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Breakfast, after the briskest 2.5 mile walk I could manage. This yogurt is better with the roasted and chopped nuts, but it's still too loose to suit me. I'll be glad when I've finished it so I can get back to some fat content. I can do brisk walks on the dirt road that's been heavily graded since I was last here. It's a little harder to do when I'm walking along the washes or over the open areas: first, the ground is looser and more uneven, and second, the desert has plenty of color if one stops to look. Sometimes, it takes careful looking (my shoe included for size comparison)... ...and at other times, one just needs to know where to look.

I kept it simple, cooked at home and enjoyed a cozy dinner together.

Oster oven is a real game-changer for baking tall loaves sometimes the simplest, roomiest option is the best!

Indeed , its a lot more prominent than it used to be . I completed the ' Prime Rib ' episode . Found nothing new , except a new Cow demonstrating where cuts come from .

I find him, and his schtick, intolerable.

That is where I buy all the Japanese rices I like. Other rices come from other sources; some of those sources, such as Anson Mills or Marsh Hen Mill, instruct you to keep their rice in the freezer, especially once it has been opened. I don't generally have room for that, so other methods come into play. Back to the Japanese rice, which I buy in 5 lb. bags. I've never seen any degradation of quality, even after close to a year, if any lasts that long. From a 5 lb. bag, I "decant" whatever fits into a quart Mason jar, and it's kept in the pantry. Sometimes, the rest gets divided up and vacuum packed; sometimes the rest lives in the rice bag it came in, to no detriment. No dedicated rice containers; I'm much more careful with my coffee beans.

FYI:

It's been blowing like crazy the past couple of days, and through the night. Fortunately for me the wind has veered enough that the trees lining the nearby wash act as a windbreak, as they normally do; when I first arrived the wind was coming right up the tree line and rocking the trailer. Right now it's calm. Maybe I'll be able to have a campfire tonight. This trailer came with a solar panel to keep the batteries charged, and an inverter prep so that I could get an inverter installed if I wished. Last summer I paid to get that inverter, in the hopes that some of my electrical outlets would work without having to start the portable generator(s) in the back of the pickup. I also had extra batteries installed for storage purposes. Well. It turns out that the inverter runs almost everything -- even the microwave! -- and I'm delighted. However, even with the extra batteries I'm having to relearn how to deal with the long cool nights. Yesterday morning I was rousted at 05:00 by flashing lights that told me the furnace couldn't start due to low power. Yesterday afternoon I set up a generator and ran it to charge the batteries after the sun had gone down, and turned the furnace way down before I went to bed. I made it to 06:00 before the flashing lights started! I'm not sure yet what I'll cook for the day's meals. It'll be fun to plan. Yesterday, late afternoon, I had a linner of more of that mac 'n' cheese 'n' ham, supplemented with more cheese, chopped roasted vegetables, and chopped green chile. Blah. It was still bland. Needed salt! That helped, but I do think this is my most disappointing batch ever of the stuff. As I noted before, it's been quite a while since I made it. Maybe I've lost my touch. Maybe I've lost my appetite for the dish. I was treated to a beautiful sunset last night, and a beautiful sunrise this morning.

Chicken curry with spinach ( Chicken Saag ) Interestingly !! (not) my dear husband added the cooked rice into the dish which made for an unusual texture but was surprisingly quite good. With microwaved poppadoms and yoghurt

That's how premium red rice, black rice etc is packed in supermarkets here. Up to 500 gram bags.

I have a lot of various prices such as riceberry, brown basmatic, rice blends such as brown and wild rice. I wonder if vacuuming sealing would work, with perhaps one of those dessicated packages in them? I don't have freezer or refrigerator space for storage. I do have a chamber vacuum sealer that I can use.

I use these. Dustproof, insect proof, moisture proof. Various sizes.

I don't recommend freezing rice for storage. Freezing rice is used as a technique for speeding up making congee or rice gruel. The freezing and thawing rice "cracks", altering texture and cooking times. You won't have what you started with.

I too am interested in knowing this.

Five Spice Noodles with Tofu and Broccoli - baked tofu is dusted with five-spice powder and pan-seared until browned. In the same pan you sauté broccoli, garlic and ginger and add a sauce made from soy sauce, sriracha, mirin, lemon juice and corn starch. Once the broccoli is tender you add lo mein noodles, scallions and the seared tofu

I fully believe that the person driven by deadlines and the person who plans early find one another and marry and drive one another batshit crazy forever. Ftr, my partner is deadline driven, I am not.

I thought I'd asked about but when I searched, nothing came up.

Recently our local Costco stopped carrying the short grain rice (Calrose) that we have been buying for years. I ventured out to our local international foods store and found that most of the short grain rice there was close to it's expiration date. This was the last push I needed to check out the Rice Factory in New York (via their website). We read through the options, realized we had no idea what we wanted, and ordered 6 different 2lb bags of rice. They arrived today! And then I saw that the Rice Factory recommends consuming the 100% milled rice we ordered within a month. That's not going to happen! Our 12 lbs of rice will more likely last 9 or 12 months. So how do we best store good rice longer than we should? Do we freeze it? Is it better left sealed and unfrozen? I appreciate your wisdom!

A multi grain sandwich bread from the “Turkuaz Kitchen”, a charming book. The bread also has flax and chia seeds included in the dough but I had neither so I just put a generous quantity of sesame seeds on the top along with oatmeal. Besides great toast, this bread is slated to be used with smoked salmon.

There have been a few recent ads for titanium pans which claim that they are truly nonstick. Is that a valid claim? Anyone use titanium pans?

I get the celebratory thing ... I have thought about baking a bundt, but not beng into baking that much, it's alwys been on the back burner. The pics have given me some inspiration ...that dripping frosting looks so inviting, and while I don't find much taste advantage to a marble cake, they've always made me smile and feel good. Time might be coming soon to do a little baking.

It's different in that, at least to me, it seems more celabratory than a loaf. Other than that, you're right.

Thanks! Here’s a link to the recipe online. Instead of making the sweet tomato chutney, I mixed some tomato chutney I had on hand with a bit of mayo and used that to dress the burger. I’ll try her recipe at some point.