[Mike Nolan]

I let my Post subscription lapse as well.

[Mike Nolan]

I made another batch of sumac muffins, dividing it into 4 parts:

Part 1 was the base batch, the same recipe as last time but with a little more honey and with some za'atar. The originals definitely had some za'atar in them, but I think I used too much.

Part 2 had some cinnamon as well.

Part 3 had additional sumac.

Part 4 had additional sumac and cinnamon.

Of these, the 3rd one was closest to what we remember from the restaurant in Pittsburgh.

I liked the ones with the cinnamon in them, but we're both pretty sure that the ones we had two weeks ago didn't have cinnamon in them.

The next batch will definitely cut back on the za'atar, increase the sumac and cut back on the sugar/honey.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm going to be making epis de bles and chocolate croissants for a pot luck event on Saturday, and baguettes for another event on Sunday, gotta start the preferment and detrempte on Thursday.

[Mike Nolan]

I have at least two tomatoes starting to ripen in the outdoor garden, I'm fairly sure they're '4th of July' ones, so they're living up to their name.

[Mike Nolan]

Not sure if I'll get to it this week, but I'm going to make a batch of laminated dough for croissants using some of the pastry flour I bought while in Pennsylvania. (Gotta find a way to use up 50 pounds of it!) Some sources recommend a bread flour for croissants, others recommend a pastry flour, so I'll be curious to see if I can notice any differences.

[Mike Nolan]

When I made the sumac muffins last week, they were good but not the same as the ones we had in Pittsburgh. Doing some researching, I decided to order some za'atar to see if that might be what was actually in them. Diane took one sniff from the bag of Lebanese za'atar (hyssop, sumac, sesame, coriander and salt) that came today and said, 'Yes, that's the right smell.' So, I'll try making some with that later this week.

[Mike Nolan]

No yogurt maker here, Diane sometimes eats yogurt, I don't, though I have on occasion used it for baking.

We have two OXO salad spinners and one Tupperware salad spinner. Somehow the OXO one always reminds me of a children's top, I almost expect it to make a musical sound when I use it.

[Mike Nolan]

Oops, I put the sumac muffins post in the wrong category. Too hard to move. :sigh:

We both liked this first batch, though more sumac may be needed. I deliberately put in only 3 ounces of honey when the recipe called for 4, but we don't think it desperately needs more sweetness. I might try adding a little cinnamon. I've also got some za'atar on order, I know it's used more in flatbreads, but I might try splitting a batch, some with za'atar, some with cinnamon.

[Mike Nolan]

There was a lot of wild sumac where I grew up (the good kind, genus Rhus, not poison sumac, which is genus Toxicodendron.) The genus for the latter even sounds dangerous, doesn't it? They're not all that closely related, though they are both in the Anacardiaceae family.

It is more commonly found in savory Middle Eastern foods, and is frequently an ingredient in za'atar. The Casbah restaurant in Pittsburgh where we had the sumac muffins was quite interesting, I'd like to eat there again some time.

We planted some sumac in the NE corner of our yard to hide the utility posts, but over the years other plants have pretty much crowded them out. They tend to grow in thickets.

I'm making my first attempt at sumac muffins today, they look similar but the taste is different. Not bad, just different. May need a little more sweetness and more spices. Has anyone baked with za'atar?

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[Mike Nolan]

Gee, I would have said you had more gardening room than most of us, but maybe it isn't suitable for watermelons or too exposed to the local animals.

I sprinkled a packet of dill and a handful of dill seeds from last year in part of my garden and raked it in a little, now I've got a lovely dill forest going. (That's how my mother always grew dill.)

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[Mike Nolan]

We have 3 days of 100+ weather in the forecast, kicking off summer with a sizzle.

Probably won't be doing a lot of baking those days. I might try making a batch of sumac muffins tonight, though.

[Mike Nolan]

Probably more of a local supply chain issue, I've not seen any signs of a nationwide banana shortage yet. There is a fungal disease (a strain of fusarium wilt labeledTR4, also called Panama Disease) that will eventually wipe out most of the Cavendish banana plants, like an earlier strain, TR1, did with the Gros Michel in the 50's, but it will likely take another 10-20 years. I don't know if they've settled on a new variety to replace it, and it takes something like 5-10 years for a banana plantation to get fully productive banana plants from new stock.

There may be better mitigation efforts in place than in the 50's, since Gros Michel was wiped out quite quickly once TR1 was widespread, though TR4 has been around for over 30 years already. I've seen some reports of trying to breed fungal resistance into Cavendish, but since banana plants are mainly reproduced by cloning, that's not a very simple or quick strategy. Cloning is also the reason TR4 is a world-wide problem, just like it was for the Gros Michel.

About two years ago I read an article about using gene splicing to add fusarium resistance to the Cavendish banana from fusarium resistant tomatoes, but the anti-GMO folks were quick to pick up on that and I don't know if that project is still ongoing.

The 1920's Broadway tune "Yes we have no bananas" was written about banana shortages from the early years of the TR1 plague on the Gros Michel banana.

[Mike Nolan]

Our cat is VERY glad we're home, he's been on my lap most of the last two days.

[Mike Nolan]

I also brought back 50 pounds of Ardent Mills pastry flour. For $26, couldn't really pass that up. I also got 3 more 16x22 (2/3 size) sheet pans and a few smallware items.

The car was REALLY full for the trip home!

[Mike Nolan]

For our first night back after 10 nights on the road, we went with a rotisserie chicken from Sams.

Tomorrow we will be having Chicago hot dogs (with Vienna hot dogs and buns bought in Illinois) for lunch and Italian Beef Sandwiches (for me) for supper, with a kit we bought at a Portillo's location on the way home. Also bought some Rocky Mountain chocolates and some chocolates from a local store in Galena Il. (Rocky Mountain chocolates are always good, the ones from the local store ranged from OK to pretty good.)

Came back with 4 full coolers: One with 16.5 pounds of Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate callets and other chocolates, another with the meat, one with about 25 bottles of wine from various wineries in Illinois and Pennsylvania and the 4th one was beverages and snack foods for the road.

Last Sunday we had a graduation celebration brunch with a number of Kelita's classmates and friends and their parents. The restaurant (Casbah) served some breakfast pastries that included a sumac mini-muffin, sweet but not overpoweringly so. I bought some ground sumac berries at Penzey's in Pittsburgh and am going to see if I can come up with a recipe for them. I'm guessing there was some buttermilk in them, and there are recipes for buttermilk sumac muffins online.

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