What are you havin for dinner?

[Jimi]

Is burnt food carcinogenic? Truth about what's on the plate​

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Dear Jimi,


Whatever's on your plate this week, we've got something worth thinking about


Have you ever wondered whether burnt toast could increase your risk of cancer?



‎The truth is that it can't, by itself... But don't just take our word for it.


Click here to read our blog post to learn the truth about burnt food and cancer, and find the best way to cook your food to reduce cancer risk.​

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Your cooking method will change everything.​

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Keep an open mind, Jimi.



Much love & health,​

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[gopher_byrd]

This weeks loaf, 20% Spelt and oh so delicious. There will be something new about my next bake, to be found out later...

 

[Jimi]

 

[Jimi]

 

[Jimi]

If you cut open those giant supermarket strawberries this week, you know the sight. Bright red outside, white and hollow inside, and almost no taste at all.
You are not imagining that they used to taste better. They did.
Cornell horticulture professor Marvin Pritts tracked it. He grew strawberry seeds from every decade of the last hundred years side by side in the same field. Size went up. Yield went up. Firmness went up. Sugar content and flavor went down.
Why? For decades breeding chased what ships, not what tastes. UC Davis researchers document strawberry yields up more than 2,700 percent since the 1960s, from about 6 tons an acre to 30 tons today. Berries got bred to be big and firm enough to survive two weeks of cold trucks and cold storage. Even Driscoll's, which controls about a third of the world's berries, says the most notable change was firmness — the old varieties were so soft you had to eat them right from the field.
And strawberries do not ripen after they are picked. If they are picked early to survive the trip, they will stay white and tart inside forever, no matter how red the outside turns. Cold storage makes it worse, shutting down the aroma compounds your nose reads as sweetness.
That's why a 2021 study in Horticulture Research with 148 samples and more than 15,000 tastings found most shoppers said modern berries lacked sweetness. Liking was driven by sweetness, flavor, and texture. The lab sees it too. The U.S. market will accept a Brix sugar reading of 7. Growers who aim for flavor aim for 9 or higher. A good Albion from a farm stand tests around 8.9, a Japanese Nyoho around 10.6. That little gap is the difference between candy and crunchy water.
You can still find the real ones. Look for smaller berries that are red all the way through and actually smell like strawberries when you lift the clamshell. Farmers markets from late May through early July, pick-your-own farms, a stand growing Albion — those were allowed to ripen on the plant. That is what a strawberry is supposed to taste like.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I bought some organic instant mashed potatoes for prepper storage. They were approaching the expiration date on the box, so I mixed them up and added curry powder and crushed garlic, got the consistency about right, and stirred in some frozen baby peas (rinsed).

I'm here to report, they were not good. They weren't nasty, but there was no potato flavor. They were as bland as Wonder Bread. Salt and pepper didn't help. Even the curry powder didn't help.

No more of that.

 

[gopher_byrd]

Bread for this week with something new for me. It made with 100% flour that I milled myself from whole wheat berries. The wheat is from an organic farmer builds his soil using regenerative practices. This is a sandwich loaf and it is using yeast for the rise.

My mill:


Wheat I bought, hard white, hard red, Khorasan, and Einkorn.


Some spelt wheat I won in a contest:


Everything gogether:


And now the bread I baked today:

 

[Bliss Doubt]

And now the bread I baked today:



View attachment 2347

I sometimes wonder if your peeps who get to eat your creations half understand the privilege.

 

[gopher_byrd]

I sometimes wonder if your peeps who get to eat your creations half understand the privilege.

They do. The loaves I bring for KofC raffles are usually one of the first prizes to get picked.

There is big difference with how fresh milled flour (FMF) and especially the ancient grains mixes and bakes so I still have some work to do to figure them out. I won't be giving FMF loaves out for a bit.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

It's another beautiful day in South Texas, and I mean that sincerely, rainy morning, 62 degrees as I write this, and temps not expected to get out of the mid-60's all day, so I made white chili for breakfast lunch.

Ingredients:

Onion
Refried Peruvian Mayocoba beans, two 15 oz pkgs
Diced green chilis drained, two 4 oz cans
Salt
Crushed garlic
Shake of ground cumin
Shake of red pepper flakes



I used the smallest onion in the bag, and halfway through slicing it up, that was enough. I put the other half back in the fridge.



Sauteed the sliced onion, then in with the beans, in with the green chilis. Stir stir stir, simmer simmer. Then added a big spoonful of crushed garlic, generous pinch of ground cumin, generous pinch red pepper flakes. Then I tasted for salt and added some. Stir stir. Here it is in the bowl, cooling. Hard to get a good pic due to rising steam. There is still a full second meal left in the pan, so half this recipe is good for if you just want to cook for one.



Grate some cheese on top if you want it. Sprinkle some corn chips on top if you want them. I'm having mine without further embellishments, but I must admit, fresh cornbread out of the oven would make the perfect accompaniment.

If you don't find the Mayocoba beans in your market, white cannellini beans would be good too. I don't like navy beans because they stink.

Bon appetit.

 

[gopher_byrd]

Just a regular sourdough loaf I baked for a raffle prize at a KofC meeting yesterday.

 

[Jimi]

WARNING

 

[Bliss Doubt]

WARNING

Oh no! Frito Lay and V8 ??? That's too sad. The rest of those are conventional slop mill brands I wouldn't buy anyway. And anyway I found an organic corn chip I stock up on when it's available.

 

[Jimi]

Oh no! Frito Lay and V8 ??? That's too sad. The rest of those are conventional slop mill brands I wouldn't buy anyway. And anyway I found an organic corn chip I stock up on when it's available.

Really sad isn't it?

 

[Jimi]