[chocomouse]

I have breakfast cookies baking now - with oatmeal, maple syrup, applesauce, coconut, walnuts, chocolate chips, chopped dates, and craisins.

[chocomouse]

Salad night here last yesterday: broccoli, ditalini, and seafood.

[chocomouse]

BakerAunt, I don't know where KAF gets their maple syrup/sugar; I know they don't process it. There is a large processing company near here, in NH, and one just over the border in MA, and they both sell a lot of syrup to "commercial" entities, who bottle it or further process it and package it with their own labels. I'll ask around.

[chocomouse]

My understanding of how KAF operates, from friends who are employee-owners, is that just as KAF works with a small number of farmers who grow the grains, the farmers ship to a small number of mills. After the grains are processed and packaged at the mill, they are shipped to several distribution centers. From there, they fulfill customer orders. The issues are complex, and change from week to week (even day to day) and can differ depending on the distribution center. At the KAF store in Norwich, most of the administrative staff is working from home; however I learned the other day that some of them are now helping man the phone lines, to answer the questions of folks who have never before done any baking. Also, we can call the retail phone number, not the ordering number, to order and pay, and then pick up our order curbside in a couple hours. So far, the local stock of items has been very good; they've been out of a few things, but only for a few days at at time. We are not hearing that "this item is back ordered until June whatever". The shelves in our local stores, however, are pretty much empty of KAF flours, SAF yeast, etc, just like everywhere else.

[chocomouse]

We had leftover ham-potato soup and olive-gruyere rolls.

[chocomouse]

I remember that first post -- I was so worried, you really sounded like you would NEVER, not EVER, try again!! I was afraid you were going to spend a life-time missing out on really good pizza! I'm so glad you got the help you needed to persevere. BakerAunt's advice is great - I trust her to not make suggestions if she has any doubts about whatever it is. And I support using semolina in pizza dough 100%! Hey, maybe we should celebrate with a virtual pizza party!!

[chocomouse]

We had cheese and veggie omelets with English muffins.

[chocomouse]

We had ham and potato soup, a recipe I just found a couple weeks ago -it was delicious and I'll make it again. More snow forecast for tonight, but it won't last long.

[chocomouse]

Dinner was pork chops on the grill, roasted potatoes, winter squash, and green salad.

[chocomouse]

Kimbob, I've been thinking about the obc a lot lately, and yes, a lifetime. I think it was early 1990s, maybe even late 1980s? I'm using my stay-at-home time these days to clean out and downsize. I'm sorting through a ton of old favorite recipes, and looking through the entire collection of Baking Sheets. What fun! Thinking "remember when a bunch of us bought the same cookbooks and we all made the same recipes...." And I have photos of some of the goodies we made on a thumb drive somewhere around here. That lasted quite a few months! I'm not tossing out too many recipes, though!

[chocomouse]

Tacos for dinner tonight.

[chocomouse]

I went grocery shopping at 6:30 this morning, first time in three weeks. I tried to help a poor man who was shopping for his wife - looking for yeast and had no idea what to look for. Of course, there was none. However, I had read online earlier that a small, family-run store in a neighboring town had yeast on the shelves! And at KAF, you can call the retail store direct, they will gather your items and put them out at the curb for you. They seem lately to have most items, including flours and yeast. At the grocery store, a small chain store, there was no store-brand flour, a few bags of Gold Medal, and a lot of KAF - AP, Whole Wheat, White Whole Wheat, Self Rising. I think that speaks to the local economy - it's pretty rural, working class people who are now unemployed or self-employed, folks who were just barely making a living before the crisis.

[chocomouse]

Hi Kimbob! Glad to see you here, and I hope you will stay a while. It sounds like you've been baking up a storm!

[chocomouse]

The morning after - and the bagels I made yesterday are still tasty but the texture is entirely different. The outside no longer shatters when you bite into it, and the inside is very chewy, not soft. I think they are no different from the the bagels made from 100% KAF AP, or from the 50% AP and 50% bread flour.

[chocomouse]

Thanks, BakerAunt. I bet they are delicious - a stick of butter, and only 3/4 cup of flour? I just read that the "19" in Covid-19 stands for the amount of weight one will gain during the distancing/isolation/etc. Those cookies would surely help me reach that goal!

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