Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: 2023 Garden Plans #40793
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      Now the forecasted low for Sunday night is 19. Brrrrrr! Might get a frost as early as Saturday morning, too.

      And the forecasted high for Halloween is 39, gonna be a cold night for the trick-or-treaters.

      in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40791
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        I made peanut butter cookies this evening.

        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 22, 2023? #40790
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          mac and cheese Monday here

          in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40784
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            I've probably made over a half dozen different Challah recipes over the years, though I haven't done your apple cider one yet. (Soon.)

            The one I've gone back to the most is Peter Reinhart's recipe in BBA. I recently bought Maggie Glezer's book, A Blessing of Bread, though I haven't tried any of her recipes yet.

            I did a chocolate Challah once, I forget whose recipe I used for that one, though, and I'm not sure if I saved it anywhere. (I've got stacks of recipes I've printed over the years off the Internet.) It made interesting French Toast.

            Get Violet a good set of gloves. I like the barbecue ones better than the welder ones.

            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 22, 2023? #40781
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              We had salads with lettuce from the Aerogarden, some small tomatoes from the garden and left over eye of round.

              in reply to: 2023 Garden Plans #40780
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                With a forecasted low of 24 for next Sunday and a high of 38, covering plants sounds futile here.

                in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 22, 2023? #40777
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  The forecast keeps getting more extreme. Now they're calling for 86 tomorrow but a high of 38 next Sunday and a low of 24!

                  in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 22, 2023? #40776
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    Going to Maine for a Reuben is like going to North Dakota for a lobster roll. πŸ™‚

                    in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40771
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      I think my bagel dough was a little too dry, when I used the 'roll around your hand' method they didn't all seal together, one or two of them sort of came apart, one looked like a bagel schnecken.

                      I'll probably increase the water next time around.

                      in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40766
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        I made a batch of bagel dough (Hamelman's recipe) this evening, it will sit overnight in the fridge, in the morning I'll let it warm up a little, then shape, boil and bake the bagels.

                        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40765
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          I figure I'm doing good if I can get 3 years from a laptop, but I do use it for 6 or more hours most days.

                          in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40764
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            I do let the cracker dough warm up a little, usually a half hour or so, before running it through the sheeter. With laminated doughs, it's more like do a turn, rest dough in fridge for 15 minutes, do another turn, etc. You don't want the butter to get too firm, or it will shatter, or too soft, in which case it soaks into the dough.

                            I haven't tried it yet, but I think I could be working on 3 trays of laminated dough simultaneously, in stages, 2 in the fridge and 1 on the sheeter. I don't have a reason to make that much dough at one time right now.

                            I'm getting ready to build up the wheat starter to make another batch of crackers, but I've got quite a few of them left to eat first. I think the next batch will be made with the durum flour, because it is a finely ground whole grain flour. It ought to have good extensibility from the durum wheat.

                            I'm thinking I might add either more salt or more cheese powder if not both. I was also wondering if I could dissolve some salt in water and brush it on either instead of the oil or in addition to it. (Salt will not easily dissolve in oil, heating it or adding a surfactant is possible but not always reliable.)

                            I wish these crackers were a little less dense, but am not sure how to do that without messing up the recipe. I suppose I could add some commercial yeast, or possibly a little baking powder.

                            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40761
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              I've been in the mood for fried chicken for a few days, so we ordered from Lee's, Lincoln's oldest restaurant. Their onion straws were pretty good too.

                              I also ordered a piece of sour cream apple pie, it was a bit of a disappointment, so I took Diane to another restaurant and she got a piece of their sour cream raisin pie, which is really good and something I've not come close to duplicating.

                              in reply to: 2023 Garden Plans #40758
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                I froze about 6 pounds of tomatoes from the garden, some cored and peeled for things like soup, some just blanched for things like stock.

                                I will probably get a few tomatoes every day or two but I think the bulk of the picking is done, and the two week forecast says we'll dip below freezing next weekend.

                                in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023? #40754
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  I baked off the other two trays of sourdough cheese crackers from the dough I made several days ago.

                                  I used my micrometer to measure the dough as best I could, it appears that both the 5mm and 2mm settings on the sheeter are fairly accurate.

                                  I also tried an experiment to see if letting the dough sit for an hour after final shaping made any difference in the thickness after baking. The answer is no, I measured about a dozen crackers from both batches, nearly all of them were 3.4mm thick.

                                  I used my docker on this batch and I also brushed them with grapeseed oil.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 1,021 through 1,035 (of 7,437 total)