Multitasking’s Impact on the Brain article reposted by Ruth Paget
The following article from UChicago News discusses the impact of multitasking on the brain and offers one solution for alleviating overload:
Reposted by Ruth Paget
-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
Wheat Berry: The Midwestern Wheat Sales and Buying Game created by Ruth Paget
Background:
Wheat is big business in the Midwestern United States and even offers international careers to salesman in places like South Dakota and Kansa.
Knowledge of wheat vocabulary helps you make better buying and selling decisions, since it reflects wheat and bread production methods.
Objective:
Learn the vocabulary of the Midwestern wheat world.
Materials Needed:
-Heritage Baking cookbook by Ellen King, which details the Midwestern American Heritage Wheat Movement and King’s Hewn Bread bakery’s place in this movement. (Available on Amazon Kindle)
-index cards
-pens
Number of Players:
Individual play to learn vocabulary and team play to test knowledge.
Method:
Make vocabulary flash cards with the index cards.
Use Ellen King’s Heritage Baking to find definitions for the following Midwestern Wheat industry vocabulary words:
-heritage wheat
-landrace wheat
-ancient grains
-spring wheat with growing regions
-winter wheat with growing regions
*For the next words, note protein content, gluten, and best uses for these flour types:
-hard red winter (HRW)
-hard red spring (HRS)
-soft red winter (SRW)
-soft red spring (SRS)
-soft white (SW)
*For milling
-wheat berry
-germ
-endosperm
-bran
-extraction rate
-bolted flour
*For bread making
-starter ingredient list
-starter
-starter names
-rise
-knead
-bake
Happy Baking!
By Ruth Paget
-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe's Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games
-developer of food and beverage knowledge games
-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcanagel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center
-creator of French travel and culture games
-writer of 2000+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs
-family genealogist
-developer of 9 music theory games
This blog from UC (University of Cincinnati) Health mentions foods that help fight colorectal cancer, if eaten consistently:
Interesting reading.
Reposted by Ruth Paget
-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
This article from Food and Wine about which foods help remove microplastics from the body looks interesting. Two of my favorite foods are on this list: rice and cabbage.
The article follows:
https://www.foodandwine.com/anthocyanins-fruits-vegetables-microplastics-11709874
Reposted by Ruth Paget
-author Eating Doup with Chopstivks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games
-developer of food and beverage knowledge games
-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center
-creator of French travel and culture games
-writer of 2000+ Central Coast California lifestyle games
-family genealogist
-developer of 9 music theory games
Wheat and Bread Knowledge for Personal Chefs by Ruth Paget
Ellen King, author and owner of Chicago’s Hewn Bread, explains what is driving the Heritage Baking Movement in the Midwestern US and her bakery’s role in it in her cookbook Heritage Baking ($1.99 on Amazon Kindle today 10-17-2026).
King generally describes Heritage Wheat as wheat grown in the United States before World War II.
She continues on to describe landrace wheat as a type of heritage wheat that is grown in a region for decades even hundreds of years.
Landrace wheat adapts to a region’s environment without need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides according to her. Landrace is a term that can apply to animals as well.
King also notes that heritage wheat differs from Biblical or ancient grains like einkorn, spelt, and emmer although these are used in the Midwest as well.
Wheat has two seasonal divisions: spring and winter, which refers to growing and harvesting seasons. Spring wheat is planted in spring and harvested in summer. Winter wheat is planted in fall and goes dormant in winter. In spring, winter wheat grows again and is harvested in summer.
Different varieties of spring and winter wheat have varying characteristics, which can be summarized as follows:
*Hard Red Winter (HRW)
-high protein
-high gluten
-best for bread and all-purpose flour
*Hard Red Spring (HRS)
-high protein
-high gluten
-best for use in bread and brioche
*Soft Red Winter (SRW)
-lower protein
-lower gluten
-best for pastries and all-purpose
*Soft Red Spring (SRS)
-lower protein
-lower gluten
-best for blending with hard wheat to increase protein
*Soft White
-low protein
-low gluten
-best for non-bread recipes and pastry
King writes that home bakers can obtain great results baking by milling their own wheat berries into flour. She points out that the nutritive germ and endosperm of the wheat berry are coated by an equally nutritive bran.
Milling extracts these three items in different percentages. What you want to achieve is a high extraction value in milling, which indicates that large amounts of bran, germ, and endosperm have been retained in the flour.
Once you have your flour, King counsels readers to make a starter (also called a sourdough starter, levain, leaven, or a “mother”) that will be added as a natural wild yeast to additional flour, water, and salt in basic bread recipes.
When you have a good starter, you add this to your recipe ingredients and allow them to rise before kneading the dough. King provides step-by-step photos showing how to knead dough.
There are many bread recipes in Heritage Baking, but the four recipes that I have made that I think are good ones to begin baking with follow:
-basic bread loaf
-cheddar loaf (My Wisconsin family makes this with the addition of red pimiento peppers)
-cinnamon buns (I prefer to buy these, but they are a good activity to do on “snow days” when school is closed.)
-brioche (I made brioches in Stuttgart, Germany when I lived there, because one of my husband’s aunts worked as a bakery manager in Tours, France and was a master brioche baker.)
Ellen King’s Heritage Baking is a treasure trove of delicious and nutritious bread recipes and a go-to reference for wheat knowledge for personal chefs who want to expand their dish portfolios to offer clients.
Happy Baking!
By Ruth Paget
-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games
-developer of food and beverage knowledge games
-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center
-creator of French travel and culture games
-writer of 2000+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs
-family genealogist
-developer of 9 music theory games
I received digital coupons as a Raley’s Nob Hill Salinas, California member for Aidells Gourmet Sausage today.
The flavors are smoked chicken or roasted garlic sausage with Gruyère cheese. 4 links cost $.99 for a limited time. (Refer to digital coupons for details.)
You can take this sausage out of its casing and heat it up to go in pasta. The links are fully cooked.
You can sign up for the Raley’s Nob Hill app online or through in the store.
Happy cooking!
By Ruth Paget
-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games
-developer of food and beverage knowledge games
-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center
-creator of French travel and culture games
-writer of 2000+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs
-family genealogist
-developer of 9 music theory games
Cyberattacks on French Supermarkets Raise Freezer Temperatures reposted by Ruth Paget
This NBC News video I saw on TikTok is following the story about cyberattacks on French supermarkets that raised the temperatures in freezers:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTfeB5Sax/
CNN has also posted information on this issue:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTfeUkNyt/
Reposted by Ruth Paget
-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books
-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western civilization War Games
-developer of food and beverage knowledge games
-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center
-creator of French travel and culture games
-writer of 2000+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs
-family genealogist
-developer of 9 music theory games