chromedome

"Poor little cheese, you're turning blue! Let's warm you up..."

My brand-new Panasonic microwave has a dial, as well. Everything old is new again, as they say. ...except my knees.

(Shrug) I do the same. I only ever deep-fry in small batches (battered haddock bites last night, for example) and have a small KitchenAid saucepan that I use for the purpose, narrow and tall. In my case, I use about three cups of oil.

Actually, that's a possibility. Sea salt, by its nature, has random and variable impurities in it. It might be worth having another go, using a generic pure salt (ie pickling or kosher salt, not iodized table salt), just to see. Edited to add, for clarity, that an impurity in the salt might be reacting with something in the tomatoes to create the bitterness.

They can be soooo unreasonable...

https://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/kfc-latest-to-partner-with-beyond-meat-will-test-plant-based-chicken-wings-and-nuggets-in-atlanta

Yeah, the heat makes me feel like a centenarian, too.

I'm a "closest available surface at the time" cracker, but usually flat. Not doctrinaire about it.

Might have been me. That's where mine sees the most work, because we go through a lot of frozen spinach (especially in winter, when I don't have greens from my garden). I can certainly buy fresh greens without difficulty, but frozen spinach is dirt cheap at one of the supermarkets (No Frills) and perishability isn't an issue.

I have the corresponding gadget from Tupperware. It has a crank rather than a pull, but the basic idea is the same. One of the supermarkets here is selling such a gizmo at the moment as a "cauliflower ricer."

Sprinkle...salt?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-16/instant-pot-is-better-than-a-grill-for-these-foods-say-cookbooks

My long-ago Vancouver barber vented to me on that subject one day. A friend's daughter had just gotten married and they'd given her the requisite lavish wedding, to the tune of some $30,000 (in 1984 or so!). The couple got back from their Hawaiian honeymoon, and sheepishly said "Mom? ...Dad?...we've made a terrible mistake. We should never have gotten married." My barber was livid about this. "Why we got to spend this much on a wedding?" he asked aloud, animated as only an Italian with three daughters approaching marriageable age can be. "Take that money, make a down payment on a house, now they got something. If they break up, at least you sell the house, you get something back." I felt for the poor guy. He couldn't have made much from that barber shop, and the cost of his three daughters' weddings would probably represent every cent of disposable income he could scrape aside for 20 or 30 years.

Sometimes actually talking it out, and seeing the words in front of you, is all it takes to bring things into focus.

That one, probably the Canadian equivalent to the one Toliver just posted, has now been updated (includes Sysco, which certainly ups the ante): http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2019-08-21/eng/1566441064966/1566441070819

There's a role for "explainers." It's how I make my living, albeit on a much smaller scale than his.

Of the foods I'd ordinarily encounter, I can't think of any I flat-out *wouldn't* eat. I'd have a qualm over octopus, now that I know how intelligent they are, though if it was served to me I would still eat it so as not to discomfit my host. Being soy-based I guess natto is technically a protein, though it's used more as a condiment. I have not encountered it in real life, but can't imagine that I would enjoy choking down something that basically is salty, lumpy phlegm.

Back in the 80s, when I was hitchhiking a lot, I got a lift with a guy who claimed he'd been the original patent-holder on those foil-topped cups. Said that was the second time he'd been a millionaire. He was quite a colorful character. Claimed he'd made and lost three fortunes, and was then on his way to Vancouver with everything he owned in a station wagon, intent on making a fourth ("..but this time I'm not marrying any damn stripper...").

Have you ever seen a movie called "The Accidental Tourist," with William Hurt as the titular (uptight) travel writer, and Geena Davis as the dog-grooming free spirit he falls for? In one scene she's helping his equally tight-wound siblings (Kethleen Turner and David Odgen Stiers) put away the groceries. They're...alphabetized. She helplessly brandishes a box of pasta and asks, "Does this go under P for Pasta, or M for Macaroni?" They gaze at her incredulously for a few (interminable, uncomfortable) seconds before Turner says curtly, "E. For elbow macaroni."

I think I've seen that same weird texture in eggs that have been frozen after cooking, but without the mediation of large quantities of cream.

I hear it makes corn grow really well... (ducks, runs)

Bummer. My condolences. My mom's had a couple of those (getting a bone graft in her lower jaw, to support the new dentures, then having the implants put in once she'd healed) and they sucked rocks. She mostly survived on pudding and yogurt.

...to be devoured first.

Sounds better than "desolated."

There's a listeria recall for diced, cooked, chicken meat. Currently it applies to 7 provinces, but it'll probably be extended to "national." Currently it only applies to commercial/institutional products, but may expand to consumer products as the CFIA continues its investigation. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2019-08-18/eng/1566177360394/1566177366791