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In honor of World Chocolate Day, I baked Chocolate Eclipse (pudding cake) - it's the first thing I've baked in my new kitchen and it felt great- I love my kitchen!

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Will made a delicious meatloaf on Saturday which we ate for two days and then sandwiches for two more with his sourdough bread - we hadn't had any since February. We had assorted vegetables from the farmer's market including sweet corn which I haven't had since we moved here - I was spoiled by access to really good corn, so I avoid fresh corn at the supermarket.

Tonight, I baked salmon which we had with tomatoes (farmers market), mozzarella, olive oil, balsamic and a mix of fresh oregano and thyme from our garden - we don't have fresh basil which is why I didn't call it a Caprese.

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Joan, what a lovely tribute! My deepest sympathies for you, your son and family. This is such a bittersweet time and I send you lots of hugs.

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No baking yet, but Will found my long baker so I hope to try the semolina bread that BakerAunt if I can find the recipe. Will pulled the starter out of the fridge -it was last fed on January 15th! But just coming to room temp it's already active - he did pour off some of the liquid and will probably add in some rye flour to kickstart it. When I made the starter 3 years ago, I started it with rye flour.

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Happy Father's Day, Mike and to all the other fathers out there.

I got lucky in the "day off lottery" this week - I ended up with a 3 day weekend, getting a coveted Saturday off. So Will and I went to the farmers market on the mainland. We had delicious corn and freshly dug potatoes and cherry tomatoes last night. Tonight we're having leftover potatoes, sautéed zucchini and yellow squash, and I'm going to air fry some eggplant fries. It's nice to have the kitchen done. And just about everything else. We can't wait for them to come do the cleaning ~ we're tired of sweeping and vacuuming construction dust.

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Happy Birthday, Cass! I hope someone brought you cheesecake🥳

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I baked a nice piece of salmon that I had on a salad.

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I'm going to have leftovers of the Peanut noodles I made on Friday. It was a recipe from Simply Recipes as I liked all the chopped veggies in it- red pepper, shredded carrots, mango slices (which is a really nice addition, green onions and cilantro. The recipe also called for romaine and red cabbage, but I bought a package of broccoli/cabbage slaw to use instead. The peanut sauce was disappointing - thin and too sweet - I knew I shouldn't have added all the brown sugar the recipe called for. I have a couple of other peanut sauces that I like better that I would use with these veggies I also used brown rice Pad Thai Noodles from Lotus brand that I use a lot.

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Wishing you both strength and peace on this journey, Joan.

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We always used dishes of beer to attract the slugs, so bread dough makes sense.

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Loved the squirrel video, Mike. I sent it to Will. He bought some cherry tomato plants at the garden center. They are growing well - it will interesting to see if they actually bear fruit.

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Thanks Mike. Turns out I don't have to get a new one yet (mine's only 2 years old). My contractor has it at his shop.

Chocomouse got me thinking about broccoli and Alfredo so I made a version for dinner with penne, broccoli and chicken sausage. I tried a different recipe for my sauce - it was OK, but I don't think I'll use it again.

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Not sure yet. We are currently deciding based on how few dishes and how little cleanup we can get away with. Will be glad to have the kitchen sink and dishwasher available.

I think I have to buy a new disposal tomorrow as ours has seem to have disappeared. If that's the only thing we are in good shape. We don't need a huge or really powerful one, but would like it to be quiet-er. Any recommendations?

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Yum, chocomouse

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BakerAunt,
Thank you for that information. I will definitely look it up. I discovered today that I have three unopened bags of Semolina flour! Two BRM and one KABC, so I will need to start baking again.

I haven't been posting as the project has taken way longer (surprise, surprise) than we thought, but the end is in site. After I got back from Massachusetts, I ended up spending a month at my friends' house who couldn't have been more wonderful. I told the contractor I had to have at least one bathroom before May 1st as Will was returning. It's been a bumpy month but all the kitchen cabinets were installed last week and the counter top was templated. It's going to be so great when it's finished. It's been long but really worth it. I was able to put some stuff away in the upper cabinets - I know it will take a while to organize, but at least it's started.

I baked my first thing in a month (I had made carrot cake scones from KABC for Easter at my friends' house) yesterday for a community gathering - Chewy Chocolate Chip Bars from KABC which I scaled to the crowd sized recipe. It worked really well as we don't have the countertops (using the folding table with the legs still folded on top of the peninsula for the counter) so no small appliances yet. I melted the butter in a large enough pan so I could mix everything in that pan to reduce dirty dishes. I reduced the amount of cooking time - I started at 15 minutes and tested every few minutes - they were done in 26 minutes and were perfect. I used semisweet and white chocolate bit and some salted cashews I had on hand. They were a hit.

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