Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: 2024 Gardening #43461
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      Most of the sites on growing fruit trees say that peach trees are self-pollinating but will produce more fruit if there is another peach tree nearby. Weather and other factors can lead to non-bearing years, though.

      To make things even more confusing, while some fruit trees are self-unfruitful or have sterile pollen, meaning they need another tree to produce any fruit at all, for some self-unfruitful trees it has to be the same variety (genetically speaking) while for others it needs to be a different variety.

      in reply to: 2024 Gardening #43459
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        We had a refrigerator in the basement fail earlier this year. Nothing of consequence was lost, fortunately.

        When I went to Lowes to replace it, I found one that can switch between refrigerator and freezer mode. That made it easy for me to handle defrosting two freezers that were in serious need of being defrosted. Currently it's in refrigerator mode, but not very full.

        A year ago my son gave me several Govee temperature/humidity sensors for Christmas. Since then I've added more of them, we now have sensors in the refrigerators and freezers as well as several room around the house. (They will alert me if the temperature goes above or below a defined range for that sensor.) Two weeks ago I added some outdoor sensors on the back patio and front porch. It is interesting to watch the temperature variances around the house throughout the day, inside and out.

        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of July 28, 2024? #43456
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          We had tacos/taco salad and some cantaloupe.

          A storm blew through Lincoln this evening, with sustained wind in the 50's and gusts as high as 83 by the airport. Other than a lot of leaves and twigs down, we don't appear to have had any damage here, but there are trees down all over town and plenty of roof damage.

          in reply to: 2024 Gardening #43447
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            My larger tomato varieties aren't doing much yet, though I've got a bunch of Italian Heirloom that are good sized but probably 2 weeks away from starting to ripen, they're a slow variety. Those plants didn't get very big or leafy, so I'm worried about sun scald.

            I don't think the seeds that were sold as First Lady II are that variety, not the first time I've had issues with getting those seeds. Time to look for a different variety, maybe Defiant, which is supposed to have a good yield of 6-8 ounce tomatoes for a deteminant variety, and I know they're flavorful. (Diane got 100 pounds of them from a UNL test garden a few years ago, the grad student running that test plot was picking 1000 pounds of them a day for several weeks, but she had two 160 foot rows of them.)

            But I did pick 25 ounces of 4th of July and Porter tomatoes today, the Porters are a bit larger than grape tomatoes, usually around .75 ounces each, the 4th of July ones are usually 1.5-1.75 ounces.

            Too early to tell if we'll get a bumper crop in late August and September, which is when the peak has been in recent years. It's been really hot and I need some cool mornings for fruit to set. Usually there's a cool spell in mid-August, but the long range forecast doesn't show one yet.

            I'm hoping to get enough tomatoes to make several batches of tomato sauce and relish, hopefully with Amish Paste tomatoes, I've still got tomato juice left over from last season, so that's a lower priority this year.

            The Italian Heirloom tomatoes make great tomatoes for stuffing them with tuna salad.

            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of July 28, 2024? #43444
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              I had some bagel thins with corned beef and cream cheese. Diane had some soup, even though it's hot it just sounded good to her.

              in reply to: A Baker at the Battle of Gettysburg #43438
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                Great story!

                in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of July 28, 2024? #43436
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  The mosquitos and midges have been terrible this summer, I usually don't get bitten much but I've been bitten so often I smell like a walking ad for Caladryl.

                  in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of July 28, 2024? #43432
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    We had Reubens today, that keto friendly rye bread is better every time I use it, and today it came out of the freezer and into the toaster.

                    in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of July 28, 2024? #43428
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      We're having tomato and salami sandwiches, and I had some more of the cantaloupe.

                      I also had a root beer float using the keto ice cream I made a couple of weeks ago and some A&W no-sugar root beer. Pretty good!

                      in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of July 21, 2024? #43420
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        We're having more of the cantaloupe and salami, Diane bought a HUGE cantaloupe at a fruit stand, probably at least 3 meals worth.

                        in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of July 21, 2024? #43419
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          I'm making more custards and a batch of barbecue sauce that should be pretty keto-friendly, made with Heinz no-sugar-added Ketchup and allulose. I think it'll be under 1 carb per tablespoon depending on how much I reduce it.

                          in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of July 21, 2024? #43416
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            We had cantaloupe with salami tonight, and I had a salad with the first pickings from the Aerogarden I planted recent.

                            in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of July 21, 2024? #43415
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              I'm thinking of making peanut butter chocolate fudge bombs tonight.

                              in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of July 21, 2024? #43410
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                Interestingly enough, the fathead dough pizza I made, using mostly almond flour, tastes less almondy when it has been reheated.

                                I have a bag of the King Arthur Keto Wheat Flour Blend but haven't used it for anything yet. I may try it on the fathead pizza dough, 1 cup is 56 carbs (16 net carbs) compared to 95 carbs (92 net) for AP flour. The almond meal/VWG mix I used in the fathead dough the other day works out to 46 carbs (34 net). My wife counts total carbs, she thinks that works better for computing insulin doses, I look at net carbs.

                                in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of July 21, 2024? #43407
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  Probably a sandwich for me tonight, Diane is having a burrito, but she only eats a small portion of the tortilla. She tried the Mission low-carb tortillas, wasn't impressed with them, they're not very flavorful and the texture is off a bit, too.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 241 through 255 (of 7,250 total)