[Mike Nolan]

Yukon Gold and similar potatoes are considered all-purpose potatoes.

[Mike Nolan]

Fresh yeast is quite a bit heavier than dried yeast, and hard to find, though NY Bakers sells it by the pound. It gets really expensive when you throw in the Fedex overnight charge.

[Mike Nolan]

No, I haven't tried it, I have my own marinara recipe that makes a good pizza or lasagna sauce. But it makes a lot, since I start with a #10 can of diced tomatoes.

[Mike Nolan]

We got a dusting of snow this morning, but it got up into the 60's over the weekend so things are melting a bit.

We had ground beef stroganoff on home made noodles tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't see any working links in your post. Sometimes getting links to work is a bit tricky.

There used to be a vendor at the Sunday farmer's market near us who had a Forno Bravo wood fired pizza oven on a trailer. (Forno Bravo sponsors Peter Reinhart's Pizza Quest blog site.)

But when the market changed locations two seasons ago, he stopped coming.

[Mike Nolan]

Italian meringue isn't hard to make, you make a hot sugar syrup (240 degrees F, though I just wait until it starts to thicken up), pour it slowly into the whipped egg whites, then re-whip a bit longer (they may deflate a bit due to the sugar syrup, but they'll rebound quickly), usually adding some more sugar. Some recipes have you add some corn starch to the sugar syrup, as best I can tell, mostly what it does is tell you when the syrup is sufficiently cooked, since the corn starch will turn clear then.

Be careful not to add too much sugar to the re-whipped egg whites or the meringue will be overly sweet, since there's already sugar in the sugar syrup. And the best part is that since the egg whites are now fully cooked, you can lick the bowl to your heart's content.

Swiss meringue is a bit trickier, though if you've made 7 minute frosting, you've basically already made it.

[Mike Nolan]

Len, apologies if I've asked this before, but do you have a link to the basket weave you use for your buns? I've tried searching for it, but I mostly get pictures of a woman's hair.

[Mike Nolan]

There's a rye-raisin scone recipe in the Ginsberg book, I may do that one soon. I need to make some lighter/sweeter breads after the Frisian black bread.

[Mike Nolan]

Lower fat cheeses apparently freeze better than higher fat cheeses.

[Mike Nolan]

I buy the shredded kind, you can break it up while it is still frozen and sprinkle it on pizza.

[Mike Nolan]

My impromptu sour cream raisin pie came out pretty good. The recipe I was using was for a 9" pie and I had enough left over pie dough for an 8" blind baked pie. So I cut the recipe by a third, except for the egg yolk, which I left the same since I wanted 3 egg whites worth of meringue, and the cinnamon, which I doubled. I also substituted nutmeg for ground clove. My wife's only comment on taste was that she thought it could have used more sour cream, which I agreed with. I think she was disappointed I used an Italian meringue, which doesn't weep. (She likes the brown droplets from the weeping, I don't, and I took this as an opportunity to practice making an Italian meringue.)

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[Mike Nolan]

I prefer whole milk cheeses to part-skim ones. I can get 5 pound bags of mozzarella at Sams, but I have to go to the one on the other side of town, the one closer to us doesn't carry the whole-milk one. I divide it into 10 ounce packages and freeze it, mozzarella freezes very well.

I tend to buy 3 pound packages of whole milk ricotta there, too, and the last two times I did that I wound up throwing between a third and a half of it away because I didn't use it before it went bad. Ricotta turns grainy when frozen, according to the web.

[Mike Nolan]

Rye bread freezes very well and it should keep for a couple of month without noticeable degradation. Over time, frozen breads tend to get ice on them, which can create some freezer burn, especially if they're sliced. Better bagging or waiting longer after they're baked/sliced might help.

I slice it then freeze the slices, so that all I have to do is take out as many slices as I need that day.

[Mike Nolan]

Because it is made just from cream it is pretty high in fat, and also expensive.

[Mike Nolan]

I had an errand to run on that side of town, so I stopped in at our Whole Foods today to check out their flour selection. No Caputo flour, and not much I can't find closer, either.

But so the trip wasn't a total loss, I stopped at Fareway Meat and ordered a 40 pound box of chicken backs, which should arrive in about two weeks. I'll make one big batch of stock with 10-12 pounds of them and freeze the rest for later batches.

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