chromedome

Sage Derby is a nice "gateway drug" if you can find it there. It's got a nice herbal flavor to it, and the veins in it are green rather than some sort of disturbing red or purple, so it's perhaps a bit easier psychologically.

I basically can't hear people at all in any kind of retail establishment. My actual threshold of hearing, as tested a few years ago, isn't too bad...down about 5 percent in one ear and closer to 10 in the other, pretty much the normal range for a guy in his mid-50s. The problem is that I can't pick voices out of background noise (ie, I need a favorable signal-to-noise ratio). To make things worse, my ears appear to be most efficient at picking up exactly the kind of frequencies generated by HVAC systems and crowd noise. The average Walmart isn't an especially noisy place, for example (most days) but for me the HVAC is thunderous and reduces me to lip-reading. Bars and restaurants are worse, because on top of noise from the mechanicals you've got the din of conversation, you've got music, loud drunken people, etc. Usually I just stay home.

Hmmm. Is it just me, or is that yellow bottle closest to the camera Greek olive oil?

Yeah, the self-rising part is neither here nor there IMO. Even White Lily posts self-rising and regular versions of biscuit recipes on its website.

Kind of a quasi-pierogy, I suppose. Actually, out in Alberta pierogy pizza is a thing. Mashed potatoes, bacon bits, caramelized onions, etc. I've never had one myself, but I can see how it would work once you get past the actual idea of it. Hmmm. Google tells me this is fairly common in the American midwest, as well, especially around Pittsburgh. So I guess this isn't news to a lot of you.

It crops up with other forms of childhood nostalgia, like Cheez Whiz on celery and certain indefensibly bad pop songs.

It's all good. As it happens, my daughter randomly sent me this comic yesterday, and I thought of the thread here: http://explosm.net/comics/2956/ (I didn't post it initially because it's not a "food funny," but what the heck...now I have context)

I get that Jello hankering sporadically every few years. It's often consumed with the leftover half-can of sweetened condensed milk from some recipe or other.

It's here on the Coast as well. I suspect it's a national product for Superstore. Don't remember if I've seen it at Sobey's as well.

For sure. I'm actually in Saint John NB, now, but it's kind of along the way depending which highway you take. (If you fly, of course, we'll have to content ourselves with waving from afar...)

Shades of Monty Python...

Yup, that'd be it. I'd never actually thought about it at a time when I was near the computer, but I knew they must exist. I'd be more likely to spring for the set of nested cutters in different sizes, because I don't bake a lot anymore except at holidays or when the grandkids are going to be around. It'd be handy to have 'em in different sizes.

Up here Tim Horton's uses a hexagonal cut, which I thought was genius the first time I saw it. I'm sure it's a massive production machine, as opposed to a hand-type cutter, but one day I'll see a hexagonal cutter and buy it just for biscuit-making.

Either way, the dress code is the same: a white sports coat and a pink crustacean.

I'm pretty sure I saw Jacques Torres silkscreen something or other on chocolate, once. That's my unsubstantiated memory, mind you, which is increasingly what the Eng Lit professors like to call an "unreliable narrator."

A friend of mine compared it to giving birth...at the time, you're adamant that "I'm NEVER doing this again!," but a few years later your memory is whispering to you "You see, it wasn't that bad..."

LOL That was the denouement of my last adventure in grilling, as well. I lit the flame, went back inside to fetch the chops, and when I returned the gas had run out. Of course it was very much the end of the season here (that was two weeks ago, and the wind chill this morning is -25 C for the second straight day) so I just called it "a sign" and put the cover over my grill.

Yes, but was it... the last mango in Paris? (Sorry, I'll be quiet now...)

Ugh. Regrettably, yes...my arm is also now too short to read small print, especially in dim lighting. ETA: An acquaintance of mine told me once that when he'd been in a high-end restaurant somewhere or other, the server noticed him trying to squint unobtrusively at the menu...and materialized at his elbow a moment later, with a lovely felt-lined wooden box of reading glasses in various strengths.

One quick rule of thumb is to experiment with it anywhere you'd otherwise use (run-of-the-mill) balsamic vinegar. The pom molasses has a pretty similar balance of sweet and tangy. I love it with a roasted beet salad, for example. Very tasty, and it doesn't spoil the look of the beets as balsamic will.

LOL "It's my job, ma'am. It's what I do." (Literally...as a freelance writer, I get paid to explain stuff.)

The built-in code that makes a piece of equipment run can often be improved over time, as bugs are discovered or new features/abilities are written. If that device is designed in such a way that the firmware can be upgraded, it means the user can expect its usability to improve over time. A recent example is Tesla sending out an over-the-air upgrade to car owners in the path of the autumn's hurricanes, so they'd have extended range while getting out of Dodge.

A tangent, but it amused me:

Not exactly a sale or deal, more the "supermarket surprises" dept: Fellow Canucks, did you know about this? https://www.presidentschoice.ca/en_CA/products/productlisting/pc-black-label-goose-fat.html