jsolomon

Have you tried air?

Air goes in and out. Blood goes round and round. Any deviation from this is not how we are supposed to live. I don't think that I'm being alarmist, though. If your blood is not in your pipes, and you can't explain why it is not in your pipes, you need to have it checked out. I'm not attempting to diagnose, but you've got pain where you should have a relaxing elimination experience, and you've got blood where you can't see it expressing. Those are not good signs of adequate health. Edit to add: if you search google for "calcium toxicity symptoms" you're going to get lots of cruft of unknown quality. I'd trust your primary caregiver.

<Put on remote medical professional hat> Okay, folks, here are my understandings of steps to reasonable burn treatments. Disclaimer: If you are not reasonably healthy with no acute or chronic infections, or you have a substandard immune, blood, or skin system integrity, stop reading NOW. 1: Stop the burn. If this is a thermal burn, remove it from the heat source and attempt to quench the heat of the burned part as quickly as possible. Yes, that means that I find the suggestion to not use ice or ice-water as horseshit. A couple of minutes of icewater bath or ice massage is NOT going to cause frostbite in a healthy adult human. For chemical burns, dial 911 and follow their instructions. 2: Protect the burn. A deep burn (second or third degree) is going to seep fluid. If you can keep the wound dry and wick away the fluid, do it. The best thing I have come across is telfa pads or something similar. They don't stick to the drying serous fluid. A good triple antibiotic, or aloe, or silver sulfadiazine ointment is appropriate at this stage. 3: Treat swelling and pain. If you must continue with your work, be aware that a large burn is going to have a large swelling response. If you have a watch or ring or other circumferential jewelry, remove them. Keep them off. Do not allow the swelling to strangulate the wound. Apply ice intermittently for the first 24 hours. 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. 4: Seek medical assistance. For very bad burns, they do need debrided. Get in touch with a medical professional. Answer their questions about the nature, size, and description of the burn. They may advise you come in for definitive medical treatment. If the burn is larger than the area of 2 hands, go to the doctor. If the burn is on the head, face, neck, or genitals, go the the doctor. If the burn is completely around any digit or limb, go to the doctor. What I have described here is reasonable first-aid. If you have questions about the burn, seek medical assistance. If you follow these, you are at your own risk. But, please, keep your wounds clean. I hate septic patients.

Pan: question of diet. Do you eat beets? They have *ahem* gi effects that can mimic bloody stools. If the answer is no, you haven't been eating beets, you really ought to make an appointment with your primary care physician. Or, if that isn't convenient, appraise your primary care physician of your current state and listen for advice as such. But, if you're having painful stools and other issues, you are overdoing it on cations in your diet. My suggestion would be drop the RiteAid Tums-alikes and switch to baking soda in water for acute attacks. Sodium carbonate is much better tolerated by the body in such large amounts. But, it isn't intended for continued usage, either. But, if you've had symptoms like this where you're eating Tums like they're candy for days, you have something going on that ought to be medically examined. My gut feeling leans toward gall-bladder. My best advice as a medical professional with a decade of experience is: get thee to thy physician. Quickly. Wednesday would be good. Monday would be better. But, have your physician make sure that your gall bladder at the very least is still ticking.

I respectfully disagree with this, as if you add your cold at the bottom and expect it to simply percolate up, you will find that you have the bottom much colder than you want, if you are maintaining temperature at the top. Conversely, if you are maintaining temperature at the bottom with simple percolation, your top will be too warm. Air is a wonderful insulator and doesn't move much in a refrigerator without help. But, I think the design eggheads took care of that with some well-placed electronics and fans. /disagreement. I tend to like the design of side-by-side freezer and refrigerators. But, I am a bachelor with no roommates, so my trips to the refrigerator and freezer are for smaller amounts than a family, and more prone to forgetting or eating more convenient types of things. I also tend to think that if you are having a creaky-knee day asking the short people who live upstairs to fish something out of the bottom freezer will have a negative impact on the scheme of freezer item placement. Read: stuff may get lost quicker. Caveat: I don't have kids. However, congratulations on your decision. I am jealous of your plans--and current kitchen. I wish you the best of luck!

Torakris, I live in an area with a growing immigrant population in the central US. Most of the grocery stores here, the large warehouse type, have hand-cranked grinders for ~$20. They would work reasonably well for the first go around. I'm not sure whether they have the sausage tube in the package or not, though. Another place to look would be froogle.google.com if you have made up your mind on a brand and model, or have your short list prepared. Also, I have to jump in Mayhaw Man's camp. Living in Nebraska, I've been to the original Cabela's, and several others. They are simply amazing stores to go through. Best of luck!

Single malt scotch and pecan pie

My typical breakfast: 1 liter of water chugged before the shower. Then, black coffee, post-shower. After that, either dried fruit or Grape Nuts. Sometimes other fruit. Occasionally 2 minute eggs. At my parents' house, Bittman's overnight waffles.

A chili dog with Hormel or Stag chili, sour cream, Kraft sharp cheddar (grated), and some onion. There, I've said it. Otherwise, the scalloped potatoes and ham at my school. The white sauce was perpetually separated, and it was way too salty, but it was oddly comforting. I was the only person I know of in my school who actively defended it as "not too bad".

Meat substitutes. If you like hot dogs, but you're a vegetarian, deal with your psychological need for one or the other and figure out how you want to live your life. DON'T BE A FENCE SITTER, DAMMIT! Ditto for "burgers" and quorn. And uncareful grocery store workers who can bruise unripe peaches! Beat the little blighters for beating my food!

According to these guys, the specific heat of water is 4186 J/kg*K and silica sand (quartz sand) is 295 J/kg*K, but quartz is also 2.6 g/cm^3, where water is 1.00 So, you can pack a lot more sand, mass-wise, but water still wins out if you want that long, slow braise-type heat that melts collagen and is oh, so yummy. So... I guess the moral is saline beats silicone? Damn, I still like mine naturally marbled.

Fifi, I think you want to look up the heat capacity of silicon dioxide if you want the heat capacity of sand. That being said, the water, as it evaporates/boils will also tend to keep the temperature constant due to the heat and temperature of vaporization. This effect is beyond simple thermal mass. The energy required to vaporize a gram of water is roughly 500 times the amount required to heat it one degree according to these guys: Hyperphysics, phase changes or about 5 times the energy to heat that same gram from having just melted to being at the boiling point. Depending on the temperature, water can be better than sand.

Cut the corn off the cob and toss in a hot, oiled pan. Give the kernels a little color, then flambe with tequila (if you're so inclined). Mix them with a few pickled sweet peppers and some mild salad greens and some chopped boiled egg for a killer salad. Serve with crackers and cheese on the side. Perhaps with some sliced tomatoes on the side too. Yum yum yum. Figure 2 or 3 ears per person/serving for this.

Having not been an adult long--I'm currently 27, still a sapling--I remember a few of my food peccadilloes quite vividly. One was a quite long year-plus stretch where I stated that I absolutely abhorred hot dogs. I can come up with no reason why other than I had simply made up my mind. One place children seem to have attention is at the breakfast/lunch/dinner/supper table, and that seems like a natural place for us to attempt to show our independent agency. When I think seeds started to make a me a food appreciator was when my mother was working a full-time split shift at UPS, my father was busy in the fields (farmer) and my brother and I were old enough to not "need" babysitting. This meant that the cooking duties fell to my brother and I. Since I was younger and generally agreeable, my brother kept telling me, "You cook. You do it better." A ploy which gave him more time to play, watch TV, do homework, etc. I never questioned his statement; although in retrospect, I question his motives. What sorts of things did I start cooking? Well, easy stuff. Spaghetti, Hamburger Helper, hamburgers, grilled steaks, pork chops, potatoes, nuked veggies, boiled veggies. They may not be gourmet, and they may not even be "great" foods, but they provided me with a solid platform of tasting and preparing experience that I could build further knowledge from. From a food standpoint, I think those were the beginnings of my tongue becoming an informed consumer. Bless my parents, they never complained... unless I burnt something.

Strawberries with rhubarb is definitely a crime against strawberries. However, I have always been a big proponent of rhubarb-raisin pie. Poach ~1 cup of raisins until they're plumped. Reserve the liquid. Place the raisins and rhubarb in a blind-baked shell. Thicken the raisin liquid with corn starch or tapioca and add ~1 cup sugar per quart of rhubarb (I like mine less sweet, but the rest of my family likes it amazingly sweet) and pour the thickened liquid over. Cover the pie with the rest of the crust. Bake til done (I don't have times in front of me, forgiveness, please) If the raisins are just plump, they'll still absorb some more of the liquid given off by the rhubarb, and you'll have a pie that definitely stands on its own--more like a pudding. And the tartness of the raisins and they're complex sugars complement the rhubarb quite quite well.

I get mine from a custom packer. I would assume that if you know your meat counter guy well-enough, he would procure some for you. Just ask for uncured, unsalted pork belly. FYI, if you don't have a slicer, getting it in 1 pound chunks and trying to slice it nicely after you've cured and smoked it is a bit challenging for the novice.

This is different from the nowhere you lived in in Nebraska? Welcome to eG! Oh, and to render assistants, first you need to cube them and place them into a large, heated vessel. One of your rocket engines should work.

I like to use spicy breakfast sausage, parm, EVOO, crackers, and a little egg to bind mine all together. I've never worried about them being underdone, but I usually use little button mushrooms so they cook in the same time frame as the egg sets in if you broil them in an already heated oven. But, your recipes sound better. I'm taking notes, please don't sue on grounds of IP!

Fresco, I agree with your opening comment, but the nag in the back of my mind keeps asking me "at what level can the average American with an interest in food think about it?" We are the country that sprung McDonalds upon the world. While many people are able to have an interest, I don't think they've had an eye-opening epiphany, and the majority of magazines are going along with the majority ('cos who wants to live off of the fringe anyway? Let's make up the difference in volume, right?) Yes, I am a pessimist.

Grew up a rancher, now I'm a chemist. We don't exactly just take a bite out of the cow after we wrestle it to the ground, though. We break out the chainsaw to cut around the gamey bits But, considering how much money Nebraskans lose raising cattle, it may be simply a weird hobby.

If you like cows, you haven't been close enough to them I've had too many bruises, cuts, burns, sprains, pulled muscles, and property damage to have much "like" for them But, gosh, they taste good

Yes, unfortunately in most American locales, that would be considered "off-sale". Hmm... that would be a good question for Randy Cohen, the New York Times' ethicist. I certainly fall under the proponent list. Bring in a large hand bag and a clean stainless thermos. Then, nip off to the restroom with handbag and bottle in tow. Empty bottle into thermos. Stow thermos in handbag. Place handbag in trunk of car. Go home happy :) Cost of dinner: $30 Cost of wine: $25 Cost of being civilly disobedient: priceless For some things there are reasonable laws, for everything else, there's blockheaded FUD.

Chicen soup, and scrambled eggs with lots of tabasco sauce. But, please, spinach in with the homemade chicken soup. It's a comfort food thing.

+2 points for 2 Buck Chuck Alternatively, you can give them a dodge and serve beer :grin: