Eating Habits and Diet During Covid19

[bixaorellana]

I learned a new technical word the other day. I wanted one of those clip things that clamp onto a bunch of papers or whatever and then you flip two little wire thingamjiggies backward to tighten the clamp.
Okay, I just looked it up and it's called a binder clip in English.

So I went to all the papelerías near my house, but they were all closed because I guess they're non-essential. There is also a glazier near my house, so I went there on the off chance they might have one. I explained what I needed and said I didn't know what it was called. A lady there had a teeny one which she showed me. It turns out it's called a "clip" (pronounced cleep). 

[Kimby]

Not sure how we got from eating habits to hardware stores, but...
Since Mr. Kimby retired, most of our shopping trips are combined into one joint trip. I really hate going to the big box hardware stores, like Lowe’s and HomeDepot. They’re so big and it’s so easy to get separated and hard to reconnect. I must have been looking a bit lost, as a cashier left her post to ask if I needed help finding something. I said “a husband.” She replied ”Me too, that’s why I work here!”

Funny, but smart. The kind of man who shops for lumber and hardware is probably a motivated self-starter. Good husband material.

[onlyMark]

May 8, 2020 21:06:31 GMT bixaorellana said:

Okay, I just looked it up and it's called a binder clip in English

Those of us or a certain age may just refer to them as Bulldog Clips. They seem to have developed from the older style which had rigid handles.

[casimira]

Yeast is still very hard to find.

So many people I know are super frustrated with this. 

It's kind of funny in a way because the people I have heard this from are all male. I don't associate baking bread with men somehow.
(Maybe it's for brewing beer)

[bixaorellana]

I guess it's a reflex to think of home bakers as women and commercial bakers as men, but of course that doesn't really make sense.

[kerouac2]

Everybody knows that most men absolutely love to cook as long as somebody cleans up after them.

[Kimby]

Guess the Kimbys are contrarians, then. I do ALL the cooking and marketing, but he does help cleanup the dishes afterward, while I put away the food. Then I load the dishwasher.

He totally does NOT love to cook!

[kerouac2]

And I find dishwashers ridiculous for families of fewer than 4 people.

[mickthecactus]

Why does anybody eat Emmental cheese? It’s awful.

[kerouac2]

French Emmental and Swiss Gruyère are basically exactly the same cheese. I don't know about the UK, but in the United States "Swiss cheese" is one of the most appreciated varieties. But of course nobody is obliged to like it.

[casimira]

I totally agree about having a dishwasher unless perhaps one has a family of kids or entertains frequently large parties. 

We have never had one, don't want one.

T. is really good at cleaning up after he cooks and many times after I cook. 

I tend to wash as I go along depending on the dish I am preparing.

[kerouac2]

I am unable to go to bed if there are dirty dishes in the sink. But for some reason, this happens sometimes and in cases like that, I do the dishes the momemt I discover them, before having breakfast.

[mickthecactus]

There’s only 2 of us. We have had a dishwasher for years.

[onlyMark]

With living abroad, we've had a human dishwasher for years and years.
Bit of a shock when I have to do it myself.

[kerouac2]

Oh, please do not debase yourself. Dishwashing is only for the inferior classes.

[cheerypeabrain]

It took YEARS to train my dishwasher. I wouldnt have a machine one unless they get a lot more environmentally friendly. Nowhere to put one anyway...

[cheerypeabrain]

My training was perhaps a little too good. If there are any dirty pots they are washed, dried and put away.

[kerouac2]

My parents first saw a dishwasher when we moved to California in 1967. I think it was used maybe half a dozen times out of curiosity and then was never touched again until they sold the house in 1972. When they returned to the United States in 1981, they never used the machine in North Carolina and the same thing happened when they went to Florida. I'm pretty sure that when I sold the house in 2005, the new owners may have been a bit surprised to discover the original sample packs of dishwashing product in the machine, which had never been opened in ten years.

[Kimby]

May 10, 2020 16:12:05 GMT kerouac2 said:

And I find dishwashers ridiculous for families of fewer than 4 people.

Dishwashers work great as a storage solution for used (and rinsed) dishes until they are full enough to run.

We run ours about every 4th day. The pots and pans I wash by hand.

[mossie]

My family has always had a dishwasher..............ME

[bjd]

We have never had a machine dishwasher even with three kids and full cooked meals every lunch time. When we bought this house and had to redo the kitchen completely, I actually wanted a machine because the dishwasher is not doing a very good job any more -- he misses things and is getting sloppy. For years, the justification was "I don't do anything else in the kitchen", but now that my husband tries to cook and make bread on occasion, I feel we could get a machine, especially since we often have company for meals. But he is the one opposed.

[cheerypeabrain]

Think that we are losing the plot. Eating like teenagers whilst our parents are out...or three year olds...
Yesterday son had cereal (fruit and fibre) with no milk.
At one point yesterday Jeff and I demolished a whole packet of cheese biscuits (Tuc sandwiches) whilst watching tv.
I had chicken salad for dinner but nobody else wanted salad. Or vegetables. Or fruit.
Jeff had two fried eggs on toast smothered with vinegar and pepper...Followed by their THREE bars of chocolate from the treat tin (which is now empty)
Russell had a child's pizza and enough chips to feed all of us...

Very odd day..hope it doesn't happen again

[casimira]

I've had some days exactly like that Cheery. Not something I want to get in the habit of doing. But, it's so easy to fall into doing.

Then, there are days where I hardly eat much at all.

It's all very skewed.

[kerouac2]

I made a point of buying a bunch of asparagus today, just because cooking them properly is a challenge.

[casimira]

I bought some asparagus recently and prepared it by putting it in a preheated oven at 350F, placed the asparagus in a heavy duty cast iron frying pan. Drizzled some olive oil over it, sprinkled salt and freshly ground pepper over it and let it roast. Squeezed fresh lemon juice over it.

It was divine.

[Kimby]

Sounds divine!
Must.Try. This.

[tod2]

May 11, 2020 12:28:49 GMT kerouac2 said:

I made a point of buying a bunch of asparagus today, just because cooking them properly is a challenge.

I always look Longingly at the fresh green asparagus on the supermarket shelf then decide "No", I have no idea what to do with it until I found some recipes on YouTube fo0r "Asparagus done in an Airfryer……YES! I do have one of those magic contraptions!.

[mossie]

My cooking is not that complicated. Just wash it and snap it into bite size lengths, put into a saucepan on the hot hob, just cover with boiling water from the kettle, boil for a couple of minutes, drain off and serve.
Like all green veg can be eaten raw, but can have chewy strands. As an aside when we were poor kids starving during the war we used to pinch veg out of the farmers field and eat it raw there and then. The pocketknife which every boy carried was useful.

[lagatta]

Tod, are they in season down there? Do you have two asparagus seasons? We've started to get (early) autumn strawberries here; which is a pleasure. But we don't have the spring ones yet this year; it is very cool and everything is late. We do have local asparagus now, but it is very expensive; I'll wait a couple of weeks.

If it's only for myself, I cheat and cut them up, but the harder but edible parts in first and the points at the end. I don't usually strip the very hard part of the stalk; I stick those in the freezer with other soup vegetables.

[kerouac2]

Anyway, I bought white ones instead of green ones.

We can start the asparagus pee discussion any time all of you are ready.