chromedome

I got the boxes of cookies in the mail yesterday for Alberta (late even by my standards); now today I have to bake some more for local giving. I'm going to stick with the "grown-up" kinds for this round, as opposed to sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies which need subsequent decoration. I also dug out the tote containing my late mother-in-law's Christmas decorations. Most of them are just inexpensive commercial things from Zellers (for those who don't know, think "Canadian K-Mart") but... they were hers. Serious sentimental value within the family.

In the UK, The Guardian has named The Bear the best show on television in 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/dec/20/the-50-best-tv-shows-of-2023-no-1-the-bear

Mashups for the win!

At the price they charge for cherry tomatoes here, that's $25-$30 worth of tomatoes (mind you that's in $CDN, so perhaps $18-$20 USD).

I've gotten a few kinds of cookies done... sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, zimmtsternen, vanillekipferln (sp?), Linzer cookies, and what my GF knows as "Russian teacakes" though they have a number of names (some of you will know them as "pecan meltaways"). No great amount of any of them; half or less compared to my usual, but it's enough to get boxes out in the mail to my grandkids, niece and son out west with a few left over. On a completely unrelated note, one of my friends shared this photo with a suggestion that it's ideal for "retro entertaining": Pretzel sticks, white chocolate, pink icing, Oreo crumbs.

Posted with the caption: "Error 404, drink not found."

Surprise, surprise, it's enoki again! https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/golden-mushroom-brand-enoki-mushroom-recalled-due-listeria-monocytogenes-3?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

Yeah, I'm scratching my head over it. If they were fruit-containing products I'd have thought maybe stems, but that clearly isn't the case here.

I always have either WASA or Ryvita on hand. Currently it's Ryvita, because they were on sale. On the whole I prefer WASA.

That would actually make a fascinating compare-and-contrast, wouldn't it?

There's a national recall on some kinds of Little Gourmet Organic Bowls, which apparently contain wood. Not that a lot of us here have toddlers, but perhaps grandkids (or great-grands?) might be at risk. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-little-gourmet-organic-brand-mealtime-bowls-recalled-due-pieces-wood?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

LOL I'm the opposite, I seldom eat eggs for breakfast but "breakfast for dinner" is a frequent occurrence.

You know the market niche has become mainstream when... https://www.fastcompany.com/90987446/ooni-gozney-roccbox-solo-pi-home-pizza-oven

Got a couple, tonight. First an add-on/update to the cantaloupe recall (5 deaths to date in Canada, 3 in the US): https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/fresh-cut-cantaloupe-products-recalled-due-salmonella-0?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23 ...and Kopi Thyme sauces and soup bases (various Asian styles) for botulism. This one's Ontario and the Western provinces, but possibly were sold online and ended up in other provinces as well. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/kopi-thyme-brand-sauces-and-soup-bases-recalled-due-potential-presence-dangerous?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

Which, yes, is sharp. For those who - like me - are clumsy or experience declining dexterity, it's definitely a pick-your-poison scenario. I personally found that I was more likely to cut myself on the can after using a side-cutter, so I abandoned it for a conventional can opener. Others (possibly/probably a majority?) have found otherwise. I will say that cans opened with a side-cutter make excellent biscuit cutters, etc. and are definitely preferable for steaming loaves of Boston brown bread.

Gotta make sure they weren't damaged in shipping, right?

Unsurprisingly I was not involved in the actual research, but my mental picture was of the charged coffee particles clinging together like clothes in a dryer (obviously, a dryer without a Bounce sheet). Dampness inhibits static charge, so it all seemed logical.

Well, we've got this month's enoki mushroom recall out of the way early. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/good-brand-enoki-mushroom-recalled-due-listeria-monocytogenes?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

...and write a paper together. Okay, the chemist has actually done studies on the mechanics of espresso brewing in the past, but this time he looked into the savvy barista's habit of lightly spritzing the beans before grinding to see if he could validate a scientific reason for doing so. The experiments were successful, and the volcanologist took away some useful insights as well. First link is a layperson's explanation, second link is the underlying paper. https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/study-why-a-spritz-of-water-before-grinding-coffee-yields-less-waste-tastier-espresso/ https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385(23)00568-4

...as one does.