[chocomouse]

I hope those lifestyle changes make a difference for you, Mike. I enjoy spending hours online looking at food sites - and mostly thinking "who eats that junk?" Everything is loaded with cheese, and bacon, and salt, and on and on. It actually makes me feel good to look at it and know I won't be eating it. And then I feel good about eating plain veggies, with no cheese or sauce, or a salad spritzed with balsamic vinegar.

[chocomouse]

Our Saturday dinner was venison sausage and pancakes, with blueberries frozen from our garden and maple syrup from our sugaring operation last spring. It won't be too long before it is sugaring season again here!

[chocomouse]

Yesterday I made a big pot of corn chowder; it will give us several meals of leftovers. Dinner tonight is boneless chicken breasts simmered in my "garden special", which is tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, celery, diced carrots and/or zuchinni and/or summer squash or whatever else was ripe and left in the garden at the end of the season. It will give us a couple more meals with the final remnants made into soup.

[chocomouse]

I baked two loaves of my standard sandwich bread, based on a recipe from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger, the Honey Oatmeal Buttermilk recipe. I subbed in one cup of whole wheat flour in place of a cup of AP, and added 1/2 cup of KAF 6 Grain Mix. It's good, a no-fail recipe.

[chocomouse]

Christmas Eve dinner with our two children and five teen-age grandchildren was spiral sliced ham, pineapple, mashed potatoes, corn, baked beans, dinner rolls and garlic knots. Dessert, after opening gifts, was assorted cookies: molasses, orange, lemon, cranberry-coconut cookies, pecan pie bars, Buckeye bars, chocolate crack.
Dinner on Christmas Day with my sister and her husband was roast beast, mashed potatoes, yams, turnips, roasted green beans, garlic knots and dinner buns, and chocolate-peanut butter cheesecake.
Too much food, but all was delicious.

[chocomouse]

Aaron, of course, there are a number of factors. I think most important is catching the dough at just the right point of proofing; under or over proofed is not going to work. You won't get any oven spring if the dough isn't just right. It takes years of experience to figure out just the right point, and I still get it right only about 90% of the time. Another main factor, in my opinion, is that wetter dough rises better; not too wet, but wetter than most recipes call for. Again, experience is key. I always use a bread machine, just to knead the dough. And, I always use Vital Wheat Gluten in my rye breads. Keep on playing with dough! and having fun!

[chocomouse]

Mike, I scraped the insides of the baked squash halves into strands. Then, I just added the pizza topping ingredients on top of the strands, ending with the cheese. We ate it directly out of the squash skin. The number of squash per plant depends, of course, on the weather - heat, water, and the gardener's energy level. This was not a great year for squash, nor for the gardener. I've been quite ill for the past year. spending more time in the hospital than in the garden. But, I got about 2-3 squash per plant, and they were a good size; I gave away most of them. I did however, get tons of tomatoes and peppers. I bet I have about 10 one-gallon size zip-lock bags of peppers - halves, strips, chopped, diced. I'm putting lots of peppers in everything!

[chocomouse]

Baker Aunt, I used Lahotfoot's recipe! And I've used it before, and it worked fine. My husband has eaten most of the small edge pieces - and they were even chewier than the center pieces. I'll check to see if the crust has softened at all. Meanwhile, the Buckeye Bars are pretty good crumbled over ice cream.

A new disaster to report - I made candied orange peel, dumped it all into a strainer to drain, and now all the strips are hardened together and stuck to the strainer! I cannot pry them apart. Hard as a rock. I think I'll try setting the mess in a pan in a warm oven to melt/soften up and then I can get it apart to chop for cookies.

I think tomorrow I'll just clean house. Yuck.

[chocomouse]

Dinner was a great hit even if the baking today was a disaster! I tried a new recipe "Pepperoni Pizza Spaghetti Squash (can't remember where I got it). I cut the spaghetti squash in half, scooped out the seeds, and baked for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, I browned ground hot Italian sausage (subbed for the pepperoni), drained and then added chopped onions, green peppers, fresh mushrooms, half a small jar of pizza sauce. I scraped the squash halves to separate the strings, filled them with the sausage mixture, and topped with shredded cheddar and mozzarella. Then back into the over til the cheese melted. Delicious! It was the last of the spaghetti squash from the garden.... And it was the first recipe I've tried with spaghetti squash that I have liked!

[chocomouse]

My recent baking experiences have been a disaster!! The Pecan Pie Bars look terrible; the shortbread type crust is too hard and the filling too soft and they don't cut neatly. But they taste good. The lemon coffee cake with lemon streusel fell in the middle and is very crumbly - this never happened previously; but it tastes delicious. Even the no-bake Buckeye Bars are a failure - the peanut butter-graham cracker base is runny and not setting up even when chilled in the refrigerator. But they do taste like a Reese's! Normally, I'm just baking for my husband and me, so looks don't matter, as long as it tastes good. But I'm trying to make gifts and cookie trays! Oh well. So the two double batches of Chex Mix, also gifts, turned out great! How can you go wrong with Chex Mix??!!

[chocomouse]

I also critique a recipe in the margins, and write "DO NOT MAKE AGAIN" on quite a few. I sometimes add the name of a similar recipe and say "TRY THIS: " I file the recipes to avoid with the ones I do like, just so I'll not "find" that recipe again and decide to try it again. Since I retired, about 18 months ago, I've been working on actually making a lot of recipes, like Baker Aunt, but my stacks of recipes to try don't seem to be getting any shorter.

[chocomouse]

I made chewy molasses cookies - again. I made them a few weeks ago and put them in the freezer for our Christmas cookie tray, but somebody ate them! So today I just scooped them onto a rimmed baking sheet and put them into the freezer for a few hours, then bagged them in a zip lock. I don't know anyone who eats frozen cookie dough!!

[chocomouse]

Last night we had ribs and potatoes roasted on the grill, with asparagus frozen from our garden last spring. Tonight, we have 2 inches (so far) of snow on our deck -- no grilling here. So we had turkey soup with lots of veggies added and Deli Rye Rolls.

[chocomouse]

My very favorite roasted veggie pan includes: sweet potato, white potato, winter squash (any kind), carrots, parsnips, onions (and I may be missing something; turnip anyone? not at my house!). They are all cut into about the same size pieces, about 1/2" to 1", and in about equal proportions. Some veggies may be a bit softer than others, but not much, hardly noticeable. I just drizzle with olive oil and toss with sea salt. I generally don't use any seasonings, perhaps a fresh rosemary or thyme sprig, preferring to let the flavor of each vegetable shine. I have frozen the leftovers and reheated briefly in a hot oven - not as good as fresh, but quick and easy.

[chocomouse]

Thank you for letting us know Jan, and I am so sorry. I'm hoping she will be able to return to our kitchen soon.

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