chromedome

My sister posted pics of the greenery in Vancouver, where she lives, with the rhetorical caption "Is it even Christmas if you don't go to the beach?" (Not to indulge in one-upmanship, but in Vancouver the mountains are right across the harbour and you can catch a city bus to the ski hill...)

...and would also deprive the auto-didacts of an opportunity for a bit of happy Googling.

"The rest" being those who grab popcorn and enjoy the crackling flames...

My introduction came from my sociology prof, back when I was 15 or 16, so I was just the right age to appreciate his humor. He's in his 90s now and still hanging in. I think of him occasionally, and hope he's safe and well cared for in the Year of the Pandemic. In the 80s, when I lived in Vancouver, a random chance-met stranger pegged me as a Lehrer fan because I apparently channeled his tone perfectly while making a snarky comment. I considered that a compliment.

A Tom Lehrer fan, I presume?

https://notalwaysright.com/you-have-to-be-specific-with-children/222526/

Minus the attachments, that looks very much like my elderly Braun. Cost me $18 at Walmart, 18 years ago, still use it at least a few times a month. Pretty good value for the dollar, in my estimation.

Among the new species to gain "official status" in 2020* is an oddball scaly shrub found on searingly hot, saline plains in Namibia (the Greek root of the species name refers to a frying pan). Genetic analysis demonstrated that despite its cactus-like exterior, the plant is actually a brassica. Once you know that, its appearance makes some kind of sense...it looks like a Brussels sprout as designed by Tim Burton. http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2020/04/tiganophyton.html *ie, it has been genetically profiled, described authoritatively for the record, and given a formal name

Mine also gets used several times a month. After a couple years of keto-ing, my GF is REALLY enjoying breaded cutlets again.

We had a wood-burning range when I was a teen, living in northern Newfoundland (electricity came from a few truck-sized diesel generators, and was thoroughly unreliable). It's a whole other approach to cookery, that's for sure. When I first read about the AGA and its mantra of "you don't *set* the temperature you want, you *find* the temperature you want" it made perfect sense to me. Obviously on a cookstove you do have some control over the temperature, if you manipulate the vents and dampers and choose which woods you burn (we always had some poplar set aside for lower-temp cooking and baking, for example). It frustrated my mother terribly at times, because she didn't grow up with a wood-burner, but my father was very skilled at maintaining a stable temperature.

I would say "prudent," rather than "paranoid." After you've tried this one, and have a sense of how it was progressing, you can try another and let it go a bit longer. Eventually you'll find the point of diminishing returns.

Mealiness in apples is almost always a matter of how long it has been since they've come out of cold storage. It sounds like either a) your local Walmart has only middlin' turnover on produce; b) the produce staff aren't good at FIFO; or c) there's a supply chain issue.

I haven't done a moulard myself, but with poultry the usual rule is that the bigger the bird, the better the yield. I think it's probably safe for that many people. As for cooking method I'd probably low and slow for most of the cook, with a blast to crisp the skin at the end, but that's just an educated guess. Think of the crisping and cooking as separate activities and use your best judgement.

Yes, sweet-and-tangy is always a good combination with beets. I'll often drizzle a bit of pomegranate "molasses" over roasted beets.

I eat a lot of beets, and love them. Comments upthread are correct in that roasting in-skin (or steaming or boiling if you prefer) is the best way to minimize mess and a generally Dexter-ish ambience in your kitchen. If you want to venture beyond that, you can take your cue from Dexter as well...set down plastic or foil on your work surface, glove up, and wear an apron to stop splatters from permanently re-patterning your clothing. I rather like shredded/julienned beets as a salad, it captures something of the same fresh sweetness as juicing them. Another guilt pleasure is to julienne them or use my rotary mandoline/"spiralizer" to make beet noodles, and then deep-fry "nests" of them until crisp and have them with a spicy dip (a remoulade, or a well-seasoned sour cream mixture, or at times I'll just use creamed horseradish).

Welcome to you both. I've learned a lot here over the years, and there's an astonishing quantity of information contained in these threads if you have the time to winkle it out.

LOL We must be rough contemporaries. I can affirm that Cold Duck was also popular at parties involving naval personnel in Atlantic Canada at roughly the same time period. The men were mostly beer, whisky and rum drinkers, IIRC, so I'd guess the wine was favored by the wives (and stealthy children the next morning, curious to learn what the fuss was all about).

A study recently released here in Canada concluded that food prices would face a noticeable uptick in 2021, to the tune of just under $700/household over the year on the average. One of my local news outlets interviewed an academic who was involved in preparing the report, and I thought some of you might be interested in it. https://signalhfx.ca/qa-what-the-2021-food-report-tells-us-about-food-economics/

I inherited my grandmother's main cookbook, a wartime edition of The American Woman's Cookbook, which is similarly annotated. I pull it out every now and again just to leaf through it and read her comments.

One of the ads mentions a set of collectible images of songbirds inside the boxes. When I was a kid, Red Rose always came with a little incentive inside the box in the form of pictures or small ceramic figurines. Most of my relatives had dozens of those little figurines around the house. They were made in England, and are now mildly collectible. We have two other iconic regional tea brands. King Cole also originated here in Saint John with the G E Barbour company, now headquartered in nearby Sussex. The other is Morse's, originally blended and sold in Halifax but now also owned by Barbour. Both are perfectly decent, full-flavored orange pekoes (I'm drinking King Cole as I write this).

Red Rose is a well-known Canadian tea brand, once headquartered in uptown Saint John (but now owned by Unilever). In the 1950s the company commissioned Norman Rockwell to create a series of paintings for its print ads, which were recently rediscovered by a local graphic designer. Story is here.

Some batches of Compliments brand pastrami and Montreal smoked meat, also sold under the Leavitts and Deli Shop brand names, have been recalled for listeria. Possibly national in scope. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2020-12-07/eng/1607395348707/1607395354323?utm_source=r_listserv

Yup. As you up your purchase price, the bundle gets richer. There are bundles each month, divided between books and games. Looking back through my inbox, I find 14 offers in November, 9 each in October and September, and 7 in August. I've already gotten 3 so far in December, so I expect the total will also be high for this month.

That's correct. They're platform-independent, you get 'em in multiple formats and without DRM so you can use them across all your devices and not have to monkey around with Adobe Digital Editions and suchlike.