Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[theinevitable]

STL is on complete lockdown because apparently a horrible blizzard is heading our way. I have heard conflicting reports on how bad it will be, but WashU is shutting down at 3 PM. Apparently they have not done this since the 80s.

Now is the part where I start worrying that I have been flippant in my decision not to get any supplies.

[Mr Trout]

Tonight I'm gonna be up late because I can never fall asleep when I have a flight the next morning. Expedia was all nice and automatically rescheduled my flight due to the storm blanketing the midwest, but that now means I have to take a train to the airport at 3:56am. It is quarter to one. I was up at 8am, worked, ran 3.5 miles, had some beers and some sexy time with the gf so why am I completely awake right now?

On a separate note I have had a weird few months here. I was goaded into the first fight of my adult life by a longtime friend, in a bar, which I easily won (to my surprise) and it felt great at first but then afterwards I felt absolutely awful. I ate an entire scorpion which had been marinating in some mescal (no flavor, just crunchy). I went through one of the lowest points I can remember, coping by listening to Swans - Children of God on repeat while pacing around my apartment. I very nearly killed myself several times skiing double blacks in Breckenridge. I watched my gf's dad fall 35' straight onto his back while rock climbing, bounce with the most sickening expression I've ever seen, then turn whiter than I thought possible. He walked out of the hospital that night with nothing broken.

Life is nothing if it doesn't surprise you I guess.

[Doc]

I'm giving a friend (or involved in giving a friend) a bottle of tequila with a scorpion in it tomorrow, so it's good to know I can drunkenly shout 'EAT IT DAMN YOU SOMEONE ON THE ITNERNET SAID IT'S OK' at him.

[Mr Trout]

It is an excellent thing to dare someone to eat because something with eight legs is intrinsically gross and you can't just swallow, you must chew many times.

[Nabubrush]

Hm. That sounds bad, but I don't have time to look into it, because I am going home today.

[AugustWest]

Infantigo?

Infantigo!

It's like
only you use babies!

[Carlos del Vaca]

Infantigo?

Infantigo!

It's a 1958 Hitchcock film in which Jimmy Stewart must climb a bell tower holding babies.

[greenkoolayd]

its also called 'impetigo'.  the internet says its a staph infection, but i always thought it was ringworm.

[Victoria Waterfield]

I thought it was the farm team for Menudo.

[jay-ell]

Today I'm gonna do that thing where I go to the warehouse club and buy $200 worth of groceries, then come home and chop half of the vegetables for freezing. My eyes are burning from the onions.

The rest I use fresh, but we can't go through three pounds of carrots before they go bad, so I keep a stock of diced carrots in the freezer and throw them in to soups, stews, and stir-fries. I did the carrots, onions, and mushrooms tonight. The celery will have to wait 'til tomorrow.

You might not think mushrooms freeze well, and actually, they don't, but I blend ground beef with finely minced white mushrooms to use in lasagna and spaghetti bolognese; it cuts the fat and calories considerably, and nobody notices unless I tell them. When they're being sauteed, you can get away with using frozen -- and I think frozen retains its texture better than canned.

I also bought a 10-lb bag of individually frozen (not wrapped) chicken breasts. Gotta love the warehouse club.

[side_show]

JL - I'm confused about the carrots - stored properly, carrots can keep and be tasty and delicious for months, just like potatoes. I'm wondering if we have a hardier variety up here, of if it's about how you're storing them?   Unless your talking about the processed mini carrots that is - those things seem to go bad fairly quickly. 

[wombat]

Smells, I am confused about the carrots too - is there some totally different vegetable you call "carrot" in Canada? Because the one we have here is NEVER delicious, no matter how you store it.

It must be nice to have such reliable electrical service that you can freeze $200 worth of groceries. Speaking of which, today I'm gonna call a company about having a generator installed and have them not call me back for a second time. I guess I better start looking for a different company.

[Mr Trout]

I must eat more carrots than the average person because I go through 3 pounds regularly. Part of it I guess is my thrifty upbringing, which makes me look at a pound of baby carrots for $2 and 3# of normal ones for the same price and seriously who in their right mind can resist buying that giant bag?

well I guess a lot of people can because baby carrots are a goddamn industry in this country. But then I end up eating a ton of raw carrots as snacks, but is that really a bad thing?

To keep with the subject of this eternal thread, today I'm gonna have bottle opening and cork removing bets with a fellow pole. Also learn some awesome polish toasts. Roughly translated, my favorite is "Whoever takes the last of the bottle has good luck and a fair complexion." Bottle can be substituted with "last slice of pizza" or "last beer in the case."

[pmcd9]

Speaking of carrots, I'm old enough to remember when baby carrots didn't exist in the marketplace.  There are a few of you here that go back that far.  Baby carrots are actually what is known as baby-cut carrots which are regular sized carrots that have been whittled down to baby carrot size. 

Originally baby carrots were actual baby carrot roots that had been harvested early.  This delicacy started showing up in the 70s.  I think the rise of baby carrots coincided with the emergence of the bean sprout.  Soon baby carrots were all the rage.  Sure, you might see a regular fully grown carrot in some bum's soup pot in some dirty kitchen down on skid row, but no smart sophisticated person would be caught dead eating one.  Only the tender baby carrot would do.

Somewhere along the way a switcheroo took place and baby carrots were replaced by baby-cut carrots.  America didn't notice.  Like how when bottled water started out as a sophisticated thing, all drinking Perrier like Mick Jagger.  Sure, we're paying for water, but it's special sparkling water imported from France.  Now, of course, most bottled water is simply tap water being sold to you for about a million times the price.

[jay-ell]

JL - I'm confused about the carrots - stored properly, carrots can keep and be tasty and delicious for months, just like potatoes. I'm wondering if we have a hardier variety up here, of if it's about how you're storing them?   Unless your talking about the processed mini carrots that is - those things seem to go bad fairly quickly. 

I store them, whole and unpeeled, in the veggie crisper in the fridge. They seem to lose their crispness and get soft and soggy in 3 - 4 weeks; by 5 weeks they're shriveled and inedible. Maybe it's because of the humidity in the south? My potatoes don't keep for months, either -- they're moldy in 6 weeks, tops.

I just had to throw away the remainder of a bag of sweet potatoes (about a pound) because they were covered in mold after just 2 weeks in my pantry. I stored them in the mesh bag they came in on a shelf with (but not touching) my other non-refrigerated produce (apples, bananas). Am I doing it wrong?