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Here’s the photo of the sprouts

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Will has gotten industrious with salvaged wood from our attic. I got him the smaller HydroMars grow light for Christmas to see how it works. Attached, hopefully are a picture of our planter and the newly sprouted arugula on right and lettuce on left. We are trying to grow indoors rather than transplanting outside.

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Thanks Mike! I will have to share with Will

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I took the eggplant Parmesan out of the freezer and it’s in the oven. It’s our last batch from the garden last summer.

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I had half a head of cabbage left over from a recipe earlier in the week so I made Connemara broth from the Simon Pearce cookbook. It's a soup I really like and it's been cold here for Georgia - high 30's-low 50's. It was a nice dinner with the brown bread (see Baking thread).

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Yesterday, I made a loaf of Ballymaloe Brown Bread from Simon Pearce's cookbook. It was originally his mother's recipe that she took to Darina Allen. I hadn't made it in forever, but remembered having some trouble with it. It's a yeasted batter bread so it's very easy to make. Molasses, yeast, water, salt and whole meal flour. He recommends King Arthur Irish meal in place of the whole meal from Ireland.

You put the batter in the pans and allow to rise for 10-20 minutes until it reaches the top of the pan and be careful not to overproof. I was afraid of over proofing - it was chilly and it took longer to rise, maybe 35 minutes - but before it got all the way to the top edge, I decided to put it in the oven. it did shrink back a little, so I may have over proofed a little. But the texture and flavor are good.

I had in the back of my mind a conversation I had had with one of the KABC bakers about using the Irish Whole Meal in yeast breads. Because of its lack of gluten, they don't recommend it as a stand alone flour, but it is fine in soda breads. So, I decided to go online and do some troubleshooting. The Ballymaloe version uses some AP or Bread flour and then I found a David Lebovitz article making that version. The AP or Bread flour is even used with the whole meal from Ireland. So I am definitely going to try their version and it might explain why I've had problems with this recipe in the past. We still have half a loaf for tonight and another in the freezer so it might be a while until my next experiment. It would also help if I got some more Irish meal from King Arthur.

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There was a lot more compliance last week, but even though it's still bad, at least last night I was amazed at how many were mask-less in the supermarket.

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On Friday, I made a stir fried vegetable noodle dish from a favorite website. It was the blandest dish I have made in a long time. The noodles were good, the veggies too but I was surprised at the lack of flavor. Last night we added frozen crisp chicken tenders which came out surprisingly well and added lots of lime juice, chopped peanuts, soy and some hot sauce. Much better. We have so much left over, I had thought about freezing it, but I might just pick out the veggies and toss the noodles. Not even going to try it again.

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On Tuesday, I made some Korean style tacos from HBH which were fun, easy and good. I cooked the flank steak (short ribs were the other option, but too pricy) in a marinade in the crockpot, sliced thinly, then broiled to caramelize the sauce. The go withs were a cabbage slaw with cilantro, green onions, a little bit of pepper with lime juice, rice wine and soy sauce, a yum yum sauce and a slightly doctored salsa verde. I would definitely make them again. We had enough for leftovers last night.

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I wish we had a Whole Foods nearby - sigh. You would think that living on the coast, we would get lots of good seafood, but even the stores that have their own boats mostly have shrimp which I can no longer eat. There is not a huge variety here. I think that is one of the things I miss the most about living in Massachusetts. We were so close to New Bedford and not only did our local store have its own boats, but they are also on the docks everyday to see what is freshest.

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We sell it at the Market - it comes in twice a week from the Faroe Islands. It is the best salmon I have had, so I will splurge once in a while - it has gone up $8/pound in the last 4 months

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Will's making salmon with roasted potatoes and shredded zucchini. The salmon is a splurge as it has gotten so expensive!

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Joan, I am so sorry to hear you got COVID again! Aaargh on your behalf. I hope you get better quickly.

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Love it, BA!

My cloth masks were custom made so I have elastics around my head. They are 3 layers with a filter fabric (non-woven) as the middle layer. There is a seam, but the maker overlapped the seams inside. They also have nose clips. I would like to get some KN95s but I'm trying to make sure that it is an approved brand with head elastics. In the meantime, mine work as well if not better than other versions.

I was supposed to leave for Atlanta tomorrow for the Retail Market. Needless to say, I told my manager on Tuesday that I was not comfortable going - the hotel where I was going to stay had even reduced the availability of amenities more. Fortunately, she and our director backed me up and then it turned out that the Retail Director and Head Buyer had also cancelled. I have been setting up virtual meetings in lieu of the meetings I had scheduled and a couple of reps will come here to see me in February.

I forgot - one rep said it was going to be one giant Petri dish and she is recovering from a bout over the holidays.

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Happy New Year, Everyone!

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