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The cinnamon thing was really interesting: it was cereal, so probably a thing for Kellogg's, and we were trying to scale up from the prototype batches. At some point (and I suppose my brain realized that I probably would never need to produce industrial-sized batches of cereal, so why retain this info?), I have no idea what, but some point, some ratio of other ingredients:cinnamon, the cinnamon switched from being a team player to a solo artist who wants alllllll the attention. A really bad solo artist too, cloying and lingering and coming on way too strong. There is a cinnamon tipping point. ;)

Another thing I learned is that if there's a fragrance or flavor that you can imagine, IFF makes it. Just in our little test kitchen, we must've had 20 different kinds of apple-flavored syrups. Granny Smith flavor, Red Delicious flavor, apple pie flavor, apple pie a la mode flavor, apple strudel flavor, applesauce flavor, baked apple flavor, and on and on. An entire enormous business is devoted to making things that smell and taste like other things. Amazing.

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Like every night was a battle and we were in it together.

So much this. When everyone's firing on all cylinders and things just flow? Nothing better. It feels like a huge accomplishment to get through a busy shift with both the front of the house and the back of the house (and hopefully the guests) agreeing that it went well.

I always wondered, AnnieF, if the kitchen environment was really like that - with all the screaming and such. What a high-stress environment.

Not all kitchens are like that; most of the screaming I saw was at one restaurant. From one particularly coked-up dude. So, yeah. There are calm ports as well as turbulent ones. Alas, addiction issues are a big problem for restaurants. I wonder if it's any different now from when I was in culinary school (almost 20 years) -- we actually had a discussion about whether or not the shift drink* was a bad idea (it is a terrible idea).

A test kitchen sounds kind of cool though - checking out new products and equipment.

It was a great job; I worked on so many different things, but mainly what we did was develop new product ideas for large packaged-food companies (eg Kellogg and Heinz). Weight Watcher's Main Street Bistro Bowls, yup. (The food part of Weight Watcher's is separate from the weight-loss weigh-in thing part of Weight Watcher's. Heinz owns the food product lines, or at least they did.) The job required patience, since often I made the same recipe over and over again with only minor changes, like " try it with 20g more cumin." Okey-dokey, off I go to make iteration #2, carefully noting whatever changes to ingredients have been made. And then we all (everyone working there, so around 10 of us, the kitchen staff and the front office peeps) would try it again, and decide if adding 20g more cumin was good or not. Etc etc.

Random things I learned in the test kitchen: cinnamon does not scale up -- you can't multiply a recipe by 50 and also multiply the cinnamon by 50. Your sensory apparatus will hate you if you do that. Tequila** does not dehydrate into a tequila-flavored syrup that can be added to foods for "real tequila flavor!" It turns into a vileness that I struggle to describe. Let's just leave it at very bad. And (some) pastry chefs/chocolatiers are assholes. At any rate, I have a specific person in mind in each of those categories, and they both sucked*** to try to work with. Enormous egos. (The company I worked for was a small consulting firm, and a big part of their draw was that they had access to celebrity chefs. I was part of the team that turned Martin Yan's recipes, for example, into actual mass-unit-scale products for Stouffer's.)

*The shift drink is when staff sticks around after their shift is over and has a cocktail, traditionally the first one being on the house. It's an old trick to try to get your staff to spend a bunch of the tips they just earned buying cocktails in the place where they just made the money. It never leads to anything good, ime.

**This was before I got sober. I wish I could describe the tequila syrup (all we did was pour a couple of cups into a shallow dish and put it in the dehydrator, I have no idea for how long. Until it was syrupy.) And all of us kitchen peeps tried it. Our collective reaction was not caught on video, sadly. It was high drama indeed: "Dear God in heaven, WHAT HAVE WE WROUGHT?!!!??!" "The evil, make it stop!" "I can't feel my mouth, and yet it tastes horrible. What dark magic is this?" Ah, good times. :)

***His profile picture is in profile! Geddit? Oy, this guy.

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Man, kitchens are different. Mostly (all IME, YMMV) you just had to be tough enough. Because there weren't long meetings about bullshit, there was just an exec chef and/or an expediter screaming at you to produce. But if you couldn't take being yelled at, and you couldn't dish back the rudeness, then it wasn't a good fit. This is why I ended up in a test kitchen; way less time pressure than in a restaurant, and waaaaay less screaming. :)

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Scalzi's Old Man's War series is quite good.

Chinatown I didn't love.

I sympathize with those who must suffer through meetings. It sounds horrible (I don't know firsthand; nearly every job I ever had involved a uniform, and sometimes a nametag. ;) )

Vibes to all; I hope good things stay good and bad things improve. :)

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I'm like that with Farscape, too, I've realized -- I sponsored a shit-ton of eps for Mark Watches, and I'm excited to see Mark's reaction to the show, but I have absolutely zero interest in participating in the comments section of his site. I've already said everything I need to say about Farscape. Same with BtVS and AtS, when Mark watched them. I watched the vids, I laughed, I cried, I did not need to share that with another set of people. We all (this specific "we," I mean -- TWoPpers of Yore) have probably already figured out how we feel about these shows. I have nothing left to say that I haven't already said a bazillion times before.

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It's what I used to do, heh. Fried Coke, btw? Is really fried Coke-flavored batter. It's essentially a pancake batter that uses Coke as the liquid ingredient. The original fried Coke balls were served with a garnish of cola syrup, which no doubt boosted the cola flavor. Fried beer, same basic thing. It just sounds more "whaaaaaat?" if you say it's a "Deep-Fried [Liquid]!"

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Alrighty, the fried butter question hits me right in my former test-kitchen-worker feels, so I looked up several different articles and recipes. While there are some recipes that are savory (including one from Paula Deen, because of course), most are sweet. The video here shows the texture -- the butter essentially melts into the batter, which is a pancake-type. Messy and probably really frelling delicious. But then later on your digestive system might feels some regrets, heh. This looks like the origin of the thing, and these ones sound tastier, I have to say. The butter is whipped up and then frozen, so you're not dealing so much with a stick of batter that drips butter down your face when you bite into it, but a pastry that's really, really butteriffic. Fascinating. ;)

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Big vibes to you, your brother, and your mom, L&b. Mr F's grandmother was heartbroken about being moved into the senior living place. For about a day, until she met a bunch of people and learned about all the activities available to her at the new place, then she was good. We visit her every weekend, too, and that's waaaaay more than we ever used to see her, so I think she likes that part. I hope it all goes as well as possible for your mom.

Both my kids are home sick, oh joy. Thanks everyone for vibes; pain-free is too much to ask, alas, but pain reduction is a thing worth aiming for. ;) Unfortunately it seems that my leveling up is indeed the new normal, which...well, it just sucks. I was going to try to be philosophical or some shit, but y'know, it really does just suck. I try to swim some of it away, but it's always, always there. Blergh.

Anyhoodle, here's my question: what is the texture of deep-fried butter? Is it still a cohesive solid? I have a hard time envisioning the physics of that one, because if the butter starts out cold enough to hold its shape then when you bite into it, isn't it just a mouth full of (tepid?) butter? Yum?

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The top of the page is asking if I'm interested in deep-fried George Clooney. No, no I am not.

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I'm sorry about the numbth, Bol.

I have leveled up on Pain. Just when I think I'm at the top, there's another new dimension lurking. Fucking sucks.

Vibes to everyone in need.

(Btw who hates iOs 8? I do I do!)

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I'm glad the debate went well for the F-ster. I don't recall if you told us the issues and whether he was pro or anti.

The topic was organ donation; essentially, should it remain opt-in (status quo) or should it be opt-out? You have to write a case for both sides, because you'll end up doing both. It's usually a coin flip to decide aff and neg, and there are three rounds of prelim competition.

I'm sorry that housing court didn't go as well as you'd hoped. But you're screwing the bastard landlord, so yay for that.

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Sorry, got too lingo-ey there. You "break" into semi or final rounds. So if you broke, you made it past early rounds and have a chance to compete for a trophy. To break in your very first tournament is really good; the F-ster was the only kid from his school in Novice division who broke (all the kids in Senior division broke [to move up to Senior division you have to trophy twice in Novice] but then, this school has a very strong debate program). The second day was much less of a disaster than it could've been; he informed his coach that he forgot his cases, she said, "find someone who'll let you run theirs," a classmate let him make copies of her cases and run them. So he got to compete, which is the main thing at this point -- he needs experience, more than anything.

He didn't break in his second day event, but he wasn't expecting to. He didn't trophy in his first day event, either, which has not discouraged him; he wants to do better. And "beat all those Manogue girls" (all three trophy winners were from the same school). Heh. I'm hoping that he gets some more positive reinforcement during today's'postmortem at school. He will get to see his first-ever judging ballots. That's always fun (I'll never forget the ballot I got that said "I hate your outfit." Um, sorry?) At any rate, he got the bug to compete, so it's all good. I just desperately needed him to do something social and out-of-the-house.

Big big vibes to your dad, Hostile.

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Will a double post merge to become one post? Let's find out.

The F-ster forgot his cases -- his pre-written arguments for the L/D topic. He never even brought them home; apparently they are still living on the school's network, which is a closed system (inaccessible except if you're actually in the computer lab). Siiiiiiiiiigh. So, I don't know what'll happen today. I told him to go straight to his coach and tell her what's up; my guess is that he'll be DQ'd and have to just observe other competitors. He inoculated himself against getting serious meanness from his teammates by doing so well in his Individual Event yesterday, but there's still going to be some crap that he has to take for screwing up. He teared up in the car when I dropped him off, because he knew he was going to take some shit. All I could say was, "Yep, and you deserve some ribbing for screwing up. But you did very well yesterday, you showed that you can compete, and it's the first tournament, so it could be worse." And then I watched him walk into the school and my heart broke for him. Damn it.

Mr F mentioned that it was going to happen sooner or later, so it's better to happen now when it isn't actually important, and hopefully this'll be seared into the F-ster's brain so he'll never forget his shit again. Siiiiiiiiiiiigh.

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No capes! /Edna Mode. You can be SuperMom while cape-free. ;)

The first day of competition went well, it sounds like; Mr F has gone to pick up the F-ster, so I haven't heard the full story yet, but he broke (he broke into the final round). Which is about the best possible way it could've gone, so yay! They don't award trophies for today's events until tomorrow, so he doesn't know yet if he trophied. But he broke, which is a very big deal. Tomorrow he does a different event (Lincoln/Douglas debate) and I think the confidence boost from doing well today will be a good thing.

Mostly I feel proud of him and giant relief at the same time, heh.

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as tall as a high school freshman but with the body structure of an 11-year-old.

Urgh, yes. The F-ster has the height of an adult, and the arm length. But his neck, shoulders, and waist are teeny, so there's no way he can wear real men's dress clothes yet. They look like dress-up clothes on him, even though they fit in the arms and legs.

He is competing right now. I am trying to be chill, heh. I just want it to go well for him.

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The F-ster has his first debate tournament this weekend (starts this afternoon, concludes on Saturday) and I am so vicariously nervous I can't stand it. Ugh, it is sometimes SO HARD to stand back and let your kids do their thing. I always do -- stand back, I mean -- but sometimes it ain't easy. We had a hilarious time finding proper clothes for him; he is 6' and has a 26-inch waist. Try finding pants in size 26x32. Yeahno, they don't exist. And a suit was just out of the question. If the sleeves are long enough, the rest of the shirt is too big (his shirt size is 14x33. Good luck with that! Argh). So he got a couple of dress shirts, Calvin Klein slim fit, and a vest, and black chino pants that are 28x32 and can be belted.

Woo, clothes. Heh. And he got a haircut, so his face is actually visible. Amazing. ;)

I hope the cortisone continues to work, L&b. I get facet joint injections in my neck/shoulder, have been doing so for several years now, and they're very helpful. The benefits last about a year for me, and when it starts hurting again, I go back to Dr Awesome and get shot up again. (Background info: Dr Awesome got her name several years ago when I was still seeing a neurologist who was completely unhelpful with my MS pain, and in desperation I went to another doc, who turned out to be the wonderful Dr Awesome, who listened to me and actually helped me. She got me a TENS unit, she figured out the joint iniections, she worked with me on pain meds, she is Awesome).

Vibes to all. :)

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Was Pepperpot neighbors? My memory says "throw that at the wall, see if it sticks."

Right, I missed it the first time, but Harvester has also guessed neighbors. There needs to be fessing up now, please. :P

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Me and the fam were in SF, for the absolute worst baseball game I have ever seen. The fucking Dodgers blanked the Giants 17-0 on Sat. night., their worst loss since 1906. It was painful. The starters played like a high school team, and then when they were all pulled out of the game once it was obviously going to be a Giants loss, the B-squad came out and played like Little Leaguers. They all embarrassed themselves, it was horrible. Today's game was also a loss, but going down 4-2 and seeing the team play like they were actual Major Leaguers? I guess I"ll take it. :/

So many vibes, L&b. :)

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I'm sorry, Barphe. Vibes are flying your way.

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Thank you, everyone. I love you guys. :)

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I hate the expectation that one is available, on-call, all the time. Nope. Screw that. Just because you can text something to your coworker or whoever at 2 am doesn't mean you should. The thing that irritates me is the expectation that EVERYONE texts. Again, nope. I fucking hate texting with the power of 10000 nuns. Because it's physically difficult/impossible for me. My right hand is almost completely useless (numb) and my left may be starting down that road as well. I CAN'T type on a phone keypad. I can barely do it on an iPad, which is what I'm doing now. Texts sent to my phone might as well be floating away into the ether, 'cause I ain't never gonna see that shit.

Time for voice-recognition software, which I have resisted because of stupid difficult ugly feelings about becoming an invalid and losing capabilities. Damn it. Crying now, sorry

I reread this, almost deleted, decided to post it. You all are my friends, and I can be honest with you about fear. Stupid MS. What an asshole, seriously. ;)

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dusky, I forget all the phrases used here to describe your ex, but none of them fully captured his suckitude.

Ain't that the truth. What an asshole. Fucker doesn't deserve a relationship with his daughter. I'm sorry about the child support. That fucker.

Are you all settled into the new place, AnnieF? Is your old house sold or is there still work to be done there?

We're fairly well settled in at this point. Still need to hang some pictures. The old house has been looked at by a general contractor, who has brought over a couple of subcontractors to get bids for carpet and cabinets. That was a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't heard anything back, but knowing that long periods of silence followed by a flurry of activity is The Way of The Contractor, I'm not worried. It'll all get done eventually. I'm able to be super zen about it because it's not my money, heh. I'm very, very grateful to my father, who has made it possible for us to move this way. At this point my involvement with the old house is basically "sure, let's paint it that color," which is a pretty relaxed place to be. And I am really happy with the new house, so it's all good. :)

And one of your Fs- the one who is walking to school- are you less stressed about that?

Yep, that's working out great, thanks for checking in. :) The F-ster gets dropped off at the high school, takes his speech and debate class (which so far he's really enjoying), then walks 20 minutes to the other school, which is mostly computer labs. It's going really well. He gets some exercise, he's working on stuff because there are fewer distractions than at home, so it's working. Phew. ;)

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I'm good here; it's Ace who's in AZ. Where I hope not everything has been washed away.

Big work vibes for KPC. :)

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But have a box of tissues ready.

Not A Lie. Dear lord, that movie.

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That movie made me sob in the theater. It was embarrassing. But it is the Saddest.