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Yesterday I made scones filled with grape jelly. Taste OK, but just OK, not great. Too sweet and not enough grape jelly taste.
Tonight I made Aebleskivers. I mixed Pizza Seasoning and grated parmesan into the dough, and filled them with a cube of cheddar cheese. Very good.
Len, those look great! Making buns is time-intensive anyway, compared to shaping a loaf of bread, and I can understand why you made only 2 basketweave. Your buns are big; mine are around 71-73 grams each, which are plenty big for our "mature person" appetite.
Last night we had ribs (cooked on the grill on the deck with the temp about 20*) and oven roasted veggies. Tonight I made Shepherd's Pie - with ground beef, whole kernal corn and mashed potatoes with lots of onions and garlic.
Italiancook, thanks! I'll try to find the 30-Minute Meals on the Food Network online.
Baker Aunt, I think that I've not ever used durum flour in my pizza dough. I do use a cup of semolina, and then 2 more cups of flour, some combination of AP and whole wheat. It does make it chewy, as we like it. I knead it in my bread machine, as I do all of my breads.
Some foods, along with other things, were rationed in those days! We didn't have any "fast food" places then either, and when some did open, my family couldn't afford to eat there. We went once a year to a decent (good food, reasonable portions, reasonable prices) seafood restaurant, and once each summer to a seasonal soft-serve ice cream place. I simply cannot imagine eating most of your meals at a fast food joint, as many families do these days. However, I do note the trend is now toward more home-cooked meals.
My year of birth isn't shown!
Len, I'll wait 'til you adjust the seasonings for your sausage before I try making some. But that sounds like a good start.
I have questions for those of you who bake your pizzas at 500*:
1. Thin or thick crust?
2. Lots of toppings, and do you pre-bake the toppings?
3. For how long? Thanks!
When I have baked mine (thick crust, lots of toppings, no pre-bake) at 450* the crust has been overcooked (almost burned), nearly raw in the middle, veggies charred.I made farfelle and marinara with ground beef, onions, peppers, and chopped cauliflower. I wasn't sure about the cauliflower, but since it does not have a strong flavor, there is plenty of it in the freezer to be used up this winter, and I'm always looking for ways to add more veggies to our diet, I thought why not give it a try. It was really good and I'll do it again.
Today I made sandwich bread using KAF's Harvest Grain mix, a favorite of ours. I also made Blueberry Orange muffins, using some leftover candied orange peel I made a month ago.
Italiancook, I should think you could make a whole wheat crust, maybe use a little semolina if you can eat that? I always add herbs and spices, like garlic and onion powder, Italian seasoning, oregano, basil, etc or a prepared pizza seasoning. We like the dough to be as tasty as the ingredients in the topping. Do you have a cast iron skillet? That would make a crispy crust. I'm not an expert, but I think tomato paste is a bit thicker than a prepared pizza sauce; if you can get your tomato sauce to the consistency of the paste, it might be what you're looking for. I'm not sure why your toppings of onions, peppers, mushrooms made your crust too wet; I use those ingredients and my crust is never wet. My problem is finding the right temperature and time -- the temp has to be high enough to make a crispy crust, but not so high that the center of the dough doesn't cook through. I usually bake it at 400 for about 25 minutes, but always check the underside before saying it is ready.
Tonight we had venison steaks with roasted root vegetables: parsnips, carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato, white potato, and onion. I drizzled them with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and added rosemary and thyme.
Aaron, I'm anxious to hear how your sausage turns out. Mike, I married into a family of hunters, and have eaten a lot of venison sausage in my lifetime. We always took our deer to a butcher (not always a professional, trained butcher, it might be just another hunter who learned how to process the meat, and enjoyed doing it and earning extra money) and got roasts, steaks, ribs, stew meat, hamburg and sausage. It seemed that each butcher used a different recipe for the sausage, and there was some "competition" for who had the tastiest concoction! They usually had a "hot" and a "mild" version, and I recall they added some ground beef or maybe pork to the mix since venison is so lean. Tonight we actually had venison steak from my grand-daughter's first deer, which you probably know is a right-of-passage in some parts of the country.
Skeptic, I can't really express how much I love that pizza pan, even more than the two Lodge cast iron bread pans I have! I do not pre-heat it, it makes a very crisp crust, absolutely perfect, without pre-heating. It works even better than a regular cast iron skillet. I'd love to be able to get that crispness back when reheating leftovers the next day, but haven't managed to get to that yet. I put so many toppings on a pizza that even with my peel it is difficult to transfer a loaded pizza to a stone or steel. It is a very large pan, so we always have leftovers. I'm lazy and love having leftovers, even when they are not as good as fresh. I love that it has handles on either side, making it easier and safer to handle in and out of a hot oven. The only problem with the pan is it weighs a ton! I have a lot of cast iron, so I'm used the weight, and would never let the weight stop me from using it. I did have a problem last month after surgery when I was not allowed to life anything heavy - but I just had to plan ahead or get help.
Good question, Italiancook! I don't pre- cook any of my veggies (onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, well, dehydrator-dried!, broccoli, artichokes, etc). I also do not pre-bake the crust. I make the sauce from tomatoes from my garden, and garlic, oregano, basil, thyme - whatever catches my eye on the spice racks. I layer the dough, sauce, meat, any veggies except the onions and peppers, and then mozzarella and cheddar cheese. The sliced onion and bell peppers go on top of the cheese, and then it is all sprinkled with some sort of pizza seasoning. One of my most favorite Christmas gifts ever was a Lodge pizza pan. Large, about 12-14 inches diameter, heavy, almost too heavy for me to lift - but makes a perfect crispy crust. We like a thick crust, but it's gotta be crispy on the bottom and edge. I have only eaten pizza in a "pizza parlor" once in my over-70 years (Mike: ever go to Buffo's, in Highwood?), a highly rated pizza place in a suburb just north of Chicago, and have once-in-a-while tasted pizza at office parties - the home-made version is so much better! The dough, the toppings, the cripsness, minimum salt, no grease! Does anyone make their own sausage? I'm thinking about that as a way to further reduce the salt. I've checked Penzey's seasoning mixes, but the first ingredient listed is salt! But I don't have a good formula for the spices and herbs to use. I'd love some suggestions.
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