I almost didn't read that Kitchen thread, but I decided to open it last night out of curiosity. I loved it!. Anyone who is following along and hasn't read about the new toaster instructions needs to go take a look at the link above. Glad you got to see the photo this time. I have to be honest and say I'd never heard of stroopwafels before I went to Holland or I would have searched them out. I'd never eaten one when I decided I had to try making them. I don't know how authentic the taste is, but I know they aren't the "authentic" look, but after seeing the ones with the grid and so thin (so commercial looking -- ya know? ), I, personally, like the ones made with the pizzelle iron. Somehow the stroopwafels came up in a conversation between this attorney and DH (her husband is a great cook, and they wind up talking food and kitchens sometimes). She had had stroowafels in Holland and loved them and DH told her I made them sometimes. It was a couple of months later that she arranged her schedule to be here for meetings on another case so she could see our son in his high school musical (she's a former actress). That was a pretty special effort, so I decided to match the kindness (and make DH proud) with a bag of stroopwafels for her. She was the first person I knew who'd had them in Holland ad had mine and she loved mine, so I was happy. LOL They do keep pretty well, so they would be great in a gift basket -- and most people have never had them. I've seen one commercial brand sandwiched with dark chocolate and want to try that for my oldest son. If you decide to try them, let me know. I use an adaptation of two recipes and will share that with you. If you want to find your own, the cookie has many variations out there and they have all worked for me. I use mostly vanilla and a little lemon or orange flavoring when I make stroopwafels. Martha Stewart's cookie recipe is good, but I had a total fail with the caramel in her recipe. The caramel I use is from Willy Dean's recipe found somewhere on the internet years ago. It is 1-1/2 c light brown sugar, 1 C butter, 1 tsp cinnamon and 6 T dark corn syrup boiled until it thickens. That's a lot of caramel. For this last batch, I doubled the cookie recipe from Martha's recipe and still had about a cup of caramel left over. Let me know if you try them. As for the sourdough, I think it may have baked too long. The dough soft and slightly on the wet side, so I don't think it was too much flour. I was thinking the crust should have been a bit darker, so I left it in a few minutes longer. It was okay fresh, but it dried quickly. I have some other bread in the freezer for bread pudding, so I don't need this too -- hope it makes good crumbs. I like your idea about retitling the next thread. Even baker's kaffeeklatsch -- we could soon be starting a new one every week. That's okay. I do have AC -- can't live in the Houston area without it -- no natural AC like in CA. We used to live in northern CA and DS1 is now in LA and loves the weather. This is year 4 and grad school options are mostly north of the snow belt -- could be a shock to his system. I get the feeling you are in southern CA. I am going to tackle organizing my cookbooks before I do any major baking. It's driving me crazy to not be able to put my finger on books like I'm used to. That's going to bleed over into cleaning other bookcases. Could be worse......

Feeding the birds is a good use of bricks, too, especially when they're surprised by early Winter weather. :) Here (SoCal), we've had a couple of brief entries into Autumn weather, but always quick rebounds into general Summer. It's very confusing since it still gets dark when it feels like it should be light until a couple of hours later. If KAF actually put the recipe on the back of the bag, it's probably foolproof. That is, it's probably meant to be successful even with variations in temperature, humidity and oven climate. Edie, I just tell the truth as I see it--I'm happy to be supportive, but won't mislead you to do so. Baking bread is a normal kind of thing. Everyone with ordinary physical and mental acuity can bake bread, can dance, can sing. Perhaps there will be differing levels of natural giftedness, but all can learn to a level of competency, no matter the age. The homely arts belong to all of us. Not everyone can engineer a skyscraper that won't topple in an earthquake. Even among those well trained to do so, there's a level of magic, that is, intuitive synthesis of massive knowledge, that is necessary as well. I read once that a German master baker, who grew up in the trade, said that there was no way to learn what he knew without dedicating decades starting from puberty. I'm sure that's true. But if you're not in the business of making loaves by the dozens daily, and requiring a level of perfection that comes from professionalism, you can still bake bread. Same as someone who only has middling control over productive pitch can still learn to sing a song that won't make listeners put their fingers in their ears. Practice and familiarity with one bread, or one song, and from there to a repertoire, substitute for the lifetime of study of all breads or all vocalizations. Going wrong sometimes helps. I would never have landed on WTF Bread if I hadn't been out of it on baking day. :) And WTF is the closest I've come yet to what I've been aiming for. :) I'm not far behind you in age, or far in front in experience out of my comfortable recipes. I've learned scads in the last six months, and have learned far more from my "failures" than my roaring successes. At a certain age we have the time and head space for contemplation and a more interesting kind of learning. And we can have, oh, so much fun!

Red Rose tea isn't Canadian anymore, it is owned by Lipton. I didn't like it when they changed the packaging from the green and white box with the red rose to an orange coloured box. Even though I drink it still, somehow it doesn't taste the same as the old Red Rose Tea. While I was drinking my tea earlier I was thinking about mugs. When I was a child mugs were used for cocoa, coffee and shaving cream. LOL As far as dunking donuts in tea I have never done that but I used to love cookies dunked in tea and the best of all was hot toast with peanut butter dunked in my tea. I can't have anything with peanuts anymore so I really miss that. LOL Moni, my Aunt in North Bay used to have a koffeeklatsch with all the neighbour ladies. I loved it whenever I visited there.Sometimes they were more elaborate than any of the high teas I have been to. My Mom always had the ladies over for tea in our house. LOL Lori, you made me laugh because my Mom held her pinky finger up but she didn't do that until she had Alzheimers. I used to get a big kick out of it and I would ask her if she was having "tea with the Queen" LOLOL In many British families "Tea" can be a meal just like lunch is and it can be a hearty meal at that. Grandma used to say "come for your tea" which translated meant "come for lunch" Sometimes it was the heartiest meal of the day. Tea is not just a beverage, it is social gathering with friends and family. Anne

Aw, plllog. While I'm glad that you're "fine", I continue to think about you. Truly, I can only imagine ... just every single aspect of life would be impacted. I know that I had trouble not knowing when the polar vortexes would end -- not enduring them, just not knowing when it would be over. Not only has this been long term for you, it's so much more encompassing. I'm hoping for some (a lot actually- but no floods!!!!! or flooded garages!!!!) of "gentle, but measurable" rains and that life returns to at least a good new normal. And that you get back to enjoying baking (I know I would coping and not feel inspired right now-- just me.) Maybe it will brighten your day to know that I told my son you responded to his bagel pic. After a few seconds of reading your post, he smiled, and I knew that he came to the description "foundation bagel." More reading and the eyes widened with the real-deal smile erupting, accompanied by a loud "Ha!" I said, "What?" although I knew (and I know you know) what words he had read -- "flacid doughy rings!" A day-brightener! No need to respond to this, but maybe to lighten your day -- here's an excerpt that he had to write about a couple of years ago for rhetoric -- introduction paragraph to review Alton Brown -- Good Eats. Although he's ChemE (thinking about actuarial now, oh my) he loves to read, edit and write. And cook. "Some of my earliest and most powerful memories are of cooking with my mom. The crimson iridescence of a sliced strawberry, the sound of frying bacon (a standing ovation), the smell of proofing yeast…all are indelible sensations that permeate my childhood. And my culinary experiences weren’t just limited to the kitchen. The only TV stations I watched growing up were PBS and The Food Network (I wasn’t aware that others existed or that you could flip between them with a device called a “remote”). When I wasn’t tuning in to Kratts’ Creatures or Arthur and his anthropomorphic friends, I was learning how to flambé with Bobby Flay, filet halibut with Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, and make Coq au Vin with Julia Child. Only one host, however, continually captivated me with his wildly inventive, mad-scientist approach to food. His name? Alton Brown. His game? Good Eats." Continue to think about you! Cathy in SWPA