“I just learned . . .” + vocabulary

[KungFuPanda]

I was inspired by @Terabith’s pigeon post, but it was too sad to add my silly factoid. 
 

I just learned that the shaky cheese lids fit on mason jars. The minced garlic lids do too. Now I’m regretting tossing so many of these AND spending money on plastic lids for mason jars. 
 

What did you learn recently?

Edited July 1, 2022 by KungFuPanda
Language swerve

[Indigo Blue]

I recently learned that crabs will line up by size when one crab outgrows and leaves its shell to do sort of a shell swap. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I thought that you had just learned the term “spin off”!  

[mathnerd]

3 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

I just learned that the shaky cheese lids fit on mason jars. The minced garlic lids do too.

What brand of shaky cheese and minced garlic? I am an avid lid recycler too and did not know this!

Edited June 30, 2022 by mathnerd

[Lady Florida.]

2 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I thought that you had just learned the term “spin off”!  

I thought she learned where the term originated. 

I can't think of any new life things I learned recently but I'm learning about little known Roman emperors by listening to a humorous history podcast. Yeah, I'm nerdy that way. History podcasts are my idea of fun. I'm such a wild woman. 😂

Edited June 30, 2022 by Lady Florida.

[MercyA]

I just learned recently that shrews are one of the very few mammals who are venomous (two others are the platypus and the vampire bat). I rescued a toad from a shrew who was trying to drag it down into its burrow. At first I thought the mammal was a vole, but I did some research and found out that he was actually a shrew. They have venom in their teeth which causes paralysis of their prey.

I moved the toad to a safer place and have been keeping a close eye on him and giving him water daily. I bathed his wounds every day for a while but he's not a huge fan of that. He is still eating plenty of insects and is nice and fat, but he still can't climb well or dig. He did just start to hop again, yay.

If I think he can't hibernate this winter, I'll provide him with a winter home. 

For those of you who might be thinking, "What about the hungry shrew, Mercy???" their main diet is insects, many of which they can eat in one bite. The frog would have been eaten slowly while paralyzed, and in any case, I couldn't not help him when I saw him croaking in distress, poor thing.

So there you go. Venomous shrews.

[Indigo Blue]

I would have rescued the frog, too.

[KungFuPanda]

1 hour ago, mathnerd said:

What brand of shaky cheese and minced garlic? I am an avid lid recycler too and did not know this!

I don’t know! Green lid one? I thought they were universal  🤣 Lidl? Kraft? I have no idea. I got a job and sometimes Dh shops. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I just learned the term “shaky cheese “ for grated Parmesan!  

[KungFuPanda]

Just now, Jean in Newcastle said:

I just learned the term “shaky cheese “ for grated Parmesan!  

That may be just at my house. 🤣 We just name stuff and act like it’s a real thing. Sometimes we have whomp-em biscuits. 😬

[Indigo Blue]

15 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

Sometimes we have whomp-em biscuits. 😬

Did y’all name them that at your house? My dh calls them that, too. Well, years ago when we used to get those. 🙂
 

ETA ds used to be terrified of them. 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Indigo Blue

[happi duck]

32 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I just learned the term “shaky cheese “ for grated Parmesan!  

Over here it's "sprinkle cheese"!

[Annie G]

5 minutes ago, happi duck said:

Over here it's "sprinkle cheese"!

My kids grew up calling it Farmer John cheese because my nephew thought that’s what the adults were saying and since he was the oldest grand, that’s what they all ended up calling it.   One of my kids still occasionally does. 

[Elfknitter.#]

1 hour ago, Lady Florida. said:

I thought she learned where the term originated. 

I can't think of any new life things I learned recently but I'm learning about little known Roman emperors by listening to a humorous history podcast. Yeah, I'm nerdy that way. History podcasts are my idea of fun. I'm such a wild woman. 😂

You can't post that without sharing the name of the podcast... 🙄😋

[Terabith]

45 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I just learned the term “shaky cheese “ for grated Parmesan!  

We also call it "shaky cheese."  

[Elizabeth86]

1 hour ago, MercyA said:

I just learned recently that shrews are one of the very few mammals who are venomous (two others are the platypus and the vampire bat). I rescued a toad from a shrew who was trying to drag it down into its burrow. At first I thought the mammal was a vole, but I did some research and found out that he was actually a shrew. They have venom in their teeth which causes paralysis of their prey.

I moved the toad to a safer place and have been keeping a close eye on him and giving him water daily. I bathed his wounds every day for a while but he's not a huge fan of that. He is still eating plenty of insects and is nice and fat, but he still can't climb well or dig. He did just start to hop again, yay.

If I think he can't hibernate this winter, I'll provide him with a winter home. 

For those of you who might be thinking, "What about the hungry shrew, Mercy???" their main diet is insects, many of which they can eat in one bite. The frog would have been eaten slowly while paralyzed, and in any case, I couldn't not help him when I saw him croaking in distress, poor thing.

So there you go. Venomous shrews.

I also learned this in my boys science this year. I was so amazed and my boys were like everyone knew that and my dh was like everyone knows that. 😂 No one is ever surprised by what I just learned.

[Elizabeth86]

6 minutes ago, Annie G said:

My kids grew up calling it Farmer John cheese because my nephew thought that’s what the adults were saying and since he was the oldest grand, that’s what they all ended up calling it.   One of my kids still occasionally does. 

My kids also call it farmer John cheese. 😂

[Annie G]

14 minutes ago, Elizabeth86 said:

My kids also call it farmer John cheese. 😂

I’m so glad to hear that. I’ve always kind of wondered if he had a hearing issue because he misheard things all the time. 

[Elizabeth86]

Just now, Annie G said:

I’m so glad to hear that. I’ve always kind of wondered if he had a hearing issue because he misheard things all the time. 

My 2nd son stated this word and of course we just go with it. I honestly couldn't tell you if my 3rd and 4th even know the actual name. 😂 We are really bad to do this.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

That may be just at my house. 🤣 We just name stuff and act like it’s a real thing. Sometimes we have whomp-em biscuits. 😬

Once, in the grocery store, a sweet teenaged boy, who was obviously doing the family grocery shopping asked me several questions about various products, “What is ‘fat free’ mayo?” Etc. One question he asked was, “Parmesan cheese: is that the shaky cheese thing?” 😄

[Wheres Toto]

1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

That may be just at my house. 🤣 We just name stuff and act like it’s a real thing. Sometimes we have whomp-em biscuits. 😬

So am I the only one who doesn't know what a whomp-em biscuit is?  

50 minutes ago, happi duck said:

Over here it's "sprinkle cheese"!

That's what we call it. 

[saraha]

1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

That may be just at my house. 🤣 We just name stuff and act like it’s a real thing. Sometimes we have whomp-em biscuits. 😬

Nope, not just your house. It’s sprinkle cheese here and also the griddle is called the pancake cooker. By everyone, and yup the youngest is12

Edited July 1, 2022 by saraha

[happi duck]

2 minutes ago, Wheres Toto said:

So am I the only one who doesn't know what a whomp-em biscuit is?  

That's what we call it. 

I'm assuming whomp-em biscuits are what we call "tube biscuits" and I don't know what they're really called... Pillsbury grands etc?

[MercyA]

18 minutes ago, happi duck said:

I'm assuming whomp-em biscuits are what we call "tube biscuits" and I don't know what they're really called... Pillsbury grands etc?

I think they are called refrigerator biscuits or canned biscuits.

[KungFuPanda]

25 minutes ago, Wheres Toto said:

So am I the only one who doesn't know what a whomp-em biscuit is?  

That's what we call it. 

It’s the canned biscuits. To open them you peel the label and if they don’t pop, you whomp-em. 

I think some things just name themselves if you let them. 😁

My married, 25-year-old daughter calls a dishwasher a washing machine. I have no idea why and she’s the only one I know who does this. She refuses to be corrected and she’s her husband’s problem now. DS calls his weekly pill container a Smitwitfus, (smtwtfs)  so we all call them that now. 

[livetoread]

We call it "sprinkle cheese" or "cardboard cheese", lol. Less anyone think we are snobs though, I do keep a jar in the fridge and we are all fond of it.

[happi duck]

The last time I bought "tube biscuits" it was a new to me brand.

I peeled of the label and was smacking it and pressing along the seam with a spoon and it wouldn't open.

I decided to read the instructions and found that I needed to peel yet another layer of paper off.

These tube biscuits had a girdle!

[Longtime Lurker]

47 minutes ago, Wheres Toto said:

So am I the only one who doesn't know what a whomp-em biscuit is?  

I also do not know what whomp-em biscuits are, Actually, I do now, but I didn't know before this thread 🙂

20 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

 

My married, 25-year-old daughter calls a dishwasher a washing machine. I have no idea why and she’s the only one I know who does this. She refuses to be corrected and she’s her husband’s problem now. 

Well, she's not wrong. It is indeed a washing machine. Just for washing dishes, not clothes.

I think threads like this are so much fun 🙂

[kbutton]

5 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

 History podcasts are my idea of fun. I'm such a wild woman. 😂

They are fun!

In a lot of Pennsylvania, a vacuum cleaner is called a sweeper. I am not sure why this always confuses people who are not from PA, but it does! 

If we buy parm in a can, we are on team sprinkle cheese, but I really like Farmer John cheese--one of my kids had auditory processing issues, and it totally sounds like something he'd have said before it was remediated.

 

Most of what I've been learning lately is medical and not really fun, but this thread is fun. 

 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Biscuits like a tube, where you peel off a label and then whack it??

I have no idea how to even imagine what this is 🤔😄

[Corraleno]

13 minutes ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

Biscuits like a tube, where you peel off a label and then whack it??

I have no idea how to even imagine what this is 🤔😄

 

[bookbard]

I totally thought you were talking about the 'bake at home cookies'. Seeing the picture, I realised you meant the sort of scone thing you have in the US.

[Miss Tick]

4 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

My married, 25-year-old daughter calls a dishwasher a washing machine.

I call it The Disher. It is faster when someone is trying to drift off unnoticed and I want some help.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, bookbard said:

I totally thought you were talking about the 'bake at home cookies'. Seeing the picture, I realised you meant the sort of scone thing you have in the US.

Oooh, I totally forgot that “biscuits” does not mean the same food in other countries as it means in the US! Yes, comparable to a scone. 

[Indigo Blue]

They are called whomp em biscuits because, sometimes, when you press the spoon into the seam, the tube just won’t split open. Some have been known to be very stubborn. So, you hold the tube in one hand and “whomp “ it against the edge of a counter top right into that seem. You keep whomping until it eventually pops open with a small, sudden explosion. It’s unnerving because you never know with which whack you are going to experience the startling loud pop with biscuits bursting out, like a jack in the box.  Okay, no one else may have experienced it quite this way. I have been known to just hand the tube to Dh to avoid the whole thing. So Dh used to say , “We’re having whomp-em biscuits for supper.”

[Wheres Toto]

Okay, I totally get the whomp-em biscuits now.   I love whomp-em biscuits.  And whomp-em crescents (croissants).  and whomp-em breadsticks.  

I think of scones as something sweeter and maybe flavored (blackberry scones, etc)?   Or is that just US scones because to everyone else scones are what we call biscuits?

See, I'm learning all kinds of new things just from this thread.  

[Elizabeth86]

5 hours ago, SusanC said:

I call it The Disher. It is faster when someone is trying to drift off unnoticed and I want some help.

Haha you guys are making me think of all kinds of funny ones. My 3rd child renamed dish washer to be wash disher when she was 2. She doesn't say it anymore. I sometimes do though.

[Elizabeth86]

9 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

It’s the canned biscuits. To open them you peel the label and if they don’t pop, you whomp-em. 

I think some things just name themselves if you let them. 😁

My married, 25-year-old daughter calls a dishwasher a washing machine. I have no idea why and she’s the only one I know who does this. She refuses to be corrected and she’s her husband’s problem now. DS calls his weekly pill container a Smitwitfus, (smtwtfs)  so we all call them that now. 

I get what you mean about the biscuits now.

[KungFuPanda]

2 hours ago, Wheres Toto said:

Okay, I totally get the whomp-em biscuits now.   I love whomp-em biscuits.  And whomp-em crescents (croissants).  and whomp-em breadsticks.  

I think of scones as something sweeter and maybe flavored (blackberry scones, etc)?   Or is that just US scones because to everyone else scones are what we call biscuits?

See, I'm learning all kinds of new things just from this thread.  

I use a completely different recipe for biscuits and scones, but I’d be comfortable saying they’re the same thing. Biscuits seem more every day and scones are for when I love people more. 🤣 My friends love my scones because nobody makes them here so compared to starbucks, homemade scones are a luxury. I even make my own clotted cream and lots of people have only had it at my house. Sometimes I make savory scones, but I tend to default to plain with cream and preserves or chocolate chip/orange. 
 

I didn’t even think to translate the biscuit/cookie thing. Sorry. 

[KungFuPanda]

9 hours ago, kbutton said:

They are fun!

In a lot of Pennsylvania, a vacuum cleaner is called a sweeper. I am not sure why this always confuses people who are not from PA, but it does! 

If we buy parm in a can, we are on team sprinkle cheese, but I really like Farmer John cheese--one of my kids had auditory processing issues, and it totally sounds like something he'd have said before it was remediated.

 

Most of what I've been learning lately is medical and not really fun, but this thread is fun. 

 

My grandmother always said she needed to “run the sweeper.”  Mom still says it sometimes. I might do it too, but I’m not sure. I never actually thought about it until you mentioned it.  🤣

[KungFuPanda]

12 hours ago, Quill said:

Once, in the grocery store, a sweet teenaged boy, who was obviously doing the family grocery shopping asked me several questions about various products, “What is ‘fat free’ mayo?” Etc. One question he asked was, “Parmesan cheese: is that the shaky cheese thing?” 😄

I once helped a young 20 something find “butter beans.” Someone set that poor girl up, but she asked the right person. I pointed her the lima beans and asked her to remember what size was usually served at her house. 

[Carrie12345]

Yesterday, I started to make a post asking about word pronunciation, and then decided instead to do some googling for myself.

Kielbasa has ALWAYS been pronounced kuhBAHsee in my family, and I haven’t been able to reprogram myself.
Turns out, the dropping of the L sound is most likely just Jersey laziness (we swallow lots of sounds), BUUUUUT - the plural of kielbasa can be kielbasy!!!  We aren’t entirely nuts!!!
No one in my family has ever used a singular kielbasa rope. 😛 

[Idalou]

43 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I once helped a young 20 something find “butter beans.” Someone set that poor girl up, but she asked the right person. I pointed her the lima beans and asked her to remember what size was usually served at her house. 

Why do you say someone set her up? I have cans of them in my cabinet now that say Butter Beans. 

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tTP1TcwSi8zjzdgdGDw4kkqLSlJLVJISk3MKwYAaQIIOg&q=butter+beans&oq=butter&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j46i512j46i20i131i263i433i512j0i433i512j46i175i199i512j0i20i263i433i512j0i67j46i433i512j0i271l3.1992j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#scso=_3QC_Ys3QB-PJptQP6f-_YA3:120

Edited July 1, 2022 by Idalou

[Corraleno]

1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

I once helped a young 20 something find “butter beans.” Someone set that poor girl up, but she asked the right person. I pointed her the lima beans and asked her to remember what size was usually served at her house. 

To me, lima beans and butter beans are not interchangeable in recipes. Butter beans are soft, white, creamy, flat, and delicious, while lima beans are green, starchy, smaller, and gross. If I couldn't find canned butter beans, I'd use cannellini beans not lima beans. But in googling around, it seems that in some places the names are used interchangeably, with the distinction between white and green lima beans?

Edited July 1, 2022 by Corraleno

[kbutton]

49 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

My grandmother always said she needed to “run the sweeper.”  Mom still says it sometimes. I might do it too, but I’m not sure. I never actually thought about it until you mentioned it.  🤣

I didn't know it was unusual for a long time because my college roommate's parents were from PA as well, so she knew what I was saying, lol! Apparently sweeper = someone who sweeps with a broom (if it registers as intelligible at all) to most people. 

8 hours ago, bookbard said:

I totally thought you were talking about the 'bake at home cookies'. Seeing the picture, I realised you meant the sort of scone thing you have in the US.

Yes, but I will note that people expecting one or the other could be very disappointed. It's more of a spectrum with (Am.) biscuit on one end and scone on the other. My mom always made scone-ish biscuits (smack in the middle of that spectrum), but the canned biscuits are very different in flavor and texture (and SALTY). I would not make strawberry shortcake (varies by region, but I mean some kind of cake-y treat or biscuit covered with chopped or sliced strawberries that might be sweetened, and topped with whipped cream) with a canned biscuit, but I would with a scone or my mom's style of biscuit. 

[Idalou]

58 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

To me, lima beans and butter beans are not interchangeable in recipes. Butter beans are soft, white, creamy, flat, and delicious, while lima beans are green, starchy, smaller, and gross. If I couldn't find canned butter beans, I'd use cannellini beans not lima beans. But in googling around, it seems that in some places the names are used interchangeably, with the distinction between white and green lima beans?

 Butter beans are more mature lima beans. I dont know if they soften with age or if it's the liquid in the can that's different. You can also use great northern beans instead of butter beans. Green canned limas are younger, and I find them too dry. I can't think of any dish made better by using green, canned lima beans!

Edited July 1, 2022 by Idalou

[Junie]

Instead of sprinkle cheese, we call it "dd15 cheese" (we use her real name).  I don't even remember why we named it after her.

And I didn't know that sweeper=vacuum was a Pennsylvania thing.  Such quirky speech I grew up with! :)

 

[Terabith]

16 hours ago, MercyA said:

I just learned recently that shrews are one of the very few mammals who are venomous (two others are the platypus and the vampire bat). I rescued a toad from a shrew who was trying to drag it down into its burrow. At first I thought the mammal was a vole, but I did some research and found out that he was actually a shrew. They have venom in their teeth which causes paralysis of their prey.

I moved the toad to a safer place and have been keeping a close eye on him and giving him water daily. I bathed his wounds every day for a while but he's not a huge fan of that. He is still eating plenty of insects and is nice and fat, but he still can't climb well or dig. He did just start to hop again, yay.

If I think he can't hibernate this winter, I'll provide him with a winter home. 

For those of you who might be thinking, "What about the hungry shrew, Mercy???" their main diet is insects, many of which they can eat in one bite. The frog would have been eaten slowly while paralyzed, and in any case, I couldn't not help him when I saw him croaking in distress, poor thing.

So there you go. Venomous shrews.

Bless you for rescuing the toad!

[kbutton]

10 minutes ago, Junie said:

And I didn't know that sweeper=vacuum was a Pennsylvania thing.  Such quirky speech I grew up with! 🙂

The state has a lot of quirks related to language. Some go with specific parts of the state, but others are more widespread. 

[KungFuPanda]

1 hour ago, Idalou said:

Why do you say someone set her up? I have cans of them in my cabinet now that say Butter Beans. 

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tTP1TcwSi8zjzdgdGDw4kkqLSlJLVJISk3MKwYAaQIIOg&q=butter+beans&oq=butter&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j46i512j46i20i131i263i433i512j0i433i512j46i175i199i512j0i20i263i433i512j0i67j46i433i512j0i271l3.1992j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#scso=_3QC_Ys3QB-PJptQP6f-_YA3:120

 

1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

To me, lima beans and butter beans are not interchangeable in recipes. Butter beans are soft, white, creamy, flat, and delicious, while lima beans are green, starchy, smaller, and gross. If I couldn't find canned butter beans, I'd use cannellini beans not lima beans. But in googling around, it seems that in some places the names are used interchangeably, with the distinction between white and green lima beans?

 

1 hour ago, kbutton said:

I didn't know it was unusual for a long time because my college roommate's parents were from PA as well, so she knew what I was saying, lol! Apparently sweeper = someone who sweeps with a broom (if it registers as intelligible at all) to most people. 

Yes, but I will note that people expecting one or the other could be very disappointed. It's more of a spectrum with (Am.) biscuit on one end and scone on the other. My mom always made scone-ish biscuits (smack in the middle of that spectrum), but the canned biscuits are very different in flavor and texture (and SALTY). I would not make strawberry shortcake (varies by region, but I mean some kind of cake-y treat or biscuit covered with chopped or sliced strawberries that might be sweetened, and topped with whipped cream) with a canned biscuit, but I would with a scone or my mom's style of biscuit. 

I know way too many people who make strawberry “shortcake” using sponge cake cups. 

14 minutes ago, Idalou said:

 Butter beans are more mature lima beans. I dont know if they soften with age or if it's the liquid in the can that's different. You can also use great northern beans instead of butter beans. Green canned limas are younger, and I find them too dry. I can't think of any dish made better by using green, canned lima beans!

She was looking specifically for dried beans (I quizzed her), so it narrows down the possibilities a lot. Also, the older relative who sent her to the store was visiting from an area close to where I grew up. I hope I got it right and didn’t assume too much. Poor girl.