chromedome

Might be of interest to some, here. Researchers took 500 samples from 28 restaurants, evaluating the apparent cleanliness of various surfaces (and kitchen staffs' hands) vs actual cleanliness when subjected to laboratory testing. Unsurprisingly, they concluded that old-school visual restaurant inspections were wildly inaccurate relative to actual testing. This goes both ways, as some visual scores were actually worse than the lab-tested scores. Nothing earth-shaking (and few jurisdictions are going to put any serious money into restaurant inspections), but there are a few interesting nuggets if anyone wants to dig through the details. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-86017-8#Sec11

I did take a look yesterday while I was out, and a dozen large eggs run $4.69 in my neck of the woods. That's in CAD, so at today's exchange rate you could call it roughly $3.25 USD.

Not gonna lie, our grandson would be all over the stuff. He's a fiend for bacon (notwithstanding his current "healthy food" fixation), and CTC is his favorite dessert breakfast cereal. It doesn't work for me, but then I never really got the fad for "cereal milk" flavors either. Perhaps because those sugar-bomb cereals were a very occasional treat in my childhood home, rather than an everyday staple.

Just gonna leave this here...

Yes, for sure. They do get their share of screen time (it's 2025, after all) but they both have lots of imaginative playtime indoors and out.

I need to remember to check the price of eggs in my area when I'm in town (I'll post here, just for comparison's sake). I won't be buying any, because we have chickens and quail, but one of my goals for the year is to (finally) get a firm grip on the cost and ROI of our rabbits and poultry. Our little flock of hens only lay erratically now because it's winter, but the quail churn out an egg each like clockwork (at 3-ish quail eggs to one large hen's egg, we're getting the equivalent of 24-25 hen's eggs/week from the quail to go with our 5-8 actual hen's eggs from the chickens). That's a lot of eggs, so we're pretty much swimming in the things right now even with our hens being in "winter mode." I gave away a lot of quail eggs over the holidays, and will probably pickle a few jars soon if I can find the time.

I have a collapsing silicone funnel like that one, but have used it maybe three times in as many years... because the grandkids are fascinated with it, and the damned thing is never in the drawer when I want it! (I love sharing a home with them, don't get me wrong, but of course there are frustrations and this is one of 'em. At least once/week I'll go around the yard and collect up cups, silverware and especially bowls that have somehow migrated outside and never come back.)

I always joke that those lightning grabs (in my case) are the upside to a lifetime of clumsiness. Having dropped/tipped/knocked things over so frequently, I have plenty of "muscle memory" for those split-second saves. One of my classmates in culinary was a drummer in a band. He knocked his knife off of the counter while repositioning a cutting board, and snatched it (by the handle) even as it was plummeting to the floor. Our instructor said, "Okay, that was absolutely amazing. And I NEVER want to see any of you do that, ever again!" ("A falling knife has no handle," is the official take on that subject...trying to grab one as it falls is a recipe for a trip to the ER)

Having just gotten home last night from my monthly visit to NS, I started the day/year very happily with my usual oatmeal after not having it for a week or so.

I remember an interview with Grace Slick back in the day, in which the (male) interviewer complimented her on how great she looked for a woman of her age (IIRC, she was in her late 50s). She snorted and replied "Yeah, I'm living proof that alcohol is a preservative..."

The marketing people were definitely "thinking outside the box" (or in this case, the bottle).

For those of you Stateside, with Costco memberships: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/25/us/fda-costco-egg-warning-hnk/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=blueskyCNN&utm_content=2024-12-25T11%3A11%3A38

Like last year, I harvested some greens from my garden for yesterday's Christmas meal. This is my late-planted lacinato kale, under its protective cover. The snow of course is great insulation, but poor for photosynthesis! Here's what's going on "under the hood," so to speak: The smaller hoops and mesh covering had protected them from cabbage worms back in the autumn. I have a pic of the larger bed of curly kale too, but the forum insists on turning it upside down when I upload it. I saved a flipped version of the photo, thinking that would do it, but nope... still shows as upside down once I upload it. Go figure. ...and this is my harvest. It's rather small, but that's not the point. The point is being able to say I'd harvested fresh greens from my garden for Christmas dinner! It also shows you how hard it was snowing yesterday, because that's how much fell into the bowl during the few minutes I was cutting greens.