[skeptic7]

The rules for masking are going away all over the country. There are lots of people who aren't wearin masks around here but NY Times still has Lexington, KY ( Fayette County ) as extremely high risks. I wish masks were still mandated and enforced until there is extra room at the ICU in most of the hospitals. There is still too many people gettig very sick.
I was grocery shopping this weekend and some of the clerks are now unmasked and many of the customers.

[skeptic7]

Joan, Happy Birthday

I have a favorite pumpkin, chickpea and curry soup which I made last week with half a Medium size squash. I think it was a squash, it might have been a small pumpkin. Anyway half of it made about 3 cups of 1 inch cubed pumpkin for the soup. This left me half a pumpkin to spare. I decided I wasnted another pumpkin soup but with a different flavor theme. I decided to go with a Mexican style. I made soup with a can of tomatoes with chile, cumin, onions, 2 cans of black beans and the pumpkin. It came out with a decided chili flavor.

I also made a fast focaccio bread to go with this. I used White Lily Flour and its very odd using all white flour when I mainly stick with whole wheat. Also I had to bake the bread until it was brown on top whereas I don't worry about color with whole wheat.

[skeptic7]

I did an apple pie recipe this weekend. I'm still with my father in his house so I don't have all my tools, but my father kept my mother's pie pans so I could use those. I used the smaller pie pan which took about 7 cups of apples. I read Mike's apple pie filling recipe, and cooked the apples before putting them into the pie. This worked better than I expected and the slices were easy to fit in the pie crust. I was afraid the apple slices would burn or crumble when cooked but they didn't. I boiled the juice and thickened it with some flour before adding to the pie. I thought since the filling was precooked the pie would take less time to cook but it took about as long to get the crust brown.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
That sounds like a very tasty experiment. I like the idea of freezing the cake layers before transporting them. It would make them less likely to tear while in motion especially if they were between layers of cardboard or in a small cake container. You could make another test cake and see if the texture changes after freezing and thawing.

[skeptic7]

Thanks for the pizza link. I like looking at that pizza but I don't think I would want to make it. Its for people who really love the edge part of the pizza crust.
I've tried baking a pie with two pie pans like that. It was hard to pick up the half cooked pie crust to flip it over and the inner pie pan was hard to remove. I'd like to try cooking bread dough that way to make a bread soup bowl, but that would require something a little deeper than a pie pan. Perhaps using large muffin tins?

[skeptic7]

Italian Cook could you give the link for the youtube Video please?

[skeptic7]

Have fun whatever you decide to do.

[skeptic7]

The grocery stores seemed a little short on Orange Juice today and eggs; but they seemed to have a plentiful supply of fruit and vegetables and staple foods. When I first entered the grocery store I was pleased at the number of people with masks, but as I started to leave I noticed more people entering without them. Perhaps the people who are too lazy to wear masks are also too lazy to get up early.

[skeptic7]

I use the plastic knife guards on all my knives from paring the long ham carving knife.    I really like them but they can scratch up a knife -- I think this is caused by a grain of salt or sugar getting next to the knife and  not the plastic it self.    Here is a picture.   Does your bread knife have scalloped edge?

https://chefdepot.net/knifeguards.htm

 

I use the 1 inch for narrow knives, and the 2 inch for Chef's knives and Chinese Cleavers.

[skeptic7]

I thought the idea was impossible when so little as 1/4 cup more liquid can turn a zuchinni cake into a dense soggy mess; and trying to avoid cutting butter into scones by using melted butter poured into buttermilk will turn dense and heavy; that just improvising a recipe would be impossible. I'm like the Peter character in the story and want to go off to gibber in peace. I can see that some cakes are more flexible than others and this seems to have started as a butter cake -- equal amounts flour, sugar and butter before the changes.

[skeptic7]

Just baked cranberry scones again with White Lily flour and butter. This is the recipe without white flour, white sugar and butter. It doesn't have any redeaming characteristics unless you count the cranberries. Tasty through. On the rare occasions I make them I always count them as a very worthwhile guilty pleasure.
I went to the Web to read about White Lily flour -- and read the articles claiming the quailty is the same, and the ones that it has suffered from being milled in Illinois. Also read the recipe for White Lily Biscuits with only three ingredients. I think counting self rising flour as one ingredient and not three is cheating.

[skeptic7]

I just did cranberry scones at my Father's house. First baking I've done since October. Used White Lily flour in the first white flour/butter scones for a couple of years. The White Lily flour is a soft white flour mainly prized for biscuits. So my memory might not be the greatest but the White Lily flour doesn't absorb as much moisture as KAF AP flour. The resulting scones were tasty and possibly lighter than other white flour scones, of course that might be because it was a dropped scone rather than rolled and cut.
It turned out great and had it for breakfast.

[skeptic7]

Bread can be baked in a dutch oven, or a slow cooker without taking off the lid. The dough does lose moisture as it cooks but that puddles to the bottom of the pan. I think taking the top off a Dutch oven or a Clay baker in an oven is to improve the color. Since I normally use whole wheat flour I don't worry about the color.
I went to look at the lodge site to see their pie pan and the baking skillet. These do look nice.

[skeptic7]

Baker Aunt;
I remember you having an interesting chocolate crinkle cookie which was oil based instead of butter, and some of the biscotti recipes can use oil instead of butter too. What is your favorite butter based cookie recipe? I have been staying away from Christmas cookies for years but more because of the calories than the butter. I have favorite Christmas breads but those are also full of butter.

[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.

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