[Italiancook]

I didn't bake from scratch this week. My car died, and that sent me down a rabbit hole of activity. I baked cornbread using a Jiffy mix -- 2 actually, so the cornbread would be higher. I froze all the pieces. Some for the person who's shut-in that I take food to once a month. The rest for us. I don't like cornbread, so I've never baked it from scratch. I do, however, enjoy cornbread with white bean soup, and I have some of that in the freezer.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Cass, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. Thank you. And thanks, BakerAunt for posting his answers.

Cass, I'm really glad to have the baking soda question answered. Now, I won't be fretting when I put my cookie dough in the fridge before scooping and baking.

Yes, I understand what you intended for me and thank you for the explanation of butter vs peanut butter melting points.

Cass, I hope you enjoy your new home and the new people in your life for whom to cook and bake.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I had luck using Amazon to find a part for my Kitchenaid stand mixer when Kitchenaid didn't have the part. Kitchenaid gave me the part number and someone on Amazon had it. I eventually received the part from Kitchenaid.

[Italiancook]

Enjoyed your blog, Mike, because I can relate to kitchen mishaps. When I was growing up I heard a saying that approximately went, "Too many cooks spoil the stew." Your story made me think of that. Of course, in your case, the extra cooks may have saved the day, since you say the finalized Oyster Stew was, "more or less edible."

[Italiancook]

I'd be hesitant to purchase from a home-based bakery. I'd wonder whether there were dogs, cats, or other pets roaming around the house. I love pets, but I'd wonder about animal hairs and dander being in the food.

[Italiancook]

I made Navy Bean Soup for the freezer. I had purchased a previously cooked ham bone that had quite a bit of ham left on it. The soup turned out delicious, but the ham had seen better days, so I removed most of it from the soup. The flavor of it was gone.

Early in the week, we had spaghetti using Basic Tomato Sauce from "Papa Rossi's Secrets of Italian Cooking." This is my go-to sauce for a quick meal. It takes only an hour to cook.

Yesterday, I made Manicotti using "The Romagnoli's Table." I made 2-9" square dishes-full. I froze one, and we ate half of one. Looking forward to having it for lunch today.

I also make Kelsey Nixon's Slow Cooker Irish Oatmeal.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I baked KAF Pumpkin Cake for the first time. I didn't have golden raisins, so I used regular raisins, which I think are purple. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and the cake still tasted fine. I always use olive oil instead of vegetable oil when baking. Makes me think the calories in the cake are more healthful. I used the icing that goes with this recipe.

The recipes calls for making it in a half-sheet pan, but it includes the measurements for making it in a 9x13 pan. I used the half-sheet pan. As I frosted the cake, I thought there wasn't enough icing. It made such a thin layer that I could see the cake underneath. But when I ate the cake, I decided it had the right amount of icing. Anymore, and the frosting would have been too sugary for me.

Because I had such a large cake, I froze most of it in serving pieces.

I had opened a large can of pumpkin puree, so I had leftover. I used that to make a loaf of Pumpkin Bread. For the first time, I used KAF Winter Spice in it. I don't know how that turned out. My HVAC man came to work on the furnace thermostat. I gave him gasoline money and the loaf of bread.

There's more pumpkin puree left, so I'm going to tuck a banana in the freezer to use to make a Pumpkin Smoothie this week.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, thanks for the update on Cass, even though I didn't know him on the BC. I'm grateful to know he has a countertop oven. For his sake. For mine. I had never heard of countertop ovens. I had to check Google Images to see what they look like. Now I know to look at countertop space and ask whether I can have one of those ovens when I reach the age of going to a retirement home.

[Italiancook]

What is the purpose of an immersion circulation heater, Mike?

[Italiancook]

RiversideLen, thanks for the recipe link.

I make my grandmother's white frosting, which an Internet recipe calls "Baker's Icing." It requires making a white sauce with milk. Because the milk is cooked, I've never refrigerated the cake after it's frosted. But I've always wondered if that was safe. No one has become sick from eating the icing over a few days. Yet, I still wonder.

[Italiancook]

Not I. My knowledge of molecular gastronomy is so limited that I had to seek a definition on the Internet. What is your goal in exploring this, Mike? A new avenue of knowledge? Something else?

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, I can't tell you whether or not to continue posting on Zen's site as I was never a member of the BC. I just wonder if Zen is alright. Seems to me I read on this site that Zen was involved in a move, but that was some time ago. The move may be over. If you have e-mail for Zen, maybe you could ask her about the site and if everything is okay.

I've also been wondering about Wonky. I can't recall a post for a while. I found Wonky's posts about all her bread-baking to be inspirational. Of course, I'm inspired by all you bakers and cooks, too.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Your pie looks gorgeous, Mike!

I baked Banana Nut Bread. I used black walnuts and am very unhappy with their flavor. There is no flavor. I purchased them from the grocery store and won't ever again do that. I'm going to try a source that claims their black walnuts are 'freshly hulled." If that doesn't work, I'm giving up on black walnuts.

I'm thinking that part of the problem is that I put them in the freezer right from the store. I didn't know when I'd use them and didn't want them to become rancid. Nevertheless, they did not have the flavor of the black walnuts my grandmother used. Of course, hers really were fresh as my dad hammered the nuts open and picked them out himself. But still, for the price, I think there should have been some black walnut flavor.

I also baked a Lemon Crostata that was discussed in a previous thread.

[Italiancook]

A friend of the family organized my photos for me. While she was here, I made a small pot of what was supposed to be Vegetable Beef Soup. I had a pound of cut-up chuck roast in the freezer. I used that and divided my soup recipe into thirds, as I normally make it with 3 pounds of beef. I know I put in too much barley and one potato too many, but I may have also miscalculated the liquid. I ended up with stew not soup. But she enjoyed it and didn't know I had planned soup. I just told her it was Vegetable Beef Stew.

I made stovetop Rice Pudding for her dessert.

Another day, I made a double batch of Carrot Soup. This time, I remembered to pull out the bay leaves before I used the immersion blender on it. I ended up with 3 quarts for the freezer and enough for one meal.

[Italiancook]

To report on the KAF Italian-style flour:

My husband ate a piece of the Crostata before I did. "This is the best crust ever," he said. "What did you do different?"

Immediately, I had to try it. The flour made a huge difference. This Crostata has a flakier, more tender crust, yet it maintains the firmness I want. I'm going to try substituting the Italian-style flour for all my Italian pastries . . . not that I make many of those.

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