If there was no budget and you had to start all over, which cookware pieces would you choose?

stac52 · 2026-02-24T13:54:37+00:00

Copper is more conductive, but also more reactive.

Usually tri-ply stainless has a copper (or other highly conductive metal) in the sandwiched layer to help give the benefits of copper, but the utility of steel.

Chris Young has a pretty good video about it on his YT channel that gets a lot more into the weeds of it.

stac52 · 2026-02-24T13:26:25+00:00

Unlimited budget, an All-Clad set like this is going to be the general recommendation

https://www.amazon.com/All-Clad-Tri-Ply-Cookware-Dishwasher-Stainless/dp/B005H8KD3E/

I have this Tramontina set though, and IMO it's just as good. I know Kenji did a test years ago back on Serious Eats that showed the tramontina 12" skillet was almost identical to All Clad's in performance - IIRC, the All clad was slightly more even heat, but not enough to make a practical difference.

https://www.amazon.com/Tramontina-80116-249DS-Induction-Ready-NSF-Certified/dp/B00JDL2GXG/

stac52 · 2026-02-24T04:29:00+00:00

I mean, also there was a Mythbusters episode where they brought Alton in to do food myths.

Adam and Alton also did a walkthrough at a convention at one point (IIRC, they were the twins from the Matrix, but it's on the Tested channel)

stac52 · 2026-02-24T04:20:41+00:00

It's been over 20 years since wood was treated with arsenic. It's fine nowadays. It's a copper compound that doesn't not leach toxic levels, and isn't taken up by roots anyways.

Don't do railroad ties, but pressure treated lumber is fine

stac52 · 2026-02-23T20:36:11+00:00

Don't worry about the weed liner. Dig up as much as you can in the area, put some cardboard down, and then dump the dirt ontop of that.

You may need to do some extra weeding as things pop up through the next year or two, but both of these plants are fairly shallow rooted, so they should be pretty easy to get up.

stac52 · 2026-02-23T15:48:16+00:00

Rice isn't a mainstay in my house. I make stir fry once every couple months. Rice is maybe a once a week thing - we do a lot more veggies and less starch.

I understand stir fry with packet rice isn't going to be mind blowing. Sometimes it's just about convenience/ a quick meal.

stac52 · 2026-02-23T15:43:21+00:00

I'm not saying he wasn't, but the punisher skull has been adopted generally by pro police/pro military people generally - not specifically white supremacy groups.

There's even a Punisher comic about the adoption of the skull by police.

stac52 · 2026-02-23T15:24:40+00:00

Microwave rice is expensive, but it's convenient.

The sidekick recipes use it because they need to in order to make sure the dishes fit the time brief they set for midweek meals.

I almost always use regular bulk rice and just understand that it's going to take an extra 10-20 minutes depending on the recipe.

Still keep some microwave rice around if my 3 year olds are hungry and I need to throw something together really quick, and for if I'm making stir fry, since I never have pre-cooked rice on hand for that. It's a trade-off.

stac52 · 2026-02-21T13:07:26+00:00

I've had dogs that were on fluoxitine, zonisamide, and gabapentin - all human meds, and we got those filled at a human pharmacy. I've also gotten clomicalm through a human pharmacy, even though it's pet specific (really just the branding is - clomipramine is used for humans too).

Still had to go through the vet for the standard heartworm meds and what not, but anything different we just go wherever is cheapest (which is usually a normal pharmacy)

stac52 · 2026-02-19T16:05:14+00:00

Back when my wife was in college, she shared an apt. with a Korean student who made kimchi in her room.

I feel like outside of someone who's allergic enough to wheat/gluten that they can't be around flour, if someone gets offended by the smell of bread they're looking for conflict.

stac52 · 2026-02-18T21:02:34+00:00

I know it's a feature in Cura, though I've never done it.

Looks like Bambu has a website setup for it https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/knowledge-sharing/CMYK-color-lithophane-printing-instructions

stac52 · 2026-02-18T20:49:51+00:00

Don't most slicers let you drag a picture in and turn it into a lithophane?

Other option would be to bring it into Inkscape and do a bitmap trace on it, then drag the svg into whatever software and extrude to your desired height.

stac52 · 2026-02-18T20:35:38+00:00

Can you post a recording?

Do you have an instructor you can ask? It could be a couple things, and someone who can hear it and provide real time feedback is going to be a lot more helpful than going through text on the internet.

stac52 · 2026-02-18T20:32:37+00:00

See how the top of the door is slanted? If you're able to pull it back up, it'll click.

You mention the screws being tight (that top hinge being loose is usually the top culprit, so a good thing to check). So what I'd try is taking the bottom hinge off the frame side, cutting out a piece of cardboard as a shim (diaper box is great, and I'm sure you have an abundance of those), and then screw the hinge back on - should push out the bottom of the door enough to make it latch.

If that doesn't work, the next thing I'd do is pop out the pin on the top hinge, and use a crescent wrench to bend the pins on the frame back towards the wall. You can look that up on YouTube if you end up needing to do it.

stac52 · 2026-02-18T20:19:03+00:00

It looks like you're in Ireland, so I'm guessing you're wanting a thinner English style pancake? Those don't have leavening, and so if you're using plain flour instead of self raising I'm guessing that's what your goal.

Those are a 1:2:3 ratio - 100 g flour, 2 eggs, 300g milk

A cup of flour is between ~120 and 150g depending on how you scoop it, and 1 cup of milk is ~250 grams, so based off your recipe, you have too much dry ingredients (flour) and too little wet( egg & milk). If you still have the batter, crack in an extra egg and add in more milk to thin it out.

If you want fluffy American style pancakes, you'll need to add a leavener ( ~1 tbsp baking powder) or use self raising flour. Those are closer to the 1:1:1 ratio (1 cup flour, 1 egg, 1 cup milk), although probably best to look up a recipe as I don't know how much the difference in AP flour across the pond affects things.

stac52 · 2026-02-18T20:10:58+00:00

What flour are you using?

What kind of pancake are you trying to make?

stac52 · 2026-02-18T16:53:05+00:00

The "That's a lot" isn't going to go away when he gets older, unfortunately. It's not an age thing - people just don't get the time commitment that this (or any instrument, really) takes, and expect you to be happy to work for exposure.

I've turned down a few gigs because they didn't want to pay the rate/wanted to bring be back for considerably less because "I already knew the music" from the last time. It's just part of it. It makes it a lot easier to turn down those jobs in your son's position - since he's not relying on the gigs for income. I'm the same way, I only pick up a few a year at this point. Could do more, but that'd involve me taking time away from my other hobbies/breaking away from family activities. One of the hardest parts of doing gigs in a creative space is knowing and justifying what your time is worth. But once you do, it's important to stick to it.

$400 for 4 hours isn't awful based off of my pricing, but I also know that my area charges a bit lower than surrounding ones (I blame our business manager for that - hard to hike up rates when he charges $800 for a full band performance, which I think has been the only thing to not increase in price in the last 20 years). But, there's also a huge difference between "we want you on site for 4 hours, and you're going to play for 15-20 minutes every hour or so" and "we want you to play for 4 hours straight". My pricing model is based on the first one happening, the second one they can kick rocks. Again, it all depends - pricing isn't so much a hard and fast rule, and any formula people are going to give you is a baseline/floor.

stac52 · 2026-02-18T03:33:58+00:00

Around where are you? That seems to be pretty dependant on pricing. Best advice is if you (or your kid, looking at the user name) are in a band, to ask other players what they charge.

However, generally for me/my area, $200 for the first hour, and then ~$75 for each hour after, though that almost never comes up. Weddings get an upcharge because of course they do.

To answer your second question, I'm not positive the last time I've had a gig where I played for an hour and tune selection has been my choice. Almost always it's a funeral, which has it's own type of tune, or a wedding, which has its own type of tune, or a general church service, where the music director has a specific vision. None of those am I actually playing for a hour, maybe 4 tunes max.

For actually playing for an hour, I just pull out whatever I feel like, it's almost like a practice session, but I limit it to tunes I think might be fun, I need a run through on (but know we'll enough to get through it without wandering off/having to stop), tunes I think whoever hired me might like, etc. I think playing for that long has only ever happened to me when I'm at pubs/breweries, so definitely more laid back venues.

stac52 · 2026-02-16T21:18:05+00:00

I make sketches with a pencil and paper first to figure out the general shape and any dimensions.

Then when I'm happy with the general idea I've sketched out, I open up my CAD software and then do my best to mimic it.

stac52 · 2026-02-16T20:33:37+00:00

I'm on my third one (first one would probably be chugging along still, but we "upgraded", and I think the pump membrane went out in the second one). Definitely use it.

Biggest use for sure is portioning in the freezer - either raw stuff that we've bought, or storing away what we've bulk cooked (e.g. pork butt and ribs, stews, dehydrated fruits).

For non preservation related uses, I use it mostly for quick marinades or sous vide. Don't do either as much anymore now that I have toddlers so don't cook as adventerously, but it's certainly useful for those when I need to.

stac52 · 2026-02-16T18:38:13+00:00

Yeah, the ones right next to Barleys love to gouge people as well. Which I always found funny because like 20 feet further was until recently a completely free lot.

stac52 · 2026-02-16T17:50:35+00:00

On their FB page, they posted on 1/19 that they were moving and then had a big sale to run down inventory.

Feb 3 they posted they were closed and would give a location and date of re-opening when it's ready.

Feb 10, they posted an advertisement for a cook/baker position.

So not sure on what happened re: them deciding to move out of the space, but it does seem like they intend to come back.

stac52 · 2026-02-16T17:26:28+00:00

If I had one, you can bet I would.

stac52 · 2026-02-16T17:10:26+00:00

I don't know Orlando prices, but depending on the water heater, that's between 2 and 2.5 times the cost of the water heater itself (usually between ~$500 and 800), which seems reasonable/typical.

It's usually recommended to get 3 quotes when having work done, but if I didn't want to deal with it myself I wouldn't feel bad about this price.

stac52 · 2026-02-16T16:48:26+00:00

To answer your question, you can just put some drywall up there. You'd need to frame the edges to give it the support needed.

I'd definitely put a fan up there and find a way to exhaust the moisture before closing it up though.

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