We should have a "What are you cooking?" thread. Now we do.

[davent]

Nicoise Salad, backyard lettuce, beans, tomatoes and basil, local baby potatoes, Italian tuna and anchovies, eggs from the local market , for now our bylaws and city planning are entrenched in the '50's so no legal urban chickens and eggs just yet, pressure is mounting.

[midwayfair]

I JUST ate and that's making' me hungry?

[chromesphere]

I gotta stop checking this thread around dinner time...

[aballen]

Breakfast, 6 slices took 8 eggs.  Soon to be smothered in butter and maple syrup.

[davent]

Years supply of garlic, 80 bulbs dried and ready for eating/storage/planting for next year.

Yesterday and todays haul with 1590B which use to sprout up the highway from here.

White bowl is Amish paste tomatoes which we process for whole tomatoes and sauce, they're sweet & meaty and can get quite large, Terri did nine jars of bottled summertime on Sunday.

Red bowl has Black Zebras, Salva, Indigo Rose, Juane Flammé, all a nice size for individual salads, Brandywine- BLT's.

Silver bowl has Isis Candy and Cheeseman's, tiny, great for popping in the mouth while in the garden also dry a lot of these for winter use. The Cheeseman's grow much like grapes, last year before frost, picked all the green ones and we were still eating them into the new year.

Atop 1590B; Brandywine,  below, Cheeseman and Isis Candy. After the Hammond, Black Zebra, Juane Flammé, Salva (earliest variety of the bunch), Indigo Rose and Amish paste which is almost as big as the Brandywine.

... have to go eat.
dave

[derevaun]

Man, those are nice. Not much better than the viney taste of a fresh tomato!

[midwayfair]

That's a nice haul, Dave!

I'm trying to figure out if 80 bulbs would last me a year. Not so sure ...

[derevaun]

Man, those are nice. Not much better than the viney taste of a fresh tomato!

I mistyped this--I meant to say,"not much is better than..."--I hope the drunkenly bodged version didn't convey the wrong meaning. Note to self: don't drink and MB!

[midwayfair]

Fresh bagels.

[davent]

Man, those are nice. Not much better than the viney taste of a fresh tomato!

I mistyped this--I meant to say,"not much is better than..."--I hope the drunkenly bodged version didn't convey the wrong meaning. Note to self: don't drink and MB!

My brain had read it as you meant it to be. Like trying to proofread your own writing, the brain seems to autocorrect and fill in the missed bits so all looks well.

Jon unable to see your, i'm sure, tantalizing bagels.

[das234]

Fresh bagels.

Nice pair of bagels.  Did you make those?  Do you do pretzels too?

[midwayfair]

Nice pair of bagels.  Did you make those?  Do you do pretzels too?

Yup, they're mine and I do make prezels (identical technique except prezels are allowed to rise before boiling). I make all of our bread. I don't think I've bought more than maybe three or four loaves of bread in the last decade or so.

[das234]

I've done pretzels before but not bagels.  Do you use lye solution to make your pretzels nice and brown?

[davent]

I've done pretzels before but not bagels.  Do you use lye solution to make your pretzels nice and brown?

Yeah i was surprised by that the other day while looking for sources of sodium hyrdoxide for use as photoresist board developer. Found food grade sodium hyrdroxide, why do we need food grade NaOH... turns out it was pretzels. Do your pretzels then develop your boards.

Jon any good resource/books/magazines that you are fond of. Here, like pedal building, bread baking is a cold weather activity although bread baking on the bbq works well and bbq'd pizza is a mainstay. Have had good success with recipes from Laurel's Kitchen bread book and last winter was exploring Peter Reinhart's; Whole Grain Breads. Any suggestions?

Curious as to how much bread are you're having to come up with each week?

Thanks
dave

PS. The bagels look great, i've got some perfectly ripe tomatoes on the vine and some smoky bacon in the fridge... just need something toasty to slip them between.

[midwayfair]

I've done pretzels before but not bagels.  Do you use lye solution to make your pretzels nice and brown?

Just add some baking soda to the bath. Use an egg wash if you want more browning, but it's entirely cosmetic in either case.

Dave: usually one large loaf is enough for the week. I don't have any specific resources I use. Bread is generally very similar across cultures except for certain ingredients or rising times etc. 90% of what I make is simple French loaves.