple syrup and some blueberry syrup, which is a byproduct when I bake blueberry pie. I froze the six extra waffles to eat at future breakfasts.
We are having leftover stir-fry tonight.
Navlys--I refuse to grate onions! When a recipe calls for them, I pull out the onion powder.
Joan, I went to the only thrift store in my little town today and found a glass cake cover that perfectly fits the 8-inch diameter cake stand that I bought last year to use with the little wedding cake that I made for my younger bonus son and his wife. I've been looking for one, and I paid just $2.
I always use buttermilk in my breads and cinnamon rolls. I have not noticed a problem in the rise. I do think that because buttermilk is thicker than water, sometimes it helps to increase the water by a tablespoon or two. It seems to me that buttermilk helps the rise. In the case of the buttermilk maple bread that I and Chocmouse like to bake, there is a substantial rise.
We had to drive to Fort Wayne and back on Friday afternoon, so we got home around 5 p.m. Fortunately, we had leftover pork from last night, so we set to work cutting vegetables and meat, so that I could make stir-fry with soba noodles, pork, deglazing from when the pork was cooked, red bell pepper, green onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms, broccoli, and snow peas. The snow peas were from our garden.
Joan--my sister texted me a picture of her latest thrift shop find: a never used Wilton doughnut pan in heart shapes.
When we grocery shopped on Tuesday, my husband looked at the marked down bananas and asked if I were going to bake banana bread, which is his way of saying he would like banana bread. Thursday was cool and rainy in the morning, so it was perfect for baking. I used a banana cake recipe that I found on the internet last year and adapted. It fits perfectly into the Nordic Ware 4-loaf Bundt pan. This time, I lowered the temperature to 325F for baking, since the pan is heavy and is one of the older dark ones. They baked perfectly in 40 minutes. I froze two but left two out for us to start eating with tea or for dessert tomorrow. I like this recipe as it only uses ½ cup light brown sugar and it uses oil rather than butter.
My husband cooked thin slices of pork for dinner, which we had with sweet corn and microwaved fresh broccoli.
Joan--I love thrifting, whether I find something or not, and it is always better with friends.
My husband cooked thin slices of pork in the skillet for dinner, which we had with sweet corn and microwaved fresh broccoli.
We re-ran Monday's dinner menu on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tomorrow, we cook again.
I realized, as I made lunch on Wednesday, that we were running out of bread, so in the afternoon I baked my Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread. I gave my husband the choice of my two recipes that make three loaves, this one or Grandma A's Bread, and he said that he preferred my oat bran bread because to him the latter seems more like commercial bread. I wanted three loaves so that I could tuck two into the freezer. We are using up the loaves more quickly, because I am making turkey bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch as I enjoy the tomatoes from the garden.
I made a batch of Maple Granola on Tuesday.
Speaking of oil in place of butter in recipes:
On a rainy Monday, I decided to see if I could adapt a recipe, "Cinnamon-Apple Bars with Peanut Butter Glaze," which is in the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking. I had made it back when I was still baking with butter and liked the bars, although I made a note to lose the topping which was too sweet and overpowered them. I have leftover applesauce from last week's cookie experiment, and this recipe uses a cup. I replaced ¾ cup butter with ½ cup canola oil and ¼ cup buttermilk. I added a Tbs. of flax meal and 2 Tbs. Bob's Red Mill milk powder. I reduced the salt from 1 ½ to ½ tsp. Instead of grinding the oats to make flour, I used quick oats and combined them with the flour and dry ingredients. I used just ½ cup cinnamon chips (75 g). I baked in a 13x9 inch glass dish. I have started to prefer glass dishes for bar cookies or cakes. I baked for the shortest time, and they tested done. After the bars cooled, I glazed them with some glazing sugar that came from King Arthur long ago that I had in the pantry. King Arthur does not sell it anymore. It does not have cornstarch, so it dries with a nice glossy surface. My husband and I sampled them for dessert tonight, and I would certainly bake my adaptation again.
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