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.
I've tried two different tangzhong cinnamon roll recipes, including the King Arthur one, but I think I like the other one better. I think it's still on the tarateaspoon.com site.
We had tomato soup and fried cheese sandwiches again, something simple and mild.
We had tuna salad on fresh tomatoes tonight. A summer delight.
I've never been fond of breads with potato flour or potato starch in them, whether they're softer than other breads is something I've not noticed.
Peter Reinhart recently suggested I try using oil or shortening instead of butter in a buns recipe (like Moomies) to produce a softer bun. Haven't tried it yet. I will say his marbled rye bread, which uses a little Crisco, is a really soft rye.
Tonight's stir fry was so good that Diane is actually taking some for lunch tomorrow, something she almost never does. I usually wind up eating stir fry leftovers for lunch for the next 2-3 days.
This one had some locally grown red pepper, broccoli and zucchini, some mushrooms and the usual list: beef (top round this time), onions, celery, carrots, bean sprouts, pimentos and water chestnuts. I used a little molasses and a small package of beef stock to make sure there was enough sauce.
making peanut butter cookies today
We wound up doing tomato soup and fried cheese sandwiches, I'll do the stir fry tomorrow.
Tomorrow my wife is back to work, she has summers off at UNL. Our whole schedule changes when that happens.
The cobbler is improved by a little ice cream, but not enough for me to be likely to make this recipe again.
