Wandering Adventure Party

I’ve got the “standard tool” that you don’t like and I don’t like it either. You’re right, the fine control just isn’t there but if I’m slashing away, it’s alright. I’ve had a strict no-buying-more-lames policy because I was afraid I’d end up with 10, but you’re convinced me to try another one.

I use hash browns as filler for breakfast burritos for the kids, so I usually go with light salt and no pepper. I let the other things in the burrito (bell peppers, mushrooms, eggs, cheese) do the heavy lifting for flavor and then I add hot sauce when I eat them.

When I eat hash browns by themselves I drown them in ketchup, so I’m not a big pepper in hash browns guy. If I wanted an interesting spice profile for them, I’d probably use za’atar or spike.

Beautiful. Biscotti are one of my favorites to make. So versatile.

I see a walnut in there. What else did you use?

Plums and tomatoes do it too. Throw em in a paper bag with what you want to ripen.

Been trying out a mold for the bagels to make shaping and dipping them in the malt bath faster and easier. It’s definitely easier and the holes make putting spreads on the bagel easier (mostly), but the uniformity of the holes makes em look weird and they seem to bake up rather than a more oval shape. I’m gonna play with it some more to see if I can get a more uniform shape.

The vulture in the top right corner of the picture didn’t mind at all.

Yea, they’re a real bummer to shape without the pan. I’m glad my post inspired you! If you’re doing scones, I would highly recommend the other scone recipe I posted. FAR FAR easier to shape and no pan really needed at all.

But boy are blueberry scones delicious.

My theme has been “the most food for the least work that tastes good enough”. I usually make a ziti like this (but fancier), but I thought I’d try this one. It’s killer. I’ll make this again anytime I have teenagers in the house. Virtually any pasta shape would work and the ingredients are relatively cheap and good lord is there a ton of it.

PAX cooking #1: Blueberry muffins - sh.itjust.works

Recipe here [https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/blueberry-muffins-recipe]. It’s PAX West time again here in Seattle, so I’m cooking for the army of people that come in for it. Both my brothers, their families, my family, kids’ friends, and brothers’ friends. We have access to a microwave right next door to the venues via a brother’s hotel room, so I’m cooking for a couple of days so we don’t spend thousands of dollars between us on trashy garbage food. Not that I’m not making trashy garbage food. It turns out kids will eat any old trashy crap I throw at them after they’ve burned 5,000 calories walking for 12 hours. I don’t normally cook this way, but it’s been fun to do some nasty, “back of the condensed cream of chicken label recipe from the 80s” style garbage. Starting tomorrow I’m cooking the good stuff. Pasta Fagioli, scones, pesto beans, those big ass sandwiches you squish with a cast iron pan, ziti, and baked spaghetti. Maybe rajma and pizza if I’m up to it.

(sh.itjust.works)

tldr im cooking for an army of people and if i do it ahead of time i dont have to do it when i get back when im exhausted

Absolutely. I think you could dress this one up really easily and turn it into something really great, but that defeats the purpose of it being a very neutral food with very neutral flavors when it’s being served to kids who like it neutral.

Welp, I didn’t get a final shot of all of the precooked meals (or nearly any of the baked goods) because we portioned it all out and gave a bunch of it away already. I was rushing through these cooks because I knew life would happen and I would have to stop and do other stuff and when my brother showed up from out of town 3 hours early, I couldn’t get back to finish the other things I wanted to do.

But the plan is largely intact. Breakfasts, lunches and dinners are done for at least 3 of the 4 days and we have tons of snacks. My brother’s hotel room is a block from the con and has a fridge and a microwave. As soon as I’m done writing this, I’m loading a ton of beer and wine in a cooler and taking it up to his hotel.

Happy PAX West, everyone!

Recipe here.

Original thread and explanation of why I’m doing this here

The polar opposite of the lemon blueberry scone cook. Because you can limit the amount of cream that goes in the dough, I end up with a super clean dough that cuts and shapes super easy. I rarely do more than the 3/4 cup of cream that the recipe calls for. You don’t need a scone pan for this one at all.

Recipe here.

Original thread and explanation of why I’m doing this here

One of the easiest scone recipes ever (but boy it makes a mess), you just sorta smash it all together and put it in a scone pan. This recipe is really wet, so I wouldn’t make it without a scone pan since shaping dough this wet and sticky is a real bummer.

Recipe here.

Original thread and explanation of why I’m doing this here

This is a standard layered pasta with cheese and sauce style casserole dish, but this one uses the typical “cheats” you see in many recipes to make it easier. It’s a way to make a ton of pasta and can be easily portioned out.

Recipe here.

Original thread and explanation of why I’m doing this here

I forgot to grab bananas to give them time to turn, so I went with pumpkin bread from puree instead. It’s got a great spice flavor to it and like all of these types of breads, they are easy to make.

I did screw it up though. I doubled the recipe before I realized that the recipe made two loaves. After loading in the first couple of wet ingredients, I realized I had waaaaaay too much. I kept going and finished the recipe in batches before bringing it all together and doing a final mix by hand (it wouldn’t fit in my stand mixer).

It’s just that it makes a fast bake even faster. Unless you remember your ratios every time (I don’t), you gotta pull it all out and weigh it to bake. Self rising flour basically takes a shake of the container to evenly distribute and that’s it. You add beer and nothing else and you get great beer bread. You add cream and you have biscuits.

Like I said I don’t have it in my house, but I bake with it at the cafe I work at and it allows us to have something on the menu for less than $2 because it costs like no time at all and you can just use whatever space there is in the oven.

Sorry.

I have a love hate relationship with self rising flour. I already keep like 6 different flours in the house (more if you count stuff like semolina) and every time I find myself cooking with self rising, I gain a pound. The cafe I work at makes a beer bread with self rising flour that’s fabulous (for the basically zero work it takes) and I’m afraid if it’s too easy to make in my own house then I’ll make it every day. Then again, we’re talking about biscuits so it’s not like I’ve got good standing on healthy food here to begin with.

I’ll try that recipe.

That looks much better and much better for you. Thanks, I’m gonna swap out my recipe for that one.

Recipe (link is being weird, here it is) : kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/american-style-vanilla-biscotti-recipe

The gianduja variation comes from their Cookie Companion book which substitutes hazelnut flavor for the vanilla and adds 1c (113g) of chopped toasted hazelnuts and 1c (170g) of semisweet chocolate chips. The nuts and chips are stirred in along with the flour. To toast the hazelnuts, just throw em on a sheet pan at 300F for about 20-25 mins. The smell will let you know when they’re done and they’re usually sweating.

Original thread and explanation of why I’m doing this here

A forever favorite of everyone in my house, but I actually prefer the Italian style biscotti with a coffee. I used to work really hard on shaping them just right and measuring my width on the cuts to have everything perfect but then I watched my family eat them like they were throwing em in a wood chipper and decided that was too much work.

Recipe here.

Original thread and explanation of why I’m doing this here

Easy to make, easy to reheat, easy to transport, and good enough for adults or children to eat. It’s exactly what it looks like, straight up comfort food. Too calorie dense for a regular rotation in my cooking, but perfect for a max exercise day like a convention.