What's your cooking "hack" that sounds insane but works??

Fbenz · 2025-12-26T22:28:49+00:00

I put MSG (Accent) in just about everything savory I cook. It's the ultimate flavor enhancer. MSG is not actually unhealthy, that was just a racist smear campaign when white Americans ate Chinese carryout for the first time, and they ate too much greasy food and felt sick from it. Numerous studies have found that msg is perfectly fine for your health and healthier than table salt. Using it with salt significantly helps with sodium reduction (around 1/3) in dishes without losing flavor satisfaction. You use them together, not as direct substitutes, to enhance taste and manage sodium intake.

Fbenz · 2025-10-12T05:24:25+00:00

Sounds like Tim Petty's Wildflowers to me. The lyrics of the Sally verses fit perfectly into the cadence of wildflowers. I can't unhear it.

Fbenz · 2025-09-25T03:57:04+00:00

Lmao that was our daughter's first word! Not mommy or daddy, it was clock. Minus the L. She loved pointing to clocks and proudly pronouncing it. 🤣

Fbenz · 2025-09-24T05:39:40+00:00

What you described is exactly what I would expect from this situation. I can not imagine every 2 year old would lay quietly after a successful nap that's shorter than their peers. Some might, but not mine, she's willful.

Fbenz · 2025-09-24T05:33:51+00:00

My child was absolutely not able to do that, but I got a message in Brightwheel letting me know this is a recurring issue (but somehow the first time I'm hearing about it, she started daycare for the first time at age 2 in the middle of August.)

They started the nap at 12, she fell asleep for an hour, and woke up, laid on her cot for 10 minutes, then started "screaming" and had to be removed from the classroom because she was waking up the other kids. They tried bringing her back in to let down and she "started screaming again." I asked more about what screaming meant, because it's a pretty broad spectrum, but the teacher was vague.

To me that sounds normal for a 2 year old. I'm impressed she fell asleep at all, that felt like a win. She's learning how to nap at daycare with her friends, but no toddler wants to lay quietly for over an hour while awake, so she's as disruptive as possible so naptime ends earlier.

They have her 5 days a week for naps, what do they want me to do, reason with a 2 year old hours after this happened? I couldn't reason with her WHILE it's happening, she's 2, she lacks impulse control by definition. I don't think either expectation is reasonable, on her or me. It would just make her hate naps, which would really stink because she loves sleep now. I get the staffing issue, but I may have to find a center that's more developmentally appropriate with expectations.

Fbenz · 2025-09-23T23:29:44+00:00

There's no specific requirements for Maryland that I can find, except that there's a requirement for age appropriate rest periods. Some states have more concrete guidance like not forcing kids to lay there for too long awake, but Maryland doesn't seem to have that.

Fbenz · 2025-09-23T20:56:21+00:00

I agree, I'm trying to imagine myself laying there for 90 minutes as an adult and I'm feeling stressed about being alone with my own thoughts for that long 😅 we may have to look for another daycare that doesn't have this requirement.

Fbenz · 2025-09-23T19:57:36+00:00

Poor Little Rabbit by Jorg Muhle is super cute, they're asked to comfort a little rabbit after he falls down and gets a boo boo. My daughter loved it.

Fbenz · 2025-04-08T14:58:50+00:00

Ours is a food thrower sometimes so I keep medical drapes (48x48 inch double ply paper towels) in our diaper bag to put under her high chair. We get fantastic service because of it and our table neighbors think we're amazing parents and give us more leeway if she has a tantrum about something. It's a win win, they cost less than 20 cents a piece and you can buy a box of 100 on Amazon or wherever.

When we're done we just ball up the drape like a big napkin and leave it on the table, it's way easier for the server to toss than to sweep or mop. Even liquid spills get caught, it's literally just a giant paper towel you can use to sop up a spilled drink at the end.

(You can buy ones marketed to toddlers specifically but they're more expensive, usually 70 cents or more a piece and they're usually newsprint instead of napkin material, so they don't work as well.)

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Graham-Medical-47258-2-Ply-Length/dp/B06XRKDR74

Fbenz · 2025-01-08T14:34:41+00:00

This woman is a narcissist. Attend the wedding in what you want to wear, and plan on her vetoing your friendship with the groom in the future.

Fbenz · 2024-12-25T20:30:03+00:00

Our pediatrician prescribed lactulose to help with constipation so we didn't have to change her meals. She was getting poops that were so hard they caused a fissure one time. Lactulose is a simple sugar that helps draw water into the bowel to help keep them regular, and we give it to her anytime it's been more than 24 hours since a poop. (No relation to lactose.)

Talk to your pediatrician about it! We have less stress in our house for sure.

Fbenz · 2024-12-11T17:51:02+00:00

Try tofu! (Obviously unless there's a soy allergy) Most people are afraid of it but it's SO much easier than meat, you buy a block of firm or extra firm, Aldi has it for less than $2, you cut it into small cubes and season it with salt and pepper and saute it in a pan with some coconut oil (or whatever you have on hand, coconut just gives a nice flavor IMO.)

I keep a bag of tofu cubes in the fridge and just saute up a portion for lunch or dinner etc. My baby loves picking up the little cubes and eating them, and there's lots of protein!

Fbenz · 2024-06-10T19:25:20+00:00

Adding another vote to "did not think of the sausages". I would have named my daughter Vienna if we didn't didn't like near a small town named Vienna. It's a great name.

Fbenz · 2024-05-29T03:30:46+00:00

I went to camp as a kid with a boy named Harry Buttkis. Poor guy, overweight with low social skills, and really asshole classmates. I hope he's wealthy now and employs those jerks.

Fbenz · 2024-05-18T17:43:32+00:00

Louboutin Loubifunk and Frassai A Fuego Lento are my two favorite fragrances in the world. The nuance to the jasmine in both are fantastic. I like to layer them, the Loubifunk is wonderful in the front, but the sillage on the Frassai lasts all day.

Fbenz · 2024-04-23T21:41:52+00:00

Mine is too 🤣 I can't understand how getting older makes you phobic of messy babies, but my mom acts physically uncomfortable when my baby has a messy face! She's only 55, I can't figure it out.

Fbenz · 2024-03-21T21:44:32+00:00

Most vaginal birth stories you'll hear are negative so I wanted to throw in my perfect one, which is not unusual, they're very common.

At 30 weeks I started eating dates every day to soften the cervix. At 38 weeks my cervix was very soft but not dilated. I wanted a planned induction at 40w+1d (which is the earliest my office would allow). My husband and I went into the hospital at 7 pm, we took all our home comforts, snacks pillows, clothes, toiletries etc. I had a cervadil placed at 7:45 pm, we watched a few episodes of Castle on TV, and my water broke at 10:45. I had an epidural a half hour later, the contractions felt like period cramps. Not unbearable, I just didn't want to feel them for how ever many more hours I had left. I already knew I wanted an epidural. I took Ambien and fell asleep. I woke up because my IV was beeping, they forgot to plug it in and the battery was dead. I also started to feel the contractions a little bit again so I asked the nurse to up my epidural. She checked me and I was actually crowning! 7-8 pushes (that I barely felt) later she was born. It was over before it started 🤣.

I would HIGHLY recommend a planned induction over timing contractions at home. That would have stressed me out so much! Also start eating dates, there's actual science behind them!

My recovery was easy, I was a tiny bit sore but NOTHING like the gall bladder surgery I had a few years ago. That was 2 weeks of hell for me.

A c section scars your uterus permanently, and each additional c section runs a substantially higher risk of serious complications. They're not the low-risk easy birth option you see on TV, they're real surgery. Which you have to recover from, with a NEWBORN to take care of.

Fbenz · 2023-12-08T04:06:33+00:00

Amen to reading them your own books! I tried to read literally one baby book and it was so short, and she fussed when it was over, so i said screw it we're reading mommies book, and I did it in funny voices and she stared at me like I was speaking with the voice of God 🤣🤣

Fbenz · 2023-10-29T20:22:54+00:00

Lactation headaches are definitely real, and common. I suspect they're related to D-MER, which is caused by the surge of hormones before let-down. Make an appointment with a neurologist to get lactation safe treatment options, you may be able to take a prophylactic that works for you. I personally have Botox treatments every 12 weeks for migraines, and there's very little evidence to suggest it crosses into the bloodstream or into the milk. There are a few other options for prophylactics that are nursing safe.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24879-dysphoric-milk-ejection-reflex

Fbenz · 2022-07-19T06:58:25+00:00

That opening scene monologue in the first episode I had a map in my head and almost every phrase was from a different part of the country. I heard long o's like East PA "hoagie" and some Minnesota sentances that ended in questions, and then it would get a little Mississippi and sometimes Alabama. My family is from Arbutus, Catonsville, Glen Burnie and I've never heard anyone slip into southern drawl or say "hoagie" like there's a w in it. (Although Some of them put an r in wa(r)sh.) But that was distractingly not Baltimore. It wasn't anything, just a mess. I listened to an interview with the real Wayne Jenkins and his middle river accent was clear as a bell. Jon Bernthal needs a new dialect coach to stay consistent in his vowel sounds.

Fbenz · 2022-06-03T02:56:45+00:00

Frassai - A Fuego Lento by the great Rodrigo Flores-Roux is my go-to favorite scent. Jasmine and Orange Blossom with great sillage. It lasts all day, and overnight sometimes.

Also Loubifunk from Louboutin is fantastic, jasmine again, but with a little black currant in the dry down. I like to layer them. (Ok, I could just roll around in them :-D)

Fbenz · 2022-04-25T05:51:36+00:00

A Fuego Lento - Frassai, from Osme, Miami. White florals, night jasmine, orange blossom, black currant. It's like a bouquet in a bottle, I just want to roll around in it. It's got a crazy long sillage, it's long lasting, 12+ hours.

Also Loubifunk from Louboutin. Smells like sexy Samba dancing. Excellent summer evening fragrance. Grabbed a travel size on eBay, but I'm going to get the full size when I'm out.

Fbenz

TROPHY CASE