[Mike Nolan]

You can cut it back to a single tablespoon, but it will take even longer to rise. It might take as long as 4 hours, I'd recommend punching it down after 2 hours. It probably won't quite double, though.

In cool weather I usually put this dough in the warmest place I can find, which is on top of the computers in my office.

[Mike Nolan]

If you've got the knack for hand mixing pasta dough (a skill that has so far eluded me), you probably stop mixing in additional flour when it reaches the point where it looks and feels right. Holding back some of the flour might help when doing it in a mixer, but adding a little water is OK, too. Eggs are mostly water anyway.

I've always though tagliatelle needs to be thin enough to read newsprint through it, while fettuccine can be a bit thicker, because it usually gets a richer sauce.

A pasta skill I'd love to learn is pulling Chinese noodles. I took a course on making pot stickers and dim sum from the Confucius Institute at the University of Nebraska a few years ago, if they ever offer one on pulling noodles I'd sign up in a heartbeat.

[Mike Nolan]

Is it dishwasher safe? If so, that should take care of it, especially if your dishwasher has a sani-cycle setting. But if that'd melt or warp it, try soaking it in bleach for an hour or two.

[Mike Nolan]

We've gotten about 2 inches of rain in the past 2-3 hours, but our weather usually tracks north of you. It's been raining all week and it looks like rain on and off for both of us through the weekend and into next week, wonder if it'll affect the Indy 500 on Sunday?

This weekend is my wife's annual Memorial Day Weekend garage sale, looks like it'll be a soggy one.

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

[Mike Nolan]

I find it is easier to bake it, cut it into portions for freezing and reheat those portions as needed.

[Mike Nolan]

Happy Birthday, Sarah! Stay dry!

[Mike Nolan]

I've looked at the larger (14x18) baking steel griddle several times, when I'm not using it for baking I think it'd be on the countertop as a platform for doing things like cutting meat and chicken. (I wish we had put in a stainless steel countertop next to a sink for easy sanitation.)

[Mike Nolan]

Very little of the Japanese Knotweed in the Pittsburgh area will be suitable for eating, the article even says the people harvesting it for restaurants go way outside of town to get it.

Tree of Heaven is a nasty smelling invasive plant, that and mulberry are things we fight constantly. Mint is another, the first year we were in this house we put in several types of mint, 19 years later we're still trying to get rid of it. Musk thistle is a big problem locally, especially in ditches along county roads, and one the weed control board will cite you for in a hurry.

I've heard it referred to as the gardener's dilemma: Anything prolific enough to make a good ground cover has the potential of taking over your entire yard.

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

[Mike Nolan]

I always use semolina flour for pasta. Recently I've been ordering it from King Arthur, as the local coop stopped carrying it in bulk. Bob's Red Mill also makes a semolina flour and so does Hodgson Mill, though I haven't seen it on local shelves for a long time.

I've been tempted to order durum wheat berries and mill my own pasta flour, but haven't found a supplier yet. (25+ pounds of durum wheat would last me years.)

KAF is also where I get pastry flour, as the only stuff available locally is whole wheat pastry flour. Although GM unbleached makes a decent pie crust, I prefer a softer flour for most pastry.

[Mike Nolan]

Pork tenderloin has almost no fat in it these days, if there's any meat that has been bred to meet consumer preferences, it's pork!

A pork sirloin roast should have more fat on it. Boston Butt has a lot more fat, but has to be tied (or cooked in a net) or it falls apart, IMHO it's best for slow cooking and turning into pulled pork.

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

[Mike Nolan]

Yes, I make the dough in the KA mixer. I put in the dry ingredients, egg and oil, then dribble in water until it forms a dough.

I divide the dough into balls no more then about 4-5 ounces each. That way I'm not trying to handle a sheet of pasta that is 10 feet long. Use the slowest setting on the mixer. Start on the widest setting (1), put the dough through the rollers a couple of times, folding it in between passes, then move on to the next ball, but without the folds. (I drape the rolled out dough on cookie sheets on the counter, hanging off the edge.)

Then move up to setting 2, and start over. The book says to go to setting 4 or 5, I find 4 is plenty thin and I've been known to stop at 3.

I've got really thick countertops (butcher block) and most clamps won't go that wide, but I've been known to use a bar clamp from the shop, the kind that you can squeeze tighter work nearly anywhere.

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

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't used no-boil lasagna sheets in over 10 years. As I recall, they needed to soak for a few minutes to soften.

These days I make most of my own pasta.

When I make lasagna, I freeze it after baking.

If you've got the KitchenAid pasta set, the recipe for semolina egg pasta in it makes an excellent lasagna. It won't have the crinkles in it, of course. I do boil them for 30 seconds or so, to 'set' the pasta and make it easier to handle when assembling the lasagna. I let them dry a bit on cloth towels, that keeps the pasta from getting too watery.

I usually wind up adding more water than the recipe calls for. If you get it too wet, it doesn't roll out well, but if it is too dry all it does is crumble.

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

[Mike Nolan]

I know King Arthur uses mills in Kansas, because they take staff there on an annual 'know your sources' trek. KSU used to sell grain milled as part of their Grain Institute, but I think they've pretty much shut that sales operation down, and 50 pounds of whole grain flour would last me a year, which defeats the 'freshly milled' aspects.

So for most of us, getting your own grain mill and buying wheat berries may be the only way to get freshly milled whole grain flour on a regular basis. The options for buying wheat berries are pretty limited, so that's going to limit your ability to get flour milled to your specifications. Right now I've got both 'hard red' and 'soft red' berries, so I could do a mix, but I don't have the lab equipment to measure protein content, ash content, etc.

I've seen Wheat Montana White Wheat berries in a 25 pound bag in local stores, but haven't bought any. I bought a bag of white wheat flour a couple of years ago, made two loaves with it, and eventually threw the rest out, because we didn't care for the taste.

[Mike Nolan]

My mother often doubled the amount of chocolate chips in the recipe. I think the recipe is better with regular oats than with quick oats, just like I think it's better with Crisco than with butter, but I'm glad you liked them.

My mother typed out copies of this recipe on recipe cards for all of us years ago, she added some hand-written notes to mine that make it one of my most precious possessions.

[Mike Nolan]

I updated the link in the first post in this thread to one that should work more more people.

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