Ann_T

Moe's says I haven't met a grocery store I didn't like. I love grocery shopping and I shop almost daily. I've always shopped this way. When I worked in Toronto many years ago,I worked downtown and lived along the Yonge Subway line. Lived in a neighbourhood where there was a Fruit and Vegetable store, a butcher, bakery and depending on which stop I got off, a seafood store. I got off the subway and shopped for dinner and then walked the rest of the way home. I pass a Country Grocer on my way to work everyday and stop there every morning to pick up anything I might need for dinner or for lunch. They have a good vegetable/fruit department although other than chicken, I don't tend to buy meat there. Thrifty's is just five minutes from home so I will often go there in the morning and drop stuff off at home before heading to work. Thrifty's has both a butcher counter and a seafood counter. And their beef is the best. And the butchers are always happy to cut a roast or steaks for me. I don't like the Superstore's self check out, but the Duncan Thrifty's has a self=checkout and I like it. The Mill Bay location doesn't have self-checkout. @gfweb I loved Wegmans and when we lived in Dunkirk, NY we were about halfway between Erie and Buffalo and Jamestown. A couple of times a week I would go to at least one of them. It varied as to which location depending on what other shopping I planned to do.

Moe's breakfast. Picked up more of the Kirkland brand low sodium bacon so breakfast was simple. Bacon and Sunnyside Up eggs. Toasted baguette.

Other than our traditional Christmas Eve Tourtiere, I haven't thought about Christmas dinner yet. Moe loves an old fashion Chile sauce with his tourtiere and I want gravy on mine. So from yesterdays roasted chicken I made gravy and put it in the freezer. Netted 3/4's of a litre from that little chicken. And I also have some wonderful pork gravy, from the porchetta I roasted earlier this week, also in the freezer, just enough to go into the meat filling for the tourtiere. I will have to make a small batch of the Chile sauce between now and then. The last couple of times I made it I just used canned tomatoes. I have a duck in the freezer so maybe I'll do that. Matt is a vegetarian so I can pretty much do what I want for Christmas dinner and Moe will be happy.

I decided I would roast the chicken this morning before work. But then I gave Moe the choice of a full chicken dinner, or a hot chicken sandwich with fries for dinner or he could have the legs with fries and TBQ sauce for breakfast. He choose breakfast.

Thrifty's where I buy all my beef, lamb and other cuts of meat, had Porchetta stuffed with pork tenderloin roasts the other day. I had not seen these before here. They had a couple of small ones so I couldn't resist. I hadn't roasted one before. I seasoned with garlic, black pepper and fennel. Pushing some down between the roll and rubbing on top. Slow roasted rather than my regular high heat method and served with roasted potatoes, squash and fresh green beans. And the best gravy. Even with very little in the way of drippings from such a small roast the pork gravy was so good.

Lamb Shanks are on my top 10 list of favourite meals. I do them various ways, but tonight's version was Greek. Served with rice, Greek potatoes and always with a Greek salad. Always reminds of many of the Greek Restaurants in Toronto on the Danforth. Known as Greek Town. Years ago, like 45 to 50 years ago) some of the restaurants would take you in to the kitchen and let you choose from a number of different pots. Make up your plate and bring it out to the table. I always went with the lamb shoulder. Melt in your mouth tender. At some point this stopped . I'm assuming it had something to do with Health Regulations.

Today's bake. Same day dough. Started with a sourdough Pate Fermentee. Baked nine small poppy seed baguettes. Just 8 1/2 to 9" each. (Claude size). Took him four.

Moe's breakfast. Bacon (low sodium) with butter basted eggs. Toasted slices of baguette.

@Matthew.Taylor love that picture of the butter melting into your rolls. I can almost taste. Started a sourdough batch yesterday morning before leaving for work. Dough was started with a pâte fermentée. Left in the fridge all day and taken out at 8:00 PM last night. Left on the counter until 3:30 this morning. Baked 9 skinny baguettes. Matt and Moe like this size for sandwiches.

On my way to work yesterday I picked up a rotisserie chicken, with the intention of making a chicken sandwich on one of yesterday's sourdough baguettes. Never got around to doing that, so I brought the chicken home with me. Last night's dinner was fresh sole with baby shrimp so I still had to do something with the chicken. This morning I scraped the jelled drippings from the bottom on the container into a pan, added some butter and cooked until the juices browned and then made a roux. Added reduced sodium chicken broth and seasoned with sage, thyme and black pepper. Amazing how much gravy one can get off a small amount of drippings. Made Moe a hot chicken sandwich with homemade fries and peas for breakfast. All those fries were from one long russet potato. This should keep him going until dinner.

I love Congee. Baked sourdough baguettes this morning. Sliced and toasted for breakfast. If truth be told, toast is the real reason I bake bread.

I hadn't fed my sourdough starters in 6 weeks. Pulled them out of the fridge on Wednesday and fed both and made a levain with 55g of the discard, 55g of water and 142g of flour. Left the levain and the two fed starters out on the counter until they had more than doubled and then in the fridge. Pulled the levain out yesterday morning and added it to 1000g of flour, along with salt and just 1g of yeast. 66% hydration. After the last stretch and fold the dough went into the fridge until 8:30 last night. Dough was ready to use at 3:00 AM. Set aside 400g of dough for Matt to make a pizza, 200g of dough went back into the fridge to use as a Pate Fermentee for another batch of dough in the next day or two and baked 6 baguettes with the remaining dough. Sliced one to toast for breakfast while still warm. And toast is why I bake bread.

Now that is a plate full of goodness. Well except for the mac and cheese. Not a fan of it any day and it isn't something traditionally served with a turkey dinner here. Is it a regional side everywhere in the US or just in the south?

Last night's dinner. Grilled burgers with potato chips. Sticking to the lower sodium diet these chips are 50% less salt and actually taste pretty good.

Made a pepperoni olive and mushroom pizza for dinner.

When we had the chicken pot pies last week, I froze two small ones in ramekins. Took them out last night and let them defrost in the fridge. Made biscuits and topped the pot pies with mini biscuits and served them for breakfast.

@PatrickT, thank you for sharing the recipe. @JoNorvelleWalker, I've missed your bread bakes. When you are awake and up by 3:00AM most mornings, you might has well cook and bake. Started a batch of dough yesterday morning before work and left it in the fridge until 8:30 last night. Ready to start shaping at 3:00 AM. Baked 12 mini baguettes. Perfect size for sandwiches.

Started a dough yesterday morning and put in the fridge until 8:30 last night. Left on the counter until 3:00 AM and baked this morning. Hydration was 72%. Baked different size baguettes for different uses. I like the skinny style baguette for slicing horizontally and Moe likes the fatter baguettes cut in slices. Sliced one this morning while still slightly warm. Made Moe a beef dip sandwich for breakfast.

Nice to see you baking again. That is a beauty. @PatrickT You make some of the most interesting breads. You had me at "butterscotch".

I sliced a baguette that was baked this morning and made Moe a Beef Dip sandwich for breakfast using half a baguette and leftover roast beef and au jus for dipping and I'm going to take the same sandwich to work today for lunch.

The Sterling Silver top sirloin roast is my favourite roast. When cooked rare /medium rare it is always tender and has a wonderful flavour. I had intended to roast one for dinner last night, but Matt had made pizza and Moe had some of that for lunch and didn't think he could do justice to a big dinner. So.....I roasted it this morning and we had a roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes, peas and corn. I had thought I would take some for lunch, but instead ate breakfast with Moe this morning. This roast is always good, but this one in particular was even more so.

@Ganthercage you can find the recipe here.

I had intended to bake my favourite coconut cream pie, but used the last of the eggs yesterday. Didn't want to wait until after I got back from the grocery store today so decided to use the Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie recipe and just turn it in to a coconut cream pie by adding toasted coconut to the filling and on top of the whipped cream. It was suppose to be dessert tonight but Moe decided he would have a piece for his lunch.

Made my favourite Chicken Pot Pie for dinner last night in individual servings. With homemade "quick puff pastry".

Baguettes baked this morning. Slice one while still a little warm. Toasted for Moe's breakfast to go with bacon and easy over eggs. The bacon is Kirkland's brand reduced sodium. Even if we hadn't had to reduce Moe's sodium intake, I would still buy this bacon. It is that good.