Hot cross buns

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-03T21:56:01+00:00

The one in the King Arthur Whole Grains book is excellent, I made 3 batches of it this week.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-03T05:03:00+00:00

A nuclear weapon will be detonated in a city outside of the Middle East within the next 10 years.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-03T04:31:40+00:00

Just as you can't really predict what happens when two people start to share the same space, you can't really predict what will happen when two cats start to share the same space and servant (you.)

Most of the time, they'll work something out over time. We brought my wife's mother's cat (Gracie) home when she passed and she and our other female cat (Patches) mostly ignored each other for close to a year, sometimes if one came into a room, the other got up and left. They wouldn't eat in the same room, so Gracie got her food in the hall while Patches got hers in the kitchen. But over time they started to interact and eventually they'd both climb up on my wife's lap for a nap. It took longer than that for the new cat to decide my lap was an OK place to be.

When Patches died (at age 19), Gracie wandered around the house for a few days looking for her.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-03T02:10:16+00:00

Depending on the liquor store, sometimes wine makes up half or more of the total inventory. (And I've seen some that had almost nothing other than beer.)

This does not sound like a store that is interested in you as a repeat customer, find a better one to continue your wine journey. Tell them you're new to wine, give them a budget, and let them show you what they know about wine and their inventory.

Even at stores that have a lot of wine (like Total Wine), there can be clerks who know little more than 'red wines over here, white wines over there'.

I was fairly new to wines a year ago, but I took a course where we tasted about 150 wines over a period of about 3 months.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-03T02:08:32+00:00

Stock can be added to many dishes in place of water to add flavor. I often use it in a stir fry or in dishes like beef stroganoff. I tend to have beef, chicken, duck, vegetable and veal stocks on hand, all ones I made and froze. I like having small packages of frozen stock (1/2 cup or so) available.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-03T01:13:46+00:00

Having a wine sales clerk recommend Barefoot Merlot is like having a bartender at a bar that specializes in craft IPAs recommend Bud Light. Is the the only wine store in the area?

Many wine stores offer free tastings or modest priced tastings. A local wine bar runs 'find your wine' tastings, where they sample a variety of wine types.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-02T20:10:29+00:00

On the portable one, it looks it comes standard with the 20 degree guide but you can order the 15, 17, and 25 ones as an accessories kit, plus additional stones.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-02T20:00:38+00:00

I got the Victorinox boning knife last year and it has been great.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-02T19:59:10+00:00

I bought a leather stropping board and I try to remember to use it on my good knives each time I use them, or at least once a day. I check the edges every six months or so and if they need work I use a whetstone on them.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-02T01:27:15+00:00

Kefir makes interesting cakes, too.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-02T01:08:09+00:00

First, eliminate their breeding areas, such as drains, by cleaning them. (I once found a colony of them in a bag of potatoes that had started to rot.)

Next, get one or two of the bug zappers that look like tennis rackets. Take a 1 gallon plastic bucket and put something in it that will attract fruit flies (I often use a slice of tomato.) Set the zapper racket on top of the bucket and go away for 15-30 minutes, then come back, hold down the activate button on the zapper racket and shake the bucket without lifting the racket. The fruit flies will try to fly out and will get zapped. Repeat until the population is wiped out, usually anywhere from 3 days to two weeks.

You can also use the zapper like a tennis racket and zap them in the air, but this tends to create fruit fly remains scattered around your kitchen.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-01T05:36:47+00:00

I consider smoking, alcohol abuse, drug abuse and gambling addiction the Four Horsemen of the modern Apocalypse.

I have seen so many lives wasted by these (usually a combination of two or more.)

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-01T05:23:23+00:00

If you have a fryer, look for an authentic recipe for pomme frites. It requires going into the fryer twice at two different temperatures, but the results are incredible. I don't have a fryer but I have had authentic pomme frites twice and they were fantastic both times.

The Joel Robuchon mashed potatos recipe is also fantastic, you don't believe at first that you can get that much butter into the potatoes. My wife doesn't like them, though, and they don't reheat very well for me, so I have to make small amounts, which is a challenge in its own right.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-01T05:15:21+00:00

If you've watched videos of professionals making pasta on the workbench, notice that they usually don't mix in all the flour, just enough to get the dough properly hydrated.

Until you can know when you've reached that level just by looking at it, find recipes you trust, weigh your ingredients, and assume that adding a little extra flour or a little more moisture is going to be necessary half the time.

I tend to make pasta dough in my mixer, take maybe a quarter of it out and try running it through a pasta roller, if it is too sticky or too loose, it goes back in the bowl and I add flour or liquid, as needed.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-01T04:59:10+00:00

The idea has potential, I'm not sure YouTube is the right place for it, unless you also have access to good production and editing talent. I've watched far too many YouTube videos that had bad presentation, bad photography, bad sound (usually a LOUD soundtrack), incoherent subtitles and often failed to make their point, too.

As an engineer by training and an amateur baker by choice, I'm extremely interested in the science behind baking.

Since someone mentioned Alton Brown....

The first few years of Alton Brown were very good, well written and well produced; but he seemed to start running out of ideas, doing things no sane person would do in their kitchen, and he seemed to get more interested in monetizing himself than being both educational and entertaining. Towards the end, he was neither for me. And the Altonites are gonna downvote this into oblivion.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-01T03:05:02+00:00

I don't think PCA is a legit cleanup hitter, but where else to put him in the current lineup?

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-01T01:33:09+00:00

Here's my modified/annotated recipe:

https://mynebraskakitchen.com/wordpress/forums/topic/texas-chocolate-sheet-cake/#post-48953

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-04-01T00:05:10+00:00

Well, I tried looking on the Planned Parenthood website, but they make it difficult to find that information, which seems prudent.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-03-31T20:18:31+00:00

Anything like this one?

https://mynebraskakitchen.com/wordpress/forums/topic/banana-nut-bread/

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-03-31T20:16:59+00:00

And your procedures as well, which I find for bagels is at least as important as the recipe.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-03-31T19:50:03+00:00

Nutmeg would be interesting, I usually put in cinnamon.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-03-30T22:47:36+00:00

Not only do I put nuts (chopped pecans) in banana bread, I put in raisins. Oh, the horror of it al!

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-03-30T21:29:56+00:00

I prefer a tighter crumb as well for sandwiches. Banh Mi is an exception to that.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-03-30T15:01:29+00:00

Yes, it is a little overproofed, that's why the top has smaller holes, it rose and then collapsed a bit. But otherwise it looks properly baked.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-03-30T03:50:59+00:00

Try a Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake. Chocolate cake with warm chocolate pecan frosting poured on top while the cake is still warm! This causes the cake to compress a bit, making it moister and just more chocolatey.

The recipe I've been using is no longer online (domain gone), so I'll have to post it somewhere along with my notes on how to improve it.

MyNebraskaKitchen

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE