[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.

[Mike Nolan]

I think Costco has the 12 pound bag for $6.99, Walmart and Target have the 5 pound bag for around $3.49.

[Mike Nolan]

Did Violet ever get her 'something sweet'?

[Mike Nolan]

We had salami and melon for supper.

[Mike Nolan]

Depends on the supplier, but 50 pounds of flour is probably somewhere around $20-$30 these days. Shipping is the expensive part, if you can find a local distributor who will sell it to you it is a lot cheaper to pick it up.

My former neighbor, the head of the local Sysco office, used to grumble about the price of flour going up, remembering a time not that long ago when he could buy it for $8 a bag.

[Mike Nolan]

The latest covid19 shortage: beer cans!

The problem is that a lot of beer is usually sold in kegs to bars and restaurants and at sporting events, and they're all still pretty much shut down, so canned beer sales are up and the breweries are running out of cans.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, my idea of 'roughing it' these days is a Holiday Inn that doesn't have HBO!

[Mike Nolan]

I suspect political correctness was a factor in the reason to select a new logo.

BTW, Trader Joe's is dropping their branding of certain products as 'Trader Jose', 'Trader Joe San', etc.

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