Randomness

Just what it says on the tin.

Moderators: justTripn, Elessar, dark_rain

User avatar
Alelou
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Posts: 7894
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:05 pm
Twitter username: @sheerhubris
Show On Map: No
Location: Upstate New York
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Alelou » Sat Jan 10, 2009 1:19 pm

I add a pinch of sugar when I make spaghetti sauce from scratch (along with a bit of lemon juice) but yes, there's way too much in most commercial sauces. (Just as there's TONS too much salt in those.)

The amount you add to preserve crispiness/color is minimal -- it's also an old trick to do the same with things like pork chops to get them to brown in the pan nicely. You don't want them to actually taste sweet, though. Personally if I taste meat that is itself sweet I start wondering if it's gone bad.

But I love a little sweetness in a sauce or dressing -- teriyaki sauce, yakisoba sauce, pad Thai, oyster sauce, "special brown sauce" -- Asians aren't fat but they're not afraid of throwing a little sugar into a dish either. And when I make curried chicken salad I love to throw in chopped apples and golden raisins as well as peanuts. The contrast of sweet and spicy is just yummy.
OMG, ANOTHER new chapter! NORTH STAR Chapter 28
Image.Image
Read opening chapters free at Amazon (US): The Awful Mess: A Love Story
Blog: Sheer Hubris Press / Twitter: @sheerhubris / Facebook: Sandra Hutchison

User avatar
Alelou
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Posts: 7894
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:05 pm
Twitter username: @sheerhubris
Show On Map: No
Location: Upstate New York
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Alelou » Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:00 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/opini ... ss&emc=rss

I know it's completely juvenile of me, but I just had to share the fact that this (alarming) op ed piece about white teenagers and cocaine was written by Charles M. Blow.
OMG, ANOTHER new chapter! NORTH STAR Chapter 28
Image.Image
Read opening chapters free at Amazon (US): The Awful Mess: A Love Story
Blog: Sheer Hubris Press / Twitter: @sheerhubris / Facebook: Sandra Hutchison

User avatar
Aquarius
Site Admin
Posts: 4079
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:23 am
Location: B.F.E.
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Aquarius » Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:58 pm

TPoptarts wrote:
Dusalis Drake wrote:Image

Well then can I have them? I'm all out. :?


Sorry, you'll have to fight ME for 'em! :lol:

I'm a confirmed dill pickle junky...
Eian built my avatar! Banner by Misplaced!

Image

User avatar
Bether6074
Site Donor
Posts: 746
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:38 am
Show On Map: No
Location: Upstate NY

Re: Randomness

Postby Bether6074 » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:03 am

It's snowing...again! Oh well. That's life in the Northeast in January. Guess who gets to drive in to work at 3 AM? Think I'll be SUV-ing it tomorrow. Not to be redundant, but is it spring yet?
Image

User avatar
Alelou
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Posts: 7894
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:05 pm
Twitter username: @sheerhubris
Show On Map: No
Location: Upstate New York
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Alelou » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:40 am

Yikes! To Stephentown at 3am in the middle of this storm????

Good luck. Drive behind a plow!
OMG, ANOTHER new chapter! NORTH STAR Chapter 28
Image.Image
Read opening chapters free at Amazon (US): The Awful Mess: A Love Story
Blog: Sheer Hubris Press / Twitter: @sheerhubris / Facebook: Sandra Hutchison

User avatar
Elessar
Site Owner
Posts: 3467
Joined: Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:45 pm
Location: Missouri
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Elessar » Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:06 pm

Alelou wrote:Yikes! To Stephentown at 3am in the middle of this storm????

Good luck. Drive behind a plow!


It snowed here too but we only got like half an inch.
"I call shotgun!"
"I call nine millimeter." - John and Cameron



Favorites:
Vulcan For...
Your Mom n' Me

User avatar
Alelou
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Posts: 7894
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:05 pm
Twitter username: @sheerhubris
Show On Map: No
Location: Upstate New York
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Alelou » Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:19 pm

I'm sorry, but that just doesn't count. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think we got seven or eight. Not so bad. Our first winter here our first storm was 19 inches ... I think this was in November ... and the snow blower wouldn't start. Then I think we got 22 inches on Christmas day. And so on and so on. It turned out to be the second snowiest winter here in recorded history. We were in shock.

I like a good steady snow cover. It's poor man's fertilizer.
OMG, ANOTHER new chapter! NORTH STAR Chapter 28
Image.Image
Read opening chapters free at Amazon (US): The Awful Mess: A Love Story
Blog: Sheer Hubris Press / Twitter: @sheerhubris / Facebook: Sandra Hutchison

User avatar
Buurman
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:07 am
Show On Map: No
Location: Nijmegen

Re: Randomness

Postby Buurman » Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:34 am

Alelou wrote:I'm sorry, but that just doesn't count. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think we got seven or eight. Not so bad. Our first winter here our first storm was 19 inches ... I think this was in November ... and the snow blower wouldn't start. Then I think we got 22 inches on Christmas day. And so on and so on. It turned out to be the second snowiest winter here in recorded history. We were in shock.

I like a good steady snow cover. It's poor man's fertilizer.


I started to melt yesterday and now everything is gone. We had a very cold winter, not see in many years. The Elfstedentocht had a real chance of being ridden again, but then yesterday after about ten days of frost it heated up again :'(
"It proves that even the most disagreeable species have some ... positive attributes." T'Pol, Bound

As finishing touch, God created the Dutch!

User avatar
Alelou
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Posts: 7894
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:05 pm
Twitter username: @sheerhubris
Show On Map: No
Location: Upstate New York
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Alelou » Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:29 pm

Buurman wrote:The Elfstedentocht had a real chance of being ridden again, but then yesterday after about ten days of frost it heated up again :'(


Huh?
OMG, ANOTHER new chapter! NORTH STAR Chapter 28
Image.Image
Read opening chapters free at Amazon (US): The Awful Mess: A Love Story
Blog: Sheer Hubris Press / Twitter: @sheerhubris / Facebook: Sandra Hutchison

User avatar
Buurman
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Lieutenant Junior Grade
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:07 am
Show On Map: No
Location: Nijmegen

Re: Randomness

Postby Buurman » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:08 pm

Sorry, should a told you some more. It's a 200km (almost) ice skating tour on natural ice, being ridden in the Netherlands (province of Friesland or Fryslân) in which the skaters make a tour around eleven city's starting and ending in Leeuwarden (Ljouwert).

The name, Elfstedentocht, literally means Eleven-city-tour and it's only been organised 15 times in the past century (5 times in the past 50 years) because the ice has to be at least 15 cms along the entire course. It's quite the event *if* it happens (last time was in 1997).

Anyways, every time we have something approximating frost us Dutchmen get all excited and hyper because there may be an Elfstedentocht :D But I guess it won't come this year as well :( :cry:

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht.
"It proves that even the most disagreeable species have some ... positive attributes." T'Pol, Bound

As finishing touch, God created the Dutch!

User avatar
JadziaKathryn
Commodore
Commodore
Posts: 2348
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:57 pm
Show On Map: No
Location: Northeastern USA

Re: Randomness

Postby JadziaKathryn » Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:13 am

^ Hey, anything that makes you anticipate cold is a good coping mechanism in my book!

On the new Trek movie: No "Crazy Sex Scene".

And, completely random as is befitting, my roommate for the semester likes Star Trek. :)
Image

User avatar
Alelou
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Posts: 7894
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:05 pm
Twitter username: @sheerhubris
Show On Map: No
Location: Upstate New York
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Alelou » Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:00 pm

From the New York Times -- as a tea drinker I find this a little depressing. I gave up coffee for health reasons, damn it.

Coffee Linked to Lower Dementia Risk
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: January 23, 2009

Drinking coffee may do more than just keep you awake. A new study suggests an intriguing potential link to mental health later in life, as well.

A team of Swedish and Danish researchers tracked coffee consumption in a group of 1,409 middle-age men and women for an average of 21 years. During that time, 61 participants developed dementia, 48 with Alzheimer’s disease.

After controlling for numerous socioeconomic and health factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the scientists found that the subjects who had reported drinking three to five cups of coffee daily were 65 percent less likely to have developed dementia, compared with those who drank two cups or less.


Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/healt ... ee.html?em

Seems to me this could still be a case of association masquerading as a causal effect -- maybe people who do more brain-exercising activity just tend to drink more coffee or something.

Anyway, it also reminded me of Volley's cute comic story at fanfic.net, about what happens when Enterprise accidentally gives away all its stores of coffee: Zanthian Zing
OMG, ANOTHER new chapter! NORTH STAR Chapter 28
Image.Image
Read opening chapters free at Amazon (US): The Awful Mess: A Love Story
Blog: Sheer Hubris Press / Twitter: @sheerhubris / Facebook: Sandra Hutchison

User avatar
Asso
Site Donor
Posts: 6336
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:13 am
Show On Map: No
Location: Italy
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Asso » Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:05 pm

Don't mind, Alelou. You can't even imagine how much things can be said (and their contrary, too) about tea, and coffee,etc etc etc :lol:
Well yes. I continue to write. And on Fanfiction.Net, for those who want, it is possible to cast a glance at my latest efforts. We arrived to
The Ears of the Elves, chapter Forty-four


And here is the beginning of the whole story.
Image

But, I must say, you could also find something else on Fanfiction.net written by me. If you want.

User avatar
CX
Commodore
Commodore
Posts: 3271
Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:38 pm

Re: Randomness

Postby CX » Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:51 pm

Everyone still alive? It says that big storm came through and killed 19 people so far. :?

User avatar
Alelou
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Posts: 7894
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:05 pm
Twitter username: @sheerhubris
Show On Map: No
Location: Upstate New York
Contact:

Re: Randomness

Postby Alelou » Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:53 pm

I bet plenty of folks are without power. The ice in some of the pictures I've seen is giving me flashbacks. Last night I saw a picture of a van in Wisconsin so covered with ice that it looked more like a giant ice cube.

Off topic -- Does anyone know what has become of Bookworm?
OMG, ANOTHER new chapter! NORTH STAR Chapter 28
Image.Image
Read opening chapters free at Amazon (US): The Awful Mess: A Love Story
Blog: Sheer Hubris Press / Twitter: @sheerhubris / Facebook: Sandra Hutchison


Return to “General Chat”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 41 guests