Baking Day, Part II

My foot is good and swollen tonight after two days of standing in the kitchen baking. Today, I made 3 more pizza crusts, some cheese breadsticks (see picture), a zucchini nut bread and zucchini pecan muffins. I did not get around to making the saltines. The cream cheese pound cake I made is excellent, but the vanilla one is overcooked. I sliced off the crusts and have saved the guts of the cake. I'll freeze it for a special occasion, then make some type of tort dessert, layers of pound cake, berries, and whipped cream.

At any rate, I like batch cooking, especially batch baking. I find that if I know I have 2 dozen muffins, then I don't crave them. By baking my pizza crusts in advance, I can make pizza in less than 30 minutes for a quick dinner. I made my own pizza sauce, too. The bread machine does all the hard work, and in less than 3 hours, I have 5 crusts ready to load up with good food, a head start on 5 dinners. Other big advantages to batch cooking, in addition to simply saving time and for the convenience on a night when you are too tired to cook, is that you can have a ready meal when you are too sick to cook for yourself. I make and can homemade soups just for this purpose. Also, by baking cakes and making casseroles in advance, you just pull something out of the freezer to take to a neighbor's house in the event there is a death or they need help cooking, etc. It's a good thing.

Skyguy and I miscommunicated on dinner this evening. He was being sweet and brought home KFC, but I had already cooked spaghetti sauce with some grated squash added, not to mention the breadsticks. I suppose we will eat that tomorrow for dinner. I haven't had KFC in a while, mainly because we don't eat out much, and secondly because the local KFC has been closed for remodeling after a fire. It just reopened a few weeks ago. It has probably been a year since I ate KFC fried chicken, and maybe it is just me, but it wasn't good. The extra crispy crust wasn't crispy at all, nor did it have the flavor I expected. I don't know what kind of change they've made, but Harlan Sanders would roll over in his grave if he tasted that. My favorite is Church's Chicken, but there isn't a store near here. Bojangles will have to do, because I certainly don't want KFC again. I probably should just start frying it at home. I did pretty good on the last batch, but I just don't fry that much. I do love fried chicken though, and I know that I can do better than the crap we got from KFC tonight.

Skyguy also picked up a couple seed packets of bush beans since we had low germination on the Blue Lake and Contender beans from 2006. I think we have just enough time to get another batch of beans in before frost. We are getting beans, and this morning I finally picked enough to can, but I think I will freeze them instead. Hopefully, in a few months, we will still be eating beans from the Royal Burgundy and the Asparagus beans so I will be able to can the Blue Lakes I will plant tomorrow. Pressure canning is such a pain for me because my stove doesn't get hot enough and because pressure canners scare me. I usually do this on the propane burner outside, just in case of an explosion. I can do 7 quarts at a time, and canning like that, in the heat, just drags on and on. Blanching and freezing is much faster, and I actually have room in the freezer for a few quarts of beans. But, I've been trying to can more and freeze less, so that I can eliminate one of my freezers and save on the power bill and reduce my demand for energy in general. The other day I came across a list of things you can do to save money and energy, and I'd like to pass them on to you.

1. When you buy gasoline, make your purchase at night. At night, temperatures are cooler and that makes gasoline more dense. Since the pumps measure gas by volume, you will actually get more gas—it will be cheaper overall.

2. On long trips, keep your windows closed at high speeds—drag from open windows reduces a car’s fuel efficiency by 10 percent. If your truck gets 15 miles to the gallon, you could get 16.5 miles to the gallon. Over a year's time, the savings add up.

3. Cleaning 100 pounds of junk from your car will get you up to 2 percent more miles per gallon. That is like getting a free tank of gas over the span of a year.

4. If you are going to be baking at 350 degrees, and the oven is not packed full, wrap and bake some potatoes for quick meals, lunches, and snacks. Or, use stale bread to make and freeze garlic toast for those nights when you just want bread with your pork chops or salad. Just as you should run full loads of laundry and dishes, try to fill the oven as well.

The Best Things in Life

The process of training a new puppy can be daunting, but there are a few milestones along the way that let you know you are on the right path. Bingo and I passed one of those milestones today. Not that we have the "come" command conquered, not by a long shot, but we are making progress. It is my belief that dogs think of people as members of their pack. They don't discriminate on looks or the color of one's coat/clothes. Some are born into a ready made pack, and some join packs later in their lives. Of course, in a pack, there is always an alpha male and an alpha female. When that pack includes humans, we should be the alpha animal, but not all humans take their responsibility as alpha seriously. The alpha animal not only provides food, but leads the pack on the hunt. They decide where the pack goes and what the pack will do. Alpha leads the way through doors, they are the first down a path, and the first to face danger. As we all know, having a leader allows the followers to relax, because they aren't the decision makers. Relaxed followers, in this case, puppies, are generally happy if their needs are met. Still, it is up to the pack to train the pup how to behave, what is acceptable and what is not. When the Alpha Bitch yells "come", she expects compliance from her boys.

Luckily, in our pack, Bear is submissive to Skyguy and I, and Bingo is submissive to Bear, for now. Our job is to make sure that Bingo does not bond with Bear more than us. The bond with the Alpha animal should be strongest. It is easy to allow Bear to 'babysit' the pup, but there is a limit to how often that should happen. Skyguy and I have been getting into the fray when the dogs play, just to reinforce the idea in Bingo's head that we are all part of the pack, there is no separation. In doing this, we have seen a huge difference in Bingo's attitude and behavior. He is more affectionate and less 'stand-offish'. Perhaps that change is a natural part of the relationship of trust in our third week of bonding. When I let him out, sometimes I go with him, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes he goes out with Bear, and sometimes he goes out alone. Sometimes I put him on the leash, and sometimes I don't. I've noticed that when we go out sans leash, he generally stays within 25-30 feet of me, closer if I talk to him. Bear does this too, and it lets me know that they are choosing to remain close by. In the last few days, when I call Bingo, I call him the same way..a whistle, a long "Biiiiinnnngggggoooo", and then "Biiinnnggooo C'mon,,, Beeeeaaaar Beeeaar, C'mon." It usually takes a few seconds until they come into sight and run towards the door. They are always together, Bingo following Bear. I've been really rewarding Bingo when he comes through the door, I change my voice pitch to show excitement in seeing him, I run him and love him and sometimes I give him a treat, sometimes not. Today, as I was in the middle of baking, I let Bear and Bingo out together. After 5 minutes or so, I called them, as usual. A minute went by with no dogs in sight, so I called again. Then I see Bingo, running as fast as his little legs would happily go, coming towards the house. He ran all the way home, without Bear's accompaniment, and bounded in the house excited to see me. Of course, he got a treat for that one! I looked out after that and saw Bear walking, no, piddle-poking around near the creek. Bingo chose to come to me instead of hanging out with Bear. That is a milestone. I know now, that he feels as though he is part of our pack, my pack. He has definitely adopted us.

Baking Day, part I

Today was Baking Day, and I made a couple of pound cakes, one vanilla and one cream cheese, two dozen squash and almond breakfast muffins, and a couple of pizza crusts. Tomorrow, I'll make more pizza crusts, breadsticks, and maybe some saltines and tortillas. My pizza crusts are like those Boboli crusts you buy in the store, only better. I developed the recipe myself using garlic and herbs. I make the dough in the bread machine, and then roll it out to the pan shape. Sprinkle additional herbs and cheese on it, and you can make breadsticks from the same dough. EASY. I made the cream cheese pound cake in a Bundt pan, and once it cooled, I divided the cake into three sections. Two will be frozen. By dividing the cake, I spread the desserts out over time so that we don't pig out on cake and gain weight. I'm not going to deny myself, because in my opinion, one of the best things about life is good food, but for me, pound cake necessitates moderation, and the easiest way to do that is to divide the cake. I probably should have quartered the cake, but oh well. What was that I was writing the other day about self indulgence? The two pound cakes used a dozen eggs, and I still have a few more dozen to consume. In the next few days, I may try to make an angel food cake and a devil's food cake. Traditionally, they were made together, as the lighter angel food cake uses the egg whites only, and the heavier devil's food cake uses only the yolks. I can use up about 9 eggs making those two cakes, which can also be frozen. As an alternative, I could just make a couple of angel food cakes and cook the yolks for use later in salads or something...yeah, that would be the healthier choice, I think.