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Welcome back Joan - sounds like a wonderful trip!

I made Roasted Sausage, Peppers & Onions from the Barefoot Contessa Modern Comfort Food Book for dinner tonight. The flavors were really nice and it wasn't a heavy dish. She served it over polenta, but we had it over Italian red rice baked the way we cook our brown rice. This came from our new Italian food vendor for the store. The red rice is unrefined so it has a nice "chew" like farro can have some times. We are really enjoying it.

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Great minds think alike 😁

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Mine died - or should I say Will killed it off using it for smoothies🙄 I was too lazy to use the blender or the food processor, but I do like the texture from the crushed tomatoes- I always buy a better brand for this recipe but also pick which one is the better price at the time.

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Chocomouse - is it the Easy Tomato Soup with the orzo? I leave out the orzo and use 2 teaspoons Italian herbs in place of the saffron. I add 1 teaspoon of sugar to cut the acidity and use 2 teaspoons of salt instead 1 tablespoon. Also, be sure to use crushed tomatoes - we were out the last time I made it when I only had a can of whole tomatoes - even smashed with my hands, the soup wasn't as creamy. FWIW, I never tried it with the orzo, as we wanted a simple cream of tomato soup and that's what we got - so much better than Campbell's😁

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I made a batch of blueberry corn muffins from one of the Silver Palate cookbooks for dinner tonight. I used to make them all the time when the boys were young and hadn't made them in years. They would turn up their noses when I offered, and preferred the regular cornbread. Times change - Will thought that was a good idea for tonight.

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Last night I made chicken salad from the leftover chicken breasts that Will made for Thanksgiving.

Tonight will be chicken salad, Ina's tomato soup from the freezer and blueberry corn muffins.

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I made two Rum cakes today (one GF) for our garden club bake sale in two weeks. They are soaking up their rum overnight and I will freeze and then wrap them tomorrow. I followed Brown Eyed Baker's way of soaking them and it was much easier than KABC, but I still like their recipe. I had bought 2 pastry brushes from KABC this summer to fill out an order - they work better than any I've tried in a while.

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Tonight I had my sautéed apples, onions and sausage. I enjoyed it as it was not too heavy or sweet. I had looked at a couple of recipes, more for timing, several used brown sugar, but the one that appealed to me had thyme and no added sugar - the balance was just right

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I had plans to sauté apple and onions to go with sausage, but when it was closer to dinner time, I decided to make a turkey and cheddar sandwich on toast from today's bread. It was really good.

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That makes sense for rye breads, but, for example, Baker Aunt and sometimes other people wait a day to cut into other breads and baked goods.

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I made my second loaf of the semolina rye bread today.

I didn't have enough rye so I added in sprouted wheat as it has the same level of protein as the rye. Otherwise, I did not change the recipe. I greased the pan per Baker Aunt, except I used avocado oil and sprinkled semolina. The bread came out of the pan beautifully.

I have not cut it yet, but I was wondering why many of you wait until the next day to cut into your loaves.

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Mike, last night I just had the mushroom onion mixture and cheese over baby romaine lettuce because I didn't want to buy a loaf of rye. It was good, but missing something. Today I took the last piece of focaccia out of the freezer to try again - I cooked it in the panini press. Definitely made a difference and I would make the recipe again.

Tonight, I made Chinese dumpling soup which I hadn't made in a long time - I have dinner for the next two nights.

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Me too BA, except for the fact that I woke up at 4:30 this morning - I usually get up at 6 with my alarm, but not today - it's a long day.

Will has been doing most of the cooking but he left on Friday to visit his girlfriend for 10 days. Tonight I'm going to make the mixture for Mushroom Patty Melts that came in the Voraciously newsletter from the Washington Post. No meat but mushrooms and onions sautéed until caramelized and then melted Gruyère. Simple, but sounds just right.

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I made snickerdoodle bars from Sarah who used to be in the Baking Circle - she had a blog called The Cook's Life and wrote that hysterical piece on Mis en Place which I need to try to find. Everyone at work loves snickerdoodles so I made for tomorrow as we are setting up for Christmas - it's that time of year, even though we are later for retail businesses.

I learned something today - did you know there is a right way and a wrong way to "screw" your KitchenAid mixing bowl into your mixer? I could not figure out why my bowl was always wobbling but it turns out this lefty was turning the handle counterclockwise instead of clockwise. What a difference it made today - the bowl didn't wobble out of the base 🤣🤣🤣

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The measure for measure makes it much easier and the KAF GF Bread flour made a really good baguette. Even if it might less expensive, I wouldn't try making my own GF flour mix myself - too many variables. It gets more challenging because his girlfriend is also Dairy Free and nut free - almonds and macadamias seem to be OK for her. You may have noted the details in the recipe because it was written for someone who is very new to baking.

And, in our house, we love our cheese and bread 😁, but Will looks at it as a challenge rather than a chore.

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