[chocomouse]

Baker Aunt, I wonder about using a low-fat cream cheese frosting on these? Even if it is only a thin layer, not the thick, rich, delicious frosting that is more typical?

I made zucchini-raspberry-lemon muffins. It may be the last zucchini from the garden, but we'll keep picking raspberries for another month, as long as we cover some with a tarp if/when we get a freeze warning. They are good only for pies or sauce for ice cream when thawed from the freezer, so I try to use everything I can when they are fresh. My husband has them on his cereal every day now, too.

[chocomouse]

I haven't heard from Paddy, or anything about her, for a couple of years. I do miss her participation. I'll ask on Around Our Kitchen Table.

[chocomouse]

Nothing going on in my kitchen for a while! I had eye surgery (cataract) two weeks ago and then had a reaction to one of the post-op meds. Finally, tonight I can see enough to use the computer, although It's still very painful. And I'm going out of town, I hope, on Thursday, So all my cooking and baking plans have been put on the back burner -- with the burners turned off!

[chocomouse]

Dinner tonight was grilled chicken breasts, roasted potatoes, steamed summer squash and zucchini, and tomatoes and onions in Greek dressing. Baker Aunt, I"ll trade you some of my zucchini and summer squash for some of your green beans! I didn't plant any beans this year too cold and rainy and I was away several times when the weather was good for planting.

[chocomouse]

I made another Berries N Cream Cake, this time raspberry (last week I made blueberry). It is so easy and quick, but different. It's made in a spring-form pan with a dough base, then a quart of berries spread on top of the dough, and a sort of custard poured over that and baked for an hour. I'll post the recipe later.
I also made a batch of raspberry muffins, for the freezer stash.

[chocomouse]

I do "lazy composting", having tried all possible methods over 35 years. I have 3 open bins: 1. building this year's pile 2. sitting for a year 3. ready to use. I don't turn then, use a thermometer or worry about the brown-green ratio, just let them sit knowing it will take a year (they don't breakdown over the winter in Vermont). I collect garbage in a special small composting bucket on the kitchen counter, and transfer it when full to a 5-gallon pail on the deck, and then to the garden pile. We rarely have a problem with critters scavenging in it, not since the first few years (and after we stopped growing corn!). I do not put meat scraps in it, but do compost egg shells. Vermont has a new law in effect that we must compost all food scraps, including meat, we cannot toss them out with the trash, so I am searching for a commercial composter who will take my meat scraps.

[chocomouse]

Joan, we like beets but love the greens even more, with a splash of white vinegar. I like them best with a tiny round beet on the end. I'm going to try growing them inside this winter. It works for spinach, lettuce, etc. and herbs under grow lights attached to a baker's rack in our passive solar sun room.

• This reply was modified 6 years ago by chocomouse.

[chocomouse]

Seems that you all had some egg-cellent fun that I missed out on yesterday! I think I can add to your egg-tensive collection of ways to use eggs in cooking:
-- as a wash for baked goods to aid in browning and shine; or help seeds, etc to stick to the top of baked goods; and to help the edges of dough stick together when baked, such as on turnovers.
-- in bibambop, one of my my favorite Korean dishes

• This reply was modified 6 years ago by chocomouse.

[chocomouse]

Our dinner last night was grilled pork chops, beet greens, summer squash and zucchini,and roasted potatoes. I grew the beets in a wooden box on the deck, and it looks like we have two more meals before they are all gone.

[chocomouse]

Brats for dinner! With peppers and onions cooked on the grill, served on the sandwich thins I baked this morning, sliced lengthwise, and the hot pepper relish I canned this week.

[chocomouse]

We have not seen a hummingbird here since early to mid-August. They began the long journey south in early August. But they'll return the first week in May.

[chocomouse]

I am making Hot Pepper Relish, using red bell peppers, jalepenoes, and onions. It's a recipe I created to "copy-cat" the Farmhouse Red relish that Stonewall Kitchen makes. I'm also making a pasta dish for dinner: bowties, with marinara, hot Italian sausage slices, peppers and onions.

[chocomouse]

Yes, Len! Great thinking!! And I've read that if your starter has been sitting for a while or is having a hard time waking up, to use some rye flour to get it moving.

[chocomouse]

I just posted the Sourdough Buttermilk Bread recipe that PaddyL (Lanctot) posted on the OBC many years ago. It begins with a detailed description of starting her "famous" starter "Brigid". She also describes making the dough into a raisin-cinnamon bread that her sister Sheila was so fond of.

Happy Birthday Mike!

[chocomouse]

Dinner tonight was steak tips on the grill, zucchini and summer squash, tomatoes with sliced onions in Greek dressing, and corn on the cob.

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