Man, flights are sooooo cheap right now. I want to travel so bad.
46 thoughts on “May 10, 2021: Helluva Deal”
Flights are a pain in the @ss right now. The recommended (ie: lowest price) roundtrip work flight returns to StL by way of Reagan National Airport. Seriously??
Fantastic job of finding a coffee picture to tie into your intro theme today.
hj likes his coffee black.
He never has a second cup of coffee at home.
With the range dreams dead I peeled the deck off the house. The installers missed a couple key things when attaching my original small deck including sloping the deck towards the house - explains the rot and door failure in the past. My construction help (actually the foreman on this job...) and I were able to sink and set the new posts, frame out the new deck, cut a sample stringer, and start in on the new joists. I’m really glad that we got the concrete in when we did because we got ~5 inches of rain overnight.
Back to cutting stringers.
Sweet god. I’m not 25 anymore. I’m not even 35 anymore. Cut 4.5 of the stringers. Cut and installed the joists. Started digging post holes in the rain. Lightning sent me inside for a bit. I’m whooped.
This weekend was Neitzsche's 7th bithday. He decided he wanted a caramel cake for his birthday, so we looked through recipes together and found a good one. It required making a caramel sauce. I tried 4 different times, and it ended up horribly crystalized each time. 8 cups of sugar... lots of stress. I have very successfully made caramel in the past, though never in our current house, and I ultimately decided to blame the burners. We've got a fairly cheap electric range, where temperature control is really just a function of whether the burner is on or off. Not ideal for caramel. it always cooked too hot, then got too cold.
Ultimately the solution was to replace a bunch of the sugar with corn syrup, which prevents the sugar from re-forming crystals. While it was cooking it still didn't cook "right" (like normal caramel - still boiled too hot), but ultimately it got where it needed to be. The rest of the cake turned out just slightly dry, but the flavors were fantastic.
Someday I'll have a gas range again (we don't have any gas utility at our house - all electric), or maybe a higher quality electric one (do those really exist?), but at least for now I've figured out a solution to this one problem. Chemistry is pretty cool.
maybe a higher quality electric one (do those really exist?)
Induction. Instant heat, instant off, no worries about anything related to gas, so very easy to clean, and overall safer. Our range will detect if you turned on the right burner and will flash at you when you get it wrong. The only downside so far is what I think is coil whine when you turn it on high enough.
We had a gas range growing up that I absolutely hated cleaning since I had to partially disassemble it to get everything. The smoothtop was a lot easier, unless things got burned on and then I had to carefully scrape it. Pot overflows now? No big deal. Wipe it up, the surface isn't particularly hot, and you're done.
I feel your pain, Phyllo.
Like most houses in this area, apparently, our 60-ish year old house was not plumbed for gas in the kitchen. (We have a gas furnace, but the dryer that shares the utility room is electric.) I’ve been waiting for the awful glass-top stove we assumed with the property to die for the entirety of the time we’ve lived here, with the intent that I’d finally have gas routed up to the kitchen when we replace the stove.
Induction is the only alternative I’d consider, but I don’t have experience enough with them to know if they really would live up to my expectations. I hear the size of the element is a consideration for folks like me who are heavy users of cast iron cookware. Any experience with that you can share, hj?
Plus side there is you won't need all new pans. We had refresh about two-thirds, including most of the important sizes, when moving to induction.
Not me. We're cookin' with gas over here, baby.
we inherited an awful glass-top range (a semi-fancy Samsung deal with a "double oven," i.e., a divider in the oven to make two small oven spaces that could allegedly be controlled separately.
My set of Calphalon pots and pans and my restaurant supply store aluminum frying pan were not impressed. I was pretty much restricted to my cast iron and one enameled pot with a suitably magnetic core until we were able to get rid of the damn thing. I hated everything about it.
We bought a glass topped range about a year ago. I actually do not have any issues with cooking on it, as it heats up just as fast as gas, and it did not take me long to figure out how to adjust settings to get just the right temp in the pan. Maintenance is not bad. Sometimes, I have to carefully scrap with a razor blade if there is build up that the cleaning solution wont get. So, I am unsure why there is hate out there for this cooking surface?? I grew up in a house with gas ranges and I definitely prefer them over the old school electric crap that my apartments had at college, but honestly I prefer the glass top over gas due to the cleaning issues mentioned by Sean above. I have never tried induction ranges.
I suspect there may be glass-topped ranges that have better performance characteristics than the one we inherited with the house. That said, here’s what I’ve observed with ours:
Pro-Gas
- The arrangement of the work surface of an electric range is pre-determined by the size of the electric elements, meaning I’m forced to cook the way the stove’s designers intend, rather than the way I’d like to set it up. Gas ranges typically don’t do this; all the burners are the same size.
- Electric ranges exhibit sluggish responses to heat adjustments that simply don’t exist with gas, particularly when cooling down after high-heat techniques. I’m frequently shuffling pans around on the stove to move them from a high-heat burner that is fully shut off, yet the glass surface is still ripping hot.
- Gas offers more granular adjustments to heat, analogous to a continuous range of values vs. stepped adjustments.
- Gas heat is more even, particularly as electric coils degrade.
- Gas infrastructure is less likely to be interrupted by typical natural disasters where I live. I can’t cook during a power outage with electric or induction.
- Any pan or pot, made of any material, flat- or rounded- bottom, works.
- For now, natural gas is cheaper than electricity.
Pro-Electric
- While electric is more likely to be unavailable due to periodic power outages, it’s much less likely to blow my house up or poison us while we’re sleeping.
- Glass cooktops may be easier to clean under regular use — provided you don’t chip the glass or melt anything inorganic to its surface. (Ask me how I know.)
- Provided you have the right outlet & breakers, there is no additional necessary infrastructure to maintain.
- Depending on the fuel source for the local power service, electricity may be more environmentally friendly.
- In my dream house, a solar system & power bank would render concerns about electricity interruptions moot.
I’ve owned both a glass top electric and gas ranges, and by far prefer the gas. I agree with most of your points above, but our current shit box of a range “features” a power burner and two “simmer” burners which is exactly the point you’re making about being told how to cook. The power burner is the front right burner which is my go to cook spot. the lowest setting there will burn rice, scorch beans, and ruin lots of dinners if I’m not paying really close attention. I really dislike having to move a large, very hot pot of cooking food to the rear of the stove (esp with the crappiest grate design I’ve ever seen....) just to keep a simmer. Just give me
4 burners that all do the same thing.
I actually don't mind the different sizes on our gas range, but then again, I don't really know what I'm doing in the kitchen.
We had a gas range growing up that I absolutely hated cleaning since I had to partially disassemble it to get everything.
sealed burners, dude.
I'll reach back two decades and inform my parents to buy a better model.
If you have access to this tech let me know cuz I have some things I’d like to take care of.
I'd imagine if he has access to this tech, he's got access to better cooking tech too!
Everything finishes at the same time.
Heh. Obviously, I read this as a general complaint about gas stoves.
But a time machine would be nice.
As I recall, candy thermometer is also a big help with making caramel. I've only made it a few times and it was definitely nerve-racking--I completely screwed it up at least one of those times.
In reading about caramel making this weekend (and I read a lot... given my frustrating experiences), it seems about 50/50 for recommending the candy thermometer. Since caramel has to move pretty quickly once it starts caramelizing, I figure whatever works best for a person to catch it at the right moment - either the themometer or watching it closely. I've never used one for caramel - but I've also always been watching it as I make it, so I can use the eye/color test pretty well, and I know fumbling with a thermometer for me would probably lead it it burning. But like I said, it's about 50/50.
Man, flights are sooooo cheap right now. I want to travel so bad.
Don't get me started. So itchy to go somewhere, anywhere
We passed on $450 RTs to Japan. Tons of Europe destinations are about $300-$500.
Buxton is No. 1 in Defensive Runs Saved since the beginning of 2020 despite all the time he's missed. Buxton is at 17 in about 500 innings and Nolan Arrenado is at 15 in about 700 innings. Trout is third to last at -12.
It really is amazing how good he is in the field. If only he could stay healthy.
The Twins front office is going to have a hard decision to make with him when his contract is up.
When the hell did Trout become a poor defender?
Most of his career after his rookie season. A couple of seasons in the middle were good but that's it.
Second day in a row without a Twins loss. We're on a roll!
No Timberwolves or MN United games tonight either. Will be a rare no loss night for MN Sports.
That's annoying because I swear these four teams spent the offseason figuring out just how many times they can all play at the same time.
Hey now...in their last ten games, Wolves are 6-4, Twins are 5-5. Reasons for optimism! And the Loons...oof.
The Wild appreciate not being mentioned.
7-3, with 2 losses in overtime.
Why would you do this?! What have you done?!
They can lose their next 5 games without any consequence. It's fine....
hahahaha... (*probably crying somewhere by a grill)
I guess I was thinking of May 5 when Twins, Wild, Twolves all lost. Loons not playing only way we missed out on quadfecta.
The Saints and Twins are both in town this weekend. If anyone else is Fully Vaxxed plus 2 and wants to head out shoot me a line. FWIW, the Twins game I went to opening weekend went smoothly (much better than the diamondbacks game I went to cuz you know), and felt safe.
Like most people, I stopped paying attention to the "WWL" long ago, but today's layoff seems particularly stupid. Anyway...
Flights are a pain in the @ss right now. The recommended (ie: lowest price) roundtrip work flight returns to StL by way of Reagan National Airport. Seriously??
Fantastic job of finding a coffee picture to tie into your intro theme today.
hj likes his coffee black.
He never has a second cup of coffee at home.
With the range dreams dead I peeled the deck off the house. The installers missed a couple key things when attaching my original small deck including sloping the deck towards the house - explains the rot and door failure in the past. My construction help (actually the foreman on this job...) and I were able to sink and set the new posts, frame out the new deck, cut a sample stringer, and start in on the new joists. I’m really glad that we got the concrete in when we did because we got ~5 inches of rain overnight.
Back to cutting stringers.
Sweet god. I’m not 25 anymore. I’m not even 35 anymore. Cut 4.5 of the stringers. Cut and installed the joists. Started digging post holes in the rain. Lightning sent me inside for a bit. I’m whooped.
This weekend was Neitzsche's 7th bithday. He decided he wanted a caramel cake for his birthday, so we looked through recipes together and found a good one. It required making a caramel sauce. I tried 4 different times, and it ended up horribly crystalized each time. 8 cups of sugar... lots of stress. I have very successfully made caramel in the past, though never in our current house, and I ultimately decided to blame the burners. We've got a fairly cheap electric range, where temperature control is really just a function of whether the burner is on or off. Not ideal for caramel. it always cooked too hot, then got too cold.
Ultimately the solution was to replace a bunch of the sugar with corn syrup, which prevents the sugar from re-forming crystals. While it was cooking it still didn't cook "right" (like normal caramel - still boiled too hot), but ultimately it got where it needed to be. The rest of the cake turned out just slightly dry, but the flavors were fantastic.
Someday I'll have a gas range again (we don't have any gas utility at our house - all electric), or maybe a higher quality electric one (do those really exist?), but at least for now I've figured out a solution to this one problem. Chemistry is pretty cool.
Induction. Instant heat, instant off, no worries about anything related to gas, so very easy to clean, and overall safer. Our range will detect if you turned on the right burner and will flash at you when you get it wrong. The only downside so far is what I think is coil whine when you turn it on high enough.
We had a gas range growing up that I absolutely hated cleaning since I had to partially disassemble it to get everything. The smoothtop was a lot easier, unless things got burned on and then I had to carefully scrape it. Pot overflows now? No big deal. Wipe it up, the surface isn't particularly hot, and you're done.
I feel your pain, Phyllo.
Like most houses in this area, apparently, our 60-ish year old house was not plumbed for gas in the kitchen. (We have a gas furnace, but the dryer that shares the utility room is electric.) I’ve been waiting for the awful glass-top stove we assumed with the property to die for the entirety of the time we’ve lived here, with the intent that I’d finally have gas routed up to the kitchen when we replace the stove.
Induction is the only alternative I’d consider, but I don’t have experience enough with them to know if they really would live up to my expectations. I hear the size of the element is a consideration for folks like me who are heavy users of cast iron cookware. Any experience with that you can share, hj?
Plus side there is you won't need all new pans. We had refresh about two-thirds, including most of the important sizes, when moving to induction.
Not me. We're cookin' with gas over here, baby.
we inherited an awful glass-top range (a semi-fancy Samsung deal with a "double oven," i.e., a divider in the oven to make two small oven spaces that could allegedly be controlled separately.
My set of Calphalon pots and pans and my restaurant supply store aluminum frying pan were not impressed. I was pretty much restricted to my cast iron and one enameled pot with a suitably magnetic core until we were able to get rid of the damn thing. I hated everything about it.
We bought a glass topped range about a year ago. I actually do not have any issues with cooking on it, as it heats up just as fast as gas, and it did not take me long to figure out how to adjust settings to get just the right temp in the pan. Maintenance is not bad. Sometimes, I have to carefully scrap with a razor blade if there is build up that the cleaning solution wont get. So, I am unsure why there is hate out there for this cooking surface?? I grew up in a house with gas ranges and I definitely prefer them over the old school electric crap that my apartments had at college, but honestly I prefer the glass top over gas due to the cleaning issues mentioned by Sean above. I have never tried induction ranges.
I suspect there may be glass-topped ranges that have better performance characteristics than the one we inherited with the house. That said, here’s what I’ve observed with ours:
Pro-Gas
- The arrangement of the work surface of an electric range is pre-determined by the size of the electric elements, meaning I’m forced to cook the way the stove’s designers intend, rather than the way I’d like to set it up. Gas ranges typically don’t do this; all the burners are the same size.
- Electric ranges exhibit sluggish responses to heat adjustments that simply don’t exist with gas, particularly when cooling down after high-heat techniques. I’m frequently shuffling pans around on the stove to move them from a high-heat burner that is fully shut off, yet the glass surface is still ripping hot.
- Gas offers more granular adjustments to heat, analogous to a continuous range of values vs. stepped adjustments.
- Gas heat is more even, particularly as electric coils degrade.
- Gas infrastructure is less likely to be interrupted by typical natural disasters where I live. I can’t cook during a power outage with electric or induction.
- Any pan or pot, made of any material, flat- or rounded- bottom, works.
- For now, natural gas is cheaper than electricity.
Pro-Electric
- While electric is more likely to be unavailable due to periodic power outages, it’s much less likely to blow my house up or poison us while we’re sleeping.
- Glass cooktops may be easier to clean under regular use — provided you don’t chip the glass or melt anything inorganic to its surface. (Ask me how I know.)
- Provided you have the right outlet & breakers, there is no additional necessary infrastructure to maintain.
- Depending on the fuel source for the local power service, electricity may be more environmentally friendly.
- In my dream house, a solar system & power bank would render concerns about electricity interruptions moot.
I’ve owned both a glass top electric and gas ranges, and by far prefer the gas. I agree with most of your points above, but our current shit box of a range “features” a power burner and two “simmer” burners which is exactly the point you’re making about being told how to cook. The power burner is the front right burner which is my go to cook spot. the lowest setting there will burn rice, scorch beans, and ruin lots of dinners if I’m not paying really close attention. I really dislike having to move a large, very hot pot of cooking food to the rear of the stove (esp with the crappiest grate design I’ve ever seen....) just to keep a simmer. Just give me
4 burners that all do the same thing.
I actually don't mind the different sizes on our gas range, but then again, I don't really know what I'm doing in the kitchen.
sealed burners, dude.
I'll reach back two decades and inform my parents to buy a better model.
If you have access to this tech let me know cuz I have some things I’d like to take care of.
I'd imagine if he has access to this tech, he's got access to better cooking tech too!
Everything finishes at the same time.
Heh. Obviously, I read this as a general complaint about gas stoves.
But a time machine would be nice.
As I recall, candy thermometer is also a big help with making caramel. I've only made it a few times and it was definitely nerve-racking--I completely screwed it up at least one of those times.
In reading about caramel making this weekend (and I read a lot... given my frustrating experiences), it seems about 50/50 for recommending the candy thermometer. Since caramel has to move pretty quickly once it starts caramelizing, I figure whatever works best for a person to catch it at the right moment - either the themometer or watching it closely. I've never used one for caramel - but I've also always been watching it as I make it, so I can use the eye/color test pretty well, and I know fumbling with a thermometer for me would probably lead it it burning. But like I said, it's about 50/50.
Don't get me started. So itchy to go somewhere, anywhere
We passed on $450 RTs to Japan. Tons of Europe destinations are about $300-$500.
Buxton is No. 1 in Defensive Runs Saved since the beginning of 2020 despite all the time he's missed. Buxton is at 17 in about 500 innings and Nolan Arrenado is at 15 in about 700 innings. Trout is third to last at -12.
It really is amazing how good he is in the field. If only he could stay healthy.
The Twins front office is going to have a hard decision to make with him when his contract is up.
When the hell did Trout become a poor defender?
Most of his career after his rookie season. A couple of seasons in the middle were good but that's it.
Second day in a row without a Twins loss. We're on a roll!
No Timberwolves or MN United games tonight either. Will be a rare no loss night for MN Sports.
That's annoying because I swear these four teams spent the offseason figuring out just how many times they can all play at the same time.
Hey now...in their last ten games, Wolves are 6-4, Twins are 5-5. Reasons for optimism! And the Loons...oof.
The Wild appreciate not being mentioned.
7-3, with 2 losses in overtime.
Why would you do this?! What have you done?!
They can lose their next 5 games without any consequence. It's fine....
hahahaha... (*probably crying somewhere by a grill)
I guess I was thinking of May 5 when Twins, Wild, Twolves all lost. Loons not playing only way we missed out on quadfecta.
The Saints and Twins are both in town this weekend. If anyone else is Fully Vaxxed plus 2 and wants to head out shoot me a line. FWIW, the Twins game I went to opening weekend went smoothly (much better than the diamondbacks game I went to cuz you know), and felt safe.
Like most people, I stopped paying attention to the "WWL" long ago, but today's layoff seems particularly stupid. Anyway...
It's a homonym! No, it's an antonym!
It took me a minute to process, but I got it.
I turned on LAAAAA-HOU and had a Butters sighting. He's at an OPS+ of 16, which is an improvement over last year's 2.