[Mike Nolan]

There's a local u-pick berry farm and they've had some tough years lately, but picking berries is a lot of work, so we haven't been there in a while. There are usually a few strawberries at the farmer's markets but usually the small ones and on the expensive side, it'd be tough to get enough to do a batch of jam, much less 3 of them like we did yesterday.

[Mike Nolan]

The test-taking experts say your first instinct is almost always your best choice.

[Mike Nolan]

Cardinal preserves are the best strawberry preserves I've ever had. The recipe comes from the Farm Journal Freezing and Canning book, but we have it here:
Cardinal Preserves

You start with crushed berries and sugar, then you add whole berries and more sugar in three stages, you wind up with berries in several different states, some nearly whole, others partially dissolved, others fully dissolved.

Here's some of the Austrian Malt Bread with some Cardinal Preserves on it:

[Mike Nolan]

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.

[Mike Nolan]

We had BLTs

[Mike Nolan]

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.

[Mike Nolan]

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. 🙂

[Mike Nolan]

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.

[Mike Nolan]

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!

[Mike Nolan]

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

[Mike Nolan]

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

[Mike Nolan]

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.

[Mike Nolan]

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

[Mike Nolan]

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.

[Mike Nolan]

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.

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