What's Cooking

[GoingMyWay]

I was also able to find the Spicy Chicken Fillets.  They are very good and very similar to the spicy chicken you get from Wendy's.  I like the Spicy Chicken Fillets even more than the Southern-Style Breaded Chicken Breast Fillets that I was raving about earlier.  We had the spicy chicken sandwiches with Great Value Seasoned French Fried Potatoes.  They were very similar the fries from Popeye's.  They were very good and I'll definitely be buying both again.

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On a healthier note, I got some apples from Trader Joe's.  This was a Lucy Glo Apple.  It was slightly sweet and rather tart.

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I also picked up a Sugar Bee apple.

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I had never heard of it before so I just had to try it.  We liked the Sugar Bee better than the Lucy Glo.  Apparently both of these apple varieties are based on the Honeycrisp apple, which is my favorite mainstream apple.  Last year we picked some Crimson Crisp apples from a local orchard and they were even better than a Honeycrisp, but I haven't seen them sold any where else.  The Crimson Crisp is also derivative from a Honeycrisp.

 

[six-point socket II]

I enjoy your journey of recreating some iconic fast-food classics!

Here's something my better-half spent some hours on, observing a strict schedule of working the dough and cooling. -> Croissants from scratch. Not the first time and results are getting better and better. It's quite the adventure to roll the dough while keeping the butter block/ butter plate trapped inside and not have it peak through in some spots.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[GoingMyWay]

Nice looking croissants.  I remembering watching this episode of Baking with Julia as a child and being amazed at how long and how many steps there are to making real croissants:


I've never tried to make them before, but when I do I'll definitely be following Esther McManus' instructions.

 

[six-point socket II]

[thumbs up]

Here's some fries cut with a kitchen tool that is older than me, and some Zeeland blue mussels.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[squall_line]

I had never heard of it before so I just had to try it.  We liked the Sugar Bee better than the Lucy Glo.  Apparently both of these apple varieties are based on the Honeycrisp apple, which is my favorite mainstream apple.  Last year we picked some Crimson Crisp apples from a local orchard and they were even better than a Honeycrisp, but I haven't seen them sold any where else.  The Crimson Crisp is also derivative from a Honeycrisp.

We just planted a honeycrisp and a kindercrisp apple tree this year.  As long as they survive this winter and I reinforce the deer fence next year, I'm hoping for our first crop in 2026.  Also planted a golden delicious which was already producing so that I have another pollination option; I've read that golden delicious performed better than most varieties when it came to pollinating honeycrisp, and it was hard to pass up a tree that already had fruit on it.

 

[GoingMyWay]

Wow you have your own apple trees, that's really cool!  3 years isn't too bad to hopefully have fruit.  I sometimes wish we had a yard/land where we could grow more stuff, like fruit trees.

 

[six-point socket II]

From my/our experience apple trees are relatively painless in maintenance and upkeep while rewarding you with a fairly large harvest per tree. These days we only have one left and still get double-digit kilos of apples wich then the most of the harvest get processed to apple sauce and frozen.

Back when we had more trees, we had more apples then we could eat and/or utilize.

In all those years we never had any issues. Last year was the first time we had to take action and sacrifice a larger part of the tree due to an infestation with "apple ermine" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yponomeuta_malinellus )

Other than that, never any real issues or problems.

Same goes for raspberries, red currant & gooseberries.

Cherries, peaches, apricot on the other hand never really materialized other than a few harvested by the piece and immediately eaten, the rest fell victim to birds long before ready to be harvested.

But again, apple trees, nothing but great experiences with them!  [thumbs up]

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"Sharing is caring" ...

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[peter halle]

Here in North America there are more things to affect apple trees.  I planted three, only one survives and its only purpose is to produce barely edible apples for the deer.  The others were planted too close to Eastern Red Cedar trees and suffered from Cedar Apple Rust disease as well as Fire Blight which can be transferred from many trees but especially the Black cheery trees that I have in abundance.  At least the deer like the Granny Smiths no matter what condition they are in.

Peter

 

[Packard]

A staple of Jewish dining is the “challah” bread.  While the texture of the challah is somewhat different than brioche bread, the flavor is very similar.  Diners (restaurants) in the metropolitan New York area use challah for French toast.  If you do that, slice it very thin as it absorbs lots of the egg/milk mix.

At the BJ’s Club near my house, they sell brioche bread, challah bread and challah buns and also Kings Hawaiian bread and rolls.  Of the bunch, only the challah is baked locally and as a result is less expensive.  But all are worth a try.  All three use butter and whole eggs (unlike white bread), and have a yellow-ish color.  I don’t know how to describe the textures, but all are significantly different from Wonderbread.

Both meals looked so good Oliver!

I saw multiple posts on Facebook praising how good some of the frozen chicken products are from Walmart.  This morning I went shopping and bought a few of the items and made a chicken sandwich for lunch.  The chicken sandwich was very good!  It was very close to Chick-fil-A.  I heated the chicken breast fillet in the air fryer and toasted the brioche bun with some butter in a skillet. I believe this is the first time I've ever bought brioche buns, but it definitely won't be my last.  These buns were so much better than regular "hamburger" buns!

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I was also looking for the Spicy Chicken Fillets, but I couldn't find them and I even went to 3 different Walmarts.  I believe the reason is because Walmart organizes their frozen chicken into 2 categories: frozen fully cooked and frozen uncooked.  The Spicy Chicken Fillets would have been with the frozen uncooked chicken wings and not with the fully cooked chicken nuggets and tenders.

 

[Cheese]

We just planted a honeycrisp and a kindercrisp apple tree this year.  As long as they survive this winter and I reinforce the deer fence next year, I'm hoping for our first crop in 2026.  Also planted a golden delicious which was already producing so that I have another pollination option; I've read that golden delicious performed better than most varieties when it came to pollinating honeycrisp, and it was hard to pass up a tree that already had fruit on it.

FWIW...the University of Minnesota is one of the largest fruit hybridizers in the US. Because of the extreme climate conditions we encounter in a typical growing season, if it can withstand a Minnesota winter, it can easily withstand Florida & California climates.  [smile]

These are apples hybridized by the U of M.
*Beacon
*Chestnut Crabapple
*Connell Red/Fireside
*First Kiss®/Rave®
*Frostbite
*Haralson
*Honeycrisp
*Honeygold
*Keepsake
*Red Baron
*Regent
*SnowSweet®
*SweeTango®
*Sweet Sixteen
*Triumph
*Zestar!® 

Here's some interesting reading.https://arb.umn.edu/AppleHouse/apples

The U of M is also working on hybridizing 3 other variants that they hope will be released in the next couple of years. This should be interesting.  [smile]

 

[six-point socket II]

This time of year again, veal chops like grandma used to make them.  [big grin]

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[FestitaMakool]

.. Just when I’m coming inside from working outside in below zero.. and hungry [eek]
Can we start eating now!  [big grin] It looks reeeeally good [drooling] [drooling]

 

[six-point socket II]

[thumbs up]

No below zero here for the foreseeable future, but very wet at around 10 °C +-. Spent hours in on-off rain cutting my (new) neighbors trees and bushes from our side of the fence today that he can't reach, as I promised when he came around to ask how we're going to handle the situation. Then drove the stuff to the recycling yard. 3 90l bins, 5 garden waste bags ... He had cut & drove off about the same amount from his side on Saturday already.

"Poor" guy, seller promised to have a gardener take care of everything one final time before they moved in. Obviously didn't follow through. Then the new owners concentrated on the renovation, never had a garden before, and everything just overgrew over the course of about a year and a half.

My guess is, he's getting a landscaper and a gardener next year.  [big grin]

Oh, and to keep this on topic, there's chicken wings in the oven right now. And a Vichyssoise on the stove ready to be eaten.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket II]

Vichyssoise.

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Chicken wings.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket II]

French musk/barbarie duck filet, potato croquettes, warm apricot sauce.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket II]

Lasagna.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket II]

Afternoon, apple strudel. (Convenience product, not home made.)

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Dinner. Chicken breast filet and potatoes au gratin.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket II]

Dinner: filled peppers.

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And while I spent the day on one of the projects, plastering a door frame, my better-half took her croissant-game to the next level.

Rolled.

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Rising under a special, breathable, liner.

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Looking good.

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After a few minutes in the oven.

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Ready. 3 with eggwash, 3 without.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket II]

Breakfast buns. Which had a little collision accident while resting and rising overnight in the fridge. So we had more of a "bun wheel" than single buns ... Bit sourdough, bit spelt flour ... delicious buns.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket II]

Dinner:

Varlaks (Salmon) from Visscher Seafood (https://visscherseafood.com /https://www.varlaks.de ), veggies and potatoes noisettes (with almonds).

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Dessert: Profiterole. (High-end convenience product.) Or as one of the most wonderful and entertaining waiters in NYC once said to us: "A treat that can't be beat."

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Kind regards,
Oliver