Quarantine Baking

I know I can't have been the only one doing some baking during the quarantine.  It's getting warmer now so there probably won't be as much, but I'm keeping the basics on hand because I know that there will be bananas that will be too ripe to eat and probably an excess of blueberries.  We have had our share of banana bread and muffins which I did not take pictures of.  I also didn't take pictures of the blueberry lemon bread that I made.  We even had banana blueberry bread.  There were a lot of other recipes that I would have liked to try but some of them needed pantry items that unfortunately were not in my pantry and I wasn't sending HWNSNBP out for those last minute ingredients, so we made do with what we had or planned ahead for a particular recipe.   

On one of his first shopping expeditions (he is the designated grocery shopper here), I did add a couple of things that we normally don't have on hand like sour cream and buttermilk.  We actually usually don't even have milk on hand as he typically will go out to Quick Check for his coffee in the morning, but self-serve coffee ended quite quickly at the beginning of this.  So he was forced to make coffee at home and thus we had the "smallest container of milk possible" on hand.  But even that needed to be used up before it expired.  

I have made this buttermilk pie before with good results.  So with the container of buttermilk about to pass its freshness date I added some frozen pie crusts to the shopping list that week.  

I was a little taken aback when I poured out the buttermilk to see the orange dots in it but after checking the internet I determined that it was still okay to use it.  They are simply little balls of the butterfat that has separated.  It didn't appear to make a difference in the finished pie.  

Since I had a second pie crust from that package, I decided to to try this butterscotch pie - recipe from my blogging buddy Claire in CA.  It helped to use up some of the regular milk that we had before it expired.  It was delicious but it wasn't set enough - probably not enough cooking time in the pot before the bake.  So the filling was a little loose, but we didn't care.

There were also the cookies I posted about earlier.  I've found that they come out much better straight from the freezer into the oven for twice the amount of baking time.  

Extra lemons went into making microwave lemon curd which went well with the lemon blueberry bread.  I also tried crockpot ranch pork chops - not a baking recipe but new to us - and they were good also.  

One of the other things that we tried, besides curbside pick-up from local restaurants was a home-delivery ice cream service - Scoops on Wheels.  They deliver once a week to specific areas and you have to get your order in be noon the day before and can pay through Paypal.  They e-mail you with an estimated time of delivery and ring the doorbell and also text you that the order is there.  Since we aren't going anywhere much, it was nice to have this every couple of weeks.  Now that it's getting warmer I think we will be opting out.  

This particular week they were out of their usual cardboard containers, but each time they come they're labeled with the flavor and an uplifting message handwritten on them too.

So all of this baking, while definitely enjoyed has also definitely added to what they're calling the "quarantine fifteen".  I can't say that I've gained 15 lbs., but there was a gain.  And with the rate that my hair is growing, and missing now my 3rd haircut, that's got to be good for a couple of pounds - right?!

Tell me, what have you been baking?