Mike Nolan

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 15 posts - 5,506 through 5,520 (of 7,560 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of May 12, 2019? #16131
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      I'm making a batch of Donna German's Austrian Malt Bread, because strawberries are on sale at $8 for an eight pound flat, so we're going to make Cardinal preserves.

      in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of May 12, 2019? #16128
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        We had BLTs

        in reply to: Ruby Chocolate #16123
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          I stopped by Trader Joe's this evening, and they had several bags of the ruby cacao wafers (they can't call them chocolate yet.)

          $2.99 for a five ounce bag of what look like somewhat flattened pink chocolate chips isn't too bad a price, comparable with other candy products from TJ.

          The sweetness level is similar to a milk chocolate, which makes sense because the ingredients are similar to that of a milk chocolate, too.

          If you didn't know what they were, you'd probably say they tasted like chocolate with a little fruit, though there's no fruit in them.

          in reply to: Ruby Chocolate #16118
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            I think once it is available through candy wholesalers, it'll be a more reasonable price, but the two sources I cited above are very high, in large part because its being imported. Mostly I was pointing out the Kit-Kat one as a place where the ruby cacao bean is showing up in retail products, at least in Japan and a few other places.

            The FDA isn't allowing it to be called 'chocolate' yet. That might delay its availability.

            I may check our local Trader Joes to see if they have any, apparently that's one place it was available in the USA earlier this year. (I have suspected for some time that some of the TJ chocolate bars are made by Callebaut.)

            When I was in high school, our science teacher had us taste a red fluid one day. Most described it as either strawberry or cherry flavored. It was milk with red food coloring in it. πŸ™‚

            in reply to: Blood Oranges and Regular Oranges #16115
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              I've switched from canola oil back to corn oil. Less processing.

              Most olive oil has too overpowering a flavor for me, it's OK as a dip but it takes over the dishes you put it in.

              I do my cooking mainly with butter, though, and my cholesterol numbers have gone down since I started doing that.

              in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 16, 2019 #16108
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                I literally spent hours on the UNL site yesterday, lots of interesting stuff there. FFA has meat grading competitions for high school students and there are also college-level competitions, this is serious stuff!

                in reply to: Ruby Chocolate #16107
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  Apparently Kit-Kat is using it in some products:
                  Kit-Kat Ruby

                  in reply to: Ruby Chocolate #16105
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    I got a notice about this when it came out, but I haven't seen it yet. It was not one of the chocolates we tasted when I took Chocolate Boot Camp, but that was several years ago now.

                    You'd have to order it from a bakery/restaurant/chocolatier wholesaler, Barry Callebaut doesn't sell retail. The supplier I usually buy from doesn't appear to carry this yet. I don't know if the Chocolate Academy is doing anything with it yet. If they are, I might be able to buy a small bag the next time I'm in the Chicago area. It appears it tempers pretty much like any other chocolate.

                    If you're really curious about this, here's one place you can order it:
                    ruby chocolate

                    in reply to: $75 for a cup of coffee #16093
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      Sams Club has a bottle of scotch for $1200, which works out to $48-$75 a shot (depending on whether you pour a one ounce shot or a 1.5 ounce shot.)

                      But I'm neither a coffee drinker nor a scotch drinker, so the subtleties of either would be totally lost on me. I can appreciate a good cup of tea but I wouldn't pay the crazy prices that the high end teas get, either.

                      in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 15, 2019 #16092
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        Tomorrow's question is a hard one, but I learned a lot researching the answer, which has multiple references.

                        in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of May 12, 2019? #16091
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          We had take-out last night and again tonight. I'm planning to make some buns for burgers tomorrow, I don't know if I'll make them tonight or in the morning, it's supposed to be in the 90's here tomorrow. I gave up and turned on the A/C last night, it was in the mid-80's in the bedroom.

                          in reply to: Daily Quiz for May 15, 2019 #16078
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            When we were in Portland Oregon two years ago for the International Master Gardener's Conference, the hotel restaurant had an excellent soup made from Jerusalem artichokes. I can't say I noticed any gastric distress from it, and I had it at least 3 times.

                            Based on the research I did, this is not a plant I'd want to try to grow, though.

                            in reply to: Blood Oranges and Regular Oranges #16071
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              According to the web, one of the varieties of blood oranges is available through May but the other variety (which I think is the more common one) only goes through March.

                              Aside from tasting them in the grocery store a few times, we've never bought them. I have no idea what difference they would make in an icing aside possibly from color.

                              My wife is a big fan of the cara cara orange, which also has a short season.

                              in reply to: SNL satire of Chopped #16070
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                Chopped is about the only thing I still watch on the Guy Fieri AKA Food Network these days. I watch it in part for the strange ingredients they keep coming up with (which SNL nailed!) and to see what the chefs do with things that are every day ingredients for many home cooks but which many of them wouldn't normally touch on a bet.

                                How many of us would know what a durian was without Chopped? (BTW, there was a story recently about a college library in Australia that was evacuated because someone left a durian in a trash bin.)

                                I agree with the lament that I'd like to see a bit more of the actual cooking, like how they make their sauces. (Having read several books on stocks and sauces, I think I can connect the dots a bit, though.)

                                in reply to: SNL satire of Chopped #16068
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  I seldom watch SNL any more, most of the time it just isn't funny, this was one of the best skits I've seen in years, though.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 5,506 through 5,520 (of 7,560 total)