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I am suppose to get wintry mix on Wednesday. It normally doesn't stay around long but I plan to stay inside until it melts.

Kimbob thats a lot of snow. I hope you stay warm and your power remains ups.

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Aaron;
I hope none of your family comes down sick and you don't go stir crazy in the next couple of weeks.

I love Pecans but am only using them now for very special items since they are more expensive than walnuts or almonds.

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I made the KABC Oatmeal-maple bread yesterday. I had changed the recipe by using all whole wheat flour, and using oil instead of butter. I found this a difficult bread. Its made by cooking the oatmeal into a porridge and then adding enough flour to make it a bread dough. I found that the recipe didn't ask for enough liquid and I was adding water by the tablespoon at the end. I don't know precisely how much water I added but it was probably 1/2 cup. The bread is very dense and slices up in very thin slices. It is slightly sweet but not overwhelmingly so. I ate some slices for breakfast with lots of butter. It didn't rise very much maybe about double before it was put in the oven and I didn't notice any oven spring.
I don't know if I will make this again. The taste is fine, and the texture bearable, but it was very troublesome mixing the flour into the dough, and it wasn't until the dough was at least partially kneaded that I could be sure if it needed more water. I read the recipe in "Laurel's kitchen bread book' on whole wheat/oatmeal bread to really get an idea on how to handle this dough.

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There could have been syrup on the jar rim -- I was scrupulous about washing and soaking and boiling everything, but not so much about about wiping the rim of the jar. I don't know how dry my clean jars were, I just pulled them out of the boiling water, poured the water out, let sit for a minute and drained again, and then put the hot syrup in before the jars could cool down. I'm not worried about the syrup getting diluted -- it would have concentrated slightly when heated up. I am glad that the last jar finally sealed, I was starting to think about making maple popcorn for the neighborhood instead of going through the whole boiling and heating and resealing again.

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Last maple syrup canning was a success! I'll put labels on it and look for a good place to store them. I need to be sure NOT to find such a good place that I don't find them for years.

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cwcdesign; The maple pecan biscotti sound great. Does it use maple syrup? Where did you get the recipe.

Aaronatthedoublef; Congratulations on a successful donut day.

Wish me luck. I'm going to try KABC oatmeal maple bread and use whole wheat flour.

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I just did a double batch of pumpkin biscotti. I think I'll continue to make double batches in the future. I could get all the dough on one baking sheet for the first baking, and while I needed an extra small pan for some of the biscotti on the second baking, the whole batch fitted nicely in the oven. Also a double batch uses 1 cup of pumpkin puree which is easier to handle than 1/2 cup. I freeze in 2 cup containers and so one container will make a recipe of pumpkin bread and a double batch of biscotti.

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Second try at canning maple syrup was a 50% success. One jar sealed and the other one didn't. Well. I guess its time to try again.

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Chocomouse;
I tried canning most of your syrup in pint jars last night. The extra syrup went into one of those decorative little glass jugs which contain about 1 cup of syrup and is popular with tourists. It was much easier than I expected, especially since the jars don't need a hot water bath. I boiled the jars and the lids, and then heated the syrup. I think the syrup got to 200 degrees which is hotter than necessary. Three of the jars sealed properly, and two didn't. I think I didn't fill them up as full as necessary. I did the whole process over again for those two jars adding a couple of tablespoons from the decorative jug. I hope it works. Thank your husband for the detailed directions.

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I like the idea of donut day. Are there Jewish Donut recipes?

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I used to use potato flakes instead of potato flour. Its the same by weight, but by volume 2 tbsp potato flour = 1/4 cup potato flakes. When I found I could get BRM potato flour easily at the store, I stopped using potato flakes; it took up less space in the freezer and was easier to measure.

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Has anyone made any Springele (sp), I received a rolling pin and a soft mat as presents. I'm assuming that these are meant to be used together.

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BakerAunt;
Have you eaten the Porridge as Porridge? What was that like?
Its nearly Xmas and I'm not ready to do any seasonal baking. I'm thinking about maple oatmeal bread, and pumpkin biscotti and apple bread which seem more like November than December recipes.
I did cheese pizza yesterday.

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Yesterday I had a Parsnip-Carrot soup which I had made the day before. It was a fairly simple recipe and I ran through a food mill twice to get a creamy texture. It was wonderful. I was surprise as it had very few spices, and looked so bland and unappetizing with whole pieces of white potato and white onion and white parsnips, there were some pieces of orange carrot but that didn't dispell the overall blandness. But it came out a pleasant light orange out of the food mill and it had a wonderful slightly sweet taste. I ate it with my basic cheese pizza.

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I do an overnight soak of beans before cooking them. I am trying to reduce the amount of salt, so I don't add salt to the water.
Did you have hot dogs in your black bean soup? That used to be de Rigor when I had it in cafeterias.

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