regular white bread recipe, instead 1 cup wheat flour, 1 egg, some salt and just honey for sweetening , yeast of course.
Dark crust, medium crumb, sweet bread
Archive for January, 2012
26
Jan
12
Honey Wheat Bread
26
Jan
12
Cranberry Wheat Coffee Buns
For a different type of pastry, try wheat.
Modified from Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Ring, Hodgson Mills
prepare 1/2 recipe of dough (or full recipe if preferred)
roll out the dough in a rectangle and spread with butter, brown sugar, dust with cinnamon and sprinkle with course ground all spice and some grated unsweetened chocolate. Spread out some unsweetened cranberries (cook and mashed cranberries, cooled). Roll up dough and slice into rolls, place on cookie sheet and bake at 425 degrees till done. Serve with coffee.
small recipe can be baked in a toaster oven
26
Jan
12
Robusta coffee cookies
Once and awhile a batch of cookies is baked for snacks and packed for lunch and breaks.
I don’t like real sweet cookies, so I omitted the icing. Nuts, raisins etc are a good addition
and coffee/chocolate flavor a plus!
The Robusta give a different tone to the flavor versus regular coffee
if you can’t read my writing
cream sugar with 1/2 cup shortening, add 1 egg, mix well (with kitchen aid mixer w/ paddle).
Sift flour for 2 cups measure, and add the following:
1/2 teaspoon baking soda,
1/4 teaspoon salt,
1 teaspoon baking powder
about 1 teaspoon ground cloves (or less if fresh ground)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (maybe 1/4),
about 1 teaspoon fine grind coffee (may be less if you are not familiar with the taste of Indian Robusta, preferred for a different flavor)
about 1 teaspoon fine grind cocoa nibs or cocoa powder to taste
Resift all dry ingredients together.
Add dry ingredients alternately to the sugar/shorting mix with 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee.
Add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and some grated un sweetened chocolate less than an ounce, or more if preferred.
Add more flour if mixture is thin to obtain a consistency of frosting.
For ease of sheeting cookies, fill a pastry bag without a tip and pipe on prepared cookie sheet or drop with a table spoon.
about 13 minutes @ a 375- 400 degree oven for a slightly soft cookie, they will firm slightly when cool.
They can be iced if preferred, I left mine plain. about 3 dozen or less depending on size.
adapted from supermarketguru.com
22
Jan
12
Potage Parmentier
This morning and afternoon a pot of soup base was prepared, A version of Potato and onion (or leeks) soup. This was the first time I made a soup such as this. The original recipe is from Julia Child and was posted on http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/leek-or-onion-and-potato-soup. After checking my cookbooks I found the expanded and updated recipe for Potage Parmentier from Child. There was some misgivings about making this soup as the thought of just boiling up some potatoes and onions wouldn’t result in much of a soup. Using the slicing side of a four sided grater the slicing of the peeled onions and potatoes was quick. I add a bit of stock, but the recipe from Child warns that you should use water to let the flavor of the vegetables show through. So on it simmered for at least an hour and a half. It tasted bland. I pureed it in an electric blender and with some seasoning of salt it finally gained my acceptance ! Voila ! It’s good alone, but I plan on using it as a base and adding broccoli etc. I have other recipes in queue which I will publish later.
This is mostly a food blog , but sometimes a tech article I read on-line sparks my attention.
and now the news from the current political elections is un-escapable for the most part
How U.S. Lost Out on IPhone Work
NY Times, Business Day ,The Economy
By CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER
Published: January 21, 2012
my comments:
Asia is the leader of large scale manufacturing. This
article focuses on the electronics industry.
notes:
“Companies once felt an obligation to support American
workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,”
said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor
Department until last September. “That’s disappeared.
Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”
(a)this was creating jobs for the sake of creating jobs.
"…a current Apple executive said. “We don’t have an
obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only
obligation is making the best product possible.”
(b)this is focusing on making a product, not influenced by political distractions
…
"For technology companies, the cost of labor is
minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and
managing supply chains that bring together components
and services from hundreds of companies. For Mr. Cook,
the focus on Asia “came down to two things,” said one
former high-ranking Apple executive. Factories in Asia
“can scale up and down faster” and “Asian supply chains
have surpassed what’s in the U.S.” The result is that
“we can’t compete at this point,” the executive said. "
"Another critical advantage for Apple was that China
provided engineers at a scale the United States could
not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about
8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and
guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually
involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s
analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine
months to find that many qualified engineers in the
United States. In China, it took 15 days. "
(c)Other countries are set up demographically and geographically to make efficient use of manufacturing
supply chains and labor for mass production in shorter time spans. They have the resources and control
mastered.
Other governments support and motivate a national pride towards production and manufacturing versus individual
financial gain (very debatable) and have the qualified work force ready. Some governments are better at a
growing a service economy.
It seems that Asia is the only place to build fast moving (changing technology) products in great numbers at a price that makes
them affordable.
What does that leave us, the U.S. ? In the technical field; programming? software development?
So here is a follow up question , if you will: Multiple choice, no correct answer(s) at this time
What is the United States better suited at producing?
What ones will grow or shrink or remain the same?
(a) legal professionals
(b) Doctors
(c) political parties/ politicians
(d) health care systems
(e) financial/credit systems
(f) welfare systems
(g) an up to date infrastructure
(h) discourse
(i) non-profit organizations and exemptions(too many to list)
(j) Research and development
(k) Political Action Committees
(l) an affordable education system
(m) a chaotic tax code (AKA red tape)
(n) regulations
(o) benefit packages
(n) small businesses/manufacturing
(p) artistic expression
(q) agriculture
(r) defense/law enforcement
(s) computer programming/servicing/software development
add your own
I’m poking fun at the USA, this is who we are. A diverse culture. Asia has it’s problems too, and no telling where they will be after 15-20 years.
No doubt though that hobbies should be encouraged as they were in past. They are the first step in education of the trades.
Have they been displaced by dismissing them as nonsense as they have no social redeeming value? Personally speaking, a home with out a work bench is not a home.
There have been many articles posted on the internet about the filing of Bankruptcy by Kodak, I have read a few and here are some of my comments:
WHY?
- too iconic, “Kodak” was always associated with photographic film technology, at least to the average consumer.
- businesses that don’t take into account the value of internet feedback and it’s ability to bypass the word of mouth recommendations to buy a product. For instance a purchase decision influenced by online reviews rather a recommendation of a friend or family member. The ability through on-line social networking to get the opinions of experts and many users to weigh a decision BOTH on a purchase and a business practice (bank fees)
- Realize that if a current product, a sale, or a service can be digitized, (audio,video, text) and accessed by a internet connection,creation and/or distribution can be radically altered and time lines shrunk. Example : books, E-readers, personal publishing, movie streaming, downloading audio. The On-demand generation ?
In the same realm, here an article about big box retailers:
Will the following increase, decrease, or remain the same?
- Ordering or receiving a product to your door by the internet (or even by mail order or phone) vs. a Brick and Mortar purchase.
- A consumer custom designs a product or service to his/her preference via computer and internet.
15
Jan
12
dessert
scanned image
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