Topic: What are you eating / What did you eat.

[8ullfrog]

Oh I've no pizza now. Shame, would have been nice this evening.

More just the complete vehement hatred for "You don't think the way you're supposed to".

Can't really say I'm surprised, I've avoided registering on reddit for years, didn't really want to be counted as one of their number.

I know everything about temperature danger zone, I just don't care. I imagine it's a lot like disregarding automated warnings in a scifi movie. "Never tell me the odds" type crap.

It's more just the pizza box fits in the oven way better than the fridge, and that pizza will be dead by daylight.

[6pairsofshoes]

I have Chinese friends who are a good deal more lax about refrigerating food and they don't seem to suffer.  I think Americans have a real obsession with refrigeration.  There's plenty of food that doesn't really require it that comes with "refrigerate after opening," advisories.  I wonder if some of those are to keep the companies from getting sued.  We wrap slices of leftover pizza in aluminum foil and refrigerate them so we can pop them in the oven as needed.  The box gets discarded pretty much immediately as we don't have room for it.

[8ullfrog]

I mean, the bacteria thing is true, and also annoying and infuriating. That we're under their rules, when we want to be the boss around here, thank you very much.

The "stop being a joker" moment in training was fairly striking. Our trainer mentioned that quite a few of our customers happen to be pregnant, just a regular hazard of the job.

Then he said that any one of us could kill either the mother or the baby, for being lax or lazy about food safety. He said it wasn't a hypothetical, it's happened.

Like, if I was serving the pizza to others? I probably wouldn't store it in the oven. Totally bad idea.

But me? I'll probably be alright.

I'll never wrap food in aluminum foil again. I'll use it as a cooking surface, I'll use it in baking, but wrapping food? No.

Honestly, I still feel like the training was for a much better job than I ended up in. That guy was fantastic. Like a "Nice" version of Alonzo in training day.

He once made me think that cleaning the grease traps was wearing a bunny suit ala MOPP gear.

In reality, it's like a ghostbuster trap under the fry pit. you just open a hole on the bottom and it drains. He told me it was a container under a manhole and that I would be the one who had to go down there.

And he made me believe it!

[8ullfrog]

Mom made delicious thin crispy burgers that were unbelievably good.

Guys, I think my mom has been replaced with a pod person. She made mint French toast for god sake, and one time she made a meatloaf that looked like something out of Cronenberg!

[6pairsofshoes]

I baked chocolate chunk cookies with pecans & walnuts.  I'm going to a potluck so I had to sample them for quality control.

I think they'll pass.  I don't expect to bring many home, which is probably a good thing.

I'm glad your mother is moving up on the food quality scale.  Eating is one of life's great pleasures.

edit:  no cookies to take home from the potluck.  all gone.  that's probably fortunate.

[8ullfrog]

Tamale guy is bugging out to Arizona, his wife got deported.

Mom always buys beef, but because I saw him this time, I finally got cheese tamales, and it was as fantastic as I thought they would be. I'll never have the patience or temperament to make Tamales, but I salute the people who do. Eight hours devoted to one dish... I couldn't do it. I'd go nuts.

Like, I could ask my mom to buy chicken, she'd come home with beef tamales. So I took it into my own hands.

I shook his hand, said I'd miss him and his tamales, and wished him luck in the future.

[6pairsofshoes]

That's sad.  I expect that there has to be someone else making tamales.  I get the impression that working the masa is time consuming.  I have a tamale steam pot but I use it mostly for hot water bath for canning preserves.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/dough-for-tamales-with-masa-harina-2342680

[8ullfrog]

Oh no, I'm not falling for the masa harina poo again.

It's flour. Corn flour sure, but getting masa harina is a pain in the ass, and entirely superfluous to good chili.

From what I can tell, cooking tamales is an exercise in patience. I have never been a patient person. Those enchiladas were probably 45 minutes flat, allowing for timers.

I love tamales, but would never cook them.

Dude told me his wife signed and admission of guilt. Same time I wished him luck, I was also thinking "There is no way in golly that woman is getting back in the US without breaking the law".

This may sound glib or flip, but I'd gladly deport walgreens to bring in more tamale ladies. 

30 minute prep? that recipe looks like lies.

golly that timecode. I punched it down to zero seconds.

[6pairsofshoes]

I must confess, I've never had one.  Sometimes a woman sells them from the back of a truck near a greengrocer I frequent, but I've never had one.  I suspect they can be delicious.

The fruits are coming on again and I'm up to my eyeballs in tomatoes.  So sauce tomorrow and I'll pick quince so that has to be processed along with a bunch of apples.  I made applesauce last year.  It was amazing.  Pippins.  Wow.  I am hoping there are still more feral pears to be had.  There are abandoned orchards around here with pears that look like crap and taste amazing.  The deer love them.  Deer have good taste.  The quince take some doing as they're hard to cut and you have to immerse them in lemon water to keep them from oxidizing.

I made mint apple jelly with some rosemary this week.  It has a really interesting flavor.  The mint doesn't bash you over the head with its presence, nor does the rosemary.  They're more like subtle notes in a really good apple jelly.  Now I'm not talking about that crap they put in the little squares of plastic on the tables in diners, that apple jelly is just nasty.  No.  This is something of a different order.  It takes time to be transformed from a juice that is basically very watery to a coral colored tangy substance.  I wish I could figure out how not to sleep for a couple weeks so I could catch up with all the cooking and reading projects.

[8ullfrog]

Tamale ladies tend to have extremely reasonable prices. I think I paid $1.50 for the cheese and chicken, $2.00 for the beef.

And I haven't even had the beef ones yet. I know they're good, mom tends to just buy beef ones regardless of what is requested. They are probably what I would consider "base line" tamale. Instead of ground beef cooked into nuggets, like so much of my dreary cooking, tamales tend to have the consistency of pulled beef or pulled pork, so it's not that boring "burrito meat" I complain about so much.

If you're skittish of people selling out of an ice chest, and I don't blame you, I suggest a restaurant, but Tamales are delicious, and should definitely be enjoyed at least once.

And if you don't like meat, I know that my tamale guy at least did a pineapple, but that's not my speed.

I dunno, I've had tortillas at some Mexican food places I would swear were made out of oatmeal, and they were as good as any place else. Same time, I'll never chase masa harina again.  Like it's easy to get in non English speaking markets, but you have to be able to get there.

[6pairsofshoes]

I'm not skittish. Just not in the habit of eating out much.  Especially when I've just been to buy groceries.  I tend to make most of my meals at home.  I do keep granola bars in my car so if I get hungry while out, I won't be tempted to spend money.  I did go out to lunch today which was a fun treat.

[8ullfrog]

Oh no, I completely respect that. I mean I had mom go out and get me the impossible whopper, but most of my meals are in house too.

I do have a tip, might be a bit much.

I mean like, morons celebrate what taco bell does to their stomachs...

Don't eat a tamale as a late night snack. I heated up the beef one in the microwave, and while eating it was pleasant, I'd say it's more a lunch item?

Speaking of, what did you go for? I'm not really a restaurant eater, more of a take out kind of guy.

[6pairsofshoes]

"The Charlie:  Coriander crusted rare Ahi Tuna, House pickled Ginger & Carrot Slaw, Wasabi Aioli, Acme Bun."  Acme is a local bakery that makes quite good breads.  They serve the sandwich with thin fries that appear to have been dusted with chopped chervil.  It's a good lunch.  I didn't eat much later in the day as it was pretty filling.  It's a tiny place run by two brothers who only serve breakfast and lunch.  They have a set menu with daily specials.  There are plenty of good little restaurants around here.  If we were able, we'd eat out more.

[6pairsofshoes]

Have you told Wile-E-Coyote that?

Nope.  But he could do a whole lot worse.  And it may be the one thing that might successfully distract the bird until he could pounce.

[6pairsofshoes]

Raisin toast and earl grey tea.

I made applesauce last night from neighbor's fruit.  The pippins were worm eaten, but definitely the best tasting of the bunch.  Fabulous flavor.  Hopefully I can get some more.  I'll make jelly from the juice.  It takes hours to distill the essence of that watery substance into a jewel-like coral deliciousness.