I found corn broth really improves the vegan dough. You can use cobs to make it, and save the corn for something else. Corn cobs & an onion.

Me too! So flavorful. I don’t do bone broth exactly, can’t get them that clean. But there are some in my freezer right now waiting.

My kids have asked for tamales every year since I made them for Christmas about ten years ago, but I am not yet rested up from that batch. Even though we had a tamalada and they helped wrap them, the days ahead making tamale dough (two versions because we have vegans) and fillings (several versions because, again, vegans) it was exhausting. I think it will be either gumbo or oxtail soup this year, and a big pot of beans.

Whew, that’s good news. My MIL always just buys a bucket of Manteca but I don’t like to do that either.

Very cool. I think I’ll wait for the red maples we have to get a little bigger then see if I can train some vines up them. I saw that live plants of it are available near me.

Not an answer for you right now, but I just make lard whenever we get a big hunk of pork, I get the one with a bone and skin cut the skin & fat off and render it and it’s quite a project but makes enough for my purposes though the year, I don’t use it often. I wouldn’t expect a shop to do that for me for any amount I’d be willing to pay!

Thanks, that helps. We are 10a, last few years have been quite mild winters but this year it already has been cold twice (40f) overnight and it’s not even January.

This is gorgeous. Would it be too wet for it in west central FL? Will it grow from seeds?

I find it takes much, much longer to heal from injury. That’s the main downside I’ve experienced. When I say longer - when about 8 yo I broke my arm, it took 5-6 weeks to heal, maybe 10 to really heal, stop swelling ever and feel exactly like the other. When about 45 I broke my finger and it took 2 years to fully heal and feel like the rest of them.

But it also takes longer to get mad, I’m less irritable, more perspective I guess. Easier to feel happy/satisfied, too, it’s closer to the surface now.

Well 6 of my 7 plants were lost in the hurricane, so you have grown an infinite, incalculable % more pineapple than I’ve managed. It does look delicious.

We are with T-Mobile because we are still getting the same price for years, and the service is good where we live. We buy phones outside of the plan, and they either can be activated as is or sometimes they have to send a sim card.

The increase they predict for you is the payment for the devices, yes? Not the plan cost? Additional $90 a month for how long?

Oh, the tearjerkers:

Emmylou Harris - Boulder to Birmingham and Red Dirt Girl

Lucinda Williams - Sweet Old World

So good, so sad, so cathartic.

So far, yes. I think being able to be physically embodied is so remarkable. And on top of that, to be able to hear and see (sort of) and think and feel? It’s not gonna last forever, so I want to feel it while I can. Absolutely yes.

I found it in the reddit kerfuffle and stayed because it reminded me of a combination of Usenet text forums and early Reddit. The pace here is manageable and it’s mostly nice.

So I am here for whatever I was on Usenet then Reddit for, just to have a space to read people’s opinions and maintain a niche community.

Transition your work so it doesn’t make others have to figure out what you did or didn’t.

Leave your laptop at work or completely turned off, put on automatic replies, do not work, like really do not work.

If you are trying to accomplish something at home, schedule it and do it at a relaxed pace.

Like others here, childhood. I am not at all nostalgic for childhood. It wasn’t awful but being an adult is much better.

Music I am not nostalgic about - is this a gender difference? Both my ex and my husband listen to the music of their youth, I like plenty of old stuff but also like so much newer music, it just keeps coming, so much good music. It’s just delightful to know there is so much talent and creativity in the world.

Not nostalgic in general, actually. There are plenty of current problems, but people who think the past was better are either old white men, or crazy.

A person again, female again, in a developed country again. I would do this again. Please.

They are two:

Kimchi grilled cheese, like the video “late night kimchi grilled cheese”. Strain some kimchi, save the liquid. Chop the solid and fry it in butter. Assemble the sandwich with the kimchi between cheese, cheese between bread. Mayonnaise the outside of the sandwich. More butter in pan, and add the liquid from the kimchi. Fry the sandwich in this kimchi butter. So it’s got kimchi fried in butter on the inside, and is itself fried in kimchi butter.

Close second place roast beef and sharp cheddar with sliced sweet onion, on good rye sourdough, with horseradish and mayonnaise. Yum yum yum.

You just do you. I think when people say “bad” they generally mean preachy. That is not most vegans. Just live your life, eat what you want, bring good food to potlucks so that you know you’ll have something.

I will add that mentioning it is not preachy, if you get an overreaction it’s not you. I am omnivorous and would want someone to tell me before a party or outing so that I don’t accidentally invite them to a steakhouse or BBQ joint. I often make vegan food for potlucks just because it’s sort of a baseline, most everyone can eat it.

You know what? Beer breath is horrible, but whiskey kisses quite nice. Whiskey does smell so good.