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I don't know how much coumarin tonka beans contain, but I would definitely check the recipe against recommend maximum daily coumarin intake per kg body weight. I'd really like to replicate a sweet woodruff sherbet I got at a restaurant in Berlin several years ago. I even planted it in my backyard last fall, but once I started to look into the amount of coumarin in sweet woodruff, it turns out I can only add a few grams of the stuff to a whole Pacojet beaker in order to keep the coumarin at a safe level... I will still have to try it in the spring, but if the flavour of the ingredients can't be maximized due to safety concerns, it might not be worth it 🤔

My mom did that same version, although she used whatever lettuce my dad was growing -- usually red leaf or Boston as I recall. Both my parents were from Montana; I wonder if it's a Montana thing.

Had our covid and flu shots, and I was feeling pretty achy, so supper was from the freezer: Smoked turkey and sweet tater. Veg from the freezer and the piccalilli I made: Another easy supper, from WW cookbook Spicy Shrimp and Cheesy Grits: After 2 days, I was back to my old self! Trying to lose a few lbs after Thanksgiving and before Xmas - more WW recipes: Vietnamese Pho: WW Bacon Cheese Burger with onions and sweet tater. This is hubby's plate with gravy: Brandy Beef Stroganoff: And finally, Oven Baked Crunch Fried Chicken!

Porter Creek is the only winery wine club I belong to - I generally get 6 bottles, twice a year. Their winemaker is the son of the founder of the winery, Alex Davis, whose dad George founded the winery in 1978. They still make a zin.

My recent experiments with cultured milk sherbets stabilized with Gellan F and Flaxfiber has given me the perfect opportunity to try cold infusion of thyme. As a first attempt, the thyme was vacuum infused in the cultured milk for 30 minutes. The thyme flavour could perhaps be a little bit stronger, but the emphasis on the fruity and citrusy flavour notes of the thyme, as well as the complexity of the thyme flavour, was absolutely amazing. Gellan gums flavour release could be a factor in this too however. I'll have to make a batch with 1 hour infusion time next time, to see how that affects the thyme flavour, but this was without doubt another win for the gellan sorbet/sherbet approach 😃

Right back at you, that is lovely bread. I'm really enjoying my not-so-flat loaves that come out of my little pots, and hope that I can get a little more loft with better scoring. It's never going to be as holey--or hold quite as much melted butter--as your loaf, but maybe a little more if I get this bit right.

I like Sunce's zins. There's something about the Dry Creek zins that I think really brings out the grape's spice, and Sunce does it well. My other favorite -- but I've dropped this membership -- is Seghesio. They do some fine zins as well. Porter Creek used to, but their head vintner left for greener vineyards years ago. I don't remember if that's why I dropped that membership, or it was simply a matter of expense. I'm missing one or two; if their names come to me I'll come back with that information. On the "disappointing" side was Ridge. Although they're in Healdsburg, their zins to me seemed flat - none of the spicy character I love -- and overpriced when I tried them. Times change, of course. It would be fun to go on another wine tour through the Sonoma area some day and see what I think now.

I think omelets get foisted as 'an ideal' simply because the basics are extremely simple. eggs pan heat no "special stuff" needed. three day reductions etc. etc. etc. . . . not needed . . . so, iffin' it is so simple, how come it's 'so hard?' just about every person on the planet has had a delicious omelet. so what happened? imho, the first issue is , , , cooking an omelet is much more about technique than other mentionables. one has to recognize when the pan temp is right - one has to correctly judge when the omelet is 'set' that can take a bit of learning/experience - for people who wish only to master minutes+seconds+power level for the microwave.... that can be an issue. there is another aspect to 'OMG that was a good omelet!' - which is 'seasoning' - a salt free omelet . . . not gonna' cut it. then the 'fillings' . . . more is not more better. too much volume, the omelet is not well behaved on 'rolling out' the fillings also have a huge effect on 'seasoning' aka taste . . . cheddar vs. Asiago . . . worlds apart, for example. I did an interesting approach recently - used a stick blender to 'whip up' the eggs+dab of water. that introduces a lot of air and hence physical volume to the omelet 'mix' - 'filled' a ten inch pan noticeably more than 'usually expected.' it worked - requires lower heat+more time, turned out more pure eggish blanched style. ... frankly I'm more a fan of the "country style" omelet where it is entirely permissible to have some slight browning.

Beautiful work! I find my loaves do OK, so long as I've developed structure well enough. But I don't work with low-gluten materials like you do (except for some lower-strength grains like einkorn, emmer, etc. - 60:40 einkorn:BF below, sorry if I've already posted it), so I can understand why it might not work well. Shoot. I hope you find a good solution!

@weinoo It was in Sacramento, lived here all but three years of my life.

@jedovaty quite seriously why not take the bag back, and suggest your bag was missing those W. peas ?

I made these for the birthday of a colleague who cannot eat gluten (taking lots of precautions including cleaning everything before use because everything in my kitchen is covered with flour dust from milling all the time, and using the mill I keep gluten-free for the milling) and loves banana bread. I dislike most banana bread because it is too heavy, too sweet, and bland. These cupcakes are light, buttery, not too sweet for me, and spicy enough to be interesting. And the Date-Coconut-Caramel sauce (not my invention, see below) was the brilliant finishing touch. Banana Cupcakes with Date-Coconut Caramel Sauce Mill together 200 grams sorghum 50 grams sweet brown rice 6 allspice About 3 pieces mace 6 Long peppers 1/2 teaspoon whole mahleb (Substitute about 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/2 teaspoon ground mace or freshly ground nutmeg, scant 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground long pepper or fresh ground black pepper plus a pinch of ground cardamom, and 1/2 teaspoon ground mahleb seeds or 1 teaspoon almond extract) Remove a portion of the fresh ground flour to food processor and add 185 grams Blue Stripes Banana cacao dried fruit 'gummies'** (packages are 125 grams but I had one and a half on hand) Blitz in food processor until the dried fruit bits are very fine pieces (sesame-seed like) so they can hydrate and soften by the end of baking. 50 grams toasted coconut milk powder* 45 grams flax seed, ground very fine 2/3 cup sugar 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 100 grams roasted unsalted cashews, grated/ground to a light sandy texture (I use my rotary nut grater for this) Sift/whisk in until all evenly blended 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened Beat into flour until thoroughly mixed 1 1/2 C thoroughly mashed ripe bananas (premixed with one of the eggs and left to sit for 30 minutes if not fully ripe) Beat until smooth 3 eggs (remember to the one you used to speed-ripen the bananas, if you did that) Beat in one by one and then beat in enough water to make a thick but spoonable batter. Spoon into muffin cups (they can be basically full, they rose to a nice dome but did not overtop the cups) and bake 375°F degrees about 20 minutes (internal temp about 205 degrees). While they cool, prepare date-coconut-caramel as a dip for the topping. I tweaked the original Date Caramel recipe from bakedbymelissa.com a little bit by using powdered coconut milk, some toasted* and some not. I used all 16 large and plump medjool dates in the package I bought, reserved the soaking liquid, zapped in the food processor with some of their soaking liquid, added a scoop of the toasted coconut milk powder, and another 2 scoops of the untoasted coconut milk powder, and then I think all of the rest of the soaking liquid plus some extra water to make a puree just thick enough to dip and coat the top of the cupcakes without dripping down the sides. Next time I will cut this down because this made twice as much as I needed for 2 dozen cupcakes. *I always keep coconut milk powder on hand and not coconut milk, and I toast some of it from time to time in the oven or in a skillet for extra flavor oomph. **I would probably substitute dried unsweetened Philippine mango if I did not happen to have this on hand; as I made it, the banana flavor was heightened by the dried banana and the dried cacao fruit is quite tart and not very chocolatey.

Nearest store to me has begun carrying a new furikake snack. It is strangely cool to the touch, and very sweet and salty. Ingredients list is super long but I did not spot any Maximum Special Glitter in it (disappointing!). It had a very familiar flavor, couldn't quite place it and then it hit me: breakfast cereal. So I tried it. It's like frosted captain crunch with extra salt. Interestingly enough, the ingredients list wasabi peas.. but I am certain there were none in my bag, I found myself disappointed at the opportunity to see what that would taste like in milk.

I actually tried one of those Lodge pots with the flat frying pan lids, but my loaves came out too flat. So I'm using some 1.5 qt pots I found on Amazon after lots of searching. They're just a bit over 5 inches in diameter, so the space for scoring is quite confined. (I posted a bit about the loaves with some photos in the Ancient & heritage grains topic here).

I'm pretty happy with my current daily bread, enough that I'm trying to figure out all the little hacks and tweaks to make it as perfect as possible. I bought 50# of Kernza after trying some fabulous prepackaged smaller quantities, and while the bulk version did not have the same marvelous floral notes as that one smaller batch did, it has a wonderful nutty flavor and these loaves end up just a wee bit sour, nutty and sweet. I add a fair bit of flax for more omega 3 and to help with low gluten from Kernza grain. The loaves are quite small, because I'm primarily baking for one and since I officially crossed over to diabetes, I can only eat so much bread, even when it is as fiber-filled as I can make it. Mill together to fairly fine wheat 185 grams Joaquin oro hard red wheat 100 grams Kernza Add to food processor along with 180 mL water And pulse several times to wet the flour but not necessarily a smooth dough. Separately, stir together and let thicken 18 grams flax, freshly ground 30 mL water After 30 minutes of autolyse, add these to the food processor 1 teaspoon salt A scant 1/8 teaspoon dimalt:ascorbic acid:all purpose flour mix [1.3 g ascorbic acid with 6.5 g dimalt mix plus 7.8 g all purpose flour to dilute it enough to measure it out] The flax gel prepared above 60 grams refreshed starter And briefly process, adding extra water as needed for a soft smooth dough (about 40-50 mL). Knead just a bit by hand to be sure any harder lumps are worked in. Place in a bowl, transfer to proof box set at 90 degrees and let rise a couple of hours. Turn out, knead/fold a couple of times and set to refrigerator overnight. Return to proof box, let rise, gently knead/shape with just 2-3 more turns, then proof open in flour/fabric lined 'banneton' [improvised from a deep fryer basket and bit of old sheet to fit my mini dutch oven (1.5L)] while preheating the pot & oven to 475° (at least 30 minutes, longer if the dough needs it). Flip out *gently* onto strip of floured parchment. Use this sling to place the loaf in the heated dutch oven. Cover and bake 475°F x 15 minutes. Remove lid & drop temp to 425°F for 10 minutes. Pop it out of the pot and place directly on oven rack. Drop temp to 350°F and bake another 15 minutes. Bake to 210°F internal temperature. [url=https://flic.kr/p/2rti61i][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54786490877_6af32b1b12_z.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2rti61i]Oven SPRING![/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/debunix/]debunix[/url], on Flickr I created a photo essay on my Flickr for an earlier version of this bread with a different flour mix (hard white wheat without the kernza), but the results are very similar with the kernza/Joaquin oro,nice rise and crust but slightly gummy crumb. These loaves are so nice now that I’m working to really try to perfect the recipe: the bread comes out with just a hint of sourness plus really nice nutty whole wheat flavor. I've already played with saltolyse vs autolyse, different time/temp steps for the baking, and using or skipping my home-made bread improver. And because my low-gluten loaves came out so flat if the sides weren't supported, I searched and searched and found some fabulous 1.5 quart dutch ovens that are just right for one of my loaves (my previous generic loaf starting with 500g wheat was too much for these little pots). *I’m using my own starter that I began with the Pineapple Juice Solution from Breadtopia & Peter Reinhart, but starting with, and consistently refreshed with a fresh milled emmer:barley 50:50 blend flour. It’s a remarkable starter, the best I’ve ever had. After refreshing to make a loaf, I cover it with a thick layer of the emmer:barley flour, and I just leave it in the refrigerator in a glass wire-bail jar, sealed. I open it up the night before I want to use it, stir the covering flour and some fresh filtered water into it, and keep it room temp overnight, or in a proof box if I want to use it a little sooner. I suspect the barley is a big part of why it is such a very happy riser.

Hot Smoked Salmon Chowder with Gnocchi.

This is a good motto; “Eat your mistakes”. Mistakenly set my oven the other day for 550F (sourdough pizza temp) for a sourdough loaf (450F). Eating the dark loaf after cutting off the burnt bottom crust.

No HIPAA laws on eG....

That can be tough, especially with low-gluten bread. One option I might suggest is the dutch oven I use - it's the Lodge combo cooker (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009JKG9M?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3). It's great, because one side is a skiller (i.e., low walls, allowing you to slash more safely), and the other is a deep-pot. I place the bread on the shallow side, slash, and put the deep pot on top as the "lid." Works great. Good luck.

My avatar just had a cup of AI coffee and said it was the best ever.

Sorry for the delay and thank you for the kind comment. I hear you on the availability of rye. I count myself lucky in that I have a couple of great options here, but even there, I'm blown away by what is available to my German and Austrian friends - not only are there so many options in a "standard" rye (different ash levels - e.g., Types 815, 1150, 1340, 1740, 1800, even Type 2500 - seen mostly in Austria, "black flour," used in moderate amounts for complexity - https://www.haindlmuehle.eu/produkt/haindl-muehle-roggenmehl-type-2500/), but "Schrot" (not cracked, but actually chopped rye, of different coarsenesses), "Extrafein" flours from places like Biomühle-Eiling (https://www.biomuehle-eiling.de/bio-mehl/roggenmehl/bio-roggenvollkornmehl-extrafein-1kg), and then the many rye varieties (Alpenroggen, Champagneroggen, and others). Finally, the fact that as end-point consumers they can go directly to the mills, who have their brick-and-mortar retail shops on site, blows me away. I have a standing invite to visit them and can't wait to go. My friend Dr. Björn Hollensteiner, aka "Der Brotdoc" (https://brotdoc.com/ ), once kindly sent me a variety of German flours to try, including the Extrafein flours from Biomühle-Eiling mentioned above. I have never experienced anything like these. It was like mixing velvet in the bowl. Even whole-grain/Vollkorn flours gave a lightness and lift rivalling pure bread flour breads I've baked. A truly incredible range of products.

It's back into the upper 80s here in Tucson (normal high 80). So I'm drinking whites, esp. Pinot Grigios more often than reds. This is a nice fruity one, but not at all sweet. Crisp.

Pardon if I am repeating a discussion mentioned above (this is quite a long topic)....but I am struggling with how to make my slashes when using a preheated dutch oven to bake my loaves. My low-gluten dough is quite soft and I am worried that if turn it out of its banneton and slash while it is on the parchment paper sling the extra time will permit it to flatten too much to fit into the pan. Once it is in the pan, the top to be slashed is well below the rim of the extremely hot dutch oven. Most lames seem made to draw horizontally across the surface of the loaf--and my fingers cringe at the possibility of burning my fingers if I use that style. What solutions do you use with dutch-oven baked loaves?

Very true. Follow your passion is what lazy guidance counselors say...leftover advice from 1960s hippies. I see plenty of college students paying 100k/yr in loans for what will be a 30K/job. Don't they teach math in high school?

I have exactly zero paid food biz experience, but I did get to help in the "kitchen" at a wedding I attended. I say "kitchen" because the food was cooked on a grill in the alley. Southeast Asian, maybe Burmese, and quite delicious. I started out walking around with trays of sate and whatnot, and ended up prepping some sort of wrapped rolls. The funniest part was the reaction of the guests. There were some very high rollers at this wedding - people everyone here has heard of - and they were very confused about a guest helping out with the food. 😆