chromedome

FWIW, as a longtime retailer, I buy refurbs whenever possible. As a rule they're at least as reliable as new, and in some cases have been through additional testing processes/troubleshooting. Also, sometimes a "known-defective/problematic" part automatically gets replaced on refurbs, even if it hasn't failed yet. My current KA and the last one (currently still living with and working well for my ex-wife), and all but one of the computers in my house, were bought refurbished. So were my tablet and one of my two e-readers (the other was a gift).

LOL ...and here was I, thinking it's a good excuse to blow the dust off of my Instant Pot and cook up some chickpeas.

I can see how an eatery named "Woody's" would become a must-paint for Dylan.

LMAO! Yup...Like Alexander, you're fresh out of worlds to conquer.

The tree itself, as both an individual organism and a unique restorative intervention, seems unimpeachable. Its almost-guaranteed use as a wedge for less laudable projects is/will continue to be the sticking point, unfortunately. Even so, I would love to see the restoration go forward.

https://psmag.com/ideas/most-controversial-tree-in-the-world-gmo-genetic-engineering?utm_source=pocket-newtab

I have a random handful of cheapies that I use for various things (each one has a thing or two I prefer it for) but the one I use most is a handheld, adjustable "Kobra" by de Buyer. The guard is actually functional, the blade is continuously adjustable through a pretty wide range of thicknesses, and the blade is very sharp. A quick rinse, air-dry, and it's back in the box (yeah, I'm the guy who keeps the boxes).

Meanwhile, from the other side of the table.. https://www.qsrmagazine.com/menu-innovations/arbys-creates-new-food-category-meat-vegetables

"Save the liver"?

Offered without commentary...(except to note that there have been similar stories about the other main vendors as well) https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/google-defends-listening-to-ok-google-queries-after-voice-recordings-leak/

...and your impressions?

There's also this approach, which I tripped across while researching an article. Seems like a happy compromise all around, though uptake would have to be pretty significant in order to have the kind of impact they're describing.

I tried that a few weeks ago, when they were handing out samples. Tasted very much like my homemade.

Eat Smart brand sweet kale salad kit, the 794g size, listeria. Affects all provinces from Ontario east. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2019-07-09/eng/1562715652993/1562715655270

The CBC looked into it, and concluded that they were nutritionally pretty similar to beef. Comparable for calories, protein content and so on, with the addition of fibre (a positive) but with extra sodium as well (a negative). So there we go. As with any other burger, the joker in the deck is how they're served. The CBC article cited a 1,000 calorie Impossible Burger, as served in a specific US restaurant, which clearly isn't a good option for an everyday lunch. Duvel's comment that "one burger a month isn't going to save the world" was true enough in its context, which is to say a single individual who only occasionally eats a burger. (North) Americans, OTOH, eat a whole lot more than one burger a month, and in that context the occasional meatless meal as an alternative to a burger or other beef dish - whether it be a faux-burger at the local fast-food joint or (as the OP urges) an innately meat-free dish like the curries Sartoric posts in the meal threads - can be pretty impactful. There are other, more academic papers out there, but I came across this article last year and it does a pretty good job of explaining the basics of why beef is such an area of focus. It certainly goes beyond "virtue-signaling" (a phrase I have come to dislike) and that was certainly not what I meant to imply by comparing the conscious selection of an occasional meatless meal to one's choice of light bulb. Trying to shift omnivores (as most of us are) en masse to meatless eating is a big ask, and it's just not going to happen. At least, not within any kind of meaningful time frame. Making it easy for people to do something, instead, is at least the thin edge of the wedge. Meatless Mondays got a bit of traction. Beyond and Impossible are getting traction. Restaurants that offer mostly plant-based foods, but don't make it an extremist "meat is murder" thing, are getting some traction (a renewed focus on flavor and presentation has certainly helped, too). A very small minority are concerned enough about climate change to stop eating meat (and flying, and so on). A very small minority are defiant enough about climate change to bypass pollution controls on their vehicles (yeah, "pollution porn" is a thing) and barbecue extra-large steaks outside of vegetarian restaurants. Most of us fall in between, willing to accept the reality of climate change but not yet concerned enough about it to make any major lifestyle changes. In the shorter term, that's where the big changes will have to come from. Faux burgers are just the grist for that particular mill. (Disclaimer: I'm not advocating here for anyone to give up meat, buy stock in Beyond or whatever else, and I'm certainly not holding myself out as an example. In my own household I'm perfectly comfortable eating less meat, but the women in my life have been inveterate carnivores so we still use a lot. Also, while I'd love to have an electric or hybrid vehicle, I drive a low-mileage minivan instead because a) I live in an apartment and plugging in is not an option, b) I can't afford one, and c) several times a year I need to haul vehicularly-challenged members of our extended family in large numbers, so seven seats was a must.)

My first harvest from my (newly planted) garden consisted of a couple of green onions that had been missed last autumn and over-wintered successfully, my garlic scapes, and a large bag of "volunteer" greens (specifically, in this case, dandelions and wild sorrel). The dandelions were added to a "mess o' greens" which otherwise came from the supermarket, and the sorrel plus green onions plus a few scapes plus some chicken broth became a small pot of soup at lunch today.

I would venture to guess that people who (like me) dislike MW also dislike, and don't make, those recipes.

Yeah, that. Harking back to a question posed by the OP, I know some vegetarians/vegans who were raised that way by like-minded parents, but most switched from omnivory for whatever combination of reasons at some point from adolescence through (sometimes late) adulthood. Avoidance of anything meat-like would be simple enough, I suppose, for anyone who grew up without it. For someone who has formerly enjoyed the same comfort foods as the rest of us, I can see the appeal of a "good enough" simulation to scratch that itch when it strikes.

Yup. Made from salt pork though, rather than ham.

Seems to be a recurring theme on eG, doesn't it?

Well, there are many without (shudder) ballpark mustard... (disclosure: ketchup and ballpark mustard stay in my pantry for the sake of visiting grandkids, so my kitchen is not entirely innocent of them)

From what I've seen in interviews with the respective companies' founders, the Beyond and Impossible products aren't aimed squarely at vegetarians/vegans in the same way as soy hot dogs, "tofurkey" and their ilk (I've never had it, but my favorite example of that style is Canadian brand Yves' "Lack of Ram"). Instead, while certainly meeting the needs of vegans and such, these are marketed squarely at the mainstream omnivore in much the same fashion as the "Meatless Monday" campaign. I suppose you could say it's the culinary equivalent of replacing one's light bulbs with high-efficiency LEDs...something that feels virtuous, yet requires little/no commitment or lifestyle change. Meat production in general and beef production specifically have a large carbon footprint, so any reduction is a positive. The startups attempting to "grow beef apart from a beast" are something else again. They're not plant-based, as Beyond and Impossible are. They're growing actual beef (or chicken, or whatever) through a laboratory process. Some - most notably the beef industry - argue that it is not beef, by definition, if it was not once a legit, walking/mooing cow. That's a semantic/economic argument, not a scientific one, since the cells are indistinguishable under the microscope and the original source material comes from an actual cow. Whether those products eventually prove to be economically viable is a whole other story, of course, and will require greatly improved production methods and (crucially) consumer acceptance. I'm interested to see how that plays out, if the product comes to market. There are many who avoid meat entirely for ethical/environmental reasons, or who limit their consumption to ethically raised animals from farmers they trust. Cultured meat will be innately cruelty-free, so if it also proves to be more environmentally friendly than commercial beef production there certainly could be a market for it. In fact, IIRC, I posed that very question to vegetarians/meat avoiders here on eG a couple of years ago. I don't know how many of you have read Thomas Watson Jr.'s memoir of his years at IBM, called "Father and Son and Company." One of the turning points in the book, and indeed in IBM's history, came in the immediate postwar years when the first electronic computers came along. His father, Watson Sr, was ready to launch a scorched-earth campaign against them in order to protect IBM's dominance in the punch-card technology of the day. Tom Jr. had another idea...IBM should build its own computers, and leverage their deep knowledge of the business community's wants and needs (and of course, its own well-entrenched distribution channel) to out-do the offerings from other vendors. We all know how that played out. For those who haven't been keeping score at home, wanna know some of the recent big investors in those cultured meat startups? Perdue...Cargill...ADM. You may recognize a pattern here (for the record, it's also a subsidiary of Shell Oil - not Elon Musk's Tesla - that currently provides most of the battery storage capacity for solar/wind generation plants...another example of the "Watson principle" at work). It's by no means inevitable, but there is certainly a prospect that cultured meats may one day be as unremarkable as cultured pearls, or the tank-grown rennet used in much of North America's mainstream cheese.

It's a Canadian thing, and not entirely coast to coast at that. Cuts down on plastic waste, or so they say. You get 4 litres (ie, slightly over a US gallon) divided between 3 bags, except in Newfoundland where it's 1 litre/bag. The frugal (ie, many of my family) use them a second time as freezer bags before parting with them. As I can attest, a bag of milk is a chancy thing to hang from the handlebars of your bicycle when heading home. One one occasion the bag got caught between my tire and the front forks as I was heading downhill at a good clip, so my bicycle and I got to trade places for the lower half of the hill. My bicycle may have enjoyed the change of pace, but I did not.

LOL I'd love to see you sit down with my mom some time. Recently, mid-meal, she put down her fork, looked at me in some embarrassment, and said "I'm the only person I know who can work up an appetite by eating supper." Yeah, she really does take that long. My dad used to serve her first, then get his plate, then get up and have seconds, then have coffee and watch the news, then go and weed the garden for a while, then come back in and reheat her plate for her in the microwave to save her getting up AGAIN to do it herself (2-4 times is typical, depending on the size of the meal, and still almost everything she eats is cold).

I'll confess to a lively curiosity about these products, despite being a cheerful omnivore. The Beyond Burger is available at every Canadian A&W (very different from the American chain of the same name), and their breakfast sausage is available in sandwiches from both A&W and Tim Horton's. I've eaten the burger, and found it to be unexceptional. I think for most people, if it was placed in a generic burger wrapper (ie, clearly "not a chain you know") and served to a crowd as a burger from the local place, it would pass unremarked as just another fast food burger. The texture and flavor are a little "off," but no more so than in many actual burgers I've eaten. The sausage I tried at Tim's on my recent road trip, and found it to be a bit heavy on the pepper. Otherwise, my impression was much the same...texture is not quite right, but if served to someone without explanation it would pass unremarked as a breakfast sandwich like any other. Both chains sell the Beyond product at a modest premium over its conventional equivalents, a buck or so for the sausage (IIRC) and something like $1.50 for the burger. The Sobey's supermarket chain sells a package of two Beyond patties for $7.99, which is a bit steep. The rival chain, Loblaw's, sells its own house-branded beefless burger at 4/$8.99 right now. They're a bit squishier than the Beyond, but otherwise fairly comparable. Another brand, True Life, sells at 4/$7.99 and I will try those at some point as well and report back. I haven't seen the Impossible product anywhere, but will try it whenever an opportunity should present itself.