Cup of Coffee

February 7, 2017: Teacher’s Pet

74 Comments

Just after midnight on January 1st, I missed a Facetime call from one of my managers. She explained it later as an accident, though my wife raised her eyebrow. Yesterday the same manager mentioned that she dreamed about me a few nights ago. Okay then.

74 thoughts on “February 7, 2017: Teacher’s Pet”

  1. I woke up to a lecture from an eBay seller. He was very offended that I asked a few questions before purchasing his item. So I crafted a strongly worded response about not being interested in putting money in the pockets of an a-hole.

    In related news, if you have a line on a seller of small MB Quart bookshelf speakers that haven't been made since about 2000, let me know!

  2. Made yogurt again in the Instant Pot, this time in a Pyrex container rather than directly in the pot. Much easier and better. Texture is great.

    I used a 6-cup Pyrex container, which just barely fits inside the pot, on top of the trivet. One cup of water, lid on, steam for one minute, then use natural release to let cool a bit. remove the trivet and let the milk cool to below 115 deg. Remove the "skin," Mix in tempered starter, return trivet to the pot, cover loosely with foil or parchment paper (or wax paper) to minimize drippage from steam, put the lid on and set the yogurt setting to at least 8 hours (I did this overnight, so it ran for about 9.5 hours).

    No muss, no fuss.

      1. Like cheaptoy, I’m going to give this a shot. I might spring for a second gasket before doing so, as I’d prefer my yoghurt to not taste like curry or beef until added to one of those things.

        Time to blow the dust off my granola recipes.

        1. My wife made a cheesecake the other day (turned out pretty well!) and, fortunately, she had gotten a 2-pack of gaskets from Amazon. They are red and blue, so now I know the blue gasket is for deserts and the clear gasket is for things that can smell like Indian food.

          1. ... and added to the Amazon shopping list; that is a really good idea.

            Also, I was planning on making a cheesecake for valentine's day, so glad to hear it worked out.

            1. Just make sure to chill it overnight before eating it. She said she didn't like it at first, but she had a piece as soon as it cooled off. I didn't get a piece until it was in the fridge for awhile and it was quite good.

          2. I was wondering about those 2-packs and 3-packs of gaskets. Which ones, specifically?

            Also, while my existing gasket definitely picked up a whiff from making pinto beans and making green chile chicken, I've not yet been able to detect any transfer to the yogurt or to brown rice. YMMV.

            1. It looks like she got the gaskets made by InstantPot.

              The cheesecake was the first non savory thing we made and she switched the gasket out anyway, just in case. I suspect it would have been fine, though.

              1. ooh, the spendy ones! I see options for like $11 for two, vs. more like $35 or $45 for one(?) of the OEM versions.

                1. Yeeeeah, she's unbelievably bad at perfectly useful, cheaper option. It drives me nuts, to put it mildly.

    2. Ok, you all must be speaking in some kind of code, because I find it hard to believe that my beloved "go to" website has more conversations about Instant Pot than it has about the MN Twins. Now, get off my damn lawn you hippies!

        1. It's funny. As more of an old school chef, I struggle with the impact of technology on our craft. Not that it will impact business, because the people continue to eat out at a very high rate. As more of a purist, I want to cook with fire. I feel about Instant Pot what many BBQ grillers feel about gas grills. That being said, many of the foods y'all are talking about are some of my favorites, so I may breakdown and get one some day.

          My bigger point, is I found this site so very long ago, looking for intelligent baseball talk. It is so cool that we talk movies, books, food, beer, wine, etc too. I just found it amusing yesterday when yet another long Instant Pot thread pops up. I shudder to think what we will be discussing in another 10 years. "Where do you get your fiber?"

          1. We'll probably be talking about when we expect our delivery of our brand new Tesla to our new house on Mars.

          3. If you want to go really old school with your cooking, use an open flame and a spit for everything. It'll feel retro and sure to be a hit among millennials.

      2. The national pastime is inexorably linked to food. We know a thing or two about food, or at least we like to think that we do.

    1. One big difference (and a nice touch) between feeds of the NASA launches and the yesterday's SpaceX launch is the cheering of the employees in the background. Folks, act like you've been there before, huh? Oh, wait -- you haven't been there before...well then, cheer away!

  5. With Santana out for 10-12 weeks & Sanó’s availability still undetermined, it’s time for the Twins to sh!t or get off the pot. Either Pohlad is serious about giving Falvey, Levine, & Molitor what they need to contend for a division title and more, or he’s not and the rationale for building that ballpark is made explicitly clear.

    The Twins need a right-handed corner infielder who can bop some and play third regularly while Sanó’s out. The Mets signed Todd Frazier, a guy who would have helped the roster in multiple areas, for a paltry $17 million over two seasons ($8m this season, & $9m next). The Twins darn sure need more reliability in that rotation with Santana out until May. Berríos, Gibson, & Mejía followed by Hughes, Duffey, May, and Gonsalves isn’t a valid answer to start the season, even if a couple of those guys emerge as reliable options as things progress.

          1. I don't think any of them care about it more than making obscene amounts of money. Meaning, if the choice is between winning and making a reasonable amount of money, and losing and making obscene amounts, they're all going to choose the obscene amounts.

            I would have given Detroit a pass, but Ilitch is no longer with us.

        1. Archer = signed through 2021 at reasonable rates. Average of about 2 WAR over his career (but with much variation), dropping lately. Kepler is about the same. I could see this trade, but I still don't know that I'd do it.

      2. I wouldn't do that trade either. I adore Kepler, but he's a RF, and those can be found, easier than pitchers. The problem for me is Kepler is controllable through 2022, but Odorrizi is only through 2019. The link says the Rays are the team that wouldn't deal Archer or Odorrizi, but that seems absurd if it's Kepler they're asking for.

        1. That article was better than the NYT (? I think) article bS posted the other day, but, ahhh:

          Third, don’t ever submerge the lid in water. That’s where the electronics live.

          That's pretty inaccurate.

            1. The article that said traditional cooking was better than the IP but what used recipes that were doomed to be not as good in a pressure cooker. (it wasn't a bad article, but now that I'm part of a cult, I have to act like it)

    3. Let's say the Twins stay pat and dont sign anyone, would take that windfall and paydown some of the debt on Target Field?

    1. I'm hoping there will be replays shown tomorrow because there is no way I can stay up that late.

    2. I watched some video of this version of the sport on youtube, 2017 world championships: Canada vs. Switzerland (?).
      Teams of 1 man and 1 woman. (The woman on the Canadian pair was Homan's second on the 2018 Canadian Olympic team.)
      Five rocks per end. 1 player gets stones 1 and 5 and the other gets stones 2-4.
      Each end starts with two rocks placed. The pair with the hammer has one at the back of the 4-ft. The other pair has a guard on the centerline.
      So it's kindof like the baseball/softball extra innings scheme where each half-inning starts with a runner on second base.

      There's also a "power play" that a team can use once in a match (on an end where they have the hammer):
      the starting stones are moved out 6 feet, and instead of 4 ft back, the hammer-team's rock is in front of the T-line.

      The 2017 World Championship outcome SelectShow

  7. Minnesota Court of Appeals sentence of the week:

    In Empire, "the audience learns that Lucious and Cookie were both involved in drug dealing, and that Cookie pled guilty so that Lucious could pursue his music career and take care of their children." [Citation omitted]

        1. All three of those schools are the same, you ask me. But I bet Alabama gets something out of this anyway.

  9. Just got this e-mail:

    We Owe You An Apology

    We know you waited a whole year for this. You prepped the snacks, picked your team and cranked up some JT. We did too. Your Super Bowl Sunday was everything it should have been, until our last-minute fumble.

    We are investigating what caused this issue to occur for you so that we can make sure it doesn't happen again.

    So, to help make it up to you, we will be crediting your account with 1 month of your Hulu with Live TV subscription.*

    With the Winter Olympics, March Madness and World Cup coverage coming soon, we want you to stick around because the 2018 year in sports is just beginning. As devoted fans ourselves, rest assured preventing any future tech issues is our top priority.

    We appreciate your understanding.
    Thank you for choosing Hulu.

    Questions? Contact us anytime.

    Thanks,
    The Hulu Team

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