[wonky]

Happy Birthday Joan. Glad you enjoyed your special day!!!!!

[wonky]

BakerAunt...I only wish it was canning season...February in Wisconsin means piles and piles of snow. Sorry, but canned snow does not taste good, and I question it's nutritive value. We got 8 inches of the stuff last Saturday alone. As I look outside, the piles of snow are about 5 feet high. I can see one rose cane...about 4 inches of it..sticking out of the snow. My DH always make sure to blow as much snow as possible on my roses, and he comes through every year. I grow Knockout Roses, and I Love them, so I try to take special care of them to look forward to their massive blooming starting in spring, continuing til a very hard frost in late fall. If you like no muss, no fuss roses, I highly recommend them.

I picked 2 ice cream pails of raspberries this past summer. Some were made into jam, the rest, tray packed and frozen for smoothies and desserts. My son, who loves to pick berries brought me a pail of blackberries also. An aside, he said as he was picking, he thought he had stumbled upon a bunch of bumble bees, and he started to run, as he said he heard them very close. He had a chance to turn around and look, and discovered a pair of Humming birds, in fast persuit of him and, and realized he must have come to close to their nest. He said he had to sit down on the ground to recover from his run. He did however manage to save the berries.

I also do jam's and jelly's, both frozen and canned. We had a thread on the BC re refrigerator pickles, and there were so many good recipes there.

A canning thread would be great. I am sure there are many good tried and true recipes from our fellow bakers. Wonky

[wonky]

BakerAunt...thank you for that wonderful comment...I'm sure you could beat me hands-down. But I am very tickled by your comment.

Off topic...but I am sure many of you also can fruits, vegies etc. In my younger day, when my kids were all growing up, we had a huge garden, and I canned hundreds of quarts of produce. I also bought pears, peaches, apples by the bushel, and canned those. Since we no longer farm, and the kids are all gone, I haven't done much canning in quite a while. When we moved to town, I gave all of my canning equipment, jars, pressure cooker etc. away to a young mom with 6 small children. I have always missed it tho, and kind of regretted giving everything away. Last fall, my sister and I bought a bushel of pears, and got together to can them. We had a blast. We ended up with 25 pints each. I had forgotten how delicious they were, compared to the ones in the store. Needless to say, I now have 3 pints left. My DH absolutely loves them, and so do I. Long story short, my sister stopped today, and had been at one of the local Amish stores, and ran across huge pears. You could buy them by the pear, or by the bushel. They need a little ripening, but we plan to can at least another bushel. She is also running short. Now we are planning to do peaches, plums etc next fall. I am looking forward to that day, not only because of the canning, but also to spend the day with my sister, doing something we both love.

[wonky]

WOW bakeraunt I believe you can now call that recipe yours'. I hope you love that bread after all those changes. It sounds wonderful.

[wonky]

Aaron and others...I don't know where you live, but I know different apples are available in different areas of the country. Here in the Midwest we have many to choose from, as there are many, many orchards. I like to mix several varieties ...my favorite's would be Honey Crisp, and Cortland. Granny Smith. and Gala would be another great choice. Hope you enjoy your dessert, no matter what you choose.

[wonky]

Apple Pudding...a very simple, easy to make apple dessert. Extra special with vanilla ice cream.

Apple pudding

4 Cups peeled, sliced apples
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 Cup AP flour
1 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup water
1/3 Cup butter

Put apples in baking dish. Mix Cinnamon, salt and water
Pour over apples, and stir to coat
Mix flour, sugar, and butter...sprinkle over apples and bake at 350 for approx 40 min.

I sometimes add oatmeal to the topping. Although it calls for 1 cap sugar, use your judgement. I have never used a whole cup. But if the apples are quite tart, you might want to.

Enjoy...Wonky

[wonky]

I baked 6 loaves of pomegranate Bread, and 4 pans of blueberry infused dried cranberry dinner rolls.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by wonky.

[wonky]

Swirth...I do recall you listing this, but I do not do Facebook either, nor any other form of social media. In fact I had recently read that people are leaving Facebook by the thousands, a good trend me thinks. My grand daughters told me that they rarely are on there anymore, and I am so glad.

The new sensation in my little corner of the world...and I think this is just lovely, is that the teenagers outnumber the "older folks" at swing dance lessons. At near by Wausau, last evening there were 16 teenage couples that showed up to learn. There is a video on the local news, and the kids were having an absolute blast. There was a live swing band, and the couples were enjoying every minute of it.

[wonky]

BakerAunt...thank you for reminding me of Marianne. Also, you like me are constantly changing/improving recipes according to personal taste. I usually make a recipe as written the first time, and go from there. Some of them barely resemble the original recipe. I will lay awake at night, and ponder how I am going to change something. A usually gather all the ingredients, and the baking equipment in the evening according to what I plan to make the following day, and then can't sleep, because I am so looking forward to the baking. Now that is a little compulsive isn't it? It really is a baking addiction. It is a good thing I have a lot of really great neighbors, who are always willing to take the baked goods off my hand.

Cute story...I had sent a loaf of fresh bread over to the next door neighbors last week. I do this a lot. This Mom and Dad have 4 little boys ranging in age from 2 to 10. A few days later as I was getting the mail, the 7 y/o came up to me and said "Chris...you haven't given us any bread in quite a while", I responded...Colter, I sent a loaf over 2 days ago...he replied "well I never got any...I am going to go and ask my mom who ate my share". :<)

[wonky]

BakerAunt...you know me well don't you. BTW...are you using the recipe from the BC (for the grape nuts bread) that was posted by the lady with the dachshunds? I feel so bad that I don't remember her name. She posted often, both about her dog's and baking.

[wonky]

Gina, Mike and all who responded to the buttermilk question. I had remembered also on the BC, that we had that discussion re: making your own buttermilk. As I started reading this thread I can see others also remembered it. Just this small discussion made me yearn for the BC. Mike, you started this site, and those of us here are very grateful.

Gina...I was just thinking of you a few days ago, and was going to ask here if anyone had heard from you. I am thrilled to see you post here, feels like old times. How are you dear lady? I (we) have missed you, and so glad you are here. I have thought of you many times actually, especially with the reports of the terrible fires, and mudslides that Californians have had to endure. Hopefully you escaped the carnage, and are well. Hope you will post often, as you always had such good comments on the BC.

[wonky]

I had previously said I wasn't going to bake this week, then I said I would probably be back in the kitchen on Wednesday...well, I didn't make it to Wednesday...as I spent a couple of hours baking today. I had printed a recipe I found on Just A Pinch, and decided to try it today. It is called "The Best Sweet Yeast Dough I Have Ever Found"...by Kathie Carr. I am so glad I decided to try it. It lives up to the name. This is a enriched dough, quite sweet, (which could be adjusted according to taste) and is very flavorful, tender, and just wonderful. Of course, I can never leave well enough alone, as I added 3 cups of pomegranate infused cranberries (I doubled the recipe) We had them as dinner rolls, and they were AWESOME. Would be even more special, if you wanted to use them as a sweet roll, if frosted lightly with a cream cheese icing. Can't say enough about them. Will use this recipe over and over.

A had mentioned that I was making pizza dough for my Son's super bowl party. I had never made pizza dough, as my husband is not a real big pizza fan. I used King Arthur's recipe for "The best pizza you will ever make". The dough came together beautifully (used the gram version). I would highly recommend it. I put olive oil, and cornmeal on the cookie sheet, turned the dough out onto the pan, and used my fingers to spread the dough out. It was so easy to work with. My son said there were 5 other home made pizza's at the party, and his was voted best. He did say he pre-baked the crust for 10 minutes at 350, before adding the sauce and toppings. Will definitely make this dough again, and my DH will just have to like it, or make himself a sandwich.

[wonky]

Not a thing...I made a month's worth last week, so am going to sit back this week...and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you. I'm sure by Wednesday, the bug will bite me again, and I'll be spending a lot of time in the kitchen again.

[wonky]

Fellow bakers...I never thought about asking for help, guess I am just so used to doing it myself. If my 17 y/o grand daughter happens to be spending the weekend with us, she loves to bake. I actually bought her a Sunbeam stand mixer a couple of years ago to fuel the fire, and she has used it often.Her mother, my daughter is an excellent cook, but doesn't really like to bake to much. She (my grand daughter) always comments that I have such nice things to bake with, and I guess I never really thought about it, but she is right, I really do have. Every now and then, when I am spending time at their house, they will ask me to bake something special, and my daughters baking equipment leaves much to be desired. But, her cooking probably beats mine hands-down.

I started baking this morning at 6:00, and finally finished at 4:00 this afternoon. Needless to say, I am a wee bit tired, but my counters are full of beautiful breads and rolls, double bagged and ready for the freezer, waiting to be picked up tomorrow. Only have my Son's pizza dough to make on Sunday for his super bowl party.

WOW...a robot for clean=up, I am totally on board with that. Let me know if you can find one. Just so I don't have to clean him/her also. TEE He He!!!!!

[wonky]

Skeptic...I used the soft cinnamon roll recipe from King Arthur ..a tangzhong recipe..You put 24 rolls in a 9x13 pan...I doubled the recipe, so ended up with 2 pans. I would highly recommend this recipe, the rolls were soft. squishy and delicious. Shared one pan with several neighbors, and froze the other pan.

My SIL called today and ordered 2 loaves of cinnamon swirl bread, 2 loaves of molasses/oatmeal, and a dozen of my chocolate chip cressent rolls for her mom's BD...will make those things tomorrow. Also, another SIL called and ordered 2 loaves of my "Wonky's Special Bread" for Sunday. And my son Jerrod asked me to make a double pizza dough recipe for him to make a special pizza for his super bowl party, which I will do for him on Sunday, prior to the start of the game. WHEW..hope it all turns out well. I guess I will be busy in the kitchen baking 4 days this week, and yes, I love it. Just wish I had someone to do all the dishes and clean-up.

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