cakewalk

Brings the phrase "food porn" to a whole new level!!

Some of this and some of that, as you seem to have planned. My guess is that the group will appreciate both the new and the old. Until you get to know them better, I'd suggest (and it looks like you already realize) being aware of what not to serve, namely pork products and/or alcohol. (You have a still! ) It sounds like this is an ice-breaker, a beginning, and that there will be more to come as the people settle into the community. I'm sure the food will be very much appreciated, but the atmosphere more so. If possible (I don't know the size of your kitchen), let them help with some preparations if they offer to, or at least serving. Out of necessity, they're on the "taking" end of a lot of things. They might appreciate being able to give, even in small ways. (I also think some fresh spearmint leaves will go a long way in that sweet tea.)

True dat. Didn't think of it. Still pretty hot, but I guess not hot enough.

I often wonder about this. I usually drizzle toasted sesame oil over vegetables or whatever I'm cooking toward the end, or when the cooking is finished. It's often not stir-fry or anything on high heat, I just like toasted sesame oil, I'll put it on anything. I don't actually cook with it, for the same reasons you state in your post. However, I sometimes bake with it, and it offers a tremendous amount of flavor in baked goods even though it's baking at a temperature of at least 350F. So it seems that it's not just the heat, but the type of heat that effects its flavor. The dry heat of the oven doesn't seem to diminish it.

Interesting. I wonder if there's a noticeable taste difference in the final dish. The addition of sesame oil (particularly if it's toasted) can make a huge difference in flavor.

I'd also love the recipe for those tehina cookies. I've tried a few recipes that work okay, but they weren't so good that I wanted to make them again. What do you mean when you say part of your tahini paste is wholemeal?

A bowl of Special K with sliced banana and skim milk. Really hits the spot. And when I'm done, I am not going to wash out the bowl. I'm going to refill it.

While I don't blame Millennials (or anyone else) for not eating cold cereal, I always loved it. And I still do, although I buy it only once in a while. Usually Special K, Rice Krispies, or Corn Flakes. When I buy a box I go through it way, way faster than I should. As someone else mentioned upthread, it's usually dinner, not breakfast. Pure indulgence.

A very nice rebuttal: http://www.thekitchn.com/this-is-why-millennials-dont-eat-cereal-228985

Plate and glass for me, please. I'm more interested in what's on it and in it. Particularly annoying, for me, are those Mason jars, although it seems that the height of that craze has passed. And I do not want to listen to the sound of my knife and fork on that slate, please.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shredded_wheat#/media/File:Shredded_wheat_factory_newspaper_ad.png http://www.niagarafallstourism.com/blog/niagara-falls-and-shredded-wheat/ A friend of mine alwasy insisted that a piece of shredded wheat looked like the falls. The lines, or texture, of a piece of shredded wheat looked like the cascading water of the falls. With a bit of imagination I could see that, but I never woulda thunk it.

Sourdough loaf, which looks nice in the first photo, but then when I turn it over, you can see that it split on one side. I think it's underproofed. Flavor is good, but I was a bit too rushed to get it into the oven. I find that most of my mess-ups with sourdough are due to impatience at one stage or another. Because it takes so ***** long! (But I'll eat it with no complaints.)

Makes me think of those Kellogg's boxes, the mini ones that had perforated lines that could be opened (after considerable hassle) and were lined with paper, and you could pour milk right into it and use it as a bowl. (Was Kellogg's way ahead of its time?) But the main thing is, we didn't have a lot of other options. Things may not have been so rushed back then, but my mother still didn't have the time to make toast and eggs or whatever for our breakfast, so cold cereal was a Godsend. The health bars, etc. that are available today are so much faster and more nutritious, so why not? Also there are so many more options to buy something on the way to school or work. There's also such a different outlook on spending money. I grew up in the sixties, and most of us just didn't have the extra money that seems to be afloat now. Or our mindset towards it was just different. Spending that extra money on breakfast when you didn't have to, well, it just wasn't done back then. I'm not so sure if it was "better" or "worse," but the approach to how we spent our money was so different. So spending that extra ten minutes on breakfast was preferable to spending an extra three or four bucks on it.

That was always one of my favorite Good Eats episodes. (But I'm partial to "the thin" myself.) Hmmm ...

I may be wrong, but I don't think "the big chefs" are going to be so quick to cook a recipe somebody saw on Pinterest (or anywhere else, for that matter). I am impressed by your earnest attempt to start something new and different. But I don't see how this can work out. I think it might be successful initially, because it appears to be something new and different and exciting, and everyone will want to say he did it. I just don't see any lasting power in it. A beautiful photo of lasagna, for example, might make me crave lasagna. Most people can then go to any Italian restaurant and have lasagna for dinner (or order out). I don't see any reason to assume that the craving will be for that specific lasagna recipe only. I think that's an issue entirely separate from the "how long does a craving last" thing. (For the most part, I think cravings are extremely fickle, fleeting things, easily supplanted by other suggestions. I could go to a restaurant because of that lasagna craving, open the menu, and decide that the spaghetti and meatballs is what I really want now.) But then I'm not necessarily the right audience for this. I'm way past being a millennial, and if I see a photo of something that looks great, I usually want the recipe so I can make it myself. And going somewhat off-topic here, one of the things that always amuses me in The Big Bang Theory (besides the fact that it's a great show) is their dinner routine. It's dinner time and the big question is, where will they order from tonight? It's what they do, they don't wonder what they might cook. You've got the right audience, but they want that dinner now, not tomorrow.

An interesting read: http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-bleached-and-unbleached-flour-223858 In the comments, someone links to a KAF discussion about bleached/unbleached. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2014/05/27/the-a-b-cs-of-cake-flour/

The whole bleached/unbleached thing confuses me. RLB had an explanation of it, I think it was in The Cake Bible, I'll try to find it later. In Nick Malgieri's books, in some cake recipes he specifically asks for bleached flour, other times unbleached. Other authors do the same, so clearly the different flours do aim for different textures. The late, lamented King Arthur Flour cake flour (Queen Guinevere), which they no longer make, was bleached. They decided to no longer use any bleached flours. A shame, because that was such a beautiful flour, made the lightest cakes. But as mentioned above, I don't think it would make much of a difference in a yeasted product. But then I wonder why RLB specifically asked for unbleached. Well, let us know how it comes out. I have no doubt that it will be great.

Ooooh. Very nice. There was once a recipe on egullet (I still have it somewhere) for a cake that called for greasing the sides of the pan with tehina instead of butter. I haven't made it (or thought of it, actually) in ages, but I remember how nice it was.

That baklava looks great. How did you use the tehina? And how much of it? (I'm assuming it was mixed in with the nuts, etc.) Is the flavor noticeable? Tehina is one of my all-time favorite foods, and I've always loved the combination of tehina and honey. Never would have thought of adding it to baklava, but now that you mention it ...

A great book, not only for the recipes but for the history she records of the town she grew up in.

I'd go with mujadara. (Lentils, rice, onions.) There are hundreds of recipes. The best ones (IMO) have tons of onions. It's not a Jewish dish at all, but there are versions of it in just about every Arab cuisine and it's very common in Israel as well. Lentils, as Alex mentioned above, are very "Old Testament." It was presumably a bowl of lentils for which Esau sold his birthright in Genesis.

I have to try that honey oat Pullman recipe. It does sound like a lot of dough, it looks like your pan is the regular sized Pullman. I have the larger one (13x4x4) and my regular recipe uses about the same amount of flour by volume. I have read comments on other boards where people say the lids of their Pullman pans have popped off in the oven because they had too much dough, although I don't really see how that could happen, the lids seem to latch on pretty securely. Then again, never underestimate the power of rising dough!

Hell with the churros. What I'm looking at is the sunshine, and sitting at a table on the patio. It was -1 F this morning! (But the churros look nice, too.)

Alice Medrich's sesame seed cake (x 2). One for the freezer, the other for friends tomorrow. Possibly my all-time favorite cake.

Both cakes look great, Norm. Is this year's cake less rich than the previous one? They both look pretty high on the richness scale! (BTW - I have never understood what people mean when they say something is "too rich.")