Author Topic: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two  (Read 167533 times)

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Offline Lestat

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6510 on: February 19, 2018, 12:14:38 PM »
Presumably, given that the rest of the plant contains the toxic glycoalkaloid solanine, there would be traces in tomato fruit, especially in green ones (in the nightshade family, its very common for, in cases where the mature fruit can be eaten, the immature ones to be toxic, and the toxicity to decrease with maturity. Presumably that means traces in tomato ripe fruit.

And considering how many tomatoes I don't want, I don't want you killed by solanine poisoning. (or anything else for that matter)

Thats a LOT of tomatoes. I don't even like the smell of the things. Although in those certain specific instances I can tolerate them (tomato soup if I'm hungry, especially if its come out of a packet of dried stuff, beef+tomato pot noodles I actually like, and I consider canned tomato without nasty chunky bits in it plus some sun-dried tomato paste stirred in as a vital part of chili con carne, or even the thing my old man cooks that he thinks is chili con carne and looks like it but with the wrong mushrooms and none of the right mushrooms in it. I can eat the stuff alright, and it'll fill a hole, but its not a finely tuned fungal smorgasbord of sensory treats. Not like a mycologist's chili with his own personal special spice mix of exotic seeds, seed-cases, dried fungi, fresh fungi and dried and powdered fruits, leaves, roots and some sea-salt.

(plus, mine can, aside from the spice mix and the basic ingredients that go into every chili I'd cook, vary and give a seasonal change, plus vary according to the luck I happen to have whilst foraging, different extra mushrooms over and above the peppery boletus and the big sacks of fly agaric that I know full well where to find in plenty in several different forests and pathways and gardens I've gotten permission to pick the mushrooms from the homeowner who is happy just to see them gone and not popping up in his lawn..even though there are fly agarics, peppery boletus and even ceps on a good year popping up.

 And the fly agaric/peppery bolete I dry so I can store them for the year to come until more harvest is ready to be picked, and in the case of the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) because I have to cure them in order to decompose a neurotoxin that they contain to render them suitable for culinary use. Not difficult, just takes the knowledge of how they need to be used to be safe and eventually one kinda gets a bit of a more seasoned hand, turning detoxification into best preservation, development and continuance of the best, sweetest, most honeyed and most strongly umami scent and flavor plus ability to draw out the umami in other foodstuffs that the fly agaric is cooked with, developing the skill to apply some simple kitchen biochemistry into the art of turning good food into food you've got to keep a knife in hand whilst cooking to avoid the entire street storming the house in order to rob one of one's crock-pot of stew :autism:

(I always cook the ceps fresh as they are picked though, ideally as fresh as picking, taking home, cleaning off the dirt and leaves, cutting off the very base of the stem where it came out of the ground, then chucking them into the frying pan with some butter and a little pinch of ground sea-salt, if I want dried ones I can buy them, as 'porcini', sliced up and dried, ready to be rehydrated and cooked in something, since they retain their powerfully mushroomy sweet scent for a long, long time, even after processes like pressure-cooking for use in commercial mushroom soup, better than most mushrooms do by far, and drying doesn't get rid of it either. But when found fresh, they are still all the tastier for being nice and fresh and juicy.

So, considering I can pick dried sliced ones  up from the supermarket, albeit porcini aren't cheap, I can't buy fresh ones (they are one of the world's most commercially important, and massively harvested wild fungi, in a large part due to the fact they are mycorrhizal, forming symbiotic associations with trees, which are difficult to replicate, I don't know if its been done with ceps. But they need deciduous trees, oak typically to grow. So not ideal for farming, and the sheer volume precludes small-scale but extremely high value farming as with truffles, there is an awful damn lot of commercial requirement for ceps in bulk and the value is...they aren't CHEAP to buy retail, dried, but you can't buy fresh ones from supermarkets. Somewhere that had a farmer's market type stallholding for artisanal produce, perhaps, but dependent upon luck of course. And in limited supply, as with any wild mushrooms, and thats not considering the fact that people that find them often don't sell them but they end up straight in the kitchen of the person with the luck to find them and disappear without ever seeing a buyer. They do have monetary worth but not the great price commanded by truffles, so, I've never sold a single cep in my entire life. Every last one has disappeared down either my gullet, or shared with my old man as quick as I can get them out of the leaf litter, under a tap and into the frying pan.
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Offline Queen Victoria

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6511 on: February 19, 2018, 04:25:20 PM »
Rode 1.5 miles on the bike and did 20 upper arm and 20 upper back thingies on the machine.
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Offline Phoenix

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6512 on: February 19, 2018, 07:16:06 PM »
Went to DQ to get a blizzard. That's always a good thing.
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Offline Lestat

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6513 on: February 20, 2018, 12:37:00 AM »
Ooohh :D its a misskitteh! thats always a good thing, when you decide to grace us again.

As for me, some good music to enjoy it to, but sitting back with a cold can of coke, after taking my pain meds and accidentally ending up with quite a rush off what was MEANT to be an IM shot of morphine for my hip pain and the what is probably plantar fasciitis that has been screaming blue murder all tonight and managing to outdo the hip pain, which takes quite some doing, even though I've been giving that foot quite a few helpings of NSAID gel, maximum rx-strength diclofenac gel, and through sheer chance the IM dose, wasn't. I obviously penetrated a deep vein situated within my calf muscle that I never could have actually aimed for deliberately and hadn't any idea that it was there, by rather than going in at an angle as with a usually done IV as typically done on people, this quite definitely must have penetrated to just the right depth and at exactly the right position to deliver the morphine IM into the vein.

I noticed that it felt like the plunger felt a little..kinda smooth in the way it depressed under my thumb, as if the contents were emptying a lot faster and easier than an IM shot does. But not really calling anything to attention until it was all in and about 10 seconds later, my cheeks, the bridge of my nose, the palms of my hands and soles of my feet began to feel really warm, and strongly prickling, like I'd been nettle-stung, due to histamine release, and knew right away what had just happened since that happens only with IV, and not SC or IM injections. Localized histamine release, yes, but not that you feel all over your body.

Then started itching all over, whilst a huge surging euphoric rush developed and took off like a rocket from the just short of 200mg IV morphine that I'd just accidentally given myself. Well not accidentally given myself, just given by a completely unintended route, that would have been impossible to actually intend and perform without an ultrasound machine to find a vein that deep and guide the needle tip, but that is rather enjoyable. An 'oops' but a good 'oops'
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Offline Lestat

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6514 on: February 20, 2018, 12:40:02 AM »
And how have you been Miss K? its been a while, how the devil are you doing? its good to see you here again, I'd missed you. Actually it was just last night that I was thinking about you and wondering where you had been all this time. Hope all is going good for you and the wee monkeys :)
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Offline Lestat

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6515 on: February 20, 2018, 01:56:28 AM »
Just had a lovely surprise.

Opened my wallet to put my debit card back inside it, as it had been in a coat pocket, and I found £21.60 that I didn't know I had. I like surprises like that :autism:
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Offline Lestat

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6516 on: February 20, 2018, 03:00:37 AM »
Now I'm just wondering when my bad luck is going to kick in and send the day arse over tit. Just popped into the local shop after success getting a doctor appointment (was meant to be waiting yesterday for a call, repeatedly phoned the surgery and the doctor didn't bloody ring me, surgery shut and I still didn't get a call, despite a high priority, including needing seizure meds that I didn't have done on my repeat as they should have been)

And my chance cash find meant I could  get the things I wanted from the shop on the way back, more good luck in itself finding what I did there, without having to spend any of the £666 on my card. And they seem to have just started selling two really good looking (tried one of the two so far) fruit juices on liter cartons, nice and cold from the chiller cabinets, one being cherimoya (otherwise known as a custard-apple, and really tasty indeed fresh, never had the juice before now and its still damn good, with pineapple and ginger root juices) and the other being a lychee, guava and lime juice blend, and grabbed myself a couple of packs of cigars as well and a box of matches, just enough to get everything I wanted, plus about 20p left over, and no breaking into my savings, just using the chance money find.

Also, found a cache of copper pipe and blocks of compacted up lead sheet. All old and somewhat corroded, but still worth the same (well if anything, it'll add slightly to the scrap value, due to the oxygen adding a little bit more molecular weight to the total) Just need to find a convenient time to put it all in a bag, stick that in a backpack and cycle up to the nearest scrapyard, after folding in a few rocks inside the lead sheet, or casting it around some stones to make it weigh more, and packing the copper piping with wet soil. (more weight=more money. A little mischievous but it does look old enough to have gotten that way naturally) Looks like there might be £10-15 or so there before any additional weighting, maybe £20-25 after if I do it carefully enough to get away with as much as possible.

And whatever I get for it scrap value, I can put towards offsetting the cost of a new heating mantle, ideally building the controller circuitry myself, and using it to electrically heat some nichrome or kanthal resistance wire and have both options for thermostatic temperature control, or choosing to use a thermocouple probe, since I've a new quadruple-necked 5-liter flask and am after a pair of 4-necked ten-liter round bottom flasks. The 5 liter one, in 24/40 joint size/taper cost me almost £100, but, whilst perfectly good for reflux and regular distillation, it has a slightly flat bottom to it, which means that its unsuitable for vacuum distillation (uneven means it is an implosion risk, although safe still to use for suction filtration using a water aspirator or hand pump and buchner funnels etc.

But I want a matched pair of 4-necked 10 liter RBFs, that I can use both as reaction vessels for reflux etc. and for vacuum distillation using powered pumps and high vacuum applications like setting up a Schlenk-line (a rather complex setup of glassware parts for when you absolutely NEED to have the entire system under hard vacuum, completely purged with dried inert gas after being baked out in an oven, then purged and placed under vacuum, along with all transfers of reagents conducted from sealed, septum-capped bottles using cannula needles and glass syringes, again baked out and purged with dried inert gas, to avoid things catching fire, or else for handling things that aren't pyrophoric but are extremely moisture- or oxygen-sensitive)

And just the flasks will be expensive, not checked prices yet but I'd expect a minimum of £150 for one, not sure what a matched pair would cost me but it'll not be cheap although for buying two from one buyer I ought to get a discount. And it'll mean getting bigger heating/magnetic stirrer setups too, which to buy would be hundreds more at that kind of size for a heating mantle, but I could build one for much, much cheaper, with nichrome/kanthal wire and asbestos wrapping for insulation to protect my flasks. Both for large-volume reactions needing high dilution of reagents that I want to conduct on a more than few gram scale in some cases, etc., plant extractions needing a lot of weight of plant material using E.g steam distillation, and for things like recovering and recycling solvents, doing big bulk distillations on my used solvents to freshen them up where suitable for recycling so I don't need to buy more. Always better if I can just distill the used stuff a few times, as needs be to render it clean and ready for re-use than having to spend more money. (especially since I'm going to need a lot of £££ to pay for the flasks, plus a replacement alembic when I can find one in fused quartz for high temperature applications such as distilling white phosphorus off of heated red P, and one that has at least one or two ground glass joints in 24/40 in the back. And fused quartz-ware isn't cheap)

But so far so good. Although I still need to find somewhere to buy some carbon disulfide from, since I really, really do not want to have to make it. It'll be a pain in the arse at the very most optimistic.

Beyond the pale. Way, way beyond the pale.

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Offline Queen Victoria

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6517 on: February 20, 2018, 10:32:39 AM »
Not today but yesterday:

I had put things in my wrist wallet since The PR and I were going to the gym and a quick grocery shopping.  Later that evening I went to go somewhere, and no wallet.  Turn the two rooms it could have been in upside down three times, looked in car twice, went back to the grocery store.  No luck. 

No wallet = no money for the rest of the month, no debit card (could be easily replaced), no drivers license (me) or identification card (The PR), about $70 in gift cards.  Damn.

Decided to calm down after freaking out.  Drank a peach flavoured beer I had on hand (odeon, piss on the peach beer) and watched some TV.  As I was getting up I glanced down and there was the wallet.

Note to self:  PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
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Offline renaeden

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6518 on: February 21, 2018, 05:38:41 AM »
Not today but yesterday:

I had put things in my wrist wallet since The PR and I were going to the gym and a quick grocery shopping.  Later that evening I went to go somewhere, and no wallet.  Turn the two rooms it could have been in upside down three times, looked in car twice, went back to the grocery store.  No luck. 

No wallet = no money for the rest of the month, no debit card (could be easily replaced), no drivers license (me) or identification card (The PR), about $70 in gift cards.  Damn.

Decided to calm down after freaking out.  Drank a peach flavoured beer I had on hand (odeon, piss on the peach beer) and watched some TV.  As I was getting up I glanced down and there was the wallet.

Note to self:  PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
That's just the sort of thing I'd do. Last thing I lost was my watch. And that's not the first time I've lost a watch.

@Lestat

I don't like any type of mushrooms.

Don't like beer either.

:zoinks:
« Last Edit: February 21, 2018, 05:49:53 AM by renaeden »
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Offline Lestat

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6519 on: February 21, 2018, 09:10:21 AM »
Thats because I haven't had the good fortune to have a chance to cook for you Ren. I could  show you a thing or two about mushrooms that'd change your mind in a hurry :) Not the limp, pallid tasteless shite you find in a supermarket, but freshly plucked from the ground and  hacked off of tree trunks/out of bark.

And its ironic that somebody that used to work in a mushroom farm, doesn't like them. Although you could say the same for me, aside from a few specialty kinds I don't like the ones that come out of a supermarket either. I could eat them, if I had  to, but I'd sooner not. The things I do with the kinds I  do eat, its not even close to similar aside from that some of them have gills and/or a stalk too, sometimes both; and that they replicate through spores. I can be quite creative, and whip up something really tasty if there is anything out there to be picked. But the things from the shop, excluding shiitake and some specialty kinds, its like chewing a flavourless blob of cartilage. Hell I've swallowed them and had them come right out the other end unchanged before,  other than being even less appetizing.

As for the beer, all the more for me then, I'd be happy to pour you something more to your liking. But how can anyone not like beer :P on the right time it can be liquid sanity :autism:
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Offline Queen Victoria

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6520 on: February 21, 2018, 12:06:37 PM »
@ renaeden - I don't like fresh mushrooms, but enjoy cooked ones.  They are a cheap addition to spaghetti as is eggplant.  When I find canned mushrooms cheap I stock up on them.
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Offline Lestat

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6521 on: February 21, 2018, 05:23:50 PM »
Fresh (uncooked) mushrooms? ew. Although that doesn't really affect me anyway since most mushrooms shouldn't be eaten uncooked. And especially not wild ones, even when you do know what they are.

There are a HUGE number of excellent, excellent wild mushrooms that are wonderful, but should never be eaten without proper cooking. Even some commercial ones, must never be eaten raw, the morels a a perfect example, they can cause poisoning if they are not properly cooked.
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Offline Queen Victoria

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6522 on: February 21, 2018, 05:41:19 PM »
Raw mushrooms are sometimes added to salads if it's the main course.  I will eat freshly cooked mushrooms, but I'll admit to being a Philistine and preferring my mushrooms out of a can and as a minor part of a dish.
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Offline Lestat

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6523 on: February 21, 2018, 05:51:33 PM »
I'll stick to shiitake from the shops, for the few mushrooms I do eat from the shops, as well as enokitake, shjiimeiji, king  oyster and honshiimeiji.
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Offline renaeden

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Re: Post something good that happened today, Parts Two
« Reply #6524 on: February 21, 2018, 10:14:28 PM »
You have more variety of mushrooms at your shops than we do here.

Before I worked at the mushroom farm I didn't like mushrooms and nothing changed when I worked there. At one stage it was my job to empty the bins. This was before the truck we emptied into had modifications so the forklift could do it. I had to get into the back of the truck and hammer out the bottoms of the bins. Fresh choggs (the word for mushroom stalk ends) smelt ok but when a bin was left for a few days so that steam was coming out of it, well that was quite horrible. Slimy.

I've also seen a few mushroom diseases (in my supervisor's office there were a few books on the subject) and treated some as well, notable treatments being the use of salt and plastic to isolate disease and also some weird smelling stuff called Octave mixed with water I used to water the mushrooms. I can't remember the types of diseases though, their names. One common one was called, in layman's terms, blotch. It was orange and used to be found where mushrooms stick together and were too moist. It spread too. Treatment was high doses of chlorine once the beds were stripped after first or second flushes because it helped dry things out more.

I wish I was like my mum, she will eat any type of mushroom, raw, cooked, tinned.
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