My weekend Six

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dawnnys

Well-known member
We went to an Oswego farm market (Ontario Orchards, if anyone knows this area) and bought a cauliflower the size of my head. No, bigger. It was huge! Bought my last dozen of corn, I'm afraid. It's getting scarce around here now, and I only found my favorite (Silver Queen) once. I'll have to go back and see if they still have some next weekend (local farmer's market).

Homegrown tomato season is coming to an end :eek:( Basil is still plentiful and I'm getting sick of pesto. Does it freeze well, or does it turn black? I've heard both, and would be happy to hear from those who have preserved it. Dry? Freeze?

Breakfast (brunch?) this a.m. was peach/walnut waffles with Greek yogurt, cider, omelets, and apricot Stilton cheese.

We tried to balance an egg on its end at exactly 10:49 Saturday morning, the moment autumn arrived. It didn't work this time, so I beat them, then I ate them. Ha!

Sunday dinner - roast turkey, cauliflower, beets, Honey Crisp applesauce, and cole slaw. Seemed like a good day for roasting a turkey. Dessert will probably be ice cream with maple syrup whipped cream. I feel an apple pie in the making, maybe this week.

With the rest of the beets that never really took off, will be making pickled eggs.

Et vous?

 
Dawn, I freeze pesto in a dedicated ice-cube tray wrapped in a Ziploc.

Loses some of its vibrant color, but the taste lasts the winter. And if I'm not using the pesto cube in soup, or something, I just thaw it in the bowl on the counter for a few minutes; if I need to speed it up, I'll mash it with a spoon and some olive oil.

Of course, if you're just plain tired of yours, you can send it to meeeeeeeeeeee! We ran out! smileys/wink.gif))

 
Weekend Six

1. I discovered all these old episodes of "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home" on Hulu, and have been steadily going through those, this evening. Something about their warmth is just so much more relaxing and enjoyable to watch than almost any other food show...

2. Dark-chocolate-covered pretzel (not a NY pretzel; a normal-sized one) and a cappuccino by the Columbus Circle fountain with friends, this afternoon.

3. Jakub is in Prague and reports that Starbucks is selling something called an "Apple Crumble Latte." He refused to try it, or even photograph it... smileys/wink.gif

4. Wound up unexpectedly at Trader Joe's and picked up one of those Speculoos Cookie Batter jars, which I fear will be my downfall, this winter... Also picked up pumpkin-seed bread and a pomegranate. Then I stood in line for twenty minutes. I'm sort of glad we don't live near one...

5. Contemplating making Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread with dark chocolate chips as a with-coffee snack, this week, but I'm not sure if a friend who's coming to visit will find it one of these strange American concoctions... Maybe shortbread would be safer... Pumpkin shortbread? Would there be consistency issues with that?

6. Need to figure out what's wrong with our oven that causes it to belch eye-burning smoke (when opened) when turned up to a normal temperature. I'm worried that it's from one winter's worth of roasted chicken, but...the bottom is covered with new sheets of foil, and I cleaned both it and the sides...so I'm not sure what the issue is. But it does make baking a rather unpleasant experience for anyone in the apartment, at the moment. And I was told to never, ever turn on the self-cleaning feature on an oven... Someone, just tell me to clean it. Soap and water should work, right? (It's electric, not gas.)

 
I do this too with lots of things. May I recommend you PAM your tray before putting in pesto? Not

only will it make removal a snap, but if you're using plastic ice cube trays, it'll keep the pesto (or pumpkin, red-wine, stock, etc.) from staining them.

 
I do it in small ziplocs that I leave on the counter overnight before freezing very flat. I have NO

freezer space. In keeping with my kitchen.

 
pesto

I follow Marcella Hazan's recommendation and freeze the pesto without adding the cheese -- cheese gets added when the pesto is defrosted and to be used. I do add a thin layer of olive oil on top of the pesto before covering and freezing. Never had a problem with browning, and, like Marg, find that it keeps easily for a couple years. A few weeks ago, I opened a jar from 2010 and it was perfect. cheers, Bonnie

 
Wishful weekend six:

I was planning an afternoon at a farm about an hour from my house. She has tons of fall produce and I love hanging out on her farm petting the goats, pigs, cats and dogs, checking out the Guinea hens, layers and meat chickens and now turkeys too. Then a walk thru the produce, I just love it. I had chosen 4 soups, pumpkin bread and walnut cake to make.

My mistake was to not check the "beat the traffic" app. The beltway was packed in the direction I was headed. Lanes closed due to an accident and we were moving at less than 5MPH, first thing Sat morning. I resolved to keep my good mood until the clutch died in the middle of all that traffic. Some nice man pushed me off to the side and I had to wait for a tow truck to get thru the traffic. My mood was definitely dampered. Couldn't find DH so I walked home from the car repair place that I was towed to. ARGH!!!

Well I got my pumpkin bread-from the new CI and it is delicious, you caramelize your pumpkin puree first, then mix in all the rest of the ingredients into that saucepan. Very good bread. Next baked the walnut breakfast bread. Not bad. Got some sourdough rising for bread. But then ran out of ingredients. I moped the rest of the afternoon.

Finally Sun I got to go to the farm and bought a ton of beautiful produce. Now to just get thru it all in the evenings afterwork......

Looking forward to a much improved weekend this week smileys/smile.gif

 
Thanks everyone, but I'm talking about the basil leaves themselves. Sick of pesto, but would like

to have the herb to use during the year. Must you make pesto out of it to freeze it (without turning black)? I know pesto doesn't turn black(er) in the freezer, but that might be because of he oil?

I ask because I know my basil wilts and turns black with the first freeze, outside...

THANKS!

 
Hi Erin, not sure about the shortbread, but for the oven, use

VINEGAR! I recently discovered this by accident. Cuts through baked-on "anything".

 
Not for nothing, but once that foil in my oven caught on fire, so never again with the foil.

Granted something spilled over that was totally my fault, but I had no idea it could catch on fire - and it was a pretty big fire, so never again will I use foil on the bottom of my oven.

 
I use her method and recipe, too, Bonnie. Lately, I've been trying it with the cheese added

before freezing and honestly, don't notice much difference.

 
Sorry to hear Sat was such a bust, but sounds like things are looking up!

That farm sounds wonderful! Glad you finally made it there.

 
I'm confused about not using self-cleaning, do you mean in general or just in your

situation? I remember you said you live in an old building, is that why?

Several years ago, we were renting a Florida townhouse while we were having a house built. The unit was new so the oven had never been through the self-clean cycle. I let something spill over in it and my husband decided to set it to clean early one morning before he left and when I finally got up and went downstairs I really panicked. I thought there was a fire in the place, it smelled the way I thought an electrical fire would smell. I was running up and down the street looking for help and finally found some guy who came in, sniffed and said "I think it's your oven". Thank God I hadn't had the presence of mind to call the fire department. It took me a while to live that one down, but they can really smell bad the first time they're used.

 
I use my self clean cycle a few times a year. I try to wipe up the bad spills so there is less to

burn up and I have had no problems. it does smell a bit and gets very hot----I always turn on my hood fan and that vents it to the outside. Maybe if you don't have a good vent or if it's never been run, then it might not be a good idea to run it. But if it's not too old, I don't see why not run it.

 
as a side note and cautionary tale---my neighbor had a fire because of the self cleaning oven---BUT

they had not cleaned up the very bad spills and that is what caught fire---just too much fatty spill buildup and it caught fire. Did not scare me though. I still use mine.

 
I am thinking that it might be an electrical issue with running the self cleaning cycle. When I got

my new ovens they worked great but the first time I tried to use the self cleaning portion they locked up. Apparently they use more to clean than they do to bake. My ovens have a dedicated outlet now. Maybe the ones in the apartment don't have their own outlet?

 
Barb, I don't understnd what you're saying here. Your ovens locked, but not because they were on

the clean cycle? Did they not unlock after cleaning?

Ovens, stoves should always be on their own dedicated circuit allowing higher draw, even older appliances required 240V. I suspect it would be code anywhere.

I get concerned about spills in the newer ovens as well. The original version allowed spills to be wiped up easily but the newer ones (since the later 80s) seem to absorb the oils.

 
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