Ta, CakesWeLike, it's so good to see you here after your oven problems. Cannoli! I already know how to make vegan ricotta; when I get ambitious I'll figure out the rest. I've done quite a bit of baking since retirement. The most recent is a bread pudding made mostly with my wholegrain challah, with bourbon raisins, creamy custard, and a bourbon-maple-pecan glaze. Oh, and we got a bamboo steamer and initiated it with whole wheat bao filled with maitake in Sichuan sauce dear husband Meccalopolis created.
Speaking of mushrooms, we had an epic foray yesterday. We visited our Top Secret Chanterelle Spot (chanterelles are long out of season here), hiking with the dogs while we sought porcini and blewits, neither of which we found. Meccalopolis asked how I wanted to go down from the top of the ridge. I said, you know me; steep ascent, gentle descent. When we were most of the way down, husband said, it's weird that there's all this oak here (there's even an oak nursery within this managed forest) and we've never seen maitake. I agreed. Two minutes later, he saw a mighty oak, probably 400 years old and with a trunk diameter of at least ten feet. It was entirely surrounded by glorious, beautiful, fragrant maitake. Between each root was at least one big shroom, arranged like bouquets offered to the old gods. We took about a third of it. We couldn't fit it in our collecting bags; he improvised by tying up my bright orange rain poncho into a sack. I hefted it when we got back to the pied-à-nuage; it's at least 20 kilos. He processed some for the dehydrators while I made dinner, then we went to do our radio show. When we returned, our home was redolent with the lovely aroma of maitake. It is still; we have much more to dry and cook. I used some fresh to create a vegan omelette for lunch, served with MyBacon and polenta in lieu of grits. Coffee now.
Good day, beloved Wonketteers. We love and appreciate you all and we bless us all with love, health, peace, and grace. Please, please stay safe. Wear a mask or two, wash your hands, sanitize when you cannot wash and let the sanitizer dry completely, stop touching your face, take Vitamin D, get a booster shot six months after your last, catch up on any other vaccines you need, and get any kids in your family vaccinated as well, and stay the fuck away from us and anyone with whom you do not share a roof. Do this because you love yourself, and because we love you, too. Do this in memory of 27 Club member Treg, Holly's heroic pilot friend Tony, Dolly Parton, who put up a million dollars of her own money to make the Moderna vaccine possible, and nearly eight million dead worldwide, possibly including Gav, who had long COVID. Do this to honor the nurses and other frontline medical personnel (we love you, medicos of Wonkette, from student to active to retired), especially ICU Hera Mrs Land Shark RN. Stay safe. When we vote, we WIN!!
My favorite Sicilian food scene, from Alberto Latuada's "Mafioso" (1962), in which the Milanese newlywed wife of a Sicilian comes to Sicily to meet the family and have lunch.
No subtitles in this clip, but you don't really need them. The final scene explains everything.
OT, and not a Nice Time either so I need to get it out before the Nice Times Post. It's long. Maybe don't read.
So, I work with a lot of Audio-Visual companies. Small, medium, large; specialists, generalists; depends on the event, which one would be the best fit.
Most of these companies are small and a bit cliquey, lot all small businesses. The owner/operators work constantly and while they can make a lot of money, there's a lot of debt and stress. Like most such, they tend toward Libertarian/Right, though their personal values and behavior may be quite left.
One such guy, I worked a lot with 25-20 or so years ago. I worked for another company in the same warehouse space, and on specific projects. I hired his company, he hired me to work with his company. I moved up in the world. His company was low-to-medium on the price-point scale, so I could his his guys and gears on some things, but not on others. When he got a show that was bigger than he could really handle, things got messy.
Recently, somebody entirely other asked me if I'd help her with a proposal for a show for a client this first guy has worked with for decades. I said, "Sure, and it might make sense to line up [this guy], since there's a really long client relationship there."
She agreed. We got a quote from the guy, and some background on the event as, as I'd suspected, he'd done that show before. All good.
Then, end of July, he "went dark." Didn't answer calls or emails. We figured he had just gotten busy, and didn't have much support as it's a small company. No huge deal.
OK. Last Tuesday night, I was on the road. Another friend of mine, also in the business, texted me, and I hate typing with my thumbs so I just called him. He started asking me if I knew the small business operator mentioned above. I said, "Yes." My friend asked if I'd heard from him lately. I said, "Odd you'd mention it," and relayed the little story above.
My friend said, "Same here. I was working with him on a quote for a show that was right in his wheelhouse size-wise, and he just disappeared. So I talked to his business partner, and we got the quote together and sent out the proposal. Then I needed some revisions and couldn't find either one of those guys. Then out of the blue, he called me a couple days ago, apologizing for "going dark" on me, and saying he wouldn't be able to do the event because something had come up and he had to stop everything to deal with it, and feared losing his family. I just said, 'Really sorry to hear that, hope it turns out, contact me when things settle.' I told my Producer, and she wondered if their business had collapsed overnight or something, and Googled him by name."
The Google results showed that on a day in late July, this guy had been arrested for 34 counts of CSAM, crime committed back in February. He was in jail until mid-September, when he posted a six-figure bond.
So I Googled it myself. Yep, it's him.
Apparently his wife got transferred to a large Southern city during COVID, and he moved too, as it's easy flights from there back to Mpls., so it really didn't matter where he lived. He had also mentioned that politics and society in Minneapolis were "getting too crazy," which is always a bad sign.
So this guy is married, has kids. Maybe 10 years younger than me, so maybe about 50? Has a business partner and a warehouse full of (crappy) gear in the Twin Cities. He's toast. His business is toast. His business partner, by association, is toast. That gear probably has to get sold in firesale fashion to pay lawyers. They'll have to split up the business and who knows how the business partner comes out; and none of this is his damn fault.
The family is obviously in dire straits. His wife has/had a pretty high-level executive gig, hence the move in the first place. But how does she go in to work now? And remain effective? Or even function? How 'bout the kids? They're a bit younger than my kids, so they'd be college-aged now, more or less.
And the business doesn't run in a vacuum. There's a warehouse landlord. Lots of freelancers who rely on gigs from this business. Clients whose events have been planned, and deposit payments sent out, who now have to try to get their money back and line up somebody else.
I'm almost completely unaffected, except this is bothering me. WTF? I mean, WTAF? Did I completely misread this guy? Should I have noticed anything? Did he go crazy? Did he hurt anybody, other than what I've described? I've been corresponding with him, do the cops in his town suspect I had anything to do with him? Hell, our emails contained attachments, including CAD drawings, etc. I set up a Dropbox folder with him, so we could share project documents. Are the cops squinting at my CAD drawings of hotel ballrooms, wondering what demented perversions are encrypted in drawings that purport to be a corporate event?
It's just a really weird feeling to in real life wander past, minding one's own business, a human life with all its associations, going up in flames in a particularly toxic and noxious dumpster fire.
Kind of creeps me out. Makes me feel weird about everything, in some small way.
Seriously, though, sorry you had to deal with that creepiness.
I had a similar thing hit (not-noticing) me out of the blue, years back. I was reading a report about some local guy getting arrested for soliciting a minor, was reading along till they mentioned his name, age, and occupation, and I literally STOOD UP and went "Eek! Holy shit!"
Let's just say I had spent six weeks in proximity to this guy, in a remote place. Never saw or heard a thing that was off. You never know, you know?
In this small world, I've been friends with three people who eventually committed murders. I also knew three of their victims. What are the odds?
The latest thing going around is that every woman knows a victim of SA or is a survivor themselves but no men seem to know a rapist. True, I don't know any men who have been convicted of rape, but I knew two who were accused, but not legally, just in the court of public opinion. I generally trust women. I was never friends with either of the men accused, and the opportunity for confrontation never materialized. I'm not sure I would have confronted them anyway. It was easier for me to shun them.
I get it. A rather well-known singer I worked with some years ago has been arrested on 160 counts of child sexual abuse. I thought he was the nicest person. I thought I knew him. He was arrested in April, but I just found out about it a few days ago. Mind blown.
I'm sorry for your loss, and the losses of those adjacent. I wish I believed in hell so I could believe those who steal the innocence of children, including That Thing in the Offal Office, would get their just deserts. Some creeps are really good at disguising themselves.
I've had the same thing happen. People who didn't even ping on my radar (and I have a pretty damned good radar when it comes to things like that) that ended up being outed for molesting their own daughters, having CSAM, etc.
Four times so far. In only 2 of the cases did the creeper ping on my radar before the outing happened.
When it was National Coffee Day last week, I went to Krispy Kreme for my coffee and I purchased two doughnuts. It’s no big deal. Buy a cup of coffee and enjoy your “free” roll.
Oh, my....I am so hungry for cannoli, right now! Although I'll skip the chocolate chips - for some reason, as much as a chocoholic I am, I don't want them in my cannoli. All your varieties do sound sooo good.
It's all down to practice. If it's something you want to do then get some digital kitcgen scales, pick an easy recipe, and work your way up to the more difficult stuff as your confidence grows.
Most of it is just having the courage to try and not letting the failures get you down - most of them will still be edible.
I've never mastered (mistressed?) pie crust. The Pillsbury Doughboy is my friend (I use their pie crusts that come all rolled up and mostly ready to go). I usually roll the crust out bigger (deep dish pie plates require it) and sometimes do things like press grated parmesan or almonds into them before baking.
OT election fuckery forthcoming: from our friends at Above the Law, DOJ/ICE will most likely be invading cities in the Southern District of New York, Central District of California, and Eastern District of California in the second half of October, based on requests for military personnel.
You all know I resort to shortcuts on occasion, I'm certainly not going to discourage anyone from doing the same. As far as I'm concerned, if a boxed cake mix introduces someone to the joy of baking then that's great, they can learn new skills as they flow in confidence.
For myself, I like to make the complex stuff from scratch at least once, just so that I know how to do it, from then on I'll use the shortcut unless I know I've got the time and energy to do it the long way.
It might be interesting to hear from an expert which shortcuts are better than others, which ones you're more likely to use yourself compared to parts of the process you almost always do from scratch.
It's down to the individual doing the baking. Your available time and energy will dictate what you feel up to doing on any given day.
Generally speaking, ready made pastry is as good as home made, it's definitely a worthwhile timesaver to buy puff pastry and filo pastry instead of making your own. Cannoli shells are another one where I wouldn't begrudgdcanyone buying them ready made, although if you're buying them in the USA, the recipes tends to use more sugar as that seems to be what is expected from American desserts.
Yes ... pre-made cannoli shells are available here. And yes, you have to tone down the sweet in the cream a bit. However ... some Italian *bakeries* sell their cannoli shells and those would be closer to the pastry you have here.
This is the way. Daughter LS is a baker. She asks, "can I bake this?" and my response is, "is there any ingredients we don't have? I'll run out and get them!"
I remember when they were near-ubiquitous. My first "new" car (a '77 Celica that had been a salesman's demo) had a factory-installed, in-dash CB radio.
Meanwhile in the NC General Assembly, NC Senate President Pro Tempore (until January her her) Phil Berger and NC House Speaker (potentially also out of a job in January) have called an emergency session to vote on cutting NC's gas tax to keep prices stabilized. The session is presumably taking place *today* (Sunday) with no public notice, which is what the NCGA *always* does when it wants to do something they fear the general public won't like.
They ALSO have a habit of doing things in the middle of the night while nobody's watching when they plan to get up to no good that is probably illegal, but they hope to keep it tied up in court to run out whatever clock they're running against and make it a fait accompli. But in this case, that would be an add-on, and while I put NOTHING past this body (especially since they're GOING to lose their supermajority -- so hold on for the lame duck session) I figure the gas tax thing is enough.
Why's that bad? Well gas taxes fund MOST of the NCDOT's budget for roads and bridges. But the legs just passed their first budget in almost 3 fucking years in September, and presumably that included funding for that budget category. And now the revenue stream is gonna dry up. Where's that money gonna come from Phil? I see three possibilities:
1) Most likely, they will quietly ratchet the gas tax back up in the middle of the night after the election so they cam blame the "increase" on the Democrats that are all but assured of gaining seats in both chambers, OR
2) We'll start seeing tool booths sprouting like mushrooms in places they never were before, which is how we justified those taxes in the first place -- NC had zero miles of toll road for most of my life, spreading the cost of repairs and new construction among everybody who drove a car in the form of one of the highest gas taxes in the country. OR
3) They'll just leave DOT's budget down in the river along with I-40 in Haywood county. That seems like the least likely possibility, since the counties that'll be hardest hit are deeply red, but they'll blame all those Democrats that won and took away their supermajority for it anyway so maybe they figure it doesn't matter. (And I'm not gonna say they're wrong.)
The one thing I AM sure of is that it's not for nothin' that "nobody's life liberty or property is safe while the General Assembly is in session" became convention wisdom up in here.
That "White House economic adviser" has to be Kevin Hassett, who hasn't had any credibility with any true economist since he co-authored "Dow 36,000" in 1999. The fact that he's still afforded a position in the White House and any attention from the mainstream media just shows how economically illiterate so many Americans ( let alone government officials ) really are.
>>Because it couldn't be the very high price of gas and all consumables!<<
Certainly not! The important thing is we're Americans, goddammit, which means we have the FREEDOM to buy all that stuff! All this talk about "means" and "price" is just woke-ass falderal that takes no account of FREEDOM.
In honor of cannoli and absolute units, today I shall address everyone as "Cannolo" in me best Al Pacino/Scarface voice.
Like so: "Hey, Cannolo, can I have some chocolate milk?"
NEADZ MOAR BACONZ!!!!!!
(C'mon. We all knew I was going to post that eventually)
Ta, CakesWeLike, it's so good to see you here after your oven problems. Cannoli! I already know how to make vegan ricotta; when I get ambitious I'll figure out the rest. I've done quite a bit of baking since retirement. The most recent is a bread pudding made mostly with my wholegrain challah, with bourbon raisins, creamy custard, and a bourbon-maple-pecan glaze. Oh, and we got a bamboo steamer and initiated it with whole wheat bao filled with maitake in Sichuan sauce dear husband Meccalopolis created.
Speaking of mushrooms, we had an epic foray yesterday. We visited our Top Secret Chanterelle Spot (chanterelles are long out of season here), hiking with the dogs while we sought porcini and blewits, neither of which we found. Meccalopolis asked how I wanted to go down from the top of the ridge. I said, you know me; steep ascent, gentle descent. When we were most of the way down, husband said, it's weird that there's all this oak here (there's even an oak nursery within this managed forest) and we've never seen maitake. I agreed. Two minutes later, he saw a mighty oak, probably 400 years old and with a trunk diameter of at least ten feet. It was entirely surrounded by glorious, beautiful, fragrant maitake. Between each root was at least one big shroom, arranged like bouquets offered to the old gods. We took about a third of it. We couldn't fit it in our collecting bags; he improvised by tying up my bright orange rain poncho into a sack. I hefted it when we got back to the pied-à-nuage; it's at least 20 kilos. He processed some for the dehydrators while I made dinner, then we went to do our radio show. When we returned, our home was redolent with the lovely aroma of maitake. It is still; we have much more to dry and cook. I used some fresh to create a vegan omelette for lunch, served with MyBacon and polenta in lieu of grits. Coffee now.
Good day, beloved Wonketteers. We love and appreciate you all and we bless us all with love, health, peace, and grace. Please, please stay safe. Wear a mask or two, wash your hands, sanitize when you cannot wash and let the sanitizer dry completely, stop touching your face, take Vitamin D, get a booster shot six months after your last, catch up on any other vaccines you need, and get any kids in your family vaccinated as well, and stay the fuck away from us and anyone with whom you do not share a roof. Do this because you love yourself, and because we love you, too. Do this in memory of 27 Club member Treg, Holly's heroic pilot friend Tony, Dolly Parton, who put up a million dollars of her own money to make the Moderna vaccine possible, and nearly eight million dead worldwide, possibly including Gav, who had long COVID. Do this to honor the nurses and other frontline medical personnel (we love you, medicos of Wonkette, from student to active to retired), especially ICU Hera Mrs Land Shark RN. Stay safe. When we vote, we WIN!!
Slava Ukraini 🌻🇺🇦💙💛
One to remember.
https://bsky.app/profile/meccalopolis.bsky.social/post/3mwz2lixvxc2y
Enjoy your Sunday, every Wonk!
"Hi, we are eating tasty snacks that look like the king's dick"
Take the cannoli. Leave the gun.
Im wondering how a wonk writer knows what the king's dick looks like vs the Prime Minister's?
Do we have a embassy there?
My favorite Sicilian food scene, from Alberto Latuada's "Mafioso" (1962), in which the Milanese newlywed wife of a Sicilian comes to Sicily to meet the family and have lunch.
No subtitles in this clip, but you don't really need them. The final scene explains everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCcFqcykYC0
I love Nanna and the aunts eyeballing her and taking tiny bites out of the bread - I have to remember that and use it next time I'm out with friends
OT, and not a Nice Time either so I need to get it out before the Nice Times Post. It's long. Maybe don't read.
So, I work with a lot of Audio-Visual companies. Small, medium, large; specialists, generalists; depends on the event, which one would be the best fit.
Most of these companies are small and a bit cliquey, lot all small businesses. The owner/operators work constantly and while they can make a lot of money, there's a lot of debt and stress. Like most such, they tend toward Libertarian/Right, though their personal values and behavior may be quite left.
One such guy, I worked a lot with 25-20 or so years ago. I worked for another company in the same warehouse space, and on specific projects. I hired his company, he hired me to work with his company. I moved up in the world. His company was low-to-medium on the price-point scale, so I could his his guys and gears on some things, but not on others. When he got a show that was bigger than he could really handle, things got messy.
Recently, somebody entirely other asked me if I'd help her with a proposal for a show for a client this first guy has worked with for decades. I said, "Sure, and it might make sense to line up [this guy], since there's a really long client relationship there."
She agreed. We got a quote from the guy, and some background on the event as, as I'd suspected, he'd done that show before. All good.
Then, end of July, he "went dark." Didn't answer calls or emails. We figured he had just gotten busy, and didn't have much support as it's a small company. No huge deal.
OK. Last Tuesday night, I was on the road. Another friend of mine, also in the business, texted me, and I hate typing with my thumbs so I just called him. He started asking me if I knew the small business operator mentioned above. I said, "Yes." My friend asked if I'd heard from him lately. I said, "Odd you'd mention it," and relayed the little story above.
My friend said, "Same here. I was working with him on a quote for a show that was right in his wheelhouse size-wise, and he just disappeared. So I talked to his business partner, and we got the quote together and sent out the proposal. Then I needed some revisions and couldn't find either one of those guys. Then out of the blue, he called me a couple days ago, apologizing for "going dark" on me, and saying he wouldn't be able to do the event because something had come up and he had to stop everything to deal with it, and feared losing his family. I just said, 'Really sorry to hear that, hope it turns out, contact me when things settle.' I told my Producer, and she wondered if their business had collapsed overnight or something, and Googled him by name."
The Google results showed that on a day in late July, this guy had been arrested for 34 counts of CSAM, crime committed back in February. He was in jail until mid-September, when he posted a six-figure bond.
So I Googled it myself. Yep, it's him.
Apparently his wife got transferred to a large Southern city during COVID, and he moved too, as it's easy flights from there back to Mpls., so it really didn't matter where he lived. He had also mentioned that politics and society in Minneapolis were "getting too crazy," which is always a bad sign.
So this guy is married, has kids. Maybe 10 years younger than me, so maybe about 50? Has a business partner and a warehouse full of (crappy) gear in the Twin Cities. He's toast. His business is toast. His business partner, by association, is toast. That gear probably has to get sold in firesale fashion to pay lawyers. They'll have to split up the business and who knows how the business partner comes out; and none of this is his damn fault.
The family is obviously in dire straits. His wife has/had a pretty high-level executive gig, hence the move in the first place. But how does she go in to work now? And remain effective? Or even function? How 'bout the kids? They're a bit younger than my kids, so they'd be college-aged now, more or less.
And the business doesn't run in a vacuum. There's a warehouse landlord. Lots of freelancers who rely on gigs from this business. Clients whose events have been planned, and deposit payments sent out, who now have to try to get their money back and line up somebody else.
I'm almost completely unaffected, except this is bothering me. WTF? I mean, WTAF? Did I completely misread this guy? Should I have noticed anything? Did he go crazy? Did he hurt anybody, other than what I've described? I've been corresponding with him, do the cops in his town suspect I had anything to do with him? Hell, our emails contained attachments, including CAD drawings, etc. I set up a Dropbox folder with him, so we could share project documents. Are the cops squinting at my CAD drawings of hotel ballrooms, wondering what demented perversions are encrypted in drawings that purport to be a corporate event?
It's just a really weird feeling to in real life wander past, minding one's own business, a human life with all its associations, going up in flames in a particularly toxic and noxious dumpster fire.
Kind of creeps me out. Makes me feel weird about everything, in some small way.
Say, you know 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚 faced 34 criminal charges?
Seriously, though, sorry you had to deal with that creepiness.
I had a similar thing hit (not-noticing) me out of the blue, years back. I was reading a report about some local guy getting arrested for soliciting a minor, was reading along till they mentioned his name, age, and occupation, and I literally STOOD UP and went "Eek! Holy shit!"
Let's just say I had spent six weeks in proximity to this guy, in a remote place. Never saw or heard a thing that was off. You never know, you know?
In this small world, I've been friends with three people who eventually committed murders. I also knew three of their victims. What are the odds?
The latest thing going around is that every woman knows a victim of SA or is a survivor themselves but no men seem to know a rapist. True, I don't know any men who have been convicted of rape, but I knew two who were accused, but not legally, just in the court of public opinion. I generally trust women. I was never friends with either of the men accused, and the opportunity for confrontation never materialized. I'm not sure I would have confronted them anyway. It was easier for me to shun them.
I get it. A rather well-known singer I worked with some years ago has been arrested on 160 counts of child sexual abuse. I thought he was the nicest person. I thought I knew him. He was arrested in April, but I just found out about it a few days ago. Mind blown.
I'm sorry for your loss, and the losses of those adjacent. I wish I believed in hell so I could believe those who steal the innocence of children, including That Thing in the Offal Office, would get their just deserts. Some creeps are really good at disguising themselves.
Man, that is awful. WTF, dude?
I've had the same thing happen. People who didn't even ping on my radar (and I have a pretty damned good radar when it comes to things like that) that ended up being outed for molesting their own daughters, having CSAM, etc.
Four times so far. In only 2 of the cases did the creeper ping on my radar before the outing happened.
Today is National Cinnamon Roll Day. Bakeries around the country are offering free rolls (with purchase). I made my own this morning.
https://substack.com/profile/13992002-cynmac/note/c-352798576?r=8bwaq&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
Beautiful!
Wait "free with purchase"? Isn't that a kinda sophistry?
When it was National Coffee Day last week, I went to Krispy Kreme for my coffee and I purchased two doughnuts. It’s no big deal. Buy a cup of coffee and enjoy your “free” roll.
OUTTA MY WAY!!!
Oh wait Gall. I am bringing a bike chain. You better not touch the bacon maple ones.
🙌🏾
Very nice!
Oh, my....I am so hungry for cannoli, right now! Although I'll skip the chocolate chips - for some reason, as much as a chocoholic I am, I don't want them in my cannoli. All your varieties do sound sooo good.
As good as a cook as I am (and im a very good cook if I dont mind bragging) I could never get a handle on baking.
That always pissed me off.
I need airplane glue to keep my pie crust together.
It's all down to practice. If it's something you want to do then get some digital kitcgen scales, pick an easy recipe, and work your way up to the more difficult stuff as your confidence grows.
Most of it is just having the courage to try and not letting the failures get you down - most of them will still be edible.
I've never mastered (mistressed?) pie crust. The Pillsbury Doughboy is my friend (I use their pie crusts that come all rolled up and mostly ready to go). I usually roll the crust out bigger (deep dish pie plates require it) and sometimes do things like press grated parmesan or almonds into them before baking.
I learned that the sekrit to flaky crust is more butter than should be allowed.
Mmmm, butter....
You don't even want to think about how much butter you need to make puff pastry.
That is a perfectly acceptable shortcut.
I once was told by a chef (not baker) that my pie crust was good enough for beef wellington and it was Great Value ✔️ brand with egg wash.
Cooking is cooking. Baking is science.
Rub some (sea) salt into it my open wound.
Actually the saying is "cooking is art baking is science"
Oh, that's better.
OT election fuckery forthcoming: from our friends at Above the Law, DOJ/ICE will most likely be invading cities in the Southern District of New York, Central District of California, and Eastern District of California in the second half of October, based on requests for military personnel.
https://abovethelaw.com/2026/09/dojs-newest-brain-drain-fix-is-borrowing-marines-for-an-immigration-surge-that-might-be-coming-to-a-city-near-you/
Nice Times is up.
So next time we get Stollen Valor? 😁
Oh come on, *somebody* had to do it.
Im glad im not the only one who thought it.
Baconz doffs his cap to you for typing it.
*doffs my cap*
OT.
Wow.
Baconz is from PA. Usually the 60 days before a Pennsylvania election one is inundated with ads.
However, this year ads for Ohio are pouring over to us. SlowHio is going purple?
If the MAGA loses Cincinnati it will be a wipe out for MAGA. Mitch and Lindsey are not zombies and will not be able to pool GOP voters together
Losing southern Ohio will be the beginning of the end in the "deep south".
(Sorry. Baconz channeled Heather "Digby" there for a sec)
both sides were spending for the new SNL last night. they were back to back to back in my market.
You all know I resort to shortcuts on occasion, I'm certainly not going to discourage anyone from doing the same. As far as I'm concerned, if a boxed cake mix introduces someone to the joy of baking then that's great, they can learn new skills as they flow in confidence.
For myself, I like to make the complex stuff from scratch at least once, just so that I know how to do it, from then on I'll use the shortcut unless I know I've got the time and energy to do it the long way.
It might be interesting to hear from an expert which shortcuts are better than others, which ones you're more likely to use yourself compared to parts of the process you almost always do from scratch.
It's down to the individual doing the baking. Your available time and energy will dictate what you feel up to doing on any given day.
Generally speaking, ready made pastry is as good as home made, it's definitely a worthwhile timesaver to buy puff pastry and filo pastry instead of making your own. Cannoli shells are another one where I wouldn't begrudgdcanyone buying them ready made, although if you're buying them in the USA, the recipes tends to use more sugar as that seems to be what is expected from American desserts.
Yes ... pre-made cannoli shells are available here. And yes, you have to tone down the sweet in the cream a bit. However ... some Italian *bakeries* sell their cannoli shells and those would be closer to the pastry you have here.
It's like most things, isn't it. What you get depends entirely on where you get it from.
When I was married I would make box cakes but I got into making them as flat on top as I could, LOL. They were BEAUTIFUL!
My shortcut regarding baking is letting others do the baking for me. Your cannoli look scrumptious!
This is the way. Daughter LS is a baker. She asks, "can I bake this?" and my response is, "is there any ingredients we don't have? I'll run out and get them!"
OT Note: Today is unofficial "CB Radio Day" 10-4 Good Buddy!
Eastbound and Down ~ Jerry Reed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOgUaFkpS3Y&list=RDIOgUaFkpS3Y&start_radio=1
Breaker 19, what's your 20?
God, I feel old.
Coming up on the 7-8 near Chocolatetown
I remember when they were near-ubiquitous. My first "new" car (a '77 Celica that had been a salesman's demo) had a factory-installed, in-dash CB radio.
Used to install after market Still have my SWR bridge for tuning antennas
I'm 10-8 and straight. Keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down.
(I *am* old... lean in.)
OT:
cnn:
"White House economic adviser blames ‘partisan pollsters’ for pessimistic consumer sentiment"
Because it couldn't be the very high price of gas and all consumables!
Meanwhile in the NC General Assembly, NC Senate President Pro Tempore (until January her her) Phil Berger and NC House Speaker (potentially also out of a job in January) have called an emergency session to vote on cutting NC's gas tax to keep prices stabilized. The session is presumably taking place *today* (Sunday) with no public notice, which is what the NCGA *always* does when it wants to do something they fear the general public won't like.
They ALSO have a habit of doing things in the middle of the night while nobody's watching when they plan to get up to no good that is probably illegal, but they hope to keep it tied up in court to run out whatever clock they're running against and make it a fait accompli. But in this case, that would be an add-on, and while I put NOTHING past this body (especially since they're GOING to lose their supermajority -- so hold on for the lame duck session) I figure the gas tax thing is enough.
Why's that bad? Well gas taxes fund MOST of the NCDOT's budget for roads and bridges. But the legs just passed their first budget in almost 3 fucking years in September, and presumably that included funding for that budget category. And now the revenue stream is gonna dry up. Where's that money gonna come from Phil? I see three possibilities:
1) Most likely, they will quietly ratchet the gas tax back up in the middle of the night after the election so they cam blame the "increase" on the Democrats that are all but assured of gaining seats in both chambers, OR
2) We'll start seeing tool booths sprouting like mushrooms in places they never were before, which is how we justified those taxes in the first place -- NC had zero miles of toll road for most of my life, spreading the cost of repairs and new construction among everybody who drove a car in the form of one of the highest gas taxes in the country. OR
3) They'll just leave DOT's budget down in the river along with I-40 in Haywood county. That seems like the least likely possibility, since the counties that'll be hardest hit are deeply red, but they'll blame all those Democrats that won and took away their supermajority for it anyway so maybe they figure it doesn't matter. (And I'm not gonna say they're wrong.)
The one thing I AM sure of is that it's not for nothin' that "nobody's life liberty or property is safe while the General Assembly is in session" became convention wisdom up in here.
People can't afford to EAT properly, let alone pay the utilities and keep sufficient fuel in the car.
Our gas prices just went down over .20 the last few days.
I think they are fucking with the gas prices in "swing states" to favor Republicans.
I'm so tired of all the shit.
Yeah, mine went down a similar amount, likely on the announcement from the G7 releasing 100 M barrels of reserves it's too little too late.
And besides, affordability is a HOAX!
Sounds like something Hassett would say, that smarmy little fuck.
"I hate to say it boss, but the lies aren't working."
"Have you doubled down like I told you to back in July?"
"Double, triple, quadruple boss. People keep piping up about canned tuna being a luxury now."
"And you call that a problem? Tell them we are saving the dolphins! Everyone wants to swim with them."
"We're doing that but our base voters tell us that Flipper can fuck off before they flip us off."
!!!
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81aDDQpYNxL._AC_SY300_SX300_QL70_ML2_.jpg
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
That "White House economic adviser" has to be Kevin Hassett, who hasn't had any credibility with any true economist since he co-authored "Dow 36,000" in 1999. The fact that he's still afforded a position in the White House and any attention from the mainstream media just shows how economically illiterate so many Americans ( let alone government officials ) really are.
With his smarmy fucking smile.
Mewling little squeak toy. Worse than Mike Johnson.
Bessant owns that
Bessant’s smile is smug and stupid. Hassett’s is just slimy.
Like a used car salesman at a really nasty lot.
Vladimir Idiot Ulyanov flailing with no power to kill anyone. Yet.
>>Because it couldn't be the very high price of gas and all consumables!<<
Certainly not! The important thing is we're Americans, goddammit, which means we have the FREEDOM to buy all that stuff! All this talk about "means" and "price" is just woke-ass falderal that takes no account of FREEDOM.
Obligatory: https://youtu.be/D8Q1fDf0GeY?si=72wz6n3FQbeIOgIk
Affordability is a hoax.
Voter sentiment and economic reality were more divergent during Biden's presidency, but saying so wasn't a winning strategy even then.
They voted against the vibe-cession and now they got a real one.