CrazyOne's Profile
Generic Triple Sec ==> Cointreau
FWIW, we had gotten some Grand Marnier recently, and almost always have Cointreau, and while we had both we made two margaritas the same way, one with each, so we could taste test. We both thought the Cointreau one was better.
Generic Triple Sec ==> Cointreau
Cointreau was on sale for $28.99 recently here in PA, that may be it. I made sure to get a bottle, was hunting around on one of the last few days of the sale because so many of the stores were sold out!
I can't readily get the Brizzard triple sec, and the PA price is $25 anyway at special order. LOL Useless, essentially. Have to try to gauge where I can stop on my trip coming up, but my trips up north don't seem to help much. NY (on I-84), CT, MA, just doesn't seem to add much in the way of better pricing or variety, although I did pick up Old Monk rum once in a NY shop; that was good, and cheap at about 13 bucks.
kid-friendly weekday lunch in Pittsburgh (& a dinner)
Mad Mex is fun, sorta quasi-Mexican-inspired, works great with a kid typically. It's a chain but a local one, and that's the original location. Be aware that walk is uphill somewhat significantly if I remember right. ;-) http://madmex.com/
Spice Island Tea House is a sort of hole in the wall ethnic place: http://www.spiceislandteahouse.com/Homepage.html I've been there just once but liked the food. Could probably still walk here, it's also on Atwood.
You'd probably want to drive to The Porch. Might be worth it though if you want a little bit nicer dinner. I haven't been. http://www.ThePorchAtSchenley.com/
Of course if you're going to drive you could choose some other places too. You could still go to the Church Brew Works if that appealed before, it's not really that far. http://churchbrew.com/
kid-friendly weekday lunch in Pittsburgh (& a dinner)
Not too many places are closed Mondays in the downtown vicinity that I can think of. Although someone mentioned Dinette above I think; they are closed Mondays so scratch that idea.
kid-friendly weekday lunch in Pittsburgh (& a dinner)
You might be surprised. Although I did not witness the childrens' activities, this museum certainly kept a roughly 2.8-year-old ;-) occupied for about 4 hours including the lunch, and he might have gone longer if given the opportunity (we decided upon a set pickup time in the afternoon). It was a weekday so we went to work, only the kid and mother went to the museum, and we met there for lunch. So I can personally attest to the lunch but not the rest of the place. But our visitors were most impressed and would highly recommend it. Tip: I know your kid is a year older, but apparently one regret was that they didn't have a change of clothes. I guess one of the rooms has a water play activity that can cause at least some kids to get overly wet. ;-)
This link goes to the cafe page http://www.pittsburghkids.org/Templates/CMP_Level3_List.aspx?CID=406&SECID=5&MENUID=169 from which you can get the full regular menu and the daily specials for 2 weeks looks like. (Those won't be the right ones until you get closer to your trip, but it will give you an idea of some of the things they do.) They do actually serve grilled cheese, burgers and hotdogs, but they have a good number of other things too. And reasonable pricing. All of us adults commented on that. The kid, though, ate a grilled cheese. Ah well. ;-) Anyway, not amazing stuff by any measure, just well above average for this type of facility. From that web page you can also get through to the rest of the museum info which will give you an idea of the activities that are available there.
If you still find you want to leave the museum at lunch I suppose you could hit up something like Max's Allegheny Tavern, which is German food. Newer place Nicky's Thai Kitchen might work as well as long as your lunch day is not Sunday (okay, you say Friday in original post, so that should work). These are near the museum and not too far off your route home.
kid-friendly weekday lunch in Pittsburgh (& a dinner)
I would go to the Church Brew Works (suggested above) for that dinner. It's fairly kid friendly I would think and is an unusual setting, maybe not totally unique but certainly isn't one you find every day.
Having just visited, I would actually have lunch at the cafe in the museum. Although, if the goal is to have the kids out of there at lunch and know that they won't be able to go back for more, I can understand. The food is decent for lunch, though, and the pricing is reasonable. Other than that I've been trying to think of something worthwhile that would take you north of the city on your way home, but I'm not really certain of anything to suggest.
TJ mustard... 2 gram protein in a TSP?
Really funny. Someone goofed, like mentioned, a copy/paste error or such? I see soybean oil in there but that wouldn't add protein because it's just the oil. Would be a trivial amount of veg fat I suppose, but anything less than half a gram is "zero".
red robin
Hm, sounds like things may have gone downhill. It's been a long time since I've been, probably over a year, maybe even two. It was generally pretty solid service at our local shop. Nothing drove us away really that I remember, just better options and other choices when we go out. For example, there's now a local place specializing in burgers that's better and just as close.
Quite possible they are doing the stealth price hike thing with reducing the size of food. It is after all what is most commonplace in packaged foods at the supermarket.
Funniest Thing a Server Said to You
What's funny for me is both your story (esp the reluctant buddy) and that I probably would have had to get out my phone and look up "trots" if it had been me in that scenario. ;-) (I had a good suspicion given the context, but I've never heard that particular one before.)
New Whole Foods, what should I buy?
Dunno about you guys, but for me the increasing problem with heavy cream and now half and half too is that it's hard to find without carrageenan and possibly gums in it. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods at least both carry this. I can still find organic half and half (or sometimes another non-organic brand) without it at other stores, but WF and TJ have heavy cream without it anymore that I've been able to find here. If the cream has carrageenan, it defeats one of the reasons that I use to justify making homemade ice cream. :-)
Funniest thing you seen in a restaurant?
Heh, how about an empty fortune cookie? That happened, twice in a row! Mine had a fortune but my companion's did not. We were laughing about it and the waitress did bring another one, which was also empty. Then the next time I think she peeked through the packages to make sure there was obviously a slip of paper in there. ;-)
What is the one item you always leave Costco with?
If I could get Cointreau at my Costco I think that would be on my list too!
2 different prices on the check - cash or credit card
When I know it's a small indie place and I don't feel like the prices are overly high, I will try to pay cash especially on small transactions. (Small = around $20 or less, and of course this is assuming I have enough cash with me.) It really is a large volume of smaller amounts that kills you with typical card processing. Not everyone is aware of that, and even those who are won't all feel compelled to do it, but it's just a little thing I like to pay attention to.
2 different prices on the check - cash or credit card
Interesting. I've wondered about a change for our business too (I'm not directly in charge of that, but I've been here a long time and it's a small biz, pretty much all account-based but some payments end up by credit card). I figure very few cards qualify for the lowest rate these days.
It isn't really surprising to see a hipness correlation with Square. ;-) It's just because it's based on smartphones and targeted somewhat towards a small business that could even be very low volume. The people running those are in tune to these types of technologies and not so much in traditional POS and such. Indeed traditional card acceptance might be prohibitively expensive when the transactions are so small. Square's rate is as I mentioned completely flat. The latest thing just this week is they now give away an app called "Register" for POS on iPad. Basically, you can have POS for free if you just buy an iPad, seems like, and 2.75% card acceptance including Amex. Not a bad trick. Disruptive, other servicing companies will hate it a lot I suspect.
Are you using a bread machine?
Pretty funny! I kinda wish that worked at my place with ice cream and the ice cream maker. But it doesn't. I still make it sometimes, and I still buy it sometimes! Sometimes in this particular case = fairly often = too often. ;-)
Good Ice Cream Machines?
I bought a Cuisinart last year at Costco, and it only cost 30 bucks. May have been towards end of summer at reduced price, not sure. I figured for that much I could take a chance on it. I think it works adequately. You get the bowl good and frozen, and it takes up a fair amount of space in the freezer. I always make sure mine is in back not in front, even though that means when I'm ready to use I have to move stuff. The book says to let it run for 25-30 min, but it would be nearly overflowing at 30 min even with just vanilla, more if you put anything else into it. If you cook any of the ingredients obviously you need to cool them. If that is the main liquid, that's going to need to cool to fridge temp to have any good results. (I've never cooked the main cream/milk mixture, just keep it Philly style.) It doesn't get super firm, but it gets firm enough, and it firms up more in the freezer. Make sure you have containers to transfer it into, and quickly. And of course if you want to make another batch you either need to wait around 24 hours or so (perhaps more, you have to wash the thing, then make sure it's REALLY dry, before putting it back in freezer, and you want it in there 24 hours methinks. Or you can get additional freezer bowls, which take up even more space in the freezer. Tip: Hefty makes a jumbo zip-top plastic bag which is ideal for putting the bowl into for storing in the freezer.
Mine is model CIM-22RPC. (I know the R is the color, red.) I can't really tell, it looks different than the ICE-21 for sure. I did a search and it appears this model looks like the ICE-20, so maybe they did a new run of the old style for Costco (hence the CIM model prefix)? So maybe that's why mine seems a little less than ideal, because it is old style and not like the newer ICE-21. Interesting. Still, I find this one adequate for paying only 30 bucks on a whim for it.
Countertop material: granite vs. solid surface (corian) vs. engineered stone (silestone)
Heh, after so many years, growing up with laminate countertops and still haven't had anything different even in my current house (and quite possibly still won't even if I get to redo the kitchen in this house, which I might), I doubt I could ever put a pot down on a counter. It's just so ingrained not to. So even at a relative's house with granite, I wouldn't do that. I generally have no reason to anyway and don't get it as a big selling point.
2 different prices on the check - cash or credit card
It's an interesting idea for sure. I don't have a problem with it in the form of a cash discount, with the full credit prices being the posted prices. Seeing two separate prices, cash price and credit price like at some gas stations (rarer now but still happens a few places) actually annoys me more for some reason. Going into a restaurant or coffee shop or whatever where they post a price but then say okay, 5% cash discount or 10% (the amount from the OP actually looks like it would be more like a 10% discount, which is kinda crazy, makes me think the credit prices are thus inflated too much), I think that would be fine. For best effect, post prominently on all menus and/or at the register (depending upon type of establishment).
Programming...I wouldn't have thought that tricky, although it's true in at least some if not most/all states that sales tax is on the discounted amount. That would make it a little more difficult for sure.
As long as the posted prices are not way inflated, it seems like this would coax a little more cash business without a big downside. Well, cash handling, I guess that could be viewed as a downside, easier to steal, etc. The smaller the average sale, the bigger the benefit. Because of the swipe fee the overall credit fees in a place with a small average could easily get up to 5% overall, maybe more, with typical options.
I did just look at Costco's deal with Elavon. Swipe fee for normal is 20 cents, but they have a new plan for small transaction customers (under $15 average) that takes only 12 cents per, plus "1.37%" I put that in quotes because we know that's for a non-reward card, and how many people are using cards for small stuff that's not a reward card? The rate for those is still higher. Square is an option though. As long as the card is swiped (not keyed) it's 2.75% flat, for any card including Amex. No additional swipe fee. It integrates with printers and such if you use it with an iPad. (Square for those unfamiliar is an unconventional credit card acceptance service designed as a tiny reader you plug into a smart phone or iPod Touch or iPad, with an app. The reader and app are free. Good for little indie sole proprietors and such, or perhaps for a restaurant running on iPad-based POS, which is entirely possible these days.)
My Microwave is Dead [moved from DC]
Microwave + 15 years old = shop for a new one in my mind. There have been a few feature advances in that time that you might like anyway. The fee for service call would be a significant ways towards the cost a new machine, and even if you carried it in somewhere I think you'd be up against at least 50 bucks just to diagnose. If you can find for sure there's a fuse and for sure where to replace it, maybe, but heck after 15 years it seems just as likely that something failed. I've seen them fail sooner.
Coffee Grinder for Aeropress
We have a Hario Slim here that is used to grind coffee for the Clever Dripper. Definitely better than blade or electric burr of dubious quality (we had one of those too, probably still around hiding in a cabinet somewhere, Krups for around 50 bucks several years ago. Annoying stuff.) Now I am not the one doing the prep, and I mentioned just recently about oh maybe we should get a good electric now that we know you like the Clever, and she said no she doesn't want an electric.
The one downside I would say about the Hario Slim is that while it adjusts to just about any grind you need I can't figure out a good way that you would know what position you were at if you happen to want to change it or get it messed up by accident. In other words, once you dial it in where you like it, you'd be hard pressed to return to that position exactly if it were moved away from it. (Unless I'm missing something.)
PG can probably tell proper grind on sight so wouldn't have that problem too much. ;-)
Note I don't think this should deter you from trying it. At around $35 or so the Hario Slim seems like a great tool to have around. Plus since the Aeropress is small and portable, you may at times find it makes sense to have a grinder that's equally small and portable.
Forbes Magazine "Best chains 2011"
Well I'll answer since I've run across this just now, has been a while and some new things on the menu that look interesting that I'd consider trying. But back when we went somewhat regularly (ever month or two) my go-to was the "fresh fish" menu. They expanded it after a while, but the original preps were the pan seared and jerk painted, and those are pretty good. Originally it was just pan seared tilapia or jerk painted salmon, and either of those combos still works well but now they also have mahi mahi all the time so I'd probably be more likely to get that. Pan seared was originally paired specifically with the cinnamon mashed sweet potatoes, and that combo works nicely.
Another thing we liked about it for a while was solid service. This fell off after a couple years at the local location, perhaps a change in management or something, or nasty corporate change, it is Darden after all. They have nice goofy tropical drinks if you like that. ;-) They long since removed the best dessert, pina colada bread pudding, but they did post a recipe for it. They do still have, amazingly, two of the best appetizers: the fire roasted jerk shrimp and the creole baked goat cheese. The latter was taken off the menu for a while and then returned. Those alone are worth going IMO.
I think I'll have to stop in again next time we go out that way, to the airport or something (it's near the airport here in Pittsburgh area). It's been ages and this makes me hungry for it. ;-)
HELP!! tin baking pan black after dishwasher cycle
Funny, this might explain what happened to some old T-fal pots (thin aluminum, color finished exterior, nonstick interior) that I used to put in the dishwasher. Probably same reason too: switching to the Cascade packets when I used to use gel/liquid. With the pots I just kept cleaning until it stopped running black on me. I still don't really know if something happened to the exterior like the finish failed or if it all came from the exposed rim at the top. This was probably a little easier on these pots, though, because the exterior is...black. ;-) So I didn't have to be perfect with it, just kept washing the outside until the black stopped rubbing off. I used SOS pads. Now I just don't put them in the dishwasher. They're getting pretty long in the tooth anyway, but I still use them occasionally.
It took a while of washing them before that stuff came off. I think at one point I let them dry and still had to wash them some more. Whether this means something simple like SOS will clean the aluminum baking pan I really don't know, but I'd certainly try cleaning it before pitching it, and then just don't wash it in the DW, or possibly change detergents (there may still be some that wouldn't react this way, but it also would be a risk of it happening again).
Costco worth it for a couple?
We're not very efficient at the use of the Costco membership, so now what I tend to do is go on and off Costco. I usually find that tires easily pays for a year's membership, but what has happened this time is that I just got tires at the tail end of my membership, so now I'll let it lapse for a while. There are a couple things in OTC meds that will also pretty well pay for a membership, so when I need that again I will probably renew. As long as that's 3 months from my expiration, they will push up the new expiration date to one year from the renewal date. So it's worth it.
I really wish some other things like gas would make it worth it, but it doesn't here. If you catch it when others have raised the price, the gas can be several cents less, but the norm is 1-2 cents less than the non-membership places. Either the other places are more aggressive here with gas prices or Costco is perhaps barred in PA from being as aggressive as they are elsewhere. We also don't get alcohol here at all, so the only time that would come into play is when we're out of town.
When I do have the membership, I sometimes buy cheese, frozen items, non-food stuff like cleaning supplies (been using Kirkland laundry detergent for a few years now, that's a great buy), clothing, a mishmash of things. Good deal (especially when they do a coupon) on large packs of electric toothbrush refills or PUR faucet water filter refills, a couple things we use. But I don't always find the food mix advantageous. Great for chicken broth, for example, but wish they would carry veg broth the same way since that is what we would use. (Guess I should request it.) We don't usually need the quantities of produce, and we don't typically cook meat at home. (I'm the only one who eats meat.) To use it well food-wise you need to be good at stocking the pantry and at planning ahead. We tend to be neither. ;-) And sometimes I am particular about brand/variety, and Costco is of course limited variety on purpose, part of their setup. So if it's something that doesn't fit for us, we don't buy it there. We don't find a lot of matches in the dry goods it seems.
But two people can certainly get good use out of Costco for sure. It does make sense to go check it out first and see if the product mix looks like it'll work for you personally.
Beware, you may find yourself agreeing with the people who have dubbed it the "$200 store" as in that's how much your transaction is about each time. Mine were like that a lot of times, and often enough there were impulsive buys in there. ;-)
Strangest Starbucks Drink?
Venti should only be 20oz of hot drink. 24oz is only for cold.
Still, 20oz is 2.5 cups so the 2.25 is probably pretty close, maybe a little less than that because there are 3 shots in there right? I only had a tall when I got one, so that's "only" 12oz of it, or, well, the espresso has some volume so that's why I was estimating 10oz for a tall (which is a 12oz cup). The tall was still probably about a 1000 calorie drink. That's pretty silly. If I want a 1000 calorie drink I think I would much more enjoy a milkshake. ;-) (A GOOD one, not some crap from Starbucks, heh.)
Strangest Starbucks Drink?
Yeah, I did that once, latte made with heavy cream. It's good, but good not enough to drink the insane calories in however much heavy cream that is, like about 10oz in a tall, something like that (before the espresso)?
The reality is if that's what I have to do to drink a coffee drink, I really shouldn't be doing it. ;-)
Are you seeing grocery stores moving away from self check-outs?
Hm, well, obviously the mocking is on me for not considering the smell aspect in my previous post. (Plus, I think you'd be surprised at how many people hadn't thought the process out. I'm not more interested in mocking than understanding, just had a single-mindedness that perhaps wasn't appropriate. My apologies.) The smell never even crossed my mind for I have never experienced it. Truly, it's not just that I am not so sensitive to it, because I do hate excessive odors like that. I know people who have extreme sensitivities as well. But in fact I have never experienced this ever in all the times someone else has bagged things for me, which is more often than not. Never pulled things out and smelled any lingering smell. Just lucky I guess.
I usually don't end up with a box at Costco, but I've dealt with that one before.
Are you seeing grocery stores moving away from self check-outs?
Heh, what do you do at stores without self checkout? How do you keep people from touching it when they stock the shelves? How clean do you think the carts or hand baskets or your own reusable shopping bags (if you use those) are? How clean are the checkout lane belts or other surfaces the stuff touches there? It's pretty crazy stuff man, I have to tell you. Picky about bagging is one thing but think the whole process through a little bit. It's all in an outer packaging anyway, and you effectively can't keep it from touching unclean stuff.
You always do your own bagging at the short style self checkout, but the ones with belts in my experience often end up bagged before I am finished paying. It's not guaranteed, though. Sometimes, and at some locations more likely than others and maybe some days more likely than others, there is no one bagging on those lanes. Still talking specifically about Giant Eagle here.
Are you seeing grocery stores moving away from self check-outs?
The newest grocery store we frequent (open about a year maybe) doesn't have self-checkout lanes at all. They usually have enough staff, so much that at times there are empty lanes all ready for you when you're ready. This store is a chain but it is a franchise chain (Shop n Save) so they are independently owned. I don't know if this is indicative of the chain since I haven't been to any of their other locations. It could simply be indicative of this particular store's owner. (They own about 5 or 6 in the greater Pittsburgh area.)
The dominant chain here, Giant Eagle, has not moved to take out the self-checkout lanes that I have noticed. Even their newest locations or those that have been recently remodeled still have them. They use both the short express-type self-check and a longer unit with belt. At our closest location there is often a bagger handling 2-3 of the longer self-check lanes (of which there are 5-6 total). At a really busy time they might have a bagger for each.
Do not know about Walmart. Our nearest Targets don't have self-checkout and aren't moving to put them in seems like. Costco has none and is not moving to put them in looks like, unfortunately. (I usually only have a couple things there, where everyone else has a cartful. To be fair, though, it usually moves pretty well.) Home Depot and Lowe's, for what it's worth, usually have a group of 4 self-check stands and a staff member overseeing that at all times.
Olive Garden [moved from Greater Seattle board]
There's a Bahama Breeze in Tukwila. I'd consider going there instead, if it were me, although sometimes whether this is better could vary by location. It might be too far for you though. The cards should work there just as well unless it's some kind of weirdo certificate/promo. The other Darden shop you presumably have there is Red Lobster, although that is not necessarily an improvement. No Longhorn out there.
Otherwise, yeah, donate, or make the best of it. I go there occasionally when someone else insists upon that (older people in my family, perhaps, sometimes). I just pick something and don't expect to be wowed; I don't go there often enough to have a standard go-to item, nor do I find that there's anything in particular that I insist upon avoiding. It's just a so-so meal in a corporate atmosphere. The killer is that it seems to be so popular that the wait is always forever, sometimes even on weeknights.
Weird/Bad Food Related Dates
If you get lengua on the first date, I guess it must have gone reasonably well. :-P
