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

[kristen111]

4 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

Rao’s sausage and mushroom red sauce is divine! I rarely buy it since I’m trying not to eat pasta much. 
 

Rao’s is the best jarred sauce I tried.

Sophia Lauren said EVERY night, she had to eat a dish of pasta with sauce.    I love the Angel Hair spaghetti with tons of sauce and grating cheese.  My father in law ate it every night too.

[annzeepark914]

I have yet to make it into Lidle even though it's not far away.  Do they sell Table Talk Pies there?  I've heard they do (haven't had a Table Talk Pie since I lived in NYS)  I've been to Aldi's a couple of times (the quarter needed for a shopping cart is a PITA)...it was just ok. We now have Amazon's grocery store several miles away and one is moving even closer so I might have to try it.  But first, I need to recruit a kid to go with me so I'll know how to use the new system!😁

[oliviabenson]

I grew up on home cooked meals. I had my first twinkies, frozen TV dinners, chef boyardee, etc at a neighbor house. Her mom never cooked! Ice cream, soda, chips was a rarity in my house. 
 

I was so jealous of all her processed junk food paradise! 

[Bastet]

16 minutes ago, oliviabenson said:

I grew up on home cooked meals. I had my first twinkies, frozen TV dinners, chef boyardee, etc at a neighbor house.

I've never had Chef Boyardee (or wanted to), but I, too, was introduced to a lot of processed food at a neighbor's house.  It wasn't verboten in my house, just uncommon, so a lot of stuff they had over there I'd never come across before -- those poor kids were basically feral, having to fend for themselves a lot, including coming up with something to eat, so that's what they relied on.  I was friends with the two sisters, and they wanted to spend all their time at my house, so I wasn't over there a lot, but when I was I discovered all kinds of new things.  A few of which were delightfully delicious crimes against food, I must say.

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, Quof said:

This Canuck agrees.

There’s a Toronto artist who created this:

 

https://michellevella.com/collections/city-and-lake-life-prints/products/kraft-dinner-comfort-series-limited-edition-print
 

The Kraft Instagram account commented on her post and said they wanted a copy!!! Lol 

[RealHousewife]

1 hour ago, kristen111 said:

Sophia Lauren said EVERY night, she had to eat a dish of pasta with sauce.    I love the Angel Hair spaghetti with tons of sauce and grating cheese.  My father in law ate it every night too.

There’s some quote “everything you see, I owe to spaghetti.” Not sure if she ever actually said that. Too bad current actresses feel so much pressure to be skinny. 

[peacheslatour]

15 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I've never had Chef Boyardee (or wanted to), but I, too, was introduced to a lot of processed food at a neighbor's house.  It wasn't verboten in my house, just uncommon, so a lot of stuff they had over there I'd never come across before -- those poor kids were basically feral, having to fend for themselves a lot, including coming up with something to eat, so that's what they relied on.  I was friends with the two sisters, and they wanted to spend all their time at my house, so I wasn't over there a lot, but when I was I discovered all kinds of new things.  A few of which were delightfully delicious crimes against food, I must say.

I thought I wanted Chef Boyardee until we were camping at Ocean Shores while my dad was fishing. My mom and I found a can of Spaghetti-Os in our cabin. I deviled her until she cooked it. I couldn't eat more than a bite. Bleh.

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, annzeepark914 said:

I have yet to make it into Lidle even though it's not far away.  Do they sell Table Talk Pies there?  I've heard they do (haven't had a Table Talk Pie since I lived in NYS)  I've been to Aldi's a couple of times (the quarter needed for a shopping cart is a PITA)...it was just ok. We now have Amazon's grocery store several miles away and one is moving even closer so I might have to try it.  But first, I need to recruit a kid to go with me so I'll know how to use the new system!😁

Lidl is like Aldi's and Trader Joes in that there are very limited choices.  I don't know if they have Table Talk pies. Some things are very cheap (produce and meats and fish).  They offer good fresh baked baguettes and croissants.  But they don't stock every brand and they don't stock a lot of things you'd expect to find at a regular supermarket.  Also, they devote the center aisle to sales of cheap nonfood items.  Hence the comment that it looks like a flea market. People walking around the store look depressed, especially since they remember the store that used to occupy the same space.  It's like a Soviet supermarket. 

If I know I have to buy certain items, I have to drive to a farther-away store, like Stop and Shop.

Edited May 31, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[PRgal]

I wonder if we should take all this grocery talk to Food chit-chat?  In any case, one of my regular products recently rebranded (including FINALLY updating their 20+ year old website (seriously, the website looked like my Geocities site from 1999)) and some grocery stores have yet to restock, thanks to the distributor.  Right now, it's impossible to find!  Sometimes, I have to go to three stores just to find it!

[nokat]

3 minutes ago, PRgal said:

I wonder if we should take all this grocery talk to Food chit-chat?  In any case, one of my regular products recently rebranded (including FINALLY updating their 20+ year old website (seriously, the website looked like my Geocities site from 1999)) and some grocery stores have yet to restock, thanks to the distributor.  Right now, it's impossible to find!  Sometimes, I have to go to three stores just to find it!

I for one love food talk. This forum isn't screaming by with a lot of posts. :)

[oliviabenson]

41 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I thought I wanted Chef Boyardee until we were camping at Ocean Shores while my dad was fishing. My mom and I found a can of Spaghetti-Os in our cabin. I deviled her until she cooked it. I couldn't eat more than a bite. Bleh.

Hey I love the hot dog spaghetti os and eat it straight from the can. I never heated it up lol.

[nokat]

4 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

When I was in my late teens/early twenties. I took a ballet class with my then BF's mom. I had been on my high school's gymnastics team for years so I figured "ballet? no sweat!" Oh boy, was I wrong!

Someone recommended ballet to build up my quads.  That is some serious exercise. 

4 minutes ago, oliviabenson said:

Hey I love the hot dog spaghetti os and eat it straight from the can. I never heated it up lol.

Don't feel bad for what you love. My childhood involved os.

[kristen111]

3 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

I have yet to make it into Lidle even though it's not far away.  Do they sell Table Talk Pies there?  I've heard they do (haven't had a Table Talk Pie since I lived in NYS)  I've been to Aldi's a couple of times (the quarter needed for a shopping cart is a PITA)...it was just ok. We now have Amazon's grocery store several miles away and one is moving even closer so I might have to try it.  But first, I need to recruit a kid to go with me so I'll know how to use the new system!😁

They charge a quarter to use a cart?  What the heck .. I wouldn’t go there as I don’t carry change.  I think Aldi and Lidl are the same sort of.  I only buy there in a pinch.  They don’t have everything like a regular store has, and they aren’t consistent.  One week they will have something .. the next few weeks they don’t.  It’s hit or miss.

[PRgal]

Speaking of pasta, this recipe appeared on my social feed today.  I think ketchup pasta goes beyond Japan - or at least in some families.  My son's former nanny, who is ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, used to call all tomato-based sauces, whether it be passata sauce, marinara, or whatnot, "ketchup."   Perhaps it's just ignorance/no one bothered to correct her.  

[oliviabenson]

55 minutes ago, kristen111 said:

They charge a quarter to use a cart?  What the heck .. I wouldn’t go there as I don’t carry change.  I think Aldi and Lidl are the same sort of.  I only buy there in a pinch.  They don’t have everything like a regular store has, and they aren’t consistent.  One week they will have something .. the next few weeks they don’t.  It’s hit or miss.

My local Aldi doesn’t charge a quarter! You get it back after you return the cart.

[SuprSuprElevated]

Aldi's uses the .25 cart vending model, as an incentive to return the carts. I'm surprised they haven't raised it to $1, with credit card processors.

[annzeepark914]

29 minutes ago, oliviabenson said:

My local Aldi doesn’t charge a quarter! You get it back after you return the cart.

I should've been more specific. Yes, you put a quarter in a gizmo on the cart and when you return the cart to the holding area, the quarter pops out. It keeps the carts out of the parking lot which is good.

[nokat]

6 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

I should've been more specific. Yes, you put a quarter in a gizmo on the cart and when you return the cart to the holding area, the quarter pops out. It keeps the carts out of the parking lot which is good.

You put a quarter in the qizmo unless you're in Canidiam,then you find change.

[oliviabenson]

I see most of the posters on here are from NY/NJ and Canada. Very cool!

Gordon Ramsay was spotted filming in another Brooklyn restaurant! I wish I can post the picture, but I don’t think it’s allowed!

[Bethany]

59 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

I should've been more specific. Yes, you put a quarter in a gizmo on the cart and when you return the cart to the holding area, the quarter pops out. It keeps the carts out of the parking lot which is good.

Our local grocery store does this as well.  The added benefit is you can pass the cart you no longer need along to another shopper and feel like Lady Bountiful as you wave away their offer of a quarter 😀.

[PRgal]

One of the grocery stores near me is in a mall and the carts lock after a certain distance from the store so carts never leave the mall. 

[nokat]

3 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

Aldi's uses the .25 cart vending model, as an incentive to return the carts. I'm surprised they haven't raised it to $1, with credit card processors.

I return carts anyway. If I can, I do.

[Caoimhe]

It started at one then went up to two euro in the Irish Lidl and Aldi (and ALL the other supermarkets as well).  But I think cart theft is a much bigger problem there because people in nearby houses would just take the carts home with them, whereas here it seems to be people leaving them around the car parks.  On my old keychain I have metal discs in the size and shape of one and two euro coins sold as “trolley tokens”!  Before those were popular people would come up to me as I left a shop because they had the amount of money but not the proper coin so they’d hand me their change and take the trolley with the euro in it.  The nearest Aldi had to install the locking mechanism because they were in the middle of a neighborhood and people just wanted to take the trolley home with them, once it wasn’t actual cash they didn’t care about getting it back.

[annzeepark914]

I tried to create a post and the ads keep covering it up. Since I have an android smartphone, I can't use the system that prevents ads from taking over 🤬.

 

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 5/31/2023 at 1:57 PM, Mondrianyone said:

There's nothing like taking classes in NYC for that kind of contact, is there?

I took hip hop classes in NYC in the 90s and one day we had a substitute.  Turned out to be the guy on roller skates in Michael Jackson's "Bad" video.  The brush with greatness was pretty cool, but I couldn't help feeling bad he was having to teach hip hop to the likes of me.

On 5/31/2023 at 1:57 PM, Mondrianyone said:

I took tennis, ...

I should've taken tap.

I took tap for PE in college.  And tennis.  And fencing.

I liked my fencing teacher so I took her badminton class but had to drop it because we had to bounce the birdie against a wall, way up high, some ungodly number of times in a row in order to pass.  I swear it was 100 times, but maybe it was less.  Didn't matter, because I never got past 1. 

[peacheslatour]

4 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I took hip hop classes in NYC in the 90s and one day we had a substitute.  Turned out to be the guy on roller skates in Michael Jackson's "Bad" video.  The brush with greatness was pretty cool, but I couldn't help feeling bad he was having to teach hip hop to the likes of me.

I took tap for PE in college.  And tennis.  And fencing.

I liked my fencing teacher so I took her badminton class but had to drop it because we had to bounce the birdie against a wall, way up high, some ungodly number of times in a row in order to pass.  I swear it was 100 times, but maybe it was less.  Didn't matter, because I never got past 1. 

I tried out for the volleyball team in high school and made the team but I quit because the coach made us serve by hitting the ball with our wrist bone instead of the ball of our fist. I went to design school for college. We didn't have sports.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 5/23/2023 at 10:55 PM, supposebly said:

I agree, not every size fits all. But I also think that not everyone can handle the amounts of sugar in soda or ice tea on a daily basis and not get addicted to it.

I guess it depends on how one defines "addicted."  If I see sweet tea in the refrigerator, I'll go, "Yum" and I might drink some.  But I never in a million years would actually leave the house to go get some--that or any snack.  Maybe laziness is an antidote to addiction.

I'm trying not to let people automatically accepting one-size-fits-all advice bug me, but it's hard because there's so much of it on the internet.  Like drink 8 glasses of water a day.  What if you love milk and drink 4 glasses of that a day?  Or you love soda and drink 4 glasses of Coke a day?  Maybe you shouldn't be drinking that much milk or Coke (but again, what is the reason for avoiding them if you're healthy?), but you don't need 8 glasses of water in addition to that .  Never mind the rest of your diet, which may include a lot of food that is high in water--if you're eating a lot of watermelon, you don't need a bunch of glasses of water, too.

Or the 10,000 steps a day rule.  That's completely made up, but people treat it like gospel. 

I'm trying to have the mindset that if people don't realize general advice doesn't apply to everyone, that's their loss.  I'll just try not to think about the poor woman in the article I linked to upthread, who was having fits with her glucose and it turned out that she reacts differently to tomatoes than most people, and her effort to eat healthy by including tomatoes was actually causing problems.

That's an extreme example of one-size-does-not-fit-all, and I don't think she ever would have figured it out on her own, but I also don't think it would have ever occurred to her that the "conventional" advice might not apply to her.

 

[annzeepark914]

24 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I tried out for the volleyball team in high school and made the team but I quit because the coach made us serve by hitting the ball with our wrist bone instead of the ball of our fist. I went to design school for college. We didn't have sports.

Serving via my wrist enabled me to make the ball just skim over the net. I was great- until I got to the front row when the opposing team always spiked the ball at me, a 100 lb, 5'3" non-athlete 🥴. I took tennis my freshman year of college. Thank God no more PE afterward. 

[nokat]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I tried out for the volleyball team in high school and made the team but I quit because the coach made us serve by hitting the ball with our wrist bone instead of the ball of our fist. I went to design school for college. We didn't have sports.

You should at least have had the wrist protector. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by nokat

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, nokat said:

You should at least have had the wrist protector. 

That would have been great. My wrist was black and blue from day one.

[nokat]

1 minute ago, peacheslatour said:

That would have been great. My wrist was black and blue from day one.

You use the fist for an overhand volley. I was bruised too. Probably as we weren't trained correctly.

[SuprSuprElevated]

[SuprSuprElevated]

[BlueSkies]

I think one way Amazon does well and makes money is through payment…. Or making it difficult to navigate.  On your account profile with Amazon there is no link to pay.   Plus it’s like impossible to find your account number anywhere.

 

So it’s set up with Synchrony or whatever it’s called.  It’s a pain in the but if you forget your password as well.  
 

All in all this is I think designed to slap some nice late fees on people who can’t be bothered 

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, BlueSkies said:

I think one way Amazon does well and makes money is through payment…. Or making it difficult to navigate.  On your account profile with Amazon there is no link to pay.   Plus it’s like impossible to find your account number anywhere.

 

So it’s set up with Synchrony or whatever it’s called.  It’s a pain in the but if you forget your password as well.  
 

All in all this is I think designed to slap some nice late fees on people who can’t be bothered 

I don't fully understand this post.  I have Amazon set up with a credit card.  Is there an option where you're using Amazon as a credit card and then you have to pay Amazon at the end of the month?  That's like having a store credit card.  We used to have those, but then there were too many to keep track of, so it wasn't worth the promotions.  Also when I was young, in the Pleistocene era, department stores wouldn't take bank cards or Amex, so you had to have the store card.  My first credit card of any kind was a Macy's card. 

Edited June 3, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[Bethany]

36 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

My first credit card of any kind was a Macy's card. 

Mine was Sears.  It was also the first one I cut up when I realized the interest rates on store cards were even more outrageous than the non store ones!

[peacheslatour]

34 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I don't fully understand this post.  I have Amazon set up with a credit card.  Is there an option where you're using Amazon as a credit card and then you have to pay Amazon at the end of the month?  That's like having a store credit card.  We used to have those, but then there were too many to keep track of, so it wasn't worth the promotions.  Also when I was young, in the Pleistocene era, department stores wouldn't take bank cards or Amex, so you had to have the store card.  My first credit card of any kind was a Macy's card. 

I didn't have any cards when I was young but I memorized my mom's Nordstrom card number and they always let me charge by signing my name and putting "daughter" in parentheses after it.

[EtheltoTillie]

6 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I didn't have any cards when I was young but I memorized my mom's Nordstrom card number and they always let me charge by signing my name and putting "daughter" in parentheses after it.

I had a high school friend whose mother was very interested in fashion and style, so this friend was always getting new clothes.  I was astonished one day when she took me to B Altman and bought a shirt with no money.  She had them send it COD to her house.  That’s obviously a very old school idea. I wonder if the postal service even offers that anymore. 

[peacheslatour]

2 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I had a high school friend whose mother was very interested in fashion and style, so this friend was always getting new clothes.  I was astonished one day when she took me to B Altman and bought a shirt with no money.  She had them send it COD to her house.  That’s obviously a very old school idea. I wonder if the postal service even offers that anymore. 

People had what we called "direct accounts" at my flower shop. We would bill them monthly.

[BlueSkies]

2 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I don't fully understand this post.  I have Amazon set up with a credit card.  Is there an option where you're using Amazon as a credit card and then you have to pay Amazon at the end of the month?  That's like having a store credit card.  We used to have those, but then there were too many to keep track of, so it wasn't worth the promotions.  Also when I was young, in the Pleistocene era, department stores wouldn't take bank cards or Amex, so you had to have the store card.  My first credit card of any kind was a Macy's card. 

I have an Amazon card as well.

 

But there's no real easy way I find to pay them.  On my amazon account there's no link there to pay the bills.  I just have to google Amazon payment and then I get directed to some Synchrony site where I handle it.  

[Gramto6]

Hmmm, I have an Amazon credit card too. Anything they need to bill me for, Prime mostly, just shows up on my monthly bill and I pay it.

[PRgal]

17 minutes ago, BlueSkies said:

I have an Amazon card as well.

 

But there's no real easy way I find to pay them.  On my amazon account there's no link there to pay the bills.  I just have to google Amazon payment and then I get directed to some Synchrony site where I handle it.  

I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about.  I pay with the card I have saved.  

[Gramto6]

Just now, PRgal said:

I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about.  I pay with the card I have saved.  

Yes, I also have a debit card saved. When I was unable to drive after my fall, I got in the habit of just selecting the debit card as a payment option for items I buy and any fees I incur. Then I didn't have to worry about going out to the PO for my bill and paying it there and mailing it then. 

[BlueSkies]

28 minutes ago, PRgal said:

I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about.  I pay with the card I have saved.  

Reading these other posts I have a feeling I'm not doing something correctly😕 

[Gramto6]

57 minutes ago, BlueSkies said:

I have an Amazon card as well.

 

But there's no real easy way I find to pay them.  On my amazon account there's no link there to pay the bills.  I just have to google Amazon payment and then I get directed to some Synchrony site where I handle it.  

Don't you get a monthly statement from your Amazon card? Or is it not the Amazon Credit card?

[BlueSkies]

9 minutes ago, Gramto6 said:

Don't you get a monthly statement from your Amazon card? Or is it not the Amazon Credit card?

Not mailed.  I got to go online and try to find it.

 

But I dont get email notifications when its available 

[Gramto6]

Try going to: Your Account › Your Payments › Wallet. In wallet there is a link under the photo of your credit card that says: Your Amazon Card click that. Once there find Manage Your card and a side bar will come up. At the bottom it has a link to Go Paperless. I'm not  going to click that because I don't want to go paperless, but maybe there you can switch back to a paper copy? Worth a try.

That's all I got, hope it helps.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Gramto6

[Mondrianyone]

When I go to Wallet, there's a subhead called Cards & accounts, and under that are shown the various credit cards I've used there over the years--one of them is highlighted as the default card. Everything I purchase at Amazon shows up on that monthly statement. There's also a blank slot that gives you the option to add a payment method. So if there's a credit card you want your purchases to automatically be charged to, that might be your opportunity to simplify things for yourself.

Good luck!

[ebk57]

4 hours ago, BlueSkies said:

I have an Amazon card as well.

 

But there's no real easy way I find to pay them.  On my amazon account there's no link there to pay the bills.  I just have to google Amazon payment and then I get directed to some Synchrony site where I handle it.  

Are you talking about paying your Amazon branded credit card?  Because it's probably with Synchrony Bank, so you can set up an online login there and they'll email your statement and you can pay through that website.   

Many privately branded credit cards are issued through these smaller banks.  I have a jjill card that's issued through Comenity Bank.  Part of my job is paying other people bills and several of them are issued through Synchrony or Comenity.  It should be pretty straightforward to set up online payments there.  You shouldn't have to google Amazon each time you need to pay that bill. 

Good luck.

[SuprSuprElevated]

Random post for anyone interested. One of our local broadcast stations has had a mating pair of ospreys build a nest on their signal tower for several years. There is a live cam set up for viewing. Two chicks have recently hatched, and it's kind of fun to watch.

watch-live-ospreys