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Tinypliny's Journal

tinypliny
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12/15/2011 14:12 #55747

Greens techniques
Category: eating in
There are two top-chef attested methods for cooking greens.

Common step: Wash them thoroughly

Method one: Blanch away
  1. Don't chop the greens
  2. Bring a HUGE pot of water to a boil with a VERY generous dusting of salt. ("Shockingly salty": that's how one of the chefs whose name I forgot, describes the level of salt in the blanching water).
  3. Dunk the unchopped greens into the boiling water for a brief span of time till the greens reach the peak of their green colour.
  4. Fish them out as fast as you can and wash them in cold water.

That's it. They are ready for further brief methods of cooking.

Method two: Toss 'em and forget 'em.
  1. Chop the greens very roughly
  2. Heat a pan on high
  3. Drop in some oil and swirl around (add some seasoning to the oil if you want too)
  4. Drop in the chopped greens.
  5. toss till covered in oil. Splash in some water or soy sauce.
  6. Cover with a sturdy lid till the greens are intensely green. They are steamed to crisp-tender at the top and slightly charred/caramelized where they come in contact with the pan.
  7. Take the lid off the pan after around 2 minutes.
  8. Take off heat - don't let the greens sit around in the pan and season with with spices/sauces. Serve hot.


I haven't yet tried either methods. I usually keep stir-frying because I don't want to char them, and I don't blanch them because it seems like such a waste of micronutrients that inevitably leach out in the water.

Maybe this weekend, I will try both.. I am curious about the differences in taste with both methods.

12/15/2011 12:15 #55745

Longpress Longpress
Category: i-tech
All the features I keep looking for in Android are usually found by a...

longpress.

I need to remember this when I go hunting all over the web looking for a solution to some commonplace difficulty on Android.

Longpress Longpress Longpress. Guess that "intuition" that people keep talking about doesn't come that easily to me or maybe I am just not hardwired for a mobile device.

heidi - 12/15/11 16:20
(e:Paul) had to introduce me to longpress - I didn't get it either.

12/15/2011 09:43 #55744

Metric units, non-metric spelling
Category: the odes
US doesn't follow SI or metric units but yet, MS Word and other US spell checkers insist that I spell metres as meters.

A meter is usually a suffix for an instrument that measures something.. like a thermometer, an odometer etc. The SI units of distance is always spelled metre.

Enforcing a blatant misspelling of units you don't even use borders on the ridiculous.

tinypliny - 12/15/11 14:17
OMG!! I want to write in Polish!! Some vowels need to be shown their rightful place... with the eraser or backspace button! :)
uncutsaniflush - 12/15/11 14:09
Thanks for sharing Pat Naughtin's thesis on meter versus metre. I love stuff like that. I've been fascinated by language and linguistics since I was a child. I find English to be a capricious and arbitrary language. Just like Mr. Spock from Star Trek, I find that I am drawn to the illogical; but, unlike him, I think I see beauty in the chaos where others only see confusion.

fwiw, English is my second language and Polish is my first. So I'm no native speaker of any sort of English rising up to defend my native tongue.
uncutsaniflush - 12/15/11 14:02
I suggest that you don't write your Thesis in Polish, the bloody wanker euro-trash Poles don't even have an "e" in the word "metr" So ha!
tinypliny - 12/15/11 13:37
Here is a 15 page thesis that touches a bit on my obvious lack of delight, given my background. :::link:::

Enjoy! :)
tinypliny - 12/15/11 13:34
If you had to make 142 replacements in a document you just slogged through, delight isn't particularly high on the agenda. lol
uncutsaniflush - 12/15/11 12:37
My 1971 compact edition of the Oxford English Dictionary lists meter as an alternate spelling for "metre" and also that "meter" is is the U.S. spelling of "meter". If meter is good enough for the fine folks at Oxford, it's good enough for me.

I suggest you direct your complaints to them using the contact information at :::link::: since many of the world's English speakers view the OED as THE reference for English.

I, for one, delight in the all the regional variations in spoken and written English. I think it is a testament to both the strength of the English language itself as well as a testament to the uniqueness of human beings.

I am saddened that the diversity in the world's Englishs doesn't delight you as it does me.

12/15/2011 00:50 #55740

We probably can't save starving kids in Africa...
Category: eating in
by not wasting food, but we definitely can make small positive individual contributions to bringing down the staggering proportion of food that is wasted in America, in particular.

I stumbled upon this site: (wastedfood.com) and the statistics are shocking... till you think back to the time you wasted food. It was probably waste that was entirely avoidable by a few wise measures such as:
  1. not buying more food than you can eat or store properly.
  2. realizing the practical limitations of storage in your kitchen and fridge
  3. following a simple weekly schedule and fridge/pantry accounting plan to finish the older food before you go and get a newer version of the same food.
  4. having a good idea of what is in your fridge and on your kitchen and pantry shelves so you are not always in doubt at the grocery store. If it helps, take a weekly picture of your fridge shelves and kitchen shelves before you go grocery shopping. (Oh yeah, don't forget to replace these pictures with new ones every week.)
  5. (if memory is still fickle, maybe use small post it notes ON the fridge with days and dates by which specific food must be consumed.)
  6. checking all stored (even supposedly non-perishables) for infestation and mold every fortnight.
  7. storing nuts, grains, beans and lentils in PLAIN sight or in airtight containers in the freezer
  8. researching proper storage techniques for all kinds of food and religiously sticking to best practices of storage for various kinds of food,
  9. giving away the food you know you are going to waste to people who will eat them!
  10. and again, making a pledge to not buy more than you will use in a practical span of time,

More nifty tips about how not to waste food are here at this and this

It breaks my heart every time I have to throw out something because I have forgotten to follow even just one of these guidelines.

metalpeter - 12/15/11 18:27
On the serious side of that... It is good to all ways have some food that can be opened by hand... That doesn't need to be cooked.... Lose power what good does the can opener or stove that uses and electric starter for the burners do... Same with the frozen foods.... Plus worst comes to worst if it is Zombies as opposed to something else you can throw the can at them......
metalpeter - 12/15/11 18:25
How about not buying 3 gallons of milk 4 LBS of Butter and 6 things of bread when the TV or Radio or paper says it will snow 3feet in 30 minutes and the world will end and all the trucks will magiclly stop moving food to stores....
metalpeter - 12/15/11 18:23
This Is why Eating out is good.... Cause then you never have to buy food ....HA

12/14/2011 21:08 #55739

A bit too much...
Category: the odes
for that one woman in the corner, don't you think?

image

lilho - 12/18/11 15:58
we had a cookbook just like that when i was little, right by the microwave. not sure why we had it because i remember reading it and thinking how disgusting it all looked... seriously.
metalpeter - 12/15/11 18:21
Cooking things in a Microwave what an odd Idea... Seriously though I think when it came out that was the real point not just not to reheat things....

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