Darkoshi

Note to self: If they stick to the pan, don't start scraping them off right away:

Why my dumplings keep sticking to the pan?

Reply posted by Corpuscle • 5y ago
...
Preheat a stainless-steel skillet that's big enough to hold all the dumplings without crowding; a 12-inch skillet is pretty much the standard.
Add 1-2 teaspoons of soybean oil to the skillet, spreading it out uniformly with a brush.

When the oil is just starting to smoke, add your dumplings, very gently pressing them down so they get good contact with the lubricated pan. Cook for two minutes without touching them.
The dumplings WILL stick to the pan; that's why they're called "pot stickers."
During the two minutes of cooking, a crust will form on the bottom of the dumplings.

After two minutes, dump half a cup of [broth or water] to the pan and slam on the lid.
The broth will start boiling immediately, generating steam to finish cooking the dumplings.
Reduce the flame to low and allow the dumplings to cook for another two minutes.
When you remove the lid from the pan, the dumplings should be shiny and released from the bottom...

This is an old recycling guide, dated 12/2020. It indicated glass was still accepted for curbside recycling.

This is a newer recycling guide, dated 02/2021. It does not mention glass.

This recycling guide dated 03/2021 does not include glass under the section for items accepted curbside (a noticeable difference compared to the 12/2020 version).

This SC DHEC page indicates glass bottles and jars are "ONLY accepted at the Clemson Rd Recycling Site", and not accepted curbside.

The Clemson Rd site is open:
> Tuesday, Thursday, Friday - Sunday, 9AM - 6PM
> CLOSED Monday & Wednesday

The Richland County Recycling Wizard also indicates glass isn't taken curbside but can be dropped off at the Clemson Road Recycling Site.

https://www.richlandcountysc.gov/Government/Departments/Public-Works/Solid-Waste-Recycling/Curbside-Pick-up/Recycling
Wax or plastic coated cardboard is NOT accepted.
Chipboard boxes such as cereal boxes must be clean and dry and only have stored dry, non-refrigerated foods.

I don't understand why clean boxes from frozen foods aren't acceptable, when they don't seem to have any plastic on them. If I can tear them as easily as cereal boxes, doesn't that mean they aren't coated with plastic? That's the test I use but maybe I'm being wishful and doing it wrong. Maybe there is plastic-coated cardboard that can be torn easily which is used for frozen food boxes.

The RC Recycling wizard says to put "Envelopes (with plastic windows)" in the recycling cart.
So I do NOT need to cut out the plastic windows first.

Note to self:
I have a really neat fine pointed tweezer that was in my spudger set. As I didn't even remember it and would never think to look for tweezers there, I am moving it to one of the big toolboxes with the other tweezers.

Note 2: The tweezer handles are black, so they are hard to see against the black plastic of the toolbox compartment. But that is where I put it.

I had out all the things to fix the tongs, and the tongs were there an hour ago when I checked if this small bolt would fit to replace the rivet. But now I can't find the tongs anywhere. Sigh. Maybe they don't want to be fixed.

Note to self: Don't trust a 2 year old when she brings me a half-full bottle of Gatorade wanting me to open it for her, and when she replies Yes to my question of does she drink it straight from the bottle. The liquid went straight down the front of her jacket onto the floor.

Note to self: Don't buy Kroger store-brand potato chips anymore. They're not salty enough. And two bags (both probably bought at the same time) had oil leaking out the seam like the seam hadn't been sealed shut well enough.

I'm considering going shopping tonight, even though it's already getting late. Because I'm out of corn chips, and snacks are getting scarce. I've been missing having cookies, though the stores don't have ones I much like, so going shopping won't really help with that. I ought to go back to my place and bake some chocolate chip cookies.

I've still got 3 carrots, a pear, and a bag of Food Lion potato chips (not opened yet, so their saltiness is unknown). Some cake and peanuts. Snack bars. Other nuts. Chocolate. It ought to be enough. I hate being out of corn chips though. I should just deal with it and eat all the other snacks up. Completely. I can live without corn chips. Heck, I've got a shaker of salt.

.

I was at my mom's place for the rental bed delivery, since she had to be at work at that time. The mattress turned out to be one of those foam ones, a "bed in a box". Ashley Furniture brand. Both it and the bed-frame were definitely new items; that was very apparent from the packaging. I checked Amazon, and the same bed-frame is on sale there for $150, and the very same mattress for $439.

So the $150 which my mom is paying for the first month is about a quarter of the actual price, or maybe even more if the wholesale price is less than what Amazon sells it for. Still, it seems that if RentACenter allows it to be rented for a single month, that they'd still lose money on it? Unless they take advantage of a free-returns deal from the manufacturer.

Maybe RaC makes it hard to return items, requiring them to be in pristine condition. Maybe most people end up keeping the items for multiple months even if they didn't originally plan to (which I suspect might end up happening with my mom).

My mom didn't ask whether RaC will pick the items up for free, or if she'll have to pay for that. We certainly won't be able to fit it back into the box that it came in. For that matter, it won't even fit into the plastic cover it came in, due to mattress's foam expansion, so how could one cover it to keep it clean in transport? In the mattress encasement that I ordered, perhaps?

While browsing Amazon, I found that they even sell "bed in a box" mattresses with innersprings!

While at my mom's house, I wore my surgical face mask for a good 3 hours straight, and it didn't bother me much. Even though it was about 90 degrees in the house to begin with, and even with the A/C turned on, only got down to 87 by the time I left. It's good to know I can do that when necessary. Besides setting up the bed frame and mattress for her, I also fixed a problem with her printer. That turned out being a known issue with a Windows update, for which another special Windows update was required.

.

There are several topics in this post for which none of my existing tags are very good matches.
Rentals. Mask-wearing. Mattresses.

This is based on LibreOffice Calc but probably works the same in Excel.

Say I have a column where several cells have formulas in them like:
=AVERAGE(C10:C18)

In the next column, I want to have the same formulas but using MIN instead of AVERAGE.

When I copy and paste the cells from the first column to the second, it changes the formulas like:
=AVERAGE(D10:D18)

To update the formulas in the 2nd column, select those cells and select from the menu, Edit - Find & Replace.
On the Find&Replace window, make sure these options are selected:
Current Selection Only
Search in: Formulas

Enter "AVERAGE" in the "Find:" field, and "MIN" in the "Replace:" field.
Click the Replace All button.

Then repeat that process to change all "D" to "C".

Alternately, this method should also work for keeping the original cell references when copying the formulas:
https://www.groovypost.com/news/microsoft-releases-windows-10-20h1-preview-build-18970/
First use Find&Replace to change all equal signs to a hashtag or other unique character.
Then copy/paste the cells to another column, and use Find&Replace to change the hashtag back to the equal sign again.
(This method could also be used for copying the formulas out of the spreadsheet into a text file, for easier editing.)

I saw a stray dog this morning, and was checking some lost & found pages.

I came across these pages which have interesting information about how lost dogs may act:
https://www.missinganimalresponse.com/lost-dog-behavior/
https://www.missinganimalresponse.com/dont-call-dog/

There’s a reason why one of the worst things that you can do is call out to a stray dog or panicked dog. The reason is that it’s likely that other people (who encountered the loose dog) have already tried to capture him and calling him has become a “trigger” that causes him to automatically bolt in fear when anyone, including his owner, calls him.

.

Note to Self: If I see a stray dog or cat again, I should at least try to take some photos of it for posting to Lost&Found groups. And for remembering what exactly it looked like.

Every once in a while Google sends an email asking me to "Confirm your recovery email". But the email address this is sent to isn't shown as a recovery email in any of my Google accounts. It is a non-Gmail email address, and is the *primary* email for one of my Google accounts (which was created from a YouTube account when Google bought YouTube). When I log into that Google account and check the email & security settings, it seems fine; no confirmation required.

The email itself doesn't mention which account it relates to; it only gives a general link (https://myaccount.google.com/security-checkup) for logging into an account. I may have created another Google account at some time and forgotten about it, but then the email should already have been confirmed back then whenever.

I think this email used to be the recovery email for one of my Gmail accounts, but I switched it to a different recovery email. So why would Google start wanting to confirm the old email again?

Anyway, note to self: IGNORE THESE DURNDED EMAILS. I already checked every single account. No need to check them again.

..

Update, 2019/11/27:

Today I got a similar email for one of my other Google accounts which has a gmail.com email address. That email clearly indicated which account the message was for (the email address it was sent to), as well as the (other) recovery email address it wanted me to confirm.

When I logged into that Google account, the settings pages didn't show any outstanding action required. But when I opened the "Take Action" link that was included in the email, that page asked me to confirm (Yes/No) that the listed recovery email was still good. I clicked Yes.

The other email I mentioned above does not list which recovery email address it wants me to confirm. When I open that email's "Take Action" link, it doesn't show any required actions regarding the email addresses. So I still don't know why I was getting those emails.

The recovery email listed is the same one as I use to log into the account. Since it is not a Gmail email address, apparently that makes it the recovery email address by default. There is no option to change it or to add any other recovery email to that account.

If I click the Gmail link while logged into that non-Gmail Google account, I get this message:

Add Gmail to your Google Account

By completing this form, you're upgrading to Gmail, email from Google. Gmail works on any device, blocks spam, and much more.

You'll be able to sign in using your new Gmail address, which will become the primary email address associated with this account. We'll send account updates, invitations, and other notifications to your Gmail address.

[old non-Gmail email address] will become an alternate email address on this account, and you'll still be able to sign in with it.

If you prefer, you can create a new Google Account with email, and leave this one as-is.

It'd been so long since I made baklava that I'd forgotten where my recipe was, or what it looked like. The recipe (unless I had another one too... did I have some cutouts from a Greek cookbook?) is actually titled "Kadaifi", from "The Compassionate Gourmet" cookbook. I usually substitute puff pastry sheets for the kadaifi pastry. (In the beginning, I'd made it a few times the semi-traditional way using phyllo dough sheets brushed with margarine, but that's much more tedious, and ends up drier anyway, I feel, compared to the much easier puff pastry sheets).

This recipe doesn't even mention rose water or orange blossom water, which makes me suspect I had another recipe too. I always put one or the other or both in the syrup. This recipe includes cinnamon and lemon, which is also very good, but the cinnamon tends to overpower the other flavors. I should use less cinnamon, or none, next time.

For the nut filling, normally I use walnuts and/or pecans. This time I used pistachios, cashews, and pecans, toasted.

Even double the amount of syrup from the recipe, seems a fairly small amount to me. But actually, after pouring it over the pan it does look quite adequate.

Update: It turned out very sweet. I think now that less syrup would have been fine... As long as there are plenty of slits cut into the top layer of pastry, so that the syrup can soak into the filling.