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Jumped on sourdough bread during Covid. I've baked bread for years but had never done soudough. I like the taste of sourdough but honestly the babysitting got to me and now I normally just go with a classic french loaf, or a no knead boule made in a dutch oven or foccaicia. Not that I would ever turn down a loaf of sourdough - especially if it were enjoyed in San Fransisco. As a kid, when I was 9, we sailed from Vancouver to Southampton and stopped in San Fransisco. My mom was insistent that we found sourdough bread, so that and a few other things were are picnic before getting back on the ship.

I thought I had been making sourdough bread for around forty years. I thought. Maybe I was fooling myself. The recipe was called King Arthur Flour Rustic Sourdough bread. It says it is sourdough bread and it is from King Arthur Flour for goodness sake. But here is the the problem. The ingredients are sourdough starter, flour, water, salt, and sugar and yeast. Yes store bought yeast. I read somewhere years ago that you can make sourdough starter using store bought yeast because it is a hybrid and cannot reproduce itself in its hybrid form but will revert back to its original wild yeast form. I had heard that when commercial bakeries made sourdough, they used the starter for flavor and regular yeast for dependability. Now I don't know if that is still true today as it might have been a while ago before fast rising yeast was developed. I found conflicting opinions on whether or not that is cheating. If I have sinned, forgive me. I want start doing more stuff with my sourdough starter besides the same loaf I have made since forever. It was easy, dependable and everyone, I mean everyone likes it. Now that sourdough has become popular, there is more information about it out there and also the recipes are easier to find. So I started fermenting flour and water to get 100% wild yeast. I made three starters. One with whole wheat flour, one with AP flour and one with rye flour. They all started and I grew them all for a while. I ended up keeping the rye starter but have been feeding it with AP flour since then, so now it is just white flour starter. In the pictures, the round loaf and the French bread loaf are the same sourdough recipes I have always used but without any yeast other that what was grown in the new starter. The recipe is one cup starter, 1 1/2 C. water, 2 teaspoons saltr, 1 Tablespoon sugar and about 5 cups of bread flour. I say about because, since everything else was measured by volume, 5 cups isn't always exactly enough. This time the dough was a little wetter and stickier than normal which means it had higher hydration and so the air bubbles are a little bigger than before. The round loaf was baked in a preheated cast iron Dutch oven. The recipes for the sourdough apple fritter bread and the sour dough pancakes with the notes and that came with them are at my blog. I am not sure I am allowed to post them here. I think the fritter bread would be improved with the addition of chopped pecans. The blog address is at the bottom of the page. I welcome your thought and comments.

It could be a nostalgia thing. Where I went to college, the most popular pizza place used to make pizzas with crazy toppings, and we all thought they were the greatest thing ever. My favorite had tortellini on it! I am sure if I ate it now I would get sick haha Last night, another recipe from Milk Street's The World in a Skillet: sweet and savory skillet steamed eggplant. Everyone really liked this one too, the eggplant was very creamy and flavorful.

Thank you. So far, I have found one combo that meets our needs and that is the Dacor. The microwave has a capacity of 1.9 cubic feet, slightly smaller than the 2.1 cubic feet we currently have, and the oven is slightly larger at 4.8 cubic feet compared to our current 4.1 cubic feet. We are going to look at it tomorrow. But, I personally don't care if we end up with say, a Miele oven and a Panasonic microwave, so we will look at what other possible combinations. I had a cursory look at the article you linked to, I'll give it a better read before we go. I'll also look at a few other review sites.

I forget if you covered this early, but wouldn't inulin be closer flax fiber than either of those gums?

I had the distinct pleasure of attending a discussion about a new cocktail book by David Wondrich (aka @Splificator). Called The Comic Book History of the Cocktail (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), it's the history of the cocktail, illustrated in comic book form (I think the title gives that away) by the wonderful Dean Kotz. To make it even more interesting, the discussion was moderated by @Michael Ruhlman. Also introduced me to the fine book store/cafe/a bunch of other stuff, called P&T Knitwear, right here on Orchard Street. I got me some merch...

I ordered this from my milkman. I honestly do not like this pizza but it was convenient so I got it and had a couple of small pieces of it last night. Shakespeare's is in Columbia, MO, home of MU. All my MU alumni friends/family love this pizza and I can only attribute it to good times getting drunk there because I find little to like about it--the meats on it are tasty, but the rest not. My sis was crying when I told her I got it. They are coming to help me this weekend--I'll save the leftovers for her. I only got it because I didn't want to go pick up a pizza somewhere and the only other pizza the milkman has is a cracker crust type thing that is even worse than this.

I saw something earlier online about freeze-dried fruit from TJ and other sources, too, but not sure now where I saw it. Why are we having so darned many recalls!!

As China starts its 8 day public holiday, the locals are engaging in their favourite holiday activity – shopping. So the stores are going all out to promote their mooncakes before next Monday, the Mid-autumn festival. Among the offerings are a follow up to my last post. Inevitable, I suppose. Following the Hong Kong style “custard lava mooncakes”, it was only a matter of time until someone came up with a chocolate lava mooncake. 橙香巧克力冰皮月饼 (chéng xiāng qiǎo kè lì bīng pí yuè bǐng), orange scented chocolate iced mooncake.

It is brewed in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China. Only six breweries in the world? More like 18.

Nice. Does it show where it was brewed? (Guinness is available in 120 countries but there are only 6 Guinness breweries in the world!) Cheers mate

You may find this article from Emily at Steam and Bake useful as an overview of steam oven brands: The Best Steam Oven Brands in 2025 If you are on Facebook, Emily's group ( https://m.facebook.com/groups/combisteamcooking/?ref=share ) might be a good place to ask questions about models you are considering. The group seems fairly quiet but it’s worth a shot. If you plan to replace your wall oven with a combi steam wall oven, keep in mind that the cavity size of steam ovens tend to be a good bit smaller than conventional ovens, particularly for the non-plumbed models as they need to accommodate a water tank.

No recent experience to share, but I will be monitoring responses for ideas. My 20-year old Miele convection oven is about to die, and I am looking for a replacement. I am thinking another Miele convection oven, plus their combi-steam oven (smaller model) to replace / upgrade my warming drawer (I don’t use or need a microwave). Sinilar to @ElsieD, the steam oven will not be plumbed.

Of course, I meant mushroom wontons. Too late to edit.

@rotuts referred to this in the Trader Joe's topic, but the pasta in question isn't restricted to TJ's Cajun Chicken Alfredo. Read the recall, based on the past, here: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls-alerts/fsis-issues-public-health-alert-ready-eat-meals-containing-pasta-may-be-contaminated

I've missed posting a bunch more pistachio-centric recalls over the past week or so (been busy/traveling, also forgot). All Ontario-centric, IIRC. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/handfuel-brand-raspberry-pistachio-clusters-recalled-due-salmonella https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/indian-punjabi-bazaar-brand-green-pistachios-recalled-due-salmonella https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/pistachio-raw-kernels-recalled-due-salmonella https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/various-pistachios-and-pistachio-containing-products-recalled-due-salmonella-0 https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/various-pistachio-containing-products-recalled-due-salmonella-4

Porterhouse with donabe short grain rice.

My microwave died the other day and I need to buy a new one. My husband suggested we also replace our wall oven with a new one at the same time as it too is over 20 years old and apt to fail sooner rather than later. Both are/were GE Profile. I said I'd be in for replacing the wall oven but only if it could be a steam oven. He said okay so we've been looking around. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with either a combo or a wall unit they would recommend? The steam oven would not be plumbed to a water source/drain, it would have a refillable tank inside the oven. Any and all suggestions appreciated.

Tuna salad on a toasted brioche bun My last few breakfasts have been deficient in vegetables so I added a few.

Chicken thighs marinated in zaatar, yogurt, and garlic and grilled, with a big salad, rice pilaf, and flatbread

香菇馄饨 (xiāng gū hún tun), fresh shiitake mushrooms in a chicken broth.

Poached Chicken with Puy Lentils from an old Jamie Oliver Magazine - mix of diced poached chicken breast (poached in chicken broth), puy lentils, green beans, grilled artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, parsley, capers, mustard, olive oil and lemon juice

The plan is Montreal if all goes well.

Everyday Korean has several Dutch baby options so I tried the kimchi and cheddar cheese version today. It still didn’t climb up out of the pan as much as the first time I made it but it was tasty.