@david: put another (even simpler) way: butter comes four sticks to a pound, so a stick of butter is a quarter pound, or ... 113 grams.

@david: a stick of butter is 8 tablespoons, or a half-cup. Butter is about 227 grams to a cup, so a half cup of butter would be 113g.

@anonymous: There’s no app for the Vegetarian book... yet :)

Elizabeth: we’ll be happy to look into this issue. Could you specify which OS platform, what internet browser version, and what model of printer you’re using? Thanks!

Hank: no, I don’t think it’s probably necessary to rinse, as I don’t think it has the same degree of starchy powder that white rice has. I was just trying to keep the process as parallel as possible for the sake of simplicity.

@anon: I cooked on the setting for white rice.

Hi Hank. Great article—I finally had a chance to read it. I’ve been baking all this year, so it was good to get a new innoculation of sourdough lore.

What a great and thoughtful analysis of your bread ingredients. I know my wheat is (relatively local). Hmm. I thought I had a few other feathers in my local bread cap, but as I go through the ingredients, I really can’t be sure of any of them. I’m going to be thinking harder about this.

@anon: Sure, np. I think that using the setting for white rice is a good starting point for a new grain you haven’t cooked before. From there you could adjust the amount of water and/or the rice setting if you want to change the texture. But I’d encourage you to go ahead and try, as you can’t really mess anything up, and grains are relatively cheap if you do go astray.

Okay, so it’s a list of lists. Now I really can’t wait to hear what the actual cookbooks are!

Hi Deborah: I’ve had some of the same motivations for baking bread lately, and similar rewards. I popped two loaves in the oven this morning; they were done, and hot, and smelling great when the kids came down for breakfast.

@ChefBliss: I’ve never had problems with juice squeezing everywhere. I put the citrus into the squeezer with the sliced edge toward the outlet on the bottom (which is not intuitive, given the shape of the squeezer — but it is correct). Does that help at all?

Hi Katherine: I’ve had similar results with those breads — they seem denser than I’d hope — not sure why. I’m still working on it too. The recipe I’ve had most success with in that book is the Struan. Beautiful looking loaf, btw.

Welcome Hank!

@Alisha: cooking groats is about as easy as cooking regular oatmeal — they just take a little longer to cook. I cook them in 2 or 3 cups of water to 1 cup groats, for roughly 40 minutes, or until they reach the consistency you like. If you end up with too much water at the end, just drain it off.

I also posted about how to cook groats in a rice cooker, here: Going to the groats: a pictorial.

@mamster: great article. I can tell you got excited by this one. You totally cracked me up with your “To a cow, I imagine this is the equivalent of cheese” wisecrack!

Until this discussion I had never heard of Mel Bartholomew, but I have definitely seen gridded and tiered garden boxes. Perhaps it’s testament to Mel’s success at advocating this idea (if he should indeed get the credit), that the concept might be mentioned without giving credit?

We don’t, after all, always have to say “and here is my Toyota, which is built on principles that derived from the Model T Ford”, nor “and this is a soufflé, a word that comes from the French”.

I’m not necessarily defending, but simply wondering…some concepts are so natural, or so generic, that they rapidly pass into a common idiom. This, to me, seems like it might be one of them?

Thanks, Kathy. I don’t have a pressure cooker at present, but when I do, I’ll definitely try this!

Not me. I don’t really like pomegranates. They seem tedious.

@tkoehler: If you happen to run into mine, let me know, will ya?