Love it, BA!
My cloth masks were custom made so I have elastics around my head. They are 3 layers with a filter fabric (non-woven) as the middle layer. There is a seam, but the maker overlapped the seams inside. They also have nose clips. I would like to get some KN95s but I'm trying to make sure that it is an approved brand with head elastics. In the meantime, mine work as well if not better than other versions.
I was supposed to leave for Atlanta tomorrow for the Retail Market. Needless to say, I told my manager on Tuesday that I was not comfortable going - the hotel where I was going to stay had even reduced the availability of amenities more. Fortunately, she and our director backed me up and then it turned out that the Retail Director and Head Buyer had also cancelled. I have been setting up virtual meetings in lieu of the meetings I had scheduled and a couple of reps will come here to see me in February.
I forgot - one rep said it was going to be one giant Petri dish and she is recovering from a bout over the holidays.
Oh, I could have always defrosted it in the microwave, but we had pizza and lasagna left over from last night, and lots of salad. So I had two slices of pizza and some salad and my wife had a slice of lasagna plus some salad.
I also had a cinnamon spiratzi with a little of the dipping sauce (sugar/cinnamon) on it.
On Friday, I made applesauce with the last of the Doud-Greening and Ida Red apples (seconds) that we bought in November. I froze two containers and set aside the rest to have with dinner for a couple of nights. I also made yogurt.
For dinner on Friday, I made Stuffed Acorn Squash, using a carnival squash that I bought at the farmer's market in December. I roasted the halves at 375F for 50 minutes, then stuffed them with a mixture of browned ground turkey, bulgur cooked in chicken broth, and sauteed carrots, celery, mushrooms, and green onion. I grated some Parmesan on top, then roasted for an additional 14 minutes. I had read that carnival squash is a sweet squash, but this one had a flat to slightly bitter taste. I was glad that I had applesauce to accompany the stuffed squash.
When I was using our queen acorn squash last year, we noticed that some were sweet and some were slightly bitter, so I am wondering if acorn squash is always a gamble.
People are in the 3rd stage of directive exhaustion, confounded by ever-changing and conflicting reports of what's best. The science and the economics and the politics are so co-mingled, confused and conflated that nobody knows who or what to believe. (And all of this was predicted well before the first set of directives came out in early 2020, not that anyone listened to those experts on social behavior.)
While he was here, my son ordered a case of masks from 3M (they only sell them by the case), and he left several bundles of them with us.
I figure that two layers of fabric (how I made mine) is better than nothing for a mask. We have not been in any crowds, or we might have to look into N95. Right now, our area has the Delta variant in the ascendency. Local leaders are unwilling to lead on the issue, even just by encouraging vaccinations and boosters. Indeed, our county council, in its paranoia, refuses to take the federal funds that would assist the Health Department in what it is already doing, even though the county commissioners asked the council to reconsider.
Mike--the fairytale pumpkin is NOT the same as the Cinderella pumpkin. The fairytale has a browner skin, smaller seed cavity, and is denser:ÃÂàPumpkin Fairytale Seed âÃÂàHarris Seeds
The Cinderella is orange and contains much more water. When I tried it a few years ago, I worked hard for just a little bit of puree:ÃÂÃÂ Cinderella Pumpkins Information, Recipes and Facts (specialtyproduce.com)
I was not impressed with the flavor or the texture of the Cinderella.
On Wednesday morning, I baked my version of the Whole-Grain Pumpkin Bread posted by Lemon Poppy on the old KAF Baking Circle. I used 2 cups of the fairytale pumpkin puree. I bake it as five small loaves (3x6 inches) and plan to freeze three of them. My husband and I agreed that the pumpkin bread was especially good this time, so it may be due to the fairytale pumpkin. I will buy another next fall if I get the chance.
I tried to figure out how much it costs me to make a big pot of vegetable beef soup once, starting by making my own beef stock. The answer was somewhere around $3.00 a bowl (plus or minus about 75 cents), but that was a good five years ago.
We had a Zoup outlet near us, but it closed at the start of the pandemic and never reopened, the location is now a WingStop.
There have been two soup-and-salad restaurants that I know of here, neither lasted very long. One was in a rather expensive downtown location, far too large for their clientele. The most recent one made all their soups from the same soup bases (one beef and one chicken, both made from commercial mixes, I'm sure), both of which had garlic in them so my wife couldn't eat ANY of their soups. (At least Zoup always had at least one and usually two or three garlic-free soups on the menu.)
I ate at the International Soup Kitchen in NYC once (before Seinfeld made it famous), it was an interesting concept: soup, roll, a piece of fruit. Fast table turns, too. But my NYC friends tell me fame ruined it.
Looks good, Mike, and I agree, it should be a larger diameter.
I'm making cinnamon rolls right now. I had some fruitcake dried fruit mix that needed to be used so I took it (about 1/3 cup) and added raisins to make a cup, added a shot of rum to it, covered it and microwaved it on half power for a couple of minutes. By the time I added it to the dough it had absorbed all the rum. The rolls have been formed and are rising right now in the baking pan. I haven't made these in a while and am looking forward to them.
ItalianCook, I'm pretty sure you could sub out the whole wheat for whatever flour you prefer.
Joan, I'm wishing you a speedy and complete recovery.
For me, a proper soup is simply a vehicle for lots of veggies and noodles. 🙂
I haven't been there in a long time but on the mezzanine level of Water Tower Place (Chicago) they had a food court.ÃÂ When you entered you were given a card (like a credit card)ÃÂ and there were about a dozen or so food stations, each one different.ÃÂ For example, an Asian style stir fry station, pasta station, burger and fries etc etc.ÃÂ You would place your order and they would fix the food for you and take your card and swipe it.ÃÂ You paid at the cashier when you left the place.ÃÂ There was a common seating area but a couple of them also had their own seating.ÃÂ Anyway, one of the stations was soup, they would have 4 different soups everyday and they were all different from day to day.ÃÂ You could get unlimited or just a bowl.ÃÂ I used to love going there and getting the unlimited soup for lunch, usually have 2 and 1/2 bowls.ÃÂ Those soups were great.
Yesterday I roasted a small eye of round and had a sandwich and soup.ÃÂ Tonight I'm having the same thing except I'm using chicken broth from a box but the same veggie line up (kale, carrot and celery).
Less than half of the recipes that were on the BC (version 2) got posted here. Zen supposedly had the rest, but I could never get her to send me the file, and I'm not sure how to even reach her these days. But there were a lot of recipes buried in the discussion text for both versions of the BC that didn't get saved.
I hadn't checked the King Arthur blog site today, but it sounds like they didn't archive all those recipes. (I've been in IT for over 40 years, failure to keep good backups that can survive technology advances is a common problem.)
I did spend a few hours looking at one of the plugins for recipes, I've decided against using that one, but there are still a few others I plan to evaluate as I have time.
In August of 2020 I bought 50 pounds of semolina flour. The flour itself was $25.99 and shipping was $29.52 for a total of $55.51 or a little over $1.10 per pound.
A few days ago I bought another 25 pound bag. The flour itself was $31.49 and shipping was $18.37 for a total of $50.06 or just over $2 per pound. That's still better than what I can get it for locally.
The recent order was Bobs Red Mill, the previous order was North Dakota Mill, which was out of stock but is currently listed at $38.99 for a 50 pound bag, though that may go up when it is back in stock. (I don't know what shipping would be because it is out of stock.)
25 pounds should last me through the summer, though.
For lunch on Wednesday, I made my variation on the Black Bean Pumpkin Soup from the Smitten Kitchen website. That means I first cooked a package of Bob's Red Mill Black Beans that I soaked overnight. I used a can of fire-roasted tomatoes this time (yum), and I used 2 cups of the fairytale pumpkin puree that I made on Monday. The recipe calls fora half cup of sherry, but I only had a quarter cup, and I think that I prefer the more subtle flavor. I also further reduced the cumin to 1 tsp.; The original recipe calls for 1 Tbs. plus 2 tsp., but my digestive system prefers less rather than more cumin. I had been using 1 tsp. plus a quarter teaspoon. I love this soup and have enough for lunches into next week.
I made a round of bagels today, including my first try at a bagel cup for a deep dish pizza bagel:
I'll try making a deep dish pizza bagel with it tomorrow, but I think it needed to be stretched more, the hole closed up more than I wanted. But the good news is that making a cup from bagel dough isn't that difficult. This used about 3 ounces of dough, which is what I normally use for a bagel (we like them small), it might need to be a bit heavier.
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