zxcvbob wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>
>>
>> a bunch of stuff everyone has already read.
>>
>
>
> I'm supposed to be out weeding and planting the garden, but it's cool
> and raining again. (great weather to have planted the garden *yesterday*.)
>
> I made tofu for the first time this morning. It's easy to make (with
> Wife's soymilk maker), but I still managed to mess up the whole kitchen
> doing it. I figured out a really good coagulator -- I dissolved 1 tsp
> of pickling lime in a half cup of vinegar and let it rest a spell while
> I boiled and cooled the soy milk. The hot soymilk clotted immediately
> when I added it -- I probably could have used less than half as much
> coagulant.

What is the fascination with tofu? I've eaten it, cooked with it, but
never made it. It's a good source of protein if you're a true vegan but
I would rather have a nice steak myself.

>
> I haven't figured out what to do with the leftover soybean pulp ("okara".)
>
> I have a 20 pound frozen turkey in the electric roaster; it should be
> done about 9:00 tonight. If the weather sucks tomorrow, I might make a
> *bunch* of turkey soup from the drippings and the picked carcass and put
> up a cannerful of quart jars.

I've never owned or used an electric roaster but it seems that one would
be handy for a number of things, mostly I wouldn't have to heat up the
kitchen with my stove's oven or the microwave/convection oven. Usually I
do turkeys in the Sharp microwave/convection oven as it requires less
energy and produces less heat in the kitchen than the electric stove.
Give me your advice, do I really need a big ol' electric roaster? I know
where I can get one at a hefty discount.

>
> It has stopped raining for a bit, so I think I'll try pulling weeds in
> the mud. I'd really like to get the peppers and tomatoes in the ground
> today. The tomatilloes have been "heeled in" in the compost pile for a
> few days, hardening off. They look a little ragged from the wind, but
> they are blooming now.
>
> Best regards,
> Bob

The wind has been blowing hard here for at least two weeks. The soaker
hoses are still running and hardly making a dent in the dry soil.
Hopefully we will get a good, soaking rain in the next week and that
will help. It's 95F outside right now and I'm about to head for the
supermarket and the library, not necessarily in that order.

Put up 9 packages of chopped sweet peppers, and 4 packages of green
beans. This the first time I've grown purple Trionfo Viletto beans but
they are right tasty so I'll probably grow them again. Purple flowers,
purple vines and leaves, purple beans, make a good show on the south
trellis in the garden. The beans turn green when cooked and the
blanching water is turned a deep green, might make a natural dye but
haven't tried it yet. Beans taste good and have a slight nutty flavor,
much different from Kentucky Wonder, Challenger, or Blue Lake. The seeds
came from Pinetree Seeds and they say they came from Italy. Very
cosmopolitan garden, Mexican and Italian squash varieties, Italian
beans, Swiss chard, French radishes, and plain ol' 'Murican corn.

George