I'm doing the first test bake in my 13x4x4 Pullman pan tonight, using the semolina/Austrian malt variation I've been making lately. I need to figure out how much dough to put in, I did some volume comparisons and I think it's not quite 2X what I've been making for a 9x5 loaf pan.
The promised cold rain has arrived. The high for the rest of the day is 49 and the low for tonight is now down to 41.
After this three day cold/wet period, the daily highs are forecast for the high 70's or low 80's and the lows in the 50's for the next two weeks.
The hummingbirds finally arrived in quantities over the weekend, but this cold weather might drive them further south.
No picking tomatoes today.
My lacto-fermented tomatoes are coming along fairly well, I think. The smell is odd, but the taste is interesting. I'm going to give them about another 3-4 days, I think.
I started marinating a chicken in white wine earlier today, I plan to cook it on the rotisserie later this afternoon.
We wound up doing tacos.
I made Veal Zurich on spaetzle, one of my favorite meals, and a relatively easy one to do once you've got the veal.
These were made with local (Nebraska City) pie cherries, and it tastes great, though I tipped the pan at some point before it went into the oven, spilling some of the liquid, and that's why one area looks different.
I'm looking forward to another piece after supper.
The cherry pie is out, and delicious!
I think I got too much nutmeg or clove in the carrot cake, it is good but has a strong spice taste to it.
I used the left over pie dough to make two 4" pecan tarts, but I left them in the oven too long and they are a bit over-baked, though still edible.
I made carrot cake last night and a cherry pie today. We also bought a coconut cream pie from Village Inn. My wife won't eat coconut, but several of the people here to help out at the garage sale will, including me.
I got the cherry pie filling made but will roll out the pie crusts and bake it tomorrow, I did get the carrot cake made today.
I'm making pie dough tonight, so I can make a cherry pie tomorrow. I'm also making carrot cake tomorrow, using some of my frozen carrot puree.
Friday is my birthday, and this weekend is my wife's annual garage sale for charity, having missed the last 2 years due to a variety of reasons. The garage is pretty full of donated items, I'm hoping most of it sells! So, we'll have friends over tomorrow and Friday for setup, and then running the sale Saturday and Sunday, and I'm in charge of feeding the crew.
I was looking at the weather forecast the other day, and I saw lows around 42 predicted for Lincoln next week. Then my wife sent me the NOAA outlook for the upper great plains for the next few weeks, and there are possibilities of freezing conditions, several weeks before the average 'early' frost. Most of those are for areas north of us, fortunately.
I'm hoping they're wrong, otherwise my tomato season may be cut short, and it started late.
There was an article in the Chicago Tribune recently about how restaurants who have been utilizing sidewalk space for outdoor dining are worried about what to do when cold weather sets in.
A second issue is that some of these sidewalk dining areas haven't always followed ADA guidelines, in some cases using too much of the sidewalk space.
I think the WSJ had an article a while back that suggested grocery stores might permanently reduce their SKUs by 25% or more. I don't know if that means they plan to just have more of the items they continue to stock or what they plan to do about empty shelves.
One of the grocery stores near us put in couple of fashion aisle two years ago, but I hardly ever saw anyone shopping there and earlier this year they converted them back into space for more grocery store-like products.
I'm making lacto fermented tomato water today, one of the Noma recipes, using two bowls of tomatoes from the garden.
The process is similar to making sauerkraut, I'll run the tomatoes through my pulp extractor then add 2% salt and let it ferment for about a week.
The water is then separated from the pulp using a sieve and cheesecloth The water can be used for things like a fish sauce or poaching liquid, and you can also use it as a pickling brine. The pulp can be used like tomato paste, I may try it on a pizza.
