Ann_T

Thank you @pastameshugana. Prime Rib Dinner. Picked up a Sterling Silver Prime Rib on Tuesday and presalted. Left in the fridge overnight and taken out and left on the counter to warm up two hours prior to roasting. I roast everything on high heat so this roast went into a 500°F oven for approximately 30 minutes. Rested while the Yorkshire Puddings were baking. Made individual puddings, baked in two 6" cast iron skillets. Served with mashed potatoes, steamed peas, au jus and horseradish.

@heidih, it is a very simple dressing. The chiles were little Thai chiles. I only used one, minced fine, as they were quite hot. Not home grown. The only thing that we grew this year are tomatoes. Prawn and Avocado Salad ======================= 24 large Prawns/Shrimp 2 Avocados sliced 2 Tablespoons chopped chives 6 leaves of Boston or Butter Lettuce Dressing 1 cup of Mayonnaise (homemade or Hellmans is best) 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 small fresh red chili, finely chopped 1 clove of minced garlic (Note: Sometimes I use just hot red pepper flakes and sometimes I roast a fresh red pepper, finely chop and add to the dressing along with the hot red pepper flakes) Peel and devein shrimp, leaving on tail shell. Cook. Cool and refrigerate. Make dressing by mixing all of the ingredients together. To serve, place one leaf of lettuce on each plate. Place the shrimp on plate and place one slice of avocado between each shrimp. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with chopped chives. Source: Australian Women’s Weekly Light and Luscious Summertime Cookbook (1994).

Moe requested burgers for dinner. My favourite burger bun is a Kaiser. So I started a batch this afternoon and they were ready in time for dinner.

@Shelby, whine all you want. You are entitled. I hope you are feeling better soon. Moe requested burgers so that is what we had. On homemade Kaiser buns. Baked this afternoon.

Platter for Two. Avocado and Spot Prawn Salad. I've been making this dish for almost 30 years. Great as a first course when entertaining, as it can be put together at the last minute. Just need to have the prawns cooked and chilled and the dressing made.

Thanks @Smithy. I'm not sure if it is a curse or a blessing to be an earlier riser. But it works for me. And Moe is always awake around the same time. I'm now making a point to have one to three batches of the same dough in the fridge so I can bake when I feel like it. And figured out that if I use very little yeast, just 1 gram that I can leave a batch out overnight and it will be ready to use between 3:00 and 4:00 AM. Or leave it up to 5 days in the fridge with no downside. And when I bake in the morning I can take some to work to share with Claude's dad and two co workers. No one ever turns down homemade bread. The full size baguettes, are 16" (just measured) and Claude's baguette would have been about 7 or 8" and the little boule was probably a 4 to 5" round.

Today's bake. Out of the oven before 7:00 AM. Three regular size baguettes and two "Claude" size breads, one baguette and one boule. Claude is a little four year old who loves my bread.

What a wonderful summer dinner. @Dejah, perfectly cooked steak. @Weinoo, hope your hand is better soon. Dinner for Two. Grilled Chicken Breast Club House on homemade Ciabatta. Ciabatta was toasted on the grill. Cut russet potatoes into wedges and roasted in the oven with a little olive oil.

@PatrickT The final bake from the third batch of dough made last Sunday morning. So this batch was in the fridge for 120 hours. Matt took the dough out of the fridge yesterday morning and put his pizza in the oven at 5:00 PM last night. He used half the dough and saved the other dough for me to deal with when I got in from work. I decided that rather than make a boule or a baguette I would just roughly shape into a ciabatta style loaf. Ciabatta doughs are usually very high hydration, up to 100%. This dough was like the others, just 63%. Baked last night. Sliced this morning. Destined for a sandwich. Going to start a couple of more batches this morning for the fridge.

@heidih, I wouldn't call it exactly sourdoughish (I love that word), but the flavour really is more complex than a same day dough. And so is the crumb.

@PatrickT, Took the second batch of Sunday's dough out of the fridge last night at 8:00 PM. 96 hour fermentation. Preshaped in to 5 small boules just before 4:30 AM. Finished shaping just before 5:00 AM. Ready to go into the oven just after 6:00 AM. Sliced this morning for Moe's breakfast. Matt just took the third batch of out fridge and it will be ready around 4:00 PM for him to make a pizza. He will use half and when I get home from work, I will bake either a baguette or another boule.

@KennethT, That looks delicious. I wish I had seen your photo before I made dinner tonight. I would have made the same thing with halibut. Instead I made Moe Pan fried halibut with browned butter and lemon. Served with steamed broccoli and roasted potato wedges. Beautiful big white flakes.

Moe's breakfast. Leftover beef tenderloin with tomatoes from our garden on a homemade baguette.

PatrickT, If you haven't thrown it out, I would be tempted to give it a cold fermentation for 24 hours and take it from there. I looked up what an overworked dough feels like and the description is different than your "sticky stringy mess". "Signs of Over Kneading The first thing you will notice when you over knead a dough is that it will feel very dense and stiff. It will be hard to press the dough down and flatten it on the counter. It will also be hard to knead by hand and resist being re shaped. The dough will likely rip easily rather than stretch when pulled. These are all indicators that the dough has developed too much gluten, causing the dough to be overly firm. When the gluten has been over developed due to too much kneading, it will be tight and have almost no give."

@PatrickT, Took photos last night and this morning of the first batch out of the fridge and did a blog post. You can find it here - Pictorial - Cold Fermentation Today's bake.

Thanks @JoNorvelleWalker. I can too, but considering it was a work night, I decided the Bearnaise was the one thing I could cheat on and get away with. Can't remember the last time I used that cheat but actually, anything with half a cup of butter isn't half bad.

Thanks Dejah. That Bearnaise sauce was the easy part. LOL!!

Birthday Dinner. Chateaubriand for Two. Started dinner as soon as I got in from work, just after 5:30. Cut the corn off the cobs and got individual corn puddings into the oven. Prepared the vegetables and got the potatoes for the Duchess potatoes on cooking. Mashed the potatoes with cream, butter and a couple of egg yolks and piped onto parchment, ready for the oven. The beef tenderloin, centre cut was seasoned with salt and lots of pepper. Seared in olive oil. Added a whole garlic bulb cut in half and placed cut side down in the pan along with a bunch of fresh thyme and a sprig of rosemary. Topped the garlic with the herbs and placed the seared beef on top. Added butter to the pan and as it melted, basted the beef with the butter. Pan went into a hot oven for 8 minutes, along with the potatoes. While the beef rested , the vegetables, carrots, cauliflower, asparagus and zucchini were steamed. And I cheated and used a package of instant Béarnaise Sauce.

Will the pics over the next couple of days.

I started three more batches this morning at 600 g of flour each all at 63% with 1g of yeast and 15g of salt. After the last stretch and folds they are now in the fridge and will get used over the next four days.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to make for dinner yesterday so before leaving for work, I offered Moe a couple of options, one being steak. He chose the steak and requested green peppercorn steak. So that is what we had. I carved out the russet potatoes using a melon baller and made Parisienne potatoes, along with steamed green beans and cauliflower. One of our favourite meals. Friday night's dinner. Roast Chicken.

Same process I use.

@PatrickT, I tend to use more salt that what most recipes suggest. I like 13 to 15g in 500g of flour and up to 30g when I make a 1000g batch. Most recipes call for around 21g in 1000g of flour. I sliced that 82hr fermentation loaf this morning. Wonderful crumb, holey with lots of shine. Made the best toast for breakfast.

@BonVivant, what a beautiful feast. I can't believe that is your first time making it at home. Amazing!!!! I need to check out that cookbook. Last night's intended dessert, postponed until today. Originally I had planned to serve the fruit over a lemon or grapefruit sorbet topped with a little Prosecco. Went to four different grocery stores and none had sorbet. So then I thought I would do something I have done in the past and make a fruit plate served with sweetened whipped cream folded into creme fraiche. And again, the stores that I can usually find creme fraiche didn't have any either. Anyway, didn't matter because neither of us had room for dessert last night. So I remembered this morning that I still had some clotted cream left. So......I whipped up some heavy cream, sweetened with powdered sugar and a little of vanilla and folded it into the clotted cream and made Moe a fruit plate for lunch.

@PatrickT, one last loaf out of the last dough from Monday night. Matt took the last batch out of the fridge at 7:00 AM this morning and it sat on the counter all day until 3:30 PM. He divided it in half. Half for his pizza and enough left for a larger Baton. I let it rest for a while before the final shaping and it just came out of the oven just before 6:00 PM . So this dough had about 82 hours in the fridge. Handled beautifully for both the bread and Matt's pizza crust.