[Mike Nolan]

When our younger son moved to California, it totally changed what we were eating, both in terms of what we ate and how much we fixed at a time. Some things we make more often, some things we do less often. We definitely do take-out a lot more often these days, too.

I'm afraid if I was alone I might eat macaroni and cheese every other day. Even something like tacos is a lot of work just for two people getting all the toppings ready, browning the meat, then putting everything away again. And a Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake would last a long time. (Fortunately, it freezes well.)

Smaller portions of foods are a lot more expensive per serving, too.

[Mike Nolan]

There may be alternatives to vegan butter, which I've always found disappointing. (We have some vegetarian/vegan friends, they're always looking for a better vegan butter.)

I made bagels today, using Hamelman's recipe with a slight modification of his procedure, I left out the bulk rise, shaped them right after kneading and refrigerated them overnight. He also has you put the bagels in an ice water bath after boiling them, that led to an increased baking time. But they came out pretty good, the last batch was badly overproofed and they were wrinkled. These were a little flatter than I was expecting, but the interiors were good. They've got a good shine to them and a satisfying snap in the crust.

Diane said she liked this recipe better than the one I've been using (Reinhart), other than procedure the major difference is Hamelman's uses diastatic malt powder instead of malt syrup.

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[Mike Nolan]

We had some melon with tomato and salami sandwiches, the veg stands are open and they have better melons and tomatoes than the grocery stores do.

[Mike Nolan]

We got 1.25 inches of rain overnight, and there's more in the forecast for the next few days.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not big on scones, because they're usually a bit dry, but these are made with almond milk and look good:

https://www.orchidsandsweettea.com/dairy-free-blueberry-almond-scones/

[Mike Nolan]

I've got several zucchini that'll be big enough to pick soon, currently they're about 5 inches long and an inch in diameter. I'm looking at zucchini bread recipes.

I need to keep a log of how many zucchini I pick and how big they are as part of the urban soil improvement study. (I'm not planning to let any grow too big, though.)

There are a few tomatoes on the 4th of July plants, but they're probably 2-3 weeks away from being ripe. But tomato season is coming, other varieties should start producing by the end of July.

[Mike Nolan]

We had melon and salami. I got the deli at WalMart to slice some genoa salami really thin, it's almost like having prosciutto and melon.

[Mike Nolan]

I suspect it is other factors, such as vegetable oil, packaging and shipping. I've seen reports that some companies are discontinuing certain sizes of products because they can't get the right size jars.

Demands for higher wages are becoming more widespread. UPS is likely to go on strike in a month and they want a HUGE increase for their 300,000+ union drivers. And if UPS drivers get a big jump, that will spread to other trucking operations.

The government tells us inflation is getting to be under control - in a pig's eye it is!

[Mike Nolan]

Wednesday night we had tacos.

[Mike Nolan]

I just bought another 50 pound bag of semolina, so I should be good for about 6 months. (We go through a lot of semolina bread in the summer, and a fair amount of homemade pasta in cooler weather.)

Each batch of semolina bread that I make takes 20 ounces of semolina (to 12 ounces of AP/bread flour.)

I also bought a 5 gallon food-safe bucket with a twist on lid to store most of it.

[Mike Nolan]

Tonight we had salami and cantaloupe, plus big salads.

[Mike Nolan]

Not sure what we're having for supper, but it'll probably be on freshly baked bread. 🙂

Update: BLTs

[Mike Nolan]

I am making both peanut butter cookies and semolina bread today.

[Mike Nolan]

I see several stories, one on NYT, one on Reuters, others.

Floods are drowning the wheat, high temperatures are killing off farm animals there.

[Mike Nolan]

It looks like there are 2 cookie recipes that don't use any butter or other fat, 2 cakes but no yeasted cakes, 3 tortes but no strudels, 7 savory cakes, 2 breads, and a dozen Christmas recipes, so the book probably wouldn't be worth it to you these days.

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