[Mike Nolan]

I would say that's probably the 2nd or 3rd generation beyond the package that I used back in 1996, but probably related technology. I thought it was fairly simple to use at the time, and although I'm a techie, I'm got really into doing graphical things. It's pretty good at making sure your corners match up correctly, but if you've got any odd angles, it'll handle those as well.

One of the successors to the 3D Home Architect program that I used for a while (I sort of lost interest in keeping up with all the updates after a few years, because the house was finished) did 3D color renderings that were so good they almost looked like photographs!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

The primary advantage that a store's design program has is that it's free and they do most of the work, the primary disadvantage is that the program is designed primarily to sell the things that the store carries, so it may not have some makes and models of appliances, cabinets, etc.

During the 9-12 months that we spent designing our house, I paralleled the architect's work on nearly a daily basis. This affected a number of design decisions, including resizing a number of rooms because the furniture and appliances wouldn't lay out the way we wanted them. At one point we pushed the west wall out a foot, increasing the kitchen from 17 x 17 to 17 x 18.

When I would visit the work site during construction, I knew where every wall and support structure had to be, so I was able to point it out when they had one wall in the wrong place by about 8 inches.

[Mike Nolan]

You might want to see if there's a PC 'home design' or 'kitchen design' program, the one I used 22 years ago when we were designing our house was a big help. That was Broderbund 3D Home Architect.

It did 3D renderings, including detailed sketches of the kitchen appliances and cabinets, that were pretty realistic, I felt I could have walked through our entire house blindfolded before they had even dug the foundation.

[Mike Nolan]

Sears/Kenmore was selling a dual-fuel range at one point, I don't know who really made it or what the price point was.

These days I think I'd lean in the direction of a dual wall oven and an induction cooktop.

[Mike Nolan]

I generally use a 'granny fork', though for larger quantities of gravy (like when I'm making a big batch of chicken pot pies), I'll use a silicone spatula.

Back when we were first married, my wife was thickening some gravy with cornstarch, and got some lumps, probably because she added the cornstarch directly to the gravy rather than make a slurry. I showed her how to beat the lumps out with a granny fork. A few months later we were visiting her mother and my wife said something about how I had shown her how to get lumps out of gravy.

Her mother simply said, "I never get lumps in gravy."

[Mike Nolan]

The episodes of American Masters on great chefs were made and originally shown some years ago, the Julia Child episode first aired in 2005, I believe. I probably haven't seen all the ones on chefs, I'll have to watch for them on our local PBS station.

I watched the first several seasons of GBBO on YouTube, but they've gotten stricter about uploading copyrighted material and I haven't been able to watch more recent years on YouTube. There are other ways to watch BBC material via the Internet, in general a direct connection to the BBC archive server from the USA won't work.

According to the Wikipedia on GBBO, season 4 was in 2013. SPOILER ALERT: The Wikipedia page shows who won each season.

There were 7 seasons of GBBO on BBC, season 8 will be broadcast later this year and will be the first season on the Great Britain commercial channel, Channel 4, with new hosts Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig, replacing Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, and new judge Prue Leith, replacing Mary Berry. Paul Hollywood remains the other judge.

[Mike Nolan]

I made another semolina bread loaf and froze half of it.

[Mike Nolan]

I keep meaning to bake some baking soda into sodium carbonate and try that for pretzels or bagels. Finding food-grade lye locally might be difficult, baking soda is easy to find, and according to the NY Times it takes about an hour to turn it into sodium carbonate. (I don't know what I'd use as a pan, I'd be concerned it would damage my baking pans.)

It isn't quite as alkali as a lye solution, so you might not need to use gloves and eye protection. What I remember about working with sodium hydroxide from chemistry class is that you have to be very careful mixing it, it'll spatter.

Lye (sodium hydroxide) has a pH of 12.88 (at a concentration of 100 mmol/liter), sodium bicarbonate has a pH of 8.31, sodium carbonate has a pH of 11.26

(Source: http://www.aqion.de/site/191)

I suspect the lye solution that is used for making pretzels and bagels is a lower concentration.

I'm not sure what's in the stuff that I use to raise the pH in our hot tub, but it may be mixed with something that's not food-safe.

[Mike Nolan]

That's a very nice looking loaf, nice shape, great height and I don't think it needs to be darker.

[Mike Nolan]

I like avocado, my wife doesn't. She's a Miracle Whip person, I'm a mayo person. She doesn't like arugula, I think it's OK but not as the only green in a salad. How have we managed to stay married for over 44 years?

My mother loved wilted lettuce salad (made with hot bacon fat and vinegar), I think it's inedible.

[Mike Nolan]

Eggplant that hasn't been sweated tends to get really soft and gooey, and just seems texturally unappetizing to me. I've made ratatouille a number of times, it also seems like a lot of work but at least it freezes well.

When I make marinara sauce I usually make 6-8 quarts of it and freeze most of it. But recently I've discovered that Hunts Traditional Pasta Sauce is garlic-free and makes a decent sauce for most dishes. The last time I made pizza I just used a light coating of tomato sauce. (Sam's Club's tomato sauce is one of the few tomato sauces that is garlic-free, we've discovered.)

Tomato-based dishes all seem to be pretty high in carbs (starting with the tomatoes themselves), so they're not something we make as often as we used to.

I think the dish that I invested the most time in with the least return was the time I made turducken for Christmas. Deboning the duck took the most time, but assembly was a close second. But then several of us came down with some kind of flu on Christmas morning and, though I cooked the turducken anyway, most of us just picked at it.

[Mike Nolan]

Looked at the video on the sheet pan BLT salad, I'd have to swap out the arugula and the avacado/mayo dressing, but otherwise it looks like it has potential.

[Mike Nolan]

Your 'breakfast for dinner' menu doesn't sound like that much less work than the shrimp/pineapple menu. 🙂

After having well over 4 inches of rain in the last 72 hours, it let up enough that I was able to do the sliders, brats and dogs on the outdoor gas grill and the party went well. The Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake was, as always, devoured.

[Mike Nolan]

For our party today I'm making deviled eggs, crab-stuffed mushrooms and I will be making sliders, hot dogs and brats. It's expected to be cold and rainy, so I'll probably be using the indoor gas griddle and doing the dogs and brats under the broiler.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a 10x10 (1/2 recipe) Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake for a party we're hosting.

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