@paris said in RL things I love:
My new instant pot.
Now I just need to figure out how to cook rice or noodles + chicken in it at the same time.
I 
my instant pot. It's so amazing, even though I use it for the same two things (chicken breasts, pulled pork) like 90% of the time.
But even for that it's holy-shit good, tender, moist meat for the time investment.
@paris said in RL things I love:
@misadventure There's a method called the pot-in-pot method that sort of does this, but I don't have any stainless steel or pyrex bowls.
The bowl I use for this, I got off of Amazon for cheap. I should have paid a bit more and gotten a better-fitting one, but... it works, the lid closes, it's just finicky. Anyway! Amazon for the stainless steel bowl. Do recommend.
I've only done the method once and it was... tricksy.
https://pinchofyum.com/instant-pot-wild-rice-soup is my favorite InstantPot recipe so far. I made it often last winter because one batch will provide me dinners for a week and it's super easy. The hardest/most time consuming part is chopping the veggies. I also love corned beef and cabbage, but that's really just 'take your favorite crockpot recipe and find the right timing for the instantpot' (there's a few out there that'll give you timing for it).
My favorite thing this year: my air fryer. Found a super cheap one during Black Friday sales (so it's pure manual settings, no digital; I just use my kitchen timer rather than its timer). Oh man. It is so awesome to be able to fry stuff and eat it and not get sick from the grease. And the chicken I've made is SO GOOD. Nice crispy skin and wonderfully moist meat. I finally found a garlic parm wing recipe I like.
I've also made quesadillas in it (again, without being greasy! yay!) and sweet potato fries.
Between InstantPot and the air fryer, I've really been able to cut down on the amount of easy/quick (and often not-so-healthy) meals I kept around for bad fibro days. I love them both.
@auspice Yeah, I've been thinking of getting an air fryer sometime, maybe this summer.
I'm gonna be trying some sort of pork kofta rice deal tonight. Hopefully I don't burn the house down.
@paris said in RL things I love:
@auspice Yeah, I've been thinking of getting an air fryer sometime, maybe this summer.
I'm gonna be trying some sort of pork kofta rice deal tonight. Hopefully I don't burn the house down.
I really really recommend the air fryer if you can find one on sale. I've never been able to fry chicken for shit before (not a good enough pan for it, breading never wants to stay put, etc etc).
I made hella delicious chicken tenders last night in about 20? minutes. Chopped up the chicken, tossed in breading/seasoning, put in fryer for 6min per side. Not having the overly difficult cleanup (IMO) for wings is amazing, too. Because I love wings. So so much. But they're a hassle to make generally.
Tonight I'm gonna try a recipe said to reproduce the Taco Bell crunch wrap. I love those things so if I successfully start making my own....... 
I am wondering if I can someday pull off a chicken fried steak in it. That'll be next paycheck, possibly.
TFW your 17 year old asks if we can do a family dinner out and then all go run around to all the geeky stores at the mall together for their birthday (while they spend their own money not yours) with all their sibs and hang out after the little goes to bed to play a round of betrayal legacy. Def worth dumping all the online schedule for. It's making me teary eyed actually.
@mietze said in RL things I love:
TFW your 17 year old asks if we can do a family dinner out and then all go run around to all the geeky stores at the mall together for their birthday (while they spend their own money not yours) with all their sibs and hang out after the little goes to bed to play a round of betrayal legacy. Def worth dumping all the online schedule for. It's making me teary eyed actually.
Tackle that kid and squeeze all the goodness and love out of them while you can! And if they get embarrassed by you having all the feels at them, good. Embarrassing your teenager until they fling a three syllable "Mo-ooo-om!" at you is your job as their mother.
The moment when, during a company All-Hands, one person in the spotlight mentions that they played "an RPG where you played a vampire" and the chatroom chime-ins of 'Vampire the Masquerade' hit double-digits in five seconds.
I used to spoil myself a bit by keeping a stock of loose tea, usually several flavors at a time. I had to stop doing that because holy crap, it can get expensive. Been several years, but I was able to get some loose tea as part of a mug/infuser set and I had forgotten how much better loose tea is over teabags. Don't get me wrong. I love a lot of teas that come in teabags. But this? OMG, so fucking goooood!
"Just leave me alone. I'm not myself. I'm falling apart, and I don't want you here." - ― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
@tiredewok I admit I do not get that, I used to drink loose tea and have all sorts of tea accessories like strainers, etc. But ultimately? It was just tea and it was so much more of a pain than using a teabag. I gave up.
@tiredewok If you live near a Wegman's, check out their loose tea section. I say this as someone whose boyfriend worked at Teavana for several years and literally has hundreds of dollars of tea sitting around her house.
I'll put in a word for Adagio. I love their teas.
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
I love their teas! Very good site.
Art of Tea has a really good selection of oolongs. I usually get their Iron Goddess (the green one) and the Crimson Oolong, and neither have ever let me down.
Will give their site a look. Thanks. 
I finally bought new filing cabinets, so I can keep my work files and my family files in separate cabinets! This is the best day ever.
He/Him
@tinuviel said in RL things I love:
I finally bought new filing cabinets, so I can keep my work files and my family files in separate cabinets! This is the best day ever.
Of all the geeky things that make geeks happy this is certainly one of them.
Nurses that know how to draw blood properly are the most amazing individuals.
For anyone who, for some unfathomable reason, is not idolizing J.R.R. Tolkien...
http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/j-r-r-tolkien-snubs-a-german-publisher.html
TL;DR: In response of a letter from pre-WW2 germany asking for 'proof of Tolkien's Aryan descent'...
25 July 1938
20 Northmoor Road, Oxford
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject — which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.
Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully,
J. R. R. Tolkien"
@paris said in RL things I love:
My new instant pot.
Now I just need to figure out how to cook rice or noodles + chicken in it at the same time.
I my instant pot. It's so amazing, even though I use it for the same two things (chicken breasts, pulled pork) like 90% of the time.
But even for that it's holy-shit good, tender, moist meat for the time investment.
