[BakerAunt]

Beautiful cake, Joan!

I baked Whole Wheat/Rye/Semolina Buns (Len's recipe) on Friday to use for chicken salad sandwiches.

[BakerAunt]

That recipe sounds great, CWCdesign.

I made chicken salad to have for sandwiches for Friday dinner. Scott particularly seems to like having the leftover roasted chicken breast this way. I have been using a mixture of low-fat mayonnaise and nonfat Greek yogurt, along with Dijon mustard and dill in the dressing and added chopped celery, sliced green onion, and chopped red bell pepper and some freshly ground black pepper. We had it on the buns I baked alongside a salad. We have enough for a couple more meals.

After dinner, I made another try at the Zucchini Relish in the Ball Canning Book that did not come out so well for me two years ago. This time, I was able to get some small zucchini and used two green and one yellow one, a cup of red bell pepper, and a cup of red and white chopped onion. It had less soupiness than two years ago, which I attribute in part to the smaller zucchini. I was careful to use ice water for the two-hour vegetables salt bath. However, I also think that the burner, on the stove in the Annex where I do my canning, was not working that well two years ago. I replaced it this spring. I heard the four half-pints and one 4 oz. jar seal but will of course check tomorrow. They still may have a bit too much liquid. I think it might be helpful to fill all four jars at once with the vegetables, then pour the remaining liquid over them, but canning directions always say to fill one jar at a time, so I follow directions.

[BakerAunt]

Happy Anniversary to Mike and Diane!

I made Quinoa Salad on Thursday to go with the rest of the pecan crusted pork. I like this recipe, which I got from Bob's Red Mill. I delete the cilantro, which can overpower the corn and lima beans that go with the quinoa and the lime dressing. I use Penzey's Country French Vinaigrette seasoning instead.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover pecan crusted pork, applesauce, and leftover honey nut squash. We ate the last of the bean salad, which we had over mixed greens from last Saturday's farmers market.

[BakerAunt]

I ate the last of the maple granola at breakfast on Wednesday morning, so I made a new batch.

[BakerAunt]

The power outage we were told to expect did not happen. We and all the neighbors had our cars out of the garages by 8 a.m. and put off doing anything that might be interrupted by an electrical shutdown. Maybe they did not need to do our area, or maybe it has been put off. As we got up early, Scott and I were at the grocery store earlier than usual, and we got a good deal on bone-in chicken breasts that had been marked down for quick sale, so I went ahead and roasted those for dinner tonight and for planned overs. I also roasted two small honey nut squash that I bought at the farmers market on Saturday, and we had more green bean salad.

I also made tomato sauce from some of our garden tomatoes in the early afternoon. I had a cooler prepared in case I needed it if the electricity was off.

[BakerAunt]

Our utility company has told us that on Tuesday, our street, and a few nearby ones, will have an electrical outage for a period between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. for a power upgrade. I wish that they could have narrowed it down more, but at least we were notified. As a result, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen on Monday. I baked two loaves of the whole grain bread that I have been developing, and I think that I now have the recipe where I want it. I will decide after we slice it at lunch tomorrow.

My other baking project was my adaptation of King Arthur's Apple-Cinnamon Bars, which is actually more of a cake. I opened a pint jar of apple butter while we had guests, so I had it to use in the bars. I made a 1 ½ recipe, although I used two eggs, both of which were small. I reduced the brown sugar by half, used white whole wheat flour, replaced butter with some avocado oil, halved the amount of cinnamon chips, and added 2 Tbs. milk powder and 1 Tbs. flax meal. I baked them in a glass dish that is about 12 ½ x 9 inches. I always make half the glaze and spread it over the top rather than trying to drizzle it decoratively. We each had a piece for dessert, although it should actually rest for about four hours to set the glaze, but the end was cool enough to cut. For the glaze, I used Wholesome Organic Fair Trade Powdered Confectioners Sugar, which I found at Vitacost. Instead of cornstarch, it uses tapioca starch as the only other ingredient to the cane sugar. The taste is better than a cornstarch powdered sugar, but it is not like the glazing sugar that King Arthur once carried in which the sugar did not obscure the cinnamon in the glaze at all.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Monday, I made pecan crusted boneless pork slices, which we had with more of yesterday's green bean, cherry tomato, and feta salad, and applesauce from the freezer. It will be an easy meal to re-run tomorrow, since we are uncertain as to when in an eight-hour period the power will be out and for how long.

[BakerAunt]

I made yogurt on Sunday, and I made an absentminded error. Instead of plugging in the yogurt maker, I plugged in the coffee maker, which is only still on the counter because our guests left behind ground coffee which, being cognizant of the soaring price of coffee, I am drinking in the afternoon. (I am still having my French Press cup in the morning!) I discovered my error after two hours. I have no idea how it will affect the yogurt. I re-set the timer for the usual five hours and forty minutes.

I made our favorite green bean, cherry tomato, and feta salad for dinner to go with the leftover chicken thighs, brown and mixed wild rice, and mushroom sauce. I used the 6 oz of green beans we had from our garden, but I supplemented with a pound from the farmers market; ditto with our four cherry tomatoes, which were augmented by a basket of mixed colored ones. Our cherry tomatoes went dormant for a while, but more green ones are now forming.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers on Saturday from dough I made on Monday.

[BakerAunt]

Yum, yum, Joan!

To go with the rest of the pasta salad for Saturday's dinner, I made roasted salmon with a maple, Dijon, and pecan topping.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--That's an interesting question, but not one to which I know the answer. I don't think the baking powder should make much of a difference in how the dough feels or whether it windowpanes. King Arthur's Hot Cross Buns recipe uses baking powder as well as yeast, and when I made that recipe, a couple of times, years ago, I don't recall any difference in how the dough felt. Mike regularly uses the HCB recipe, so perhaps he can weigh in on it.

[BakerAunt]

That brownie recipe is one of our favorites, Joan!

. Follow-up Notes on the bread I baked on Wednesday: The bread is interesting, but I would cut back on the aniseed, which overwhelms the other flavors. It works fine as the base for a shaved ham sandwich, but I like it less for my turkey bacon and tomato sandwiches, as I want the bacon and tomato not to have flavor competition from the aniseed. I'm not sure that I will bake this recipe again.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Friday, I took the recipe, "White Wine-Braised Chicken with Artichokes," which I have now made twice, and replaced the artichokes, which Scott will not eat, with sliced mushrooms and increased the white wine by 2 Tbs. It is a quick recipe that cooks on the stove top. I cooked a mixture of brown and wild rice in my rice cooker to have with the chicken, mushrooms, and sauce. I like this version of the recipe, although I might increase the paprika by 1/4 tsp. next time, as I omit the oregano in deference to my husband's digestive system. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

We did our big shopping trip to the little city about half an hour away, which means hitting three grocery stores, a Ross and a Marshall's, and running a couple of errands. It was good to have the rest of the turkey-zucchini loaf and more of the pasta salad for dinner.

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