dlb

I think stress and news might be getting to me. Every time I see someone ask things like "did I poison myself" I want to answer "Yes!". So far I have been able to stop myself. ;) Hope all are staying safe, and sane.

Sounds very interresting Stephie. I may have to try even though I am the only one in the house that eats seafood. I would not think of beetroot, but it does have good curing qualities. Might just forget what I am supposed to do with the vodka and put it in a glass instead though. ;)

Do calories in Christmas cookies actually count?

"How to make bun with my oven" - OK, will not make new user feel bad, but am I the only one that saw that title and though it was a more appropriate question for interpersonal relationships than cooking? Happy New Year all!

@Stephie those look great. Makes me want to stop with the cookies and start some dough proofing, but I know how bad I am at bread. Those look over the top though.

He did however still give her the extra present. It was a picture of himself. He passed that next year, so as far as I know, they still hang the picture he gave them rather than the pickle in the tree.

@Stephie had a family friend, an elderly gentleman who practiced the pickle ornament thing. He hid them on other people's trees, but used real ones, not glass. His nephew got married, forgot to tell his bride. Artificial tree and is somehow got put away still on a branch. Was a bit messy the next winter.

Things likely are not really more politically correct today, targets have just changed somewhat, but the actual speech may be easier to spot.

It is complex and I know a subject that varies by location and group even in the US. Human ugliness. Cookies are nicer and why I stay away from places like Facebook where the ugly side is allowed to thrive.

@Fabby Sorry about late answer. Took my better half out for he Birthday last night. ;) Cascabel nailed it though. Things that were acceptable, sometimes even expected when I was young such as taking shots are marginalized groups are rightfully usually off limits now. But other things, like attacking personal beliefs and invading person space has swung the other way and the internet is often used as a shield to hide behind.

I agree, so when it is people I know well and want to get their goats, I tend to poke them a bit. However public, and with real cause, I prefer to have some level of class and sensitivity. There were also many ways of speaking when I was younger that were considered acceptable, that now are appalling. I try not to be that way, but errors occur even when I should know better.

No offense meant that is. I am also a lousy typist. lol

No offense men @Fabby. I lack a lot of PC wording in real life, but try to not be intentionally offensive. I used that wording only because my co-workers did themselves so I was used to it. I actually will try to remember though if it is now considered taboo as I definitely can see the reasoning. Thank you for pointing it out to me, I do appreciate it.

I worked with several from Russia and the Ukraine that made some fascinating pastries that I need to track down and try to learn. I have threatened to try my hand at Baklava some day, but filo I think is way to delicate for me so I will probably stick to buying that.

@Stephie I grew up in Northern Indiana in a town where all the Greek, Polish and Hungarian ladies considered Thanksgiving to New Years to be a personal contest. Kiflis there were always walnut filled and doused in powdered sugar with constant arguments as to who made the best. Being male, not Polish, Hungarian or Greek, any attempt to learn from them was greeted with "get out!" lol Yes though, would like to form kind of a culinary cookie road trip over next few years.

My intent this year was to try to go after some more traditional European pastries for the holidays, but I did not get my act together early enough, so I am going to work on it for next year. I need to work on so recipes first. Find some victims to test on while I get them wrong. I am going to try for some Italian Honey clusters this weekend though, see if I can get those close to right.

Got tired of having to research recipes and recreate things every year so writing my or recipe notebook this year. ;) First note was, when making things, sometimes you can forget a step or ingredient. But when making pumpkin bread, pumpkin is not an ingredient you can forget. Though the dogs thought it made nice dog treats.

Still working on list, and trying to live down how much ginger I put into the ginger snaps. oops. But need to do the two day ordeal that Hungarian Kiflis always are.

So little time, some many cookies to bake and eat. I need a treadmill or more time to take puppy who is now big for longer walks.

Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin pie. Ginger-pumpkin butter. Freezing for later use. And giving away left and right. That is what has been helping my pumpkin pile dwindle Stephie. lol And toast those seeds! If yours did not yield enough, swing by Montana and get some. ;)

Car had broken down and I was walking out. All there was to do was keep walking. She finally snarled and turned around when I was far enough from the den.

Nope, female mountain lion in California mountains. Was not a nice feeling, taking inventory and knowing I had a 2 inch pocket knife, and it followed me for half a mile 20 feet above and the side of a hill. Had a den and made it clear I was not to leave the dirt road. Think it was a week before my heart settled down.

Been stalked by a cat once. Would really prefer it not happen again. Love to see them. Don't need it to be that close.

Wish we had more of them around here, but also prefer they stay out of my yard. Prefer not to stumble out of house in dark only to learn there is one staring me in the face. Prefer to see Grizzlies at a distance as well, and in daylight.

Mama moose wants my pumpkins, she gets them. I stay inside until she is done and gone. I will even try to be quiet while taking pictures in hopes to not annoy her. Papa moose, I will really be quiet, may wait quite a while to be sure he is gone too. lol

Saw someone in Yellowstone trying to get a picture of the kid with a calf. The cow was like 30 yards away. Had to ask the woman if she remotely understood how big that animal was and what it was going to do to her and the kid if they got any closer.

Yeah, aborting take-offs and landings because one decides to stray onto the runway would not be amusing.

First moose I saw was in Anchorage airport outlying area. I asked security guy if that was not a bit large of an animal to be roaming around the airport. He laughed at me and suggested I go tell it to leave. I saw his point.

He will learn soon enough. lol

Moose, them I would just go ahead and let them have em. Well, elk too. But then my puppy here lets the deer walk right up an sniff her, some guard dog. Our moose stay further out most of the time, not quite as bold as yours up there.

Those are all just wrong. And my luck, they would be a week are so from harvest when the deer or elk would find them.

Grew Blue Hubbards to about 50 lbs when I lived in OR, can't imagine trying to us one of those big monsters. Nice think about the short Montana season, I did not even consider anything bigger than pie pumpkins.

I had to over-rule the better half to even get a pressure canner as she is afraid of them, and hides downstairs when I am using. I can just hear her if I got an industrial high pressure one. ;)

May flash steam it to temp first as well, not sure though.

Yeah. GF loves the Ginger-pumpkin butter I made, but to be safe i went freezing route and hope will get used quick enough since I know that will not last as long. I assume industrial is probably multiple atmospheres.

Yeap. USDA says too inconsistent. No tests have ever been shown as safe temp reached consistently.

Yeah, too dense, even pressure canning advised against.

Swing by MT and grab some. I have about 6 pies worth of puree in freezer already, and couple batches of pumpkin butter.

Another weekend about to start and I have a dozen more ripe pie pumpkins to dispose of. I really need to grow fewer next year or find more people who want to make pies rather than have me make them.

That might seem like trivial wording, but you are already dealing with a situation were attitude and productivity will be hard to maintain, so wording is important.

To improve the conversation, I would start by not referring to is as "failing". A canceled project is just that, cancelled, not failed. Wasted effort? Yes, absolutely. And it will be frustrating. But the frustration will at least be lowered by not compounding things making it worse than it is such as calling it a fail. You are obligated to make a best effort to do the job in good faith, and compounding any attitude issues would not really be good faith in my opinion.

@JoeM I did forget to divide by 3 to get from teaspoons to Tablespoons. Otherwise the numbers were correct. I would be roughly 1 1/3 cup of salt to raise the boiling point of 6 qts of water 1 degree F. Apologies for the distracted error.

OK, if you prefer Tablespoons, it would take roughly 66 of them to raise the BP of 6 Quarts of water 1 degree F. That is about 4 cups rounding off. Not sure you can even dissolve that much into 6 quarts. Pasta will cook faster in salted water but it is due the breaking of chemical bonds, not the raising of boiling points, and that breaking of bonds will result in some of the salt penetrating and bonding to the pasta.

To put into perspective, it takes 58g (about 10 teaspoons US) to raise the boiling point of 1 liter of water 1 degree F, so the amount of salt most of us use in our boiling water is indeed negligible for the boiling point. However, the salt does have some small ability it get into, shallowly the pasta, and also to help any other spices available do the same. More I believe, it gets in enough to help additional salt grab on and adhere to the pasta. For our tastes, it is not really important if it makes it in, or just attaches, in fact we likely taste it better on or near the surface.

Under cooking pasta and then finishing it in the sauce will also often help the sauce better adhere to the pasta. It still will have no, or almost no penetration, but will often marry better. The only real way to get spice into the pasta is to put it there when making the dough to begin with.

The "if you won't drink it, don't cook with it" rule is usually valid, with a caveat, more of if a someone would not drink it. I cook with wines I personally do not like the style but work well for the dish. But they are wines which people who like that style would drink. Also, I will cook with soured wines that I did not finish when opened and would no longer drink, but the sour is correct for the dish.

Verbal contracts are binding in many places, but not all, and are hard to prove anywhere. When you include right to work and employment by mutual consent rules that many places have, even that goes out the window. Note, that wording also matters. All verbal offers/acceptance I have been involved with have been worded more like "If we offer X, will you accept/", and answered like "Yes, if all looks in order, I expect I would accept that." None of it is real until the offer is in writing, and signed though.

In some designs, takes time for the compressor to even really function. I have seen older freezers which when first started heat rather than cool until the compressor cycles the coolant a few times. Until things equalize, it is not uncommon for them to cool a few degrees, then hold, then cool, then hold, etc until they become stable. Air and the entire freezer is already a load for the freezer to cool, and adding a food load may well be too much and risk the motor. This is in addition to the many valid reason already given none seem to satisfy so not a lot else I can add.

To Rumtscho I would add the possibility that if adding frozen food to a freezer, the temperature sensors may not get a true reading, that is they may sense the temp from a frozen item, and take that as the temp of the entire freezer and quit working to lower it allowing unfrozen items to stay thawed and in danger. Call it an equalization period, that for safety, the appliance should be allowed to stabilize and show it is working before you will it with perishable food.

Is this a general recruiter or an employee of the organization with the position? This answer makes a huge difference.