Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: No Garlic, Please! #662
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      My wife says I should have written a section on what happens when I take her, her best friend, our daughter-in-law and another couple out to dinner.

      My wife is allergic to garlic
      Her best friend is allergic to olives and olive oil (and carries an epi pen)
      Our daugher-in-law has a wheat allergy
      The other couple have a wheat allergy, and are also dairy free.

      That's enough to drive any waiter crazy!

      The last time I had them all over for dinner, I had to make several items multiple ways, including two kinds of Hollandaise sauce, two kinds of pasta (one gluten-free), two kinds of bread (one gluten-free), etc. My wife made 3 different desserts.

      in reply to: Microwave Peanut Brittle #277
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        I found the microwave sponge candy recipe online, but the site it was on vanished years ago.

        in reply to: Microwave Peanut Brittle #274
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          I used to have a microwave sponge candy recipe, too. (called seafoam at some candy stores) one that I had worked on the timings a lot, but the sheet of paper I had written it on was inside a cookbook that vanished several years ago, and I haven't been able to reproduce the recipe or get the timing down right, maybe both.

          I've got several pages of alternate recipes to try (done on the range rather than in a microwave oven), but making sponge candy hasn't been high on my list of things to do the last few years.

          I'm hoping to take a course on chocolate-making later this year, being better trained on how to temper chocolate and enrobe candies might revive this quest.

          in reply to: Wood Burning Oven #263
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            There's a vendor at the local farmers markets who has a Forno Bravo wood-burning oven that he hauls around to farmers markets and other functions. He says it takes several hours to get up to temp and 2-3 days to cool completely down.

            Please keep us posted on your progress. The San Francisco Baking Institute has run a few short courses on baking breads and pizzas in a wood burning oven. I think King Arthur Flour has run similar courses in Vermont.

            • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
            in reply to: Wood Burning Oven #258
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              What kind of oven did you get?

              in reply to: KAF closing extended; bbc site also says my sis #254
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                What's going on? Running a website has gotten expensive, and costs are accelerating.

                in reply to: Staying in Touch with KAF Baking Circle friends #248
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  Sometimes the best way to participate is to ask a question that stimulates an interesting discussion.

                  in reply to: What are you planting in your garden this year? #245
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    It’s probably a good thing we weren’t planning on doing a big tomato garden this year, we’ve had about 6 inches of rain in the last two weeks and more is forecast for this weekend, so the garden area is way too wet to plant in. We'll be lucky to have it dried out by Memorial Day.

                    Also, we had about 45 minutes of hail the other day, many of the plants my wife was getting ready to put in her flower beds look like they were run through a shredder, and any tomatoes in the garden would have suffered, too.

                    We consider mulberry little more than a noxious weed!

                    • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                    in reply to: My Nebraska Kitchen #242
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      I have all my recipes from the King Arthur Baking Circle posted here now.

                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        Here's the key section:

                        Meanwhile, restrictions on cane-sugar imports into the EU will remain. The combination could squeeze importers like Tate & Lyle Sugars, whose London refinery has been turning cane sugar into sweetener for 138 years.

                        “The clock’s ticking for us,” said Gerald Mason, a vice president of Tate & Lyle as he watched a crane unload a 35,000-ton shipment of sugar. “We are not going to be competitive after 2017 unless the regulation is changed.”

                        • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                        in reply to: Sugar Industry Regulations threaten Lyle’s Golden Syrup #188
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          I wasn't sure if that link would work, good to know what works and what doesn't. I was half-way expecting that WSJ story to morph into the Brexit issue when they brought up Tate & Lyle.

                          Taxing to discourage consumption has a mixed track record. Some folks think it worked well for smoking, but some states have become dependent on those taxes and are seeing declines in tobacco taxes affecting their state budgets.

                          The soda tax hasn't appeared to work as well where it's been used, and it's unlikely that they'll be able to raise the taxes to the point where demand becomes truly elastic--restaurants make huge profits on soft drinks, too.

                          The shopping center nearest us just got a 1% increase on sales tax (on everything except food, I think) so they can help pay for Scheels to build a huge new store, complete with a Ferris Wheel inside and put up a parking garage where the current Scheels (not small) is. :sigh:

                          Best line I read all weekend: How can you tell macroeconomists have a sense of humor? They use decimal points.

                          • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                          • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                          in reply to: A Four-Loaf Bread Pan #158
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            Is your 12 x 4 pan measured on the top or the bottom?

                            Several people make a metal 12 x 4 1/2 pan:

                            Wilton:
                            Wilton Recipe-Right-Piece-Long

                            Here's one made with carbon steel:
                            Carbon Steel Long Loaf Pan

                            And a NorPro one:
                            NorPro Loaf Pan

                            King Arthur still has the stoneware 12x4 tea loaf pan:
                            Tea Loaf Pan

                            Fantes has a loaf pan designed for angel food cakes, 16 x 4:
                            Angel Loaf Pan

                            • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                            • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                            • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                            • This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Mike Nolan.
                            in reply to: A Four-Loaf Bread Pan #151
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              If someone's still looking for four-strap pans, several of the restaurant supply sites have them (webstaurant.com, etc)

                              in reply to: A Four-Loaf Bread Pan #147
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                When I was growing up, we had a 'clubhouse' in a building that was full of old bakery equipment. There were lots of 3-strap, 4-strap, even 8 strap (2x4) bread pans, racks, sheet pans, etc. I've wondered if they're still there. and what shape they're in. (The grocery store that the bakery outbuilding was behind closed many years ago, but nobody ever cleaned it out to open something else in that space.)

                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  Not a new recipe, but I made chicken mirepoix for supper tonight, and I think I hit on a good balance of herbs, some basil and some celery seed.

                                  I use skinned bone-in breasts, because my wife won't eat chicken skin, so I've been experimenting with ways to keep the surface of the breasts from getting too dry. Tonight I tried covering the breasts with cabbage leaves (or as my wife put it--edible cellophane.) I'm not sure if they added much flavor, and they dried out too much to be eaten, but they did seem to keep the breasts themselves from drying out. I'll have to try that again.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 7,291 through 7,305 (of 7,314 total)