Ann_T

Pizza night. Moe and I shared a Pepperoni with green olives and Matt's pizza was vegetarian. Crust was sourdough.

Fed my starter again yesterday morning before leaving for work. And made a Biga with the discard. The starter went back into the fridge when I got home and the Biga went into a batch of dough last night and then into the fridge overnight. Moe will take it out this afternoon in time for it to warm up and rise and is destined for pizza tonight.

@JoNorvelleWalker I don't know how long the steam function is operating before switching to just bake, all I know is that I've tried the various options and for me, the Bread setting does the best job. I'm wondering if because the oven is so, so small that eight minutes of constant steam is sufficient. It is about a third of the full baking time. @BetD, a follow up on your question about oven temperatures. I bought a small oven thermometer this week and tested the temperature settings in the Oster. I tested first on regular bake and it was quite accurate at all the settings. The last temperature I tested was 450°F on the turbo convection setting and the temperature got up to 500°F which is what I was hoping for. That is the setting I have been using the most for when I bake bread in the Oster. I haven't tried testing the temperatures in the CSO yet. Maybe I'll try that this week.

Moe didn't want much for dinner so I pulled a sourdough baguette out of the freezer and gave him something to pick at.

I made a Thai Green Curry with chicken legs for dinner last night. Didn't photograph well, but I know it was really good because Moe wanted the leftovers for breakfast.

@JoNorvelleWalker I do. I preheat a stone on the convection bake and switch to the bread setting when the bread goes in the oven.

The last of the smoked salmon. Moe's breakfast. Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon on toasted rye with Hollandaise sauce.

@JoNorvelleWalker, I do have to disagree with you a bit. I've tried using just the steam bake and a combination of steam bake and then switching to convection bake without steam, but I always come back to the bread setting. I find I get the best crust using the bread setting without having to make any adjustments.

Look at the beautiful shine on the crust.

Breakfast is served. Potato Latkes with smoked salmon.

Tonight's dinner. We had lunch out so neither of us was in the mood for a big dinner....So......I made up a smoked salmon platter with homemade sourdough rye. The smoked salmon was wonderful. Scottish Atlantic Salmon oak smoked. And so as to not upset @HungryChris I added capers.

Thanks @BetD . Both ovens were set at their max of 450°F. And I used the Turbo Convection setting on the Oster.

All Moe wanted for breakfast this morning was toasted rye with some some really good 3 year old cheddar from PEI. So that was easy.

No not dried. I have red currants in the freezer that I froze last summer.

@TdeVI found the recipe HERE. I adapted the recipe slightly, but for the most part I left the sauce as is.

Today's Bake. Sourdough Rye. Fed my starter before leaving for work yesterday morning and made a biga using 80g of the discard. Moe put the starter in the fridge around 2:00 PM because it had already doubled. And the biga went into a batch of rye bread last night. Dough was given a cold fermentation over night. Took a while for the dough to come to room temperature and start to rise. Finally went into the oven around 4:00 PM. Two large sourdough rye. Next time I think I will make four smaller loaves.

Tonight's dinner. Duck breast with red currants and port sauce.

Promised Moe my Caesar Salad for dinner last night so I had to come through. Served with wings. Platter for two , which we shared in front of the TV watching the NBA Dunk competition.

@ElsieD, great bake. Look at that crumb. Nice and holey. And nothing wrong with your slashing either. I use a razor blade for scoring.

I'm so jealous of those of you that have a Wegmans. Loved Wegmans when I lived in Dunkirk, NY for a couple of years. I had a triangle route that I would take. I was in between Erie PA and Buffalo and I also had the option of Jamestown. Depending on how I felt, I would go to at least one or two of these each week. We extended our Valentines dinner over two nights. Had planned on Garlic Shrimp Tapas for an appetizer but knew that if we had that we wouldn't eat dinner. So we had the appetizer as a main course last night followed by dessert. Baked my decadent brownies and made Sundaes for dessert.

@liamsaunt WOW!!! your photo of the salmon sandwich is spectacular. Dinner for my Valentine. I made Moe one of his favourite dinners. Chicken Breast Perigord. This recipe comes from Lucy Waverman a Canadian Toronto-based food journalist, editor, columnist, food consultant and cookbook author. I've been making this dish for Moe for 30 years. A mushroom Duxelles is stuffed under the skin of boneless chicken breasts. I adjust the wine sauce slightly turning it into a green peppercorn sauce.

Both of those times are normal. Especially since you were using your starter after just the second stage. Even when I make my regular dough using just 4 to 5 g of yeast, it will often be a slow rise. I'm okay with a slower rise. Better flavour and crumb.

@ElsieD, Your loaf turned out great. How long did your round proof before baking? I use to spin off a white starter, but I'm not doing that any more. There is so little of the rye starter in the biga/preferment, that you really can't taste the rye, just the more developed flavour it contributes. And I think that the rye starter has more strength.

Moe's breakfast. Toasted Sourdough roasted garlic cheese bread.

Today's bake. Sourdough Kalamata Olive with Parmigiano-Reggiano and Roasted Garlic with both cheddar and smoked Gouda. The power went off just as I was going to take a picture of the sliced Roasted Garlic and Cheese, so I had to use the flash light on my phone. Thankfully it wasn't off long because I still had two baguettes proofing. In the oven now. Fingers crossed that the power stays on.