annecros
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Posts posted by annecros
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After reading this article in the Toronto Star, particularly this bit:
This idea – that liberated women don't prepare food – isn't one that Citibank just cooked up. In fact, as one female friend quickly pointed out, it's still part of the Sex and the City cultural hangover. Carrie Bradshaw, of course, famously used her oven as a shoe cupboard far before Grace, as a kind of feminist triumph: she likes sex and (therefore) doesn't like to cook. Shopping, friends and men sustained her instead.But since Sex, the phenomenon has heated up. Recently, I talked to a middle-aged male film director about a dinner he had just cooked for friends. When I subsequently told him about a meal I'd made, he raised his eyebrows. "I don't know a single other woman who cooks – or at least admits to it in public!" he exclaimed. "You're like a relic!" His male friends all cook, he said. But no women of his generation or younger that he knows prepares food.
Why? In short, men come across as evolved, sexy and creative when they mix things up in the kitchen. But women seem stuck in Leave-it-to-Beaver-land when they step in front of the stove: domestic suckers who aren't paying enough attention to their ambition or their libidos. They're not third-wave feminists, embracing women's traditional skills, or sexy, busy people who make time for health and family, but women who need a good empowerment talk.
I spoke to a few of my other female friends about it. "I never had anything in the cupboards before I had kids," one friend, a professional singer, told me proudly. "I was out having fun."
"I can't even boil water," another told me, smiling. "If my husband is away, I just eat cereal or get takeout." She's never been taught to cook and has no desire to learn. Plus, her husband, whose dad was a chef, loves to cook elaborate meals.
It seems that I am an anachronism.
Thinking back on my working outside the home days, hubby and I actually split the cooking duties much more evenly. Now, that I work in the home, I do about 95% of the cooking. He does tell me that I am sexy as as all getout, even when I am elbow deep in dishes. But reflecting on the four offspring we were responsible for bringing into the world, the male is the much better cook.
So guys, are you feeding your partner's libido as well as their belly? Am I denying my husband an opportunity to express his machismo? Am I really all that square for admitting that I cook?
Anne, bringing home the bacon and frying it up in a pan.
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For sake of argument I could go on forever based on principles. And I am more than happy to continue a pollyanna approach to life - I happily choose that over skepticism and cynicism - I just can't imagine waking up like that each day. However, I do think FG's approach is logical, but then let me answer thisAs a business owner, would you consider adding a surcharge to your prices? For example, "You will find a 5% surcharge on your receipt to help us provide our employees with health insurance."
If not, why not?
I would not because its not part of my industry's model. Constantin is operating within the model within which he has been set. He is using the tools that are easily available to him. Have you ever walked out of a grocery with a surcharge placed on your purchase? The closest comparison would be the bottle deposits of the 70s and 80s. But in the restaurant/hospitality industry I've paid gratuity (mandatory and choice). I've paid corkage fees. I've paid those stupid tourist fees that some cities tack on to every charge in the hospitality field. From the outside it may not seem novel, but from the inside the novelty comes from how the existing system is used.
Well, 6.2% of my husband's earnings go to the welfare of seniors and the disabled (they call it "Social Security") and his employer even matches it!
Wouldn't 5% costing come close to SSI and Workman's Comp?
Peanuts.
The only grocery store that I know of that charges a surcharge is the Commissary System on military bases. Those grocery stores sell at cost, then add a surcharge of 5% to the bottom line to cover overhead. They are a non appropriated fund organization, so money is tight for this benefit. They still are having trouble competing with the big boxes outside of the gate. Also unique to this system, bag persons work for tips only and shelf stockers are Independent Contractors that are paid by the manufacturer or broker, by the case. Used to be about a quarter a case.
The Commissary System is unique in that it is not profit driven in the slightest. But it does depend upon the patrons, much like restaurants, to pay employees out of pocket.
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But if they/I get screwed over that's their/my business, not yours. As I've said, 50% of people will appreciate these efforts. 50% won't or will distrust. So what I am saying is there is nothing that you or I could say that could get us to agree on this - we have very different paradigms.
As a consumer then you make your choice to go somewhere else. I would be more inclined to support them for making this commitment - even if it is a commitment to my expense.
A paradigm is simply a perception of reality. I do have a tendency to want to at least be able to touch it before I am convinced. My paradigm is a real touchy, feely kind of place.
You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, yadda yadda
Do what makes you feel good. If you think, sincerely, that adding an additional 5 points on your bill will save the life of a dishwasher, then by gracious just do it.
I think that expending your funds wisely, with forethought, would be a supercool thing to do.
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Wouldn't I expect them to back it up - no. Why would I? Again, I can't imagine going through life living with the assumption that everyone is out to screw me over - that would be a very tiring life. Maybe I've lived in a small town too long. When I lived in New Orleans, I was screwed over on the shell game once, but you know what - I'm still alive and happy, and not missing my $5.
They've made the public statement of what the money is for. Good enough for me. If it turns out that the bean wasn't under any of the shells, I wouldn't support them anymore...but that's life isn't it?
So when they tell you that 5 points on your bill is going somewhere, you would not expect them to be able to back that up? Seriously. The 5 points are a selling point, make you feel warm and fuzzy when you pay the bill, but there is absolutely no way of knowing where the 5 points land.
Sheesh, I get screwed over all the time because I trust people. That is not the issue. I don't mind being screwed over, I mind that other people might be screwed over.
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Reading this I admit I am torn. I think cost of health care should be calculated into to price like other all other costs. What would be next 30% surcharge for cost of food, 20% for leasing/rental costs and another 15% for utilities? As much I like the idea to tip the cook and dishwashers, I believe it should not be done by adding an additional charge.
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So as noble it might sound I truly believe there are other ways to compensate the entire staff properly.
Z
Thank you, I wish I could have expressed myself as well as you did.
Why is overhead a surcharge on the bill? Last I heard, overhead was overhead.
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So, your paper may be recycled or not, between 10& and 100% post consumer paper. I would like a minimum of 50% for my personal comfort. No regulations, no enforcement.
When they make a notation at the bottom of your bill telling you that 5% of your check is going to the employee, wouldn't you expect them to back that up in black and white?
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And you would feel better if they added the 5% on and didn't tell us where it was going? How does that make it better? I at least now know that this is a business that is trying to make a difference in how its employees are handled. If they didn't tell me then I could assume they treat their back of house like crap like everyone else and raised the 5% to pad their own pockets.
And as for the use of small print - its the same as "printed on recycled paper."
Well, I would feel better if they added the 5% and actually purchased health insurance for employees. Inform me or not, that is an internal HR function, and none of my business.
How do you know how they use the 5 points, and do you expect them to actually open the books and inform you?
Agreed on the small print. It's bull.
You can say anything in the world all day long. The burden of proof is shifted to the consumer in this unfortunate situation. The real burden is on the staff.
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Now, this came as a bit of a surprise to us, as we had not seen this practice before. I'm wondering, is it better just to raise prices 5%, and not tell the dining public about it? Is it written this way for tax purposes? Does it bother anyone? Is it the beginning of a new trend? Should we be outraged?
I'm with Mitch and Rob on this, as well, though I'm a bit surprised that it is in tiny print at the bottom of the menu, like they are hoping no one will notice it. As long as the full 5% really is being used for employee health care, I have no issue with it, and think it is actually a nice alternative to just raising prices. This way the dining public can see why the prices went up.
Well, I would have to pat you all on the heads and explain that any employee benefits are already written into the costing of the food. Your prices have already absorbed the cost of the benefits. Adding a few more points on the bottom of the bill may make you feel better personally, but it is only because they did not want to raise the price to you per plate to provide the same benefit they have provided in the past. Or they wanted you to feel self righteous over the price you are paying, because all of a sudden you are responsible for their employees health care.
I think the small print is just silly.
Always has been. Just saying. As a banquet bartender with a corporate place a while back, and so way back when I didn't have to dye my grays, it is almost silly the way they do not compensate employees. In speaking to nieces, nephews, etc. it is my understanding that nothing has changed.
The Maitre'D actually charged a gratuity to the entire huge freaking party, didn't do any work, and then kept it for herself. No splits to any of the people who did the work.
I am entirely skeptical.
Why should we sing the praises of a corporate persona that just now raised prices, cutting into tips, in order to provide benefits that they should really provide anyway? Then tell you it is a "surcharge" that benefits the employees? Shell game.
This practice makes me singularly angry on a very low level. It is just - skeevy.
Go European and write everything into the price per plate.
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We are running full blown here in Zone 10 Florida. I've got tomatoes, collards, turnips, mustard all going full blast. The pepper plants (perennial in the ground here) are blooming and setting fruit again, so spring is coming.
I've already sown southern peas, up and blooming, and the last tomato transplants go into the ground tomorrow. I stagger seed starting for tomatoes from August to December and pull slicers up until late June, early July. All I can grow in the Summer heat and humidity are cherry type tomatoes, but am giving Arkansas Traveler (that supposedly sets well in the heat) a run this summer as I have an excess of seed. We shall see.
Most herbs go year around as well, but I have a dickens of a time with dill for some reason. Always have. Basil and cilantro are practically wild.
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When the kids got picky about a food, I would make them take three bites, and let them waste the rest if they wanted.
By the time they were five or six, they were unusually adventurous eaters for little kids.
I still can't eat beets, in any way, shape or form - and enjoy them. I don't know what it is about beets, and I can't put my finger on the flavor note that is turning me off. They are so pretty, the rest of the family enjoys them, and I love every other root veg I ever met, but I just can't get past that one. And I have tried way more than ten times.
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Tomatoes and peppers from the garden. I must have sent a five pound sack last week. There was a cake and tamales at Christmas I sent over. I sometimes feed her retired husband lunch when she is tied up at work and he is doing the yard.. They have avacado and plantain growing that they share. Sometimes she will send over her pigeon peas and rice that she knows I am fond of - not the standard fare, she does something special and won't tell.
It was a lot of fun Christmas Eve when the kids came in - a steamer full of pasteles (although I think the pasteles are boiled initially) and a steamer full of tamales.
They couldn't decide which were better - but they are seasoned so differently there really is no comparison.It all works out. We just both check for the bag hanging on our side of the fence regularly.
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I love it. My Puerto Rican neighbor tosses a sack full of pastel over the fence from time to time in an elaborate bartering system we have set up.
They are in fact, or at least her in version of them, malanga and plantain. And oh so good! I think she uses exclusively pork and parts.
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My darling husband. I adore him, he is the best thing that ever happened to myself and my kids, the salt of the earth.
But he drives me nuts when he invades my space.
Usually when I am doing a large meal for a family gathering and timing is critical and I am holding it all in my head.
He is also very complimentary of my cooking skills, knows that I can cook, that I cook well, and loves having great food delivered to him by an adoring wife. Then all of a sudden some sort of mental state sets in, and he has to "help" me with the hollandaise that he has never turned a hand to in his entire life.
The hollandaise broke as I was yelling at him to get out of my kitchen.
I was so angry, and it was one of the few demonstrations of my temper getting out of hand.I don't understand. I don't tell him how to mow the lawn.
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Real grits, boiled. With a pool of real butter.
Full Fat Milk, Ice Cream, Cream, Butter, Sour Cream, Cream Cheese, etc. etc.
Southern peas must be served with rice.
No hot sauce in the boiled peanuts, an abomination.
Meringue on the banana pudding, no whipped cream or
cool whip. Also, must use 'Nilla Wafers.Skin on my fried chicken, dammit.
Old Bay in a Low Country Boil.
Southern Greens must be cooked with a smoked hock. Keep your turkey wing away from my pot.
Eggs must be fried in butter.
Okra must be fried in bacon fat. Ditto cornbread.
Key Lime Pie does not have meringue! Ever.
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Wow, they are pretty mixed. I guess I understand why this model was discontinued. They must be working the bugs out.
Still (granted I am only three days in) it has been really nice for us so far. The coffee in my pot stayed hot for about 30 minutes after the auto shutoff. The reservoir is not as sturdy as I would like, and I bet that is where people are springing leaks. I think I could manage not to scald myself even if it did leak, though, and I am known to be clumsy.
Coffee doesn't taste burned even when old.
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We are pretty pedestrian coffee drinkers. We generally purchase the cheapest 10 cup coffee maker on the shelf (just me and hubby here), rag it out, and sort of treat it as a disposable appliance.
So when the latest piece o' junk died yesterday (all steam no coffee, obviously we didn't take care of our $15 investment) I ran across a Hamilton Beach BrewStation on the clearance rack at Wally World for $29. Obviously, they are dumping the model we have, but I saw several others on the shelf ranging from $40 to $100. Here is mine:
So after two days use I am pleased with the design. It keeps the coffee fresher, our mugs all fit under the spout, and it has the nifty auto shutoff that everybody wants.
I am wondering why they are discontinuing the bottom line machine? Does anybody have the other models, and how are they?
We think it is pretty nifty, but we are rather pedestrian. The biggest advantage is that I am not sloshing coffee all over the place like that lady in the commercial. I am a two cup minimum before I function.
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Martini's, oysters and stone crab.
Banana Splits for dessert.
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Yes annecros, domino's pizza in that conveyor belt oven cooks up in just over 5 minutes, good things take time ya know!
That begs another question:
What are the other 25 minutes for?
I guess Mohamed would need to time his pizza loading on the conveyor belt so that Aboubacar wouldn't end up in a pizza eating panic ala Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz in the candy factory?
Lot's of precook and prepep going on I guess.
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It's also interesting that a successful marketing campaign, "It's Not Delivery, It's DiGiorno" uses delivery pizza as the hallmark of quality.
Back when I had teenagers in the house, I used it maybe twice a week, usually when hubby and I were going out on our own, or there was a sleepover.
Now, we order baked pasta from a local place instead of ordering pizza. Much more suitable for the delivery process.
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Interesting, are those the actual times you got? Less than six minutes in the pizza oven.
I didn't consider the stalker angle - I suppose you would have to know when the stalkee ordered pizza.
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We went there two Saturdays ago, and it was fine. I'm pretty picky about seafood, and if a fish market smells in any way of fish I will walk out. We didn't do the stone crabs though - Apalachicola oysters and picked up a whole flounder to stuff. The oysters were really nice, but you expect that in January. If your stone crabs were mushy, they were not fresh. I probably would have complained.
As far as size goes, I usually stick with the large claws. The mediums are too much shell for me, and the Jumbos and Colossals just don't seem to be as sweet, but those are my taste buds and your mileage may vary. You will have more meat to shell on the larger sizes.
I have absolutely no experience with any of the mail order seafood here - so can't speak to that in regards to service, etc. I would make sure that the claws were not precracked from whomever I ordered from before shipping.
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It is interesting that the Japanese in the area is much better than the Chinese.
Uncle Thai's in Boca used to be decent Chinese, but a little pricey if I remember correctly.
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I paid the same for Beef Back Ribs as they were charging for Oxtail yesterday. Don't get me started on skirt steak.
The drought is not over in Florida yet. We are still on one day a week watering restrictions. Particularly dry is Central Florida - tomato country.
Three years ago were the hurricanes. Then the Army Corps of Engineers reduced the lake level at Okeechobee in order to avoid a Katrina like episode. No hurricanes since!
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Heh. One of the weird things about menopause (I mean, besides the occasional need to stick my head in the open door of my fridge's freezer compartment for personal thermostat resetting purposes) is that food cravings once tied to "that time of month" now tend to strike at random. How do I tell them apart from your everyday run-of-the-mill food cravings, you may ask? Well, they tend to be for my traditional PMS-craving foods (meat, grease, salt, and more meat, grease, and salt); and they tend to be fueled by that peculiarly hormonal-feeling urgency ...
... she sez, as she works her way through the entire jar of teriaki nori she bought this afternoon.
(Excuse me, I think I need to go stick my head in the freezer. Again.
)(Edited to fix an especially silly typo--"freezer DEpartment"? Wow!
)Oh you can tell. I wet my hair before laying under the ceiling fan this AM. I mean early AM, like 2 I think. Hate the night sweats.
Calzone last night. I split the dough in two and the second half is resting in the fridge. I am going to knead in big, fat dry cured olives and some cheese. Then eat the whole thing with a stick of butter.
Next up in the batter's box are brats, kraut, and soggy over buttered hard rolls. Then maybe some homemade pretzels and mustard. OH, and cheap fried cheese sticks. And then a burger with equally fat slices of sharp cheddar and tomato, with super salty fries. Wow, I bet that burger just needs bacon.
AeroGarden
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
Hubby and I are sort of having a back and forth on this one. I want one to grow salad greens and such because of my climate and the pests and diseases that run rampant in Florida.
But, he argues that he can rig a grow box much cheaper. We also have an old aquarium that he is thinking he can set up as a hydro grow. For lighting he is thinking mini twist compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) the warm white and the daylight providing the light in the blue and red spectra that are conducive to photosynthesis. PVC, a submersible pump, and sprayer heads.
I guess he is going to win this one.