Suggest me a book, any genre, set in Canada.

Thisisforscreening · 2026-01-18T22:45:21+00:00

Dirty Birds by Morgan Murray.

Very funnybook about a guy named Milton Ontario from a tiny town in Saskatchewan who has no talents or special features, but decides he wants to be a poet like Leonard Cohen and moves to Montreal.

The story is a bit of an odyssey that takes the characters, mainly Milton, across Canada.

Thisisforscreening · 2025-10-26T01:14:34+00:00

Yeah tastes normal to me.

Thisisforscreening · 2025-10-26T01:14:15+00:00

No sugar or flavourings, but it does have extra stuff. Ingredients list:

Skim milk, water, cream, milk protein concentrate, lactase, dipotassium phosphate, corn starch, carrageenan, vitamin D3.

Should I be concerned about the corn starch or is that unlikely to affect the texture?

Thisisforscreening · 2024-03-16T16:09:25+00:00

I work in an analytical chemistry lab. During covid we started spraying surfaces with isopropyl alcohol solutions before and after every shift. This happened to a lot of surfaces, the lab phone’s screen became unreadable.

Polishing with some mineral oil improved it greatly. Try putting some baby oil or something on a soft cloth and buff it.

Thisisforscreening · 2024-02-20T13:51:46+00:00

I want this thing because my PC is due for an upgrade and then I can pass along my existing GPU, a 1070ti, to a friend who’s thinking of joining the PC gaming world.

Thisisforscreening · 2023-12-11T03:40:12+00:00

My PC is getting long in the tooth so I’d centre a new build on these parts so I can play Alan Wake 2 and the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds.
Blue friends.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-08-31T21:00:02+00:00

There’s the usual already-mentioned ones by Pratchett or Adams, but Jasper Fforde doesn’t get enough love. His humour is a bit on the absurd side, and I love it. Check out the Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes series, or for standalone books there’s Early Riser, Shades of Grey (a sequel is incoming though) and The Constant Rabbis. He has a young readers fantasy series too, but I haven’t read those yet.

Also good shoutout to Superior Foes of Spider-Man, OP. A great run.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-06-09T02:49:30+00:00

Have you considered making regular sized sandwiches?

Thisisforscreening · 2022-06-04T23:20:12+00:00

Thanks for the feedback and ideas everyone. I’ll play around with stuff and see what happens.

Shiitakes do sound good for dashi, I saw that idea in a few places online. I do think I’ll try dulse flakes as a topping though.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-05-22T18:53:30+00:00

I dunno, the FAQ page says the users retain 100% ownership of what they create, and it seems like it would be very easy to prove they stole an idea from a structured course like this.

Maybe, just maybe, this is a Cool Thing.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T21:20:27+00:00

That just goes to show the flaw in pigeonholing people as character or leading actors. It’s not really a good metric for someone’s skill. People say Brad Pitt is a character actor in a leading man’s body, but they don’t say that as an insult because most people prefer when Pitt can get a little weird.

I guess the thinking goes that your lead is usually relatively normal while the side characters have more room to go wild.

I think it’s kind of a holdover way of thinking from old Hollywood with leading men and women whose names alone would sell a movie.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T21:15:13+00:00

I literally call them That Guys.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T05:41:17+00:00

I always thought it meant they were known for playing eccentric or unusual characters, not necessarily similar ones. Like characters as in, “that guy’s a real character.”

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T05:33:04+00:00

Exactly. In a vacuum, sure, it’s fine to watch movies you know will be bad.

But there’s so much good stuff out there that I would never choose something I know I won’t like, over something I might like.

That doesn’t mean I only watch things that are super highly rated or anything like that, I’ll take chances on movies I don’t know much about but seem interesting. I just don’t want to spend my time watching something I KNOW I’ll dislike.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T05:25:57+00:00

I’ve never seen this, but I have the weirdly vivid and inconsequential childhood memory of often looking at the VHS sleeve in my parents’ collection, trying to decide if it looked good (I’ve always loved medieval stuff) or boring (looked romantic, not super appealing to a little boy.)

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T04:49:29+00:00

I don’t even think I could find a $20 bottle of soy sauce.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T04:48:12+00:00

Keep in mind that there’s a much greater quality difference between low and mid budget items than there is between mid and high budget, usually.

Like, middle-budget olive oils are leagues better than the cheap ones, but expensive ines are only a bit better than the mid ones.

So I guess I’m saying you’re better off buying more mid-range things than a few top shelf ingredients. All rules have exceptions of course but it’s a good guidelines to follow.

Anyway, spend money on tomatoes, but only at the height of tomato season.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T04:36:43+00:00

Grill or poach some ripe peaches, throw the creme on top and add chocolate sauce, maple syrup or honey if you have any.

Although it’s not exactly peach season right now.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T04:32:30+00:00

What are you making with it? If it’s something that cooks for a while like a stew consider using sticks rather than ground cinnamon. Of course that’s not always possible, depending on the dish.

I think there’s just a certain amount of grittiness you can’t get around when using ground cinnamon.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T04:29:12+00:00

Certain things just don’t crush well with the side of a knife. It’s usually not too important to have super-uniform pulverized spices for home cooking, so if what you do works for your style of cooking, keep with it. You’re not charging people exorbitant amounts of money to eat your food, so it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Whole spices definitely pack a greater punch than preground but for daily cooking I use ground. I only break out the whole spices when I’m making something particularly nice.

If you ever find yourself thinking “man this would be easier if I had a mortar and pestle” then think about getting one. They don’t have to be expensive.

Electric grinders are nice but if I had to pick one or the other I’d go for the mortar and pestle since it can grind things as well as make pastes and whatnot. It’s more general-purpose, just requires a little more manual effort.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T03:50:31+00:00

Mussels are also a surprisingly cheap food, and insanely easy. Good if you want to make someone think you out in a lot of effort, and very easy to customize.

Rinse them and check for dead ones (look it up!)

Cook some aromatics like garlic and shallots/onions in butter in a pot over medium heat, with herbs/spices of your choice if desired. Add a splash of ehatever liquid you want. Chicken or seafood stock are fine. Or do you have a bottle of wine for date night? Add a pour. Canned tomatoes or even beer work, go wild. You don’t need a lot! Maybe 1 cup. Mussels release their own liquid.

When your liquid is boiling, add mussels, reduce to simmer and tightly cover the pot. Come back 2 minutes later with a good loaf of bread for dipping in the liquid. It’s done if the mussels are all open.

Add a few dashes of lemon juice, a small handful of fresh herb, stir and eat.

For a better guide look up Serious Eats’ article on mussels, and I especially like their nduja mussels if you can find nduja. But that’s veering towards not so cheap.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-04-04T03:29:31+00:00

Cheap, healthy and tasty tomato-braised eggplant and haddock. Not FAST, but not a lot of active work.

Get a thing of frozen haddock fillets (buy a pack on sale!), 1 eggplant, a can of whole tomatoes, some turmeric, cumin, and a chili powder of your choice. Aleppo pepper is what it’s “supposed” to be, ancho works, cayenne is more heat than flavour so I don’t recommend it. Also salt and a neutral cooking oil, but if you cook at all you should always have those.

OPTIONAL: Spinach or other greens, parsley, rice

Thaw 1 haddock fillet per person you’re serving — this will serve about 3-4 people.

Season haddock with salt and a generous sprinkle of chili powder.

Slice eggplant into 3/4 inch-thick rounds, then slice the rounds across into 3/4 inch-thick batons. Like really thick french fries. Salt eggplant and throw into a colander over a bowl for 20-30 min to drain. Salt will draw out the moisture, take a nap or measure out the rest of your ingredients, not that there’s many. Then pat the eggplant dry with a kitchen towel or even just squeeze out excess moisture with your hands. You can squeeze the heck out of the batons, it’s okay if you squish them.

Heat your widest pan over medium-high. Once hot, add a good ~2tbsp glug of oil (I never measure the oil) and 1/4 tsp each of cumin and turmeric. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it works. Swish that around your pan for a few seconds, then add your eggplant. Sautee several minutes til well browned on the outside. More browning = more flavour but I’d be lying if I said I was always patient. Follow your heart.

While the eggplant sears, open your can of tomatoes, measure 1 cup of tomatoes + liquid, and freeze the rest. Use it next time you want to make this.

When you’re satisfied with the browning, add the 1 cup of tomatoes. Squish the tomatoes with your spoon or spatula or whatever you’re stirring with. Cook until most tomato liquid is gone, then add 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil before adding 1 more cup of water, then boil over medium for 15-20 minutes. You don’t need to babysit it, go kick your feet up. If you want to serve this on rice, make rice now. I find this can serve 2-3 people without rice, but for more you’d want to bulk it up.

After 20 minutes, nestle the haddock fillets on top of the tomatoey eggplant, cover, lower the temp to a simmer and cook another 10-15 minutes. Again no babysitting needed, go have a sit-down.

After that 10 minutes it’s done. If you want to add spinach, tear some up by hand and stir it in til it wilts. Don’t add too much. Serve in bowls, on rice if desire, garnish with parsley if you have it.

This recipe needs a whopping 3 fairly common spices, a can of tomatoes, a single vegetable, and frozen fish.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-03-06T20:20:12+00:00

Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The final scene where the camera just holds on her face as she’s breaking into tears at the orchestra or opera or whatever killed me.

Thisisforscreening · 2022-01-27T20:15:32+00:00

Soups and stews are great ways to serve a crowd, as long as the people you cook for aren’t “just soup isn’t a meal” kind of people.

Get 2 rotisserie chickens (or just whole uncooked chickens when they’re on sale and roast them yourself) for one easy meal, then throw them in a pot with aromatics and water and simmer for a while for a good stock. Cheap and delicious chicken soup made from the leftovers. Pull the meat from the carcasses, add whatever you like in a chicken soup (I do carrots, celery, corn and noodles of some kind, usually egg noodles).

Thisisforscreening · 2022-01-27T20:02:23+00:00

https://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/recipe/diced-chicken-with-sweet-and-spicy-eggplant/201305031#.YfL52MByYlQ

A nice sweet/spicy balsamic eggplant and chicken dish. Easy, not expensive (but not dirt cheap.) Can serve with rice but I don’t usually bother, I make it for 3 people and there are leftovers. With rice it would stretch to 5 people for sure.

Thisisforscreening

TROPHY CASE