Floof! Time travel! The year is 2005
Texas_Gem
3 years ago
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Festive Floof/Vent Here!
Comments (38)I haven't been to a family holiday since my dad died in 1968. It used to always be at my mother's house, but after my dad died, she started going to my brother's, and my sister moved away, and back, and away, and unaccounted for sometimes. She didn't get along with very many people...so it was always just Jody and me, until Erin came along in 1980. She finished high school and moved to Houston for university and never moved back. So the concept of family or family celebrations or family getting together for the holidays is kind of foreign to me. Now my mother, brothers, sister, and all in laws, and most of my nieces and nephews, and Jody have passed away. It is just me. Erin spends holidays with her husband's family, which is good, because I am glad for her to be part of a family, although knowing her so well, she probably would rather just spend it with her husband. Of course, I miss Jody, but I don't mind being alone. I prefer it. I bought a turkey, but not sure if I will cook it before or after or on the day. Heck, I may just leave it in the freezer. I am expecting company after Thanksgiving....not particularly looking forward to that. I don't mind company but I am ready for them to leave after a couple of days, and I get a sense that he plans to stay awhile. (He is bringing his cat). I have sort of a routine and I like to keep to it, plus I have to be home a lot because a couple of the horses are fed four times a day. I do miss all the foods associated with holidays past, and I plan to make several of the ones I like best....probably not all at the same time. My company to-be has already sent his likes and dislikes in that department, and they aren't the same as mine....so we will see. He says we can eat out a lot. Great. Not....See MoreFood floof! Love required....
Comments (37)Quite often, actually....altho it does work both ways, LOL. I'd eat pork 5 days out of 7 if I could, whereas he can take it or leave unless it's bacon or chile verde! He loves seafood whereas I can take it or leave it, and usually I leave it. There's only a couple of fish I still eat, which is weird because until I was over 40 I loved fish and shellfish. Fortunately we both love lamb, goat, beef/bison, venison, liver, chicken, duck, and most offal. The one dish I make for family parties is a special sushi I created years ago. Nobody else wants to make it, although my niece knows how. Nothing is really hard but it takes multiple steps over several days. Since the 'younger generation' is still working full-time jobs and I'm retired, I have the time to make it. It's ironic that I don't care for sushi OR sashimi - when I was growing up they were strictly picnic foods, like hot dogs and macaroni salad. I had never considered them anything special, and when the sushi craze started, I was amazed that people PAID MONEY to eat a rice ball pressed in somebody's hand. I kid my spouse all the time, because he never had sushi or sashimi growing up in Hong Kong, or even when he came to the US. It wasn't until we got married he tried them, and immediately fell in love with both! My MIL half-jokingly blamed me for his changing tastes - she loved sushi rolls, but only with the cooked shrimp and avocado slices. Raw fish made her shudder!...See MoreFestive Food Floof! Do you dare?!?!?
Comments (30)While I've been baking bread and challah (brioche type dough) all my life, the only yeast pastries I've made often are hamentashen in a sweet version of my mother's challah recipe. Last week, I had this sudden thought, "Pumpkin babka!" This has been a great year for pumpkins. So instead of figuring it out myself, I searched for recipes on the 'net, and found a chocolate with pumpkin dough, and one more like what I'd had in mind, which was pumpkin-pecan filling in a rich, soft dough. I usually have great results with blog recipes, and I was sleep deprived, so even though I reviewed the ingredients before saving the recipe, I didn't actually read them through for quality. BIG mistake! I don't know if it's meant to be a sabotage (the comments were useless, only discussing the pretty pictures in the post). It sort of reads, to my bread self like it was partially scalled with oopsies. I've done that scaling a recipe for myself in my head, without writing it down when I was tired. I don't know, for sure, but looking back, it also doesn't match the instructions in the demonstration. It's, um, whack! There were plenty of places where I had warning signs and should have stopped and read it over and quit, but I didn't. I was tired beyond thought. When I started the first step, and it said 2 1/2 TBSP yeast to 3 -4 cups flour, I should have stopped. I just figured she meant teaspoons, and adjusted accordingly. Then I read the gigantic amound of sugar and salt. I always adjust those to taste anyway, so I kept going. When it said 8 eggs and half a pound of butter, I just figured she knew something I needed to learn. Um. No. The result, as you who bake know, was a glutinous cake batter. I added about a cup of flour and ran it with the dough hook and let it "rise" (not that any rising was happening). Good thing I've learned so much about high hydration baking. I poured it out onto the baking mat. There was enough gluten development at this point that it didn't spill away, just made a stable lake. Much as I would have liked to use my big steel bench scraper, one can't on silicone, but a big bunch of cast flour on it, scrape up some goop with the small plastic bench scraper and push it over, led to a more stable mound. Still too soft for even a stretch and fold, but holding its shape as a mound. I covered and let it rise. And it did! And when I heavily dusted with more flour, it was manageable and rolled. It was too soft to twist nicely, but enough so that the middle has a nice distribution. You can't see the layers, though. The dough was still too soft and smushed together. And it was so soft that the outside was almost burning before the inside was done, and the corners were dry because of that. The filing was good. That's a keeper. So is the butteriness of the dough. The end result was fine eating, though not exquisite. I think if I added a little extra butter to the hamentashen dough it would be more like what one needs, and I think more filling proportionate to the dough. I had been surprised that it didn't call for toasting the pecans, but they came out great from raw. Because of the restriction I put on the excess sugar, it's really good with cranberry sauce! While chatting, i mentioned it to the Thanksgiving cousin, and that I'd put the second loaf in the freezer. She asked me to bring it, but I don't know if anyone ate any. At least I don't have to find someone to feed it to! Which is why one tests recipes ahead. I also tried to make the handkerchielf rolls. I don't think there's any saving that one. I mean, they're rolls but they have a kind of gummy mouth feel, and that's after I overbaked them a little! Nasty. The recipe was designed to sell the baking dish. I'm thinking I could rescue them with custard. Pumpkin bread pudding is in the offing. Maybe with a cranberry hard sauce. The worst breads make the best bread puddings!...See MoreFloof! Rate your year!
Comments (31)5/10 Tons of ups and down. I had Covid which finally showed up on a rapid test April Fools Day. It was not funny. At. All.... I was sick for 12 days at home until it finally came back negative, then took more probably 3 more weeks to feel back to normal once I went back to work. I was constantly out of breath doing the smallest jobs. I still have some brain fog. We went to BC to see my parents and sister, and also my nephew got married (again) in Harrison Hot Springs. So that was wonderful. My son and his little boy drove out with us and the four of us had such a good time driving all over the lower mainland. I ended up with bronchitis in October/November that was worse than the Covid! Nothing I took helped relieve the symptoms. With Covid Dayquil and Tylenol were my best friends. Didn't touch the bronchitis. I was sick for over three weeks and only took 3 days off work. I've masked ever since. Christmas was really nice. My kids always come over and this year my youngest son has a new girlfriend who has a 4 year old and they came for the day too. It's New Years Eve now and not sure who all is coming over for the Dutch Oliebollen tradition. My daughter for sure with her boyfriend. I'm making tons so if there are leftovers, YAY me! LOL...See MoreTexas_Gem
3 years agoTexas_Gem
3 years ago
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