sally2- Not ALL powdered milk products "taste wretched". You just haven't experienced the ones that taste good. These are the brands we use and they are difficult to detect from regular milk - straight from the glass. We've done the taste tests with milk-lovers over the years, including my husband, and they never knew they were consuming "powdered milk" in anything it's been used in, including drinking it. Country Cream - an instant non-fat dry milk product http://www.grandmascountryfoods.com/ Morning Moo's - a non-instant, low-lactose, whey-based milk substitute available from Augason Farms (formerly Blue Chip Group) - http://www.augasonfarms.com/ I realize "taste" is subjective, but many people who would NEVER drink buttermilk wouldn't think anything contrary to adding it to chocolate cake or scones. There is more contributing to the flavors in a recipe besides powdered milk. Heat alters the sugars in milk, which will alter the milk flavor. Have you ever tasted raw flour? Nothing pleasant-tasting about that.... ;-) -Grainlady

lpinkmountain - Cake flour is milled from soft wheat and is also bleached, which is one thing I avoid in flour (although King Arthur has a new unbleached cake flour available). Whole wheat pastry flour is also milled from soft wheat, but not so low in the protein as cake flour is. Using ALL cake flour (7.5-8.5% protein) would be a little too low in gluten for soda bread. I've seen soda bread recipes that use a portion of cake flour and all-purpose flour to lower the gluten level. Other flour choices would be Southern All-Purpose flours such as White Lily (which has always been the flour-of-choice for making biscuits for generations), Martha White, Gladiola, and Red Band. Yogurt is a good substitute for buttermilk because it is acid enough to react the soda in soda bread recipes, an acid ingredient is a MUST. Just give the yogurt a stir to liquefy it (which breaks up the curds), and you can add a little milk or water if you want to thin it a bit. In fact, yogurt (4.3-4.4 pH) is more acid than buttermilk 4.5-5.1 pH) - the lower the number the more acidic the food. Sour milk would also work, naturally soured or soured with lemon juice or vinegar. Powdered buttermilk is rather insipid, compared to commercial buttermilk. It just doesn't have that tangy flavor that is part of soda bread - BUT - if you want to use powdered buttermilk, you can use it to culture and make your own homemade buttermilk, and it will be nice and tangy like commercial buttermilk. How to: In a quart jar, place 1/2 c. buttermilk (commercial buttermilk or reconstituted buttermilk made from powdered buttermilk - according to package directions). Fill the remainder of the jar with regular milk. Stir well. Let stand in a warm place (at least 80°F - I place mine in the oven with the light on, as far from the light as possible). Leave the mixture until it clabbers - 12-18-hours. Stir when done and refrigerate. You can take a 1/2-cup of homemade buttermilk to culture your next (1-quart) batch of homemade buttermilk if you use it within two weeks. BTW - When making biscuits, once the liquid ingredients are added to the dry ingredients, keep mixing (by hand) to a bare minimum so you don't develop the gluten strands in the dough. I pat biscuit dough into a nice square with floured hands (no rolling pin) and then cut them into squares with a pizza cutter. When you cut biscuits into rounds, you have all that leftover dough which is balled up, patted out and cut again. Those biscuits are called "second cuts" and are generally more tough than first cuts because the gluten has been over-worked. So to save time and avoid second cuts, try cutting your biscuits into squares. -Grainlady

Here is another low fat one. Sunset magazine first suggested making these to take camping, so the instructions are geared to travel. I just make 'em and eat 'em. I use very little oil because I hate frying... Thai Turkey Sausage From Sunset magazine Perfect for campouts, you can cook up a big batch of patties at home and freeze. Heat them in camp for a great breakfast with eggs or hash-browns (Wilderness Cuisine author Carole Latimer uses sweet potatoes), tangerine juice, and papaya wedges. Notes: It's easiest to mince lemon grass in a food processor or minichopper. For best texture, mince the remaining ingredients with a knife. 1 pound ground turkey 1/4 pound green beans, ends and strings removed, minced 8 green onions, ends trimmed, minced 1 stalk (5 to 8 in.) fresh lemon grass, tough outer layers, stem end, and coarse leaves removed, minced 3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro 2 to 3 teaspoons fresh serrano chilies (2 or 3), stemmed, seeded, and finely minced 2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla) 1 large egg 2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon sugar About 2 tablespoons olive oil 1. At home: Mix turkey well with beans, onions, lemon grass, cilantro, chilies (lesser amount for mildest flavor), fish sauce, egg, cornstarch, and sugar. Divide into 16 equal portions and shape into 16 patties, each 1/2 inch thick. 2. Pour oil into a 10- to 12-inch nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add a few patties, without crowding. Cook until brown on each side and no longer pink in center (cut to test), about 7 minutes total. Remove as cooked and drain on paper towels; add more patties to pan. 3. When patties are cool, freeze in a single layer in a metal pan until hard, then seal airtight in plastic freezer bags. Transport in an insulated chest. 4. In camp: Place frozen patties in a 9- to 10-inch nonstick frying pan over low heat, cover, and cook until warm, 3 to 5 minutes; turn at least once.

My wife and I began making a lot of low-fat, fat-free and sugar-free substitutions in our diets after my doctor told me to lose some weight and her lab tests revealed blood sugar levels bordering on adult onset diabetes. One thing we just couldn't give up were waffles on the weekend, so I went over my traditional recipe using biscuit and baking mix, and made a few changes that cut down the fat while still producing a satisfying waffle. This and all the other changes must be working because her uncle hadn't seen me between Easter and Mother's Day, and he wanted to know how I had lost so much weight. In place of butter and regular syrups, we have these with Shedd's Country Crock Calcium Enriched Spread. Cathy sweetens her waffles with a sugar-free syrup and I pour on half-calorie syrup. I haven't tried to make these in a waffle baker with uncoated grids, so these changes might not work if your waffle iron doesn't have non-stick coated grids. Reduced-Fat Waffles 1 egg 1/3 cup (heaping) non-fat dry milk 1 1/3 cup water 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 2 cups biscuit and baking mix (store brands work fine and save money :) ) Plug in and preheat the waffle baker (non-stick grids recommended). Separate the egg and beat the egg white in a small, clean glass mixing bowl to the stiff peak stage. Beat the egg yolk, non-fat dry milk and water until frothy in a 4- or 8-cup glass measuring cup. Add the biscuit and baking mix and the vegetable oil and beat until fairly smooth. Fold in the beaten egg white until the batter takes on a slightly lumpy appearance. DON'T stir it smooth. Let stand 5 minutes. Dribble the batter in a constantly moving stream onto the bottom grid of the preheated waffle baker until the grid is completely covered. Close and bake 5 minutes. Remove carefully and serve bottom-side up for best presentation.