Wednesday, February 12, 2020

The Old and The New

The new first.  That's if you could call a fresh batch of bread "new."


A couple of days ago, I had a huge craving for some garlic cheese bread with red dipping sauce.  So first thing in the morning, I mixed up a batch of my old tried-and-true Italian Bread.  Made into four loaves, each loaf is a perfect size for two people to split,  Plus, it's a bread recipe that rises in the refrigerator so I can pull it out to bake just at the right time before dinner.  Yep, we gobbled up one loaf and the other three went into the freezer for future meals.

Definitely relegated to the "old" category is this waffle iron my in-laws gave me for Christmas 50+ years ago.  I make more pancakes than waffles, but this little appliance has had its share of batter run through it.  We had waffles for breakfast a couple of days ago with a choice of homemade blueberry syrup or maple syrup from a local source.  Yum.


Our onions are "old" from last season's garden.  I sorted through them yesterday and found them still in pretty good shape.  Only about two-thirds of a milk crate remains of yellow ones.


Despite the fact that red onions usually don't keep as well as yellow ones, I've always had good luck with them.  A few more reds than yellows left, as you can see, but that's fine as I'll just go a little heavier on the reds for a while.  They're the best in tossed salads and add color in many other dishes.

Next on the Really Need to Do List is sorting the remaining apples in the root cellar.  Fingers crossed they're keeping as well as the onions have in the basement.

15 comments:

Goatldi said...

Sweet reds?

Goatldi said...

Addendum great loaves of bread Bat woman !

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Recipe?? For the Italian bread.

Katie C. said...

Ooh, I second that request for the bread recipe!

We were talking about growing onions. When do you plant yours?

Mama Pea said...

Goatldi - Yep, sweet reds. Hubby has taken to asking for them on all his sandwiches. (Wonder what he's lacking in his diet?) Now where are those wildcats I'm supposed to whip my weight of today? (Haha, after the night I just had -- up at 3:55 a.m., back to sleep at 5:30, up again at 6:30 -- I couldn't even whip cream right now.)

Kristina - Go way down on my right hand side bar and find the Search box. Type in Italian Bread and it should take you right to a post I did on it way back in January of 2012. (Where does the time go??)

Katie C. - See Kristina's answer right above to find the recipe.

As for the onions, I always plant onion sets. Those are the little round balls that look like tiny onions. I just looked back in my notes and for the past three years, I've planted mine on May 25, 19 and 17. You could probably plant yours a little earlier?

wisps of words said...

How lucky you are, to have a wonderfully working Root Cellar!!!! Worth its weight in gold!

"All you need is love.
But a little chocolate now and then
doesn't hurt."
~Charles M. Schultz

Elizabeth said...

We had a waffle iron like that except ours was square. That thing was so heavy. Hubby would make waffles and bacon on Saturday mornings for the kids and me.

Only other thing he made was chicken, potatoes and onions in the pressure cooker.
Kids thought it was the best thing ever and that was because Dad made it. I'd cook every day and never got the response he did.

Winter is starting to feel a bit long even though I do keep busy. Can't wait to get outside and garden.

Waiting for spring...

Mama Pea said...

wisps of words - Yep, having a root cellar really does come in handy for those fruits and vegetables you want to keep in a "fresh" state. Glad we don't have tornadoes up here, though, and have to run to ours like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz!

Elizabeth - Isn't that the truth?! Dads do seem to get that extra credit for doing something moms do all the time. Hmmmm, maybe we need to analyze that.

Our winter has been rather sunless so far and that does have me dreaming of days spent outside most of the daylight hours playing in the garden. Coming in at night after being out in the sun all day is a special kind of "good" tired!

Sam I Am...... said...

The bread looks so good and that is nice that you can refrigerate until you want to bake it. Do you freeze the rest as dough or bake it first? My onions from the store don't do as well as yours. Although they do better in the winter as I keep them out in the garage. That is so awesome to know you have grown them all! What a wonderful sense of satisfaction after all that work!

Mama Pea said...

Sam I Am - I always bake this bread before freezing it. And it tastes just about as good when I take a loaf out to use as it did before freezing. (Did so last night for company.) Onions are a crop in the garden that I rarely have trouble with. Matter of fact, in the past couple of years I've cut down the amount I plant because they mature into such nice, big onions. Now, something like big, fat, ol' tomatoes? Forget about it! At least until we get some kind of a large hoop or grow house constructed. Just not enough hot weather up here!

Retired Knitter said...

What I know about onions could fill a thimble. But I always think of red onions as falling in sweetness between yellow and Vadalia. Or is there a red onion that is as sweet as Vadalia?

wisps of words said...


💕 💕 💕Happy Valentine Day💕 💕 💕

Mama Pea said...

Retired Knitter - I think you hit the nail on the head regarding red onions being somewhere between yellow and Vadalias in sweetness. Probably it's true, too, that some varieties of reds are sweeter than others. Probably there's a difference in pungency in whites also. Does it depend on the soil the onion is grown in? Or how much moisture (or lack thereof) was available during the growing period? Omigosh, we've just set up a research project here! ;o)

wisps of words - Same to you! Did you get your chocolates??

THE ONLY TRUE HACKER IN THE WORLD ® said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Granny Sue said...

I am so impressed by your onions! I feel blessed to keep them past December. Mine are holding better than usual, but not as well as yours. Where do you store them?