[RiversideLen]

Congrats on your wedding anniversary, BA!

I've been thinking about lasagna but didn't want to make a large batch so I started thinking about what kind of pans I have. Finally decided on a 3x5 loaf pan. I went on youtube and saw all kinds of videos for using a loaf pan; I really just wanted to get some idea on how long it needs to bake.

So yesterday I made it. I started by making a sauce from some Roma's and cherry tomatoes. I used the no bake lasagna noodles, Ricotta cheese and parm, topped with mozzarella. I made it with 5 layers of noodles with a minimal amount of filling between each layer. Covered it with foil and baked it in the toaster oven. It's a simple lasagna but it came out good.

The youtube videos led to believe it would need about 30 minutes in the oven covered and then about 15 minutes uncovered. Mine took about 20 minutes longer than that. Since I was using no boil noodles, I made sure to use plenty of sauce and it's a good thing I did since most of it got absorbed.

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[RiversideLen]

That sucks. But I'm glad your power is back on.

[RiversideLen]

Joan, your sugar cookies look great, I can almost taste them.

[RiversideLen]

Your dinner looks wonderful, Joan. A very attractive dinner plate too!

Fewer bowls for me too, in fact make them paper bowls if I can!

Yesterday I made pizza with leftover pork tenderloin. I'm trying to perfect my method in the toaster oven. After I formed the crust on a parchment circle, I shredded some parm on it and baked it on the pizza pan for 3 minutes, this time using the middle shelf. That fully melted the parm. Then I removed the parchment and applied the toppings. Returned it to the oven, middle shelf, for 12 minutes. It came out pretty good, the bottom of the crust was golden. I think this is it.

The crust was 40% white whole wheat and 30% each of semolina and bread flour. I used milk instead of water, a dollop of honey and a splash of olive oil.

I was able to make it perfectly round because I formed it entirely by hand, no rolling pin involved. Sometimes you get lucky.

I have dough for one more pizza, maybe tomorrow.

For tonight I will make a stir fry with the rest of the pork tenderloin, green beans, sugar snap peas, carrot and mushrooms. Probably will have it over rice.

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[RiversideLen]

I roasted a pork tenderloin, some small potatoes and made green beans/carrot/mushrooms.

[RiversideLen]

I had a hamburger, macaroni salad (store bought) and green beans, carrot and mushrooms. I sauté the mushrooms first until golden brown, remove them from the pan, add the green beans and carrot, a little water, and steam them until done, then add the mushrooms back in, season with a little sesame seed oil and soy sauce and it's done.

[RiversideLen]

I made brownies from a box mix, in my toaster oven. As I usually do, I added a half cup of oats to it and upped the milk from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup. It came out good and since it has oats in it, I'm calling it a health food!

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[RiversideLen]

I had a hamburger, leftover mashed potato and broccoli.

[RiversideLen]

Last night I had a hamburger, broccoli and mashed potato. Tonight will be a repeat as I have leftover potato although the veg might be different.

[RiversideLen]

I'd have more appliances if I had the space.

I have a Frigidaire refrigerator and it's gone through a number of defrost timers. It must be on number 4 or 5. The last time I needed one, my brother told me to buy 2 of them, to keep one on hand. That was good advice. Fortunately, mine is fairly easy to access through the console on the ceiling of the fridge, where the temp controls are, so I've been doing it myself (thank you, YouTube). It's been about 3 years since the last replacement, a record for this fridge! I've taken the old ones apart and saw that the gears are plastic. I think that plastic gears become stubborn over time.

[RiversideLen]

Tonight I made pizza in the toaster oven, I par baked the crust on parchment for 3 minutes and then topped it (sauce and cheese only) and baked it for 10 minutes and then switched it to convection for a couple of minutes to brown the cheese. It came out perfect. Had it with a side of mushrooms and sugar snap peas.

[RiversideLen]

That's a yummy looking steak and onions, Joan!

Yesterday I made steak, mushrooms and sugar snap peas and a simple salad.

[RiversideLen]

I bought a new toaster oven, it claims to have 7 functions but I think some of them are the same function with a different name. For instance, what is the difference between the convection and air fry, or bake and roast? Anyway, one of the things I want to do is be able to make pizza without heating up the entire kitchen as would happen with the regular oven. So I debated between a pizza stone or pizza pan sized for the toaster oven. Since a stone would require pre heating I opted for an 11 inch pizza pan. The pan has holes in it so I know I can't just put raw pizza dough on it as it would imbed into the holes. So, I cut out a parchment circle and par baked the crust for 5 minutes. Then I removed it, took out the parchment, returned the crust to the pan and topped it.

in the oven

Baked for about 12 minutes at 450 (the maximum temp) and then switched it to convection to speed up the browning of the cheese. It came out pretty good; the bottom of the crust came out a little north of golden brown and was crispy but just a tad dry. Next time I will switch to convention at the 10 minute mark so I can remove it just a little sooner.

This was a test pizza so I kept it plain

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[RiversideLen]

That's a plethora of veggies, BA, it sounds yummy!

I made pasta sauce yesterday. Yesterday and tonight I had pasta and a large salad.

[RiversideLen]

I had an Italian sausage sandwich with sweet peppers and a large salad.

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