[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, 3 months 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.

[Italiancook]

Joan, I was in a hurry when I posted my thanks to you. I'm definitely going to try your recipe. Pineapple Upside Down cake is my favorite non-chocolate cake. I don't own a cast iron skillet, so I'll have to figure out which of my skillets will be best.

Cass, so good to hear from you. Glad you're following what we're all up to in the baking/cooking arena. I appreciate your input on the Pineapple Upside Down Cake flop I had. I won't be trying honey, because I can't buy honey around here that I like. The only honey I can find at my store is clover honey, and I don't like the taste of it. I know there is honey of different flavors, I just haven't found them. Adding butter to the brown sugar makes a lot of sense. I'll remember that. Thanks.

[Italiancook]

It's highly unlikely I can answer your question, Mike, but I'm wondering: Was the top rounded like a traditional éclair, or was it flatter? I don't like eclairs, but my grandmother used to make them.

[Italiancook]

Oh, BakerAunt, so sorry to hear about your baking mishap. I hope it didn't take you too long to clean the oven. Also sorry to hear that you couldn't give away one of the pans. It's frustrating to have a recipe go berserk like that.

[Italiancook]

Joan, thanks for the Pineapple Upside Down cake recipe.

RiversideLen, your handiwork looks delicious and pretty.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, now that I've thought about your post, I think you're right about the brown sugar. I learned how to make Pineapple Upside Down Cake from a friend. She told me to put brown sugar on the bottom, then the pineapple slices and cherries, followed by a yellow cake mix batter. I used a scratch yellow cake batter. Perhaps that's different than the cake mix. But I think part of the problem was that I didn't dry the pineapple and cherries. Nevertheless, I am going to check online recipes before I try this again.

Even though the cake is soggy, my husband has eaten a large portion of it.

[Italiancook]

I didn't know these patients face the risk of losing these senses.

[Italiancook]

I attempted to bake a Pineapple Upside Down Cake using homemade yellow cake. I know the cake is fully cooked, but parts of it are soggy. I think I should have dried the pineapple and cherries before putting them in the pan. Nevertheless, the cake tastes good. I also think I put too much brown sugar in the bottom of the pan. Before I make this again, I'm going to read a couple of online recipes for this cake. I'm not positive brown sugar is used on the bottom.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, I think you made a good decision changing the title of this discussion. I cook, but don't think anything I cook is interesting. Mostly, they're tried and true recipes I've used for decades.

I started this week by making enough beef liver and mashed potatoes to last a few days. I served it with canned green beans. I didn't want to tackle the pre-Christmas traffic to go to the store that sells fresh green beans. I have mixed feeling about eating liver. I enjoy it but worry about eating contaminants processed in that organ.

This year, the Chicago Tribune had an online article that had a recipe for Colonel Sanders (KFC) secret spices. Later in the article there was a disclaimer that they might not actually be the secret ones. Nevertheless, I tried them with Oven Fried Chicken. I had to leave out the black pepper, because I can't eat that kind of pepper. The finished product didn't taste like KFC, but of course, it was oven fried not deep fried. At any rate, I'm not going to try these spices again. It was time-consuming to open, close and measure so many spices.

I ruined Twice Baked Potatoes by adding grated cheddar cheese to them. I don't recall what we ate with them.

Yesterday, I made a Pot Roast and gravy for Christmas dinner. I also made Stuffed Mushrooms. Both recipes came from "Cook Ahead Cookery."

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