• 0 Posts
  • 70 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

help-circle



  • Instant mashed potatoes with American cheese melted in, and a variety of seasonings, butter, toppings etc. It’s a great, cheap way to make a bowl out of random leftovers, protein or whatever. But I wouldn’t dare serve it to someone.

    ‘quickadilla’ I’ll slap a tortilla on a cold pan, turn on the heat and build it right in the pan while it heats up with shredded cheese and left over meat. Takes 5 minutes and it’s at least as good as Taco Bell, and actually warm and melted.

    More of a meal I’d actually be willing to share, but not brag about because it’s sort of a bastardization of cultures. But I’ll often make a curry using Japanese curry blocks, and season chicken in a vaguely Indian style, then put it over rice. Really simple and delicious. I’m kind of proud of it but I wouldn’t even know how to explain it to someone, much less actually serve it.













  • I’ve been helping my parents renovate their house recently, and I’m trying to get them to understand this. Just watch a video, it instantly gives you context for commonly agreed upon solutions. You don’t have to reinvent solutions to solved problems.

    For example, my mom decided to refinish her cabinets doors. They were painted with one layer of a typical latex house paint you could even still see the original finish in the brush strokes. I sanded the paint and the original varnished finish off the interiors in just a few minutes with an orbital sander.

    She decided that because she saw that her aunt use a paint stripper on Facebook, that she should do that. So instead of sanding it down to wood in a few minutes, she’ll coat the doors with stripper, scrape the paint off, clean the caustic paint stripper off, and then sand the varnish/wood at the end anyway. I tried to explain this, and pull up a video showing how messy and overkill the paint strippers were, and she got mad that I played a video.

    Meanwhile, my step dad was helping me install quarter round over their baseboards, I showed him 3 options to finish the ends. A simple 90° cut, a standard 45° bevel, and another mitre with a tiny triangle to round over the end. I explained that the mitre looks the nicest, but it takes twice as long to do.

    He proceeded to freehand two bevels for half an hour with a dull chipped chisel. They were completely uneven and jagged. Then I explained he had to repeat that work 18 more times in the hallway alone, assuming he was happy with his… handiwork.

    They have been trying to finish renovating this house for 20 years. Now I see why it is taking so long.