The Smells in My Kitchen

[elfprince13]

Absolutely!

[buckshot]

There's not much smells better than fresh bread i'm envious! I know it's not the kitchen but my smokehouse smells wonderfull right now, Im smoking a super big batch of deer and elk jerky. Im always quaranteed a few more visitors when that smokehouse is smokin in the fall i'll bet the grandkids all get off the schoolbus here to stop by the smokehouse on the way home tomorrow, I dont mind a bit.

[KennEnder]

heck, I'd stop by but it's slightly out of the way. Maybe on my fruitless, annual trek to the north pole this year to deliver my wishlist, I'll have to stop by there

[buckshot]

Come on!

[steph]

It doesn't smell quite yet, as it's chilling in the fridge before cooking, but I have some overnight lemon bread pudding (I refuse to call them "french toast casseroles." Changing the name doesn't change what it is!!) made with pandoro that will be going into the crockpot to cook all night for a tasty breakfast tomorrow. I'll serve it with the marionberry syrup I have in my fridge and a dust of powdered sugar. Should be tasty!

[elfprince13]

Banana bread and chocolate pudding!

[elfprince13]

Homemade applesauce! Ran it through a mill to get the nice flavor and color out of the skins

[KennEnder]

Homemade applesauce! Ran it through a mill to get the nice flavor and color out of the skins

I bought a mill this year so I could do that too! In the past I had to skin them first, etc... but I process enough fruit throughout the year to make the mill very handy... and the results are always delicious! Can't beat real fresh fruit

[buckshot]

My girl Sarah got up early and made killer real (Gramms secret formula) cinnamon rolls so so so good!!

[elfprince13]

Homemade applesauce! Ran it through a mill to get the nice flavor and color out of the skins

I bought a mill this year so I could do that too! In the past I had to skin them first, etc... but I process enough fruit throughout the year to make the mill very handy... and the results are always delicious! Can't beat real fresh fruit

My family has had a mill since I was little, so I was always horrified to discover the presence of white/yellow applesauce in other homes.

[Jayelle]

Someone gave us a gift card for a bookstore, so I bought the Smitten Kitchen cookbook!! I can't wait to cook EVERYTHING in there.

[starlooker]

My mom's chicken and dumplings, except made by me. I hope so hard it turns out like hers!

[thoughtreader]

Mashed potatoes! (and yellow chicken and broccoli) How did I ever make mashed potatoes before the kitchenaid mixer?!?!?!?! SO much easier! especially with my messed up shoulder!

[Petra456]

I love making mashed potatoes with mine, but I think my favorite thing is how easy it shreds meat!

[Eaquae Legit]

Guacamole and chipotle refried beans. Mmmmmm.

And recently, borscht. I love borscht, one of the only ways I like beets.

[KennEnder]

burned gingerbread cookies.

apparently not all smells are good. ;(

[Gravity Defier]

yellow chicken

Beg pardon? Yellow chicken?

[thoughtreader]

yellow chicken

Beg pardon? Yellow chicken?

Thats what I call it because it turns out yellow...

Yellow Chicken

5 boneless skinless chicken breast, thawed
1-2 cups brown sugar
2/3- 1 1/3 cup yellow mustard
Olive oil


Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place chicken breast in 9x13 inch backing pan. Drizzle with olive oil and flip over once or twice until coated.
Mix brown sugar and mustard in bowl in 1:2/3 cup ratio until it’s a smooth paste.
Pour brown sugar/mustard paste over chicken breast flip twice until evenly coated. While it is cooking flip the chicken over and drizzles with sauce every 15 min (at least three flips)
Place in oven on middle rack. Cook for 45 min to an hour until done.

Remove from oven serve with mashed potatoes, sauce is great on potatoes.

I think the mustard brown sugar ratio might be a little light on the mustard.... I'm still in the process of writing this recipe down. I made it up as I went a long a few years ago. But its nice and tangy and sweet. Maybe one of these days I'll come up with a better name, but currently I just call it yellow chicken.

[thoughtreader]

I love making mashed potatoes with mine, but I think my favorite thing is how easy it shreds meat!

Shreds meat with an attachment or just the normal mixer????

[Petra456]

Just the normal mixer using the beater attachment. When I make pork burritos I just cut the tenderloin (after it's cooked) into about two or three large chunks, throw it in the mixer and pulse it four or five times. It shreds it perfectly and I never burn myself anymore! I use to hardly make burritos because I HATE shredding meat.

[thoughtreader]

Just the normal mixer using the beater attachment. When I make pork burritos I just cut the tenderloin (after it's cooked) into about two or three large chunks, throw it in the mixer and pulse it four or five times. It shreds it perfectly and I never burn myself anymore! I use to hardly make burritos because I HATE shredding meat.

REALLY?!?!?!?!? OMG I will totally try this the next time I make enchiladas (need to shred chicken)

[KennEnder]

Just the normal mixer using the beater attachment.

you have attachments to a normal mixer? hmm. so I guess I can't just use a "normal mixer" with the normal thing for like milkshakes??

oh wait. I'm thinking of a blender. rats. I guess no easy enchiladas for me :/

[Gravity Defier]

Tonight the kitchen smells like chorizo and eggs with onion and jalapenos. Mmmm.

[buckshot]

Good chorizo cooking is like one of the best smells of all!

[TerresaWiggin]

caramels w/ sea salt. YUM!!!

[steph]

It feels good to be cooking again.

In the last week and a half, we've had:
Corned beef twice (I pick up a bunch of them for the freezer when they are cheap every march!)
Chicken salad (I can have homemade mayo again!!!)
Chicken Lime Rice soup (new recipe. Easy, tasty.)
Pizza (It had been so long since I made homemade pizza)
Creamy asparagus orzo (Kinley LOVES orzo)
White Bean Stew (not as amazing as I was hoping, but it was good)
Crescent rolls (looking for a recipe to use for my chicken crescent rolls. I haven't made them in years since it seems ridiculous to pay 2 bucks for packaged dough that contains 8 rolls.)

[thoughtreader]

OK all you amazing pweb cooks I have a question. I would like to try making bread, just the simple sandwich loaf stuff. Any suggested recipes? Google has given me lots and lots to choose from... but I'd like your opinion as well.

things to note:
I will have to use a kitchen aide stand mixer to do 95% of the mixing/kneading because of my bad shoulder. not so sure if that really makes a difference but it might.

I need to go out and buy more flower and yeast and the like so and other ingredients can be purchased as well.

[KennEnder]

well, bread is one of those "infinite variations" kinds of things, sort of like chili.

Do you have any particular "goal" with the bread?
- are you making it to save money?
- are you making it to be more healthy?
- are you making it to taste extraordinary?
- are you making it so you can have some variety?

Personally, I make bread because I like to control the quality and kind of the flour I'm using, and while using such "good" flour, also keeping a reasonable price on the bread. I also like the variety I can make, just by changing one or two things.

General bread won't need many ingredients... flour, salt, yeast and water; all those other complicated ingredients are to keep us Wondering what is in the bread and why: mostly to keep it unnaturally soft and last unnaturally long.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned in making homemade bread is that you can actually recycle old bread! If you're ready for a new loaf and there is a bit of the old one left (maybe too hard to eat, or whatever), grind up the old one and use it as a portion of the flour in the new one! the limit for my bread (which is mostly whole wheat, so heavier than some others prefer) is about 1/4 of the total flour... in other words, not much more than a cup or so of old minced bread. "good fresh bread" can get hard very fast you know... (although you can keep it in a plastic bag after it's cool if you want it to stay "softer.")

[Jayelle]

OK all you amazing pweb cooks I have a question. I would like to try making bread, just the simple sandwich loaf stuff. Any suggested recipes? Google has given me lots and lots to choose from... but I'd like your opinion as well.

things to note:
I will have to use a kitchen aide stand mixer to do 95% of the mixing/kneading because of my bad shoulder. not so sure if that really makes a difference but it might.

I need to go out and buy more flower and yeast and the like so and other ingredients can be purchased as well.

My no-fail basic sandwichy bread recipe is as follows - the extra stuff in it (eggs, oil) are to keep it fresh for a couple of days.

1 1/2 cups water (warm, but not hot)
1 TB yeast
3 TB sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg (beaten)
3 TB vegetable or olive oil
about 4 cups flour (This can be all white flour, or 2 cups whole wheat, 2 cups white)
-depending on the day/climate, you may need more or less flour. Just make sure it's not sticky.

Combine the water, sugar and yeast. Leave 5 min until foamy. Add salt, egg and oil.
Add the flour a cup at a time, knead it with your dough hook about 5 min (I usually do this by hand, so I'm guessing on the time - I go by hand for 10 min)

Let rise, covered with a tea towel in a warm place for an hour, punch it down halfway through the hour.
Divide the dough in half and shape it into two loaves and put in loaf pans.
Let it rise another hour.
Bake at 350 for 20 min.

[thoughtreader]

Do you have any particular "goal" with the bread?
- are you making it to save money?
- are you making it to be more healthy?
- are you making it to taste extraordinary?
- are you making it so you can have some variety?

I just kinda want to try it, and food with less ingredients is always something I try to bring into my home and bread seemed like a logical next step. I just want some yummy simple bread (Jan's recipe seems like a great place to start THANKS!!!)

That and when I was a kid I lived near a monastery that made bread. Every sunday we would go on a walk and stop by to buy some. The bread was in a lower room and it smelt amazing in there. You just left a few dollars in a locked box depending on what you took and I would carry the loaf home craving yummy sandwiches. I think I only saw a monk (brother???) there once he was out picking lavender from this huge planter box that I loved to go smell... I think it was a way for them to bring in a little money and also help people in need since it was an honor system about paying. [/childhood memories]

I think the big issue I was having was the variation of recipe there was lots of talk if adding the dry yeast to the flour which seemed really counter intuitive and against all the bread making I remember from when I was a kid.... It doesn't help that the second I mentioned making bread my husband is requesting banana nut bread....

One of the biggest lessons I've learned in making homemade bread is that you can actually recycle old bread!

This fact is a little mind blowing to me at first but makes sense once I think long and hard about it.

[steph]

This is my everyday recipe. I cut the recipe in half because Kitchen Aids can't handle as much as Boschs.

I like this one because you don't have 2 rises....it's just one rise in the pans. It makes it super fast and easy and the resulting bread product is wonderful!

Also, when I'm out of wheat, I use all white bread flour with great results. This recipe is a good base for dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, kraut burgers, etc.

[thoughtreader]

This is my everyday recipe. I cut the recipe in half because Kitchen Aids can't handle as much as Boschs.

That and who really needs 5 fresh loves of bread! they would all be bad before they were eaten.

[thoughtreader]

So I'm trying Jan's recipe this week... Steph's next week

Went to the Store with my love and found King Arthur flour.... I remember someone (here?) raving about it so I though why not. I was a little worried the yeast wasn't activating but bread rose a bunch during the first rise and is currently in 2 loaf pans rising again.

So Far so good. (I'm going to keep updating this as i go)

The went in the oven all big an tall and cam out smelling super yummy. Just letting them cool a bit before I cut one open

[KennEnder]

awesome! I think tomorrow is going to be bread-baking day here

[Jayelle]

This is my everyday recipe. I cut the recipe in half because Kitchen Aids can't handle as much as Boschs.

That and who really needs 5 fresh loves of bread! they would all be bad before they were eaten.

Ha. Not in my family.