In case you were wondering, I do in fact have the emergency tiara:
(What? You think on what Cole pays us I had a real tiara?)
Last night around 10 PM I went out to the fridge in the garage to get the boneless leg of lamb out so I could prep it to roast today. Just a basic kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper rub so it formed a nice pelicule overnight before roasting. I open the fridge door and what greets me? The rank, rancid smell of dead and heavily decomposing lamb. Sometime between when I put the cryovaced leg of lamb in there last Monday and last night the compressor in the back up (18 years old) fridge died. The light still works. The fan is still blowing. But it ain’t chillin! I won’t belabor the clean up process other than it involved a breathing mask and lots of bleach, but I needed something else to make for dinner tonight. So I broke the glass on the emergency tiara box on the wall, got into uniform, and decided that since I have frozen ground beef, that I’d make the meatloaf recipe that TaMara posted last night.
I made three changes. 1) I used all ground beef – no pork, no sausage. 2) I don’t have rolled oats in the house. I only use steel cut or pinhead. So I substituted a 1/2 cup of steel cut oats for a 1/2 cup of pinhead oats. 3) I am, apparently, out of cider vinegar. I used balsamic instead. I also only have a 10X5 loaf pan, so this came out more like a meat ingot than a meat loaf. I served it with Valencia rice and sautéed squash and zucchini. Everything tasted great even with the substitutions.
(The meat ingot resting)
(Dinner is served!)
Open thread!
Gin & Tonic
I used to have a chest freezer in the basement. It was for long-term storage, so I didn’t open it much. One time the mice ate through some electrical wiring, which shorted something out and it stopped working. I discovered this quite some time later. The cleanup process was indescribable, and it turns out that it is exclusively man’s work.
Yarrow
That dinner looks delicious. I’m about to go zap something in the microwave.
The meat ingot looks more like a meat book.
BD of MN
I made chicken wings and ribs today. Chicken wings were under-salted but tasty, and I completely overcooked the Costco preseasoned pork ribs. I blame the tension of the second half of the Vikings-Saints game…
Wine helped mask the ribs failure…
I was convinced we were going to lose that game, that yet another missed FG would doom us to another year of underachievement. That feeling has been pushed back for one more week…
Omnes Omnibus
Only married women are supposed to wear tiaras. Are you trying to tell us something?
Yarrow
Some friends’ fridge quit working. They unplugged it and put it on the back deck while they tried to decide what to do. A few days later they plugged it in and it worked. Since they were short of cash they decided to see if it would keep working. It did. They’ve kept it and it’s now their spare fridge and they bought a new main fridge. That was several years ago. So, you could try the old “did you unplug it and plug it back in again?” help desk trick.
guachi
Looks yummy!
What is it about Valencia rice you find appealing? My wife and I have settled on basmati rice as our favorite rice.
Sab
@Gin & Tonic: Yuck. I had that happen to me last summer. The rotting meat from the freezer really messed up the smell of the flour and shortening stored in the fridge compartment below.
No men were willing to help me. I had to clean it all myself. Yuck.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: It was not a pleasant smell.
jl
I request a pic of Adam wearing his emergency tiara, whether it is real or not.
The dinner looks great.
Gin & Tonic
I roasted a chicken this evening, and some sweet potatoes and carrots. Have to keep it light and digestible for Mrs G&T. Earlier in the day I made a chicken stock in the Instant Pot. It really does work as advertised, although “30 minutes” is kind of a misnomer, as it takes a while to get up to temperature/pressure, and then at least 15 minutes to cool off. But still, an hour or so as compared to three or four.
Elmo
@Gin & Tonic: Sadly it isn’t man’s work. I know this because there are no men in my house.
We have a very large upright freezer in the garage. A while back I was walking through the garage after getting home from work and saw a large puddle under it. I am not a terribly observant creature, and the garage is generally a mess, so I have no idea how long it had been there. But I chose to investigate.
I opened the freezer, and no light came on. The smell was – not good. Not quite rancid death, but definitely garbage left too long in the sun. It turns out the wall plug had been poorly set, and something had dislodged it.
What I don’t understand is where the hell the maggots came from.
That cleanup was the work of two women. No men involved. To this day, I have a little hiccup of anxiety when I open the freezer door, until I see the light on.
Virginia
Oh god. We had the freezer issue with a chest freezer in the garage. Did not know the power to it had been out for a month. I am not sure I can ever not remember the smell.
Oh. And I too ask, where the fuck do the maggots come from?
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Nope. Running gag on being the emergency backup food goddess when TaMara can’t do her regular recipe posts.
Barbara
I made potage de Lorraine, more prosaically known as carrot soup. I found a recipe that uses white haricots or navy beans in the base, instead of rice, which is what Julia Child favored. The meatloaf looks really good.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Yep. The compressor’s shot. The thing is 18 years old. It doesn’t owe anyone anything.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sab:
I will carry and move heavy things. I will not mop up stinky things that I did not create.
@Adam L Silverman: Tracking.
Joeg
Yummy!!! I don’t think I’ve had loaf without some kind of potatoes (mashed, parsley, baked). I’m so boring.
Adam L Silverman
@guachi: I use it when I make yellow rice. It has a creamy texture. I also use basmati and jasmin and brown rice sometimes.
The Moar You Know
Protip: if you run into a fridge full of rotten stuff, go down to Home Depot and grab a VOC capable paint respirator – they run about 20 bucks and you won’t smell anything.
Gin & Tonic
@Elmo: Well, it turned out to be man’s work in my house. As were all the animal parts on the front steps when one of our prior cats thought we were perennially hungry.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
Brilliant.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Where do you get that from, Miss Manners? Beauty pageant winners wear tiaras, and they are a famously unmarried group. And if you bring up some hair-splitting comparison with diadems I will seriously cut a bitch. Or exit the conversation in high dudgeon. Definitely one of those two things.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
And almost all the Instant Pot time is unattended, so it’s not that onerous.
P.S. Glad the missus is home and on the mend.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Downton Abbey. Or one of the specials surrounding it. I also did some protocol work while in the army. Anyway, pageant winners should not wear them.
Gelfling 545
Made cashew chicken for today’s dinner. I wanted something quick because I was also making soup – leek and potato. Turned put pretty good but I may have overeaten a bit. I’m thinking that next Sunday’s dinner may be this far famed meatloaf.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: My cousin’s husband’s mom (yes, really) has convinced her son that the proper fridge for his new workshop is the one from the 1950’s or 60’s that she found on the side of the road. It’s currently sitting in said workshop, which is not fully built yet, so the fridge isn’t yet in use. I asked my cousin if it worked and she said yes. I hope they don’t keep extra food in it.
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
I did not know this until I ran across some recent Meghan Markle story.
So I guess Audrey Hepburn was being a rebel when she wore a tiara in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Looks yummy. I always enjoyed making pepperoni rolls in my cooking class in high school. I’ll have to look for the recipe one of these days.
burnspbesq
OT: have we heard from Amir today? I’m concerned that he may have suffered a fatal overdose of euphoria (that man is a DIEHARD Liverpool fan).
Emma
I made Potaje de la Vigilia — at least one of its many versions. It’s the vegetarian version of the usually overloaded chickpea stew (chorizo, pork, etc). This one, meant to be served during Lent, has potatoes and spinach and a rich white wine sofrito. Even my father, the ultimate meat eater, loved it.
Gin & Tonic
@burnspbesq: He posted during the match, I think. He seemed very happy.
Elmo
@Gin & Tonic: Our household generally divides according to strength/weakness. My wife has neuro and balance issues, so I am the mule. I reach and push and carry.
But I am famously irritable and impatient with clutter and daisy-chains (can’t do this until this is out of the way, but to move that we need to – BURN IT ALL DOWN), and can’t organize a space. So all organization and “little” tasks are hers.
I also have a hugely sensitive nose – she calls me a bloodhound and gets great joy out of testing my sense of smell – so NORMALLY, smelly tasks are hers. But that night, the sheer amount of ook that had to be bagged and tossed and cleaned and so forth meant that my poor delicate nose was dragooned into service with the rest of me.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: He had guitar related accomplishments that may have sustained him.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
Good to know. A friend ran into the maggot problem when we retrieved a refrigerator that had been in storage after a move. Despite some attempts to clean it, his wife absolutely refused to use it again.
ljt
@Steeplejack:
glamour.com/story/meghan-markle-tiara
JCJ
@burnspbesq: He posted gleefully shortly after Full Time.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: I was never here.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: How’s she doing?
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
You could also wait and completely lose your sense of smell. Rotting fish or meat? No problem.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, God, I knew it was going to be some antiquated British bullshit like that. Where is Schrodinger’s Cat when it would actually be useful for her to remind you that the British are worse than Nazis and Elizabeth is the Antichrist?
Gin & Tonic
@Elmo: Strength tasks had to be re-balanced here last spring when I had only one usable arm, but the grossness guideline seems to be immutable.
Adam L Silverman
@Joeg: I don’t eat potatoes very often. Sweet potatoes and yams? Yes. But that’s about it.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I thought it was a princess thing.
Wag
We came home from a week long camping trip a few years ago at the height of summer, only to find our freezer in the garage had tripped the breaker. The smell was overpowering. In retrospect, I should have left everything in the freezer after I got it running again and allowed it to freeze solid before dumping it in the garbage.
Adam L Silverman
@RobertDSC-Mac Mini: If I had glazed it with the good, golden colored deli mustard I’m sure the Treasury Secretary and his wife would’ve shown up to take a picture with it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Steep, if you want to wear a tiara, go ahead and do so. Let not my disapproval stop you.
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq:
Yes, he commented in an earlier thread that he was quite happy with the result. No mention of being massively sedated after the Reds’ attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Better, thanks. There were some ups and downs along the way, one being caused by apparent contamination of a bacterial culture. When you hear something you’ve never heard of before, look it up and read about 50% mortality rate, then it’s a very long wait for them to culture the second sample. But she’s getting better now.
Steeplejack
@Emma:
Recipe, please. I usually substitute garbanzo beans for the chickpeas, but it sounds very good.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Omnes Omnibus: I had not a clue about tiara etiquette. You mean the Brownies and President Obama did it wrong?
Omnes Omnibus
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I don’t fuck with the Brownies.
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus:
My granddaughter has a selection of tiaras, mostly Elsa.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: There’s a Roy Moore joke just hanging over the plate…
NotMax
Reading about ground beef, now am craving Swedish meatballs.
Fun little Finnish flick just now watched on Amazon Prime – Lapland Odyssey. Solid B+ with some plot elements in the A- zone. Although never explicitly mentioned, there are enough holidaic touches in the background to put it on the list of humorous Xmas time movies.
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: Decay amines tend to have a very … memorable odor.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: As a conversation piece those things look great if they’ve been maintained. As a working fridge, it depends.
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus: In my country, Brownies fuck with you.
Adam L Silverman
@burnspbesq: He was around as the footie was on early this afternoon.
RedDirtGirl (AKA IvankaThrowUp)
Diving into this open thread to see if any NYMetro area jackals want to meet at this event on MLKjr Day.
10 AM Eleanor Roosevelt Monument, Riverside Park.
manhattancountryschool.org/2018-MLK-March
Omnes Omnibus
@O. Felix Culpa: Scots?
oatler.
“Mother, I need the tiara.”
“I think your Uncle Miltie pawned it, dear.”
-1980s Doonesbury.
Adam L Silverman
@Elmo: I hope you’ve learned your lesson to keep a dedicated power backup for your freezer for when you’re storing dead bodies.//
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Amir Khalid is a football fan. This is footie.
Steeplejack
@ljt:
Fixed your link: “Why Meghan Markle Can’t Wear a Tiara.”
You have to close the link after you insert the URL, else it eats the rest of your comment, including the Reply button. The “link” button above the comment box will show as “/link” until you do. Put your cursor where you want your link’s “plain text” to end and mash the “/link” button.
As to the substance of your comment, see here .
O. Felix Culpa
@NotMax: My favorite is the Russo-Finish co-production, Jack Frost, as presented by MST3K.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Keep pigs. Just saying.
Mel
@Emma: Recipe, please oh please! It sounds delicious!
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: From the outside this one didn’t look like it was in the best shape.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
That comment is beneath you. Frankly, I’m surprised.
O. Felix Culpa
@Omnes Omnibus: Chicago. Which isn’t a country, but still.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: We’re keeping good thoughts!
Elmo
@Adam L Silverman: Heh. Actually in that week’s episode of the exciting series Elmo’s Wife Is Amazing, she found a locking screw-in box gizmo that makes it physically impossible to unplug the cord unless you first unscrew and remove the outer box. She is forever coming up with stuff like that, things I’ve never heard of.
ljt
@Steeplejack: Thank you. Longtime lurker, seldom comment–too intimidating.
Another Scott
@ljt: Practice makes perfect.
Post more often.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: When I lived in Scotland the Brits called football (soccer) footie.
Elmo
@Adam L Silverman: also I live on the edge of a state forest. We don’t “store” dead bodies here.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: ????? No offense was meant. I am unclear as to how it was offensive. You were arguing against my statement of old rules. I was attempting to say that, if you do not want to accept those rules, there is not a thing I can do about it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus:
Gin & Tonic
@Elmo: If you’d watch Law & Order: Criminal Intent you’d learn that storing a dead body in the freezer for some time before disposing of it makes the forensics much more difficult.
Adria McDowell
OT, but does anybody know how to de-hyper a kitten? We adopted an adorable one for Christmas (don’t worry, this is his forever home unless someone develops a deadly cat allergy), and he is funny and sweet and OMGOHSOHYPERATTENATNIGHT. He’s driving the dog nuts and getting into all kinds of stuff….it’s hilarious and exasperating all at the same time. I can usually get him to fall asleep in my lap when I’m sitting at the computer, but he keeps attacking the star on my U.S. Army Europe sweater for some reason!
Adam L Silverman
@ljt: Welcome. Post whenever you like. The link issue happens to a lot of folks, so don’t feel intimidated. I went in, since I have the access, and fixed your link.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Long Pig
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
@Gin & Tonic: I learn the most interesting and potentially useful things at Balloon Juice. Next time I have a dead body to dispose, I’ll get me a freezer first.
Yarrow
@Elmo: I guess you don’t live near any of these places.
O. Felix Culpa
@Adria McDowell: In this morning’s thread, folks recommended adopting kittens in pairs. Apparently they entertain and keep each other company. Plus, they’re fun to watch.
Adam L Silverman
@Adria McDowell: Witching hour. He’ll grow out of it. My dogs had them when they were puppies. All my dogs. Each and every one. Some of them, like Ruby, had multiple witching hours.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Willy Pickton.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: I got it from this.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I thought Perdue was more a MOTU type, but I’m not gonna argue the point.
Steve in the ATL
@Ruckus:
You could also wait and completely lose your sense of smell. Armenian food? No problem.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: They were wonderful to Indians, and Maoris and other assorted undesirables, we just didn’t appreciate their civilizing influence enough.
Steve in the ATL
@O. Felix Culpa:
Dude, we’ve had way more in depth discussions on that subject. I’d post a link, but there are three letter agencies watching me already.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Yep.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: That works too.
Steeplejack
@ljt:
Add your voice to the din. It gets easier the more you do it.
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: The CIA, for instance. Culinary Institute of America.
RedDirtGirl (AKA IvankaThrowUp)
@Adam L Silverman: I binge watched Deadwood one week when I was in bed with a high fever. The abbetoire scenes left an impression.
Steve in the ATL
@Brachiator:
The rebelliousness was in calling it “Tiffany’s” rather than the correct “Tiffany”. Or, for the pedants, “Tiffany and Company, a Delaware limited liability corporation”.
Adria McDowell
@O. Felix Culpa: Unfortunately, no can do on a second kitten- we live in an apartment and three humans, a dog, a cat, and a betta fish is pushing it.
If we had a house, though, I’d be all for it.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: They apparently have jackets, like for sports teams, with “CIA” in big letters on the back. Saw a guy in New York once with one. You have to look a little more carefully to see the logo under the letters: a chef’s knife and sharpening steel.
philpm
Adam, you still had better luck with dinner than I did. I was making chili, and had just finished putting it all together and ready to put on the stove to season and cook, when it slid off of the surface I had it on. Not only lost dinner, but also my Le Creuset dutch oven. When it hit the floor, it broke an enormous chunk out of the side of it. Never seen anything quite like that.
NotMax
@ljt
Please continue contributing and don’t be a stranger.
Steve in the ATL
@ljt: I’m going to misread your nym as “lit”. Par-tay!
ruemara
@Emma: Do you have a sofrito recipe? I never learned my ex’s and after break-up, it seemed a little cheey to ask for the family secret.
Omnes Omnibus
@RedDirtGirl (AKA IvankaThrowUp): I watched The Teletubbies while on painkillers while recovering from knee surgery. It left an impression as well.
Elmo
@Yarrow: Not any more, but I used to! There’s one in Knoxville TN, and I lived about 30 miles away for eight years.
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman: or those bastards, the Food and Beverage Inspectors!
Mike J
@burnspbesq: That was an incredible second half. There was no wind to go sailing so I didn’t wake up until the half and then lay abed until it was done.
Hurrah for Fenway Sports group!
ruemara
@Adria McDowell: Adopt another. Or play with him doing very high energy chase games up to 2 hours before bedtime. Not 2 hours before, for 2 hours in length. Keep him moving. Keep him awake. You’ll both sleep deeply. This is why I adopted a brace.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: You have no idea how much this explains about you.
ljt
@Another Scott:
@Adam L Silverman:
@Steeplejack:
Thank you!
NotMax
Thinking on Swedish meatballs as was above brought the recollection that they are one of the great universal mysteries.
:)
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Tell me.
ETA: Please. It should not have been an imperative.
Steve in the ATL
@Yutsano: oh, as if you don’t have a crush on Tinky-Winky too!
NotMax
Glass? Damn Chniese knock-offs.
A true emergency tiara box would be emblazoned “In case of emergency, use sterling silver hammer to shatter Baccarat crystal enclosure.”
Adam L Silverman
@RedDirtGirl (AKA IvankaThrowUp): It was a great series.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: I once used their abbreviation logo crest for a slide on the US intelligence community. No one in the room full of colonels and lieutenant colonels noticed.
Brachiator
@Steve in the ATL:
I blame Truman Capote.
Adam L Silverman
@philpm: I am very sorry for the loss of your dutch oven.
Bupalos
Actually I think Holly (Lula Mae) was married, to Doc.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
You went for a cheap joke, playing (perhaps unconsciously) to some outdated notion of perceived fragile masculinity. There was plenty of room to continue a humorous exchange about the fine points of royal jewelry etiquette, but “Well, if you want to wear a tiara, hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!” is kind of a stopper. It changes the subject from tiaras to the other person in a passive-aggressive, middle-school way. So I guess I was supposed to defend my masculinity with: “Nuh-uh! I don’t want to wear a tiara. You want to wear a tiara!” “Nuh-uh!” And scene.
This comment already feels like a 40-pound wristwatch, so I’ll wrap it up. I wasn’t really offended, just surprised at the direction you chose to go. Chalk it up to my not getting the humor.
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
And guess who shows up on cue?
What line of work did you say you are in?
fuckwit
Don’t let your meat loaf. Heh heh heh.
Steve in the ATL
@Ruckus:
Wet work and body disposal.
Er, I mean labor law. That’s the ticket!
Suffragette City
Pelicule?????
Throwing some fancy shmancy chef words or something??
That meatloaf sure looks good!
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
Is there a difference?
Gretchen
@Steeplejack: So you didn’t find it funny. Fine. Taking offence at something that wasn’t meant to be offensive is also kind of a stopper.
Miss Bianca
Somehow, the very words “emergency tiara” make me laugh.
manyakitty
I’m curious about subbing steel cut for rolled oats. The obvious difference in texture notwithstanding, did you precook them or anything? They take a while to soften.
Adam L Silverman
@manyakitty: Didn’t precook them. They softened right up. Didn’t even notice they were in there.
manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: Cool! Very useful.
No One You Know
@Adria McDowell:
Hyper is what they do, right up to the moment of a nap attack. Make sure your power switches are kitten-proofed…