[Italiancook]

RiversideLen, you basket weave bread is stunning! So glad you tried it and shared photos with us.

[Italiancook]

I feel your salt-reduction pain, Mike. I hope there don't turn out to be many foods you have to give up completely.

For lunch, I roasted a chicken and served it with rice and gravy. I put the chicken in the pan breast side down. Nancy Fuller of Farmhouse Rules (Food Network) claims that keeps the breast moist. I can't verify that, because I ate a leg and thigh. I'm planning on making chicken salad with the breasts, so I'll never know for certain. If it's cooked with the breast down, the top of the chicken isn't fit to take to the table whole. The skin stuck to the pan, so the breast meat was exposed when on the plate. The bottom of the roast was beautifully brown, though.

[Italiancook]

I cooked lamb loin chops last evening. I guess all this talk about salt is affecting me. After eating one, with no-salt raw veggies, I thought there was a lot of salt in the meat. I didn't put salt on them. I don't think they were injected with a sodium solution, but there was definitely something prolonging in them.

I have a large pot of tomato sauce on the stovetop. It'll cook for 4 hours. Most of it is for the freezer. I want to use some of it for pizza sauce, which leads me to a question:

Is pizza sauce supposed to be thicker than tomato sauce for pasta?

[Italiancook]

I had never made cinnamon rolls, so when I wanted to try them, I used Fleischmann's Beginner Cinnamon Rolls. The recipe didn't say to deflate the dough after the first rise, and for me, that didn't work. The dough was too poofy when rolling, and the cut rolls were quite high when the second rise started. The end result is that the middles of the rolls separated during the rise and more during the baking. They taste good, and I'm glad I had an easy recipe to try my hand at cinnamon rolls. The recipe called for 2 packs of rapid rise yeast, and I think that much yeast may have been part of my problem. I will try KAF Soft Cinnamon Rolls next time.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Mike, thanks for posting the can size chart. This will come in handy for me. I have a cookbook that lists all cans by the can number. Now I can figure out whether my guesses on the volume are correct.

[Italiancook]

I baked KAF Easy Cinnamon Bread. I have a supply of the cinnamon chips, so I was in luck with the recipe given someone posted they non longer sell them. My sister made this recipe last year (as I recall), and she used Hershey's cinnamon chips. She bought them online from Walmart, but I think they sell them in my local store. She made the mistake of ordering them during the summer, and they melted. The store refunded her money.

[Italiancook]

Am I the only one who covers bread/roll dough with a damp towel. My dad always did that, using a kitchen towel. I do it using a flour sack towel, because it doesn't have fibers that might stick to the dough. I tried Saran Wrap once and had a terrible time stopping the Wrap from sticking to itself. I have xenon under cabinet lights, and they burn hot, so I use them as my proofing box if the house is quite cold.

I always write notes on recipes I've tried but find I don't take the time to read them before starting. I've lived to regret that more than once. I also write each family member's reaction to the recipe the first time I try it and the year. I've found that what a person doesn't like one year might fly a few years later.

[Italiancook]

Blanche, Welcome!

I use SAF (I think) instant yeast sold by KAF. I keep it in a plastic container in the freezer. Blanche, I wonder if the yeast you're using is perfect for KAF recipes. The reason is because of a recent call I had with KAF Baker's Hotline. I needed to know how to convert some type of packaged yeast to the instant yeast for a recipe not from their website. It was not an exact conversion. You may want to call their Baker's Hotline (Phone: 1-855-371-2253) and ask them whether the type of yeast you use equally converts to their recipes calling for instant yeast.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, thanks for the yeast/salt info. I think you're right that recipes are written for rising speed. We live in a fast food society. Thanks, also, for the Penzey's seasoning mixes. I'm going to buy all 3. Plus, I'm going to buy them for a relative who has a health condition that precludes all salt. She complained before Christmas about the lack of taste in no-salt cooking.

Mike, I didn't know nutmeg was used as a preservative. I knew it was a hallucinogic, but the preservation is interesting. I've also never put nutmeg on meat. I use it in butternut squash some Italian dishes. Nutmeg is good in ricotta cheese-based foods.

[Italiancook]

Your star looks gorgeous, cwcdesign. Thanks for persevering to post the picture. I wonder: When you bite into the bread, is it hard or soft?

[Italiancook]

I made Chicken Fried Rice for the freezer this morning, with one lunch held in the fridge. In a few minutes I'm going to make The Neely's (Food Network) Broccoli Soup for the freezer and dinner.

[Italiancook]

Mike, as you experiment with herbs and spices in place of salt, please post what and how much your substitutions are. I need to limit salt, but don't know enough about herbs and spices to know which substitutions to make to replace some or all of the salt. With most savory recipes, I reduce salt by half. I'm afraid to do that with dinner rolls and breads. I don't know if salt is critical for yeast to work. I think most of the breads and rolls I make are too salty for my health, but if you don't have salt, there's little flavor to breads. But my main issue is that I don't know if yeast depends on salt to do its work.

[Italiancook]

So sorry to hear about your heart, Mike. Glad no stent or bypass required. Will you be okay on a restricted diet reading about good food you can't eat?

Exercise is a good thing. Once you get into a routine, you'll enjoy the regimen.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, thanks for this tip. I took advantage of it. I'm curious: How did you know about it. Before I read your post, I had checked the KAF website looking for a shipping special and didn't see it at the top of their home page. At any rate, I appreciate you letting us know.

[Italiancook]

This morning I made cinnamon pancakes substituting cream of tartar and baking soda for baking powder. I felt like a chemist measuring out the substitutions! Yes, the tartar/soda combo work good as a leavening. Even the last batch of pancakes rose satisfactorily. Normally, I make one skillet of pancakes & put the remainder of the batter into the refrig for another day. I don't think I could do this with tartar/soda. The batter developed bubbles while I was waiting for pancakes to cook. I think that if I refrigerated the batter, the soda would have lost it's potency overnight. I didn't want to experiment to find out for fear of losing the batter. It's just a guess.

Now that I know this works, I'm going to order cream of tartar in bulk. Thanks, again,, for the online tip, Mike.

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