[chocomouse]

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Boneless thighs marinated in a Greek type dressing, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and maple syrup (the only way my husband will eat them!), and a salad with lettuces from under the gro lights.

My grocery store had advertised large white eggs at 4.89 a dozen. I was excited that the price had come down. But that section of the egg cooler was EMPTY!! No eggs less than $6, and most were over $7. Now I wait 2 weeks for my next shopping trip, and hope the price is down around $4 and there are eggs to buy.

[chocomouse]

Tonight I sauteed kielbasa slices with peppers and onions, and stirred them into a tomato sauce with rice.

[chocomouse]

I have learned, in my maturity, ahem, and failing memory, and weakened focus to add one last step to my baking process. When I have everything mixed together, I run down the ingredient list of the recipe slowly and carefully, item by item, asking myself "Did I put that in there?". Several times I have found that nope, I started to get it out, but got waylaid! It's worth the extra time.

[chocomouse]

Not really "cooking", just "heating up"! Tomato soup for me, split pea soup with ham and veggies for my husband, and gougeres - all from the freezer.

[chocomouse]

Dinner tonight was haddock, fries, and cole slaw. I used the air fry mode on my Breville oven and it came out perfectly.

[chocomouse]

Large white eggs today are 5.29 at BJs, but still 5.59 at the local grocery. Their ad for next week says 5.09. I've given up thinking about how to save on food costs. I'm going to buy whatever I want to eat and enjoy it.

[chocomouse]

The brine does retain some dill flavor, but I've also used the juice from Gherkins when that's all I had. And since I had dill seed (not weed, I think the seed has a stronger flavor), mustard seed, onion, and caraway seed to the dough, that increases the flavor. I made a dill brine about a month ago, with no cucumbers, but I did add garlic. I let it "marinate" in the fridge several weeks, and it worked as well as the commercial dill pickle juice when I used it in rye bread.

Mike, when I used to make several kinds of pickles every summer, I used alum in all the recipes. I recall it is used to help keep the cucumbers crisp, but I'm not sure.

I have read, cannot cite where, in several places about using acids in breads. It supposedly helps with the rise. Since rye needs a lot of help, I suppose that may be why it is recommended for rye breads?

[chocomouse]

Thanks, BakerAunt. I was thinking next time I will par bake the crust, but perhaps for not as long as usual. I'll search for recommended times specifically for quiche.

[chocomouse]

We had a pot roast for dinner, with potatoes, onions, and carrots. There's plenty for several leftover meals.

[chocomouse]

We had a ham and cheddar quiche for dinner, with onions, peppers, and lots of thyme. It was delicious. I baked it to an internal temp of 175*, 45 minutes, but think it could have used another 5 minutes without becoming too dry. I also thought the pie crust was a little too "gummy" -- do any of you par-bake your crusts for quiche? The recipes I checked said not to do that.

[chocomouse]

Len, I must have misplaced your dinner invitation! OMG I can almost smell that now.

[chocomouse]

Today I made bread using the KAF classic white sandwich bread recipe. I changed it to use half whole wheat, and added a half cup of Harvest Grains plus 2 tablespoons of flax meal. I also increased the recipe to make two 700 gm loaves.

[chocomouse]

Thanks, BakerAunt. I'm still using my DLC 7 that I bought in 1980. It's been a work horse, helping to process much of the produce from my garden. I did have to replace one of the grater blades because it just wore out, became too dull to grate well. I always wash it by hand and have never let it sit in water; and I'll remember to keep doing that!

[chocomouse]

Still $5.59 here this morning.

[chocomouse]

I made cheddar gougeres to go with our pea soup for dinner. We haven't had them since last winter, and they are especially good tonight. I also made pineapple upside down mini-cakes, using a recipe from Lodge and their cast iron mini-cake pan. They are OK, but not great tasting. The presentation is amazing! The mini-cake wells are about 3/8" bigger than a slice of canned pineapple, so with a maraschino cherry in the middle, and flipped upside down, covered with the brown sugar topping/bottom, they look really nice. The flavor wasn't as good as I expected. Now, I'm thinking -- a brownie dough, on top of hot fudge sauce, with, what else? Orange? Cherries? Raspberry jam?

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