[skeptic7]

I got my Covid booster shot yesterday. My arm is slightly sore but I haven't noticed any other side affects. I hope more people get vaccinated. I saw an article that said areas which are highly vaccinated are seeing slightly fewer Covid cases than expected just from the vaccines, so herd immunity does work if there is enough of the populace vaccinated.
I still have to get my father vaccinated. I was hoping that his new doctor could look up his record in the state database but found that doesn't work. I can fax the state office for the information and might have to do that.

[skeptic7]

I was at Kroger's yesterday. KAF all purpose flour was on sell for $2.99! I didn't have time to look at whole wheat. I probably won't be able to do any baking for a long time. I'm at my father's house and I don't know if he saved any of my mother's baking tools especially measuring cups and flour sifters. Those of you who have vacation homes, what do you take with you so that you can bake. I could do normal cooking here as Dad has stove and range top and frying pans.

[skeptic7]

I saw plenty of canning supplies this summer, but not so much in the fall. I also notice a lot of "off" brands of jars and rings on display. What I also can't find is the square pint, 1 1/2 pint and quart plastic freezer containers. I have been keeping an eye out for them the last month but can't find any. I don't remember seeing many this summer either. I like the pint containers for pumpkin puree and I find them a generally useful size for one person.

[skeptic7]

Mike;
Thanks for the pie filling recipe and directions. I'll try this in the future and see how it turns out. I can see it working for small apple pies where the pan isn't made to hold a larger volume of raw apples and to divide up making an apple pie into smaller chunks of time. You wouldn't have to find a block of time large enough to make a pie crust, cut up the apples, roll out the pie crust, mix the filling and bake the pie. The crust, the filling, and forming and baking the pie now becomes three seperate operations.

[skeptic7]

How do you make the apple pie filling in advance and how much filling does a normal size pie take? I have always use raw apples in a pie and mke it at the same time. Its 8 cups for a large pie and 4-6 cups apples for a small pie.

[skeptic7]

I'm in Lexington Kentucky and have been here since October 16th. I was planning on a short week long visit to my father but he broke his leg and I needed to stay around. He is doing wonderfully well at recovering and is out of the hospital and rehab center and is being annoying as ever. Taking the good with the bad this is good, being annoyed at someone who wants to tell me how to cook is perpetual. If your father was 95 and deaf, how would you argue with him?
Anyway my Covid complaint is that Lexington is at "Very High" levels of transmission and 3/4 of the people shopping on weekends weren't wearing masks!! Everyone at the hospital was very sensible and kind and responsible, but what is wrong with all the other idiots! What about manners? If the store management want you to wear masks, its polite to do so!! Its like taking off your shoes in someone else's house if thats their custom, or taking off your hat.

[skeptic7]

Recipes which call for 4 onions could mean 2 lbs of onions or less than 1 lb of onions. How much carrot is 1 large carrot, I've seen some very large carrots for sale? There are times when I measure the vegetables after they are cut up and note it in the recipe. Luckily amounts can be flexible in soups and stews.

[skeptic7]

I always assume that baking is going to take longer, sometimes much longer that estimated. The only accurate time I found is in the actualy baking. Particularly in making bread where my rising times depend on the house temperature, and the kneading and mixing times depend on a lot of things particularly on how much dough is being mixed or kneaded.
Prep time for savory dishes always takes longer, sometimes much longer than anticipated.

[skeptic7]

I am in Lexington, Ky at my father's house. I picked all the lufa squash and bitter melon and took them to his church. Dad broke his leg on October 15th and since has been in the hospital and the rehab center. I don't have time to deal with his garden and needed to do something before the upcoming freeze. I hope the lufa squash is still edible -- its a vegetable and not sponge when young.
Theoretically I could cook all of these but I don't really have time. I kept some of the squash to experiement with -- its much like zucchini but with a much tougher skin so it needs to be peeled first. I hope his church members like them.

[skeptic7]

I did a new recipe for a friend's birthday. It had the advantage of being a relatively small cake which is good and used rye flour. It was chocolatey and the crumb topping gave it a dressier appearance without using frosting. We ate a couple of small pieces together and then I sent the rest off with him. I baked it in a square cast iron frying pan and I think the extra heat from the cast iron help cooked it evenly. It didn't have a gummy feel at all, but was denser than an all wheat cake. I used whole wheat flour where the recipe calls for all purpose flour.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/rye-chocolate-coffeecake-recipe

[skeptic7]

I'd like to read that article. I have long been fascinated by that mixer but its too expensive and too specialized to be anything more than a daydream.

[skeptic7]

I did my standard whole-wheat spinach pizza. This is one of my reliable recipes when I want a dish that can warm up easily and has a fair amount of vegetables. I have a little more nutmeg and pepper it it but its still fairly bland.

[skeptic7]

I have three sizes of crock pots right now, 6 quart, 5 quart and 2 quart. I use them for a whole variety of things, soups and stews and beans, and then odd things like bread in the summer, and candied orange peel in the winter. The smallest one was bought for that purpose. The orange peel needs to cook on low for a long period of time to let all the water evaporate. I used to do this on the stove top, but my current stove doesn't stay as low as necessary.
I use two cast iron dutch ovens I've baked breads in a large oval, and used the round one in the oven occasionally. I don't use them as much.
Oh when I use a dutch oven or a cloche to bake bread, I start with a cold dutch oven and find it takes twice as long as normal. It takes about 50 minutes for a loaf of bread, as opposed to 30 minutes if the bread is just in the oven.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
Whats your address? If you want to email me, i'm myeh@wap.org. Could ship it out next week

If it doesn't work, you can mail it to someone else later. Its awkward but its working well for me, better rise and thinner crust. I use all whole wheat so I don't worry about the color of the crust.

[skeptic7]

I tried baking chicken legs based on this recipe. Its rather bland for all the spices included in it. This might be because there isn't that much coating sticking to the chicken legs. I used cornmeal not polenta and chicken legs not thighs.

https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2015/10/21/cornmeal-crusted-chicken-thighs-with-jamaican-spice

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