[Mike Nolan]

Tonight we had burgers on the grill, tomorrow I'm doing ribs on the grill though I may bring them inside for the wrap stage, especially if the air is starting to smell like gunpowder again. (It's that way now but it didn't really get noticeable until after the burgers were off the grill.)

[Mike Nolan]

The cinnamon pretzel (sticks) are a little better today, but still not memorable. If they keep improving, I might actually try this recipe again, hoping to get a less crumbly dough that I can actually shape as pretzels. Maybe more egg or other moisture?

I'm doing a double batch of peanut butter cookies tonight, so I can take a tray of them to the block party following our 4th of July block parade.

[Mike Nolan]

I attempted the cinnamon pretzels today. I did a half-recipe. I was careful to cut everything in half. The recipe said they would be crumbly but that would improve as they warmed up, but even after sitting out for 20-30 minutes they were too crumbly to roll out to the 10" specified length, so I wound up making pretzel sticks that were 4-5 inches long.

They remind me of a shortbread cookie, but not in a good way. They have a sandy mouth feel and I don't think they're sweet enough, though if they were more savory that might help. I even tried some with some cream cheese frosting on them, it didn't help. Maybe they'll improve overnight, but I have my doubts.

European flours are usually softer than US flours, but I doubt minor adjustments in the recipe would salvage them, even making them half as thick, so I probably won't try this recipe again.

[Mike Nolan]

I think we're having melon and salami tonight, and probably salad. (We still have LOTS of lettuce from the Aerogarden and I'll need to pick it again later this week.)

[Mike Nolan]

I'm thinking I might try the cinnamon pretzels in the Classic German Baking book this weekend, probably only a half-recipe because a full recipe makes 64 pretzels.

[Mike Nolan]

I have tiny tomatoes on at least 4 different varieties of tomatoes now, the largest of them isn't quite ping pong ball size yet. It was cool and rainy today, hopefully that means we will have set a bunch of fruit.

There are plenty of zucchini blooms, so it should be a good crop. The variety they sent us for the Urban Soil Health Initiative is called Dunja. I need to keep a close eye on them, I want them in the 8-10 ounce range, not a bowling pin.

I bought a lug of sweet red cherries today, we'll probably make some kind of jam with most of them, but both of us had a cupful at lunch.

[Mike Nolan]

It rained on and off most of the day, but cleared up enough for me to do steaks on the grill tonight, plus a nice salad.

[Mike Nolan]

When our younger son moved to California, it totally changed what we were eating, both in terms of what we ate and how much we fixed at a time. Some things we make more often, some things we do less often. We definitely do take-out a lot more often these days, too.

I'm afraid if I was alone I might eat macaroni and cheese every other day. Even something like tacos is a lot of work just for two people getting all the toppings ready, browning the meat, then putting everything away again. And a Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake would last a long time. (Fortunately, it freezes well.)

Smaller portions of foods are a lot more expensive per serving, too.

[Mike Nolan]

There may be alternatives to vegan butter, which I've always found disappointing. (We have some vegetarian/vegan friends, they're always looking for a better vegan butter.)

I made bagels today, using Hamelman's recipe with a slight modification of his procedure, I left out the bulk rise, shaped them right after kneading and refrigerated them overnight. He also has you put the bagels in an ice water bath after boiling them, that led to an increased baking time. But they came out pretty good, the last batch was badly overproofed and they were wrinkled. These were a little flatter than I was expecting, but the interiors were good. They've got a good shine to them and a satisfying snap in the crust.

Diane said she liked this recipe better than the one I've been using (Reinhart), other than procedure the major difference is Hamelman's uses diastatic malt powder instead of malt syrup.

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[Mike Nolan]

We had some melon with tomato and salami sandwiches, the veg stands are open and they have better melons and tomatoes than the grocery stores do.

[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!

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