[Italiancook]

I have a Mennonite recipe for excellent Butterhorn rolls that would benefit from scaling. I had bought an inexpensive scale for that recipe. When it arrived, I didn't want to dirty a bowl with the dough for weighing, and the scale was too small to hold a blob of dough. I gave the scale to a neighbor for his shop. I spent $72 on the pull-out display from KABC. It's now much less expensive (grumble grumble). The scale would hold a blob of Butterhorn dough for dividing, but I haven't made it around to the recipe yet.

KABC has an excellent blog about how-to use a scale.

[Italiancook]

Len, I don't bake pies, so I let Pi Day go by. I never thought of making a pizza pi, which is strange. When my dad wanted pizza, he'd say, "I'm going to roll down the hill and get a pizza pie." The hill was the downward sloping street.

[Italiancook]

I made the allrecipes.com Irresistible Irish Soda Bread. It sits overnight, so it's my nod to St. Patrick's Day. Half will be egg salad lunches tomorrow. I'll freeze the other half. It's a loaf pan bread, not a boule, which is how I'm used to seeing soda bread recipes. No currants in it. Comes together in 15 minutes, if canisters don't need to be refilled. I made it previously but gave it away. Recipients declared it very good.

Later, I baked KABC Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. I had made them previously, using butter. Today, I subbed all light olive oil. I used 6 tablespoons oil, but didn't add any water. They taste good but are a little dry. BakerAunt, how much water and oil would you have used? Recipe calls for 1/2 cup softened butter.

[Italiancook]

My favorite is the Concord Grape. It's been a while since we've been able to find it in the half-gallon-sized bottles. Sam's hasn't had it for most of the pandemic -- may have stopped carrying it. Grocery has the family-sized bottles. I don't like them, even though we buy them. They take up too much space in the refrigerator.

It's also hard to find milk in half-gallon bottles. I don't like it in gallons, either, but we buy it when necessary.

[Italiancook]

I just want Congress or my State to settle on something -- anything -- so the time doesn't change twice a year.

I have a question: I want to make a loaf of Soda Bread for the freezer. The recipe says not to cut until the next day. I've made this before, so I know that enhances the flavor. Since it's going into the freezer, should I freeze the day made or wait until the next day?

[Italiancook]

Yesterday, I made vegetable beef soup. This morning, I put 4 quarts of it into the freezer. For breakfast this morning, I made blueberry buttermilk pancakes.

[Italiancook]

Late lunch was carryout, leaving no room for dinner. Instead, I cooked 2 cube steaks to refrigerate. They'll be warmed up for lunch tomorrow with roasted brussel sprouts and mashed potatoes. I took a page from BakerAunt's book and saved the cube steak drippings to make gravy tomorrow.

[Italiancook]

I use the same olive oil my mother-in-law used: Felippo Berio. Food Network recently gave it a good rating. My mom-in-law never used EVOO, but that's what I buy. I also buy their light olive oil. Their EVOO has a fruity taste, so I use that in sweet muffins. For everything else, I use the light olive oil.

[Italiancook]

Congratulations, BakerAunt, on your great honor!

[Italiancook]

Don't you think that's a good sign for the mozzarella? As long as it's on their website, I think it means they anticipate having it back in stock sometime. The missing artichoke hearts may be a bad omen, though.

[Italiancook]

Today, I read that U.S. consumers haven't altered their buying habits in spite of inflation. I wonder whether the Ukraine situation will change that.

Mike, how is all this going to play out in the flour market? Do you think we'll only pay higher prices for our flour, or will the war in Ukraine cause flour shortages? My marginal utility for stockpiling flour has peaked and is quickly going downhill. I'm unsure I want to deal with shortages in flour and hope it doesn't come to that.

[Italiancook]

I also had a salad with mayonnaise. Unfortunately, I didn't have lettuce. Because of the pandemic, I've taken to buying veggies and fruit from Sam's, because it comes in closed containers. Fewer germs from customers and staff, I tell myself. Last time, I ordered Romaine, mini-cucumbers, and 3 lbs. grape tomatoes. I had no idea how many grape tomatoes would be in the 3 lbs. We'll be eating tomatoes in our sleep! The Romaine wasn't in the order, so I made cucumber and tomato salad with mayonnaise. I had planned on making ranch dressing, but without the Romaine, I didn't make it. Tomorrow, we'll have cucumber and tomato salad with olive oil and red wine vinegar.

[Italiancook]

I baked my grandmother's chocolate cake. I made it an oil cake. I substituted 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon light olive oil for 3/4 cup butter. I decided to wait until I saw the final batter before deciding to add some water to make up for the water in the butter. I'm glad I did. The oil batter was much more liquidy than with butter, so I didn't add water. The batter was so runny that I was worried it'd need more baking time. It did not.

The rise was the same as an all-butter cake. I couldn't discern any difference in the texture. It tasted the same as the butter cake. I'll never again make this cake with butter -- not even for guests. I didn't frost it. I had planned on doing that in the morning. But after dinner, the cake called to me to cut it to check the texture. When I saw that everything is AOK, I sliced and froze the entire cake. I wonder how much butter I'm eating that can successfully be subbed out with light olive oil.

[Italiancook]

This morning, I spent an hour, maybe longer, slicing and separating onions for caramelized onions for dinner. After I walked away, it occurred to me: I have a slicing disc for my food processor. I should have let it do the work. Live and learn.

For dinner, I cooked a sirloin steak to my dissatisfaction. I still haven't the knack for which number to use on my new electric stovetop. So I ended up with a steak that was crispy brown on both sides. I didn't like it, but my husband did. I baked potatoes and had mine with sour cream topped with caramelized onions.

[Italiancook]

I made Chickpea Soup. Plenty leftover for future meals.

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