We made an abundance of mashed potatoes, so I made fried potato cakes with some of them.  I was quite happy with how they turned out.  I mixed the potatoes with some beef broth since they were a little dry, some minced onion and red pepper, salt, grated mozza, and flour.  Then I formed little patties and fried them.  They were quite tasty!

Well, I broke down and bought bread machine yeast.  I'd recently been frustrated with my bread machine, since the loaves it was turning our were not rising properly and thus at least very heavy, if not misshapen.  This was with active dry yeast, which used to work very well, but no longer does.  I'm still not sure the reason for that.  Perhaps I'll find out as I continue my life-long learning!

I used the new yeast yesterday and the loaf turned out beautifully.  I now am inspired to continue using it since it is so much better than the bread from the store.  I am looking forward to trying more recipes from my cookbook!

It has been one crazy week and I am not fit for much today.  DH and I went for a drive looking at crops and land.  We're exploring our options before we hit crunch time.  We came back home, ate some popcorn, and I made pizza dough in my KitchenAid mixer and am now waiting for it to rise.  We're going to try some Mennonite farmer sausage on top and see how we like it - I think I'll cook it ahead to get some of the fat out and to firm it up for thinner slicing.

I overcooked the sausage but it concentrated the flavours well - it was a little drier than we liked.  The dough was too thick - I need to split it in two for the next try.


Pizza Dough: Makes enough dough for two 10-12 inch pizzas

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (105°F-115°F)
• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast 
•  3 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Place the water in the bowl of the mixer and sprinkle the yeast onto it - let sit about 5 minutes.  Mix on low if not dissolved after this time.  Add flour, oil, salt & sugar - mix on low speed about 1 minute.  Fit dough hook on and knead at speed 1 to 2 until dough is smooth and elastic, around 5 to 10 minutes.  Place in bowl with oil and coat dough ball with oil by turning it.  Let rise at least 1 hour.  Punch down and divide into 2 balls, flattening each into a round or rectangle on cookie sheet.  Add toppings and bake at 450 F for 10 to 15 minutes, until cheese is golden and crust is browned.

Hubby is away, playing on a farm.  He was so excited to get out again and work with his hands.  He left, looking forward to fun!

I'm currently trying a zucchini pickle I found on a blog (1).  Right now I'm soaking the zucchini (which unfortunately is more mature than ideal) and onion in the salt water.  I need to get the brine going - I don't have enough sugar so I'm going to try honey.  I found another website (2) which suggests using about 7/8ths the amount of the sugar you would add so I'm going to try that.  Wish me luck!

(1)http://andreasrecipes.com/2010/08/10/zucchini-pickles/
(2)http://www.pickyourown.org/SubstitutingHoneyForSugar.htm

Zucchini bread and pickles

I can't believe I've never made zucchini bread before - but there it is.  Here goes my first attempt at it, following a recipe from "Cook Great Food," a recipe book I love, which features recipes from Canadian dietitians.

I also made my first fridge cucumber pickles out of Jean Pare's "Make-Ahead Meals."  I will definitely make them again.  Nice sweetness and crunch.  And scoring the cukes definitely makes them attractive.  Since I don't have a canner at this point, our lives being so in flux at the moment, I am aiming to try a few more fridge pickles.  I even aim to freeze them, since I did find a recipe expressing that it is OK to do so.  We'll find out!

First post

I tried a couple of new recipes today and thought I would record them.  The problem with that idea was that I've lost my notebook for recipes in our recent move.  I was browsing online for more ideas and found a blog that interested me.  I thought, "Why don't I record my attempts online?  I can go back to remember my experiements.  And who knows?  Maybe others will enjoy my trials and errors..."

The first one I tried was for a Miso marinade my DH found online, though I don't know where, so I apologize to whoever originally came up with it.  I did modify it <gasp> somewhat and intend to fiddle with it some more to finetune it.  It marinated 2 steaks, that were cut into approximately bite-size pieces.

Miso Marinade

1/4 cup soya sauce
2 tbsp frozen grated ginger
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp miso
2 tbsp pressed garlic (I used about 8 cloves, I think)
2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
~2 tbsp rice vinegar

I marinated the steak for a couple of hours then stir-fried it with veggies.  I think next time I'll add more garlic and red pepper flakes, and may try other tweaks.

The bread I made was from a friend's cookbook.  I like the flavour, but it came out very crumbly, so I'll probably go back to my standby for my next banana bread.