I'd suggest reading the book, "The Amazing Wheat Book" by LeArta Moulton. All kinds of recipes for using gluten (aka seitan). See if your local library has a copy, or have them get it through Inter-Library Loan. Along with baking the gluten, as one of the many methods for cooking it, you may want to try the steam method to produce a tighter texture. I use the steamer unit for my double-boiler, or a stainless steel steam basket. For formed shapes, pepperoni and bologna-type slices, form the raw gluten into a roll shape. Wrap cheese cloth around the gluten and secure it by tying both ends, and the middle if necessary, with a cotton string. Steam 35-40 minutes. The simmering method is best used when making thin strips (for stir-fry dishes, stroganoff, jerky... Roll out raw gluten on a slightly wetted plastic cutting sheet about 1/4" thick (NOT a Silpat because you have to cut on the surface). Cut with a pizza cutter or knife, into strips. Drop the raw strips into a flavored boiling broth. Simmer until the broth is gone, about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. I like to steam the raw gluten, then slice or tear it into pieces for meat-like chunks. Sliced steamed gluten is used for breaded cutlet-type steaks. Thin-sliced gluten can be used as "chipped beef". The flavored strips can be dried in a food dehydrator or place pieces on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in 350°F oven (leave door ajar slightly) until pieces appear dry on top. Turn pieces over and continue to bake until texture is chewy, about 30-45 minutes. This may be the sort of texture you were looking for. I grind steamed gluten to make "burger", "sausage", meat balls, and a crunchy high-protein cereal-type mix that has all kinds of uses. Cubed gluten, flavored with beef, chicken, ham, clam, crab, etc., are used added to sauces, soups, stews, sandwich fillings and salads. For chicken- or fish-like pieces, shred steamed gluten with a fork, or tug it into ragged-shaped pieces with your hands. If you are making gluten from Vital Wheat Gluten (the quick and easy method), rather than from flour, the seasoning can be added BEFORE it is cooked. When you make gluten from whole wheat flour, you will need to add the seasoning AFTER it has been steamed. I'd also suggest the DVD (includes a small cookbook) "Quick Wholesome Foods" by Rita Bingham and LeArta Moulton (link below). If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this DVD will help you see how to convert raw gluten into all kinds of things. Besides gluten making, the DVD also includes making whole wheat bread, uses for wheat, 3-minute cheeses from powdered milk, and info. about beans. I purchase vital wheat gluten from Honeyville Grain - $10.99 for 3.5-pounds: http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/vitalwheatglutencan.aspx I order a number of things from them, and anything you order will cost a flat shipping rate of $4.49 for the entire order (in...

I don't have real compost but I do have leaf mulch that has really broken down over the couple of years it has been in a windrow out in my back yard. The town brought me 8 large trucks ( approximately 200 - 250 cubic yards) that had been vacuumed out of the gutters. I use it as mulch every time I plant something new in my gardens about 6-8" deep and my soil is easy to plant into now and the weeds are few and far between and easy to pull because they are only rooted in loose mulch. I like it so much that I'll probably e-mail the Superintendent of Public Works about November and ask for about 5 more truckloads to replace what I've used. I almost feel guilty about how easy it is.

Nope. My life hasn't changed much. I value my personal space anyway so I try to keep my distance from people naturally. And we dont go many places in normal life. We like being home with each other. I do need my roots done and my ends cut, but I keep my hair long anyway so having it longer than normal isnt an annoyance to me. I am looking forward to people being less on edge and less rude in general when the restrictions are lifted. And I am looking forward to being able to buy stuff I need when I need it,not when the hoarders run out of money.

Its me too, i made a new post about not being able to see anything and having the sentence ”No more posts” display on every single discussion forum. Hopefully this will be remedied soon. However I have noticed that the internet generally is less functional the larger and more crowded with junk content and ads it gets, less useful to me personally and the less likely features or sites are to be fixed when they are down. At this point I would pay for a curated, monitored gateway that refined searches by excluding ads and paid placement and excluding sites not verified by some rubric that determined quality and reliability of content. Any ideas?