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(1) Yes, my dice are amazingly streaky, which is pretty entertaining, and
(2) No.Oh, speaking of which, will you utterly kill me if I set up a 4-man tent for your implets in the back yard next time they come?
We learned to our horror that our old 1994 Walrus is no longer remotely waterproof, and is therefore, er, less-than-useful as a backpacking tent...
Great photos!
No, I won't kill you at all, but you should probably know that it will only be Teensy Valeros a week from Saturday, as Hermione is supposed to spend that weekend at her godmother's up in Snoopytown.
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NH, as you are chef by hobby and clothing: have you ever attempted to make pierogi?
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NH, as you are chef by hobby and clothing: have you ever attempted to make pierogi?
Nope; historically being raised by a "fat-phobe" means that I did very little frying. I've since learned to fry a few things (chicken katsu being the most common), but I still don't like the amount of oil or cleanup frying requires.
On the other hand, it does lead to one of my favorite:
Being a teenager, I wondered what would happen if you dropped an ice cube into near-boiling oil.
Being a teenager, I decided to experiment.
The multiple fireballs that shot all the way up to the 8' ceiling were most satisfactory: The exploding ice cube sent hot oil down to the burner, igniting the oil in a huge BOOM! It was amazing. My friend had time to come running back to the kitchen. Everyone else in the house wondered whether the stove had exploded. It was that noisy. And it was something like SIX separate fireballs that shot up to the ceiling.
And my friend's mother slept through the whole thing.
Oh, and I didn't start a major fire. So bonus for that.
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NH, as you are chef by hobby and clothing: have you ever attempted to make pierogi?Nope; historically being raised by a "fat-phobe" means that I did very little frying. I've since learned to fry a few things (chicken katsu being the most common), but I still don't like the amount of oil or cleanup frying requires.
On the other hand, it does lead to one of my favorite:
** spoiler omitted **
Dude, I don't know how the stars aligned so very well for you, but between that one story and your many "road tales", I'm beginning to think that . . . . Well . . . .
. . . . .
You've got good luck to spare, chief.
:D lol
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For the love of God, man, you don't FRY pierogi!
And I'd lie and say they're not fattening, but not the way I make them.
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I've never seen the point of potatoes in them. I like to make the mushroom filling and the sweet cheese filling, but I have to make the kapusta filling for my mom, because that's her favorite.
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For the love of God, man, you don't FRY pierogi!
And I'd lie and say they're not fattening, but not the way I make them.
I can assure you that you can fry pierogi, or rather re-fry after boiling them first. They taste crispy as well (though obviously differently) as freshly cooked. It is a common way of reheating them.
Still, you boil pierogi in hot salted water first. Frying them later is optional.
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I've never seen the point of potatoes in them.
Potatoes, onions, and cream cheese is the best filling possible, period.
I like to make the mushroom filling and the sweet cheese filling, but I have to make the kapusta filling for my mom, because that's her favorite.
I don't like kapusta (cabbage) filling. Mushrooms are ok (though they are more often used in a slightly different kind of dumplings), sweet cheese is ok, minced meat is okayish (though of premade pierogi available at shops it tends to be the worst, as the producers cut corners and use crappy meat scraps), strawberies and other fruits are acceptable though I never get out of my way to buy them.
Pureed, garlic-flavored spinach is great filling if done right. In fact I happened to eat a few of those a few days ago, when I hit Olympus (a local chain of moderately cheap restaurant that serves food by weigh - where you can mix anything you like from the dishes available for the day). I was surprised by their quality (btw, they were boiled first and then lightly fried).
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I was at my friend's house, helping her cook some kind of fried snacks for our upcoming trip to the Russian River (she did call them "pierogi", but they had no filling; they were just fried potato things).
Though again, they should be boiled first before reheating them on oil...
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I can make real poppy seed cake. Not the American kind. Do I get my card back?
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I always boil them, then toss them in a skillet with some melted butter.
Like I said, not fattening at all.
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And I can make chrusciki.
That's the one thing I did learn from my Grandma before she died.
I fry them in lard, because who needs arteries?
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I don't really care for poppy-seed cake, but chruściki give you one free pass...
<.<
I think I might need to explain how to try to pronounce the name... Though English lacks the sounds to make it correct.
Google to the rescue!
Chruściki, though his accent is strange-ish to my ears.
(ch is h, ś is soft sh sound, similar to Japanese sh, ci, is... uh... ci? or very soft ch)
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And I can make chrusciki.
That's the one thing I did learn from my Grandma before she died.
I fry them in lard, because who needs arteries?
You do sprinkle them with powdered sugar, right?
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I was at my friend's house, helping her cook some kind of fried snacks for our upcoming trip to the Russian River (she did call them "pierogi", but they had no filling; they were just fried potato things).Though again, they should be boiled first before reheating them on oil...
No; the best description I can give is "fritters" -- batter with bits of corn and potato, fried in oil.
Tasty little things, whatever they were.
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...
Potato plancakes is the closest thing that comes to my mind... Were the potatoes mashed/grated before being added to the batter?
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You do sprinkle them with powdered sugar, right?And I can make chrusciki.
That's the one thing I did learn from my Grandma before she died.
I fry them in lard, because who needs arteries?
Yes, of course I do, and yes, I was pronouncing them correctly. Most of the food words, mild curse words, and Christmas Carol lyrics, I can say properly (or at least properly for a given value of Polish-American) thanks to my Aunts and Uncles.
But names were all Americanized, so your name, for instance? I wouldn't even try.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Voycieh Groohawa...
ci you know from the aforementioned chruściki. "ł" is approximately English "w" (telling that mostly to others). G is always hard, u (or ó, in some words) is like in... flute... Seriously, native English speakers are sick people... 5+ pronunciations for the same letter?!
Drejk is simply Drake, but written according to Polish phonetics of the English pronunciation.
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Hey, Nobody!
FYI, all the highways through Southern Oregon are already completely hosed due to eclipse traffic and the locals around here are blaming eclipse tourists for everything from gas prices to global warming.
Be prepared to turn the Nobody's Charm dial up to eleven, and if you can leave earlier than you were planning to, that would probably be good. The drive up here is going to be hell.
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I would just like to say that, as an American of Polish decent (and DAMN proudly so) that boiled in salted water, then fried with butter in a caste iron pan (if at all possible maybe along with some white onion) is the only way I accept a thing as a pierogi.
@ Lisamarlene I think I am smitten with your cooking...ever feel the need to obtain a "guy on the couch" cause, I can do that!
I am pretty good at cleaning and yard work...and will work for well made Polish food! ;)
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Good call John
Crap, now I want homemade pierogi...
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...
Potato plancakes is the closest thing that comes to my mind... Were the potatoes mashed/grated before being added to the batter?
Similar to potato pancakes, but not quite. They were more batter than potato, but the potatoes were definitely mashed in there.
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Hey, Nobody!
FYI, all the highways through Southern Oregon are already completely hosed due to eclipse traffic and the locals around here are blaming eclipse tourists for everything from gas prices to global warming.
Be prepared to turn the Nobody's Charm dial up to eleven, and if you can leave earlier than you were planning to, that would probably be good. The drive up here is going to be hell.
Thanks. Yeah, the news articles are saying that massive forest fires are seriously impacting Highway 5. We're going all the way east to 395 and hoping that'll be less impacted.
I'm "Mr. Wilderness". We're seriously going to be in the middle of fricking nowhere.
Hopefully the 200,000 other people who thought of that won't totally overwhelm a 4-lane highway...
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I would just like to say that, as an American of Polish decent (and DAMN proudly so) that boiled in salted water, then fried with butter in a caste iron pan (if at all possible maybe along with some white onion) is the only way I accept a thing as a pierogi.
Use pork fat with pieces of pork rinds.
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mmmmmm....pork! Wait, what were we talking about again, I heard the name of the most delicious of animals and got a bit hungry distracted...yeah that it!
Oddly, it seems like there are forest fires each time I am in northern California / southern Oregon, of course, they are...you know...sorta a thing there.
Our first attempt at getting to Lassen National park (awesome, just friggin AWESOME! place) was thwarted by fire...though the experience of being in a tiny Northern California town surrounded by wild fire was interesting...though harsh and stark too in equal measure.
We Easterners don't really have wild fires like that.
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Yeah, Wildfire is an official season in that part of the country. That's why my mom keeps a horse trailer even though she never travels... just in case she has to evacuate them.
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That is likely a wise choice.
Always wanted to have a horse someday.
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My cats didn't even notice the eclipse. Slept right through it. Those were my highly scientific observations as I worked from the house instead of the office today.
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Only 75% coverage here in upstate NY, but interesting none the less
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I had 90% in central IL, but there's a huge difference between 90 and 100. Still weird. Still cool.
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And thus far no blinding!!!
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I didn't even get a *chance* to blind myself.
100% overcast skies all morning in the East Bay.
We had to watch the livestream of the eclipse on the laptop in my classroom. But, since this is a teacher inservice week, that was fine.
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Ahh, East Bay (I am guessing central California) does have those pesky clouds. Suppose it was still too early in the day for them to have burned off yet.
Live stream is almost as good...and 100% less chance of retinal damage
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The short post on it.
(Did 100% of the driving for 1500 miles in 72 hours. A wee bit tired.)
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I believe you earned a bit of rest NH
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Seriously, NH, what's up with "Damn it, lisamarlene?" Are we not doing "phrasing" anymore?
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Seriously, NH, what's up with "Damn it, lisamarlene?" Are we not doing "phrasing" anymore?
Ever since you compared me in a grumpy mood to Santa Claus, I've noticed the similarities more and more. It's very disconcerting.
Just call me Tim Allen.
A shorter, fatter, less conservative Tim Allen.
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So Shiro, Hi, NobodysWife, the Impii, and I were all in, and I was talking to my friend Bear (her son skateboards with Impus Major) and she said, "That sounds really amazing! Mind if we follow you up in our minivan?"
I said that sounded fun, and a week later she texted to let me know that after talking to her friends, she'd rented a 32' RV as well! We were going to be a caravan!
To celebrate the whole thing, NobodysWife ordered a bunch of cool, "I survived the eclipse" T-shirts, we guessed at Bear and her family's sizes, and we were set!
On Friday the 18th, Bear suggested that we drive part of the way up on Saturday. I figured that was a good idea, so a few more calls and we had reservations in Lovelock, Nevada for two RVs for Saturday night. Showing how much I knew about RVs, I reserved 50-amp hookups. What could it hurt?
So, Saturday was... weird.
According to our reservations, we were supposed to call at 8:30 am to schedule at pickup "after 1:00 pm". I dutifully called at 8:30 am, and the guy said, "So, can you come in right now?"
I got him to hold off 'til 10:00 am, woke up NobodysWife, and we scurried off to get the RV. As we were waiting for the technician to give us an orientation, a German family who had just spent 3 weeks touring the southwestern U.S. walked up. The husband had bought everything they might possibly need for the trip, and didn't want to take any of it back to Germany. So I got a free coffee maker, folding table (which I'm donating to the school), gas cook stove, 10 bottles of Fever Tree tonic water (simply the best -- and when NobodysWife said, "For the daily gin and tonic!" the Germans delightfully clucked and tapped the sides of their noses in assent), fresh water, and maybe a few other things they threw at us. I tried to pay the man, but he wouldn't hear of it, and they cheerfully drove off. (lisamarlene, think of a generous, German version of our favorite RQ GM and he was exactly like that. Totally disconcerting, to say the least!). So yeah, random free stuff at the RV dealership. I like it!
I managed to get the RV back to the house without incident, NobodysWife and our neighbor helped me park the behemoth, and we started packing and loading. It took forever. Or at least from roughly 11:15 am 'til around 3:00 pm. Shiro and Hi showed up and loaded their stuff onto the RV, just in time for the text from Bear to come in: "We have to be in Sacramento by 5:00 pm. Catch up with us!"
With no chance to do any more shopping we piled into the RV and headed off. There was a bit of bad traffic leaving the Bay Area, some entertainment meeting up with Bear and meeting her people (3 women including Bear and 3 kids, not anything like the group we were expecting), and a leisurely drive up to Truckee, where Bear provided dinner (roast chickens). We also learned that:
(a) Our RVs were getting 6-7 mpg. Ouch
(b) You cannot let Shiro and NobodysWife go ANYWHERE unattended! They returned from the Truckee Safeway with an entire full shopping cart, even though all our meals were already provided! Our fridge was... silly. Shiro even bought a styrofoam ice chest to contain the overflow. Seriously, guys?
(c) Most RVs only take 30-amp hookups, and the RV places don't provide adaptors. Fortunately, NobodysWife was able to call ahead to Lovelock and change our reservations.
The rest of the evening was uneventful. We drove on to Lovelock, got our spots, and were all tired enough we conked out relatively quickly. (And hooking up an RV really is so easy a child could do it.)
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BTW, you do know that it's pronounced "Mar-LAY-nah" and not "mar-LEEN", right?
I'd hate for you to have to curse my name incorrectly.
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hey....I have been to Truckee, drove through on the way to Reno (no gambling, desert exploring actually)
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Gotta admit, I did like Reno, great wood fired pizza, and delicious local sour ale.
Folks can keep their gambling, I will gladly go with pizza and beer!
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Gotta admit, I did like Reno, great wood fired pizza, and delicious local sour ale.
Folks can keep their gambling, I will gladly go with pizza and beer!
I never really understood the appeal of Reno; I far prefer South Lake Tahoe. And since Hi lived there (in Reno) for a while and absolutely abhors it, we didn't even slow down there.
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That sounds like it would have been a lot of fun. At some point I need to get out west by land. I've only flown over it a couple times on the way to Hawaii (oh, woe is me, I know).
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I can understand why actually living in Reno might not be as awesome as a quick overnight stay while on the way to tromp around desert lands.
I am pretty sure we also avoided the less awesome stuff sorta by default while there.
The casino was...far less nice than the pizza/beer joint.
But overall that trip was amazing! Climbed to the top Little Glass mountain (an extinct cinder cone made of...obsidian and pumice!) and not a drop of blood spilled. Went caving in Lava Beds National Monument. Good times indeed.
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My last longish trip was driving up to Traverse City MI in the middle of July. We did about 900-1000 miles round-trip without touching an interstate and if we hit a 4 lane road at all it was for no more than a couple miles and only because we had to.
Fun Fact: Michigan doesn't post their speed limit signs unless it's below their default speed limit. If you enter a town, it will say "Speed Limit 45" or whatever it is, but when you're on your way out it just says "Speed Limit 45 Ends" and never tells you what the speed limit now is. The police officer was very understanding...
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I may have once gotten myself a speeding ticket out in Illinois, on the way back from Colorado, but when the speed limit is 75, doing 90 on a lonely lonesome highway with no other cars can maybe be excused.
It wasn't...but one could see the logic ;)
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A few random things before I dive back into work:
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My arse and arms can only take about 4-5 hours of straight driving before I need a break these days. As a younger man, I drove for about 14 hours straight (that very same Rochester, NY to Bolder, CO trip in fact) several of those in an insane thunderstorm in the middle of the flat bits of our great nation.
They were....just as flat at night ;)
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Hey, Nobody! Are you sufficiently recovered for tomorrow?