I can't stand the way part-skim mozzarella melts, so I buy whole milk mozzarella in 5 pound bags at Sams Club and divide it up into smaller bags (around 12 ounces) and freeze it. That's the ONLY place in town I can find whole milk mozzarella. (I know several of the local pizza chains use it, but they buy in bulk from wholesalers, or possibly directly from Leprino Foods, the nearly invisible Denver company that supplies cheese to many of the major pizza chains. It's so secretive that when Forbes did a story on it recently, they could not locate a picture of James Leprino, the CEO, and he wouldn't allow photographers into the building.)
The Kraft website seems to indicate 2% cheese is still available, it may be a regional issue, or related to not being in an urban area.
The last few times I've been in NW Illinois, where I grew up, the grocery stores seemed to carry a lot fewer products than what I can find in Lincoln. And when I'm in the Pittsburgh area visiting my son, the products available there are quite different, and it's not just different brands.
Mike Nolan.
I'm making a big pot of potato leek soup for supper, half or more of it will go in the freezer.
Tuna salad for supper here.
The more I read about saturated vs unsaturated fats, the less I'm sure of. :sigh:
This article says never use high heat for blind baking:
Blind Baking
I try to fill up the dishwasher as I'm working, but sometimes I use more than what will fit in one load. At chocolate school, the chef was pretty insistent we clean up messes right away, because they spread quickly. I find that's pretty good advice when it comes to things like flour, too.
I haven't seen winesap in stores in decades. I got some from the farmer's market a couple of years ago and got some from a u=pick orchard last year.
I don't specifically remember offering that advice, I think the most important part of blind baking is to make sure you have plenty of pie beans.
I'm not sure what we're doing for either Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, we've told the kids that we're not making the trip to Pittsburgh this year. My younger son, the one who lives in CA, has Zeldathon (an online fundraiser) in Erie PA right after Christmas. My older son was talking about possibly coming here for Thanksgiving, but I haven't heard if that's a go or not. We may invite my wife's sister to come over for Christmas dinner.
I may drop a line to SFBI and ask if I can post it. It's a really good pie filling, but probably not anything particularly different from other recipes.
I'm making Vienna bread today.
No, it's the one I got at SFBI pastry school, I'm not sure if I can post it or not.
Winesap is a great pie apple, but it is too firm for applesauce. It is the best pie apple I've ever used. There are some European varieties that are supposed to be even better, but good luck finding any of them on this side of the pond.
I pre-cook the pie filling and then freeze it. That way it's ready to be put in a pie shell. It also works great in Irish Apple Cake.
I made a regular and a gluten-free Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake the other day, using King Arthur's gluten-free blend for the latter. I think adding cocoa masks the taste of gluten-free baked goods, but that recipe isn't vegan.
I don't think Empires are good cooking apples, though some sources say they are, they're decent eating apples, though. They have a thick skin, so they don't bruise easily and ship well. My experience has been that they don't store well, they get mushy.
They're a Cornell cross between McIntosh and Red Delicious that dates back to about 1945.
I made some chicken salad from the chicken used to make the stock. Our 18 year old cat likes the chicken, too.
