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pandemic pantry - food, getting it, storing it, baking during lockdown

Not exactly pandemic related, but...

We have apparently discovered the canine equivalent of meth.

1 jar of turkey baby food
some canned pumpkin
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
oat bran

Mix until it holds together. Spread out into a 1/4 inch thickness, bake until done, cool, and cut into dog treat size.

Our pups have had a couple, and absolutely will not stop pestering for more. Bouncing up and down, whining, wagging, and in general carrying on. We've created a monster.

B
 
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We're a couple weeks now with the Mockmill, and still learning how to make bread.
We've noticed we need to let it rise a little longer and to use more water. When doing this, the bread is less dense and more 'fluffy'.
The peanut butter cookies made with fresh milled flour and fresh roasted peanuts and homemade peanut butter are downright amazing.
This week we're going to make pizza dough, sourdough English muffins, and flour tortillas.
I am glad we have this thread. Thank you to @pcake and @Boogiepop for sharing your flour milling experiences with us. Now here we are doing it too.

-Mike
 
A happy moment for us this evening. A pizza we made completely from scratch.
The mozzarella cheese we made ourselves using raw milk from a nearby dairy.
We used San Marzano tomatoes, oregano, basil, garlic, and red peppers we grew in our garden to make the sauce.
The dough was made with flour we just milled earlier this afternoon using organic wheat berries we bought from a farmer a few hours away from us.

PXL-20211019-002753455-MP-2.jpg


-Mike
 
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A happy moment for us this evening. A pizza we made completely from scratch.
The mozzarella cheese we made ourselves using raw milk from a nearby dairy.
We used San Marzano tomatoes, oregano, basil, garlic, and red peppers we grew in our garden to make the sauce.
The dough was made with flour we just milled earlier this afternoon using organic wheat berries we bought from a farmer a few hours away from us.

View attachment 4443014

-Mike
Outstanding
 

I've just concocted a novel bevvie — calling it, for want of a better name, the Lockdown Latté.

It's decidedly iced, to suit the current climate. But can be equally inviting, hot.

All you need is some of this,​
3923-Twinings-Latte-Cacao-Coconut.png
And some of this,
lavazza.png
… along with ice, coconut sugar, milk powder and, when it's iced, something along these lines,
cocktail-shakers-1617812812.jpg?crop=1.00xw:1.jpg

With me, it's one-and-a-half cups of chilled water; two heaped-teaspoons of coffee, two of cacao coconut, three of powdered milk, one of coconut sugar, and a boot-load of ice. Shaken. Not stirred :) ( You can go your own way.)

Bliss!

 
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We made vanilla ice cream last night, and I sprinkled cacao nibs on it. It made me think of you @Tom Bomb and the great tip you gave me to try them out.
It's now a favorite treat in our house. I don't even remember the last time we bought chocolate anymore.

-Mike
 
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I liked your Lockdown Latte for the creativity, but I will never, ever in my lifetime consume instant coffee. That is heresy of the highest order right there.
If you were within reach of my blade, off with your head. :D

-Mike
 
Since we're on the subject of milling our own flour...

Back in the late 70s, my mother fell in (culinarily, not religiously) with a few members of the LDS church who were quite into survival, natural food, etc. Mom didn't get in too deep, but the whole wheat bread was a hit and we ended up going into production each Saturday morning and selling it, haha. Batches of six loaves, up to eight batches in a morning... yeah.

The critical part of this was grinding the wheat. Fresh-ground wheat is warm and has other happy properties, and that contributed to the quickness with which the dough would rise. It's the simplest recipe possible, and 3rd grade me was plenty capable of whipping up a batch of bread all on my own.

Recently, mom handed over the equipment. The original mill is gone (long story involving a bush plane), replaced by a much smaller unit that 'micronizes' (read: explodes) the wheat. Earplugs are essential. And there's no kneading involved - a mixer with a dough hook and very powerful motor does the deed. (Mixer says 'Made in West Germany' on it; if any small plastic bit breaks, woe be unto me. But likely nothing will break.)

The recipe contains amounts for all the ingredients save one: the flour. Back in the day, I would add flour until the mixer motor reached the right pitch (F# below middle C). HOWEVER, mom only gave me four baking pans, as the other two died and apparently Bake King doesn't make that size anymore and neither does anyone else. So I'm a bit at sea for how to tell when I've added enough flour.

It's not like that's the only variable, right? A couple of weeks ago I made two (4 loaf) batches, back to back, for the first time in decades. Even though the dough weight was exactly the same, the batches could not have been more different. One was dense and almost tough and for sure drier, and the other was way softer and delicate to work with. Both turned out fine, but differently.

And the recipients were super happy, and that's what matters.
 
Time for this thread again, maybe with a retitle, like "Parsimonious Pantry" or "Frugal Foodstuffs".

Just bought 50 pounds of hard white wheat berries for $154. Prices will doubtless be rising.

B.

Nice score. We never thought we'd buy that much at a time, but we've been.
As the weather improves and the mountain passes become less treacherous to travel, the wife and I plan on taking road trips to the farm where we buy ours when it's time to get more. That's going to go be fun.

-Mike