[cwcdesign]

Our company reinstated the mask mandate for employees starting today. It hasn’t gotten here yet - I gather it’s bad in Atlanta - but because of the holidays we have a lot of out-of-Townes.

[cwcdesign]

I made a farro salad with chopped kale, scallions, pecans, craisins (that I soaked first), chopped apple and crumbled blue cheese with a maple syrup/apple cider vinaigrette - my best version yet.

[cwcdesign]

We’re still deciding - I’m thinking the savory cranberry and rosemary bread pudding from KAF, I saw a baked gruyere in puff pastry we might try, roasted olives and feta and we might do a tenderloin. I’m going to make penne with vodka sauce from Barefoot Contessa for Christmas Eve. Not sure what else we’ll be doing

[cwcdesign]

Here’s the pan of your dreams, Mike a big cast iron pan with two smaller handles. It really is a dream with a price tag to match. This is a company we sell in the store. The company is in Charleston, SC and the use traditional methods for polishing the cast iron for non-stick. These pans are beautiful, heavy and expensive, but the people who use them say they are incredible.
https://smithey.com/collections/castiron/products/no-14-dual-handle-skillet The 10” or 12” flat top griddles are nice griddles, too

[cwcdesign]

BA I meant to comment that another reason the buttermilk is a nice option is you can let the chicken sit in it for a while and it tenderizes as well.

[cwcdesign]

Happy Birthday to your wife, Mike. I hope she enjoyed her day.

[cwcdesign]

I made chicken tenders by combining the baked panko from BA’s oven fried fish and chips and a tender recipe that dredged the chicken in buttermilk first and then in the crumbs. I seasoned the crumbs with ranch herbs, salt and pepper. I spritzed the, with oil before baking. They worked better than the other recipes we’ve tried. I made baked brown rice, sautéed spinach and honey mustard to go with.

[cwcdesign]

Navlys, here is a recipe for brownie brittle that I have made A LOT. I even made batches for our garden club bake sale. It is super easy.
https://www.foodiewithfamily.com/toffee-brownie-crackle-crispy-crunchy-brownie-wafer-cookies/

[cwcdesign]

I’m making my version of the barefoot Contessa’s easy tomato soup. We’ll have grilled cheese with it.

[cwcdesign]

Just a quick one - Does baking powder have more rising power? (You have baking soda twice in the sentence - hah) I remembered that KABC had an article about cocoa powder and baking soda/baking powder. Here's what I found at the very end of the article

"If a recipe calls for natural cocoa and baking soda, and you want to use Dutch-process cocoa, substitute an equal amount of Dutch process cocoa but replace the soda with twice the amount of baking powder, leaving the remaining ingredients the same.

If a recipe calls for Dutch-process cocoa and baking powder, and you want to use natural cocoa, substitute an equal amount of natural cocoa but replace the baking powder with half the amount of baking soda, leaving the remaining ingredients the same."

[cwcdesign]

Food and Wine included a link to this article from a year ago in their email tonight. I thought you all might enjoy.

https://www.foodandwine.com/lifestyle/kitchen/resist-the-urge-to-use-this-oven-setting?did=710869-20211212&utm_campaign=faw-top10_newsletter&utm_source=foodandwine.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=121221&cid=710869&mid=74270006843&lctg=71497359

[cwcdesign]

I just tried a new biscotti recipe from KABC - the malted brownie biscotti. I thought the dough was way too wet, even though they said it would be sticky and that you should use up to a ¼ cup flour to heLp shape. Because of the stickiness I lost some of the dough from the total. I ended up wetting my hands for shaping like PJ always recommended. Next time I might chill the dough before shaping. Even though I put it in the freezer as directed for about 40 minutes, it still spread quite a bit.

However, I like the flavor and the texture, but I might add more malt next time. The recipe called for natural cocoa powder and baking soda, so I used the KAF triple blend which they say can be used in either dutch process or natural recipes. If I wanted to use Double Dutch instead would I use baking powder? Most of the other biscotti recipes call for baking powder and I wonder if that would help with the spreading. It might need a little espresso powder, too.

[cwcdesign]

We’re going to have turkey soup from the freezer and the rest of the blue cheese bites (see Baking 12/12) for dinner tonight

[cwcdesign]

I made a quick appetizer for a neighborhood open house last night - the invitation said “if you are not vaccinated, we will miss you” - that I found on a favorite website. It’s probably from the 60’s or 70’s and consisted of butter, refrigerator biscuits and blue cheese. Melt the butter in a glass pie pan, cut the biscuits in quarters, sprinkle on the blue cheese and bake. It was well received. I made a half batch for home.

[cwcdesign]

I made a Spicy Sesame Chicken and Ginger Rice from Half Baked Harvest last night. It is a new favorite.

I used rice flour instead of AP to coat the chicken which was a really good move. I lowered the temperature to bake from 475º to 425º and the chicken was perfect in the same amount of time. Next time I will double the sauce. In the comments, someone mentioned that they made the sauce ahead of time and put it in a jar in the fridge - this is a great idea for meal prep. The rice was nicely seasoned and worked well with the chicken. I will also cook more broccoli next time.

[Author]

Posts