[Mike Nolan]

My wife defrosted the freezer over the weekend, so I had 10 pounds of chicken thighs and legs to use up, so I made a big pot of chicken stock, most of which I'll freeze for soup later this fall. Not sure what I'll do with the chicken meat, maybe a batch of soup and some chicken salad.

[Mike Nolan]

I made Vienna bread on Monday.

[Mike Nolan]

Even Mac and Cheese from a box is more cooking than some people do!

[Mike Nolan]

I've never understood what makes a pumpkin a 'pie' pumpkin, but the Cinderella pumpkin has been grown in France for centuries and is said to be quite good for eating purposes. (I don't really care for pumpkin pie, so it makes no difference to me, I've had some pumpkin soups that were OK, but I don't eat much squash of any kind, except for ratatouille.)

[Mike Nolan]

It's been cooling off in the evenings here, too, we've had highs in the mid 80's but it gets down to the 50's overnight, and we've had the back door open most evenings, unless someone in the neighborhood has a fireplace going, in which case the wood smoke smell is too strong for us.

My wife sent me a USDA alert earlier this week about cool weather trends that may affect harvests in the
upper midwest the next week or two. There could even be freeze warnings next week.

[Mike Nolan]

Were you searching the recipes archive in chronological order? Searching for 'tomato relish' should have brought up maybe a dozen or so posts or recipes.

We do need a better recipe search tool, though.

[Mike Nolan]

Haven't made salsa, but I can tell you that the tomato relish recipe I have posted is excellent on hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches, it even went very well with some fish I made last week.

A salsa is usually just tomatoes, onion, cilantro, hot peppers, lime juice, salt and pepper, chopped up and mixed together raw, though some recipes also have minced garlic. My wife is one of those who has a genetic predisposition against cilantro (it tastes like soap to her), so I never make anything that uses it.

One of the local stores sells a pineapple salsa that is pretty good.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife brought me 2 tubs (around 60 pounds) of tomatoes from the UNL test gardens yesterday, so I'm making more tomato relish, I've got a triple batch (30+ pounds of tomatoes, about 10 pounds of onions, 10 large peppers) cooking down now, I'll start a second triple batch later today or tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't made soba noodles, but I've made lots of wheat-based pasta and some GF (rice flour) pastas.

Fresh pasta cooks very quickly, 2-4 minutes, because you don't have to rehydrate the flour. You can dry fresh pasta or freeze it, but both of those increase cooking times. Be sure to salt the water adequately. (Michael Ruhleman says the water should have enough salt in it to taste like a light broth. I have increased the amount of salt I add to pasta water, it makes a difference. This is one of those times when CIA--where Ruhlman trained--isn't over-salting things.)

[Mike Nolan]

When I was in San Diego a couple of years ago, I gave some thoughts to driving to the NY Bakers warehouse, but it isn't clear whether they support over-the-counter sales or just mail order.

I bought 5 pounds of cake flour at a Mennonite store that had been rebagged from a larger bag. It wasn't labeled as to whose it was, it could have been Queen G, which they no longer sell in home-baker sized bags.

I also used to get a great pumpernickel flour at that Mennonite store, which I would hit whenever I was visiting my employer's national office, but since I retired I probably won't be going there (Crossville TN) again, and I think the nearest Mennonite/Amish community is likely to be in eastern Iowa.

[Mike Nolan]

Looking for recipes for soba noodles online made me wonder whether the soba noodles at the Mongolian grills are gluten-free.

[Mike Nolan]

Since it was just for 2 buns, probably less than a teaspoon of honey, diluted with about 2 teaspoons of hot water. Don't see any reason why it wouldn't work with whole grains or other sizes of seeds. I've used the water method successfully to stick rolled oats to loaves, and I've seen at least one recipe that suggested sticking them down with honey diluted in water, which is where I got the idea from.

[Mike Nolan]

Here's a simpler soba noodle recipe that isn't GF:

40 grams AP flour
160 grams buckwheat flour
80 grams water

And here's a picture guide to making soba noodles from the LA Times:
Soba Noodles

[Mike Nolan]

I can probably find other GF recipes that don't use those ingredients. Arrowroot is something I always have on hand, psyllium husk powder is not.

Psyllium husk is a way of adding fiber (it's the main ingredient in Metamucil), and it probably adds structure as well, which is always a bit of a challenge with gluten-free products.

[Mike Nolan]

To add to the confusion over the 'proper' weight of a cup of flour, the USDA says a cup of unbleached AP flour weighs 125 grams 4.4 ounces.

I tend to use the KAF 4.25 ounces standard, because its usually easier to add flour than to readjust everything else once you add too much flour.

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