[Mike Nolan]

I am making Jeffrey Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough Bread (version 1, with some rye flour) tonight. They'll be in the oven soon. The levain was very active, the final dough not as much, so I'm giving it a little extra time in final proof.

[Mike Nolan]

Tonight we had the steaks I was originally planning for yesterday, with baked potato and sauteed mushrooms.

[Mike Nolan]

I was originally planning steaks on the grill for tonight, but there's been a storm trying to move in since mid-afternoon, though all we've gotten so far is a series of sprinkles.

So we did tacos/nachos inside.

[Mike Nolan]

The Modernist Pizza book talks about several different crust styles, one of them is Brazilian thin-crust, but I can't find a Brazilian dough recipe anywhere and I'm not sure I'm ready to spend that much on a pizza cookbook set.

This sounds like an interesting recipe to try: https://www.atbbq.com/blogs/recipes/chicago-thin-crust-tavern-style-pizza

[Mike Nolan]

Here's what the two starters look like before their daily/morning feed a day or two ago.

This is the wheat starter:

This is the rye starter, it doesn't bubble as much, but that appears to be true of rye starters in general:

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[Mike Nolan]

Today's bagels came out strange, they flattened out. Taste pretty good but look ugly.

I was using Jeffrey Hamelman's technique, overnight retardation, then a quick boil and into an ice bath. They looked over-proofed when I took them out of the fridge.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making bagel dough this evening, the Hamelman recipe again. I'll shape them tonight, refrigerate them, then boil and bake them in the morning.

[Mike Nolan]

Joan Simpson wrote:

I had a Philly steak hot pocket was mostly cheese and bread.Not a fan of them.

Yeah, and usually mediocre bread and cheese, with too much salt.

[Mike Nolan]

I had a sandwich and Diane had an omelet tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I've only had coal-fired pizza once, and it was pretty good.

Coal-fired pizza ovens are hotter and drier than wood-fired pizza ovens, the crust is crisper and usually a bit charred on the bottom, though the center is chewy. They're said to be harder for pizziaolos to learn to use, possibly because there just aren't that many around.

[Mike Nolan]

Back in the 70's it was said that there were 5 different style of Chicago-Style pizza. (Some people said 7.)

Stuffed pizza has always been a sub-specialty, even the places that claim to have invented it never made them the star of the menu.

Chicago-style thin was always the odd duck, it is similar to tavern style but different in some subtle ways. I haven't found a thin/tavern style crust recipe I'm happy with yet.

Pasquale Bruno Jr's book, "The Great Chicago-Style Pizza Cookbook" is still IMHO the definitive text on them, but it gave short shrift to thin/tavern style.

[Mike Nolan]

I find that a second tray of cookies takes 30 seconds to 2 minutes less in the oven, depending on the recipe, so it isn't just you or your oven.

I've been using the convection setting in my big oven for the first 10-15 minutes of a pie, but not for other things--yet.

[Mike Nolan]

Diane is having a ham and cheese omelet, I'm having leftover ribs.

[Mike Nolan]

Rather than cook on my birthday, we did takeout, first onion rings as an appetizer, followed by ribs and topped off with pecan pie.

[Mike Nolan]

I've not tried zucchini in tomato sauce, but the zucchini tomato casserole recipe I found this summer is a definite keeper.

I've got two spaghetti squash that have set, both are about grapefruit sized.

We had tomato soup and fried cheese sandwiches for supper, something mild.

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