[Italiancook]

This morning, I made Chop Suey for the freezer, although I kept 2 lunches worth out for the refrigerator. This evening, I made Oven-Fried Chicken & mashed potatoes. I made a lot of mashed, but I thought of artery health when it was time to add the salt and butter. This skimping ruined the mashed potatoes. I'm going to reprocess them tomorrow by adding salt and turning them into potato patties. Live and learn. If anyone wants the Oven-Fried Chicken recipe, I'm going to post it in the recipe section.

[Italiancook]

Len, your bread looks great and scrumptious. Congratulations!

[Italiancook]

Aaron, my granddaughter learns a lot of baking methods by watching YouTube. She's found quite a lot of advanced material there. They might have a video of what you want to learn.

[Italiancook]

I made a peach cobbler. Once, I saw a Food Network star -- don't recall which one -- make a peach cobbler using canned peaches. So I put 3 cans of sliced peaches in a square dish & made my usual cobbler topping. Turned out fine, but I prefer it with fresh peaches. I guess I'll try it sometime with frozen peaches.

[Italiancook]

Thanks for the tip about critters not eating cherry tomatoes, Bronx. I didn't know that. I'll make sure my husband buys a couple of those plants to test out our critters.

[Italiancook]

Today, the Cuisinart recall rep at the phone line told me the ship date for my new blade is June.

[Italiancook]

I have Florentine Potato Soup in the slow cooker. Nothing exciting here on the cooking front.

[Italiancook]

I understand your frustration, BakerAunt. And to have the mistake be in a double batch -- ow!

[Italiancook]

Bronx, please let us know at the end of the season if you were successful keeping critters away with dwarf plants & cages. It's impossible for me to have homegrown tomatoes. The deer, raccoons & squirrels have first dibs. Last year, my husband bought cages and set them up. We still had no tomatoes. So if you build a cage that keeps the critters out, or if the dwarf plants have some anti-repellent property, I'd like to know.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I decided timing the food in a convection oven was too much trouble. I couldn't predict when the food would be done, and I didn't want to stand by the oven testing the food. I only use the regular oven feature.

[Italiancook]

I made a pot of Hamburger-Vegetable Soup from Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.

[Italiancook]

RiversideLen, your sandwich buns look great!

[Italiancook]

Mike, before you buy induction, you may want to check the manufacturer's website for the model you want, and read online reviews about induction stovetops. You may recall that many weeks ago, I posted that I was considering induction. After reading your response, I picked out a specific model. My husband checked the manufacturer's website and discovered it was discontinued. I didn't want to buy something for which there might not be parts far down the road.

My husband also checked online reviews of induction in general. He said some people were reporting that using their induction appliance caused their circuit breakers to trip. I don't know how many reports of this he read, but Googling might bring you to these. Of course, manufacturers make improvements based on consumer experience, so by the time you want induction, this may not be an issue.

My husband also said his research indicated that the strength of the induction varied between burners.

[Italiancook]

I made saffron rice today using a variation of the recipe I found online but couldn't find now when I looked. It was for stovetop rice, and I used a rice cooker. Below is my recipe and results:

I used a scant 2 cups of basmati, and approximately 1/3 cup minced onion. I put a small pinch of saffron on a flat plate and crushed it into a powder with the back of a spoon. The recipe said to use a mortar and pestle, but I don't own one. I used chicken stock and added a larger pinch of saffron (whole) into the stock.

The finished product was the yellow I wanted, but it tasted like plain rice. In retrospect, I realize I was too stingy with the saffron pinches. Next time, I'll use more powdered and whole saffron. I realize I may never be able to replicate the taste of the packaged product I remember from a decade ago. They may have used something else in their mix. But I think that an adequate amount of saffron should add something to the flavor. Am I wrong?

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, I'm glad you folks arrived safely.

I baked my grandmother's recipe for Banana Nut Bread. I sliced and froze half of it. I experimented with the other half. I used it to make Banana Bread Biscotti. I used the recipe linked below from Food Network's "The Kitchen."

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/banana-bread-biscotti

I didn't make a chocolate one. Instead, a regular banana bread. As far as the biscotti, I think mine would have turned out better if I had wrapped the loaf and let it sit a day or two. Next time, I'm going to turn off the oven at the end of the baking time and let the bread stay in the oven an extra 5 minutes. The centers need to be crispier than they are. At least I can now say I have homemade biscotti in the freezer!

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