[skeptic7]

Its been too hot to cook for nearly a month, and I have been living on sandwiches. I have found a neat bun/bread called "Sandwich Starters" at Trader Joe which is like small rectangular foccacio which makes a great sandwich that can be heated up in a frying pan. I've found some sandwich buns are too soft and crumble in your hands, and others have big holes that lets the mustard dripped out. Has anyone tried to make sandwich size focaccia? I've mainly made this bigger and sliced them up later.
I tried cooking black bean soup in a slow cooker which doesn't heat the kitchen as much. And even if it did I can safely hide in the basement from the slow cooker. I'm going to have to start doing bread again in a slow cooker and look at other recipes.

[skeptic7]

A friend gave me a Power Pot which is a electronic pressure cooker. I haven't used it yet but is it similar to an InstaPot?

[skeptic7]

I did lemon-vanilla scones yesterday with dried lemon; and Chocolate Cherry rolls. The rolls first needed extra buttermilk and then extra flour but turned out very well. I'm very happy to have a Kitchen Aid Mixer now. My right shoulder is a bit sore from shoveling ice last winter and I couldn't have kneaded this by hand.
Dried lemon as a spice sounds wierd. I had bought it at a Halal Grocery and think its Middle Eastern. I put a generous tablespoon in the scones. The scones also contain a teaspoon of vanilla which I rarely add to scones and something has added a distinct flavor.

Aaron; I look forward to hearing about your cooking adventures at your synagogue. Have you ever made mandelbrot? I was discussing this with a friend and she told me that it should be less dry than a biscotti. I had previously thought these were nearly identical cookies only one was made with oil instead of butter.

[skeptic7]

The weather in Lexington, Ky is wonderfully cool and pleasant today. So much so that I will do some cooking. I want to make scones, and chocolate cherry bread for fun; and Ma Po Bean curd for supper. It feels like such an indulgence to do any cooking after the heat of the previous days.

[skeptic7]

I did stir fried chicken with green onions; and seperately stir fried purple cauliflower fromt the farmer's market. It retained its color and was very tasty. I like colored cauliflower much better than white cauliflower.

[skeptic7]

I could be completely wrong, but see those ads all the time and I don't believe them. In a lot of older cookbooks there are recipes that use stale bread. Stuffing, croutons, bread pudding, French Toast. So there wasn't a magical method of keeping bread longer.

[skeptic7]

I had a personal quiche from the farmer's market. I can vouch that it makes a very good breakfast! How big is your quiche? My little one was about 3 inches in diameter and about 1 1/2 inches deep.

[skeptic7]

I made Pumpkin Chickpea Curry soup the other day and am now eating it with cheese sandwiches.
Grilled cheese sandwiches is an easy meal when you don't want to wash dishes.

[skeptic7]

I am glad you are so careful about the bunnies!

[skeptic7]

I did Lemon Chicken from "Chinese Casserole Cookery" by Lilah Kan. I've found many of her braised recipes can be adapted easily for slow cooker or pressure cooker. This time I did four chicken drumsticks in the pressure cooker. It was very good. I have plenty of lemon sauce left over so I think I'll have to repeat the recipe very soon. Any ideas for lemon sauce -- lemon juice, sugar and thickened with a little corn starch -- besides more braised chicken?

[skeptic7]

I had buttermilk pancakes; topped with sour cream mixed with brown sugar and local strawberries. The sour cream, brown sugar, strawberry combination was recommended by a friend and it is wonderful together. I had three small pancakes with strawberries for breakfast and was going. to save the extra pancakes for an afternoon snack but ate them mid morning. The weather is getting too hot for baking except in early morning.

[skeptic7]

Chocomouse; I am so glad that you are all right. I hope you enjoyed NH Sheep festival. I had a great time at MD, the weather was perfect, but it would have been even better if you were there. Good luck on your baking.!

[skeptic7]

I found some beautiful strawberries at the farmer's market. I made some buttermilk pancakes and ate strawberries and maple syrup on pancakes to stretch out the strawberries. Will be finising off the remainder of the strawberries with Greek yogurt. I've had strawberries in a salad in Canada. I only remember strawberries ( wonderful) and greens ( boring ); does anyone have a recipe? I don't think it was iceberg lettuce.

[skeptic7]

Has anyone heard from Chocomouse? I have tried emailing her husband but haven't gotten a reply.

[skeptic7]

I did two individual chicken pot pie yesterday with plenty of vegetables - carrots, kolhrabi and peas -- and left over hot water pie crust from the previous pie. I ate one and found the pie crust tough and chewy and the filling boring. I threw away the crust from the second pie, and recooked the filling with the more herbs -- parsley, thyme, rosemary, marjoram -- basically everything easily grabbed from the freezer, and left over chicken filling not used yesterday. Then I made an oil based pie crust and used that on the pot pie. I had enough filling for two pie crusts again.
This turned out much better and I ate a pie for lunch quite happily.
I'll try Hot Water Pie Crust again sometime, it was interesting and easy to work. I might need to tweek the recipe more and research it, but at the moment I like the crunch and texture of the oil based pie crust better. The oil based crust seems to be a medium flake pie crust, while the Hot Water Pastry is more solid. Its texture reminds me of a flour tortilla. Mike seems to use Hot Water Pie crusts quite happily and it was his posts that encouraged me.
I also baked a Cherry quick bread in a cast iron frying pan. This is the same recipe I did this weekend without the chocolate, Its basically a muffin recipe but it works very nicely with whole wheat flour.

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