In Which We Brag About Our Petty Accomplishments

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by lisarea

According to the people whose trees they are, the main tree is just Galas, although I got some from the scraggly little rando trees partly growing into our yard as well. Galas are really basic, but I didn't want them to go to waste.

I read your post about the apple tastings with great envy. I think it was from The Botany of Desire that I got this wild hair to try to find different apple varieties, but Colorado isn't much of an apple state and I couldn't find much, so I take what I can get locally and then buy the cool imported ones at the store when they have them. I'm going to look out for Gravensteins.

Gravensteins are disappearing because they neither ship, nor store, well. Grab 'em if you find them, but I'm trying to build a list of acceptable substitute pie apples so I know to what to grab when. Most of the stuff in grocery stores around here are 'hand apples', like the Galas. One can 'get by' by using, say, Granny Smith apples mixed with something like Braeburns, so that the tart flavor of the Grannies mixes with the softer, sweeter Braeburns to cook down the harder Grannies, but having a decent pie apple at hand makes all the work so much more appreciated. My list now highlights 'Idared', 'King David', 'Red Winesap', and most strains with 'Pippin' in the name, like 'Cox's Orange Pippin'....tart, crisp apples. I've now identified a source which supplies several 'farmers markets' in the area, so I'm retraining myself in the apple hunt.

[Ymir's blood]

Is there life beyond the Gravenstein?

[ShottleBop]

Originally Posted by ShottleBop

The last week or so, I'd been having trouble with the volume key on my phone. Thinking it was my phone case wearing out, I ordered a new one yesterday. Today, the problem was bothering me, so I took the case off, and noticed that the back of my phone was separating from the frame. I think it's probably a swollen battery. I called my phone carrier, who said that my phone was out of warranty, and I'd have to go through the insurer.

So I went online with Samsung, who made my phone (and with whom I'd registered my purchase), and THEY will honor my warranty for another 11 days! They're going to send me a mailer to return the phone, and it will take between 5 and 7 business days to get it back. Then I called my carrier back, and they're going to send me a SIM card for my old S5 to use during the interim.

As it happened, the SIM card my carrier sent me was too small for my S5, and, after a couple of more calls, they had to 'fess up that my S5 would no longer work on their network. So I decided to continue with wifi phoning, and I forwarded my "real" no. to my wifi no. and sent my S8 in for service.

It got there yesterday, two days before the warranty ran out. This afternoon, I got an email from Samsung telling me that the battery had been defective, they had replaced it, and my phone was on its way back to me. Yay!

[JoeP]

I maded a little python script to mute Spotify when it's playing ads.

This is right up there in the pettiness rankings because I could just sign up for Spotify Premium, or buy music outright and use a proper player. But I just know they make the ads super-annoying to push people into Premium and I feel manipulated.

Pretty high on the accomplishment scale too, based on the internal fist-pump I feel each time I hear half a second of advert and it gets muted.

[godfry n. glad]

So...I made two more apple pies, having gotten some Red Winesaps and some Elstar apples. Neither a new trial, but this batch was for giving thankses and for welcoming my new gay guy neighbors. They got half the Winesap pie.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

For the first time in my life, I used scissors to cut a slice of bacon.

[BrotherMan]

show spoiler

I've used scissors to cut precooked bacons.

[Ymir's blood]

Don't run with bacon!

[ShottleBop]

This weekend, we replaced the acrylic plastic panel that we use as a winter "storm window" to cover the patio screen door. I successfully used a hole saw to drill a hole to accommodate the door handle. (Took three practice runs on last year's panel--which I had knocked into and broken in half--to figure out how to do it without cracking the plastic.)

[Ensign Steve]

I heated up my leftover potstickers in the microwave steamer instead of just nuking them directly, so they came out awesome instead of all rubbery and gross.

Julia mother-fucking Child up in here.

[lisarea]

I got a pressure canner for Xmas, and I canned OVER THREE GALLONS of stock as of yesterday.

I had been freezing it, but man, I got that freezer probably twenty years ago (from Mabel of course, for free), and it was used even then, so lately, I've been worrying about it dying and everything spoiling. And I figured if I can start canning some things instead of freezing, at least when I have to replace the freezer, I can get a much smaller one.

I had to do it in two batches, so I have used a pressure canner a total of two times now, which means I'm an expert.

(I will also note here that Corona688 was posting terrible things about stovetop pressure canners while mine was here, waiting to be opened. That was very weird.)

[Ari]

Canning is pretty safe, it's often cooking without supervision that's an issue. Something gloopy will stop up the vents and suddenly boom the emergency pressure release blows and it spews boiling gloopy mess everywhere like scalding napalm. Canning is all nice and contained.

[lisarea]

Fortunately, I don't like pressure cooking because I don't even follow my own recipes closely. I like to adjust things as I go along, so it's really only for canning.

And I mostly intend it for really big batches of stuff to last long times, so I don't think I'll get casual about it. I'll always be scared enough not to leave it unattended. Also, because we're at over a mile above sea level, I have to can at higher pressure, so the regulator is screaming and wobbling the whole time, which makes me extra nervous.

I'm excited about it. I won't have to freeze my stock or slow cooked sauces or most of my green chiles and other vegetables I cook the hell out of. And if I don't have to freeze them, I don't have to thaw them, either. I can frontload a whole lot of planning and preparation that way.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

[lisarea]

We need a new range hood anyway.

[Qingdai]

Holy crap. I always use a stock pot to can. Which is now not preferred, but all I can is jam which has an under 6 month shelf life here.

[lisarea]

I was chopping up some garlic just now for puttanesca, and I somehow managed to:

a) slice off a small section of my fingernail without slicing any finger

b) LOCATE AND REMOVE THE FINGERNAIL PIECE in the pile of garlic, despite those things being pretty much exactly the same size, shape, and color.





I turned down the heat for the pasta water and took a break in the middle of making dinner to come tell you guys about my accomplishment.

I hope you appreciate my efforts.

[Crumb]

[BrotherMan]

I would like to commend your bravery for leaving unattended garlic on the kitchen counter. We all know one food sneaker who has control issues.

[JoeP]

YOU'RE the puttanesca!

[Stormlight]

YOU YELLOW HAIR FAKE ANIMAL
AND THE MOST ABOMINABLE
SAMPLE
OF THE MANKIND

[JoeP]

AND PROUD OF IT

LOOK ME UP ON GOOGLE

[lisarea]

Today, I had to buy some pork chops, so I went to the store, and there was a sale on this one kind where it was two packages for the price of the lower priced one, and I found two packages for exactly the same price, down to the penny.

LOL all my 'accomplishments' are food related. I suck at everything.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by lisarea

LOL all my 'accomplishments' are food related. I suck at everything.

* JoeP imagines pea shuffling around stores sucking at all the food for sale
* JoeP finds this image disturbingly plausible

[mickthinks]

Originally Posted by lisarea

I suck at everything.

... and the winner of the thread is .........