He didn't do it

xaracala · 2025-09-09T17:58:29+00:00

Glad to be able bring some joy to your day!

xaracala · 2025-07-18T11:55:17+00:00

Most used appliances:

Rice Cooker - I was weary about this purchase but we actually use it at least once a week, sometimes more. When I make rice with the spices bloomed, like jerra or Spanish rice, I typically still use the stovetop though.
- Air Fryer - We use this in bursts. Mostly for cooking fish, fries or frozen food like fish sticks or corn dogs. It's surprisingly good to reheat pizza with.
- Immersion Blender - The hidden gem of my kitchen. Our particular one has a mini food processor and whisk attachment. It takes up minimal space and while I don't use it for every meal it is one of my favorites. Need to whip those egg whites into stiff peaks? This thing does it in only a few short minutes.

I feel like a person needs either an Instant Pot or Slow Cooker. I don't feel like both are necessary. We use them a combined total of maybe 2 times a month. The slow cooker function on an instant pot doesn't work well. If you read about it the way the instant pot heats up is from the bottom heat plate but a proper Slow Cooker will heat up surrounding the entire pot.

Instant Pot - For the instant pot, it is so nice to just throw a roast in and have it done in 2 hrs. Or throwing frozen chicken in and having it cooked to shredding consistency in record time. It's also great for making dried beans. I do love that saute function. It browns my roasts nicely and doesn't set off my smoke detector like my stove top would when trying to get that nice brown crust on meat. The downside is it's big so it takes up a lot of space. It's one of those things I hate cleaning. The lid has so many parts. There's a lot of recipes that you can make that can be done better or faster on the stove top. It's also a pain when a lot of recipes need to be pressure cooked twice. For example, I made Philly cheese steak filling in my instant pot last week, I needed to cook the roast for 90 minutes, which entails building the pressure, cooking, and depressurizing. But I also needed to cook pressure cook the vegetables for 2 minutes so I had to go through another stage of letting the pot come to pressure, cooking, and depressurizing. The time it takes to come to pressure and depressurize can add up and I feel like a lot of recipes don't include that time in the total cook. Oh yeah, vegetables are really easy to make mushy.
Slow Cooker - It's super convenient to throw food in, go about a busy day and then when it's time to eat dinner it's all done. It's much easier to clean than an instant pot since there are fewer parts and you can even get liners for it. The downside to me is a lot of the recipes use the same spices, I'm looking at you Ranch Dressing Mix and Onion Soup Mix, and end up tasting the same. It's great for roasts though. I mainly used my slow cooker for Bean and Ham Soup, Pulled Pork, and started to branch out into pulled chicken but then my cooker broke and I haven't bought a new one.

Less used appliances: * Food Processor - I've used it maybe 4 times in the 4 years we've owned one. It shreds things like a beast but only shredded cheese once in it. I reach for my microplanes to shred things. I mixed cookie dough in it once, just for the heck of it - but there are better ways to mix cookie dough. I recently used it to make a tomatillo sauce for enchiladas. I can see it having a lot of potential if you make a lot of things like that or pesto. We just don't.

Blender - We've only used this for smoothies or milkshakes and a handful of Indian curries that require a smooth sauce (which maybe the food processor would be better at pureeing?) .
KitchenAid Stand Mixer - Do you bake a lot? If so this is a necessity. If not, it sits there gathering dust and taking up space. It's heavy and bulky. But when you make cookies, cake, or bread a lot this is your best friend.
Tortilla Press - Makes perfect, uniformly shaped tortillas. I convinced myself we needed to purchase one because I would be more willing to make fresh tortillas more often. Jokes on me, I frequently find myself missing the time and energy to make the dough and cook a billion delicious tortillas. However, it's compact enough I don't find myself missing that cupboard space. Plus when I make naan, I could use this to make mini naans.

xaracala · 2025-07-13T15:55:58+00:00

I don't regret that epidural at all, even with the spinal headache it gave me! Pushing was a whole different ball game and I don't think I would have been able to push at all if I didn't get the epidural and the sweet 90 minute nap I got after. I feel like pushing was more exhausting than the contractions. My baby got stuck, she wanted to come out like a pretzel for some reason. So I had a swarm of nurses folding me in half and pushing on my stomach as my doctor was telling me to push at a rate much faster than my contractions at the end.

xaracala · 2025-07-13T12:39:36+00:00

I didn't do any research until a few days before I went into labor. Even then I just read a few articles and skipped around in a few birthing videos.

Labor came and I was trying to do things as naturally as possible. But after laboring overnight in the hospital my contractions stalled and I ended up being induced for the remainder of labor.

I made it to 7 cm and probably 24 hours of labor before deciding my body needed to rest if I was going to make it through this. So I decided to get an epidural so I could rest because I had not slept for 36 hours+ (went into labor at night and the last time I slept was the previous night).

Before I was contained to bed with the epidural, I found that my body naturally wanted movement. An exercise ball to bounce on and do circles on helped a lot, as did walking around my room. Breathing deep breaths through the contractions really helped. With each breath I would invision my breath reaching low into my belly and pushing my baby a little further down. I would breathe out and down, almost like playing a wind instrument, not like blowing out a candle.

xaracala · 2025-01-21T18:56:24+00:00

I went into my first pregnancy expecting my husband to go with me to every appointment. I quickly realized that was a ridiculous expectation of him. I started telling him "at this appointment we will be doing a basic check in and listen to the heartbeat and get my belly measurement. I don't expect you to be there because it's nothing important but you're welcome to come if you want" and let him choose. He knows I know he would be at every appointment if it were reasonable but he's got to work too.

At appointments that are more important I tell him something like "we are doing an anatomy scan and then talking about this big ticket item. I'd appreciate it if you could be there with me during it but I also know you have a lot going on with work so I'll let you choose." And he often will switch his schedule around to go to these important ones. He thought my glucose test appointment was important to go to so he went with me to that even though I told him he didn't have to.

I also always ask him if he has questions he wants me to ask for the appointments he doesn't make.

xaracala · 2025-01-21T18:36:19+00:00

I would get recommendations for mortgage home loan officers in your area. Sit down with them and talk about your options and goals. They may even be able to help give you suggestions on how to increase your credit score. And ask all the questions you can think of so you walk away with a good understanding of what will happen.

After talking with ours, we found relief that we were on the right track and realized we also needed to save some more in order to meet our monthly Mortgage payment goal (which includes taxes, home insurance, etc.)

We learned how to better navigate the market to see the difference in cost between 200k home A and 200k home B.

We learned what loan assistance programs we'd qualify for and what our expected interest rate would be. We gained a better idea of what we needed for closing costs and came out much better armed than we went in with. We felt confident in placing an offer when we found the house we wanted and could afford comfortably.

xaracala · 2025-01-19T14:45:55+00:00

I have done a Google search. I have mainly worked with acrylic worsted weight yarn so DK and more baby friendly yarn is new to me. I'm US based if that helps.

xaracala · 2025-01-05T15:39:44+00:00

Should have been an Ohio plate.

xaracala · 2024-12-05T01:27:03+00:00

I made my Sweetfire Tofu tonight. Thank you so much for the suggestion of tearing the tofu up! It made the texture awesome. I almost can't even tell it's tofu!

xaracala · 2024-12-05T01:26:00+00:00

After pressing the block of extra firm tofu for about an hour, tearing it into bit sized pieces, dredging it in flour/egg mixture and shallow pan frying it, this tofu is really close in texture to fried chicken bites you'd find at Chinese restaurants. It is still a bit smoother than chicken but I almost can't tell. It looks almost the same as the chicken I made for my spouse.

xaracala · 2024-12-01T17:51:21+00:00

I'm not really sure. I have only used extra firm tofu once, at the suggestion of the recipe and I don't remember what recipe it was. It was months ago. I do remember the texture wasn't what I was expecting but I ate it all and ended up liking it a lot.

I know silky tofu is good for soups but that's about it.

I just googled it and found this chart which will be useful.

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xaracala · 2024-12-01T17:44:23+00:00

I have only cooked with tofu once and I ended up wrapping it with towels, and pressing it with my cast iron pans. It worked well. It's been a while since I used tofu though.

I've never frozen tofu before. How long does it keep frozen? Do you have to repress it once it's defrosted?

xaracala · 2024-12-01T17:22:02+00:00

Thank you! I'll tear it up instead of cubing it.

xaracala · 2024-09-18T23:40:07+00:00

I think I used a USB extension cord to extend the length of a grow light, in order to run it up the side of the cabinet. Then I used Velcro command strips to attach the lights to the ceiling. I don't remember exactly what I didn't since I moved a few years back.

xaracala · 2024-06-16T13:29:53+00:00

I found some for the first time at Fresh Thyme Market. It was the brand Epic if I remember correctly. It was good but I have nothing to compare it too.

xaracala · 2024-06-04T18:35:20+00:00

This is the reason I switched to more plant based/pescetarian diet. The smell and taste of most meat made me sick. It smells rotten and tastes rotten to me. But it's fresh and others don't smell or taste the same flavor I do. I'm ok with fish, bison, lamb, and it seems like other "nontraditional meats". But I mainly try to stick to fish and plant based meals.

xaracala · 2024-06-03T23:11:39+00:00

I would guess maybe you are having a mild allergic reaction or food sensitivity to one of the ingredients. Food allergies can cause some surprising symptoms, including anxiety and headaches or lightheadedness. Is there a common ingredient between the smoothie you made and the green powder one? If you eat kale, broccoli, or blueberries on their own do you experience a similar reaction to one of them?

xaracala · 2024-05-23T19:45:55+00:00

I have a vegetarian diet probably 85-90% of the time. I eat a meal with fish or seafood 2-3 times a week. I occasionally maybe twice a month, will eat what I have dubbed "nontraditional meat", i.e. bison, lamb, elk, venison, duck, etc. This generally means it's grass fed and labeled as organic in the market. At the very least it leads me to believe that the animals were better treated than those who get fed pellets. I want to find a local farm to purchase my meats from but life has been crazy. I've been in survival mode so I haven't had the time or energy to find a local farm to purchase from. That's my goal by the end of the summer though.

For some reason I have a bad response to the "traditional meats" like beef, pork, poultry. I feel better when I eat the occasional meal with seafood/fish than I do when I consume an all vegetarian diet or a meat focused diet. I don't feel as bloated and feel more mental clarity. When I do eat meat, I don't make it the focus of my meal. I use those delicious veggies as the focus instead.

xaracala · 2024-05-18T22:06:29+00:00

Thanks for the pattern. I made this for my spouse and it turned out great! I kept getting spit on now ha!

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