chromedome

Two of our grandkids, a brother and sister (boy 2, girl 5) had birthdays five days apart back in April but their joint party was delayed because of the virus. It finally took place this past weekend, and I made up a dinosaur cake for the little guy (his sister held out for an ice cream cake from DQ). Neither cake decorating nor photography is exactly my forte, but here it is FWIW. Somewhere about midnight I realized that the main part of the body was supposed to have been done in rosettes, rather than the "gloop and spread" method, but by then I wasn't ready to go back and redo it. The little guy didn't mind, and I felt a lot less tired listening to his excited bellows of "DINO CAKE!!!" Apparently after my holiday baking binge I gave away or discarded a bunch of things from my decorating tote, including the cake board and dome, several of the food colorings I thought I'd had, and several colors of prepared decorating icing. Whoopsie...

I got all the blades as well when I bought the (still-unused) backup for my 80s-vintage Cuisinart. They came with some sort of wall-mountable plexiglass holder/display unit/organizer, which I thought was kinda cool. I have yet to use one or even remove any from the holder, but I reckon some day my arthritic knuckles will militate against knife usage. On that day, I'll pull 'em down and be grateful to have them.

https://www.theverge.com/21267669/instacart-shoppers-sick-extended-pay-quarantine-leave-coronavirus

Goes down smoooooothhhh... I do love poking around similar stores, though my options here are more limited. Very much enjoyed the spicy smoked duck necks I found on one trip, and I couldn't resist "strange taste horse beans."

I have one of those...a literal rocket scientist (well...technically a guidance systems engineer, but that doesn't have the same ring to it). Have you read about the OSIRIS-REx mission, the one that's been likened to "firing a bullet halfway round the world and hitting another bullet in flight"? He's one of the small team who made that happen.

They call it "rocket" for a reason.

I invariably put them in my oatmeal, my rice pudding and my bread pudding. Also my butter tarts, and sometimes I'll add raisins and walnuts to an apple strudel or apple pie. In most of those applications, they do indeed get plump and tender.

I'm partial to 'em as well, but mine aren't even planted yet. The last killing frost here was only the night before last.

Yup, that's a serious spread. Kudos.

His site appears to have 32 pages of recipes, some of which presumably would be from the book. https://www.fish-tales.com/cooking-with-seafood/recipes/

I've seen mention of that as well. The studies would be easy enough to Google up, so don't sweat not providing sources. I hadn't paid attention at the time because of having minimal opportunity for herbs over the past several years. That appears likely to change, this year, so I'll probably put in a more representative selection.

Now here's an interesting wrinkle. The article says that plants with human-inflicted damage only gained about a week on their reproductive cycle, but it's possible that trying a few different methods would give varying results... https://www.sciencealert.com/bumblebees-bite-plants-to-make-them-bloom

Nova Scotia, at least the part where I grew up, is sweetened biscuit country. Scratch-made in my childhood, though probably there's a lot of Bisquick now.

...and in Firefox for me. You could try Googling the title, which is in the link.

https://marker.medium.com/inside-the-flour-company-supplying-americas-sudden-baking-obsession-623034583579

FWIW, a friend of mine years ago had kitchen cupboards he'd painted with automotive enamel (on the logic that it was designed for durability, cleanability, chip resistance, etc; and came in a range of bold colors). That was 10 years before I knew him, and they were holding up well. That being said, I suspect this would be the exact opposite of a low-VOC option and would require some serious attention to ventilation.

Oh...and it's also great for scraping the membranes out of peppers when you're prepping them in quantity. Works great, it's fast, and there's little likelihood of gouging into/wasting the pepper's actual flesh.

I use a "tomato shark" for such things, which is also quite effective (disclosure: mine is an inexpensive knockoff, because I'm a cheap bast a frugal person). Aside from strawberries and tomatoes, I find it very neatly cores halved apples, which makes for attractively uniform slices or wedges. .

I have not tried it myself, but I suspect that if fromage fort was the desired end result you could probably soak the recalcitrant cheeses in your wine first, and then buzz them in a food processor once they'd softened sufficiently.

https://slate.com/business/2020/05/pasta-shortage-coronavirus-why.html

You could try an RF choke on the microwave's power cord, but really...if it's just sitting there like a lump, it shouldn't be interfering with anything.

Except for the whole "living in NYC" thing, of course.

I often make a simpler summertime salad of just fennel and fresh orange segments. Once I've finished "supreme-ing" the oranges I squeeze the juice from the remnants over the fennel, and add a splash of olive oil (and a bit of lemon, if the oranges aren't tart enough). Very nice on a hot day,* and minimal prep. *Which in the local context, means anything past the mid-20s C.

Random thought that occurred to me last night as I was dozing off... There really ought to be a cocktail called the Metaphor. "Gotta hand it to ol' Jimbo, he really knows how to mix a Metaphor..." Edited to add the afterthought.... "...and WTH would go into one?"