[Mike Nolan]

Sounds like you had a happy birthday, Joan.

[Mike Nolan]

Which hot dog bun recipe did you use?

[Mike Nolan]

I"m not sure what 'USDA Approved' means.

The beef grades you are likely to see in the store are (in decreasing order), per the USDA
(see USDA link):
Prime
Choice
Select
Standard
Commercial

Prime has the most marbling, but I actually prefer Choice.

Meat that is not labeled for grade is most likely Standard, sometimes Commercial.

Utility, Cutter and Canner grades are the other 3 grades for human consumption, but you're not likely to see them in any stores. Ground beef and processed meats (sausages) may include meat from those grades.

After all the fuss a couple years ago about Lean Fine Textured Beef or Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings (aka 'pink slime'), you may still see them in some ground beef. If it says 'from trim', I'm not sure if that means BLBT, you might want to ask.

[Mike Nolan]

Got the banana mini-muffins made tonight, 120 of them. That ought to keep my wife in muffins for a few days.

[Mike Nolan]

Gelatining the starch is what makes the TangZhong technique work, so I can see how it might impact rye bread.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making Chicken Mirepoix tonight. I added a little orange bell pepper.

[Mike Nolan]

Some days my doughs seem easier to slash than others, not sure why.

[Mike Nolan]

Stale rye bread is often used when making rye bread, I've tried it a few times, I'm not sure exactly what it accomplishes.

[Mike Nolan]

It's still something of a 'cheat' because it's using a dark substance (or in this case, two of them) to color the bread rather than baking it until it naturally turns darker.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't think I've seen that technique before.

[Mike Nolan]

I've seen a pastry cross done a few times, never tried it myself, let us know what works best. I've always wondered if they were stenciled on.

I'm thinking this year I may use the pastry glaze on them and then pipe on the crosses. The glaze should keep them from drying out so much. (The whole wheat ones dry out quickly.)

[Mike Nolan]

Yes, non-stick ones from Pampered Chef, I think. I buttered them, too. But the butterscotch filling leaked out a lot and solidified as it cooled.

[Mike Nolan]

We gave away our canning pot a few years back. I've got a 24 quart stock pot that would probably handle all the way up to half-gallon jars, though USDA recommends against canning most things in them.

I prefer to freeze most things, it heats up the kitchen (and the cook) less. I'm still working through the tomato sauce I made last summer, good thing I didn't add salt to any of it.

I've got canned pickles left from several years ago, but I can't eat them any more. :sigh:

[Mike Nolan]

Well, it was for a good cause, the ag grad student winter fund-raiser. I sampled the other chilis, most were quite a bit spicier (even the ones labeled 'mild'), and also a lot more watery. Mine has lots of tomatoes, beans and tomato juice, my wife's mother used to call it 'tomato soup'.

[Mike Nolan]

I spent much of the afternoon working on the chili and cinnamon rolls yesterday.

For the cinnamon rolls I added some sugar and vanilla to the 'Holland American' recipe, I used a brown sugar, butter and cinnamon paste filling, and I glazed them with a simple pastry glaze (confectioners sugar, water and lemon juice), which I heated to make it easier to brush on.

I spread the filling on with my fingers, messy but effective.

I wound up dividing the dough into 2 parts, each half filled two 24-mini-muffin trays. I baked them one at a time, so trays 2 and 4 got a longer rise, and I think that helped them turn out better, next time I'll let them all rise longer before they go in the oven.

The first batch didn't come out of the pan well, I think I let them cool too much and they stuck down, so the other 3 batches I took out right after glazing them.

I rolled the first half of the dough out to about 24 x 16 on a silpat, that turned out to be too thick, so I rolled the second one out to about 30 x 9 on the countertop, and after rolling it up I rolled it a bit more so it was more like 40 inches long by the time I started to cut it. I think next time I might roll it out to 48 inches so each roll is cut one inch thick.

The brown sugar, butter and cinnamon mixture produces a butterscotch/cinnamon filling which is very tasty. (White sugar would produce a caramel filling, but the presence of the molasses in the brown sugar makes it technically a butterscotch.)

By the time I got done, I was too tired to clean the pans and start on the banana muffins, so I'll probably do that tonight.

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