What are you cooking or baking today?

StarSong

StarSong

Awkward is my Superpower
Location
Los Angeles Suburbs
Would love to hear what everyone's up to in their kitchens. We already have threads where people post recipes, photos, or links to foods that look good but they themselves haven't tried, so let's try to avoid that here.

Cooking and baking tips are most welcome, too!

Yesterday I made the mushroom barley soup I found about 8 years ago on Tori Avey's site and and have made ever since. I quadruple the carrots & celery but otherwise make it according to her recipe. It's below if you want to try it. Lots of steps, but worth the effort.
https://toriavey.com/mushroom-barley-soup/

Makes a big pot of hearty soup and leftovers freeze well.
 

In the "what are you doing today" thread, @MickaC mentioned unsweetened applesauce as a substitute in baking. I often use it in muffins or cakes for half (or more) of the oil or eggs and cut down the sugar accordingly.

For eggs substitute, sometimes I use half ground flaxseed and water and half applesauce.

Love Aldi's unsweetened applesauce, but wound up throwing away too many half-filled jars from spoilage because I didn't use it fast enough. These days, after opening a fresh jar I split the remaining applesauce into one cup (ish) sized portions. Keep one in the fridge and freeze the rest in small plastic containers or freezer bags laid flat.
 
This should be a fun thread; thanks @StarSong!

I looked at that soup recipe at the site you posted and it looks great. Right now, I'm eating from the freezer, having cooked a bunch of stuff earlier, so it will be a short while before I give it a try.

I was talking with @Jules yesterday about this recipe for Pasta e Fagioli at this site. I have made it a few times and it is delicious:

pasta-e-fagioli-2.jpg


https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/pasta-fagioli.html
 

RadishRose said:
This should be a fun thread; thanks @StarSong!

I looked at that soup recipe at the site you posted and it looks great. Right now, I'm eating from the freezer, having cooked a bunch of stuff earlier, so it will be a short while before I give it a try.

I was talking with @Jules yesterday about this recipe for Pasta e Fagioli at this site. I have made it a few times and it is delicious:

pasta-e-fagioli-2.jpg


https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/pasta-fagioli.html
Click to expand...
PS- the rosemary adds something special to this soup.
 
I’ll be making the Pumpkin loaf or muffins from Once Upon a Chef. It’s still cold and I don’t want to go to the store for applesauce. This had the least sugar compared to other recipes.

Yesterday after thinking about pumpkin, I got an email from one my favourite bloggers. In a speak of the devil kind of moment, her topic is pumpkin pie. Years ago, I made pies from the pumpkin, but won’t be following her suggestion to do it. It’s too fussy. She bakes the crust first; I never did. Now it has me thinking about that.

Here’s her blog and a couple of other sites. Ina’s food is always good.

https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/cooking/

https://www.onceuponachef.com/

https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes
 
This past weekend, I made Emeril Lagasse's Potato Leek soup. I've been using this recipe since 2003. I doubled it, so I have some for the freezer. I use either russets or Yukon Gold potatoes. If I don't have white wine around, I use 2T of apple cider vinegar instead. I don't add the crème fraiche or heavy cream, but that's my personal preference. If I don't have fresh chives, I use Italian parsley. And I like to crumble some cooked bacon on top.

Cream of Leek and Potato Soup Recipe | Food Network

https://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/potato-and-leek-soup-2732855

Bella ✌️
 
I've been inspired by this thread. I don't bake as many of you know, but I have made a few loaves over the years.

My favorite is English Muffin Bread, a no-knead rather sticky dough, spread into the greased and cornmeal dusted pans. Don't have to touch it.

Well, I guess this is why I don't bake..... it called for a teaspoon of baking soda. I totally forgot to add it!

The dough is rising now in the oven with just the oven light for warmth. After 30 minutes, I must stir it down and divide into the pans. I plan to stir in the missing baking soda during that stir down. It must then rise another 30 minutes.

Does anyone think that will work? :cry:
 
RadishRose said:
I've been inspired by this thread. I don't bake as many of you know, but I have made a few loaves over the years.

My favorite is English Muffin Bread, a no-knead rather sticky dough, spread into the greased and cornmeal dusted pans. Don't have to touch it.

Well, I guess this is why I don't bake..... it called for a teaspoon of baking soda. I totally forgot to add it!

The dough is rising now in the oven with just the oven light for warmth. After 30 minutes, I must stir it down and divide into the pans. I plan to stir in the missing baking soda during that stir down. It must then rise another 30 minutes.

Does anyone think that will work? :cry:
Click to expand...
lol..Nope!
 
After debating between the Pumpkin Loaf or the muffins, I made both. The recipe is identical except for a little less sugar in the muffins. I used half for the loaf and the rest for muffins. The whole recipe should have made one dozen muffins. I almost think that‘s wrong, because the muffins would have been monstrous. I made half the strudel muffin topping and had enough to put on the loaf too.

I was happy that they weren’t sweet. Most recipes called for twice the sugar.
 
RadishRose said:
I must stir it down and divide into the pans. I plan to stir in the missing baking soda during that stir down. It must then rise another 30 minutes.
Click to expand...
When you divide it in half, you could try adding the soda to one part.

Oops, too late for my suggestion. If they’re rising, you’ll probably be good.
 
Jules said:
After debating between the Pumpkin Loaf or the muffins, I made both. The recipe is identical except for a little less sugar in the muffins. I used half for the loaf and the rest for muffins. The whole recipe should have made one dozen muffins. I almost think that‘s wrong, because the muffins would have been monstrous. I made half the strudel muffin topping and had enough to put on the loaf too.

I was happy that they weren’t sweet. Most recipes called for twice the sugar.
Click to expand...
I'm glad they came out well, @Jules.
Coincidentally, as I was adding a spoon of pure pumpkin puree to my dog's food earlier, I tasted the pumpkin. I decided those pumpkin & cheese stuffed ravioli might be very good, since it's only the "pumpkin pie spice" I dislike.
 
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RadishRose said:
My loaves taste like baking soda! :ROFLMAO: UGH.
Also, I didn't tell ya, but I put too much yeast in the mix, (only 1/4 tsp) so as to empty the envelope. And yep, they rose over the pans and stuck.

I'm going back to real food.
Click to expand...
Don't be discouraged, @RadishRose, we all screw up. I'd forgotten to add ingredients and remembered when I put it in the oven. 🥴 I've quickly taken it out, scraped the batter into a bowl, washed the pan, added the missing ingredient, and poured it back into the pan. I'd rather do that than have it come out weird tasting. I'll bet if you give the bread another shot it'll come out great! 🙂
 
Bella said:
This past weekend, I made Emeril Lagasse's Potato Leek soup. I've been using this recipe since 2003. I doubled it, so I have some for the freezer. I use either russets or Yukon Gold potatoes. If I don't have white wine around, I use 2T of apple cider vinegar instead. I don't add the crème fraiche or heavy cream, but that's my personal preference. If I don't have fresh chives, I use Italian parsley. And I like to crumble some cooked bacon on top.

Cream of Leek and Potato Soup Recipe | Food Network

https://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/potato-and-leek-soup-2732855

Bella ✌️
Click to expand...
So you skip the cream altogether? Interesting. I quite like potato leek soup - also vichyssoise - but gave them up when I mostly stopped using dairy. Do you increase the potatoes to compensate?
 
Making Sour Cream Biscuit Cookies...probably never heard of them, huh!
They are a wonderful vanilla softer cookie made from an old recipe when a milk man had too
much leftover sour cream day after day. His wife made a great recipe using sour cream to help
him sell it.

From then on he sold out and I know why. Just finished eating one with my coffee this morning. Love them microwaved for about 10 seconds.

Also will probably make famous southern biscuits made with the "secret flour" I keep only to
use for these fluffy, delicious biscuits. Nobody makes a good biscuit without the proper flour. January/ February are "biscuit & gravy months"...learned that when we were in the food mfg. biz. Which reminds me, also have a go to recipe for great gravy that has been our staple for years and made in about 5 minutes.

I'll post the recipes if wanted. Happy cooking everyone.
 
RadishRose said:
My loaves taste like baking soda! :ROFLMAO: UGH.
Also, I didn't tell ya, but I put too much yeast in the mix, (only 1/4 tsp) so as to empty the envelope. And yep, they rose over the pans and stuck.

I'm going back to real food.
Click to expand...
I hate making mistakes when baking.

Last spring I made brownies. If I do a triple recipe, it fits perfectly into my 11" X 14" and 10" X 12" pyrex pans. Makes about 80 brownies, but they freeze well and I had some freezer space.

The dough seemed too sloppy. Lemme see what's wrong here. Well, drat. Realized I'd put in a full pound of butter instead of half a pound!

Rather than throw everything out, I put that mixture into a giant bowl and did another full recipe (sans the butter) and slowly (in segments) combined it using the mixer. Of course there was way too much dough for my mixer bowl so it took a while to do this. Thank heavens I had a double oven, plenty of baking pans, ample time to combine it, and all the ingredients on hand (all told, it took a whopping dozen eggs and 14 cups of chocolate chips). When I tell you my kitchen was a mess afterwards, I'm not whistling Dixie.

The brownies turned out great but obviously yielded far more brownies than planned. Between us and our kids' families, we worked our way through them within a few months. No harm, no foul.
 


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