[Mike Nolan]

There was a time I when I was trying to collect all the major revisions of The Joy of Cooking, but I gave up in the 90's because, quite honestly, I though the latter revisions weren't as good. I haven't looked at a recent edition in over a decade.

I use my 1943 and 1946 editions the most. I have one edition from the 1930's, it is not in good shape. I don't have a first edition (they're very rare and expensive) but it has been reissued. I've been told that the original author didn't actually cook most of the recipes in any of the editions she put out in her lifetime, though I've found them pretty reliable over the years.

IMHO, that's one big difference between The Joy of Cooking and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child and her co-authors tested every recipe in the book many times. The 2nd volume goes into great lengths on her attempts to make authentic French baguettes from American flours. (Her autobiography goes even a bit further.)

[Mike Nolan]

A cookbook challenge could be fun, we could alternate between breads, savory (main courses or sides) and sweet items. Let's hash out the details and then plan to pick the first one by the end of October and see if a monthly schedule works, even through the holiday season.

[Mike Nolan]

Diane thinks she's got another sinus infection, so she had chicken soup for supper, I had a salad with some rotisserie chicken meat and topped with Ranch dressing mixed with Jersey Mike's hot chopped pepper relish.

[Mike Nolan]

Is it a ceramic crock? I wonder if the scratches could be sanded out or if that would destroy what's left of the glaze?

[Mike Nolan]

When/how to egg wash the loaves raises another set of issues.

[Mike Nolan]

What kind of finish is it, a non-stick coating? You could try putting something like water in it, let it cook for 24 hours, and seeing if anything is flaking off. If you take the temperature a few times, that'd give you some idea of performance, too.

I stopped buying anything with a non-stick coating on it years ago, because it always comes off over time. I prefer cast iron, stainless steel, aluminum (non-coated) or, increasingly, silicone baking pans. I haven't bought any of the ceramic frying/baking pans yet, one of these days I will. (My wife says we should be getting rid of stuff, not buying more of it.)

I have some 'ironstone' muffin pans that were great at first, I'd invert the pan and they'd all fall out, but now stuff sticks to them too often, even if I butter/grease them first.

[Mike Nolan]

We had BLT's tonight. I was planning a Sams run including getting a rotisserie chicken, but another appointment ran late. So I'll hit Sams tomorrow afternoon and probably pick up the chicken then. My wife is working from home tomorrow, so we've got more flexibility in timing supper.

[Mike Nolan]

So basically they'll go home with a braided loaf that is ready to be baked NOW (and needs to be handled carefully in transit to keep from deflating) plus dough that is about ready to be braided? Yeah, that is kinda weird and may be a formula for a home bread baking failure. Hopefully they won't have far to go and will be aware that they need to turn the oven on as soon as they get home.

[Mike Nolan]

A few years ago my wife brought hone a book from the UNL library that had recipes from the 1800's. The bread recipe started with "Grind up a peck of wheat"...

[Mike Nolan]

We finished off the Veal Zurich tonight, and I had a salad too.

[Mike Nolan]

I made spaghetti squash 'lasagna' tonight. Should have used a bigger pan, I was running out of space but it needed more cheese and more tomato sauce. Was pretty good anyway.

Kinda soupy, not sure if that's the spaghetti squash, my home-made marinara, something else, or a combination of things.

[Mike Nolan]

I suspect most of my cookbooks fall more into the 'useful' category than the 'collectible' category, but it is nice to think there might be a demand for a few of them when I'm gone.

[Mike Nolan]

There are those who think the presence of hooch in your starter is a good thing and those who think it is a bad thing. I tend to think of hooch as being a characteristic of a starter that is overdue to be fed, so I'm pretty much in the latter camp, but that can mean feeding a starter at least daily, and there are studies and anecdotal incidents that suggest twice-daily may be the optimal schedule. But unless you're a commercial bakery operating 7 days a week, that's just not practical.

Bakeries that take a day or two off every week often report that their starter is sluggish after being idle for over 24 hours.

Refrigerating your starter vs keeping it at room-temperature is another home/commercial bakery dichotomy. There are times in the baking cycle when retardation of dough can be a good thing, but that's a separate issue entirely.

And as I have noted more than once, commercial bakeries do not throw out starter or scramble to find things to make with it, they adjust their feeding schedule so that the feeding occurs several hours before they pull out what they need for the next day's production.

[Mike Nolan]

The chocolate meringue cookies, made with Splenda, were good but I think they got over-baked a bit and were a bit crunchy but not scorched, so next time I'll cut the baking time some.

[Mike Nolan]

We split a T-bone steak with mushrooms and a salad.

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