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Happy New Year, Everyone!

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I cannot edit on my phone.

Thank you BA for your good wishes - it means a lot to me

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Thanks Mike - that’s excellent advice - I haven’t even started the process yet. But we have two local appliance stores which will help

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On Saturday night I mixed the dough for English Muffins which I made yesterday. Last winter I had splurged on the Baking Steel mini-griddle for making them (and other things). It has a "moat" to catch the oil. It was the first time I had made them since I broke my wrist and I had a little bit of a learning curve with the griddle. I do now own an IR thermometer so I can test the temp on the plate.

I had gotten the griddle to the recommended temperature and added the avocado oil which slid to the back, did my test and it burned so I kept turning the heat down. The oil started smoking and I checked the temp and it had gotten way too high, so I kept turning it down and finally got it set on low. I ended up cooking the muffins for 2 ½ minutes on each side (supposed to be 5) and then baked for an additional 5. They might be overdone in the middle, but better than raw.

So my stove is not level in the back (I got out the level). I will move the griddle to the front burner, which is also smaller, next time and will just start heating on medium low. The problem with flat top electric stoves is that they don't adjust heat quickly. I've decided that I will splurge on an induction stove as to get natural gas would be way to expensive - there is not a line in the complex.

Today I will be baking fudge brownies with caramel in the middle for our celebration of Michael's birthday tomorrow. He would have turned 70.

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Merry Christmas!

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

Toffee Brownie Crackle {Crispy Brownie Wafer Cookies}

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

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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."

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