[Mike Nolan]

We're now showing a projected low of 25 Monday night. Brrrr!

I've got a few tomatoes ripening, not sure I'll get enough by Monday to make juice, though.

[Mike Nolan]

We had eggs for supper, and I also had a small salad.

[Mike Nolan]

Of the tomatoes I've grown regularly, First Lady (sometimes sold as First Lady II) is still my favorite. There's a First Ladies that isn't the same tomato, but seems similar. I had both this year, neither did especially well, though I think that was just how the season played out. I will probably do both again next year, if I can find First Lady seed, usually Reimer Seeds has it.

My Fourth of July plants were, once again, the most prolific tomatoes I had, but they only get about the size of ping pong balls or smaller. They make good tomato juice, though.

Having a tomato mill helps a lot, I can process 20 pounds of tomatoes in 60-90 minutes, including setup and cleanup. I do blanche them in boiling water for several minutes, that's supposed to help keep the juice from separating by deactivating an enzyme, but it doesn't always work.

For large tomatoes, I like Italian Heirloom and Amish Paste, both are determinates and are late ripeners and tend to ripen at the same time.

I've given up on Mortgage Lifter and Brandywine, they seem to shut down blooms faster in hot weather and crack a lot. My wife still likes Rutgers, but they weren't that productive this year, and the Celebrity were kind of a mixed bag.

[Mike Nolan]

The lecithin from the egg might be more significant than the protein, there's probably enough liquid in the milk that the tablespoon or so of water in an egg isn't going to affect the recipe much.

Sometimes, however, leaving an ingredient out, or adding one by mistake, has unexpected effects. We discovered that you can make waffles just fine without eggs by forgetting to add the eggs once.

[Mike Nolan]

The hydroponics teacher at UNL was harvesting some of his test crops, most of which usually go to the food bank. But he did bring some butter crunch lettuce over along with what I call frisee (see below), but my wife isn't sure that's what it is. (I might add it to the list of lettuces I grow in the Aerogarden, I'm also thinking of trying some dwarf pea pods.)

She also brought a couple of tomatoes, the one below is nearly a pound.

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[Mike Nolan]

I see articles that say you can cook and freeze spaghetti squash, I've never tried it. I think you need to let it drain before freezing it, it does weep in the bottom of the bowl after you shred it. (I usually line the bowl with paper towels.)

[Mike Nolan]

The tomato season was late getting started, no tomatoes until mid-July and not many until mid-August, but turned out decent, and I might still get another 2-3 weeks of tomatoes if the weather cooperates. (The two week forecast now has 5 days in mid 30's.)

The white eggplants were very productive, the purple ones much less so. Still not sure why I got so many yellow ones, though.

Both types of melons were something of a disappointment, but at least I've demonstrated that I can grow melons in the area to the north of the tomato plants.

I might try spaghetti squash next year, they say you get 3-5 squash per plant. Not sure what their shelf life is, though.

[Mike Nolan]

Burgers on the grill tonight, getting closer to time to shut the grill down for the winter.

[Mike Nolan]

5% does sound quite high for cultured buttermilk, but I'm one who remembers when the milkman brought real buttermilk, ie, the liquid that remains after churning butter, and it was maybe 2% fat, if that.

[Mike Nolan]

I tore out my aerogardens today, most of the lettuce had bolted but the parsley was still doing OK. It'll take a couple of days to clean and sanitize them, I may get new gardens planted by the weekend.

BTW, parsley can grow some big roots, some of them were bigger around than my pinky finger!

[Mike Nolan]

Most sources say the fat content of whole milk is 3.25% to 3.5%.

[Mike Nolan]

Leaving out the egg would likely make it more dense and less moist and tender, because you're omitting the proteins, fats and emulsifiers that are in the egg. You might want to compensate for the 74% of egg that is water in some fashion.

[Mike Nolan]

I deleted the 2nd image and did an 'insert into content' which makes it display online, not just the thumbnail version.

My wife introduced me to Irfanview, she's mostly a Mac person, too, but uses Windows computers at the office.

[Mike Nolan]

A lot of small independent mills have high prices online, their prices may be better if you're close enough to buy on site and in large quantity.

Shipping costs are a killer these days, I looked at some flour lately and the shipping costs were higher than the cost of the flour.

When I was at the grocery store today, 5 pound bags of King Arthur flours were $6.49.

[Mike Nolan]

If you have a Windows computer, I recommend Irfanview, it is free and easy to use and has more photo options than you'll ever need.

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