[chocomouse]

BakerAunt, I'm sitting here looking at 8 bread books. I do have a couple of favorite recipes among them, but I seem to always grab a printed sheet of my reliable favorites. I guess that's OK -- I know the recipe works, some with my comments/changes, and I can count on having delicious bread. I'm much more apt to try new and different main dishes, sides, salads.

[chocomouse]

Happy Birthday, Mike! What a great birthday dinner choice!

[chocomouse]

Joan, I really love blueberries even more when they are combined with lemon flavoring. My favorite is the KAF Lemon Juice Powder; I think it is even more flavorful than lemon oil or zest. I'll be making raspberry muffins in another week or so, and will use oatmeal in those.

BakerAunt, when I was searching recipes for peaches a few weeks ago, I noticed that bakers seemed to be adamant for or against removing the peels. I left mine on, as many people said the peels disappear into the batter and you don't even know you are eating them. I was wondering about peels on or off for a pie, and now I know! Thanks for telling us!

[chocomouse]

This morning I made Blueberry Lemon Muffins, using the recipe I have developed over the years. The berries came from the 10 bushes I planted next to the garden in 1986. This year I picked about 15 quarts. I will also be picking in Maine next week and expect to get 11 pounds. Need I mention how much I love blueberries? Joan, I could eat your muffins, too!

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[chocomouse]

On Labor Day, my daughter hosted the annual family corn roast, for which I made a bean salad. I also mixed up a batch of Gael's Saturday Focaccia (KAF) and transported to her kitchen where I "supervised" her husband learning about the characteristics of risen and ready to use dough. We sprinkled the oiled top with The Works. It came out perfectly!

[chocomouse]

Early Girl is not my favorite, Celebrity is, but there were no Celebs available in our area last spring. All the home gardeners have learned how good are and bough up all the starts at the nurseries! Early Girl is OK, but not as consistent or as tasty as Celebrity. This summer, mine are loaded with tomatoes, but many are smaller than expected, I assume due to the long periods of either flooding or drought. When I had teen-agers living at home, I usually grew 30 tomato plants; now I plant 6 slicers and 6 pastes. There's only two of us, and we don't eat nearly as much sauce/casseroles as we did when the kids lived here.

[chocomouse]

Leftover salads here!

[chocomouse]

Our Early Girl and Amish paste are loaded with tomatoes that are turning red rapidly now, enough for tomato and/or BLT sandwiches several times a week. I'm also freezing sauce in small batches, and waiting to go to the market to get jalapenos for salsa. I will be picking today from the third planting of green beans. Of course, I planted way too many kinds of salad greens and they're the most successful of my gardening efforts this summer. Today I will start shutting down my deck gardening for the season - pulling up old plants/flowers, refilling my buckets of soil and compost for next spring, bringing inside to the sunroom the mandevillas, some calibrachoas, ivy geranium, etc to overwinter. If the weather pattern holds (70s, no rain) I'll trim and transplant herbs into fresh containers for winter, and start salad greens inside.

[chocomouse]

We had burgers and corn on the cob, all on the grill. And I made coconut-rum ice cream for later this evening.

[chocomouse]

Dinner tonight was salads - seafood, pasta with ham and cheese and veggies and Italian dressing, and purple cole slaw. We also had Olive-Cheese Quick bread I made this morning.

[chocomouse]

BakerAunt, you are right, I've read at least one blog on KAF about using almond flour. But decided to just try a 1:1 substitution, and it worked. But -- it was a small amount, just 1/2 cup swap. I was going to call the help line, but decided to just wing it.

[chocomouse]

Large white eggs at Hannaford today are 4.99 a dozen, same as last week. Brown eggs are only 4.79. I did not buy either; we'll scrape by with the remaining half dozen or so that are in the fridge.

[chocomouse]

I also made the Peachy Muffins last week, BakerAunt. I cut back the sugar and salt, and used buttermilk. I sprinkled the tops with turbinado sugar. I made the full batch of 24 and froze most of them. They turned out great. I really like making big batches so that I have some for the freezer for when I am traveling. I'm considering using the recipe to make other fruit muffins, with some changes in the flavoring/spices used. I also used 1/2 cup of almond flour in place of 1/2 cup of the AP; next time I will use all AP, I just want to see if the almond flour makes a huge difference in the texture, particularly the tenderness.

[chocomouse]

Our dinner tonight was chicken thighs and corn on the grill, plus fresh green beans.

[chocomouse]

Mike, we use a floating hydrometer to measure the density of our syrup, but since we double check everything, we also use a refractometer. We measure in brix, which requires a reading of 66-68 to legally be syrup, so we go to 67. Hydrometers are very expensive. We buy ours from a sugaring supplier in Wisconsin, and they are certified by some department in Vermont's government.

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