Category Archives: Cooking

Bread Art

Cooking,

I have been baking a lot of bread so we don’t have to place as many orders to the grocery store. By the way, curbside pickup is great.

The bread recipe I used made enough dough for two loaves, so I baked one and refrigerated the remainder of the dough for when we needed it. The rise time for the second loaf was longer because it started from the refrigerated temperature. I placed the dough in the bread pan and into the oven, and heated the oven to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, then turned it off. The dough raises for an hour normally. I had to reheat the oven and let it raise for additional time.

The dough time got away from and I let the dough rise a little too long. The dough draped oven the edge of the pan as you can see. I turned it out onto the rack upside down for cooling.

The overhanging dough isn’t really a problem, it just gave me a good chuckle. We are enjoying the bread just as much. With some butter and grape jelly, it is quite delicious.

Easter Cake

Cooking, ,

This was our Easter dessert made from what we had on hand since we are limiting trips out during our state’s stay at home order.

I had a box of yellow cake mix on the shelf. I added the grated zest from one orange before baking.

I had the ingredients for vanilla buttercream frosting. Butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and almond milk. I jazzed it up a little with some almond extract.

I took some orange marmalade from the fridge and used it as a filling between the cake layers. After frosting the cake, I garnished it with some strawberries from a local produce wholesaler. During this time of unusual circumstances, this seller will let you order and pay for produce on-line. Then when you go to pick it up, they put it in your trunk for you. No human contact!

And cake makes every day better. Hope your Easter was blessed.

Yeast Magic

Cooking,

Bake homemade bread. No need to go to the store to replenish stock! Just make your own. It’s tastier too.

This loaf is whole wheat.

I also made some of the dough into dinner rolls. I enjoy making bread and often do it anyway, so this was no inconvenience.

I enjoy kneading the dough and feeling how it changes from a lumpy, stick ball, into one that is pliant, stretchy and smooth. A little bit of yeast magic.

Replenishing

Cooking, Thoughts On Life,

Time to replenish, so today I made oatmeal raisin cookies with coconut, and also granola.

Also, my mother-in-law has been isolated for two weeks as have I, so we had a short visit, from a distance of 6 feet, with her yesterday. (There was a brief foray out for some necessities, but a mask and sanitizer was used.)

The best part of the visit, aside from seeing her, was we traded some library books! The libraries here are closed because of the coronavirus. I was getting antsy because I only had two library books left to read. Now I have an additional three!

So, life is, well, life. Which is good.

What To Do?

Cooking, Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, , ,

What do I do when I’m staying at home to avoid the coronavirus? The same things I normally do!

We walked dogs of course. That goes without saying.

But I also baked bread. This was a Pinterest recipe for Italian bread. I wanted something a little heartier, so I replaced one of the cups of flour with whole wheat flour.

It was quite delicious, especially warm from the oven with butter and strawberry-rhubarb jelly.

Guilty Pleasures

Cooking, Thoughts On Life, ,

Guilty Sunday morning pleasures.

My husband went to church. I stayed home and made chocolate, chocolate chip pancakes, drank coffee, and watched a couple episodes of Hoarders. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And I always feel like less of a pack rat after watching Hoarders. It even motivates me to get rid of a few things. Reminds me of that whole “There, but for the grace of God, go I” thing.

By the way, the pancakes are just the recipe from the Bisquick box, with about 1/4 cup of baking cocoa, a tablespoon of sugar, splash of vanilla, and a few chocolate chips thrown in.

At Least There Was Cake!

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Zekie and me

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

As I’ve mentioned, my husband puts on a Valentine’s dinner for the family every year. This year was rather challenging trying to pull it all together. In the morning I was vacuuming the house and discovered that the drum filter had slipped on the vacuum so was not seated properly. This allowed dust to blow into the air. My husband is allergic to dust. Not a good time.

After that, normal preparations continued and arrival of the first guests was scheduled for four o’clock. At 1:30 pm, the power went out. Most of the food was ready, so we waited. At 3:30 there was still no power so we moved the location to my mother in law’s. As soon as we finished loading up the five course dinner, our power came back on. The truck from the electric company was still parked down the street so we opted to stick with taking the dinner elsewhere.

We spent a large portion of the week preparing and cleaning with no one to appreciate it. In a couple more weeks this will probably seem quite humorous. Hey, at least there was cake!

Black Forest Cake

Pancakes, It’s What’s For…

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One of my favorite breakfasts. Or lunches or suppers for that matter. Pancakes!

These are blueberry-chocolate chip. I find the ones I am happiest with are if I use Bisquick. I do add a little more liquid than called for so they spread out and I can make a bigger pancake.

I generally use almond milk for the liquid, but regular milk, or even eggnog are good too. I like to add in either vanilla or almond extract for extra flavor.

Then I jazz them up with add-ins like blueberries, chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, or maybe puréed banana or canned pumpkin. If I make pumpkin I also add molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, plus chocolate chips. This makes them similar to pumpkin pie.

The humble pancake can be turned into so much more

Stuffed Flounder

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Stuffed Flounder with Imitation Crab

We had stuffed flounder with oven fried potatoes and broccoli for dinner. I made up my own recipe for the flounder and was pleased with how it turned out.

The potatoes were peeled, cubed, mixed with extra virgin olive oil, garlic powder, and salt. I tossed to coat and baked in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes, turning once. They were nicely browned and crispy.

The broccoli was left over from another meal. I microwaved it to put on the side. No reason to go crazy when I had the other dishes to prepare.

The flounder was the most labor intensive part of the meal. First, I had to make the stuffing. I used an 8 oz. package of imitation crab meat that I chopped to a fine mince. I added a couple Tablespoons of finely minced onion, then added some Italian bread crumbs, a couple Tbsp. mayonnaise, Old Bay Seasoning, salt, and 1/3 teaspoon of horseradish. Mix all ingredients together. I put foil on a small cookie sheet, then put the stuffing on the sheet in a straight line about 4 x 1 inches. Set this aside until the flounder is breaded.

I did something different with the flounder, at least for me. Rather than coating it with egg, which always slides off with the breading, I thinned some mayonnaise with milk then added salt and pepper. I cut the flounder filets in half and coated each half in the mayonnaise mixture and then in an Italian breadcrumb and cornmeal mixture. I put one half of the filet on each side of the line of stuffing on the cookie sheet. Bake for 17 minutes at 400 degrees along with the potatoes.

Dinner is served.

I don’t give exact measurements for most items because I believe everyone should make adjustments to suit their own tastes. You know best what you like!

Indonesian Stir-Fried Noodles, Yum!

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My attempt at Stir-Fried Noodles-not bad!

I tried making something new for dinner tonight. That is not unusual. The unusual part was that I used a recipe. The recipe was for Easy Mie Goreng or Indonesian Stir-Fried Noodles. I did alter the recipe slightly to accommodate my ingredients. I found the recipe in a book I checked out from the library. Gotta love your local library. The name of the cookbook is Rice. Noodles. Yum. by Abigail Sotto Raines. Most of the recipes look tasty but use ingredients that I don’t have on hand. This recipe was pretty basic so I gave it a try. It was delicious and I look forward to having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

The final product did come out looking similar to the picture in the book. Their shrimp were larger but otherwise, very similar. It wasn’t overly difficult to make either. I would recommend this recipe. If you don’t mind tracking down some of the ingredients, a number of the other recipes look delicious as well. Things like oyster sauce and tamarind paste are not something I have easy access to. I suppose I should try looking on-line. Also, I did not know there are different kinds of soy sauce such as dark or sweet. What they carry at my local stores just says soy sauce. I did substitute finely sliced green cabbage for the Napa and Bok Choy. These would have been $12 for each head at my local grocer.

I certainly can’t complain about the results though. We both had two servings of this noodle dish for dinner. If you’re looking for something tasty and different from your usual fare, give this a try.