Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of June 15, 2025? #46567
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      Probably more of a local supply chain issue, I've not seen any signs of a nationwide banana shortage yet. There is a fungal disease (a strain of fusarium wilt labeledTR4, also called Panama Disease) that will eventually wipe out most of the Cavendish banana plants, like an earlier strain, TR1, did with the Gros Michel in the 50's, but it will likely take another 10-20 years. I don't know if they've settled on a new variety to replace it, and it takes something like 5-10 years for a banana plantation to get fully productive banana plants from new stock.

      There may be better mitigation efforts in place than in the 50's, since Gros Michel was wiped out quite quickly once TR1 was widespread, though TR4 has been around for over 30 years already. I've seen some reports of trying to breed fungal resistance into Cavendish, but since banana plants are mainly reproduced by cloning, that's not a very simple or quick strategy. Cloning is also the reason TR4 is a world-wide problem, just like it was for the Gros Michel.

      About two years ago I read an article about using gene splicing to add fusarium resistance to the Cavendish banana from fusarium resistant tomatoes, but the anti-GMO folks were quick to pick up on that and I don't know if that project is still ongoing.

      The 1920's Broadway tune "Yes we have no bananas" was written about banana shortages from the early years of the TR1 plague on the Gros Michel banana.

      in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 8, 2025? #46555
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        Our cat is VERY glad we're home, he's been on my lap most of the last two days.

        in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 8, 2025? #46552
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          I also brought back 50 pounds of Ardent Mills pastry flour. For $26, couldn't really pass that up. I also got 3 more 16x22 (2/3 size) sheet pans and a few smallware items.

          The car was REALLY full for the trip home!

          in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 8, 2025? #46546
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            For our first night back after 10 nights on the road, we went with a rotisserie chicken from Sams.

            Tomorrow we will be having Chicago hot dogs (with Vienna hot dogs and buns bought in Illinois) for lunch and Italian Beef Sandwiches (for me) for supper, with a kit we bought at a Portillo's location on the way home. Also bought some Rocky Mountain chocolates and some chocolates from a local store in Galena Il. (Rocky Mountain chocolates are always good, the ones from the local store ranged from OK to pretty good.)

            Came back with 4 full coolers: One with 16.5 pounds of Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate callets and other chocolates, another with the meat, one with about 25 bottles of wine from various wineries in Illinois and Pennsylvania and the 4th one was beverages and snack foods for the road.

            Last Sunday we had a graduation celebration brunch with a number of Kelita's classmates and friends and their parents. The restaurant (Casbah) served some breakfast pastries that included a sumac mini-muffin, sweet but not overpoweringly so. I bought some ground sumac berries at Penzey's in Pittsburgh and am going to see if I can come up with a recipe for them. I'm guessing there was some buttermilk in them, and there are recipes for buttermilk sumac muffins online.

            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of June 1, 2025? #46465
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              Dinner tonight was a salad plus cookies eaten for quality control purposes.

              in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of June 1, 2025? #46464
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                I made 2 batches of oatmeal crisp cookies with chocolate chips and one batch with M&M's, a total of about 200 cookies.

                Divided then up into 5 containers, one for each of my brothers, one for my son & family, one for us as road food and one for the guys who will be house-sitting for us while we're out of town.

                in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of May 25, 2025? #46446
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  We had salads and I had a salami sandwich.

                  in reply to: 2025 Gardens #46444
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    I'm putting in two more hybridized American chestnut trees in the front yard, one of the two I put in several years ago is doing poorly and may not survive. The main leader looks dead and the side leader might not be in great shape.

                    The new ones are pretty small, less than a foot tall. So they've got a lot of growing to do.

                    in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of May 25, 2025? #46432
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      We had more NY Strip steak for supper, with a baked potato and some strawberry ice cream with hot fudge sauce.

                      in reply to: Tick Season is Bad this Year #46425
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        We had a horde of earwigs in our mailbox, some diatomaceous earth got them scrambling to leave in a hurry. But be careful not to inhale it.

                        in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of May 25, 2025? #46424
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          I will be making several batches of oatmeal crisp chocolate chip cookies, probably over the weekend, in anticipation of our trip to visit my brothers and attend our granddaughter's HS graduation. Some will be traveling food, most will be to give to my brothers, son and granddaughter.

                          in reply to: What are you Baking the Week of May 25, 2025? #46410
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            I did bake more honey wheat bread today.

                            in reply to: What are you Cooking the Week of May 25, 2025? #46409
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              We had tacos/taco salad tonight.

                              in reply to: Camera for back deck #46408
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                Our cat is an indoors-only cat since losing his left eye (someone shot him with a bb gun), but when he was allowed outdoors the foxes would bark at him until we let him back in.

                                in reply to: Camera for back deck #46404
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  We definitely have a full family of foxes this summer, here are what appears to be one adult and 3 kits.

                                  7C67AB6D27B6_1747979969_album_local

                                  Also got to watch some interesting nature footage the other day, we had one of the younger foxes and a racoon on the balcony, and they were having a bit of a standoff. Then one of the adult foxes came along and the racoon backed off to below where the camera is, pulling one of the trays of peanuts with him.

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                                Viewing 15 posts - 106 through 120 (of 7,652 total)