MelissaH

As we all know, the most important people to feed and otherwise make happy are the custodians and secretaries, as they're the ones who make things happen for you.

Anna, I think that's a terrific idea. At the very least, you could express your dismay about ALL THE PLASTIC. And the waste from the sealed cups of water, which seem to be completely unnecessary. I would think they'd be concerned about waste, and you could point out that bringing in packaged but inedible food is creating lots, of both the solid and financial variety. Bonus points if you could arrange for their meal to be served as the food is offered to patients.

If yogurt works, one thing you might consider is getting something packaged in tubes, and throwing them in the freezer. That way you get the yogurt but also the cold. The two brands of yogurt in tubes that we like best are Stonyfield Farms and Siggi's.

I also read his book. I'm curious what he might want to add or change, during this #MeToo era. That said, he obviously knows how to run restaurants, although I'd like to know how he's doing sans Batali.

The tablet I ate in Scotland earlier this summer was much harder than fudge.

Anna, please get out of there before they starve you to death! Even ignoring all the plastic packaging (and the packaged water, which is absolutely egregious), this looks to qualify as cruel and unusual treatment. They really expect people to get better when they have to (not) eat that stuff???

Is the tablet @SchiehallionHandmade mentioned perhaps the Scottish tablet candy, which is basically milk and sugar and sugar and sugar?

Which way did you prefer? Or, is the baked at least acceptable?

I haven't tried Reinhart's recipe for Detroit pizza yet, but the one on Serious Eats was relatively easy and (we thought) quite tasty. A friend from Ohio imported the brick cheese for us!

Wow, I guess bad things happen when you get too far away from Rochester? I've NEVER smelled any hint of ammonia in a central or western NY Wegmans fish counter. And if I did, I'd be sending an email to the company asking what's up.

That sounds like something @Anna N and @Kerry Beal should consider sealing away at the end of their next Manitoulin trip, if it's specifically supposed to age well!

Another vote for the Woks of Life chili oil. We made a jar to use in their recipe for spicy lamb noodles like the ones from Xian Famous Foods, but find ourselves using it in so many other things now that we have it on hand. That was going to be my suggestion. Don't hesitate to let them know that you're writing from far away!

Mind. Blown.

In a quick look at that menu, I thought the first letter was a big swoopy capital cursive L, which would make the restaurant Liver's, and I wondered what all the seafood was doing there.

Do they always bring you out especially for Haweater Weekend?

Home irradiation unit? 😁

@Chocolot pointed out to me a couple of workshops ago that mold on freeze-dried strawberries could be an issue.

Whole wheat Texas toast is just as wrong as raisins, or bananas.

My Kindle Paperwhite and the iPad app both allow me to put my Kindle books into collections. You can sort each book into multiple collections. That helps somewhat, and you can do batch sorting from the Amazon website (under Account and Lists, choose My Digital Items, or something like that). Spend a little time thinking about how you want to organize your collections before you start.

Depending on your fruit and its source, I'd also be concerned about the various types of bugs that can live in or on fruit: bacteria, mold and other fungi, and the like. I know they can't grow if they don't have enough water available, but sometimes you can't see how much is already there before you start. Anyhoo, as a chemist, my first thought would be to throw your fruit puree on a rotavap to suck off some of the water. No clue whether that would solve the bulk of your issue or not.

This looks really good. Got a guess on how you'd substitute liquid milk for the dry milk powder and some or all of the water?

Yup. It makes a huge difference in cookies, of course, since baking soda needs a source of acid to react with. Brown sugar is one common source of acid in cookie recipes. I don't know how much acidity is enough to mess with gelling, but it's probably easier to try it than to measure it.

And some of us prefer to venture into the city during the week!

The one thing I'd wonder about is whether the acidity of brown sugar would cause any issues.

@rancho_gordo suggests that if you cook your beans in a pressure cooker, after you release the pressure, let the beans continue to cook with the pot open for 20 minutes. We do this with great success.