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greggy

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Posts posted by greggy

  14. Posted

    Recently I've been struggling to make vegetarian suet to put in my birdfeeder.* Normally I buy manufactured suet cakes from the birdseed store that's up the hill from my house, but when I went there on Saturday they were completely out of them. Now I knew that suet is basically solid fat plus various healthy bird treats like nuts and seeds and stuff, so I figured maybe I could make some with coconut oil in place of the usual beef lard that's in most store-bought suet cakes. I'm sure some of you are rolling your eyes at me right now, and I know what you're thinking. The melting point of coconut oil is barely above room temperature, and you want to put it outside? In Atlanta? In the SUMMER? I obviously already knew that, because I'm not an IDOIT, but I found a suet recipe online and somebody in the comments said they substituted coconut oil and it didn't melt even in southern Louisiana, so I figured I'd be ok. It called for a 1 to 1 mixture of fat (coconut oil in my case) and peanutbutter, plus some flour, so I guessed maybe that formed some sort of matrix that kept the cake from melting, i don't know. What am I, a food chemist? So anyway, I followed the recipe, except I put flax seeds into it instead of nuts. Not for any special reason, I simply happened to have a bag of flax seeds in the pantry. I froze the suet in a plastic tub to give it a nice brick shape that would fit the feeder. Long story short, a few hours later I took the suet block out and put it in the feeder. The birds found it within a couple minutes, which was encouraging, but less encouraging were the droplets i could see all over the suet brick. Well...turns out that was condensation because the suet was still cold from the freezer, so I thought maybe I was in the clear. No such luck. Once the block thawed out, it totally melted and fell through the wires of the feeder, and made a nasty barf-looking puddle on the ground below. Man oh man, can I tell you something? I was very discouraged. I was starting to think my whole homemade suet project was a failure and that I'd have to wait until the birdseed store got a new shipment of suet cakes, which could take an entire week. That's a whole week of pissed off birds landing on the empty feeder and glaring in at me, and who needs that kind of hassle?

     

    To make matters worse, I went up to the seed shop today, and they still hadn't restocked. The owner said the suet cakes probably wouldn't arrive till next week! I don't mind telling you, that put me into a bit of a panic. But then I remembered something a good friend once told me: "if you simmer flax seeds in a little bit of water, they secrete a thick gelatin-like substance, maybe try to use some of that as a binding agent to keep the coconut oil cake from dissolving." I remember it like it was yesterday, but in reality she gave me this suggestion back on Saturday and I ignored it at the time. :P With new resolve, I threw two tablespoons of flax seeds into a pot with about 1/4 cup of simmering water and stirred it until it began to thicken. In the meantime, I took my remaining coconut oil cake from the freezer and melted it in the microwave. It was only a few minutes before it was time to mix the original recipe with the flax seed gelatin-like goop. Then I packed the resulting soft doughy mixture back into the mold and put it back in the freezer. I was sweating bullets when I put the new version of the suet into the feeder about an hour ago, but damn if it isn't holding up like a champ! So even in these trying times, some stories do have a happy ending!**

     

    *I know birds don't care about eating animal products. They are voracious little monsters with no conscience. BUT, I am vegetarian and so I don't keep beef lard in my house. I could have bought some at the grocery store, but I felt weird about it even though I wouldn't be eating it myself.

     

    **Oh, also if the flax seed gelatin subsititute failed I was going to try again using agar. I bet that would have worked equally well, so if you have agar but no flax seeds, you may want to give it a try. If you do, please post your results here, I'll be interested to know how it works for you.

     

    PS good Hollywood Handbook ep, very funny. Please don't cut Hayes out of the podcast in the future, even for a joke. He's very nice and I honestly think the show wouldn't be as good without him.

     

    Edit: i just checked the outside temperature and its only 74 degrees fahrenheit. Now I'm super worried that the reason the cake isn't melting is because its cool out, and not because of my awesome flax-seed invention. When it warms up outside I'll update this. Keep me in your prayers! :unsure:

    been a long time since anyone posted a HomeGrown Tomatoes script but this is one of the best yet, way to go

    • Like 10

  20. Posted

    rAFTaCC.gif

    ‣ have they always done a ton of these? seems like im noticing them a lot more this season. probably drones making cool helicopter shots much cheaper

    ‣ hmm immunity in the first challenge? are two people going out tonight?tumblr_inline_oqbc0iI7101t1zpts_500.gif

    ‣ this really depends on what book you’re getting because if they just have some intern in advertising churn out “grimace’s big day” then who gives a fuck but if this finally gives me the push i needed to get through “gravity’s rainbow” then this is a big dealtumblr_inline_oqbci35tna1t1zpts_500.png

    ‣ very cute aubry

    ‣ weird move michaelatumblr_inline_oqbd3uomwm1t1zpts_500.gif

    ‣ andrea has never been very good at shaking hands

    ‣ dont feel good about michaela’s chances tonight!

    ‣ damn cirie got hammered on that one

    ‣ oh boy here goes sarah

    ‣ lol you dont get private convos at council dummy thats why you talk this shit over beforehandtumblr_inline_oqbechp7Vo1t1zpts_500.gif

    ‣ tribal make out party

    ‣ rip michaela :c i love you on survivor but i dont think you will ever win it

    ‣ PROB ep, love a good double elimination

    ‣ oh damn one more ep? i didnt realize we were there already

    05/21/17

    • Like 5

  23. Posted

    ‣ sorry i’m so late getting to this! crazy week :c

    ‣ do you think they just recorded the clip of the island guy going “oooooooh” one time and toss it in to the music whenever or do they have him on the payroll and he records new ones?

    ‣ lol tai waving at sarah’s dude

    ‣ andrea trying real hard to cry but never quite gets there

     

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    ‣ aww, michaela’s mom is so cute, i love her

    ‣ wow the culpeppers reunion followed by cirie and her son broke me, teared up

    ‣ the family challenge is too mean i dont like it

     

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    ‣ lol cirie’s son ruled, we gotta get him on some season to play

    ‣ ooo you know what we need? one of those immunity challenges where jeff tempts them with food

    ‣ rip sierra, i didnt know your name for a long time but then i did but now it doesnt matter

    ‣ lol sarah pulled such a snake move to get that advantage

    ‣ sorry there arent that many gifs or jokes, not a lot to this one

    ‣ PR ep, fairly boring but it was nice seeing tai and michaela taking some inititative

    • Like 4
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