What are you cooking or baking today?

I made 2.5 dozen bran muffins. Looking at them while cooking they seemed pale. Tasting, they seemed bland. Thinking back, I’m sure I forgot the molasses. It was sitting right there. Lesson. Don’t rush. I wanted to get out for a short walk before lunch. DH said he didn’t taste anything different. Guess who will be eating them.
 

Turkey pot pie with @Aunt Bea ’s recipe for easy biscuits on top . I’d made them at least once before, because I’d marked the recipe with an *. That is my symbol for ‘made and loved it’.

Calories gained - we’d better not count.

This is the first dinner made in the oven since at least June. The weather has cooled off.
 

Finished off the Thai Pineapple Fried Rice leftovers yesterday and even typed up the recipe so I'll be able to make it again!

I have some zucchini, onions, celery and other veggies that need to be addressed. Ditto some fruit. Later this morning I'll cook some and freeze some. While in the chopping mode, I'll also pull together a big salad to draw from over the next couple of days.
 
Last Sunday we had Michelle's niece and her 2 young daughters over for lunch. So, on Saturday, I made bierocks - homemade rolls stuffed with cabbage, onion, and ground beef.

I over-baked them. By several minutes...like 4 or 5 at least. Or could be I set the oven too high. Plus, I didn't roll out the dough thin enough, so the bread part was way too thick. Thick, tough rolls with hardly any filling....definitely a no-go.

So we fried up a pound of bacon, boiled a dozen eggs, sliced a few tomatoes, chopped up some baked chicken, and tossed some greens in a bowl. They could have BLTs, egg salad sandwiches, and/or a chef's salad.

My friend said my egg salad (for sandwiches) is the best she ever tasted. My secret ingredient is a dash of marjoram. It's not really a secret, bc I told her, like I tell anyone who asks....but, yeah, a dash of marjoram really livens up the traditional egg salad.

Anyway, it's obvious what went wrong, so I'll try making the bierocks again sometime. Used to be my favorite bag-lunch when I was a kid.
 
Murrmurr said:
Last Sunday we had Michelle's niece and her 2 young daughters over for lunch. So, on Saturday, I made bierocks - homemade rolls stuffed with cabbage, onion, and ground beef.

I over-baked them. By several minutes...like 4 or 5 at least. Or could be I set the oven too high. Plus, I didn't roll out the dough thin enough, so the bread part was way too thick. Thick, tough rolls with hardly any filling....definitely a no-go.

So we fried up a pound of bacon, boiled a dozen eggs, sliced a few tomatoes, chopped up some baked chicken, and tossed some greens in a bowl. They could have BLTs, egg salad sandwiches, and/or a chef's salad.

My friend said my egg salad (for sandwiches) is the best she ever tasted. My secret ingredient is a dash of marjoram. It's not really a secret, bc I told her, like I tell anyone who asks....but, yeah, a dash of marjoram really livens up the traditional egg salad.

Anyway, it's obvious what went wrong, so I'll try making the bierocks again sometime. Used to be my favorite bag-lunch when I was a kid.
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Way to pivot, M!!!
 
Planned for tomorrow: America Test Kitchen's "Almost No-Knead Bread"

720 g or 30 oz. hard flour (you will want to weigh this flour instead of measuring by cup, but if you don't have a scale, 6 cups)
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp table salt
3/4 cup beer
2 tbsp white vinegar
1.5 cups water

This is a doubled recipe from ATK, only because I like to make a tall loaf and the single recipe doesn't cut it.

Make sure the water and the beer are at room temp. I usually combine the water and beer and zap it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to get it to about 75 deg. F.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add the wet ingredients. Use a stout wooden or metal spoon to mix and get all all the flour combined -- some bits like to hide on the bottom of the bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place for at least 8 hours, but not longer than 18 hours. I put mine in the oven with the oven light on. Works great.

After the first proof, turn out the dough onto a floured surface. The dough will be sticky, so use oiled gloves or a good amount of flour to keep the sticky factor down. Shape into the desired shape without kneading further. I use a loaf pan, but you may want to make a boule (round) shape. Place the dough on parchment paper, sprayed with cooking oil spray.

Place the loaf into a dutch oven. (I had to take a loaf pan and cut the corners off so it would fit in an oval dutch oven, but whatever works for you.) Cover with plastic wrap, then allow to proof again for about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Remove the plastic wrap, cover the dutch oven, then place into a COLD oven. Heat to 425 deg. F. for about 40 minutes. Take the lid off and bake another 40 minutes or until the internal temp is between 205 - 210 deg. F. If the loaf gets too dark, put the lid back on.

Turn out onto a rack to cool. This bread is fairly rustic and crusty, but not so much it's like chewing on glass.


ETA: Photos - mise en place (everything in its place) - dry ingredients. (Trust me, the scale reads 720g of King Arthur flour -- not a sponsor. I just like the result.) mise en place - wet ingredients. ATK recommends using a pissy corporate American beer. Nope. I spent too long in Germany for that noise. I just go with Yuengling lager. It makes for a hearty (but not overbearing) bread. After mixing - this is what the dough looks like after combining wet with dry.
 

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Eupher said:
Planned for tomorrow: America Test Kitchen's "Almost No-Knead Bread"

720 g or 30 oz. hard flour (you will want to weigh this flour instead of measuring by cup, but if you don't have a scale, 6 cups)
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp table salt
3/4 cup beer
2 tbsp white vinegar
1.5 cups water

This is a doubled recipe from ATK, only because I like to make a tall loaf and the single recipe doesn't cut it.

Make sure the water and the beer are at room temp. I usually combine the water and beer and zap it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to get it to about 75 deg. F.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add the wet ingredients. Use a stout wooden or metal spoon to mix and get all all the flour combined -- some bits like to hide on the bottom of the bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place for at least 8 hours, but not longer than 18 hours. I put mine in the oven with the oven light on. Works great.

After the first proof, turn out the dough onto a floured surface. The dough will be sticky, so use oiled gloves or a good amount of flour to keep the sticky factor down. Shape into the desired shape without kneading further. I use a loaf pan, but you may want to make a boule (round) shape. Place the dough on parchment paper, sprayed with cooking oil spray.

Place the loaf into a dutch oven. (I had to take a loaf pan and cut the corners off so it would fit in an oval dutch oven, but whatever works for you.) Cover with plastic wrap, then allow to proof again for about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Remove the plastic wrap, cover the dutch oven, then place into a COLD oven. Heat to 425 deg. F. for about 40 minutes. Take the lid off and bake another 40 minutes or until the internal temp is between 205 - 210 deg. F. If the loaf gets too dark, put the lid back on.

Turn out onto a rack to cool. This bread is fairly rustic and crusty, but not so much it's like chewing on glass.
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Looks interesting! Do you slash the loaf? (I'm TERRIBLE at that. Never have gotten that down pat.)
 
StarSong said:
Looks interesting! Do you slash the loaf? (I'm TERRIBLE at that. Never have gotten that down pat.)
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No - I don't bother with that. I will post photos either today or tomorrow -- probably tomorrow. But on the slashing, what I have taken away from that process is to first, oil up your knife blade and don't slash so deep. Don't worry if your proofing collapses a bit -- the baking process will bring it back. But in general, I don't care about the slashed look. Doesn't make the bread taste any better.

ETA: Photos posted above. Maybe too many, but I thought it might be interesting to see how the dutch oven comes into play and the finished product.
 
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It appears I can't add more photos to the ATK "No-Knead Bread" post above. I can only post 5 photos in one post, so there are five more photos in the next post.
 

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Tried a new recipe for a one-sheet meal tonight in the oven. Cut carrots & parsnips in strips, potatoes in chunks & onions in small wedges along with some peeled garlic cloves all tossed in olive oil & seasoned with salt/pepper. Rubbed bone-in/skin-on chicken thighs with olive & seasoned with salt/pepper. It also called for mixing together Italian seasoning, gran. garlic, gran. onion & paprika together which was sprinkled over everything.

We had a salad to go with it. It was okay, but the seasoning lacked something. I'll try the basic recipe again, but with other flavors.
 
Looking for suggestions. I've got 3 pounds of ground beef (you UK types call it "mince"), 8 ounces of white mushrooms, a ton of onions and a half-ton of garlic. Add to that a bottle of red wine (the good kind), canned tomatoes of various types (diced, crushed, paste, sauce), dried herbs (thyme, basil, oregano, yada, yada, yada) lotsa beef stock, mire poix, frozen mixed veggies, lotsa cheddar cheese (the VERY sharp kind) and various types of pasta and rice.

OK, I can see where this is going -- but go ahead and enlighten me! :)
 
Eupher said:
Looking for suggestions. I've got 3 pounds of ground beef (you UK types call it "mince"), 8 ounces of white mushrooms, a ton of onions and a half-ton of garlic. Add to that a bottle of red wine (the good kind), canned tomatoes of various types (diced, crushed, paste, sauce), dried herbs (thyme, basil, oregano, yada, yada, yada) lotsa beef stock, mire poix, frozen mixed veggies, lotsa cheddar cheese (the VERY sharp kind) and various types of pasta and rice.

OK, I can see where this is going -- but go ahead and enlighten me! :)
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The Best Classic Shepherd's Pie​

Well, if you lose the mira poix, cheddar cheese and frozen vegs....you could make a big batch of stroganoff.
Or, a Shepard's Pie and/or Cottage Pie.

Ground Beef Cottage Pie Recipe​

 
Eupher said:
Looking for suggestions. I've got 3 pounds of ground beef (you UK types call it "mince"), 8 ounces of white mushrooms, a ton of onions and a half-ton of garlic. Add to that a bottle of red wine (the good kind), canned tomatoes of various types (diced, crushed, paste, sauce), dried herbs (thyme, basil, oregano, yada, yada, yada) lotsa beef stock, mire poix, frozen mixed veggies, lotsa cheddar cheese (the VERY sharp kind) and various types of pasta and rice.

OK, I can see where this is going -- but go ahead and enlighten me! :)
Click to expand...
Use it all, EXCEPT-
the cheese
the oregano
 
Lilac said:
Tried a new recipe for a one-sheet meal tonight in the oven. Cut carrots & parsnips in strips, potatoes in chunks & onions in small wedges along with some peeled garlic cloves all tossed in olive oil & seasoned with salt/pepper. Rubbed bone-in/skin-on chicken thighs with olive & seasoned with salt/pepper. It also called for mixing together Italian seasoning, gran. garlic, gran. onion & paprika together which was sprinkled over everything.

We had a salad to go with it. It was okay, but the seasoning lacked something. I'll try the basic recipe again, but with other flavors.
Click to expand...
Sounds good to me as you made it!
 
Lilac said:
That sounds like what I put into Johnny Marzetti for a quick one-pot meal. I add extra liquid in it for the pasta.
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I am fascinated! Never in my little New England life have I ever heard the term
Johnny Marzetti​
I looked it up. We always called it American Chop Suey, rofl. How silly; I grew up among several Italian areas but never heard this. Thank you, Lilac!
from Wiki-
Alternative namesMarzetti, Johnny Mazetti, Mazetti, Johnny Machete, Joe Mazzotti, Jo Mazzotti
CourseMain dish
Region or stateColumbus, Ohio, Midwestern United States
 
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