[Mike Nolan]

Around here several of the stores have their first hour reserved for elderly and high-risk customers, usually 8AM to 9AM, and from what I hear that's the most crowded part of the day. At least one of the grocery chains has apparently gone back to being open 24 hours a day, but shopping at 2AM isn't on my bucket list, either.

[Mike Nolan]

THIS 'old folk' sure isn't getting up at 6AM to go grocery shopping!

[Mike Nolan]

I read where contact tracing may run afoul of HIPPA rules in the USA.

[Mike Nolan]

There was a story/opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last night about how there are virus outbreaks all over the world, many in places that have been cited as models of how to do it right like Japan and Korea, because people won't follow social distancing rules, required or not.

Contrary to what the media would have you think, it's not just a USA problem, it's not a red state vs blue state problem, it's human nature on a world-wide scale.

Here's the link, I don't know if it is behind their paywall or not:
WSJ article

[Mike Nolan]

I've had my iPhone for 2 1/2 years and I'm still finding things I don't know how to do on it.

[Mike Nolan]

I had tuna salad in a tomato, my wife had tuna on a lettuce salad.

[Mike Nolan]

tomato and salami sandwiches

[Mike Nolan]

Looks like that was the problem.

In addition to the laptop problem, our upstairs SubZero freezer isn't cooling properly. I was thinking of doing it anyway, following the lead of another poster, but I went out and bought a 7 cubic foot freezer today and am transferring the important stuff out of the upstairs freezer to it. The repairman will be here Thursday, hopefully it'll be an easy fix, but most of the time it takes a week or more to order parts.

Eventually I plan to use this new small freezer to store mostly flours and related baking items.

[Mike Nolan]

I got an 8x8 Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake out of the freezer last night, so we're enjoying it today.

[Mike Nolan]

The chocolate glaze that donut shops use is one I've never been able to reproduce at home. (I think they buy it in 25 pound tubs.)

[Mike Nolan]

Still no new computer, but I've posted a quiz for Monday.

[Mike Nolan]

I may have to try this again using something other than barley malt syrup, since it imparts some color to the dough. Maybe some honey?

I also posted the final picture on the BBGA forum, where there was a thread recently on whether or not an alkali bath was needed for bagels, with some pretty good bakers coming down on the side of 'no'. I'll be interested to see if anyone comments on the color change there.

[Mike Nolan]

Here are some shots of today's bagel test:

These are the bagels after boiling. The ones on the left and the two lower ones in the middle are the ones done in water with baking soda:

These are the bagels after baking:

Here's a close up shot of one of the bagels boiled in baking soda water and one boiled in honey water. As you can see, the baking soda made a big difference in color. This is Peter's recipe in the Artisan Breads book, which uses barley malt syrup, so the dough has a light brown color, but the alkali bath really accentuated that after baking:

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[Mike Nolan]

Our younger son developed an allergy to shellfish in his late 20's. He can't eat anything with fish sauce in it either, and these days he just avoids seafood. So of course, he lives in San Francisco, seafood capital of the US.

[Mike Nolan]

I suspect they'll have another offer soon, they seem to run them once or twice a month.

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