[Mike Nolan]

I buy whole-milk mozzarella at Sams Club in 5 pound bags, then repackage it in 12 ounce quart bags and freeze it.

My mother always said a pizza just wasn't a pizza without a little Romano cheese on top, but I don't keep that around, though sometimes I use a little Parmesan. I do keep a four-cheese blend from Sams on hand, but don't generally use it on pizza. (It's excellent as a topping on bagels, though, and I also use it in gluten-free Brazilian Cheese Rolls.)

We've been doing flatbread pizzas lately using a lavash we can get at the grocery store, we use the mozzarella and some havarti.

If I make a crust, I'm probably going to use the 'Roman' crust recipe in Peter Reinhart's book, "American Pie". It's a dough that makes a really thin crust. For a thicker crust, I'll use my variant on one of the recipes from Pasquale Bruno Jr's book, "The Great Chicago-Style Pizza Cookbook", which I have posted here: Chicago-Style Pizza Crust. (Pasquale's book was out of print for a while but is available again.)

[Mike Nolan]

Did you read the explanatory text after selecting your answer? It goes through how to compute the correct answer in detail. That part took longer to write than the quiz itself, I'd be disappointed if people didn't read it. (I need to finish a blog post I've been working on that helps explain Baker's Math.)

[Mike Nolan]

Semolina is usually considered a healthier flour than white flour, especially for diabetics, what is the dietician concerned about?

[Mike Nolan]

Here's a page on the USDA site that might help explain the labeling standards:

USDA Organic Labeling Standards

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't done any baking or cooking today, because I was up until the wee hours of the morning trying to fix the site, and at it for another 5 hours today.

I think supper is leftover meatloaf anyway.

[Mike Nolan]

Some of the standard 'test taking' hints shouldn't work, I use a random number generator to decide which answer slot gets the 'correct' answer. (I started doing that back when I was teaching years ago.)

My wife once took a test with 100 true/false questions on it. If you selected 'false', you had to explain why. It turned out that all 100 statements were true, but she got credit for several of the ones she marked as false, because of how she explained her reasoning.

[Mike Nolan]

Not to cause people to worry, but...

The USDA investigates hundreds of claims of fraudulently labeled organic foods every year. And if it doesn't have the USDA 'certified organic' seal on it, but just a 'shelf talker' or other unofficial label, is it really organic?

It is apparently legal to say "We use organic ingredients" on a label, but that doesn't mean every ingredient is organic or that the food meets the USDA certified organic standard.

[Mike Nolan]

It doesn't appear that the price has dropped at Sams Club yet.

This report seems to suggest that vanilla prices may not return to the prices we saw 3-4 years ago and that more low-quality vanilla may find its way to market:

August 2018 Vanilla report

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making a meat loaf with black beans in it.

[Mike Nolan]

Aaron, I still see the unbleached cake flour on the KAF site, but they discontinued the bleached cake flour several years ago on the retail site, though I think they still sell it in large bags to bakeries:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/unbleached-cake-flour

I don't use much cake flour here, the cakes we make the most often use AP.

[Mike Nolan]

I've tried using both a fork and tongs, I tend to make a bigger mess than when I use my hands correctly.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm fortunate that I can get shank bones and knuckle bones from several stores here, neck bones are a little harder to find. You might have to go to South Bend for bones for stock unless there's a full-service butcher closer than that. (They're something of a vanishing breed these days.)

One of the vendors at the summer farmers market sells bones that have had nearly all the meat stripped off for ground beef, I use 2-3 pounds of those in each batch of beef stock.

[Mike Nolan]

I wondered if you might not be referring to New York Bakers. I've not ordered from them yet.

[Mike Nolan]

I bought some vegetable stock at Trader Joe's to use in a soup last year, the soup was OK, but the stock tasted awful by itself. Zoup sells its stocks, I've even seen them in grocery stores, their advertising says "Why would you use a stock in a soup if you wouldn't drink it?" Unfortunately most of their stocks have garlic in them, and they're a bit expensive compared with the Swanson or Trader Joe's stocks. I'm never sure how to cost out home made stocks, because when I make beef or chicken stock I also get several meals out of the left over meat.

I bought Rachael Mamane's "Mastering Stocks and Broths" book, she won't use celery in her stock recipes because she thinks it makes the stocks too bitter.

I haven't made my own vegetable stock yet, because it is not something I use a lot of, when I make beef stock I make it in a 24 quart pot, chicken stock I usually make in a 12 quart pot unless I'm making a really big batch, in which case I'll use the 16 or 24 quart pot.

[Mike Nolan]

I've been to a couple of Mennonite grocery stores that I think also buy KAF flours and repackage them.

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