This is wonderful news! I'm so happy for you, especially that your heart is at rest given all the change. God is good!

I think she must be my neighbor! (Not really, but jeeze. I know enough about my neighbor's kids' business that I won't ever, ever tell her any of ours!)

I'm going to chime in on the opposite end of this idea, but with all respect for SKL's opinion. Maybe it's just my extended family (on both sides) but we've had multiple experiences with borrowed items going awry, and not necessarily things that belonged to us, but similar stories we've heard over the years. Since this is something that clearly meant a lot to nephew -- he's keeping it for sentimental reasons even though he doesn't play it -- I don't think I'd request he loan it to ds. You never know how it could go south, if not by direct action by the young adult, perhaps by something accidental. I just wouldn't.

I'm so sorry; it's been rough for many of us, but a few boardies have had really awful times. I hope next year is better in so many ways!

No problem; I just missed it last year. Maybe Chris did, too, but who knows? I was thinking more like MW "Word of the Day".

So this thread isn't what I thought it would be about, and it seems like @TravelingChris and I are on the same page...perhaps thinking of words that we learned or gained new meaning for us, rather than our aspirational word or phrase for the upcoming year. I doubt Chris would be looking for ways to apply the concept of fungibility in 2024. 😄

Courtesy of Drew, the younger brother of Jess from the Roots & Refuge You Tube channel, discussing her plating up a "breakfast bowl" of all farm-grown food: sweet potatoes, apples, bacon, onions and rosemary, topped with a fried egg and hollandaise: Drew: do you have any chrome dishes? Jess: 🤷‍♀️What?!? Drew: There's no plate like chrome for the holidays. Jess: 🤦‍♀️ /dies laughing/

I'm not saying you should buy it for him, but I do think that giving him $100 bucks (the differential between what you had already bought for him and the top of your budget) is reasonable. That money should start off his Guitar Fund. He can add to it himself, or you all can add to it for the next couple of occasions. I would encourage him to spend some time looking at what he wants and then make a considered choice. My then notoriously fad-of-the-moment-minded 10 year old wanted to learn to play guitar. I would have gone out and bought him the $69 cheap guitar at Walmart to see if the fad hung around, and then upgraded if he persisted in learning. Dh took him to the guitar convention, took him to several guitar stores, and to Guitar Center several times, and then finally sent me with ds to a small independently owned music store, and ds picked a guitar that he and dh had looked at when they went to the guitar convention. It was the personal touch of musicians who really loved the instrument, the quiet of the store, and the one-on-one time of the older salesman who taught ds the differences in the sound produced by each instrument that won the day and helped ds pick a guitar that he liked for the purpose he wanted. I know, absolutely, that that journey caused ds to treasure his choice and stoked the little fire in him for learning to play, and persisting in spite of sore fingers, in spite of having to overcome his own indolence and learn to practice. Dh's approach was absolutely the right one. If we had gone with my approach, it would have been over in a week, and an opportunity would have been lost. (I learned something from it, too. 🙂 )

OK, all you turkey people: my family really doesn't care for turkey because the turkey breast is generally quite dry; gravy is mandatory to make it palatable. One year we bought a turkey from a local place that is known for their deep fried cajun turkey, and it was marginally better. With that as context, do you think spatchcocking --which seems to be all the rage -- does much for improving the overall juiceness of the turkey, perhap due to less time roasting required? We didn't find that roasting only a bone-in turkey breast--which would be about the same as spatchcocking -- did much for improving the meat being so lean/dry. Thoughts on this? I'm willing to give it a go if you found something that really works! Thanks in advance!

Reporting back about that standing rib roast. I looked at the bones, and sure enough, the anatomy is a deceiver: the 2 ribs had been cut right where each has a second bone attached, so I counted 4 bones and oven seared for twice as long as it should have! That said, the leftover meat, bones and gravy made a fabulous veggie-beef soup, probably the best I've ever made, so I'm not complaining. I have about three meals of that in my freezer now, so it's all good. 😉 On this long weekend of plenty of energy to experiment, I also made a "keto" cinnamon bun recipe for a family member with a recipe they found on the internet. I've been reluctant to make the recipe, because I just wasn't convinced. Sure enough, I finally made it, and, just like I thought, it was absurdly similar to cinnamon spiral keto cookies -- nothing like rolls -- because anything made with almond "flour" is going to have that grainy texture. The rolls were also absolutely nothing like the photo on the webpage; I swear they made a batch of flour rolls and took a picture, then put the bogus photo with the "keto" recipe. That's two hours I'll never get back!

My brother-in-law, who is a great cook swears by the sear first and then sit, method. The problem was entirely my fault: I literally counted the round spots of marrow and bone at the end of the roast and timed accordingly, 15 x 4. The problem is that I didn't know the anatomy of that cut, that the rib bones, for lack of a more accurate term, branch into two parts or attach to a second part, so I should have high heat seared for 30 minutes, not an hour. If I'd have had the right kind of thermometer, we'd have adjusted our cook time, but with the sear first method, you must not open the oven door. I may try the sear last method next time, because I like the idea of dry brining the night before. (But I needed the correct thermometer for that.) Thanks for letting me know reverse searing works!

I hear ya! I have another big cooking event next weekend, and I'm thinking about how to simplify.

That's so sweet! I'm glad he was appreciative and happy!

We download into quicken and verify there. We've caught fraudulent charges several times, so we verify.

Yep, we paid the price you'd pay for a chuck roast, so I didn't think it could hurt to try. I'm normally a decent cook, but this was definitely experimental. 😄 A probe thermometer with an outside-the-oven control box is now on my Christmas list. (I have meat thermometers, but never needed one that couldn't be read by opening the oven door.)

I'll start. 🙂 Standing rib roast -- first time I've cooked one. Way overcooked. I think I counted the bones incorrectly to time the high heat sear; I'll have to go dissect the leftovers to see why I counted four bone ends, not two. No matter, it was still tasty, just not fork-tender. The gravy was phenomenal; so I'll make good soup with the left-overs. Our grocery store was selling inexpensive beef, not choice or prime, so it was a good practice run. (This was a last minute decision, as none of us felt like having our usual.) The rest of the meal, including scalloped potatoes with cream, dijon, and swiss, turned out well.

I think that's the magic of the pumpkins, they really jumpstarted the microbial life. The one thing I wish we didn't have was all the pumpkin seed husks. They all germinated and I turned the little seedlings back under to decompose, but the seed husks are tough little buggers, and small enough that the screening didn't strain them out. Oh, well.

Thankful for a healthy baby granddaughter in spite of her arriving early (in June), so she's now 4 months gestational age and doing well. Thankful for faith and the miracle that preceded it. Deeply, insanely thankful for the beauty of our world, and the precious people in it. Thankful I have heat. LOL!

Oh. gosh. Can it be cut off, saved, and then you demand a re-do fro the dentist? I had a hair on my tongue, compost on my hands, and I couldn't remove it. I was honestly afraid I'd choke on it before I could get to it! (Or that's what it felt like!) You poor thing. I'm so sorry. I would not be living with that a moment longer.

I went and looked at the first home dh and I bought, and the neighborhood has continued to go downhill. The house was on a beautiful lake, and our relative owned the house next door. We sold and moved to dh's family's area, and about a decade ago, the relative aged out of the home, so we helped them sell it. At the time, we considered keeping the home in the family as a rental, but several homes at the end of the street were being used as work crew housing, so we sold. In the last decade, our house and the relative's house have both been turned into laborer housing, and this in spite of them being beautiful lakefront yards. The front yards have been stripped bare and are worn down to dirt or gravel. Our house has a couple of interior photos, and it's been converted to a 6 or 7 BR, 1500 s.f. house. What a shame.

We don't know, from context, whether that's the given name or the nickname of the woman; it could also be a nickname she earned, for whatever reason, in the context that this guy knows her.

To answer your first question, it's not exactly the same as dairy, but we love flax milk. We used almond and soy when I had kids with dairy sensitivities, but now that it's a thing, I buy flax milk for my own use. I don't like the more syrupy milk substitutes, that have a more gooey mouth-feel and pour like a watered-down syrup. Flax seems to hit all the right buttons.

Boy, I'd love to get some! I should look to see if I can find a local source.

That looks cool, but I have a hand injury that won't allow it. For most people, that would definitely be a nifty tool! (Ironically, the motion of a pitchfork doesn't bother the injury.)

Sorry about your neighbor!