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[Mike Nolan]

I made about 12 quarts of chicken stock today, and will have 3 breasts worth of meat for something like chicken salad. (I added a package of bone in breasts from the freezer to five pounds of backs, also from the freezer, and I threw in some chicken feet for collagen.)

We had a lavash pizza for supper. Tomorrow I may make potato leek soup.

[Mike Nolan]

They've raised the predicted low for tonight from 33 to 34, but we have frost advisories. I'm going to pick what I can this afternoon and hope the rest survive. My wife has some planters she wants to move into the garage for a few days, then possibly into the house for the winter.

The hummingbird feeders will come down, too, as I think we saw just one all day yesterday.

We've been looking at getting an Aerogarden, our son has been sending us shots of all the stuff he's getting from his, including several dozen poblano peppers. I know he's got some cherry tomatoes that have set, I don't know how many he'll get. (I assume it is a dwarf/bush style plant.)

I still want to do some more work with the grow lights we have, I think we started the bedding plants a couple weeks too late this year, but the outdoor weather wasn't all that cooperative for gardening anyway. I alsodon't think we had the right mix of soil/nutrients for growing things beyond the transplant point.

[BakerAunt]

We are out of crackers. Like Aaron, I have a problem with crackers disappearing fast. I made another batch of dough on Wednesday for the Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them next week.

I also baked cornbread to go with soup for dinner. I put the batter into a Nordic Ware Autumn Muffin pan (two leaves, two pumpkins, two acorns). It was slightly too much, but they still came out well. I reduced the temperature to 375F and baked on the third shelf up, which seems to work better with the Nordic Ware pans.

My last project was to make a levain for Honey-Spelt Sourdough Bread, which I plan to bake tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

Autumn is here, so on Tuesday afternoon, I baked Skeptic’s Pumpkin Biscotti, using white whole wheat flour.

Dinner on Tuesday was sourdough pan pizza (half-sheet pan). I topped with my own sauce, Canadian bacon, 4 oz. low-fat mozzarella, mushrooms, red bell pepper from our garden, green onions, black olives on my half, and Parmesan cheese. Dinner was about an hour late because with the cooler weather, the sourdough crust needed longer first and second rises.

[BakerAunt]

I wanted to use up some limes that were drying out, so I grated what zest I could, then squeezed them for 1 ½ Tbs. juice. My tree produced these limes last year. My husband had had them in the apt. refrigerator, so they were overlooked. I decided that I would see if I could adapt Nick Malgieri’s Macadamia Lime Cookies recipe from Cookies Unlimited (p. 188). It was a favorite of mine back when I could eat buttery rich treats without a second thought. I made up a half recipe, using white whole wheat flour and replacing what would be 6 Tbs. of butter with 3 Tbs. canola oil and 1 Tbs. buttermilk. I added 2 tsp. water as I was shy ½ Tbs. lime juice. I mixed by hand. The dough was crumbly, and I realized after trying to do them as drop cookies that it would not work. Clearly, they need the fat the butter provides to hold together. I pulled out a glass 6x10 inch baking dish, greased it, then pressed the mixture into it. I baked at 350F for 23 minutes (checked at 20 minutes) on the third shelf up in my oven (above halfway).

We won't be cutting the bars until tomorrow, so I'll report then how they taste.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday, I made another batch of tomato sauce (about 3 cups). As I cannot use the 4-qt. Calphalon pan anymore, due to the loss of its anodized coating, I looked around and realized that the 12-inch All-Clad round roaster pan, although not quite as deep, would work. It performed admirably and cleaned up easily. I expect these tomatoes were the last major batch, although some are still ripening on the vine. So far, the weather has allowed them to continue. If we get to where freezing weather is forecast, then we will pick any that remain and ripen them in the house.

For Thursday dinner, we had the remaining leftover Turkey-Zucchini Loaf with Peach-Dijon glaze, with one of the Queen squashes from our garden. I halved it lengthwise, lightly rubbed with olive oil, and baked for 40 minutes at 400F in my countertop convection oven. I then turned them over and stuffed them with a combination of bulgur and the leftover farro, mushrooms, and red bell pepper mix. I put a little bit of 2% cheese on top. These baked for an additional 20 minutes at 375F.

I realized that with the zucchini in the meat loaf, the Queen squash, and the pumpkin bread at dessert, we ate three kinds of squash this evening.

[Mike Nolan]

The Wall Street Journal says wholesale tea prices were at a multi-year low due to oversupply last winter. but have risen 50% since March. Weather, labor shortages and logistical issues are all factors.

I generally drink Irish tea (Lyons, mostly), I usually order a year's supply around this time.

[Mike Nolan]

Might have to do with the type of grape or the way it is processed (grape seed oil is a byproduct of wine-making.)

[Mike Nolan]

I made another batch of bagels today, using the 'wrap around the hand' method. You can see the overlap on the top right one (at about 10 o'clock) and at the bottom of the other 3 without cheese on top.

This method makes a slightly smoother surface, because it hasn't been hand stretched.

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[Mike Nolan]

I had a bagel and some peas, my wife had soup. I'll be having soup a lot next week, I'm having a crown prep on Friday. (She had one last week.)

[Mike Nolan]

I've heard that a lot of what is being sold as balsamic vinegar is artificially aged (ie, not in oak casks) and really poor quality compared to the expensive stuff. I've never really cared for balsamic vinegar, maybe I just haven't tasted a good one.

Our friend went to a tasting at the western Nebraska place, she had a sample of some balsamic vinegar that was priced at over $100 for a small bottle, she said it was unlike anything she'd ever tasted.

There are instructions for making balsamic vinegars in the Noma book, but it is a complicated process and even the Noma team wasn't sure how good their stuff would get over time.

My carrot and celery vinegars are interesting, so far I use the celery one more than I do the carrot one.

[Mike Nolan]

I make my bagels with about 3 ounces of dough, that's smaller than the standard, which is more like 4 1/2 ounces, but we like them better.

The bagels made Montreal-style (less salt, honey instead of barley malt syrup) are a bit bigger than the ones I get with the recipe as written, I think it's because the lower salt makes them puffier. Traditionally, Montreal bagels also have a larger hole in the middle, that's probably also due to the softer puffier dough.

The conventional wisdom is that blowouts are related to under-proofing, being close to the convection fan could mean they get more oven spring activity. If you've got a 1 or 2 inch deep half sheet pan, you could try baking them in that, it might shield the dough more.

There's kind of a narrow window between under-proofed and over-proofed. Home conditions are generally not as consistent as bakery conditions, so we're always guessing as to when they're ready for the oven.

[chocomouse]

I made my variation of Crusty Gruyere Loaves, KAF recipe. I used half bread and half AP flour, so they are nice and chewy. I added about a cup of chopped green olives and used a combo of Jarlsberg and cheddar cheese, a generous 2 cups (I put end pieces of cheese that are on the verge of molding into bags in the freezer for later use; they don't slice well for anything fancy, but are great for crumbled cheese). I rolled the dough into a rectangle about 9 x 24, sprinkled with the olives and cheese, rolled up and then cut into 24 slices each about 1 inch wide. I put them into heavily sprayed muffin tins and baked for 20 minutes at 400. They are nicely browned and came out of the muffins tins without sticking. Will be perfect with tomato soup!

[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I baked a half recipe of Toffee-Pumpkin Snack Cake, a recipe form Better Homes & Gardens Fall Baking (2017), p. 28. I reduce the canola oil in the half recipe to 1/3 cup and make up the ½ cup with buttermilk. I reduced the half sugar from ¾ to 2/3 cup. I use my own spice mixture in place of pumpkin pie spice. In the half recipe, I use a scant ¼ cup (45g) of toffee pieces, which I put into the bars. I sprinkled autumn-colored nonpareils thickly on top.

I'll be working through the remaining frozen pumpkin. I have bought five pie pumpkins from the farmers market, and I may try to get a couple more.

[Mike Nolan]

Anodized coatings wear off, I'm not sure if the acid in tomatoes would speed that up.

We have two 9 1/2" Ikea stainless steel saute pans, I like them a lot, but sometimes I wish I had one 12" stainless steel saute pan, though I don't feel like paying $200 for one. (I don't want a non-stick pan for general cooking, we do use them for eggs.)