I don’t use Instagram, but I do once in a while take a pic of something I’ve made, especially if I put a lot of effort into making it, and send it to our family group chat or something. I’ve found that you can take a “good” pic of just about anything if you get closer to it. Then the background doesn’t matter, the…

I think I’ve read that it also applies to aggregate bank transactions. The idea is to try to catch people who deposit, say, $200K into their bank account in a year, but only report $45K of income.

Somewhat surprising (to me), my home state of Illinois is the largest producer of pumpkins in the U.S. Although most of them are pie pumpkins and not jack-o-lantern pumpkins. Almost every year I roast some seeds. It’s a work-intensive process for me, involving a hair dryer and several hours total. Is all that work…

I found one nice puffball mushroom in the yard yesterday. We had some beef broth that needed to be used, so I made some light mushroom soup last night. Very simple, just the broth, the mushroom, thinly sliced green onion, fresh oregano and sage, and black pepper. Planning to have it with some stir fried veggies and…

To me, he’s Richmond.

I noticed we don’t get “___ saved your reply” notifications, either, for about a week now.

I went through two engines in mine, as well. A few years later I remember reading that the engine didn’t have crankcase ventilation, or it wasn’t adequate or something, and condensation caused the oil to sludge badly. That’s what happened to mine.

Only oblivious about Fords

I just discovered that our stores are out of bacon and avocados today.

My first car was a ‘76 Pacer, given to me by my grandfather when he could no longer drive. He was born in 1899, which I always thought was cool. I’m not sure why he bought the Pacer, but I think it replaced some kind of Chevy. Googling Chevys of the 70s, I’m not sure what it was. I remember it as looking something like…

Eh, some of us still have our gall bladders.

The first car I ever bought new was an ‘85 Escort. Mine was a 2-door, and until I saw this picture, I didn’t even realize that they made a 4-door Escort!

So not a lot of people agreed with me that the AMC Pacer was ahead of its time, but can we at least say it was a good idea executed poorly?

I just looked up Crisco, which is probably the most well-known shortening in the U.S. at least, and it has no trans fat. It just seems like it would be so much easier to make pastry with vegetable shortening than going to all that trouble with coconut oil. It looks like coconut oil also has more calories and 4 times…

Last Christmas I made beef Wellington, so I bought a whole filet from the local butcher shop. I think it was $90. It was probably about 10 nice thick servings worth. I used about 2/3 of it in the Wellington, and cut the rest into steaks and cooked them a few days later. It was all delicious and absolutely worth it.

I thought it had something to do with a mommy cake and a daddy cake sharing a special hug? Is that not it?? You mean cake pops are made of amputated parts of cake!?!?

For me it’s my ad blocker. If I turn off the ad blocker, it shows up. Along with a bunch of ads, of course.

Why not just use vegetable shortening?

I bought my 2016 used in 2018 in amazingly good condition. It says it’s an SE, but it seems to have essentially all the Titanium options, from the EcoBoost on up.

Trim level makes a big difference, too. I have a 2016 Fusion that has almost every option that was available, and it is downright luxurious compared to my young co-worker’s 2014 base model. His car looks almost identical to mine on the outside, but it feels very base-model on the inside. You almost wouldn’t think they…