I used one of my Christmas gift cards to order a 12" carbon steel frying pan. I have a cast iron one but it is very heavy. I don't need it often, but when I do I'm always worried I'm going to drop it when it's full of hot food and I have to transfer it from stove top to oven or broiler, or vice versa. So we'll see how the carbon steel pan goes. I love the one I have for crepes, but it is much smaller and flatter.
It was top of mind this weekend because I decided to make this skillet chicken parm, but I was able to use my 10" (enameled) cast iron pan for it, which is more manageable, since I only had 2 chicken breasts. And it was pretty good! I made the Marcella Hazan simple tomato sauce for it and it worked out well. It's definitely easier than breading and frying a bunch of cutlets, and it gives a decent approximation of the best bits, which are the breading and cheese and sauce all melding together.
Then today I made this slow cooker creamy lemon chicken and it was okay - needed more lemon, imo, and also after reading the comments, I was prepared and added more cornstarch when the sauce didn't thicken much. I also thought it was weird that they want you to brown the chicken in butter first, but not saute the shallot and garlic. I didn't bother with searing the chicken, since generally I don't bother when I'm using the slow cooker, but I did saute the shallot and garlic first and added the dried herbs and let them sizzle for about 30 seconds before removing the pot from the stove and fitting it into the Instant Pot.
So it's been nice and cozy in here while the weather has been stupidly cold. Sadly, I have to go to a conference on Tuesday, when the high is supposed to be like 20°F. The agenda sounds interesting but I already told my boss if it was snowing I was staying home, but I don't think I can bail if it's just super cold but clear and dry. Who runs a conference in New York in January!? This is the time of year to be someplace warm. (Not that they would pay for me to go to a conference someplace warm! We're not even paying for this one - the tickets are comped because our head of HR is moderating a panel.)
I'm just glad I don't have to go out tomorrow, when it will be messy.
I last updated this story on March 2020, but I never stopped thinking about it and churning through my notes and tinkering, everything just got really slow while survival and adaptation took first dibs on my creativity. For a while I felt bad leaving a wip hanging in the wind, this was the first long fic I started posting to AO3 without finishing first, but I knew the end points roughly, and there's something to be said for having those earlier chapters locked down to keep one focused.
Been writing on it more diligently for a while now, and I'm guesstimating another six chapters to bring it home.
Electronic Thumb (88801 words) by feldman Chapters: 13/18 Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov Characters: Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Laura Barton, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Clint Barton, Isaiah Ross (Marvel) Additional Tags: Road Trips, Americana, Magical Realism, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Extremis is the third heat, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Iron Man 3 Summary:
Strange motels and high-roller suites, natural and unnatural wonders, learning too much about your companions’ biological quirks, meeting new people (and some very old people), wrestling with moral quandaries, ingrained habits, and also an alligator, finding your way and losing your grip and finding each other…
Sometimes “Sound on” is a disappointment. This is not one of those times
transcript: [in thick New England accent] “Holy fucking shit; MA! MA, COME OUTSIDE, THERE’S A FUCKING MOOSE! OR A BUFFALO OR SOME SHIT; THEY’RE FIGHTIN’! Where the fuck are you goin’?! MA!! Hoooly shit; this is some fuckin’ National Geographic shit. MA, CALL THE FUCKIN’ COPS OR THE ASPCA; THERE’S ANIMALS FIGHTIN’ IN THE FRONT LAWN!! OOOOOH SHIT!!”
Turtle Frog (Myobtrachus gouldii), family Myobatrachidae, found in Wandoo, WA, Australia
What hath God wrought?!
These burrowing frogs dig forward, like a turtle, and not backwards into the soil, like most frogs.
After pairing up, a couple descends into a burrow, where they later mate, and then lay eggs. The offspring go through the larval stage in the eggs (not having a free swimming tadpole stage).
Pretty absurd that people can even get food poisoning. That food gets crushed up and then pushed into a pouch full of hydrochloric acid. Bonkers that that isn’t a more foolproof sterilisation system.
I guess it’s reasonable that some of the pathogen-produced toxins can survive it but still. I’d expect it to take out more of those too.
Humans: I put all my food in a bag of sterilising juice!
Pathogens: Guess I’ll just have to adapt to the sterilising juice then
The vulnerability comes from the fact that we cannot use sterilising juices that would dissolve us. The existence of organic something that could survive sterilising juice is both an exploitable weakness and non-negotiable requirement
That’s why we do the fire part outside the body I guess
My local mayor posted this and I’m mesmerised. Every time I look at it I spot a new problem. It’s like a rorschach test.
Not only did the AI fail to make a functioning UK map despite TONS of accurate maps available, but then a team of people actually thought “that looks about right, that’s probably the North, it’s got at least one Hull that’ll do” and posted it.
York ⁽Yᵒʳᵏ⁾
No you know, it’s easy to hate, but I want this team to tackle another section of rail next. Let’s give them their heads
One of the biggest pains with rail in the north is having to cross the pennines (it’s an issue by road too).
Relocating Manchester Piccadilly to the east of the pennines is clearly a solution to that problem, resulting in much faster connections between Manchester and eastern cities like York, Hull, York, and Hull.
You get it! It’ll take a lot of work, but if we simply align the existing infrastructure with this vision, I reckon we can really identify the roadblocks (Warringtons) to unlocking the potential (Warrington) of the North (Warrington).
When you’re a kid they’re always offering you animal books, and there are two fundamental genres. If you’re unlucky they’ll drown you in animal books (cozy), but if you’re lucky someone will give you an animal book (horrifying)
I maintain that it’s the nature of animal books that all of them are horrifying, but only the really good ones are willing to admit it.
ok another quick question for Mechsfans/Stowaways regarding the Deep Lore history of the band
do u know about
the dubstep remixes
has @wickedace told you about the remixes
the remixes, specifically, which go
a) PUMP ME PUMP ME PUMP ME BOYS BOYS BOYS UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ
and
b) I’m not a man//I don’t have hands [mandolin track drops out]//thought I could speak- [2 minutes of dead air]
Unfortunately I don’t think these recordings still exist, or if they do nobody I’ve talked to in the band knows where they are. And it’s been some years so I may be misremembering the story here and am open to correction. But I know I’m remembering the remixes right.
PUMP ME PUMP ME PUMP ME PUMP ME BOYS BOYS BOYS BOYS: If I had to guess I’d put this towards the end of the album production for OuAT - my recollection is that Tim had located a dubstep generator online and plugged in one of the nearly-done tracks from the album (I wanna say Laid in Blood) and everyone cracked the hell up, and then we all went back to what we were doing while Tim and Ben kept playing with it in the corner
and then they cracked all the way up and showed us what it had generated out of Pump Shanty which was, of course, PUMP ME PUMP ME PUMP ME PUMP ME BOYS BOYS BOYS BOYS
(for some reason in my mind it’s associated with this gif and I thiiiiink when Tim and Ben played it Ben brought this gif up and then for months every time someone from the band sent me this gif I DIED)
PUMP ME BOYS PUMP ME BOYS PUMP ME PUMP ME PUMP ME PUMP ME BOYS BOYS BOYS BOYS
I’m not a man: I’m not sure what the deal was with this one because I heard about it second hand from Kofi and I’ve never been clear if a) this is a remix that was made during the mixing process or b) this was Jess and Kofi messing around during rehearsal. but it cracks me tf up and I reference it constantly. i’m not a man. i don’t have hands.
The box of spiders: I have HEARD THIS ONE MORE RECENTLY THAN THE OTHERS because it happened while they were making scratch recordings for Bifrost and Kofi recorded it on his phone for Serious Music Reasons. I don’t remember the words precisely but Tim was improvising lyrics to see how the vocals would sound and they were entirely about having a box of spiders that he was going to put on you. it had Big Threatening Energy. at the time some people (mostly I think Kofi and his sister) were batting around the idea of doing a behind-the-scenes film of the Bifrost production process because they kind of knew it was going to be the last album and fr Mechs rehearsals and brainstorming are the best kind of stupid, and I remember that because Kofi showed me the Box of Spiders song and went THIS. THIS IS WHY WE SHOULD HAVE A BACKSTAGE FILM (it didn’t happen because of costs, logistics, and the fact that it’s hard enough to fit nine people and their instruments into a small studio without bringing in a tenth and a stack of video equipment. but oh my god I’m forever gutted that there’s no BtS film bc I went to like one or two rehearsals and that’s some sweet sweet Content)
HOT UPDATE: just got off the phone with Kofi
he has reminded me that Box of Spiders is in fact from the development of Losing Track, and that the lyrics go
“I’ve got a box of spiders They live inside my head I’ve got a box of spiders And soon you will be dead”
I haven’t heard these but I know there was something about the Trial by Song one on Twitter, which might have been the original inspiration:
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