The Official Funny Stuff Thread™
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I normally do my daily shopping at Vons (Safeway).
I have spent a lot of time in CA, and your Safeway stores are a lot different than they are here. There, they are well-lit, clean, nice, stores. Here, they are in the ghetto and where you go if you want produce that is past its expiration date...
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Must depend on the location. The Stop & Shop stores where I used to live aren't that bad. The one that my parents shop at is really nice, but mostly because it's new (at least the last time that I was there).
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I hate when people get in my way, so having half the clientele take up a full aisle width per person isn't exactly attractive.
BTW, here in Dallas I don't see that any more than at any other place. In fact, I might run into my pastor there, and I think I actually have once.
Ironically, the worst people of Walmart experience I had was when the chain first came to boston, and some crazed bint in a scooter kept backing in to my wife. I told her if she did it again I'd pick up the back of the thing and hang it on the nearest shelf, stranding her there. Ooh, I got a look that should've set me on fire, but she stopped.
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I buy most groceries at Hy-Vee. Wal-Mart is if I'm in a hurry and it's close, or for non-food stuff. The local Wal-Marts always have 20384232432545 customers, but only the cigarette checkout and the self-serves are open so it takes way too long.
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@Intercourse said:
I shop as much as I can at Costco.
I used to like Costco. But I needed one product that Sam's had and Costco didn't have an equivalent of. Plus, there's a smallish Sam's literally two or three buildings up from where I work, and the nearest Costco is like a 20-minute drive away, and I haven't, even after all these years, fully gotten into the Texas "drive 3 hours for breakfast" mentality.
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But these are more-or-less reasoned objections, not SJW spew.
I am a capitalist and a libertarian. I don't care about WalMart because if you do not want to go there, you do not have to. If you don't like how they treat their workers, don't work there. I avoid the place because it is a shitty shopping experience.
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Same-ish here.
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@Intercourse said:
I avoid the place because it is a shitty shopping experience.
Where you are, maybe. As I said in another post, when I lived in Boston, it was like that, too. Here in Dallas, not so much. Well, except for one store I can think of, and the worst you can say is it's shabby. The rest of them are clean, well-lit, and no worse otherwise than any other store.
Except for the Sam's I went to at lunchtime, where apparently someone tried to return a generator that still had gas in it, and somehow dumped it out all over the floor, flooding the entire place with the stench of, well, gas. I feel sorry for the people who work there.
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@Intercourse said:
I avoid the place because it is a shitty shopping experience.
Mine is not nearly as bad as what you describe, except on the weekends, when I avoid it. But then most stores around here are like that on the weekends, so...
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I used to like Costco. But I needed one product that Sam's had and Costco didn't have an equivalent of.
I am a member of both. Costco because I like the place and shop there a lot. I have the upgraded membership where I get 2% back at the end of the year on my purchases so that always pays for my renewal plus a little extra. I am a member of Sam's because they ran a promotion once to get business owners to buy stuff there and I got a free membership that they renew every year without charge. I like Sam's for office supplies and such. Costco for everything else.
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Where you are, maybe.
That might be related to:
@Intercourse said:
I live in a very nice area of our city...that is entirely surrounded by utter shit.
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Yes, I assumed so. I live in a roughly SWPL neighborhood, where many of the WP aren't W.
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I buy most groceries at Hy-Vee.
Same here -- Wally World doesn't have the stuff I'm usually after, and Bag and Save or No Frills are just...dingy; the nearest Baker's is a bit too far from where I live, too.
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Except for the Sam's I went to at lunchtime, where apparently someone tried to return a generator that still had gas in it, and somehow dumped it out all over the floor, flooding the entire place with the stench of, well, gas. I feel sorry for the people who work there
At my high school (before I went there), the plant next door had a nasty spill. They manufactured whatever is added to gas to make it smell, so the entire area smelled like it was doused in gas. The high school couldn't hold class for a while.
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Boomzilla will appreciate this one:
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reminded me of this
just without the fall and ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uJpEvDgmCgbonus it is in Spanish
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Most authorities suggest that simmering is the proper method, and that boiling degrades the flavor and clarity.
I think that is just an old wive's tale that no one ever questioned. I make my stock using a low boil, or in the pressure cooker, and I never have a problem with cloudy broth/stock. My stock is also done a lot more quickly than conventional wisdom. Of course, I always strain my stock. First strain is just through a colander to get the big particles and then I straing through a double thickness of cheese cloth.
I don't mind a little bit of cloudiness though. Once you cook it in its end application, it always picks up some cloudiness anyway. On the rare cases where I need absolutely clear stock and I am cooking for someone who might know the difference, you can get crystal clear stock using egg whites. You whip them to very stiff peaks, add in the crushed egg shells and add it to your stock after it has cooled. Then, if you bring your stock back to a boil it will coagulate with any suspended protein haze and then when you strain out the egg whites your stock is so clear you could read through it.
In cooking, there is a lot of conventional wisdom that everyone just takes as gospel. A lot of it is bullshit though. Like cooking roasts and such at 225F for-fucking-ever.
And yes, I do love cooking. Cooking is chemistry. Tasty and fun chemistry.
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@Intercourse said:
Cooking is chemistry. Tasty and fun chemistry.
QFT!
I love cooking, too. It's the clean-up afterwards that I hate.
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It's the clean-up afterwards that I hate.
My next kitchen will have two dishwashers, for that exact reason right there. I always tend to produce more dishes than we can fit in a single load. Our next kitchen will have a dishwasher on each side of the sink to accommodate the big mess after cooking.
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You wouldn't need all that extra dishwasher space if you didn't bother with all the fancy-ass straining and what-have-you. It almost always makes no difference to either the taste or the look of the final product (and you can always use the fancy techniques when it really matters, of course). I think it's more important to have a super-quiet dishwasher so that it doesn't add too much to the inevitable racket of the performing of wonderful tasty chemistry.
Having two full-size hobs helps a huge lot. Seven different vegetables with a meal is relatively straight-forward when you can deploy that many pans at once (though “fun” to schedule…) yet most cookers just can't keep that many things hot at once.
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You wouldn't need all that extra dishwasher space if you didn't bother with all the fancy-ass straining and what-have-you.
I rarely do that, only for special meals. For most purposes, boxed stock is good enough. Also, it does not dirty up that much extra stuff. Just a bowl, a colander, a pot and a strainer. I need all of that for it anyway. I cook the stock in the pot, strain first through the colander in to a bowl, then from the bowl back to the pot through the sieve with cheese cloth. You have to strain once anyway to remove the small bones, etc that come from the meat you are making stock with. It is usually something like necks and backs, etc. Lots of small bones you would not want in the final product.
I have a 36" 6-burner cooktop currently. Plenty of real estate for cooking for my purposes, but sometimes I wish I had more. We also have a double wall oven, which helps immensely. Really nice for prepping big meals as you can cook at two different temperatures. No juggling. It also is nice to have a gas cooktop and electric ovens. Gas is superior for cooking and electric works better for baking. Although at times I wish I had a gas broiler, but I manage.
As for cooking that many things at once, most people cannot do it because they never practice "mise en place". Prep, then cook. That is where most of the dishes come from. Lots of bowls that hold all the ingredients next to the cooktop so they are ready when I need them. Lots of ramekins and pinch cups holding all my herbs and spices pre-measured and read to go. It is the bulky stuff that adds up quickly. So I usually end up putting all the small stuff in the dishwasher and then washing the bowls and bulky stuff by hand.
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@Intercourse said:
As for cooking that many things at once, most people cannot do it because they never practice "mise en place". Prep, then cook.
Yeah, I'm not good at that. Which is most likely the biggest reason I have trouble getting stuff to be ready at somewhat the same time.
The other1 thing I'm not not good at, and my ex-wife used to get on my case about this, is cleaning as I go. I have enough trouble trying to get the cooking done in a timely manner without trying juggle cleaning, too.
1Well, one of many actually, but the main other cooking-related one.
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/topic The Funny Stock Thread
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The other thing I'm not not good at, and my ex-wife used to get on my case about this, is cleaning as I go.
Same here, though I am getting better. One thing that helps me is to leave the dishwasher open. If it is open, it is a mental reminder to rinse things and put them in the dishwasher as I go. Then when it is full I kick it shut and turn it on. The rest goes in the sink.
If I close the dishwasher, the sink gets stacked full...
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@Intercourse said:
One thing that helps me is to leave the dishwasher open. If it is open, it is a mental reminder to rinse things and put them in the dishwasher as I go.
Hmm, I'm not sure how much that would help me. Open is my dishwasher's normal state. All of my dishes are typically either in the dishwasher (clean) or in the sink waiting for me to use all the clean dishes and load it up again; the clean ones never actually make it into the cabinet. You do not want to know the condition of the ones at the bottom of the sink by the time they finally make it into the dishwasher.
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the clean ones never actually make it into the cabinet.
I do the same thing with laundry. Why put it away when I can just use it straight from the laundry basket?
I always unload the dishwasher before I cook though, so that is how it helps me. Part of the routine.
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@Intercourse said:
Why put it away when I can just use it straight from the laundry basket?
Laundry basket? What an interesting concept. Mine just gets dumped on my bed. Sometimes I push it to one side enough that I have room to sleep.
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Mine just gets dumped on my bed.
We might be long-lost brothers. I tend to put laundry in the guest bedroom until I get around to it. Sometimes in the basket, usually just piled on it because I absolutely hate folding laundry. It is just...tedious.
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@Intercourse said:
I absolutely hate folding laundry.
Sometimes I actually fold mine, but even when I do, it rarely makes it into the dresser drawers.
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Same here. My wife makes fun of me because I hang t-shirts but it is easier and faster and much easier to find them. If I fold stuff and put it in the dresser, I only wear the stuff that is on the top. It does have the benefit though of years down the road I will find something and be all excited like it is brand new to me. I recently found my favorite Bell's brewery t-shirt that way.
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@Intercourse said:
In cooking, there is a lot of conventional wisdom that everyone just takes as gospel. A lot of it is bullshit though. Like cooking roasts and such at 225F for-fucking-ever.
I've tried that and the roast has invariably come out tough and dry. For me it's 350F until done.
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I've tried that and the roast has invariably come out tough and dry. For me it's 350F until done.
Exactly! Every year we have a big cookout and I make 40-50lbs of pulled pork and other BBQ. I always smoke it at ~300-325F and every year someone makes the remark about cooking at 225F. I think it comes out better at a slightly higher temperature because it sets the bark a lot better, etc. It also takes a hell of a lot less time.
Roasts I usually do at 325F and then I blast the heat to 425F for the last few minutes to put a good color on them. At 225F you are just barely above the temperature that collagen and connective tissues render at. The delta-t is just not high enough to adequately cook meat, in my opinion.
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This post is deleted!
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Intercourse:
In cooking, there is a lot of conventional wisdom that everyone just takes as gospel. A lot of it is bullshit though. Like cooking roasts and such at 225F for-fucking-ever.I've tried that and the roast has invariably come out tough and dry. For me it's 350F until done.
I have just the opposite experience. 350F for an hour or two = dry and tough. 225F for sixteen hours = moist and tender.
I once accidentally roasted a bone-in pork shoulder instead of the boneless one I thought I had bought. After an overnight session, even the bone was tenderized to the point where you could bite right through it.
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I have just the opposite experience. 350F for an hour or two = dry and tough. 225F for sixteen hours = moist and tender.
It depends on how you manage the moisture level in the oven too, i.e., on the partial pressure of gaseous H2O in the enclosure. Keep that high and the meat won't go dry. Pot-roasting is a good technique for precisely this reason.
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and that man's name is @boomzilla
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Regarding stock:
Why should a stock be simmered and not boiled?
Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook says that a stock should NEVER be boiled, why is this? Does the higher heat extract bitterness or something else undesirable? It seems a little strange beca...
Seems like if you're looking to preserve more delicate notes of flavor, you should simmer, but for practical home cooking, the ease of boiling outweighs any benefits if you're not concerned about slightly flatter stock.
I love the smaller SEs, they don't have the volume problems SO does and so rather quickly weed out stupid questions, leaving some really good answers. Cooking also has a few members who, upon finding they don't know the answer to something, will go off and do a cooking experiment and take photos and return the results.
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Seems like if you're looking to preserve more delicate notes of flavor
and that's why i simmer. takes longer, and you have to be careful that you heat through the danger point quickly but turn the heat down before you get too high above simmer. takes some practice and concentration but i find it always gives a better product in the end.
this is also why i rarely get soup at a restaurant, it just never compares to what i can make.
to stay on topic... i present to you a cute kitten with a haircut.
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For the lazy, here's a link to the paper.
The acceptance letter:
I'd love to see know what minor changes they made.
Here's another excerpt from the paper:
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This could probably go in many threads here, but I'll set it down here...
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SJW with an anime avatar using "heteronormative"
Isn't that an oxymoron?
FWIW I actually used "heteronormative" as my nick for a while in MSN Messenger.
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Ahhh, I forgot that was a thing.
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Ahhh, I forgot that was a thing.
I usually do too until someone reminds me.
The question is, is @Boomzilla following RSM or did he see that tweet linked elsewhere.
Well, it's a question anyway.
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The question is, is @Boomzilla following RSM or did he see that tweet linked elsewhere.
I am a regular reader (and occasional--used to be fairly regular--commenter) of his blog. I also follow him on twitter, though I rarely look at twitter. Got the chance to meet RSM recently, too. Good times.
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This is pedantic dickweedery.
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well it is hazel that's talking there...
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Snort--oh, so you're already familiar with that one. Last week's "curious george" discovery cracked me the heck up.
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it was interesting.
however i'm more interested in the whole martin/claire relationship over on QC.
totally adorable!
x.com
