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Well gcb, it's kinda like this...I asked my wife to wake me up while I was sleeping downstair in a recliner ever "poised to" at a moments notice attack this storm. So at 3am my first glance wasn't as impressive as expected, by 6am the tide had changed immensely and I was out for a series of 3x during the day front and back doing the snow blower/shovel thing. Snow like we experienced as I last remember from 1978 is a rare phenomenon, still thankful it couldn't kick our spirit. That old Craftsman snowblower resides in the garage, I'd put him up against any of todays models,,,it's a beast.

Love the pic of the pooch! Everyone be safe. As crazy as it sounds, we'll be 60F here on Friday, but only 30F on Saturday. March can't make up its mind if it wants to come in like lion or lamb?

I've been to Alice's Restaurant!

Max likes it but I fail to see the humor in it 😡 I’ll dig the 32 out in a few days

For nearly every purpose our flour is freshly ground using a KoMo Grain Mill then sieved through a #20, #25, or #35 Gilson Test Sieve (12" sieves fit nicely into an 8 quart Vollrath mixing bowl (69080)). This is a home approximation to traditional stone-ground flour, which bears little resemblance to roller-milled white flour that isolates the endosperm. The nutritional value of wheat is mostly in the highly perishable germ, and the bran; "white" flour is a modern invention that is shelf-stable for years. White flour is spectacularly successful as an "artist's medium" for how responsive it is to varied baking techniques, but at health costs. Just as I can't watch athletes harm themselves in boxing or American football, I can't watch white flour baking. While many people who don't have celiac disease conclude that they can't tolerate gluten, a competing view is that they can't tolerate overly processed grain products. (One should let experiment not culture decide this.) And everyone is vulnerable to diabetes if they live long enough; the starch in white flour is too accessible; constantly stressing our insulin systems. Should one address this in one's twenties, or wait for rising A1C numbers in one's seventies? The medical evidence isn't clear, but the larger picture implicates overly processed foods in general as one reason that health in the United States lags behind its first world peers. My bread has evolved to use exclusively freshly ground flour and sourdough leavening, a "desem" style spread out over several days of cold ferments, for example using the Sourdough Home for an overnight bulk ferment at 50 F, and finishing proofing the shaped loaf in the fridge. Drawing out the sourdough process has both health and flavor benefits, and makes scheduling bread making easier: There's far more leeway in the timing of cold ferments; get in a step when you can. Bread from freshly milled flour is notorious for going sploof into a flat pancake when baked. Many bakers have worked around this without understanding the mechanism, but it's challenging. Bread spreads more as either the hydration or the rye content climbs, and spreads less if baked from a cold proof. I learned from Advanced Bread and Pastry, a professional tome by Michel Suas, about "green" flour: Flour needs to age several weeks to facilitate the quality of gluten development we expect. I don't want to age my flour. It's inconvenient, the germ goes rancid, the flour oxidizes. I now use 60ppm ascorbic acid, as recommended by Suas, as an additive to correct the difficulties posed by "green" flour. I mix ascorbic acid 1:20 with white flour (one of my few uses), and mix that 1:20 with white flour to obtain a 1:440 blend I can actually weigh and include in my dough. I found that it made a dramatic difference. I've stopped using the other additives mentioned above. I have been experimenting with small amounts of organic psyllium flakes, which gels to stiffen the loaf when chilled before baking, but doesn't adversely affect the crumb when used in moderation. Psyllium has a pretty wild effect on hydration, so I'm learning how to again throw strikes.

Looks delicious Tyrus! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Wings again! Now just hold on a second, it's not the wings, it's the sauce...yep a peach sauce I found on a shelf at a distant brewery/winery out in the Berkshires., not far from Arlo Guthrie's house. If you don't remember him just do a Google. Wineries and breweries are an attraction I'll spin the wheel over for a look and taste, while inside finding local treasures people are making up at home in their kitchen and resting comfortably on shelves could be considered a bonus find So if your in a position and wondering what to cook for dinner, well that old bottle on the shelf you might have forgoten about could be a mix it in thought. Don't tell the wife though if it's gone past the date of expiration, nope you don't want to go there...trust me, besides it's still good way past the date, trust me, research supports this or a finger taste will suffice. Nothing special, it was tasty but it was just a reminder for you to by something next time your out and about or cruisin to no where, so take a chance...you never know.

Nice cook, I recognize the weave...it's called the basket weave or plain weave the simplist of weaves but perfect for your wrap.

An historical piece, not quite an antique but you'd make a great witness Toney if anyone was stangled in a murder case and asked if, "Can you identify this Mr Toney?" A little off script, but good eyes.

I remember those!

Tryus WOW!! Thanks for making me feel better!! I thought I had it bad. Nice to see I'm not alone. I'm really impressed with the path you carved out absolutely a beautiful job! Question did where did you end up parking the snow blower?? P.S. Are you still disappointed As you were on Sunday at 3am ?

Here's a few pics in Mass gaining access out to the cooking areas. The backyard, whatever you don't see will be revealed in the spring.

I'm bi-coastal so it's really fun being in NYC and seeing ~2' of snow on my patio while also seeing my solar roof pulling in 12kW of juice in San Diego. Why am I in NYC over the winter?

Well at least I never lost electricity during this one, day two of snow removel about to get under way. Time for the roof rake, we got close to 3 feet 🤮

That instantly brought me back to when I used to change my own oil. Craftsman made the tool, I have another larger one with a red handle and a longer wider strap somewhere in one of my tool boxes, but you get the idea. 8 1/2 years I haven't succumed to that demise, I spin the top to close but always remember by habit now to back off the cap to a touch. Then again my settings are generally a 1/4 to 1/2 turn at the final setting when closing so I'm not going far to that touch.

Be safe out there!

The weather men got it right!! The Blizzard was spot on. So far we have 23'' and still snowing with winds still gusting to 50mph. Here are a couple of before and current pictures!! Will have to wait a few days to dig out the KK for my first cook of 2026!! Stay safe if you're in the northeast and don't over do it with the shoveling !!! Be smart take breaks or just hire someone to get it done!!!

We already have well over a foot and it is coming down hard. Add in the 70 MPH wind gusts it is making life difficult to say the least. It looks like they will be close with the 24-30 inch prediction for this area, it is just hard to tell with the drifts. I need to get back out and do a pass on the driveway before that gets too tall for the snowblower. So far I've just been keeping the back deck clear and making trails in the yard for Max and a bathroom for him lol Stay safe out there everyone !!!!

Here's how to use a fan belt and wrench to open a stuck damper top. VIDEO-2025-10-24-05-10-08.mp4

Disappointing storm, up at 3AM to get a head start and only a few inches. The KK was fine though.

Tony b The Blizzard has just started and we are going to get between 18-24'' with wind gusts 55 to 75 mph. I think that much snow and wind will continue to postpone my 1st cook of 2026 on my KK for a little longer!!

Nice Fatty!

It's not the snow that usually deters me from grilling, it's the temperature. I don't grill out when the windchill has a minus sign in front of it!! 🥶

Looks awesome, SteveL.

Cooked up a nice kielbasa stuffed pork loin wrapped in a bacon weave and it turned out delicious! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk