[Mike Nolan]

I did get my 10 tomato plants in tonight. 2 Amish Paste, 4 Celebrity, 4 Better Boy.

That should provide more than enough eating tomatoes, possibly even enough to process, though my wife will probably be able to get some big tubs of tomatoes from the test gardens at UNL in late summer like she did last year.

I'm going to try a different way of processing them. Last year I put them through the food mill cold, and they separated when I cooked them. Next year I'm going to try putting them in boiling water for a couple of minutes before putting them through the food mill, that's supposed to keep them from separating so much. (There's some enzyme involved here, heating disables it.)

[Mike Nolan]

I held off doing much, but I did buy a few tomato plants at the Farmer's market on Sunday, some Amish Paste, some Celebrity and some Better Boy. I'm hoping to have them in the ground tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

Chicken breasts on the grill with potato salad on the side.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making potato salad to go with burgers on the grill.

[Mike Nolan]

I made honey wheat bread today.

[Mike Nolan]

Nutmeg used to be used as a meat preservative, if you look at recipes from colonial days they would grund up 2 or 3 nutmegs to preserve a few pounds of beef. (And nutmeg wasn't a cheap spice then, either.)

[Mike Nolan]

The USDA's database says that a teaspoon of ground nutmeg is 2.2 grams and a tablespoon is 7 grams. (Yeah, that doesn't add up.)

I weighed several whole nutmegs on my microscale (1/10 gram increments) and they ranged from 2.2 grams to 4.7 grams.

[Mike Nolan]

We did go to LaMars this morning for our free donuts, but we also bought a dozen of them, most of which went in the freezer. (They freeze very well.)

[Mike Nolan]

This may bring up a picture of the one I have, one half is black the other half is clear:

https://www.google.com/search?q=microplane+nutmeg+picture&client=firefox-b-1-ab&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=3dqwJ5lW6QccrM%253A%252CTQJAkX9I-KGLeM%252C_&usg=__ZzWL2Y1vRIAmvbZzeoA0hzaqrY4%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiglMTM7bPbAhWT3oMKHc7SAkkQ9QEILTAB#imgrc=3dqwJ5lW6QccrM:

I'm guessing it broke too easily, I know mine has a few cracks where the two halves go together.

Too bad, it is much easier to use than the other nutmeg grinders I've used.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

I couldn't find it either, I guess it's been discontinued. I found it at a store in Ottawa CA several years ago. I also saw it at an outlet mall in Iowa a few years ago, but I haven't looked for it lately.

[Mike Nolan]

The Microplane folks make a nutmeg grinder, it's kind of egg-shaped, half of it is for storing whole nutmegs the other half is for the grated nutmeg. Just don't drop it on the floor, it's a little fragile compared to most Microplane products.

[Mike Nolan]

Bay leaf is a very strong and persistent spice.

There are two or three different types of bay leaves, Penze's are the good ones. That's one spice I always buy from them.

[Mike Nolan]

Burgers on the grill tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I remember my sister making donuts a few times, but we don't have a deep fat fryer, and it seems like so much work when LaMars is only a few miles away and makes far better donuts than I could hope to.

[Mike Nolan]

It sounds like he had a full life well-lived.

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