Jim's Cafe Tuesday March 5 2024

[PrincessPure]

Ah, it was a fine day. I finally restarted studying after my exams were over. There is an exam upcoming in a month-ish. My cold is still there but at least I have no more fever, and I am excited about my short trip to Milan in 10 days.

The thing about these short student trips is, idk how to put it. They are kinda uncomfortable. I get my flights from Ryan Air, so I usually cant take more than a backpack. Even if I did, i cant carry a luggage. Its so weird sleeping in a room where everyone is a guy but me. I hope it doesnt happen again. At least last time my guy friend was there and had his eye on me, helped me with carrying my backpack and everything. This time im alone. But still, I am glad I get to see many places on a student budget. It is one of the blessings the European Union has offered me. Which I didnt have before moving here.

 

[FlamingoWrangler]

Hello everyone,
Theres a cooking show called STRUGGLE MEALS On the Tastemade Network. Everything’s on YouTube too. But he cracks me up, he has a packet drawer. He uses it for flavor. Entertaining, yet simple concepts.
Then there’s me. I started to clean & organize my out of control spice area. It’s expanded a lot since I have started drying some of the spices I grow.
I usually buy a side of beef, keep it in a deep freeze. One time I decided that cube steaks would be a great thing for my tween aged kids to master making. Let’s just say they don’t eat cube steak anymore. 😂🤣
I think making enough food for multiple meals is a time saver. I often put leftovers in single serving containers. Easy to reheat. Easy to store in the freezer for another day.
I don’t think of cooking/baking as separate things, but it makes sense.

fun cafe! Thanks! Good to see everyone ❤️

 

[Innocent Forever]

 

[Livelife]

Hello everyone,
Theres a cooking show called STRUGGLE MEALS On the Tastemade Network. Everything’s on YouTube too. But he cracks me up, he has a packet drawer. He uses it for flavor. Entertaining, yet simple concepts.
Then there’s me. I started to clean & organize my out of control spice area. It’s expanded a lot since I have started drying some of the spices I grow.
I usually buy a side of beef, keep it in a deep freeze. One time I decided that cube steaks would be a great thing for my tween aged kids to master making. Let’s just say they don’t eat cube steak anymore. 😂🤣
I think making enough food for multiple meals is a time saver. I often put leftovers in single serving containers. Easy to reheat. Easy to store in the freezer for another day.
I don’t think of cooking/baking as separate things, but it makes sense.

fun cafe! Thanks! Good to see everyone ❤️

He's adorable and funny, thank you! I do challenge his pricings though, lol....

 

[AmberMarie]

I also live at approximately 6k feet above sea level. Getting baked goods to come out right is a bit of an experiment. The air pressure is lower and interestingly, water boils at a lower temperature. This means that making a meringue is going to be different than at sea level.

i had never understood there was a difference until i was working up at a children's camp and another fellow camp leader was asking about the high altitude directions... (as i'm from colorado) i was all... huh? i just bake/cook it like this.... Low n behold it was always high altitude directions ingrained within me lol

 

[1964dodge]

hank you for opening the cafe and inviting me @Kiwi2016

mike

 

[BarryW]

One time I took a frozen pizza and accidentally put the cardboard piece in the oven with the pizza. When the timer went off, I was very confused why the pizza was not cooked. After I realized my mistake, I was too hungry, so I tried to eat the barely-cooked pizza anyway. It tasted terrible so I only ate 2 slices. What a disaster.

 

[CrossedSeas]

I got nothing I’m afraid, because I’m also in the very early stages of learning the ways of cooking sending you all support in your endeavors though!

 

[LumberJack]

i had never understood there was a difference until i was working up at a children's camp and another fellow camp leader was asking about the high altitude directions... (as i'm from colorado) i was all... huh? i just bake/cook it like this.... Low n behold it was always high altitude directions ingrained within me lol

Hehe I am also Colorado born and raised. Boulder County for the most part. IIRC Boulder is just over 6k elevation (?).

PS I am a little prickly about the whole “native” sentiment. I get the whole thing of, “hey I grew up here, and now we have all these transplants that came for legal weed in 2010 and just stayed.” But also there is the whole, there were other people here for 10s of thousands of years before Europeans showed up. I guess it is a matter of perspective, but I would like for more people to be aware of the situation with the true natives. Ok end rant, I will put away my soapbox for now

 

[KM76710]

The fun advice from me is unhealthy, got to have cast iron skillets which hopefully are decades old and plenty of lard. LOL My grandmother taught me how to cook and most all meats were fried and meals were heavy on the meat. Side dishes were mainly either French fries or mashed potatoes and cornbread is a must as well as plenty of gravy. Tasty, but not healthy.

 

[LumberJack]

I can tell you what I've had, but I don't know about the recipe lol... Although, he's something easy. Nachos. Use a bag of tortilla chips and spread them out in a baking pan, spread some cooked beef chili on top, extra cheese, and any other toppings of choice. After it bakes, I'd probably do sour cream, lettuce, tomato. and viola! Done.

Haha- nachos for the win! I am suddenly hungry, gotta get some chips because I have enough cheese lol.

 

[LumberJack]

The fun advice from me is unhealthy, got to have cast iron skillets which hopefully are decades old and plenty of lard. LOL My grandmother taught me how to cook and most all meats were fried and meals were heavy on the meat. Side dishes were mainly either French fries or mashed potatoes and cornbread is a must as well as plenty of gravy. Tasty, but not healthy.

Growing up I had a next door neighbor who was first generation from Mexico. She had all these ancient recipes that had been handed down for generations. My gosh that food was so good. The refried beans were my favorite, and they were so good because of lard. It’s too bad that they moved away before I learned Spanish

 

[LumberJack]

Haha- nachos for the win! I am suddenly hungry, gotta get some chips because I have enough cheese lol.

Can I use Chee-tos for my nacho base? I can’t decide if it’s genius or disgusting.

 

[FlamingoWrangler]

He's adorable and funny, thank you! I do challenge his pricings though, lol....

Agreed, his pricing is whack. 😂

 

[AmberMarie]

Hehe I am also Colorado born and raised. Boulder County for the most part. IIRC Boulder is just over 6k elevation (?).

PS I am a little prickly about the whole “native” sentiment. I get the whole thing of, “hey I grew up here, and now we have all these transplants that came for legal weed in 2010 and just stayed.” But also there is the whole, there were other people here for 10s of thousands of years before Europeans showed up. I guess it is a matter of perspective, but I would like for more people to be aware of the situation with the true natives. Ok end rant, I will put away my soapbox for now

i can completely understand all of that. i'm not far from Boulder... my parents transplanted lol but i was born n raised n still living here. Due East almost to 76. i would sell honey at the boulder farmer's market every summer, then my youngest took it over as i was working full time.

Besides... the "transplants" started bothering us "natives" long before 2010. lol like close to 1980... darn Californians hehe *hands you back your soapbox*

 

[MisterBGone]

Ah, it was a fine day. I finally restarted studying after my exams were over. There is an exam upcoming in a month-ish. My cold is still there but at least I have no more fever, and I am excited about my short trip to Milan in 10 days.

The thing about these short student trips is, idk how to put it. They are kinda uncomfortable. I get my flights from Ryan Air, so I usually cant take more than a backpack. Even if I did, i cant carry a luggage. Its so weird sleeping in a room where everyone is a guy but me. I hope it doesnt happen again. At least last time my guy friend was there and had his eye on me, helped me with carrying my backpack and everything. This time im alone. But still, I am glad I get to see many places on a student budget. It is one of the blessings the European Union has offered me. Which I didnt have before moving here.

Oh yes! That would be quite weird, and as-in: strange, indeed (or awkward?) to put it best... I hope that you can find yourself in some better sleeping arrangements/& accomodations in the future, @PrincessPure ~*/>

 

[MisterBGone]

One time I took a frozen pizza and accidentally put the cardboard piece in the oven with the pizza. When the timer went off, I was very confused why the pizza was not cooked. After I realized my mistake, I was too hungry, so I tried to eat the barely-cooked pizza anyway. It tasted terrible so I only ate 2 slices. What a disaster.

Oh? I've done that MANY TIMES BEFORE: (mostly, while in college). . . so, proof positive folks; you won't start a fire. Smokey can even promise you of that~

 

[JMG]

Thank you so much for tagging me here @Kiwi2016 and also for opening the cafe today! I'm here quite "late" but still the 5th I guess, lol. Anyway aw well from what I can tell from the replies I don't think it really matters very much whether there's "pics/games" or whatever or asking questions. Pretty sure the "main" thing with cafes is if there is a bit of a theme, and of course the social interaction part of it. I love whenever they are posted, even if they have no themes like just having a "new" one for the day is great, and I love to come in and just say "hi" to everyone and wish everyone a nice day. Wishing that for everyone here, always

Oh and as for the whole "cooking/baking" experience/info, well I'm afraid I don't really have a heck of a lot of that overall. The person I live with and myself have an arrangement where they do pretty much all the cooking, and I take care of all dishes. It works well and has for many years now (over a decade, wow, crazy, lol). I have been trying to "watch" more with various things over the last couple years though, because I know they won't be around forever, and I also know that it is just a good skill to "know how to do" lol. If we could afford it then we would definitely either have a robot do all our cooking and cleaning, or if that isn't a possibility "yet" then I guess just hire a regular person to do those things for us, lol. Anyway it is probably better that we have to do those things ourselves as it is a very good thing to know how to do. I do bake cookies sometimes, along with doing things that basically just require "boiling water" like pasta, eggs, soup, simple kinds of things like that. Oh and I also "fry" things too sometimes, mostly just fried eggs or omelets.

Wishing you the best of luck with all the things you end up cooking/baking, and yup as others have said here, practice with it will definitely bring lots of improvement. I also like what the person said (so sorry, too lazy to check right now and kinda in the middle of a bunch of things too, lol) about there being no "mistakes" only happy little accidents, and that if you learn from it and do better next time then that's all that really matters Oh and I enjoyed reading about everyone's various experiences with cooking/baking too, and found that "higher altitude adjustment" stuff fascinating! I had never even thought about those kinds of things before, always lived pretty much "at sea level" lol. We have lots of mountains around us here since the area is referred to as a "valley" but ya we definitely could never afford to live "on" those mountains, lol.

HA- I never knew that those were two seaparte things, @Kiwi2016 : "cooking AND backihng?" Are they not... On e& the same!

Lol aw I understand about this one @MisterBGone , I also thought for a long time that they were "one and the same" lol but no the difference between them is "cooking" is generally done on the stove, and "baking" is when it goes in the oven.

 

[FFurry]

Well, it's an experience, I guess

 

[MisterBGone]

Thank you so much for tagging me here @Kiwi2016 and also for opening the cafe today! I'm here quite "late" but still the 5th I guess, lol. Anyway aw well from what I can tell from the replies I don't think it really matters very much whether there's "pics/games" or whatever or asking questions. Pretty sure the "main" thing with cafes is if there is a bit of a theme, and of course the social interaction part of it. I love whenever they are posted, even if they have no themes like just having a "new" one for the day is great, and I love to come in and just say "hi" to everyone and wish everyone a nice day. Wishing that for everyone here, always

Oh and as for the whole "cooking/baking" experience/info, well I'm afraid I don't really have a heck of a lot of that overall. The person I live with and myself have an arrangement where they do pretty much all the cooking, and I take care of all dishes. It works well and has for many years now (over a decade, wow, crazy, lol). I have been trying to "watch" more with various things over the last couple years though, because I know they won't be around forever, and I also know that it is just a good skill to "know how to do" lol. If we could afford it then we would definitely either have a robot do all our cooking and cleaning, or if that isn't a possibility "yet" then I guess just hire a regular person to do those things for us, lol. Anyway it is probably better that we have to do those things ourselves as it is a very good thing to know how to do. I do bake cookies sometimes, along with doing things that basically just require "boiling water" like pasta, eggs, soup, simple kinds of things like that. Oh and I also "fry" things too sometimes, mostly just fried eggs or omelets.

Wishing you the best of luck with all the things you end up cooking/baking, and yup as others have said here, practice with it will definitely bring lots of improvement. I also like what the person said (so sorry, too lazy to check right now and kinda in the middle of a bunch of things too, lol) about there being no "mistakes" only happy little accidents, and that if you learn from it and do better next time then that's all that really matters Oh and I enjoyed reading about everyone's various experiences with cooking/baking too, and found that "higher altitude adjustment" stuff fascinating! I had never even thought about those kinds of things before, always lived pretty much "at sea level" lol. We have lots of mountains around us here since the area is referred to as a "valley" but ya we definitely could never afford to live "on" those mountains, lol.


Lol aw I understand about this one @MisterBGone , I also thought for a long time that they were "one and the same" lol but no the difference between them is "cooking" is generally done on the stove, and "baking" is when it goes in the oven.

And so. . .Is it really; 'one IN the same, then?' Like a Muhammad Ali~!* You see?.? ;D (& Cassius Clay, ofc!)

You know, years ago... I'd heard a director (movie) say: to, "get/or make yourself a menu," as a means of inspiring to learn more things to cook. So everytime you do learn something new, there you go, add it simply to that then. And his was super cool, things like breakfast tacos & whatnot~

As for how? I haven't got a clue, especially if your room mate does it all, all of the time. But then, you're just going to have to take over, and make it a little side excursion or something, for your own, or all by yourself when you can and there's free time & space, so on & so forth. Finding someone inspirational can probably be quite helpful, if you derive motivation from that type of thing: their personality, or charisma, mostly mainly their 'tastes,' I'd suppose? And then again, something which will be appropriate for your skill-level. Which is why Martha Stewart has been out for me, for quite some time (of the question, that is~*)!

Sadly, my menu hasn't changed all that much since college. But? What is one to do! . . ~*