[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.

[Italiancook]

I had no idea what osmotolerant means, so I used the process of eliminating what I thought was incorrect to arrive at the correct answer. Thanks for keeping us on our toes, Mike.

[Italiancook]

chocomouse, thanks for pointing me to the 2 KAF recipes. I use KAF recipes a lot, always with good success, but I never thought to search there for coffeecake recipes! I just printed the two you suggested, and one of them will be on our table next Sunday. I'll let you know how it turned out. I have a question:

The Blueberry Coffeecake with Lemon Streusel calls for candied lemon peel. I don't have any and am certain none of the stores around here sell it. Do you use this product or do you sub it out for something else?

I also don't have the lemon juice powder, but I see on the recipe I can sub the zest of 2 lemons.

[Italiancook]

I've started a tradition of having coffee cake for breakfast on Sundays. Tonight, I baked tomorrow's cake. Quick Coffee Cake from Allrecipes. I sampled it and don't like the topping. Too sandy. The cake is good, so I'll make this again sometime using one of Jenny Jones' (jennycancook.com) toppings.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, BakerAunt, for the info.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, BakerAunt, for the biscuit links. I learned something new -- to briefly put the mixed dry ingredients in the freezer to make them cold. I'm careful with keeping cold things cold when I make biscuits. I dice butter and measure milk and/or cheese and return to refrig while I work on the dry ingredients. I take them out individually, at the point the recipe calls for each one. It makes sense to me to chill the dry ingredients, and I'll try that. Won't be for a while as I don't often make biscuits.

[Italiancook]

Joan, thanks for explaining how you make carrot and raisin salad. I appreciate you telling us how you plump the raisins. I don't think I fully utilize my microwave. I came to that conclusion this week. Normally, when I make mashed potatoes for others, I heat the milk on the stove. This week, it dawned on me to put the milk in a measuring cup and heat in the microwave. This reduces the hard-to-remove milk stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Before breakfast today, I made chili from the Freezing and Canning Cookbook. I put enough for dinner in the refrig and froze the rest. Mike, what's in the freezer is for my Nebraska experiment. When I decide to thaw it, I'm going to make Jenny Jones' Cinnamon Rolls from Jennycancook.com. I don't think they have as much cinnamon as KAF Cinnabuns or as much glaze. I'll let you know how this experiment works for my taste buds after I try it.

As soon as I leave this site, I'm going to make Cauliflower & Pasta Soup for the freezer and a meal.

[Italiancook]

Joan, I love carrot and raisin salad. Hmmm, the thought just crossed my mind about whether I could freeze this. The recipe I uses calls for vinegar and oil, as I recall. So my guess is that this will freeze. I have some carrots to use up, so I may experiment. In a few months, when I thaw and try to eat it, I'll let you know how it worked. My guess is that the carrots will have lost their crispness.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

As I mentioned in the Cooking thread, I baked Garlic-Herb Butter Drop Biscuits this afternoon, from Allrecipes. It's suggested to brush them after baked with melted butter, parley flakes and garlic powder. I didn't do that. I don't like melted butter on top of biscuits and rolls once they come out of the oven. Plus, there's garlic powder in the dough, and I'm not a fan of garlic powder. In the dough, I reduced it from 1/3 teaspoon to 1/4 teaspoon. Overall, these are good biscuits, and I'm not a biscuit person. I'm glad I did the trial run with EZ Drop Biscuits so I knew which cookie scoop to use today and how full to fill it.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

A man who works for me and his wife have some health issues. I'm taking them an easy meal for dinner. Easy for me. I'm buying a quarter ham & their dessert. I made Paula Deen's Garden Pea Salad this morning for them. It's such a delicious recipe that I'm enclosing the link:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/garden-pea-salad-recipe-1914547
I always use the Lesueur brand peas Paula suggests. They're pricey, but the end result is worth the money.
When Paula made these on her show, she used a serving/soup tablespoon to measure out the mayonnaise, not a measuring spoon, and that always works for me. Finally, I highly recommend using the diced pimentos, which she says are optional. They add pleasant color, and I only use enough to give some red color throughout. Otherwise, the pimento is too strong a taste and detracts from the peas, in my opinion.

Recipe says it takes 5 minutes. Surely that's after ingredients are prepped. Still, it comes together quickly.

This afternoon, I'm going to make Garlic-Herb Butter Drop Biscuits from Allrecipes, for their meal. The reason I made drop biscuits for the first time a few days ago was to test whether I wanted to make drop biscuits for their meal. I still think dinner rolls are better, but I just don't want to spend 2 or 3 hours making good rolls. I'm also giving them mashed potatoes.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Mike, does the 2400 recipes include the ones in the threads? You've got a big job to pull the recipes from the threads. In the long thread I read from beginning to end, there were 3 recipes. I appreciate all your efforts for this site!

[Italiancook]

I third it.

[Italiancook]

A few months ago, I made Double Chocolate Brownies to send back to the office with one of my repairmen. Soon I heard from him and one of his co-workers that I could send brownies to them anytime -- soon, preferably. At 5:30 this morning, I was making these brownies. Since the repair technician prefers them warm, I drove them in the baking dish to his office soon after they came out of the oven.

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