[Italiancook]

Today, I baked Paula Deen's Brown Sugar Cookies for the first time. They're too crunchy to suit me, but hubby likes them. I used Splenda brown sugar instead of regular. Maybe they wouldn't have been so crisp with regular brown sugar.

I also made Yeast Dinner Muffins which were discussed earlier this week.

[Italiancook]

I hope you don't lose power during the ice storm, Mike.

This week, I made Italian Sausage Tomato Sauce. We ate it on rigatoni. I also made Chicken Cacciatore. The two lasted the week. When I leave this website, I'll make Pork Fried Rice for today and tomorrow.

[Italiancook]

Okay, luvpyrpom, I will try this. I'll even look online for the Cinna-Buns cream cheese icing recipe. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Italiancook]

Please let us know how the Softer Cinnamon Rolls turn out. I've been eyeing that recipe on their website. I wonder if they really stay soft longer.

[Italiancook]

Joan, when you thaw out the bananas and peel them, what color is the fruit? I freeze bananas out of the peel and they turn brown . . . I can't recall if they turn brown in the freezer or when thawed. So I'm curious what color the fruit itself becomes when frozen in the peel.

[Italiancook]

Now that you ask the question, Mike, I guess self-rising flour doesn't save a ton of time. But it saves the effort of pulling the baking power and salt out of the pantry, putting them away, and measuring them. All of a minute or two. But these days, I enjoy saving a minute or two.

Correction: I have a typo in my first post. It took 62 minutes from start to finish, including clean-up to make these.

It think these are called muffins instead of rolls, because they have 1/3 cup sugar and taste sweet. I've eaten 2 this afternoon. Next time, I'll reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.

[Italiancook]

I just baked a batch of the "Yeast Dinner Muffins" from the WSJ article. Thanks, Mike. I used KAF self-rising flour -- my first time with it. I am quite pleased with the recipe and the flour. There is no metallic taste to the finished product as I've experienced with other self-rising flours. Thanks to all who were involved in this discussion about the metallic taste.

I highly recommend this recipe. Because it uses self-rising flour, the dough comes together quickly. The recipe says to pour the batter into the muffin cups, but it's really not pourable. I used an ice cream scoop for portioning the dough. From start to finish, including greasing the muffin cups and clean-up, it took 72 minutes. It would have taken less if I had let the melted butter come to room temp while I greased the pan. I made the mistake of greasing the pans then melting the butter.

I have a question: Does greasing pans with butter make the outside of the product more tender than Crisco?

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Aaron, what a genius idea to use baking soda instead of sugar in tomato sauce! I've never thought of that. Occasionally, I thought a specific tomato sauce could use some sugar, but I never added it. I have a child who can't eat sugar. But baking soda -- no problem. Thanks for the tip.

[Italiancook]

cwc, if you have time, would you please post when you receive your new blade. You were told 2 weeks; I was told 3-4 weeks. I'm antsy to receive mine. I have the attachments, so I was able to grate Parmesan today using the Cuisinart. And I can slice veggies with other attachments. Nevertheless, I mostly use the blade and miss it.

[Italiancook]

Sorry to hear you have illness in your household, Mike. I hope you both recover quickly and completely.

RiversideLen, I have never before heard of a "strip roast." Is it related to a strip steak?

I wanted a restful week again, so I made a cheese ball for lunches with crackers. I planned on trying a new potato salad recipe. I skimmed the recipe, decided I had all the ingredients and put the potatoes and eggs to boil. When they were ready, I read the recipe and discovered I had overlooked that it has sugar in it. I wasn't interested in the recipe anymore and threw it away. Fortunately, I had sour cream, so I made potato salad with sour cream, mayo, celery seeds, onion, and a touch of yellow mustard. That lasted a while.

I used a KAF spice blend for Kelsey Nixon's (Cooking Channel) Slow Cooker Irish Oatmeal. It's called Yuletide Cheer Spice. It tasted good, but I missed cinnamon, which is not in this blend. When I make it again, I'll add a smidgen of cinnamon. Not a lot, just a little. I don't want the cinnamon to drown out the other flavors.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, glad to read that you have started off the New Year by keeping your resolution!

I had said I wouldn't start my resolution until next week, but a curiosity led me to start this week. I started wondering what Paula Deen's website looks like. She has recipes. I was pleased to find several non-chocolate cookie recipes. (I can no longer consume as much chocolate as I used to enjoy.) I made her "Magical Peanut Butter Cookies."

They are interesting in that they are flourless. In her video, she used all Splenda for the sweetener, so I did too. They batter pulled together quickly. The taste of the Splenda was greater than I liked. Normally, I use half Splenda and half granulated sugar. If I make these again, I will do that. This is an eating cookie, not a dunker. I guess it's because they don't have flour that they fall apart easily. On the up side, there are fewer calories with the Splenda and I guess without flour. So, yes, I considered that they worked into my New Year diet.

[Italiancook]

I don't have a wood stove, but your post brings back happy childhood memories. My dad, beloved stepmother & I would visit stepmom's relatives in the back woods. Or, at least they seemed like back woods to me at the time, because the woman of the house cooked on a wood stove.

I'd sit at the kitchen table watching the woman cook on the stove. Occasionally, I'd have the fun of seeing her put wood in the stove. The kitchen was always burning hot. I felt uncomfortable from the heat, but I was fascinated by what she was doing and wouldn't leave.

She cooked scrumptious biscuits (no gravy), eggs and bacon on the stove. She cooked for a crowd. We ate breakfast in the dining room at a long table. In addition to my family, there were the parents and kids who lived in the house, and a few farmhands. Every bite the crowd ate came from that wood stove.

Thanks, BakerAunt, for making me think of this.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I had an excellent recipe for Vegetable Broth, but can't find it now. Sorry. It came from the Internet. It includes mushrooms. I've made veggie broth just using leftover vegetables without mushrooms. I can tell you the mushrooms add a depth of flavor to the broth that I couldn't achieve without them.

[Italiancook]

I was resting during this week. I didn't cook. We ate food from the freezer. So glad I spent the fall stocking the freezer. Oh, I made Blue Cheese Dip, but that hardly counts as cooking.

[Italiancook]

I didn't bake. I used this week between Christmas and New Year's to rest and do end-of-the-year chores.

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