[Mike Nolan]

I had pulled up the ground cloth covering the garden earlier this week, and today it was dry enough that I was able to make two passes through the garden with our small rototiller. I put the ground cloth back down again, so now I'm basically ready to transplant tomatoes as soon as the soil temp is high enough, possibly later this week. (We're supposed to get some lows in the low 40's or high 30's for the next few days, but by Thursday it should stay above 50 for the next several weeks.)

It'd be nice to have the tomatoes in before the end of May for a change. Might actually get some fresh tomatoes in early July.

The thunderstorms rolled in as expected after sunset, so I'm glad I got the ground cloth back down.

[Mike Nolan]

Adding more water made the dough much easier to roll out. I made an 11-strand braided challah and baked the rest in a 4x4x13 Pullman pan. I made two batches of dough, each using 650 grams of flour and around 330 grams of water. (Batches that use 1000 grams of flour are almost too much for my mixer.)

I also made some 'forgotten' chocolate meringue cookies. I baked these about 3 minutes longer than the last batch, which were definitely a bit underdone in the center, these might be just a tad too baked in the middle, but they're still tasty.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

We have a 3 step ladder with a very sturdy safety handle that folds down, it is the 'little jumbo' by Wing. They also make a 2 step and a 4 step version. They used to make a 5 step version, though I don't see it on their website, but I'm not sure I'd want to climb up that high these days, anyway. If I can't reach it on the 3 step ladder I either use the big extension ladder or I hire someone to do it for me. 🙂

We bought it at the National Association of Home Builders show in Houston in 1997 just before we built our house. (We found a lot of interesting things at that show, our DCS range, ladders, laser cut floor insets, showers, I figure that show probably added at least $50,000 to the cost of our house.)

[Mike Nolan]

Here's the semolina pasta recipe I use (this is based on a half-recipe of the dough recipe that came with my KA pasta kit):

1 2/3 cups semolina (I use a 1/3 cup measure 5 times)
1/8 teaspoon salt (a small amount in the palm of my hand)
1 teaspoon oil
2 large eggs
enough water to make a medium stiff dough, probably 3-4 ounces. If I use too little water, it comes out crumbly the first few passes through the pasta roller, but eventually it comes together. If I use too much water, it doesn't separate well when I run it through the pasta cutter, and sometimes sticks together a bit in the pot of water, though it will break up if I stir it with a pasta fork.

This dough works well for spaghetti, wide noodles and lasagna noodles.

[Mike Nolan]

I forgot to mention, if you put a little oil on the outside of the spaghetti squash, it seems to do a better job of releasing all the strands.

[Mike Nolan]

I will be making another batch of Challah tomorrow, my plan is to do an 11-strand braid with most of the dough (a full batch makes about 1600 grams, the 11-strand takes 11 strands of 100 grams) and bake the rest in a small Pullman pan to see if it makes much difference in flavor when cut up for croutons.

My wife will be taking the 11-strand to her sister's on Sunday, and splitting it with her, so we'll probably get half of it back.

I think last week's batch was not hydrated enough, and that made the strands harder to roll out, so I'll be making this batch with a bit more water.

[Mike Nolan]

When I bake spaghetti squash, I cut them in half and bake them face down on parchment, that seems to keep the squash from getting all watery.

But my wife doesn't really care much for spaghetti squash, and she prefers it when I make semolina pasta because it has less impact on her blood sugar.

[Mike Nolan]

We had a lahvosh pizza tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

Local berries are always great, but last year they were getting $5 or more for a pint of berries at the farmer's market. I haven't been to the local berry farm in quite a few years, not sure I've got the legs and knees to handle picking them myself anymore.

[Mike Nolan]

We had soup and salad here tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

Finding good onion rings locally is always a challenge. So many restaurants just buy a big bag of frozen rings from Sysco. They taste bland.

I like the ones at Red Robin, though they're not as good if you order them to go. Dining in just isn't something we're comfortable doing yet, and Red Robin has only a limited number of sandwiches we like anyway; many of their burgers would feed us for 2-3 days! Popeye's used to make really GREAT onion rings, but most stores don't carry them any more. Runza hand breads their own onion rings, but they just don't quite hit the spot most of the time. Buffalo Wings and Rings says they make their onion rings in house but they weren't very exciting to us.

I buy Nathans frozen onion rings at the store and bake them on parchment (they stick to the metal if you bake them directly on the pan), they're not quite as crisp as I'd like but are pretty good for when we have a craving for onion rings. I'm not sure I've had them at a Nathans, the nearest one I know of is at an I-80 rest stop in Ohio.

[Mike Nolan]

The rest of the week is supposed to be cool (highs in the mid 60's and lows in the 40's) so I'm making about 5 quarts of potato-leek soup today, with Challah croutons.

[Mike Nolan]

We had Reubens for supper tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I also made 'forgotten' chocolate meringue cookies with the left over egg whites from the egg wash on the challah.

[Mike Nolan]

I am making a batch of the Challah Prince's challah dough today, I'll probably do two 8-strand braids, because I thought those were the prettiest ones last time.

[Author]

Posts