Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: 2024 Gardening #43065
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      Black raspberry season is getting close to over (it's usually only 2-3 weeks long), and the most I've gotten at a time this year was about an ounce and a half, just a small patch on the west side of the yard. But I see the raspberries rebounding on the east side where they got cut back last fall, so hopefully they'll be bearing fruit in another year or two.

      I think it's too hot on our deck for peas in a hanging basket. I tried them in the Aerogarden twice, got a small crop the first time, enough for a couple stir fry meals, but they didn't grow well the second time. Not sure I've got a good space for snow peas in the garden this year, but I could try companion planting them with some of the tomatoes, though it may be too late for them until I wait to plant them in September.

      I haven't put in any spaghetti squash yet, but I think I will put some in; last year they climbed up the tomato cages and did fairly well, and didn't seem to interfere with the tomatoes. Diane's not that fond of spaghetti squash, but when I pointed out how low carb they were, she thought they might be worth planting again this year. The leeks I put (plants from Johnny's, not seed) are doing well, I've got about 24 of them.

      I've got several small tomatoes already, but they're not close to ripening yet. These are on the First Lady II plants, where the average size tomato is around 5 ounces, there's probably some on the 4th of July plants by now as well. My guess is I won't see any ripe tomatoes until mid to late July.

      The urban garden project at UNL is in its 2nd year. This year the common crop is sweet corn instead of zucchini. So I've got two rows of sweet corn (one in the amended soil area, one not.) They went in late, I don't know how well they'll do. Sweet corn is kind of high carb, but if it's good, we'll just have to suffer through it. πŸ™‚

      I planted a row of dill seed, not much of it came up. I may try re-seeding the half of the row that didn't germinate.

      in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43064
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        The plan tonight is burgers on the grill using the L'Oven Fresh keto buns, weather permitting. (Chances of rain in the afternoon/evening.)

        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43054
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          We had tuna salad on lettuce tonight. Jack the cat appreciated the tuna water. πŸ™‚

          in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43048
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            We had steaks on the grill again, with sauteed fresh mushrooms. Thought about having a salad, but I'm full.

            in reply to: The new cat #43044
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              He showed up again this morning, came in, had some food and is currently taking a nap.

              in reply to: The new cat #43043
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                Diane put some cat food out the other night, it was gone by morning, so I put out more yesterday morning. We did see the young foxes eating it yesterday evening, and it was gone by morning, so I put out more earlier today, and around 7PM our prodigal cat, Jack, showed up and was gobbling it down. We let him inside, gave him some more food (including half of the tuna water from tonight's supper) and a few treats, and he started taking a nap. Now he's eating a bit more of the dry food.

                He'll go outside for the night, we just can't trust him not to pee on things, and my guess is he'll prefer that anyway. Update: He wanted to out after about 90 minutes of being inside, hopefully we'll see him again soon, possibly tomorrow evening.

                He looks skinny, my guess is he hasn't been having much luck hunting in this neighborhood. So, maybe we have a mostly outdoor kitty.

                in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43042
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  Victoria's Keto Kitchen has a recipe for keto-friendly 'Bisquick' mix, so I tried making some and then made biscuits with it. Took a bit more liquid than with real Bisquick, and they baked faster (9 minutes vs 12) but they're pretty good. I had one with some butter on it, tasted pretty much like a cream biscuit.

                  We had them with creamed tuna for supper.

                  in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43041
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    It is cool here today, so I tried making a keto-friendly biscuit (see baking thread) and some creamed tuna to go on top.

                    Both were fairly good. I'm still working out the carb count, but it won't be very high.

                    Update: 1 biscuit with 1 serving of creamed tuna was under 4 carbs.

                    in reply to: Fox kits #43033
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      We saw one of the fox kits again this evening. Diane took the cat food that we had put out for Jack in the house and put it on the back patio yesterday, this morning the bowl was empty, so we put out some more, and the kit was munching on it, even though it's right beside the patio door. Brave little fox!

                      in reply to: Fox kits #43032
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        I had an interesting assortment of animals when I was young. I once found 9 frogs that had fallen through the sidewalk grate at the bank, and they let me go downstairs and gather them in a box. So, what do you do with 9 frogs? I put them in the bathtub, of course.

                        My mother comes home from work, goes into the bathroom, sits down, and there's this leopard frog sitting on the corner of the tub, a foot away, staring at her.

                        EEEEEEEEEE!

                        Michael! There's a frog in the bathtub!

                        No, there are nine of them.

                        (Notice, though, that she knew which one of us kids to blame!)

                        Then there was the time someone found a mud puppy (look it up) and it lived in the bathtub for a few days.

                        And someone I knew had found a crow who got injured and could no longer fly. It lived in our back yard for the rest of the summer but didn't survive the winter. Our momma cat and the crow didn't get along, but neither intimidated the other much. She'd try to sneak up behind him, and he'd turn, spread his wings out 3-4 feet wide and they'd have a standoff for a minute or two.

                        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43031
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          Well, the BLTs tasted like BLTs, even though the bacon was a bit strange, which wasn't the bread's fault. It's a small loaf, half-gone already, but I'm very likely to buy it again. It was reasonably priced, too. Now we'll see if we finish the loaf before it starts to go bad, though it had a freshness date of 6/28 when I bought it last Saturday.

                          in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43025
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            The Reddit r/keto channel folks keep talking about the Aldi keto-friendly buns, so I stopped in the other day to see if our Aldi had them. They did, and also a keto-friendly white bread, 11 carbs/slice but 0 net carbs after subtracting insoluble fiber. I got both, but will freeze most of the buns, since they're 8 to a pack. The brand on both is L'Oven Fresh, whether it can be found other than at Aldi is unclear.

                            I had a slice of the white bread, toasted, with some peanut butter for lunch, not bad. No odd flavors masking the taste of the peanut butter.

                            So tonight we're planning BLT's to give this bread the acid test.

                            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43023
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              We had the rest of the lahvosh pizza and also had a salad and some deviled eggs.

                              in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 16, 2024? #43016
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                Steaks for dinner here, plus deviled eggs and the Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake.

                                in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of June 9, 2024? #43015
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  This Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake was weird, the texture of the cake was more like seitan (which is also made from wheat gluten), very chewy, and the frosting is best eaten with a spoon.

                                  The flavors were better, so next time I'll go back to the flourless cake recipe I used the last time around but stick with regular cocoa, not the Dutch stuff, which was bitter. Making cooked sugars with allulose seem to be a bit of a challenge, it doesn't behave like either sucrose or glucose for how it cooks, so I need to work on the frosting. (Powdered allulose is even more expensive than granulated alluolose, though, so experimenting with it will be limited.)

                                Viewing 15 posts - 646 through 660 (of 7,572 total)