[Italiancook]

Congratulations on another loaf of high-rising sourdough, Joan. It sounds like your starter is doing you proud.

I've planned the baked steel cut oatmeal for tomorrow's breakfast. I'm going to start it tonight. I don't have blueberries, so I'll use a Gala apple -- the only kind I have on hand. Thanks for the recipe tip, cwcdesign!

[Italiancook]

Thanks, cwcdesign & Mike for the caramelized onions information. I'm going to try the crockpot next time, cwc, because I don't think I use my crockpot enough. Now that Mike has explained I don't need to break all the onion slices into half-rings, I won't think caramelized onions a a big chore.

[Italiancook]

Mike, did I make too much work for myself with my caramelized onions? You're right, removing the skins from the onions is time-consuming. But I found working with the onions to be the most time-consuming:

I cut each onion in half. Then, I separated the "rings" in each onion slice. Now, I wonder if I needed to do the separating. Do you? Or, do the half-rings separate themselves naturally during the cooking and stirring process?

I had searched FN, because I wanted to print and send the recipe to someone. I found their short recipe that uses sugar. In the one I follow, there's no sugar; it requires longer cooking time. Now, I think maybe I didn't find a recipe. Maybe it was an article from their magazine. Thanks for searching for it, though.

[Italiancook]

I made caramelized onions for the second time. I used a recipe I found the first time on Food Network's site. It is no longer there, and I can't understand why. It's a good, easy-to-remember process. But it does take a lot of onions to make a little finished product. I sliced 1-1/2 pounds onions and ended up with enough caramelized onions for two. I froze half and used half on top of an oven-baked potato with sour cream & canned salmon patties. I counted the onions as the vegetable.

It's a chore to slice the onions. I wonder if the slicing disc of the food processor could be used. I think I'd have to be careful how I placed the onions. Next time, I'm going to try it if I have time to experiment.

[Italiancook]

I'm glad you didn't have to begin a new starter, Joan. It's great that you weighed ingredients. I've never done that even though I have a scale. I really need to read the directions, because my butterhorn rolls would be more equal in size if I weighed the dough to cut it into thirds before rolling out.

cwcdesign, it's wonderful you and your son were able to bake together in spite of the distance.

[Italiancook]

Yes, I'm glad your healing is progressing, cwcdesign. I hope you're able to do all you want to in the kitchen in short order.

I'm teaching a niece how to bake bread via text. Her first loaf disappointed her. I think it was a combination of wrong type of yeast and accidentally having oven at wrong temperature. I've even made the latter mistake. Yesterday, she succeeded using KABC English Muffin Toasting Bread. They had it for breakfast this morning, and she's a hero! She used it to take a sandwich to her dad, and now he thinks she's a hero. And she is, because she tried again. Now, she wants to try dinner rolls and biscuits, so I'm going to e-mail recipes to her. I'm also going to have my husband make a phone video of me shaping a loaf of bread so she can try the first recipe again. I've given her information about this site.

[Italiancook]

Now I know Hawaiian rolls have pineapple in them. Thanks, Joan. You have a blest sister-in-law for how generously you share with her. Your Hawaiian Rolls made me thirsty for pineapple juice, so I'm enjoying a glass of it now.

[Italiancook]

This was the first time I'd heard of lebkuchen. I looked up the recipe on KABC, but it's not something I'd try. I don't like ginger. But it was fun learning about a new (to me) recipe.

[Italiancook]

I baked my grandmother's chocolate cake. It took more time than the mug cake, but I have many more servings. It really wasn't a lot more effort, but I did run into a problem opening a 10 pound bag of sugar. It poured out in clumps that I had to take the time to break up. I'll freeze most of the cake after it's frosted.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

My husband will soon have his second dose. I can hardly wait. Once he's immunized and 2 or 3 weeks have passed, I'm sending him to the market that sells fresh, seasonal produce. I'm really weary of eating frozen veggies, although the ones we buy are good. I think we missed artichoke season, but it will come around again, and I'm eager for artichokes. I'm also looking forward to fresh asparagus for Asparagus Soup.

[Italiancook]

I'm still daydreaming about roast beef sandwiches on KABC Sandwich Rye Bread. I don't have all the bread ingredients yet, but I'm working on it. So I called the butcher and asked if he sells a roast that'd make good sandwich meat. I don't want to use chuck roast. I ate more chuck roast sandwiches than I care to remember when I was a kid. My mother had an affinity for over-cooking chuck roasts, and she never gave up trying. She'd pass the burned meat to we kids as sandwiches. He offered sirloin tip or rump roast. I know the leftover texture of rump roast, having cooked them fairly often, but I'm unfamiliar with sirloin tip. Which do you think I should buy for a hot meal with leftovers for sandwiches -- sirloin tip or rump roast? If you vote for sirloin tip, can you tell me how to cook it?

[Italiancook]

Aaron, thanks so much for sharing about using the pasta machine for crackers. I'm going to pass that along to the person to whom I gave my KitchenAid pasta attachments.

[Italiancook]

For the first and last time, I baked a mug cake last night. I was hungry for chocolate, but it was too late to start a regular cake. I turned to Food Network for a mug cake recipe. Didn't have chocolate chips, so I couldn't make what I wanted. I chose Trisha Yearwood's Peanut Butter Mug Cake. The reason I'll never make another is that I still had to pull out the flour, sugar, peanut butter, baking powder, and the egg carton. And put them away! I should have just made my grandmother's chocolate cake while I had everything out regardless of the time. It's easier to make a regular cake & freeze it in portions. Plus, I had a fork (whisking), a bowl, a mug, and 2 small saucers to wash. When I bake, I put the egg(s) on a saucer to take the chill off while I do other tasks. And I use a saucer to hold my measuring cups and spoons to keep them off the counter.

[Italiancook]

I agree with you and Cathy.

[Italiancook]

I baked blackberry muffins. My addition to the recipe said to use 1 cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk. I measured out that amount at the beginning. When I was near the end, I happened to notice that the cookbook says to use 3/4 cup milk. Without thinking it through, I poured 1/4 cup of the buttermilk into the grease jar. Now that I've eaten one muffin, I realize I should have ignored the cookbook and stayed with my note, since I was using buttermilk! This is the kind of thing of which frustration is made!

[Author]

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