[Mike Nolan]

We got 1.25 inches of rain overnight, and there's more in the forecast for the next few days.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not big on scones, because they're usually a bit dry, but these are made with almond milk and look good:

https://www.orchidsandsweettea.com/dairy-free-blueberry-almond-scones/

[Mike Nolan]

I've got several zucchini that'll be big enough to pick soon, currently they're about 5 inches long and an inch in diameter. I'm looking at zucchini bread recipes.

I need to keep a log of how many zucchini I pick and how big they are as part of the urban soil improvement study. (I'm not planning to let any grow too big, though.)

There are a few tomatoes on the 4th of July plants, but they're probably 2-3 weeks away from being ripe. But tomato season is coming, other varieties should start producing by the end of July.

[Mike Nolan]

We had melon and salami. I got the deli at WalMart to slice some genoa salami really thin, it's almost like having prosciutto and melon.

[Mike Nolan]

I suspect it is other factors, such as vegetable oil, packaging and shipping. I've seen reports that some companies are discontinuing certain sizes of products because they can't get the right size jars.

Demands for higher wages are becoming more widespread. UPS is likely to go on strike in a month and they want a HUGE increase for their 300,000+ union drivers. And if UPS drivers get a big jump, that will spread to other trucking operations.

The government tells us inflation is getting to be under control - in a pig's eye it is!

[Mike Nolan]

Wednesday night we had tacos.

[Mike Nolan]

I just bought another 50 pound bag of semolina, so I should be good for about 6 months. (We go through a lot of semolina bread in the summer, and a fair amount of homemade pasta in cooler weather.)

Each batch of semolina bread that I make takes 20 ounces of semolina (to 12 ounces of AP/bread flour.)

I also bought a 5 gallon food-safe bucket with a twist on lid to store most of it.

[Mike Nolan]

Tonight we had salami and cantaloupe, plus big salads.

[Mike Nolan]

Not sure what we're having for supper, but it'll probably be on freshly baked bread. 🙂

Update: BLTs

[Mike Nolan]

I am making both peanut butter cookies and semolina bread today.

[Mike Nolan]

I see several stories, one on NYT, one on Reuters, others.

Floods are drowning the wheat, high temperatures are killing off farm animals there.

[Mike Nolan]

It looks like there are 2 cookie recipes that don't use any butter or other fat, 2 cakes but no yeasted cakes, 3 tortes but no strudels, 7 savory cakes, 2 breads, and a dozen Christmas recipes, so the book probably wouldn't be worth it to you these days.

[Mike Nolan]

I recently ordered the Presto 23 quart induction-ready pressure canner recently, and was testing it yesterday. Looks like it will work just fine on my standalone 1500 watt induction cooktop, and with the shorter time to heat up and faster processing times it will keep the kitchen a lot cooler when canning.

It was taking close to an hour for the 24 quart stockpot to get to a boil and then 45 minutes to process tomato juice.

In tests yesterday, the induction cooktop got the pressure canner to full pressure (11+ pounds) in under 30 minutes, and it only needs to stay there for 15 minutes. It took about 40 minutes before the canner was cool enough to be opened up. It is possible that in production use these times might lengthen a bit.

And although it hit 95 outside yesterday and I had the canner at full pressure for at least 40 minutes, the kitchen did not get heated up.

[Mike Nolan]

I doubt we'll actually make anything with the black raspberries this year, one of the two cups I filled up this morning was gone before I got back inside with the second cup. Diane had it with her cottage cheese for breakfast, and enjoyed it immensely. I had a good portion of the second cup.

I'll probably check them again in the morning, but the Cubs are in London this weekend and tomorrow's game starts at 9AM local time.

I'm keeping a watch on the elderberries, there are several pockets of them around the yard and the birds haven't discovered them all yet. I'm still not counting on getting any to process, though. I wish the birds would spread them to the front of the house, too, like they did with the asparagus.

[Mike Nolan]

I got a new cookbook today, "Classic German Baking", by Luisa Weiss, published in 2016.

I already see several sweet recipes I want to try, including baumkuchen and some cookies, and a few bread recipes, too.

There are several strudel recipes and there's a cinnamon pretzel recipe that sounds interesting, too.

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