[Italiancook]

As far as I know, we have no miceable holes, but the steel wool is an excellent idea, BakerAunt. Thanks for passing it along.

I'm laughing at myself: As I thought about what I posted, I remembered I had mice-proofed the house a few years ago. Or so I tell myself. My husband and I bought devices that plug into electrical outlets. The plug-ins supposedly emit a sound that only mice can hear, and the sounds sends them running back outside. Maybe they actually work and that's why I've never seen a mouse.

But I did see a frog attached to the bedroom wall once. I awoke one morning to find the critter on the wall behind the bed. I wasn't alarmed, having grown-up in the country, but I also had no intention of grabbing it.

I roused my husband from bed and told him he needed to catch the frog behind his head. He didn't believe me until he looked. The frog was probably the most scared of the three of us, but he/she was soon happily on the ground outside. We have no idea how the frog made it in the house and up the stairs without being noticed. I had someone check our house for openings and none were found. He surmised that it came in when the door was opening to bring groceries into the house.

[Italiancook]

Okay, I know I probably have mice given the close location to woods, but I quit chasing after them a decade ago. At that time, I realized the poison I put in the basement probably meant they'd die in the walls. I quit setting traps when a contractor said, "For every one you catch, there are ten that get away." I've never seen a mouse in the house, so I don't fret about uncleanliness in the kitchen from them. I have a cat who'd probably play footsie with a mouse rather than attack it. But all these posts on mice make me think I'm a negligent homeowner. I guess I'll send my husband on a trap-buying spree now that I know so much more about bait.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, Mike, for reporting what you found.

[Italiancook]

I also send my thanks. I tried to print the cookbook without success. Maybe it'll work tomorrow. I'm pleased that many of the recipes have short ingredient lists. I have to buy real brown sugar -- normally use brown sugar Splenda in all baking -- but I'm brining a turkey breast for Thanksgiving and need real brown sugar for the brine. I will make the Brown Sugar Cookies with the leftover brown sugar. Thanks for thinking of us, BakerAunt, with this link.

[Italiancook]

Aaron, offhand, do you know the brand of vanilla Costco carries. I just searched their website. I looked for "vanilla," "pure vanilla," "vanilla extract," "liquid vanilla," and "McCormick vanilla." I didn't find it under any of those terms.

[Italiancook]

Thanks for this information, Bev. I'm going to check it out.

[Italiancook]

Rascals, the cupcakes taste delicious. Nice texture. I can recommend them for the taste. My only concern was with the height of some of the cupcakes. Next time, I'll just make fewer than 24 to achieve the rise I prefer.

KAF has an excellent banana cupcake recipe online. It's "Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting." The taste and the height are just what I want.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, KIDPIZZA, for your stroganoff assistance. I've noted your suggestions so when I'm next in the mood for beef stroganoff, I can try your way. That may not be a year, though. Stroganoff has never been a craving of mine.

[Italiancook]

This morning, I baked cupcakes from KAF's "Chef Zeb's Hot Milk Cake." Iced them with ganache. It's reported that this recipe makes 24 cupcakes. It did, but I wasn't pleased with all of them. Most of them did not rise to the top of the cupcake liner. If I use this recipe again as cupcakes, I'll make only 20 or 18. I like cupcakes to at least reach the top of the liner.

One dozen of these was given away. After they were all frosted, I felt so tired that I decided I was going to quit baking to give-away. It's not just the work of baking, but also the effort of delivering. Later in the day when I handed the plateful of goodness to the recipient and watched the joy it gave to the family, I decided it was worth the effort to bake for others. Guess it's a good thing I learned that, since Christmas giving is just around the corner!

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I made a pot of Cauliflower Pasta Soup from "The Romagnolis Table."

[Italiancook]

I now know more about buckwheat that I ever knew. Thanks for the link, BakerAunt.

[Italiancook]

A couple of weeks ago, I searched the internet to find out how to substitute olive oil for butter. In the charts I found, they are not equal equivalents. Below is a link to the chart I decided to use as my reference.

http://www.amazingoliveoil.com/

In the fourth paragraph from top, there's a link for the conversion chart. It's light in color and not quickly visible.

I'm uncertain, but I think that the amounts that work for olive oil would also work for other types of liquid oil.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I didn't heed the first warning and stock-up on vanilla. I'm going to heed this one and hope it's not too late. BakerAunt, I want to try Penzey's vanilla, but I have a question. I glean from this site that Penzey's has 2 types of vanilla. Regular strength and double strength. Which do you buy? I wonder if the double strength is worth the money, although I think I read somewhere that people should use half the amount of vanilla the recipe calls for when using the double strength. I'm thinking, though, that what's the fun of having the double strength if you're basically using a regular strength dose of it.

[Italiancook]

I made Beef Stroganoff from "Cook-Ahead Cookery" for tomorrow's dinner. I'll probably serve it over rice instead of noodles. I have a question for those of you who make Beef Stroganoff.

This recipe says to cut sirloin steam into 1/4" strips, which I do. It also says to soften the onions and mushrooms, then add the beef strips and cook only until they're brown on both sides. Then the sauce is added to the beef mixture and served.

The consistent problem I've noticed with this is that the beef is tough to chew even though it's sirloin steak. Tonight, I was thinking that maybe the beef strips really need to cook much longer in order to be tender to the teeth. When you make Beef Stroganoff, how long do you cook the beef, and how do you do it? Thanks!

[Italiancook]

I sorta made pizza for the first time. I used puff pastry for the crust, as I had seen Ree Drummond do on Food Network. I used one sheet of the pastry, cut in half. I made one mushroom pizza, following Ree's instructions for the mushroom topping in her recipe, "Puff Pastry Pizza." Definitely will use this topping again.

I made a sausage pizza with the other half. I used the marinara from Valerie Bertonelli's recipe, "Deep-Dish Sausage Pizza." In that show, she made a Chicago-style deep dish pizza. It may be my imagination, but this marinara tastes a lot like Uno's. I'll definitely use it again.

I also made Asparagus Soup using The Neely's recipe from Food Network. This was a Food Network day.

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