Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

And here I am, the only way you’ll make me eat a tomato is in sauce or if it’s very very very well baked.

We’ve brought the tomato ketchup thing full circle, I see.

@HobbitGamer So... what's up with the whole reverting to the original name thing, poster formerly known as AlohaPizzaJack, formerly known as JackEatsSparrows?
Aww... did you miss your original self?

@bimmy-lee Depends on the type of tomatoes, basically. There's about 30 or so different kinds (edit: if not more). In dishes that I make, I never use bog standard tomatoes. I make pasta sauces with them, oven dishes, and raw salads, all of which are pretty damn tasty, if I do say so myself...

Of course, it's also the combination of the various ingredients. I don't really eat plain tomatoes. Come to think of it, I hardly eat anything plain, it's boring, unimaginative and tasteless.

@ThanosReXXX - I like them all, or all I’ve had, I just prefer them raw. I actually enjoy eating a single thing plain just to savor the individual flavor. I prefer a lot of my vegetables raw over cooked in any way, though I like just about any veggie cooked on the grill with flame.

When things are mixed up in a dish, something with a lot of ingredients like paella or a casserole, I like all the flavors to melt together and prefer not to taste one individual ingredient over the other. I don’t like green peppers in a dish because I feel their flavor stands out above everything else. But I like them raw. Also, I’m basically a crazy person.

@bimmy-lee Many of us are, we're just in constant denial, when confronted directly with the accusation...

“Crazy” seems to be the one great variable. Seems like the vast majority of us have fairly similar stats with small differences here and there, but the “Crazy” category can vary wildly.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah, figured it was time to revert, what with E3 coming. Continuity and such.

@bimmy-lee perhaps we should categorize ourselves as something different. The Dutch have a label for a certain type of people, namely "prettig gestoord", which cannot be translated directly, but "gestoord" means crazy or mental, and "prettig" means comfortable, cozy, happy, pleasant or nice, depending on the context.

So, basically, "prettig gestoord" (pronounced: preh-tigg guh-stored) means crazy, but in a good way.
And that's a label that suits me just fine...

EDIT:
I've decided on a translation that comes closest to the original intent: pleasantly deranged. Because the original intent of it, is to offer a contradiction, which immediately makes clear that the "crazy" part isn't really a negative.

@HobbitGamer Aha. Good to see you still profess your love for pineapple by means of your avatar, though...

Detective Pikachu wasn't bad at all. I'd definitely watch it again, but it's not a movie I'd go out and buy either. They borrowed some of the concepts and plot elements from the actual game, but past that they kind of ran off with it. I do agree that the second act out of all three acts went straight into "WTF" territory though.

I'm generally not that picky about ingredients on my pizza, but there are some toppings I tend to avoid. Anchovies are an automatic avoidance since I don't think they work on pizza. Pepperoni...Eh, I'll eat it, but I don't particularly care for it; most of the kinds I've had seem pretty greasy. Green bell peppers just ruin everything. "Just pick it off, Tyranexx!" they say. But the juices corrupt the cheese and surrounding toppings.... I'm not against fruit on pizza as long as it's a dessert-minded pizza, like with a streudel-y crust and cinnamon. But on normal pizza? I think only pineapple works. Now that I've been branded as one of the pineapple heretics in this thread....

@ThanosReXXX Sometimes I do cook larger portions and freeze some of it like with a double batch of spaghetti that I had awhile back. I was trying to use the whole package of ground beef (1 1/2 lbs.) but didn't want to eat on the same meal (and red meat) for a whole week. Unlike most of the female species, I'm not fond of shopping at all barring bookstores and the occasional game run (which I'm trying to curb for a little while due to backlog and more urgent expenses); if I lived near a Barnes & Noble, I'd be in trouble. Disregarding the rare emergency store run, I try to do grocery runs every two weeks. I'm the only one I have to feed, so at least nobody can complain about what I'm buying. XD

Some may wonder how I handle produce on a two-week basis. It's not always easy, but I buy some of the frozen steamed veggies (which are just the veggies and are often stored right after they're harvested) and generally have pretty good luck with most fruits and fresh veggies as long as they're stored correctly....Other than intermittent cucumber issues.

I've tried a couple of bean recipes, but only with pinto beans. What I've found works best with me is just straight boiling them in a pot and then adding the ingredients (usually some garlic, ground cumin, some chili powder, onions, and sometimes a tomato and some cucumber) about halfway through the process when I have to add more water. It's easier and quicker for me to keep an eye on versus a couple of crock pot recipes that I've tried; I'm usually not home during the day to mind the beans like they should be, so they were often undercooked even on higher settings.

Black beans are easy to get a hold of too, but I avoid them due to a bad experience in the past. XD

Thanks for the meal prep tips! I've kept some things fairly basic up to this point since I first transitioned into less processed stuff at home last year (I'd say 50-60% of what I ate was frozen processed stuff loaded with too much sodium, or canned soup). I've gradually started expanding more into seasonings and spices but have mostly avoided sauces and marinades; I don't do much with the latter mainly because a lot of the pre-made stuff has some questionable ingredients and haven't had the best luck the couple of times I have tried making my own sauces. I bake a lot of my meat and use pots or my skillet otherwise. I know someone who swears by their charcoal grill, but I'm not fond of the smell....I do have an electric indoor grill but don't really use it often. I sometimes order grilled food when out and about however. I limited some of that too due to the carcinogens from blackened meat. Some people think I'm nuts since I now stay in the medium/medium-well range, but that means the meat is less burned and is more flavorful besides.

@NEStalgia Around here, depending on where a market sets up, they're fairly popular.

I’m grilling steak Hank Hill would be proud of. Plus I tenderized it a bit yesterday and put some canola oil with salt and pepper on it. Looks so tasty I want it now.

I cannot wait to watch Aladdin 2019 movie on Friday 24 May 2019.

But here in Indonesia, there is a rule during Ramadhan which every cinema can start their business after Maghrib (started at 6 pm), so i can watch movie at my local cinema after 6 pm during Ramadhan (Fasting day).

Good news everyone, I'm finally understanding crochet. Can't wait to be able to make plush dolls and stuff.

A single hook is so much more travel friendly than the entire loom kit.

Awesome. I bet it’s easier to set aside something in progress, too.

I just got 5th in Tetris 99, pretty neat. I’ve got 77/100 points so I’ll do more tomorrow. Gotta liberate Steelport some tonight. Gangstas in spaaaace.

Oh yeah, absolutely. You can have multiple projects going on at once too, no need to finish one before being able to start another.

I binge played Tetris 99 last night to unlock the theme. I was starting to get dizzy by the end of the session... But I'm glad I got it.

Just finished watching bing bang theory finale... man I am sad to see that show go.

@Tyranexx You're welcome. I've got quite a few stir fry recipes, actually, amongst which also nasi goreng, green curry and a more Mediterranean dish, all of them prepared with chicken morsels.

As for beans: I've used pinto beans in the past, but not that often. They're a bit too bland for my taste.
I usually use either kidney beans, red beans, or brown beans. And over here, they also have various kinds of so-called capuchin beans, which is actually a kind of pea, and which are also nice to make stir fry recipes with. I believe that on your side of the pond, they're called grey peas, but capuchins are a Dutch variety of them, so I don't know how easy it would be, to get a hold of them over there.

Either way, here's a recipe with them, that you might like:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/kapucijnerschotel-recipe-captai...
And it's completely in English as well, so no Google Translate needed...

I didn't jump into making sauces and marinades straight away either, but good seasoning has always been a prerequisite for me. Meats or dishes without at least some basic seasoning aren't really worth eating, in my opinion.

As for sauces, such as the stir fry variety: there's a lot of different ones, but much like over here, I would assume that there are some decent brands over there, which can safely be used. Each of them has artificial ingredients, and/or a medium to high level of sugar, but ingredient-wise, it's only one part of a five part dish, so all of the fresh ingredients used, will easily balance out the bad of the one artificial ingredient you'd use in them, so there's nothing to really worry about in that regard. Soy sauce, sambal and the other ingredients that I often use, are all natural, so using those in a marinade isn't a health risk either.

Personally, I do like charcoal grill, or barbecued meat, but I can understand you not being fond of the smell, and smoked meat might not be to everyone's taste either.

I don't think you're nuts for not wanting to have/eat blackened meat: I don't either. Sure, the barbecue can sometimes add a couple of burned stripes to the meat, because of the grill it's on, but I always do my best to try and keep that a light brown, or a shade darker, but never black. I also agree with meat preferably being cooked/grilled/baked to medium. I don't like raw meat, unless it's meant to be such as in carpaccio recipes, or other kinds of appetizers.

But the meat definitely shouldn't be well-done. Medium in my case should be that the meat still has some pinkish color on the inside, so it is still tender, and easy to cut and eat. Don't like my meat to taste like a shoe sole...

@ThanosReXXX Remember how we always joked I'd end up killing myself at work, be it my dodgy knees (Physio has gone fairly well, still pain though) or alcohol around E3 to stomach EA?

Well I'm at the doctor's tomorrow with chest pain, difficult lifting/pulling things, shortness of breath, so on so forth.

I think it IS mostly just muscle damage though.

On the other hand...I'm only 23.

Speaking of work, our temporary department manager leaves soon, temporary as in "There as long as the others were" and still no permanent replacement. So what we do after that...dunno. Plus my supervisor just came back from cardiac issues and operations, said he plans to step down....

So is my department just gonna have no management? :/

@Knuckles-Fajita Well, you never were the average person, now were you? Let alone a typical 23 year old...

Hope you get well enough in time for this year's E3 though, because I have a feeling that you're going to need all your strength to get through that one...

Your workplace is starting to sound more like a sick bay than a place of employment, from what you've told us about it so far.

@Anti-Matter that all looks surprisingly good for pizza hut. Back in the 80s pizza hut restaurants were really good. Now they're really bad premade reheated food joints. They REALLY went downhill over 25 years or so. Are they as bad there as here, it is that just a "stupid Americans don't care about quality" thing? #thanksReggie

@NEStalgia I completely agree about the quality of Pizza Hut. It seems like they transitioned from a fun dining experience to a pickup-delivery center. The pan pizzas at the pickup store are good here, but the sole dine in location is such a slow and forgettable experience that I only visit it around three times in a year. It’s unfortunate, because I was a Pizza Hut fan as a kid that loved reading; the Book-It program was like getting rewarded for being the bookworm.