Mike Nolan
Thu. Mar 12th, 2026
We had macaroni and cheese.
I was thinking of using the one at Rural Sprout (zucchini dill relish), but I might add some sweet peppers (and leave out the garlic).
I'm tempted to try one batch with dill and one batch with caraway. If they work well together, I could always just combine them afterwards.
Years ago, a family friend gave us her tomato relish recipe, a version of which I have posted here. The main ingredients are tomatoes, onions and sweet peppers. It is great on hot dogs.
Supper tonight was some local sweet corn and a roast beef sandwich.
We had sandwiches on fresh bread. I had a tomato sandwich, Diane had peanut butter and blackberries.
I am making semolina bread today, with enough extra dough to make some epis de bles on another day, after the dough has sat in the fridge for a while.
I may have to try the zucchini relish, but without the garlic. I've got a monster I picked the other day, nearly 5 pounds. Tomorrow may be a good baking/cooking day, the high is supposed to be in the mid 80's with rain possible. Today it hit 102, about 4 degrees above the forecasted high. (I also need to make more semolina bread tomorrow.)
Tonight we had burgers on the grill, with some 4 bean salad and some potato chips.
We had tacos/nachos for supper tonight
We had BLT's with an Italian Heirloom tomato that may be the best tomato we've gotten from the garden this season. Nearly a pound!
I canned 7 quarts of tomato juice last night, waiting until the temperatures dropped a bit.
There's a thrift store near us that has a big sign in their window:
Shopping at a thrift store is cheaper than therapy.
I had a steak and baked potato tonight. (Diane is spending the weekend with her cousin in western Nebraska, where it's even hotter than Lincoln. We hit 104 today, and they're calling for 100+ through Thursday, with 108 on Monday, I hope that's an over-estimate!)
I developed a buttermilk rye bread years ago, it is good but a bit dense, the buttermilk may be a factor in that, though many rye breads are also somewhat dense.
It may be that the acid in buttermilk is stronger than that in a teaspoon of vinegar (like in the double-crusty bread) or that there are other things in buttermilk that impact the structure of the bread.
If this is a sweet dough, an osmotolerant yeast might work better.
Hopefully time will resolve this for you.
The acid in buttermilk can impact yeast growth and also cause some of the gluten chains to break, both of which would affect how much the dough rises.
Many recipes that use buttermilk call for a little baking soda to help neutralize the acid.
I made another batch of peanut butter cookies today.
I prefer to make a compound butter/sugar/cinnamon and spread it on with an offset spatula, I find the butter doesn't soak in to the dough as much that way, and it really reduces the amount of spillage you get when you cut the rolls.
