ness

Not specifically virus related, but crude oil is getting slaughtered this morning. Down $6.68 to $11.59: Notice that high of around $64 in January. That's down 82%

Just be nice to everybody! It's good for the soul.

Way back in the mid-80s my parents and I went to England. One of the food things I remember most is Devonshire (AKA Clotted) cream. It’s a cream spread similar to cream cheese but different. Hard to describe. I made it once many years ago. Decided to give it another try this weekend. Pretty simple to do. Pour heavy cream into a shallow baking dish then into the oven for 12 hours at 170 degrees. During that time the fat rises to the top and thickens. A yellowish crust forms on top. After that you pour off the liquid portion, cool to room temp and then refrigerate for 12 hours. After 12 hours: Liquid removed, crust stirred in. After refrigerating 12 hours: You can get a sense of the texture in this pic. It's pretty thick: Good stuff. Again, the flavor is kinda hard to describe. Kathy says it’s like butter but without the greasy feel. Thickness and texture is like cream cheese, but no tartness. We both liked it, but I can’t say it’s got the same wow factor as the original. It’s a keeper though. From what I’ve read, and like you’d expect, the flavor is all about the cream. This Devonshire/Clotted cream originates from Cornwall in southwestern England. Lotsa yakking out there about the breed of cow and what they’re fed. Since my homes association forbids cattle, I used store-bought A&E heavy cream which doesn’t have any additives like some whipping creams do. Sposta avoid ultra-pasteurized which somehow changes the structure. This carton wasn't labeled ultra pasteurized, or pasteurized, but it has to be pasteurized.

There's your answer!

We came up with a strategy that’s pretty slick. It allows you to show respect for the other less self-centered people in the store and still get what you want pretty quick. Say you need something on aisle 5 but it’s going the wrong way. What you do is go down aisle 4 (or 6, if you overshoot 4 and don’t want to backtrack), then turn at the end and enter aisle 5 going the right way. Works great! 😁😁

They’ve got big orange arrows and signage on the floor at our store. Dude just wasn’t paying attention.

Oh, those sweet potatoes were delicious. We’re doing those pretty frequently. Maybe not for you white bread types, but we like them 😄😄😄

Braved the grocery store today. Amazing to me that people don’t respect the one-way aisles, social distancing, or wear masks. At one point I got trapped in an aisle against a display by a douche bag going the wrong way, no mask, just a couple feet from my face, staring into his #%^*ing phone. I was about to go off on him when he snapped out of it and apologized. Anyhow, found most of what we needed including a couple decent looking t-bones and some asparagus. Decontaminated. Grilled a steak, baked a couple sweet taters, steamed the asparagus and topped it with some Hollandaise. Darn tasty.

Fluoridated water. Need I say more?

I think you’re spot on with that. Don’t trust the politicians to tell us when it’s safe. I really feel for all the businesses affected by this, including yours and @Phil Lilley‘s.

Here’s all the important stuff you missed: You’re welcome 😄

Go to Settings>Safari. On right panel scroll down and find 'Block Pop-Ups' in the General section and turn it on.

Yeah -- that's why I recommended a light colored fly. I can't see much at all that time of day.

In the picture above, that left undercut bank sure looks promising, as I'm sure you know. And it looks like it could extend back a ways out of the frame. I would try to drop a dry fly in there first, starting at the downstream end and working my way up. I'd try the right side of the log too when you get there. It looks like you're standing in a good spot to start things. But if you want to get between the undercut bank and the log, may need to approach it from the left side. Give it a few tries but don't overdo it. If nothing, I'd re-rig and get a Wooly Bugger on to get down deep in there. On these little streams there are usually only a few good spots with a lot of nothing in between. So, it's worth the trouble to carefully approach, re-rig, etc. Take your time.

A little light colored dry fly on a pretty thin tippet (6x) might have increased your odds. If the surroundings allow, approach it at an angle so you don't drop the tippet on its head. And work the spot close first then cast longer and work farther out. Sounds like you're pretty close to the stream -- give it another try!

Planted snap pea, radish and Swiss chard seeds over the weekend. It's been cold and we may even get a dusting of snow tonight. Continued cool for a few days. My maters are not liking being confined to the basement in their leetle cells.

Jump in there man! Real mashed potatoes are awfully easy. Peel, cut up, boil, add milk, butter, sour cream, whatever. If you get them too thin, grab the boxed stuff and fix them.

Here’s a couple recent meals: Stir fry (again). We like it, comes together quickly Had a hankering for biscuits and gravy. Used the canned biscuits which barely cut it but are easy and we had them on hand. Rices medium sausage. My favorite but it’s getting hard to find. 'Street' tacos with a little ho’made Guac

These are pretty good, but I feel like they're pretty pricy.

I think anything that falls into the categories 'recreation' or 'entertainment' is toast for the foreseeable future. It's going to be really tough on millions of people.

I know the white are good for grits! 😄

The culture was obviously ready to go!

This just gets curiouser and curiouser😄

Three things come to mind: 1) Culture wasn't healthy. Sourdough cultures are pretty resilient but they can get sick or even die. In my experience you can treat them pretty poorly without killing them. They can be revived with a little love and time and make a full comeback. The culture @BilletHead, @Terrierman and I are using is around 6 years old. There have been periods of several months when I just left it in the fridge without feeding it. But I eventually brought it out, fed it with a ~2:1 ratio of plain old flour and unchlorinated water 2 times a day for a few days and it always came back. When it's been neglected for a while like that a dark liquid with form on top that folks call 'hooch'. It's supposed to contain alcohol. Some sources say stir it in, some say drink it, some dump it out. I dump it. As long as the smell is ok (sorta yeasty/doughy) and not unpleasant, and the color hasn't changed, it will probably be ok. 2) Culture healthy but not active. When it's time to bake with sourdough the culture needs to come out of the fridge a day or more ahead of time, warm up, get fed and start to work again. With the flour/water feeding you should see the culture double in size in a few hours. If it doesn't, it's not ready to go and will not raise a dough. Just keep repeating twice a day until it does. 3) Good old impatience. Sourdoughs don't really lend themselves to timed rises as well as commercial yeast risen doughs do. And, they take a lot longer. Gotta let the dough tell you where it is, not the clock. The loaves I recently did started at 7PM on day one and rose overnight. Around 5 in the morning the dough (now more than 2x it's original size) got placed in the oven on 'bread proof' (~80 degrees) for a few hours. Around 7AM I shaped them into French loaves and placed back into the oven. I wasn't so much watching the clock as reading the dough for these steps. At around 10AM the loaves were no longer growing. I removed the plastic wrap, placed them back into the oven and turned it on to 450. So, I know you're no slouch in the kitchen. Sourdough is just a little more finicky, and takes patience. To me, the whole reason you go to the trouble is for the flavor. I think you know me well enough to know that I shoot straight here. If I mess it up, or it isn't that great, I'll fess up. But the crust, crumb and flavor (slightly sour) were all excellent.

I think the large range indicates it's an estimate; they don't really know. It was a crap-ton though.