Clementined's Profile

I salute this plugging of awesome D.C. artists.

Hey AT, could you also do a roundup of at-home urinal options?

First, the good things about my building: super fast elevators (7 floors, 2 levels of parking), a loading dock and receiving room from which I can frequently adopt discarded furniture and kitchen things, and quick maintenance response.

The bad thing: the lighting and carpeting in the place reminds me of a badly lit version of the house in The Shining! Dim and dingy fluorescent lights make the place look horrible, and the carpet makes the place look like an endless tunnel. I guess that means the walls aren't particularly light either - matte white paint with endless scuffs, scratches, and marks. I'm mad that they renovated the lobby a year ago but leave the rest of it looking so ugly. Each apartment is a relief to enter since it's such an improvement over the horrible halls.

dealradar.com is also a decent way of wrangling most deals. For me in DC, it misses Recoup, but gets Groupon, Living Social, KGB, etc.

I, too, fear that research will end up showing that artificial sweeteners do us as much or more harm as regular sugar, which is why I quit Splenda after a brief period of use.

Generally, I feel like if I'm craving sugar (which happens when I'm tired, as the body wants quick energy), I'll have a little bit (or a lot, if I'm really wanting it) to address the craving and be done with it.

I don't eat a lot of sugary things in general - I don't drink soda (regular, "diet", or otherwise) or juice, I don't have dessert on a frequent basis (less than once a week), and I try to avoid snacky or processed foods. I have been lucky in that I am able to change my palate to be amenable to what I believe is healthy for me. For instance, I rarely put sugar in my coffee. I drink my tea unsweetened. I put unsweetened natural applesauce and cinnamon in my oatmeal instead of brown sugar or honey.

There are other things I'm NOT good at, like getting enough exercise or getting enough sleep. Since I'm able to control my food, I work with that strength and try to improve on everything else.

It's called "blooming," and is exactly as nerdycellist says.

Experimental reformer for sure! Just hosted my Friendsgiving party, which is a performance and testing space for all new recipes. Pumpkin pie turns to calavaza en tacha. Turkey gets Bon Appetit's Tandoori treatment. Mama Stamburg's relish gets relished. I've never been impressed by traditional Thanksgiving food, but getting to riff on the ingredients is really fun - especially since my palate is more tuned to Asian and South American flavors.

I am making a turkey, but it's honestly just a vehicle for gravy and cranberry sauce. The sides are always my favorite, even if the turkey is perfect - I'm completely bored with meat! We spatchcock the turkey at my place too, and haven't ever stuffed the bird (since that takes so long to cook!), so everything is made separately. I think the presentation is much better that way: the stuffing gets a little crispy on top, as do the spuds. As does the cauliflower. And sweet potatoes. Oh, yum, can't wait!

My favorite part about this is our Friendsgiving party the week before where we get the eclectic and international dishes from all of our friends. Amazing inspiration for future meals, and you get to try a little of everything.

Other than the fact that it's more breakfasty than chocolate sauce, there's probably not a lot of reason to go with heated jelly instead since it has a lot of sugar in it too (unless, of course, you use no-sugar-added preserves).

Now, caramelizing or charring the bananas - that's genius!

That's a great idea for the mangoes, but somewhat dangerous for unsuspecting guests who may be allergic to mango. The oil in mango skin is a relatively common allergen (in the same plant family as cashews and poison ivy), so I would recommend mentioning that when serving rice that has housed the fruit in case the allergic person doesn't think to ask.