[Mike Nolan]

The poppy seed ones weigh 2.65 to 2.7 ounces each, the ones with the cheese on them weigh more than 3 ounces because of the cheese on top.

4.5 ounces is pretty much the deli standard size, though I've seen some that were around 6 ounces, way too big! Unless you have really tiny hands, it is hard to use the 'wrap around the hand' method with a 3 ounce bagel.

[Mike Nolan]

Nebraska's governor has relaxed the state's liquor laws to allow curbside pickup of alcohol in unopened containers as part of restaurant service. That doesn't help with lost sales of mixed drinks, of course.

[Mike Nolan]

Report on Salty Rye Rolls (Ginsberg pps 141-143):

If you're looking for a fast recipe for great tasting rye rolls, this is it, under 3 hours from start to finish. It made a dozen rolls weighing about 72 grams each after baking. (They were around 80 grams each after scaling and shaping but before the caraway and salt was added.) Because of the cut on the top, they split easily into two halves. I've shown both an interior and a bottom along with a picture of an uncut roll.

Dipping the bottoms in rolled oats was a trick I haven't seen before, it keeps the bottoms from getting over-baked and adds a little oat flavor and crunch to the roll.

Mine came out a bit lighter in color than the ones in the book, that might have been due to my baking time or to the color of my rye flour. The baking time (24 minutes) might have contributed to why mine weren't overdone on the bottom.

I think they might be even better with a little caraway in the dough instead of just on top, where they don't always stay stuck on, and you need to be careful putting the salt on. The dough is only lightly salted and if the salt is uneven on the top you can get one bite that has very little salt in it and then one that's much saltier.

This is a recipe I'll definitely make again. My wife said their biggest problem was that she wanted a second one right away. (I've had 4 already.) They reminded me of some rye pretzels I've made, I think the dough might work for pretzels as well as for rolls.

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[Mike Nolan]

I'm making the Ginsberg Salty Rye Rolls recipe today, report later today or tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

My granddaughter learned to shape bagels in about 5 minutes, so don't sweat that part. The dough is pretty easy to make, it needs to be on the stiff side, Peter describes it as satiny and not at all tacky.

I let this batch rise for 2 hours because I was on a conference call. Didn't cause any problems.

Don't over-boil them, 30 seconds per side is plenty. I've tried different baking temperatures and times, I like the 500/450 one best. These could probably have stood another 30-60 seconds in the oven today, they usually get a little darker and chewier on the surface. But they made a great supper tonight with some corned beef.

[Mike Nolan]

I stocked up on cat food a couple of weeks ago, because our cat won't eat people food and not all types of cat food. She will drink the water from canned tuna, though, never met a cat that wouldn't! Our older cat, whom we lost last November, developed a taste for people food late in her life, including bread.

When I was a kid, we had a cat who'd eat angel food cake from the store, right through the wrapper. We had to keep it well out of her reach.

[Mike Nolan]

The Noma book has a recipe for butternut squash vinegar, I may try that this fall, along with tomato vinegar.

The carrot and celery vinegars are percolating nicely, I think I may need a bigger air pump, though. They're down to a pH of about 4.15, the book says they're usually done when they get to about 3.5. They smell interesting, and I can definitely get a vinegar smell. The celery one has developed a nice mother in it. (It looks like a jellyfish just below the surface.) If there's one in the carrot juice, it is hard to see because it is more opaque. I thought about using some for my cole slaw today, but I used some red wine vinegar my wife got from the wines teacher at UNL instead.

I've got some bottles to put them in and I'm working on designing a label for them. I've already promised some to a former chef we know.

[Mike Nolan]

I started a batch of sauerkraut using about 4 pounds of cabbage, then used the rest of that head to make a big bowl of vinegar-and-oil cole slaw, so that's the first part of my dinner, I'll probably have some chili later on.

[Mike Nolan]

Lincoln Public Schools just announced they are closed indefinitely.

Hy Vee stores will start closing at 8PM so that they have more time to clean and restock.

How long will it be before you have to make an appointment to buy groceries? I've not used the grocery pickup options yet, soon I may not have much choice. The Wall Street Journal says major chains are looking at opening 'dark stores', which only allow delivery and curbside pickups.

One has to wonder how many of these changes will become permanent?

[Mike Nolan]

My dentist's office is shutting down for two weeks upon recommendation from the Nebraska Dental Association.

[Mike Nolan]

We had sirloin steak, mushrooms and baked potato, and the last of the banana cream pie for dessert.

[Mike Nolan]

I may have to forego my tradition of making Hot Cross Buns to give away on Good Friday this year. My wife will be working mostly from home the rest of the semester so I won't be sending things to her office. I'll probably make some for us, though.

[Mike Nolan]

I've got a 12 pound bag of AP and a 5 pound bag of bread flour, plus what's in the canisters so I'm in fairly good shape for flour. I've got some older flours, including a bag of KAF Bread flour that got stuck on a back shelf and forgotten about at least two years ago, and lots of rye flour.

We heard from our younger son today (an amazing thing in itself!), he's working from home but he does that a lot anyway. What we're not sure about is what he's eating, because he's use to being able to eat at YouTube from Monday morning to Friday noon. As long as the malls stay open, there are a half dozen fast food places a few blocks away.

Several schools in Lincoln are 100% free lunch, they've got some kind of plan in place to feed their students, but I don't know the details. For some of those kids, what they get at school is often most of what they eat all day.

A poll in Great Britain had 63% of those responding in favor of some kind of food rationing. I wonder how many of those actually remember what that was like the last time it was necessary?

[Mike Nolan]

The governor in Illinois has ordered all bars and restaurants to be closed to dine-in customers. That's going to ramp up pressure on grocery stores.

[Mike Nolan]

I went to Costco today, the only wheat flour they had was 50 pound bags of bleached flour.

They were out of a lot of things, but had done an interesting job of spreading what they had around so there weren't very many empty spots.

Retail sales will probably look OK for a while, because people are buying ANYTHING they think they might run short of or could eat if they had to, but the supply channels appear to be emptying out, and it'll take time for them to get resupplied.

Restaurant traffic is said to be down 20% nearly everywhere and some high-end places are reporting 70% declines.

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