Strange.Bird's Profile

I have a blender, full-sized food processor and a mini-food processor (3 cups, from Cuisinart). If I was very limited for space, I would keep my blender and my mini; I find I use them the most (by far) and for different tasks. You can do just about anything in the mini, from mince onions in a hurry to cut butter into pastry dough---those are things you can't do with a blender.

I will say that my blender is not cheap and it's fairly high-powered, but it's not a Vitamix or Blendtec. I guess having a really high powered blender might make a difference as to what you can use it for. That might make my mini obsolete.

On another note, though, I have had my Cuisinart mini for five years now and it gets used A LOT. I even used it to mix batches of nut butters and mayonnaise on numerous occasions and it's still working like a champ. I can see people balking at spending $40 for such a small appliance, but it's totally worth it. The quality has definitely been there for me.

I know so many people (myself included) that love to buy cookbooks. I have a tablet and an internet connection I can use in the kitchen, but I still buy, peruse, and try recipes from my extensive cookbook collection. I do expect the standards for cookbooks to be more severe--for example, more pictures, better photography, glossy pages, all the things that appeal to hardcore cookbook collectors--but I don't expect them to actually go "extinct."

Rose or Hibiscus petals are delicious, especially Hibiscus.

@MissMarnie, even according to the article you linked to, the danger is not actually in the brewing method, but contained in the water itself. Do you boil all your drinking water before consuming it? If not, you're taking the same risk as those of us making sun tea. Anyone that's truly paranoid could use treated, filtered tap water or bottled water--if it's safe to drink plain, it's certainly safe to drink as tea.

I live in a town that doesn't have its own grocery store and the nearest store (about 20 minutes away) is just a Wal-Mart Super Center. That store doesn't even have an organic produce section, though you can sometimes find packages organic lettuce, spinach, asparagus or cucumbers. I've never seen any other organic produce at all. Perhaps needless to say, but when we do need to shop produce at a conventional store, we make a day of it and got a bit further away to a more responsible store.

We made the decision that smaller rain barrels, located in several different locations was the best choice for us. We have a Victorian home with a rather wildly peaked roofline and lots of odd angles--rather than taking in sheer square footage of the roof, we had to account for how much water could accumulate at each downspout.

We installed five rain barrels. When I water, I alternate between the four nearest the back of the house for our gardens, trying to empty them in a roughly even timeframe, and leave the fifth for the potted plants in the front yard. It's worked out extremely well for us. Last summer, despite an unprecedented heat wave, we ran out of water only once and it rained a day later, easily replenishing our stores.

My mother has always stored her glasses face down. I remember it bothering me as a child and when we moved to a new house, I helped her unpack the kitchen boxes and specifically asked if we could "put the glasses right side up now." She gave in, but I'm sure she thought it was odd.

Now, in my own home, my glasses are right side up, but like a commenter before me, it's only because they're in a glass-fronted cabinet with little to no dust-exposure. If I had them on open shelving I'd seriously reconsider.

Oh, and the glasses are upside down again at my parents' house: )

@Annamaria, I realize you're being sarcastic, but I hope you do actually listen to what many of us are saying. This is not a minor issue in a marriage. Division of labor, equality, fair partnerships and the like are MAJOR issues in many divorces. What might be a simple "insensitive" remark today can easily become entitlement down the road. If he doesn't value what you're bringing to the table now, how will he feel when (if) there are children involved and less housework gets done? What happens if your income decreases further or his increases drastically? These are serious hurdles to overcome if, at this early stage, you're already disagreeing in a big way on topics as basic as household chores and finances.

No, I don't think you should outright end your relationship over this, but I do think it's a bigger issue than you'd have us believe. Just the fact that you wrote this article and included his snide remark with it suggests you were looking for commiseration and understanding. I think you know this is a big deal.

So, first order of business, stop getting so defensive. I've read only one disrespectful comment here; most people are trying to help or offering their own financial-meets-marriage follies. Have you thought about reading them with an open mind?

I designed my own and print a new one out each time I find a recipe we like enough to make it a "keeper." I laminate them and store them in a little drawer unit in my pantry. To avoid waste, I usually make the recipe a second time to be sure I like the ingredients and instructions just as they are and can make note of any changes I've made before printing and laminating.

I'm not willing to risk damaging expensive electronics like my laptop or iPad in the kitchen, so recipe cards work well for me, but I can see it being too much of a hassle to most people.

I really, really hate the beeps on my microwave. They bother me so much I watch the clock fanatically and ALWAYS stop it 2-3 seconds before the cycle completes, just to avoid hearing them. However, I choose to simply limit my microwave use (it's much easier than you think!) and I would never buy this product. Not only would it be a waste of my money to buy a new microwave when the one I have works perfectly, but the product is rather silly. The commercial, which I actually think is great, lauds it as some revolutionary idea, but, really, it's just a clock radio that cooks things: )

Nope. I refuse. But that's less out of stubbornness than lack of resources--we live in a very rural area and have no access to premade items that are not loaded with artificial ingredients (which we never eat). So, I really don't have much choice.

That said, I've been known to spend three days prior to major events working 8-12 hour days cleaning, prepping and preparing food, and getting organized. It can be overwhelming.