Anonymous: The recipe doesn’t give any instructions on how to prepare the pans for baking. But in the lengthy introductory section of the book titled “Detailed Instructions for Making Tassajara Yeasted Bread” — 17 pages, including illustrations — the pans are oiled. We’ve corrected the recipe steps above to include this reminder.

And in early May, the feds published a study on honey-bee health, attributing honey-bee problems to “a complex stew of factors, including pesticides, parasites, poor nutrition and a lack of genetic diversity.”

Anonymous: Yes, you can use this frosting in a pastry bag. If you’re trying to make cake for a hot-weather event, though, this frosting won’t last.

As for storing the frosting, you can probably stash it in the fridge for a few days. You eventually run the risk of it getting weepy or separating. And freezing is probably not the best idea.

And from the blog Northwest Edible Life comes this pragmatic plea: Don't get chickens if you can’t truly commit.

Doug: You’ll get more loft from your yeast in that initial rise if you hold off on the salt till later, as salt can slow down (or even kill off) yeast. But you do want the salt for flavor. And yeasted bread dough with no salt at all can rise excessively, giving you big holes in the finished product.

Anonymous: You can freeze any pesto. Some mavens think you should leave out the cheese, adding it only after the pesto has been defrosted. Melissa Clark, however, thinks cheese in the freezer is fine, and so do I.

Pretty much everybody thinks you should use ice-cube trays for freezing the pesto in manageable cubes. If you do that, you’ll probably want to have a couple of trays dedicated to pesto-freezing, as pesto-flavored ice cubes aren’t usually appealing.

And this just in: the European Union has banned the use of neonicotinoids throughout Europe (with the exception of Britain).

Also, Anonymous, the 15-minutes time frame is from the moment you add the pasta to the boiling water. There’s always a lag time then, as the water has to heat back up to a simmer. Depending on the size of your pot and the size of your pasta shape, it can take up to 15 minutes to cook the pasta, even to al dente.

And here’s an op-ed opposing the ag-gag laws.

The New York Times editorial board also recently chastised the EPA for failing to move quickly on the honey-bee mess:

The manufacturers of these chemicals — notably Syngenta and Bayer CropScience — have claimed again and again that they are safe. And it is true that bees face other stresses. Even so, beekeepers managed to keep their hives relatively healthy before the increased use of neonicotinoids began in 2005.

Mark Bittman, on the other hand, thinks the ban on the soda ban is a bad idea.

Brittany —

Cannoli tubes come in a variety of sizes. The cannoli in the photo are about 2 inches in diameter, and that’s on the small side. You’ll need to roll out the dough to match whatever size of tube you have on hand.

Hope this helps!

And AlterNet covered America's quiet role in the slaughter and exportation of horsemeat.

And here’s Frank Bruni's take on the horsemeat scandal.

Mark Bittman is also enthused about the new endorsement of the Mediterranean diet.

J — I love your MacGyver-esque idea for making the machines quiet down. Must work on that this weekend!

Marion Nestle, as usual, has a good roundup of the horsemeat issue on her website, Food Politics.

Anonymous: To avoid further confusion, we took out the unhulled reference in the quote above from Ray Langham. Thanks!

Of the many spoofs of this ad circulating on the Web, the agribusiness version from Funny or Die is perhaps the best.

There’s also a film about food safety coming out titled "Food Patriots."