[BakerAunt]

Your loaves look wonderful, Mike--as do the croissants. You are fortunate to have an appreciative audience to help you consume your baking.

I cannot believe that, just like last week, it has taken until the middle of the week for me to be baking. I spent two days doing our Christmas cards, so that was where the early week energy went. I am planning a baking-heavy rest of the week. I began on Thursday by baking my Sourdough Whole Wheat Cheese Crackers from dough I made a week ago.

I also baked my adaptation of the King Arthur Sandwich Rye Bread. I have been tweaking the recipe and getting closer to what I like, which is more wholegrain. When I type it up for me, I will call it Pumpernickel Sandwich Bread.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Wednesday, I roasted three bone-in chicken breasts. I roasted some cubes of honey nut squash separately (lower temperature). Those honey nuts came from our garden and have been awaiting use. We also had microwaved frozen peas and carrots. We have leftover chicken to use in at least two more meals.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--ah, practice makes perfect, a great reason to make them more often!

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, all! I am going to give it a try with the lemon braid recipe, possibly with my sweet roll dough.

[BakerAunt]

My cranberry sauce uses 12 oz. cranberries, 1 cup dried cherries, and 1 cup light brown sugar. It also has cardamom. It is still tart but in a sweet way, if that makes sense.

[BakerAunt]

We ate the rest of the Turkey, Spinach, Mushroom lasagna.

[BakerAunt]

The chicken looks great, Len!

A couple of my butternut squashes needed to be used, so I roasted them on Monday, then made Curried Butternut Squash Soup, which I had for lunch. I froze three individual servings for future lunches and refrigerated enough for the next two days.

[BakerAunt]

I made yogurt on Sunday.

For Sunday dinner, I made Turkey, Mushroom, and Spinach Lasagna. We have enough for two more dinners. We had applesauce on the side.

I know that Christmas dinner will involve ham, applesauce, and pumpkin pie. I need to think about the sides.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I made maple granola.

[BakerAunt]

For Saturday's dinner, I made Salmon and Couscous with Greek Seasoning. We had it with microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

Congratulations on your new kitchen tool, Len!

We had leftover hamburger stroganoff with rice, along with microwaved frozen peas and carrots. We also had applesauce.

[BakerAunt]

Ah, such yummy baking from Aaron and Mike!

It has been a slow baking week for me, so I needed to do something about that today. On Friday, I baked Eggnog Barley cake in my Christmas wreath Nordic Ware Bundt pan. I replaced 1 ¼ cups of the AP flour with barley flour. I found a high quality "low-fat" (still 3.5 g saturated fat per half cup) eggnog (Organic Valley Reduced Fat Eggnog) when we were at Kroger earlier this week. The Kroger brand was lower in saturated fat, but it used high fructose corn syrup. The cake is excellent, as we each had a slice for dinner.

My husband's mouth is still somewhat sore, so I baked a double batch of my new recipe for Drop Sugar Cookies that use avocado oil rather than butter. I did two-thirds of the cookies by rolling them in combined red and green sugar and rolling the remaining one-third in red, green, and white sprinkles. It is nice to have a sugar cookie for Christmas again, especially for afternoon teatime.

[BakerAunt]

For dinner on Thursday, I made my lighter version of my mother's hamburger stroganoff, which we had over a mixture of brown and wild rice. We also had microwaved frozen peas.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers that I can bake early next week.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Joan. It is better today, but he has to be careful how he eats.

I made applesauce on Wednesday as a treat for my husband, who is recovering from a dental procedure.

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