I Need to Stop Trying to Improvise While Baking
ritaweeda
4 years ago
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Comments (15)
sushipup1
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Can pumpkins 'bake' while still on the vine?
Comments (10)I agree that it is sunburn, which in the plant world is given the fancy name of sunscald. You can get sunscald on any 'fruit' that gets too much sunlight. I've seen sunscald on tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, melons of all kind although watermelon seems to resist it best, pumpkins, and young (but not old) gourds. I don't think I've ever seen sunscald on beans, peas, cucumbers or okra. Often, when a fruit or veggie gets sunscald something has happened to its foliage and it suddenly is exposed to more sun than it has been receiving. That 'something' could be something as simple as the fruit outgrowing the foliage that had been shading it or the wind (or humans) moving the foliage around and exposing the fruit to the sun. Sunscald can happen because disease or hail or high wind defoliates the plant. Right now I have sunscald on some sweet peppers because last week's wind storm (45 mph winds) broke off some branches which left previously shaded fruit exposed. I'm going to harvest them today and cut off the brown spots and use them before rot sets in. If you leave sunscalded fruit in the garden, eventually the burnt area will get rot in it. As for carving the kids' names into the pumpkins, you do it while the pumpkins are young and small and green and you carve their name lightly into the green rind. It will scar over and that scar will enlarge as the pumpkin grows so that each kid has their name on a pumpkin. I don't think it will work if you do it after they've sized up, gotten large and and started to ripen. At that point, the pumpkins are so large and so close to being ripe that rot might set in if you carve the names into them now. If sunscald is an ongoing problem and you can't rearrange the foliage to cover the fruit, you can shade them using cardboard, sheets, etc. I've sat white plastic lawn chairs over large pumpkins to shade them when they've starting getting to much sun exposure before. Of course, I had to explain to the neighbors why I had white lawn chairs placed randomly in the pumpkin patch! Dawn...See MoreMiserable in temporary living while trying to build
Comments (15)Oh man YES. I had to repeatedly remind myself that we CHOSE to sell first. I still think it was the best way to go but it stunk. No 2 ways about it. It was 10 months in an old home on a very loud and busy street with no dishwasher, no air and one bathroom and no garage during the worst winter in over 30 years. The well was so bad that you could not shower, wash dishes and do laundry at one time. In fact you could only do 1 of those things and we had 2 boys in sports! It was at month 2 when I turned the faucet on to fill a pan with water and brown came out I had it! So they did put a new well in finally but it was still not pleasant. Did I mention those little lady bug things were everywhere? I would fill the sink to wash dishes and they would get in the water while I was washing. Totally CREEPED OUT! Kitchen had no vent fan and no light above the stove-black painted cabinets and red walls. I did set the smoke detectors off more than once and had to put up one of those puck lights just to see what I was cooking! I told my husband it was an assault on all of your senses, depressing! It was dark, loud, damp, cold and smelled old! We made good use of the sound machine mentioned above. We already owned it because dh worked midnights for a while. I didn't sleep for about a month off and on-Tylenol PM was my friend. Semi's would shake the house. You could not even hear the tv when traffic went by, the living room was the lightest (most windows), loudest and coldest room. The day we received occupancy I walked out with the kids and the coffee pot, literally. We slept at the new house for a couple nights and I gathered myself up to go back and actually start moving boxes and I could not believe the marked difference in feeling when I walked in to that dark kitchen. It truly was like a cave. Our new house has so many windows-love the light. There were not many or any other options where we lived to keep the kids near school and it was totally no lease, month to month. That I know was worth a lot but it was quite miserable indeed. We made it though and you will too. Battle scars I tell ya! Hang in there. This post was edited by Autumn.4 on Fri, Jul 18, 14 at 19:40...See MoreMy First Improvisational Bread
Comments (16)Wow! Congrats, KD!! I love it when that kind of stuff happens. :) I did the opposite. Everyone keeps telling me I can substitute the discard for the same amount of water and flour in any old recipe, but whole wheat really is different. I used a recipe for white as a basic guide for the dough ball, but I think it wasn't wet enough. It was well risen, though, so I made rolls. They came out with a hard crust (I was aiming for crunchy) like good old fashioned bolillos. (Isn't it weird that all the old time tough crusts like bagels, pita and bolillos have gone by the wayside just as people's teeth have gotten so much better?) The inside is nice and tender, but I think they would have been better larger, with more soft crumb per hard crust. OTOH, I only know for sure because one fell on the floor as I was taking it out of the oven, so, of course, I had to eat it right away. :)...See MoreI need an Italian baked chicken recipe--no alcohol, no pasta
Comments (5)Nothing specifically 'Italian' about this except that I got it out of Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking"--it's a delicious roast chicken with lemons, nearly foolproof. If you can find a free range bird for this, do so; but even with ordinary supermarket poultry it's very good. Roast Chicken with Lemons from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan Knopf, 1995 If this were a still life its title could be "Chicken with Two Lemons." That is all that there is in it. No fat to cook with, no basting to do, no stuffing to prepare, no condiments except for salt and pepper. After you put the chicken in the oven you turn it just once. The bird, its two lemons, and the oven do all the rest. Again and again, through the years, I met people who come up to me to say, "I have made your chicken with two lemons and it is the most amazingly simple recipe, the juiciest, best-tasting chicken I have ever had." And you know, it is perfectly true. For 4 servings Ingredients # A 3- to 4-pound chicken # Salt # Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill # 2 rather small lemons Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels. 3. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken, rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity. 4. Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar implement. 5. Place both lemons in the birds cavity. Close up the opening with toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but dont make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from spreading apart and splitting the skin. 6. Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will not be affected. 7. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20 and 25 minutes total cooking time for each pound. There is no need to turn the chicken again. 8. Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt. Ahead-of-time note: If you want to eat it while it is warm, plan to have it the moment it comes out of the oven. If there are leftovers, they will be very tasty cold, kept moist with some of the cooking juices and eaten not straight out of the refrigerator, but at room temperature....See Moreritaweeda
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