[Mike Nolan]

Thanks all, it was a pretty good day. The Veal Zurich was excellent (on spaetzle) and the pie was a great dessert. My older son called and we had a good chat, the younger one has been absorbed into the Googlesphere again, but will be joining us for Christmas.

[Mike Nolan]

You have to give the water method time to let the seeds soak up water and anneal themselves to the dough, If I remember to do it, I will put the seeds on about half way through final proof.

Egg seems to work best at sticking seeds down, although the upside-down final proof method generally works fairly well for me. A bunch of seeds usually fall off as you flip the loaves over, so it's a bit wasteful of seeds before the loaves even go in the oven.

Been a while since I toured an industrial-scale commercial bakery, but I think they use a spray to hold the seeds on, applying them as the loaves come out of the oven.

I lived in Chicago for about 10 years and grew up in NW Illinois, so a hot dog bun just isn't right if it doesn't have poppy seeds on it. But here in Nebraska the only seeded hot dog and burger buns have sesame seeds on them.

I prefer Challah without seeds on it.

[Mike Nolan]

I knew a guy who made applejack from apples that grew on his farm. He'd let the jug sit out in the winter and after it froze he'd chop through the ice to pour off the fermented applejack, it had a REAL kick by then!

Local legend had it that his trees and some others in Jo Daviess County were the descendants of ones planted by John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed), but the Johnny Appleseed historians have no record of him ever having visited NW Illinois, where I grew up.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

The apple pie was excellent, if you see Apollo apples, I can report that they're good pie apples. We did up the amount of lemon juice in the recipe, they're not as tart as many pie apples are, so it needed a little boost.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making Veal Zurich (it's similar to a Stroganoff but with a cream/white wine sauce) for supper today to celebrate my birthday.

[Mike Nolan]

I just took an apple pie out of the oven, I'm having that instead of birthday cake today.

[Mike Nolan]

How high are the feet? I usually just put a dishtowel under a cutting board that slides around. (I've got a big 18x24 hard plastic one that I use for large projects.) Or you can use the stuff you line drawers with or put in between dishes to keep them from getting scratched, it's also slightly tacky.

[Mike Nolan]

I know there are some u-pick orchards in western Ohio (somewhere around Toledo), I see them every time we drive down I-80 to visit our son in Pittsburgh, but we're never making that trip during apple season, so we've never stopped there. Not sure how far away that is from where you are, there may be better options in Michigan or Indiana.

[Mike Nolan]

Butchers have been using wood surfaces for cutting meat for a long time, but they wash them down frequently (with chlorine bleach these days) and then scrape it dry. You can tell a really old butcher block because the surface isn't perfectly flat anymore from having been scraped so many times.

But I don't cut raw meat directly on my butcher block countertops, either. I use a plastic mat that can be washed in the dishwasher.

[Mike Nolan]

I've used Macintosh, it's OK but not my favorite pie apple. I bought a few pounds of Apollo apples at the farmer's market today, not a variety I'm familiar with. The wiki chart Apples says it is an eating apple, but it says that about Winesap, too, and I know it is a great pie apple. I tried eating one, I think it'll be a better pie apple than an eating apple. So I'll be making an apple pie tomorrow. (Pie dough is made and resting in the fridge overnight.)

[Mike Nolan]

I've made a cabbage beef soup, but the beef is probably the dominant flavor profile. Caraway should be good with it, cabbage goes well with garlic, mustard seed, dill, thyme, celery seed, tarragon, nutmeg and savory. (But stick to no more than 3 or 4 herbs/spices.)

[Mike Nolan]

I prefer egg white, the spray stuff imparts a taste. I've also used milk and milk with just a bit of honey in it. I've heard of doing it with a light spray of cooking oil, but haven't tried that.

Followup: I tried the cooking oil method, it doesn't work! See Seeds Post

To get seeds to stick with just water, you need to heavily spray the loaves with water, sprinkle on the seeds, spray it again, then let it sit for at least 5 minutes.

Another way to do it is to put the seeds on the parchment or couche and put the loaves on upside down during final proof, so the seeds get well-attached to the dough as it rises, then flip the loaves over for baking. A flip board makes this easier.

[Mike Nolan]

There are some companies that sell marble slabs for commercial candymakers, but they're usually pretty thick, 3 inches or more, and that makes them quite heavy. Not very cheap either, and shipping is both difficult and expensive.

But check places like Kohls, Michaels and Bed Bath & Beyond, their websites suggest they may have marble slabs for prices ranging from $30 to $60.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't seen a Winesap apple at a grocery store in decades, either. I'm fortunate that a local grower has a few trees. I've heard some growers in Michigan still have them.

[Mike Nolan]

You need to be really patient with that bread, sometimes it takes 2 hours to rise in both the bulk rise and final rise. Soaking the grain should helps soften it.

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