[Mike Nolan]

Thanks. I have tried several recipes, but for the last 10 years or so I've been using the recipe in the King Arthur Whole Grains book, using freshly ground whole wheat flour. I find I need to add quite a bit more flour to get a good dough, possibly because freshly ground flour has a higher moisture content than bagged flour, and it takes a really long time during bulk rise, up to 3 hours. It is a little cool here today, so I wound up putting it in the small oven using the proofer cycle (which really only turns on the oven light.) I also increase the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon.

I make the rolls 1.5 ounces each, so I get 32 rolls from each batch, using up any excess on the center roll in each pan, because it needs to fill in the gaps.

We had some with some chili, they're enough like cinnamon rolls that they pair well with it.

[Mike Nolan]

I made two batches of Hot Cross Buns today, 6 plates of 8 rolls and 1 of 16 for our next door neighbors and their 4 kids. We'll deliver most of them tomorrow, but I took the big one over to the neighbors this evening.

For icing I made a milk/powdered sugar icing but added a spoonful of softened cream cheese and a tablespoon of butter, just to give it a hint of cream cheese frosting taste. I left out the vanilla.

It pipes easily and seems to be solidifying nicely on the rolls, I'm happy with it.

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[Mike Nolan]

I'll be interested to see what the farmers market prices are like when they open up in two weeks. They're generally higher priced than store produce prices. Whether they're better quality or not is something not everyone agrees on.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife heated up some soup and I had a large tossed salad with tuna fish.

[Mike Nolan]

Another egg-laying operation in NE Nebraska has been quarantined due to bird flu, and 1.7 million layers will need to be destroyed.

The story on it in the Lincoln paper says that according to the USDA, chicken breasts are up $1 a pound in the past year and egg prices have tripled.

Until this bird flu epidemic subsides, those prices are likely to go even higher.

[Mike Nolan]

If you think the 8.5% annual retail inflation rate that came out the other day was bad, the latest producer price index was up 11.2% from a year ago. That means more retail inflation is coming.

The talk of 'transient' inflation seems so outdated, now the 'experts' are just saying that inflation has peaked.

Somehow, I doubt that will be the case.

[Mike Nolan]

Weather update: It was snowing heavily in Lincoln by 4AM, but the ground was still warm from Tuesday's hot weather, so it didn't stick.

My father-in-law, trained as a meteorologist by the Army during WWII, always used to say if you didn't like the weather in Nebraska, just wait a day. I think even he would have been amazed by the 12 hours from 5PM yesterday to 5AM today. We had hot weather, high winds, thunderstorms, heavy rain, hail, tornado warnings and snow.

[Mike Nolan]

We had leftovers from yesterday's spaghetti with more cheese toast.

Then we had thunderstorms and a brief tornado warning as a narrow but pretty strong storm blew through, the temperature dropped from 91 to 61 in less than 4 hours.

[Mike Nolan]

We had spaghetti with meat sauce and cheese toast.

[Mike Nolan]

We had leftovers again tonight, but now we're pretty much out of leftovers so I need to figure out what I'm making next.

[Mike Nolan]

I've already got Thursday blocked out for making several batches of Hot Cross Buns.

[Mike Nolan]

Leftovers tonight

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't seen anything official on it, but I suspect free range chickens (meaning they have access to the outside) are more likely to get bird flu than those who never leave the henhouse, because they pick up the virus from the droppings of geese and ducks flying overhead.

[Mike Nolan]

We had Chinese takeout from the same place we got it from last Friday.

[Mike Nolan]

It's in the 40's here, with heavy winds and not-quite snow.

So we had something warm, chili and cinnamon rolls.

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