[chocomouse]

We had our Easter dinner tonight - baked ham, sweet potatoes, and cole slaw. We have to plan around maple sugaring, which often keeps my husband busy until late in the evening. He loves the ham because it gives him material for late night sandwiches when he gets home.

[chocomouse]

Today I made Baker Aunt's Orange Marmalade Oatmeal Crunch bars. Thank you for the recipe! Delicious and the perfect consistency; I've struggled to find a granola bar with the right texture, not to hard, not too sweet. I used strawberry preserves that needed to used up, and white chocolate chips. I think they'd be even better with raspberry jam and chocolate chips.

I also made the KAF recipe for Soft Wraps. We used them instead of hot dog buns for our Cheddar Wurst sausages, and it worked well. They are easy to make but a little time consuming. I need to learn to roll the dough even thinner. I also overcooked (dry-fried) some of them. The flavor is still good, but they are too crunchy to wrap around a hot dog.

[chocomouse]

I made two loaves of KAF's Dark Pumpernickel Onion Loaf, with some slight modifications. The recipe is on the bag of organic pumpernickel, and probably also on the website. I used the brown sugar option, no caramel color, decreased the salt, and potato flakes instead of potato flour. I added quite a bit of water, since I prefer to work with higher hydration than usually called for.

[chocomouse]

We had salmon on the grill, leftover-from-the-freezer risotto with asparagus, and salad greens from under the gro-lights, plus a few items from the produce section of the grocery store.

[chocomouse]

I've been away for a week and it's good to be back in the kitchen, although I'm feeling lazy. Tonight my husband cooked ribs on the grill and I microwaved sliced potatoes with olive oil, Penzey's Foxpoint, and parmesan, and also asparagus from the freezer.

[chocomouse]

Wonky, I love making "fancy" shaped breads and rolls. Did you put anything flavorful in the middle of the logs, like, cinnamon-sugar? Or are these plain dinner rolls? I'd love to try making these.

[chocomouse]

Mike, I posted our harvest time for my garden in Vermont, yours might be different. You can get early, mid-, and late season varieties. As soon as the June strawberry season is over, our summer raspberries are just about ready to pick. Next to ripen are the blueberries, followed by blackberries in early-mid August 'til September. Then, the fall-bearing or ever-bearing raspberries are ripe until we get a hard frost in October.

[chocomouse]

I planted 10 highbush blueberries about 25 years ago, two different varieties. Over the next 5 years, a couple of the plants at one end of the row died, one every year, and I replaced those with different varieties, so I now have 5 different kind. I pick blueberries starting in early-to-mid-July, through mid-to-late August. One year I counted the quarts as I picked, but gave up at 50 quarts. They are a wonderful plant to grow, easy care, no pests, (except for the birds, and for that we have an elaborate netting system), minimal diseases (and none here), easy to pick standing up, delicious, healthy, and a beautiful addition to the fall landscape.

[chocomouse]

Today I made two loaves of my usual sandwich bread, and also Moomie's Raspberry Ripple Coffeecake. For the filling that she calls "doughnut jelly", I used the recipe I got when we lived in Germany for hot raspberry sauce on ice cream -- minus the wine, of course!

[chocomouse]

Tonight we had Greek chicken thighs with risotto, beets, and a green salad from under the gro-lights.

[chocomouse]

I've tried and tried to like spaghetti squash, but finally just gave up, until I saw a recipe on-line for Pizza Spaghetti Squash. I'll try to find the recipe and post or link to it. Basically, cook the squash, just as Mike posted above, but don't scrape out the cooked squash, leave it right in the shell as a serving dish. Add pizza sauce, pepperoni or sausage, onions, peppers, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, or whatever you like on pizza, and sprinkle with mozzarella or your preferred cheese. Bake for a short time just to heat up all the ingredients and melt the cheese. I will make this again. next summer when I have fresh squash. I guess I just think spaghetti squash is a poor excuse for pasta! If I could find a recipe that is not at all an "imitation" pasta with marinara type dish, I might like it. I am going to try the quiche that BakerAunt posted here, too. It's sort of like pretending that spiralized zuchinni is pasta - not for me. I just think of it as zuchinni in a different shape.

[chocomouse]

OH! Not only did the tree fall on his car, but he had to watch it happen! How terrible. We rarely lose power, because in recent years the power company has kept the tree limbs nicely trimmed back from the lines. Our internet service is down, and no idea when it will be fixed. This last storm wasn't bad, the snow was very fine and blowing around, so we got about 6 inches. The storm before, we got about 18. In the first storm, about 10 days ago, we had 12 inches. And now the weather channel is talking about the possibility of a 4th next Tues-Wed. But this is Vermont, and I prefer snowstorms over tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

[chocomouse]

I made mushroom soup earlier this week. Last night we had venison steak, risotto with aparagus, and beets.

[chocomouse]

Nice looking pie, Len. And a perfectly formed pi, too!
Yesterday was a baking marathon for me. I made the Chewy Semolina Rye bread and the 100% whole wheat bread for the bread machine that were in recent KAF catalogues. Both were mixed and kneaded in the abm, but shaped and baked in cast iron bread pans. The only substitution I made was to use Rye Bread Improver instead of the Vital Wheat Gluten. I highly recommend both recipes -- they rose very high, good oven spring, great crumb and taste. Then, I made a blueberry lemon cake from NatashasKitchen.com. I subbed Lemon Juice Powder for the lemon zest and juice. The flavor and texture are great. The outer inch or so was overcooked, so if I make it again I'll cut the baking temperature back to 350 and start checking for doneness at 40 minutes. I'd never heard of tossing the berries with cornstarch so they don't sink to the bottom of the cake, and that trick worked well, with no noticeable change in texture; I'll use cornstarch in the future instead of the usual flour.

[chocomouse]

BakerAunt, I haven't yet tried the cinnamon bits that KAF carries, and they had none in the store today. TI did see an apple pie flavor bit. If they are anything like their other "jammy" bits, forget it! I've tried several including the blueberry and the lemon -- no flavor, rubbery. I think the Prepared Pantry does still carry them. I too have a couple packages saved in the fridge. I hate having to be so organized that I plan and order ahead! Maple Cinnamon scones are a standard around here -- something quick when you need a baked good to share.

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