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Aaron, another interesting site I have been following (although I haven't been making much pizza lately) is the Baking Steel site http://www.bakingsteel.com/pizza-blog/

They have posts from Peter Reinhart and Kenji Lopez-Alt as well as a variation on the no-knead I want to try. Obviously, the purpose is to sell baking steels, but it's still very interesting.

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Lots of trees down. Minimal water damage because the storm went further off shore. The thing that kept us away for so long was that the wastewater treatment pumps lost power so we had to wait til that was clear. Good news no contaminants in the water. The crews have done an amazing job cleaning up. We're all thankful we didn't get the floods around St. Augustine or NC

Some of us were at work today cleaning up. The generators that power the coolers didn't go on - yesterday the back of house (kitchen for the uninitiated) staff went in to clean everything out. I understand it was nasty. Today they brought some us in from front of house to clean everything in the kitchen and do some reorganizing. Tomorrow a few will be going in to get the restaurant ready for service tomorrow night. And, we'll be back at work Friday morning.

Made mac and cheese (baked) for dinner last night. No baking quite yet, but probably be n the next couple of days. No eggs at the market yet

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We got home today!!!?

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We're heading back tomorrow morning hoping to avoid some of the traffic. Tonight we'll know when they let phase 2 in, we are phase 3 - residents which should quickly follow. Current issue is getting the waste water treatment system up and going and there is a boil water alert. Our intention is to get back on the island, but we do have a friend we can stay with tomorrow night if we can't.

I just feel so badly for the people in the Carolinas - they got hit so badly and it was never expected to go that way. There were 2 couples from Hilton Head in our hotel and they said Harbor Town was pretty much decimated. The 18th green (for those of you golfers who watch the Heritage) was completely covered with debris. This morning they got news of surging water where it had been dry after the storm had passed.

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People have been allowed on the mainland but we're getting mixed messages about the islands. Another resort said they were told the earliest would be Weds, but everyone's hoping tomorrow. For those left on the island, reports are that the water never got that high, but there's no power and they're not even letting a few people on. Hopefully, we will be able to get there

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We got lucky. By the time the eye was east of Brunswick (we're the barrier islands east of Brunswick), it had wobbled east and passed about 100 miles from us. This was great for us, but unfortunately went straight into the SC coast between Hilton Head and Charleston. For Mike's friends (I hope they are safe), the storm did not turn east as quickly and is going to be at least a tropical storm. It did get downgraded to a category 2 before it passed us.

We should be able to go home tomorrow. They're waiting for the PM high tide because we could still get storm surge. After that it's clean up and hopefully back to normal soon.

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I don't know if it's going to do as much damage on the Outer Banks as in past hurricanes. I think they may "only" have tropical storm strength - it's supposed to be down to a Category 1 by the time it gets to Charleston and starts heading out to sea. I hope that's the case for your friends

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Sounds like fun, Mike. Look forward to your reports as wellz

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That explains it BakerAunt. During the early 79s I was in college and wouldn't have done much shopping. After that our family traditions were such that it would have been either canned (I still prefer it) or homemade so I would not have been paying attention to other products.

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Italiancook, I'm originally from Southeastern Massachusetts, the home of Ocean Spray. I don't remember them ever making an orange cranberry relish in a jar. Those who made it used the recipe on the package.

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What I was thinking was that the more you beat the butter and stuff, the warmer it can get and that could change the texture of the cake. I remember watching Emeril way back when and he said it didn't matter how you added the eggs, as long as they got incorporated. I don't think I would go that far, but I thought 2 at a time would be comparable to 1 at a time in the regular recipe.

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I made a banana cream pie from a recipe I found on Epicurious. It had a graham cracker crust. The flavors were all great, but it ended up being a banana pudding pie: the filling was so soft.

I also made the Honey Vanilla Pound Cake again, doubling the recipe and baking it in the bundt pan. I made a few changes and wrote about them here

Pound Cake: Loaf Pan or Bundt Pan

It was better than the last time, but is still a work in progress.

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I made this cake again yesterday and doubled the recipe. I'll give you the changes based on the recipe itself.
I added an additional tablespoon of honey, and additional teaspoon of vanilla. I actually added seeds from a vanilla bean pod for half of the vanilla. I creamed the honey with the sugar and butter and added the lemon zest and vanilla seeds just before I added the eggs. Then before adding the flour, I added the vanilla extract. I did switch the salt and baking powder quantities: 1/2 tsp salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder. I did bake it at 325º and it took an hour. It did start browning more and I think that was because of the honey. I did cover it with foil near the end.

It tasted much better, but was still a little dry. As I said it did brown quite a bit. I'm very close to what I want. I tasted the batter during the process and realized that I didn't reduce the sugar to compensate for the extra honey - I will definitely do that the next time. I will not add the lemon zest - I think it overpowers the flavors I am trying to get. And it did rise almost twice as high as the first one and didn't collapse. The crumb is nice, but I think I will try baking it at 350º again and it will probably only take 45 minutes which would be fine. I also realized that the directions say to add 1 egg at a time and I'm adding eight, so I think I should add them 2 at a time so I don't over process.

Everyone did like it, though and agreed it was better than the last time.

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Reading what you both made inspires me to get some cauliflower this week. While it's still way too hot to think about soup, I love to roast it.

I made my favorite Shepherd's Pie from Simon & Pia Pearce's "A Way of Living." I forgot how much it makes and we've been eating it all week! I also made a delicious squash, sausage and goat cheese pasta dish from Fine Cooking on Friday. All I had to do for leftovers was add some cream - it made a nice sauce.

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I got the impression that the producers made the deal without consulting the principals. And, there seems to be enough agitation among the public to attempt to see if there is some way for it to stay at the BEEB" somehow, I don't think that will happen. I don't see how they can make it work without Mary, Mel and Sue - they are such a big piece of the whole thing.

I've been streaming the latest one online. They have given them much bigger challenges and some very talented bakers have already gone home. There doesn't seem to be the drama of past years which is actually a refreshing change.

Anvils, Channel 4 is an independent British Channel which everyone can watch and they have advertising. The BBC is supported by the TV licensing fee which every household with a tv pays per year. I can't remember if there is a scale or a flat fee.

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