[Janiebakes]

I was at the Louisville Slugger museum and factory two weeks ago. Sign on the door said masks strongly encouraged. Only a very few were wearing them. I thought of my tiny granddaughters and how I did not want to bring Covid to them. That made it easy to wear my mask. Also got the booster shot two days ago. Pretty good hit of side effects from the hot red lump on my arm to chills/fever and nausea but again, grateful for the medicine. A high school friend and his wife are anti-vaxxers. He sailed through Covid, she spent 4 weeks in ICU was on ventilator enough to get a tracheotomy, needed a feeding tube. Six weeks in the hospital, 2 in a nursing facility, then back home to continue rehab for talking and walkin. I'll take that sore arm, thank you.

[Janiebakes]

I learned from jej to cook the apple pie filling before making a pie. It solves the problem of the apples collapsing and leaving a large open space under the crust. Skeptic, I follow the recipe in Betty Crocker for apple pie, then cook on the stove top until it boils. Let the apples, sugar and flour sit a bit to pull juice from the apples, use low heat and stir often. Cool completely before putting in the pie crust. Bake as usual. I make the Betty Crcker pie crust with butter not shortening and rest it in the fridge over night. Same with the filling. When ready to bake make two crusts and form a pie or roll one large circle of dough, place filling in center, pull crust up to cover most of the filling. Bake at 425 until crust is golden and filling is bubbling. For an extra treat, Brush the crust with beaten egg or milk and sprinkle with large crystal sugar before baking.

[Janiebakes]

My husband was wandering through Costco and came across an entire Spanish Ham, jamon serrano. Happy memories of Spain convinced him to buy it. It came with a stand and a knife and sits on the table. Being ham, it has it's share of fat. Being jamon serrano, it is pricey, so what to do with that pricey fat. I looked for crackling recipes online. Turns out there is southern crackling bread that uses cornmeal and wheat flour. There is also an Italian version that is a yeasted bread. Peter Reinhaet has a version in The Bread Baker's Apprentice but it is deluxe using eggs, butter, milk and cheese. I found a leaner verson called panecon ciccioli. I rendered the fat in a 200 degree oven because it has a very low smoke point. The drained cracklings were added to flour,water, yeast, salt and pecorino cheese. The recipe is here: https://www.theitaliangardenproject.com/blog/a-new-york-treat-pane-con-ciccioli I was short on the cracklings and rendered lard but just went with what I had. I used cubed pecorino, about 200 grams. It made two nice sized rings. I was afraid to bake it at the 475 degrees called for. It seemed far too hot. I used 425 and baked it for about 35 minutes. Absolutely delicious. Nice crust and tender crumb. I can also see using this dough with nuts, a few raisins and a sugar glaze. Maybe with citrus zest. Butter instead of lard. But don't be afraid of using lard. After all, if carrot cake uses a whole cup or more of oil, what's the matter with few tablespoons of lard in a loaf?

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Janiebakes]

We bought an extra turkey at a bargain price last Thanksgiving. It has been taking up space in the freezer ever since. Today it is being roasted, cut into pieces, not whole. House smells great.

[Janiebakes]

Very good article Baker Aunt. I'd like to add that while meals maybe edible after thirty minutes, they can benefit from much longer cooking. The only soup I think is done in 30 minutes is egg drop soup.

[Janiebakes]

I made Asian chicken lettuce wraps and egg drop soup. It has rained so much in the last 24 hours it is just amazing. Much cooler too so the soup was very welcome.

[Janiebakes]

Pan sauteed perch, steamed green beans dressed with balsamic vinegar and baked squash. Fresh figs with mascarpone for dessert.

[Janiebakes]

I have always used buttermilk in my baking too. It does make a huge difference. Sounds like you need about a quart or so of buttermilk a week. Three or four one cup jars of yogurt would be enough. I use my oven with the light on to ferment the yogurt so I could fill a half sheet pan with jars. If you are using an instant pot or a dedicated yogurt maker I can see how it could limit the number of jars per batch.

[Janiebakes]

Thank you Italian cook. That looks like the recipe I remember. Thank you Baker Aunt for linking to the true southern biscuit recipe thread. What a fabulous read.

I tried using the "Advanced" button but it only brought up threads that mentioned angel biscuits, no stand alone recipes. Then I started calling up the recipe pages one by one starting page 166. On page 153 there is an angel biscuit posted by jej and on page 152 Twin 2 has one posted. Not sure why the search function did not find those.

[Janiebakes]

Went apple picking with two other familys. Rode the hay wagon out to the orchard. Picked corn and pumpkins too. Stopped for pizza and soft serve ice cream on the way home. A beautiful warm autumn day with blue skies. So gateful.

[Janiebakes]

I don't think these ducks ever flew or swam Mike. They were underwhelming in both wing and drumsticks.Brave man making turducken. I remember from the movie Julie/Julia the main character cooked the entire Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her capstone project was a deboned duck wrapped in pastry.

[Janiebakes]

I use Trader Joe's European stye yogurt when I need new starter but I do save some yogurt from each batch. Sometimes I ferment it too long and it becames more tart than I like so I start again. I think once you go too warm or ferment too long it favors different bacteria that leads to a tarter product. Long ago I used those dried starter packets but have not seen them for some time. Also,I like to taste the finished product before I use it as a starter. This is the list of ingredients for Tj's european stye yogurt: pasteurized organic nonfat milk, organic sweet cream buttermilk, living yogurt cultures: l. acidophilus, l. bulgaricus, s. thermophilus and bifidobacterium lactis. It is made by the Straus Family Creamery. Tj's plain kefir has no sugar but has 12 strains of bacteria. I have to take antibiotics before dental cleanings and I always lay in a suppley of plain kefir and Kimchi and a small piece of cheese as well as homemade yogurt. I make 12/13 one cup jars every week or so. Using mason jars has saved hundreds of wasted plastic pots. We eat it for breakfast everyday and use it for salad dressing and buttermilk substitute. Can I ask how much buttermilk you use a week? Just being nosey.

[Janiebakes]

This week has been an adventure in cooking duck. There is a national shortage of cat food especially the prescription sort. One of my cats has terrible food allergies and has been on a diet of only one meat source: in her case duck blended with peas. I can't find it anywhere so decided to cook some up myself. Bought two ducks, one labelled mature and the other a young one. Cooked the mature duck with just water in the crock pot. Got a lot of broth and about a pound of duck fat along with a good amount of shredded duck. The whole bird is so different from chicken. It looks like the ducks are not bred for the ginormous breast that chickens now sport. For all I read about how fatty duck is, it did not seem more fatty than a chicken to me. Of course the cat won't touch it but turns out she has a kidney issue and her food has been changed and this on is available soooo I had cooked shredded duck meat and a young duck to roast. Not much meat on the bird. I followed a recipe from Epicurious and roasted it for about three and half hours turning it breast up, breast down as directed. Surprisingly not overcooked or dry but the skin never did get crispy. It was golden brown but tough. We ate the breast and picked off the rest of the meat for another stir fry. It was pretty good with a hoisin based sauce. Made broth from the bones. The whole anatomy of the duck is so different. The wishbone is more u shaped than the v shaped chicken wishbone. No keel bone in the breast, instead a sheet of cartilage. The mature duck was not butchered completely either. I found the lungs, esophagus and gizzard still attached. The gizzard and a pebble were wrapped together with a membrane. OK for an experiment but I think my duck cooking days are over.

[Janiebakes]

I thin some of my plain homemade yogurt with water and sub that for buttermilk.

[Janiebakes]

Italiancook, your Mushroom Bruschetta sounds so good! Dinner here was stir fry with duck, bok choy, bamboo shoots and baby corn. Dessert was the last of the plum dumplings.

[Author]

Posts