Chit-Chat: What's On Your Mind Today?

[Yeah No]

9 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I really do want to enjoy cooking! And for the things I’ve mastered, or crockpot recipes, I do fine. I also like to bake and tend not to fail at that as much. I just love seeing photos of good food on Pinterest and wish I could be one of those food bloggers LOL. (It will likely never happen, which I’ve accepted; doesn’t mean I don’t still fantasize about it.) I like looking at kitchen gadgets, all of that. Just that for some reason, my efforts tend to come out not so great. The comments of a food blog will have everyone raving about how great a recipe is, they’ll put it in their rotation, even their cousin’s neighbor loved it, but I just don’t get that hype. 

I haven’t thought about watching a recipe video instead but maybe that would help. 

I'm a pretty good home cook, although I had the benefit of watching my mom and grandma growing up, both of whom were excellent cooks. I didn't come out of the box a good cook, though. It took some trial and error to get where I am today. So my advice is don't put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect right away. It takes time. I would say I didn't get really good at it until my 40s. Before then I was too busy to put much time and effort into it. But I think making the same dish over and over again helps to perfect it and your overall cooking skills in general.

Otherwise, I'll also echo what everyone has said so far. Mise en place is important, especially because in cooking timing is everything and you don't want to be fumbling for a spice while your food burns on the stove. Also, I agree about watching demonstration videos, but also cooking shows like on PBS. I've learned a lot from watching them, not just when I'm cooking what they're making, but just in general. A lot of it seeps in "by osmosis", LOL. And the thing is even after all these years watching those shows I'm always learning something new. 

In addition, having the right tools for the job is important. Knowing which pan is the best one for a certain type of cooking is important. Again, that comes with trial and error. Some of this stuff I learned from my relatives but a lot of it I also learned on my own. I can still remember my mother telling me not to "crowd the pan" when I browned meat, otherwise it can come out livery and soupy. But other things like not keeping the heat/flame too high so as not to burn things, but just brown them was something I had to learn myself. Although my grandma used to complain that my mother burned the meatballs because she kept the flame too high, LOL.

[Yeah No]

9 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Someone in my husband's office brought in fake tattoo sleeves for Halloween.  They're made of sheer stretchy material, and they look surprisingly realistic. 

There's an early episode of "Big Bang Theory" in which Howard and Raj wear fake tattoo sleeves to try to pick up "chicks" at a goth club, lol.

[Calvada]

I find a lot of recipes are poorly written.  For example, step 1 is cooking the pasta,  but if you think about it, you realize the sauce won't be finished for an hour, so cooking the pasta first makes no sense.  In my 20's, on my own for the first time, I had a few disasters as I figured this out.  Also, too many recipes underestimate the prep time.  For example, they'll say 10 minutes and over 30 minutes later I'm still chopping up vegetables.  I don't think many include true prep time - for example, they just count the actual minute you're chopping the onion, not the time you spent peeling it/preparing it to be chopped.  Nor do they count the time to assemble the ingredients, pots/pans, and utensils you need.  I agree with those who have said this is important to do.  You don't want to get 30 minutes into the preparation of something to realize you're out of oregano or you forgot to put tomato paste on the grocery list.  

[Yeah No]

13 minutes ago, Calvada said:

I find a lot of recipes are poorly written.  For example, step 1 is cooking the pasta,  but if you think about it, you realize the sauce won't be finished for an hour, so cooking the pasta first makes no sense.  In my 20's, on my own for the first time, I had a few disasters as I figured this out.  Also, too many recipes underestimate the prep time.  For example, they'll say 10 minutes and over 30 minutes later I'm still chopping up vegetables.  I don't think many include true prep time - for example, they just count the actual minute you're chopping the onion, not the time you spent peeling it/preparing it to be chopped.  Nor do they count the time to assemble the ingredients, pots/pans, and utensils you need.  I agree with those who have said this is important to do.  You want to get 30 minutes into the preparation of something to realize you're out of oregano or you forgot to put tomato paste on the grocery list.  

Yes, I'll agree with that, I've seen a big increase in poorly written recipes. I like to believe I have a "nose" for a good recipe but even at that I'm finding entire steps left out, incorrect ingredient amounts, wrong timing, wrong temperature, you name it. These days if I get a recipe off the internet I make sure to look at the reviews because they often talk about any omissions or mistakes and correct them. But I'm even seeing mistakes in some magazines and cookbooks. It's important to consider the source. These days I'm enjoying NYT Cooking for recipes. It's a huge treasure trove of NYT recipes and many of them are very good. They just reminded me of Pierre Franey's turkey chili recipe so I'm making that today, although I'm leaving out the celery, lol. It gets great reviews so I'm game to try it. My mother loved Pierre Franey so it's also a nostalgia thing for me.

https://www.pierrefraney.com/recipes/poultry_and_game/turkey_chili.html

Edited Friday at 02:34 PM by Yeah No

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, PRgal said:

Transformers a thing again with boys?  I saw a few Optimus Primes walking around both at school and last night.

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Someone in my husband's office brought in fake tattoo sleeves for Halloween.  They're made of sheer stretchy material, and they look surprisingly realistic. 

I remember Howard on The Big Bang Theory wearing those to impress a goth girl…[Googles] it was 3.3 “The Gothowitz Deviation” from 2009. 

I guess anything old can become new again. 
I heard dialog on an older (90s?) rerun the other day in which the teenagers didn't know what a vinyl album was.

ETA: Oops. I hadn't let the last page load. 
I see @Yeah No thought the same.

Edited Friday at 04:04 PM by shapeshifter

[StatisticalOutlier]

I saw a little kid crossing the street in front of me, maybe about five years old, dressed as a chef.  A very simple costume--just the toque and the chef jacket, but somehow the most adorable thing I've seen in a while.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Agree with @Bastet  definitely don’t use all those little glass bowls for prep. I put everything on one plate in little piles. 

I figure as long as I make sure I have all the ingredients and all the necessary utensils, I'm good to go.
When it comes time to measure, I do things like first measure oil in a measuring cup, and then the honey so it will roll out completely. 
I don't think they do that on cooking shows and Youtube, but I really don't cook anymore.
I'm buying pies from Wegmans to take to my daughter's for Thanksgiving.

I would make cornbread, but they want pie, and I can't do that on autopilot.

Anyway, in related news, yesterday I read in The Atlantic that I should throw out my black plastic spatulas because, in part:

Quote

…Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid.

In 2018, Turner published one of the earliest papers positing that black plastic products were likely regularly being made from recycled electronic waste.…

The full article clearly (and alarmingly) explains the what, how, and why.
Here's a free gift link to the article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/10/black-plastic-spatula-flame-retardants/680452/?gift=V9NVOkgoMYzHX6g0rLsAyX7PfNtJWJnTSxty6WlFEZ0&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

[annzeepark914]

12 hours ago, Bastet said:

That's obviously not malicious, or any intent, given his age, but is that really something you and his accompanying parent(s) treated as perfectly okay without following it up with a gentle statement he needs to ask permission first?

My husband was at the door & he just guessed the child's age. I bet he was a very young 4. The same thing happened to me at the door 20 years ago when a little one saw the huge candy bowl (sitting on a low stool just inside the door), stepped into the hall & grabbed a candy. It's an exciting night for little kids, they're all hyped up. Not the best time for a lesson. 

[EtheltoTillie]

25 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Anyway, in related news, yesterday I read in The Atlantic that I should throw out my black plastic spatulas because, in part:

The full article clearly (and alarmingly) explains the what, how, and why.
Here's a free gift link to the article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/10/black-plastic-spatula-flame-retardants/680452/?gift=V9NVOkgoMYzHX6g0rLsAyX7PfNtJWJnTSxty6WlFEZ0&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

This is why we can't have nice things anymore!  (Or oy is that scary.)

[emma675]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

This is why we can't have nice things anymore!  (Or oy is that scary.)

Right?? I didn't know which reaction emoji to use on that post, lol. It was useful information but also scary and a little frustrating. 

[Bastet]

My friend, who does not hand out candy at home, is visiting her sister, who does.  While the sister took the niece trick-or-treating, my friend had to be on candy duty.  She emailed me today and said, "I have no idea what 75% of those people were dressed as.  I guess movies and shows I don't know anything about."  That would totally be me if I participated.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 10/24/2024 at 9:47 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

YeahNo, did you miss the story about the last Kmart closing in Bridgehampton?  It made national news (last week). 

I saw those news reports, too, but they weren't entirely accurate.  There's still a small Kmart in Miami.  Maybe the one in Bridgehampton was the last full-sized one?

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article291311380.html

[Yeah No]

5 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I saw those news reports, too, but they weren't entirely accurate.  There's still a small Kmart in Miami.  Maybe the one in Bridgehampton was the last full-sized one?

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article291311380.html

Yes, I just read online that the Bridgehampton store was the last full sized store open. I didn't even know it was still there. It's like finding out a celebrity died that you already thought was dead, lol.

That little one in Florida looks really small.

That reminds me of the last Howard Johnson's in Lake George, NY that closed a couple of years ago. I went there once several years ago when I found out it was one of the only ones left and it wasn't much like the old Ho Jo's we all used to know.

[lookeyloo]

On 10/31/2024 at 6:58 PM, Cloud9Shopper said:

I feel so dumb right now. I was trying a new recipe tonight and completely read it wrong. I saw “3 cups of rice” but by the time I REREAD and saw “three cups of cooked rice” it was too late. I was wondering why I had an Everest mountain full of rice when I went to put it in the pan with the other ingredients. (I was trying chicken fried rice.) And of course the meal completely tastes like mush and is likely going to go to waste. 

I have been living on my own for five years and I still can’t cook and occasionally botch recipes because I didn’t read enough or had a hard time with the instructions. (I have some favorite meals I have down pat but tend to struggle with anything new so I guess saying “I can’t cook” is a semi exaggeration.) A couple weeks ago I messed up a pasta and couldn’t blend the ingredients of a sauce and it was all chunky and basically inedible. I also got a multicooker last month and am having a hard time using it for pasta and rice because I’m not measuring right and the cooker never seems to stop, just cooking forever because I mismeasured. It is so beyond frustrating. I like to have leftovers for lunch….and well…thank goodness I’m stocked up on soup because I keep having to put things in the garbage. 

If you are interested, and have Facebook or YouTube, check out "cooking with Brenda Gantt".  She really is good at showing basic things in her own ordinary not spectacular home kitchen with little use of gadgets except a knife in most cases.  I can cook but I enjoy watching her and have learned a thing or two.  She has a lot of videos from making biscuits from scratch which is how she started during the pandemic to just cooking every day things. She now has cookbooks and I bought one and gave it away because it isn't necessary if you watch her videos.  She is from Andalusia, Alabama.

[ginger90]

For years I worked 11p-7a including every other weekend. Then for a while, 3p-11p and every other weekend off. I would get annoyed when for example, radio stations would advertise events and include, “everyone is off so they’re expecting a big crowd”, or similar comments. No everyone is not off. 

Edited Saturday at 04:32 PM by ginger90

[GHScorpiosRule]

This was my henna design this year!

[Gramto6]

Absolutely gorgeous!!!  Love seeing the work in progress too!

[nokat]

So I wake up at the usual time, take my pills and sit down at my laptop.  Wait, what time is it? For all of the people in the US who have the time change, welcome to everything being an hour off. So many of us just want permanent daylight savings time.

[Browncoat]

Doesn't matter -- either way the time is, I'm driving to work in the dark in the winter.  It's marginally less bad with Standard time, though, than Daylight Saving Time.

[Anduin]

DST was tried for a year in my state. When the people had their say, it got voted down. Then the party got voted out. Next time that party was back in, they tried for three years. Same result! In summer, we're three hours behind the east coast instead of two, but that's how we like it.

[nokat]

19 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Doesn't matter -- either way the time is, I'm driving to work in the dark in the winter.  It's marginally less bad with Standard time, though, than Daylight Saving Time.

Coming home though, an extra hour of daylight to get things done was nice. I'm north enough that with Standard Time, it is getting dark before 6 p.m.

[Browncoat]

5 minutes ago, nokat said:

I'm north enough that with Standard Time, it is getting dark before 6 p.m.

Same, but in a month it would even with DST.  With only 9.5 hours of daylight in December where I am, it's always going to be dark (or near dark) at either end of my commute regardless of what the clock says.

[Yeah No]

14 minutes ago, nokat said:

Coming home though, an extra hour of daylight to get things done was nice. I'm north enough that with Standard Time, it is getting dark before 6 p.m.

Here in CT our sun sets at around 4:20 p.m. in December, so I'm a big supporter of permanent daylight saving time. I have a few reasons:

1. I like more time in the afternoon/evening to enjoy the daylight as I don't do much outside in the morning. Even when I worked I wanted more daylight after 5:00 p.m. to enjoy.
    
2. I'm getting older and my night vision isn't what it used to be, so I feel more restricted as to where I feel comfortable driving after sunset during standard time. And considering how early that is, it's a real bummer sometimes!
    
3. I suffer from SADS (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and have less energy and pep in the Winter and my bones ache more. I take tons of vitamin D so I'm not as mildly depressed as I used to be but it's still a factor. And it's not even a matter of just less daylight, but less daylight combined with cold weather. Somehow both together have an even worse affect on a lot of people.
    
4. In New England we are pretty far East in the Eastern time zone. I used to travel to the Midwest a lot and in Indiana, which was still in the Eastern time zone, the sun set a full hour later than back in CT! That has always bugged me!

6 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Same, but in a month it would even with DST.  With only 9.5 hours of daylight in December where I am, it's always going to be dark (or near dark) at either end of my commute regardless of what the clock says.

On the shortest day of the year in CT we only have 9 hours and 8 minutes of daylight so there was a long period where I didn't see daylight after work and my last hour of work was at night.

[crazycatlady58]

21 hours ago, ginger90 said:

For years I worked 11p-7a including every other weekend. Then for a while, 3p-11p and every other weekend off. I would get annoyed when for example, radio stations would advertise events and include, “everyone is off so they’re expecting a big crowd”, or similar comments. No everyone is not off. 

I have always worked retail. People say “ Are you glad it’s Friday “ or “ will you be shopping the sales on Black Friday “? I smile and say no I will be working. They usually look a little surprised and ask “ You mean you can’t take the day off” ? A big nope on that especially for Black Friday. I mean come on you know I work retail BECAUSE YOU ARE IN MY STORE. I am tired folks.

[SweetieDarling]

1 hour ago, crazycatlady58 said:

I have always worked retail. People say “ Are you glad it’s Friday “ or “ will you be shopping the sales on Black Friday “? I smile and say no I will be working. They usually look a little surprised and ask “ You mean you can’t take the day off” ? A big nope on that especially for Black Friday. I mean come on you know I work retail BECAUSE YOU ARE IN MY STORE. I am tired folks.

What's just as bad are the people that would come in during snow storms, telling me how bad it was outside and how bad the roads were getting, and I really shouldn't have to work- I wouldn't have to be here if there were no customers, but here you are. -or the people that would tell me how nice the weather was outside -thanks, I'm here until close

Edited Sunday at 03:09 PM by SweetieDarling

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Here in CT our sun sets at around 4:20 p.m. in December, so I'm a big supporter of permanent daylight saving time. I have a few reasons:

1. I like more time in the afternoon/evening to enjoy the daylight as I don't do much outside in the morning. Even when I worked I wanted more daylight after 5:00 p.m. to enjoy.
    
2. I'm getting older and my night vision isn't what it used to be, so I feel more restricted as to where I feel comfortable driving after sunset during standard time. And considering how early that is, it's a real bummer sometimes!
    
3. I suffer from SADS (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and have less energy and pep in the Winter and my bones ache more. I take tons of vitamin D so I'm not as mildly depressed as I used to be but it's still a factor. And it's not even a matter of just less daylight, but less daylight combined with cold weather. Somehow both together have an even worse affect on a lot of people.
    
4. In New England we are pretty far East in the Eastern time zone. I used to travel to the Midwest a lot and in Indiana, which was still in the Eastern time zone, the sun set a full hour later than back in CT! That has always bugged me!

On the shortest day of the year in CT we only have 9 hours and 8 minutes of daylight so there was a long period where I didn't see daylight after work and my last hour of work was at night.

A lot of good points. 
Also consider the number of cloudy days during the short-day months.
Cloud cover can easily cost an hour of sunlight.

 

 

7 hours ago, crazycatlady58 said:

I have always worked retail. People say “ Are you glad it’s Friday “ or “ will you be shopping the sales on Black Friday “? I smile and say no I will be working. They usually look a little surprised and ask “ You mean you can’t take the day off” ? A big nope on that especially for Black Friday. I mean come on you know I work retail BECAUSE YOU ARE IN MY STORE. I am tired folks.

My last 20 years before retirement I was a college librarian. I worked 1-3 nights per week and 1-2 Sundays per month.
ETA: About 50 hrs/week total; not paid hourly. 
The computer tech guys did not work those hours, so I was also tech support on those nights and Sundays, but the librarians were the only college employees who never got salary increases for added work responsibilities.  

And don't try to explain why I had to work Federal Holiday Mondays:
because if the students had Mondays off, it would mean the semester would have to be at least a week longer to make up for it.
I could see their eyes glaze over before I got to the point.

But I'm still in touch with the now-library director. Post pandemic the librarians get to WFH 2 days per week with no nights or Sundays. 
If I had retired when I planned (this year) I could have afforded that place on the beach in Rochester that I was out-bid on in August.

But then I'd have probably barely seen my little grandbabies, and probably wouldn't have known the area well enough to even bid on the place.

So. It's sunny and cold today. It could be worse.

Edited Sunday at 09:49 PM by shapeshifter

[nokat]

1 hour ago, SweetieDarling said:

the people that would tell me how nice the weather was outside

As a customer I've been asked how nice it is outside or what I'm doing on such a nice day.  I consider it brief, polite talk and don't go into detail. Yup, I'm buying bleach because that party was wild last night. Should be a good day to drive out to the bridge. 

[Lisa418722]

I prefer standard time year-round. I don't need it light until 9:00 at night; I prefer having light in the morning to help wake me up. Also, my condo is on the west side, so during the summer, it feels like it never cools off.   At least if the sun went down an hour earlier in the summer, my condo might start to cool off before going to bed.  

I work for a law firm that is open on Black Friday.  I remember being incredulous when I discovered the very few holidays we get (and if the holiday is on the weekend, we don't get the Friday before or Monday after).  

[Blergh]

I don't know where else to put this but I think folks need to be aware in case something similar happens to them what happened to my 90-something mother last week.

 

Long-short is that an internet provider showed up at her doorstep  with a large truck in the driveway first thing in the morning with her name and address all over their papers claiming that they were to install some high-tech gadget for her. Thankfully, she was able to clarify that she had NOT ordered anything from said provider and that they weren't needed.

I don't know claim to know how she might have gotten on their list (much less if her name got put in it by them or someone else possibly intending to cause trouble)  but I'm wondering if this might have been attempt at a scam- and also wonder if anyone else with a similar rude awakening  (especially an elderly person) might have been too intimidated by a would-be installer to question it before they wound up paying $$$ for stuff they hadn't ordered and had zero need for. 

[annzeepark914]

That's very concerning... especially with her name & address on their paperwork. Good for her refusing to let them in! 

[Dimity]

I haven't heard of a scam like that involving cable but the two big ones going around here involve replacing furnaces and installing water purifiers.  They mainly target elderly people and they act like what they need to do is mandated by "the government" - sometimes provincial, sometimes municipal.  Essentially they scare their target into believing they have no choice.  The mother of friends of ours fell for the water purifier scam and ended up on the hook for thousands of dollars😡.

[SoMuchTV]

When you get a call at 5am from your adult child, that can’t be good, right? So I guess the least bad possibility is, a pipe’s burst, my apartment’s flooded, can I bring my cat over?  Everyone’s safe, stuff is mostly salvageable. Saving my stress for one more day.