[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

[skeptic7]

I was reading various hot water crust recipes; Susan Purdy's, KAF 200, a couple on the internet and I can't see how they work!! Some seem to pour hot shortening and water mixture into the flour, some cold, some use quite a bit of shortening 1:2 ratio, to Susan Purdys 1:3 ratio of shortening to flour, some much less the KAF birdie recipe has only 2 tablespoons to 1 cup of flour. Why would this be more pliable than an oil pie crust? There are experiments in my future.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
Yes there are fresh apples available now, the early fall apples like Gala are just coming in. These are however last year's apples. They are Gold Rush which are fabulous keepers. I bought a half bushel this spring -- the orchard has cold storage -- and have been keeping them in my refrigerator since then. They are slightly shriveled but still tasty, I like the flavor better now then when they are fresh picked. These are a very late fall apple normally. I need to eat these to make room for the fall apples.
I hope to use the next cool day to make apple pies.

[skeptic7]

I did an apple pizza today. This is rather plain, just two layers of apples and cinnamon sugar on the pizza crust. Ingredients like nuts and raisins have been left out as they tend to roll off the pizza.

[skeptic7]

I did a fresh tomato and cheese pizza yesterday. I used Roma tomatoes from the farmer's market. They are drier than regular tomatoes and work better here, and the last of the mozarella in the refrigerator. Its been in the refrigerator for too long, I should have freezed part of it. It turned out nicely, I was afraid that the mozarella had gotten too strong tasting.
Also my cousins were visiting King Arthur Flour in Vermont and they sent me an apron! It has one of the old and prettier logos on it. I'm very pleased. Its almost in the too good to use category but I also don't want to just leave it in the closet. I guess I ought to bake my cousins some biscotti and wear the apron. Biscotti ships nicely even in hot weather.

[skeptic7]

Chocomouse; your bread looks lovely.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt; Mike;
Thanks for the information. I was hoping that quick rye bread would be more like cornbread or wheat breads. I knew that it needed to be cooled before cutting but I didn't realize it needed that long. I let it cool somewhat maybe an hour or so before the first slice and tried again about 8 hours later, but I noticed a change in texture by the next day. What do starches gelling have to do with texture and sliceability. I've noticed changes in wheat bread on the next day but not as drastic. The wheat bread is slightly drier and slices slightly better 24 hours after baking.

[skeptic7]

I made "Honey-Spice Rye" from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. This is a rye - whole wheat quick bread whic is suppose to make a loaf. I baked it in a cast iron frying pan. Its soft and dense. Its quite nice today ( Sunday ) but when cut still warm yesterday is was gummy. The flavor is nice with honey, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and anise. I'm wondering if the recipe was originally Jewish. The liquids are water, honey and lemon juice. Most quick breads I've made recently use buttermilk as the liquid.

[skeptic7]

I envy you the strawberries. My last purchase at the farmer's market was an heirloom tomato and a Canary melon. I'll have to cut it open soon.

[Author]

Posts