[Italiancook]

I chose the number that my refrigerator came with, and it is wrong. As far as I know, there's no way to adjust the temperature. At least we've never become sick.

[Italiancook]

Follow-up on Trisha Yearwood's Lemon Orzo Soup. Her recipe doesn't specify to use cooked chicken, and I don't recall her stating cooked chicken on the show when she made this. So I used raw chicken cut into 1/4" dice (butcher cut it). I ended up with scum in the soup, such as one would have when making chicken broth with fresh chicken. Only worse. So much it was impossible to skim it all off.

I just discovered Food Network Kitchen also has a recipe for this type of soup. They specify cooked chicken. And that's my advice if you want to make this soup.

[Italiancook]

For dinner, I'm gong to make Trisha Yearwood's (Food Network) Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup. I'm leaving out the lemon juice and probably adding a dried herb or two to compensate.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Speaking of the Fourth, I want to ask a question. I went to the grocery store around 11:30 A.M. today (Sunday). At the front of the store, an employee was putting party-sized packages of cookies and cupcakes on display. The cupcakes were decorated for the 4th. Do people wait until Saturday or Sunday to celebrate the 4th with parties? I couldn't imagine this when I looked at the display. Everyone I know has their party on the 4th, even if it's during the work week. Of course, there are people who have to work on Independence Day, so now that I think about it, I guess they'd be the weekend celebrators.

[Italiancook]

I baked several chicken thighs using my mom's method -- sprinkle skins with seasoned salt & bake at 350 degrees for one hour. When they were slightly cool, I removed the skins & picked the meat, put it in serving size portions. Then I put those portions in sandwich bags & into a plastic container. A slight heating in the microwave on a plate (without the bag) will be the protein for some meals this week.

I also made Paula Deen's Garden Pea Salad, but I'm going to toss it out. There was a foreign object in the peas, but for reasons I cannot imagine, I went ahead with the recipe. I'll make carrot salad today to replace it.

Last night, I made banana pancakes using one banana that was ready to go south.That was dinner & dinner tonight with the leftover batter. I'm going to make braised, breaded pork chops for lunch today.

[Italiancook]

I'm surprised, but I knew this. Maybe it was something you've posted about working with chocolate, Mike.

[Italiancook]

I knew this only because a Food Network chef mentioned the event when either making ice cream or waffle cones.

[Italiancook]

I just baked KAF Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. I used 2 cups of brown sugar (Splenda) and deleted the additional 2 tablespoons. I used 1 cup Ghiradelli Caramel chips with nuts and chocolate chips. I made this once before and forgot to put any notes on the recipe. I don't really recall whether I like these, but since I've been craving chocolate lately, I thought I'd retry it and make sure I put on notes this time. It'll be awhile before we can cut into them. Recipe says to cool "overnight."

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I hope you and your sister have a wonderful time together, Joan. We'll look forward to hearing from you when you can post.

[Italiancook]

As I was making notes on the recipe just now, I occurred to me that maybe I dimpled the dough too much. The recipe says to poke it "all over," and I did that. There were small areas of dough around the poke holes, but I did pretty much poke it all over. My baked bread had more indentations that it looks like in the KAF picture. How much do you poke it, BakerAunt & skeptic7?

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, thanks so much for all your focaccia experience. By the light of day, I feel less discouraged and frustrated than I did posting yesterday. Plus, I ate focaccia with an Italian soup last night, and really enjoyed the bread. It's a good broth-dunking bread. I think your tip about using wet hands on the dough would prevent the problem I had with oiled hands, adding to the olive oil pools.

I appreciate the information on what speed you use for the dough. I can't recall what I used, but I've made a note on the recipe what you used. I did it only for the 60 seconds the recipe called for.

skeptic7, thanks for the link to the roller. I have it on my list for the next time I use Amazon. I think the roller would have helped me yesterday. When I cut the focaccia, I noticed that some of it was thicker and some thinner. The roller would help me attain evenness.

I have decided to give the recipe another try. BTW, I used 3/4 tsp. marjoram as the topping herb. Gave the bread a good taste. I think this would be an interesting bread to give to others with soup or Ina Garten's Five Cheese Penne.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Follow-up 2 Blitz Bread: No Fuss Focaccia. It's baked. It is much thinner than it looks in the recipe picture. I throw in the towel on foccacia. I'll stick with Parkerhouse & Butterhorn Rolls.

[Italiancook]

I don't think I have the skill to make focaccia. A couple of decades ago, I tried it with a recipe from a PBS show. It was a disaster. Every time I tried to stretch the dough on the cookie sheet, the dough sprung back. I couldn't get it into the desired rectangle. Finally, I baked it misshapen. It turned out very thin, and we didn't know what to do with it. The finished product didn't seem right for sandwiches, and it didn't occur to us to just eat it like bread with soup.

Fast forward to now. I made the dough for KAF Blitz Bread Focaccia. Easy as pie. Because the dough was so sticky, I put olive oil on my fingers to get it all into the 9"x13" baking dish. It didn't fit the rectangle, so I tried to stretch it to fit, and it kept pulling back on one end and at places on the sides. I had a hole in the middle I couldn't patch. Each time I tried to stretch the dough, olive oil swam to the top of the dough. In some places, the olive oil is pooled. I have no idea if this dough is going to rise to the occasion and fill in, but I imagine the baked product is going to have places that are oily from too much olive oil.

After two attempts, years apart, with different recipes, I have to believe I have no talent for focaccia. I find it amusing that someone who calls herself Italiancook can't make focaccia!

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, I grew up on an orchard in the north. Our peaches seldom survived the late frosts. During the few, glorious summers we had peaches, my sister and I would eat most of them straight from the trees, taking home only enough for Mom to slice and serve for dinner. We only had a few trees, because parents knew it was an iffy crop because of the weather. Some of our trees were freestone and some were clingstone.

As far as I know, the only way to tell the difference is to cut the peach open along the "crease." If the pit pulls easily out of the half, it's a freestone. Also, if it's a freestone, it's easy to pull the fruit into halves after cut. Clingstones make it difficult to cut the peach into halves, or to do so neatly. The pit clings to the peach.

I have no idea why the adults purchased clingstone trees. Even Mom had a hard time slicing them. The planting of peach trees was an experiment. Maybe including clingstones was part of the research.

[Italiancook]

chocomouse, I've added lemon powder to my KAF wish list. I checked out the ingredient list on their website & will buy it with a future order. Thanks for sharing your experience with it. I've used lemon oil but don't have any in stock now.

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