[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.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--in case you are interested, I have posted my Lime Barley Bundt cake recipe.

You could probably substitute whole wheat pastry flour for the barley flour or just use AP for the entire recipe.

It is an oil cake, so it improves after resting overnight, and it keeps getting better.

Limes were on my mind today because I zested and juiced the rest of the limes from my lime tree. I will freeze it in portions to use later.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--I do not make it in the squash. I actually remove the squash strands from each half, then I layer it in the pan, starting with a third of the tomato-ground turkey and mushrooms sauce, half the spaghetti squash, then the tomato meat sauce, then the other half of spaghetti sauce, then the rest of the meat sauce. That is topped with 4 oz, cubed or shredded mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. It is covered with foil and baked for 30 minutes, then uncovered and baked another ten until the cheese melts. I usually let it rest for 20 minutes before cutting.

If the recipe interests you, I can post it, but I will need a couple of days, since I have not typed it into the computer yet.

[BakerAunt]

Sunday night's dinner was another experiment that went rather well. I wanted to see if I could use leftovers to make some kind of turkey pot pie. I used 75% of my oil-buttermilk crust. Two-thirds of that I used to line two Emile Henry 5-inch pie dishes. I own three of those pie dishes, which I bought at Tuesday Morning years ago and had not used until today. I divided the remaining third in half and rolled each into a circle about 6-inches wide. I refrigerated the two crust-lined pie plates for an hour. I put the parchment with the two top crusts, covered by saran on a baking sheet and put them into the refrigerator for an hour as well.

For the filling, I used leftover green beans from Thanksgiving. There were more than I would have liked, but I needed to use them up. I also put in some cubed cooked potato that I had saved from when I made mashed potatoes last night. I sliced some small carrots. In retrospect, I should have par-cooked them first as they stayed slightly crunchy. I then mixed in some cut up turkey. I combined the filling in separate bowls, so that each pie would have the same amount of vegetables and meat. I warmed up ½ cup of broth (from when I cooked the giblets on Thanksgiving) along with about a generous tablespoon of gravy for each.

After an hour, I blind baked the pie crusts. (I used coffee filters to line them and hold the beans) for 8 minutes at 400F convection. After taking them out of the oven, I sprinkled a bit of panko on the bottom of each to absorb any excess moisture. I put the turkey-vegetable mixtures into each crust. I poured the broth-gravy combination over each. I used a small heart cookie cutter to make a hole in the center of each of the top crusts, then I laid them over the filling. It is not possible to seal the edges, so I did not try. I put the cut-out heart decoratively to the side of the hole. I baked for eight minutes at 400F convection, then turned the oven down to 375F convection and baked for another eleven minutes.

The pies came out very well. Next time, however, I would make a thicker sauce for the filling, and I would par-cook the carrots.

[BakerAunt]

I froze my turkey remains, since I am short on freezer space right now.

Before the freeze in October, my husband picked the remaining green tomatoes. At my insistence, he picked the green cherry tomatoes. I told him to cut the vines, so that the cherry tomatoes remained on the cut vine. The larger tomatoes have turned red, as have some of the cherry tomatoes, although I had more orange one, and a couple of yellow ones. I cut them up on Sunday morning and made my usual sauce with olive oil and garlic, as well as a tsp. of sugar, since these tomatoes would be lacking in sweetness. It will make a decent sauce. My plan is to use it to make my spaghetti squash "lasagna," which is really more of a casserole. I cannot put in any of the Italian spices, as my husband's gut has issue with them, but I hope the larger amount of garlic, which will get dissipated by the blandness of the spaghetti sauce, will give it enough flavor for me. That cooking project will be after the Thanksgiving leftovers have been finished.

Its a good day for cooking and baking projects, as it began snowing mid-morning. So far, the snow consists of large wet flakes, and the ground is warm enough that it is not sticking.

[Author]

Posts