chromedome

One for the ice cream mavens: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/03/plant-based-nanocrystals-could-be-the-secret-to-preventing-crunchy-ice-cream/

Dr. Taber, my favorite follow on the agricultural side, was on MSNBC last night to address the gap between the grain panic and the reality:

It may be a bit late, and may not contain anything you haven't already learned by now, but I found a link to this pamphlet in the materials I was given while prepping for my own treatments. Eating Well When You Have Cancer

Exsanguination is such a lovely-sounding word for such an inconvenient occurrence. ...and I'll be hearing it all morning, as sung by Carly Simon (to the tune of "Anticipation," of course).

Praise to Anoia!* *For those who haven't read Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, his idiosyncratic pantheon includes Anoia, the goddess of stuck drawers.

My GF is currently on medical leave and spends a lot of time scrolling, so I benefit from her as a "research assistant." Some of 'em I find on Twitter while I'm waking up in the mornings.

Stellar Bay oysters are being recalled for norovirus. They've been sold from BC to Quebec and may have been redistributed to other provinces. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-stellar-bay-shellfish-brand-oysters-recalled-due-norovirus?utm_source=r_listserv

My GF's version, God love her, is lean ground beef mixed with dry onion soup (and nothing else!) and then topped with ketchup as a sauce. It bakes to a dry brick. I made her a more conventional meatloaf the first year we were together, following the classic pattern, and she only ate a few bites. She likes hers better.

We buy a lot of faux-meat products because my poor sweetie can't eat red meat anymore for medical reasons. Had I known, I could have saved you the trouble of testing them for yourself. We've had other faux-sausage products that were passable, but these were just vile and disgusting in every respect.

I feel you. When I had my restaurants, lobster prices in this neck of the woods had cratered and I was getting them for $3.50/lb.

You'll see it used a few ways in @gfron1's cookbook, if you have a copy.

From the inimitable Dr. Sarah Taber:

Just saw this. If there's a Sobeys anywhere within range, they stock the GF Bisquick in their natural/health foods section. Of course, your Superstore may now have it back in stock as well.

I remembered that discussion and was delighted to see Rao's on the shelves at my local supermarket (Sobeys). Then I looked at the price, which was (IIRC) $14.95, and decided it's probably not that good.

Mine gives me three beeps - maybe five or six seconds - and then shuts off. I'm pretty sure that setting can be changed, and one day I'll finally remember to look it up. It's irritating, but I work around it. And use my cheap-crap induction hob for everything, though admittedly my "everything" is much less diverse (and demanding) than those of most present.

In Canada, eBay Classifieds (known here as Kijiji) are dominant, and Craigslist is a minor player that's...somewhat active in a few places. Kijiji has more ads in any of the big cities than Craigslist has in the entire country.

Kijiji. I was typing in a hurry and didn't want to get into the whole Kijiji vs Craigslist thing. It's something I've been randomly searching for every 4-6 weeks, for several years; but until now one had never shown up at the right price, in the right place, while I had the spare cash for a non-essential purchase. This week the planets just aligned for me (the seller was 15 minutes up the road from my mom's place, and we were already driving that way the next day to get to town).

IIRC, Peter Ustinov claimed in his memoir that "Bovril" was his first spoken word (I'm not at home this week, and can't check my copy for verification, but I'm pretty sure).

Not a truly glorious "steal," but I got a 1.8 liter Zojirushi "fuzzy logic" rice cooker in mint condition from the online classifieds for $50. List here in Canada for that model is $249 and actual retail prices range from as low as $149 (on sale) to roughly $179-$199 (regular price) at most retailers. A good-enough price for something I expect to last me for many years.

Very cool.