lindag

Some time ago I made Asparagus Risotto in the Instantpot and it was just amazingly good. Today while in town I picked up some nice asparagus and a package of Arborio rice and plan on making it again tomorrow. I got some baby arugula to serve it with and some leeks to add to the rice. I also got some Orange Cranberyy muffins, a breakfast guilty indulgence.

Today's Italian Hearth Bread (from KAF). I'm pretty impressed with the new covered baker!

I will never again step out of my car in an icy grocery store parking lot without checking to see if there's ice under my foot! Did that the other morning and foot slid forward and I slid down the door. Fortunately I was still close to the door so I could brace myself and didn't fall backward. Just embarrassed and dirty and wet. Not a good way to start my day.

Homemade chili was very good; I used Bush's Chili Beans instead of kidney beans for the first time and I like them better. Served with Jiffy cornmeal muffins. Plenty of leftovers for the cold and snowy days ahead.

Had to throw away my sourdough starter, it looked just too far gone to try to revive. No matter, thanks to KAF a new container is on its way, due on Tuesday. Looking forward to some good sourdough sandwich bread.

The finished No-Knead Harvest Bread.

I got a new covered baker from Amazon. I've been having a baking frenzy lately; the winter weather makes me want to make bread and the aroma of fresh baked bread just makes me happy. I made eight Potato-Onion Rye Rolls yesterday and they are ever so good. I'll be having some ham and cheese and mustard on a roll for lunch today. I made the dough last night for No-Knead Harvest Bread which I'll bake off later today. I hope I have enough room in the freezer for all this.

Breakfast today is a toasted English muffin with a drizzle of honey and smeared with peanut butter.

I looked up this recipe and re-sized it by 2/3 to fit my 9” pan de mie. I'm currently out of white flour but should have some in a day or so. I"m eager to try it!

Since I mostly cook for just myself, I find I use my 3 Qt. much more than the 6Qt. Even so, 3 quarts ends up being a lot of leftovers which I like.

I have the smaller (9”) Pan de mie and I use the KAF recipe as well. Mine comes out very nicely. Could it be your oven? Or the placement in the oven?

Thanks for that link, I’ve saved that recipe...it looks SO good!

Made a nice loaf of Cinnamon Raisin Bread (KAF recipe) today. Looking forward to toast for breakfast. A super slow riser even using SAF Gold for sweetened doughs.

Oh yeah!!! That's exactly what I'm going to have for breakfast this morning!

I missed my black eyed peas for the first of the year so tonight I 'll be having Hoppin' Jon in the Instant Pot. looking for ward to that and to the fresh French Herb bread I made this afternoon. I didn't have enough dried blackeyed peas for the recipe but fortunately I had a can in the pantry...saved a last minute trip to the store.

One of these days I'll get my sh*t together and go to work on my two upright freezers that are bulging. One of these days...

I like to keep some smoked salmon on hand for a quick occasional lunch; Ritz crackers, cheese-horseradish spread and the salmon...so good and no effort.

Here in my regular grocery stores I can get 'Tony's' brand which I like quite a lot . I tried Costco's once and it was awful; slimy and off-tasting.

An onion bagel for me; toasted and lightly buttered. The aroma is intoxicating.

That's what it was here as well. I don't believe I've ever seen crab that cheap here. The stores rarely offer it, maybe up to three times a season, if that. it wasn't the freshest either; when I lived in Portland the crab in the store was really fresh, straight from the coast. Just wonderful. I had to chuckle at the grocery clerk who checked out my order; I mentioned how nice it was to finally see some fresh crab and she replied, "Oh god, I can hardly stand to look at it!".

I picked up a small boneless pork loin the other day which I'll rub with grainy mustard , bourbon, brown sugar, etc. Recipe callsfor roasting in a Dutch oven over onion and apples. Don't have the apples but I'll make do with just onion. Have some leftover green beans and a ciabatta roll to go with.

My cancer treatment demands a good diet so I’m going to try to improve some. Today I made steel cut oatmeal (porridge) in my Zo rice maker. Now I don’t like oatmeal but I will force myself to eat it and try to make it less distateful. I added the oats, salt and water and went through the cycle; when done I added brown sugar, Craisins, cinnamon, almonds and dark raisins and milk. I concentrated on the taste of the added ingredients and tried to ignore the texture which is what I like the least. All in all, it was okay and it will be something I'll have again.

My local grocer featured fresh Oregon Dungeness crab today. i just finished cleaning and picking the claws and am looking forward to a wonderful Crab Louie for dinner. This doesn't happen often here so it's a real treat.

One thing I’ve learned is that I tend to overthink it...it does so much automatically.

I need to make some homemade bread...Sometime I just need that aroma to make me feel good.