What do you like to eat? Favorite cuisine? I’d suggest some focus to start. There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread about books and videos but I’d avoid picking random recipes to try. They won’t overlap ingredients (or tools) and that drives costs up quickly. Instead, pick a focus (or two) of some kind. That could be a specific thing like ramen or pizza or a bit broader like breakfast or Mexican food.

Next I’d say you should learn how to do one thing at a time, learn to make tortillas but use taco seasoning and basic fillings. Next week buy the tortillas but make refried beens from scratch. The next week make salsa but buy the beans and the tortillas. Continue this until you can make every component and then pick a day and make everything from scratch. Doing this you will learn what you like making, what parts are worth your time and what you would rather just buy.

The method I propose here also scales well if you want to do some amount of weekly food prep to save time on weeknights - make a big batch of a component or two and mix and match your homemade items with store bought ones throughout the week.

Some pitfalls to avoid. Touched on this above but don’t go to the store with a shopping list that is just the recipe - this gets expensive fast and is likely to result in lots of waste. Avoid specialty ingredients till you have practiced with cheap ones too. Also avoid special tools to start - you need a knife and a pan to get started. Not saying not to invest in good tools, just don’t go buy a stand mixer or a mandolin until you’ve made enough things to know why a particular tool would be a good investment for you.

Last thing I’ll say is that you’ll burn things, add cinnamon instead of cumin, salt instead of sugar, your dough won’t rise or you might drop all your hard work on the floor but it’s part of learning - keep at it and try to just enjoy your time in the kitchen!

I just started skyrim for the first time in December. Stealth archer obviously and then a mage character. I’ve been surprised how much fun it is. Clearly lacks depth in a lot of areas but damn there is a lot of it. Definitely think I missed out on playing it when it was released.

What you described exists. What I wish they had was the opposite - I want regular or story difficulty with only a single save.

First, I want to say that everyone should enjoy games how they want. That out of the way I want to make the argument for just rolling with the dice in bg3. Are there things you will miss out on - certainly. Will you make bad choices or get unlucky sometimes - for sure. But that is part of what makes it great, every choice, error, or unlucky roll will still result in the story moving forward and it will be your story. If you follow a guide and save scum you’ll miss out on the adventure (you can’t have adventure without risk). You’ll also spend a lot of time reading and watching guides instead of just playing. Anyway, at least consider just going for it.

I really wish honor and difficulty were separate toggles - honor mode is awesome because it forces you to roll with things but I would not recommend it for a first playthrough due to the increased difficulty. IMO honor mode (for the honor part) is the only way the game should be played.

I’ll also acknowledge that I do have a couple of things I would save scum on if I thought I’d only play once. But my couple things aren’t universal and if you start taking everyone’s advice on those you’ll end up needing to save scum nearly everything.

Good luck, have fun!

Transportation keys (car or bike locks) are each on their own key ring and I take the one I need. All the rest go in my wallet.

Deep breaths, it’s gonna be OK. You are saying that all games should include a toggle/slider. I don’t agree. Devs should make games they want to make and I’ll play them if they appeal to me and you should too. But don’t get bent when they don’t have a feature you want.

Eh, fun isn’t the only thing people want from entertainment but even if that were always true there isn’t any reason niche games shouldn’t exist. Who am I to tell someone what kind of game they should play. Lots of games out there that I won’t play because I know it’s not for me - sometimes that sucks cause I like the art or the concept and wish the mechanics were what I want but they aren’t and I move on.

Catering to “most” also results in games that tend to be homogeneous in some way and that sucks for those that want niche. Also sucks when niche exists and gets ruined to appeal to “most” but that’s just how it goes.

Have you made many sauces from scratch? Certainly a difference between sauces intended as sauce (enchilada sauce) VS those that are condiments (hot sauce). In those examples the line is fuzzy and water is a factor but not the only one.

I suppose you could try adding water to soy sauce but I doubt that would result in a satisfying sauce. I would make another sauce and add soy sauce, hot sauce, mustard, or other condiments to it for flavor but at that point you aren’t really making them less potent because you are actually just making a new recipe with the condiments as an ingredient.

And if this is the case for a business they should plan for it because people will be late. Pretty easy to overlap schedules and be prepared - but that costs money. So obviously we can’t do that because the shareholders are the only thing that matters.

Malapropisms - learned a new word today and it’s a fun one. I do the same thing in my head when I read, any name I don’t know how to pronounce becomes something I do know how to pronounce and stays that way for the rest of the story.

Any recollection of what the obscure ones you had were?

I don’t know how many varieties are really an option from the grocery store. Farmers markets are probably better but I didn’t realize how many options there were or how different they can be till I started growing them. Definitely recommend slicer varieties for sandwiches but honestly they have been my favorite for everything.

I recently bought some msg. Tasting it by itself reminds me of tomatoes - like a tomato with no sugar and no juice. Haven’t really used it at all yet but based on that I might try mixing it with mayo or even just sprinkling it on a sandwich (with or without tomato on it).

Anecdotal evidence is evidence though. And I think the point of the above post is valid, commercial food service should be held to the strictest guidelines to eliminate as much risk as possible. At home, for myself, I’m not going to worry about it beyond basic common sense and trusting my own senses. I also think it is good to be aware of guidelines and generally exercise caution.

All that said, I am always forgetting to put food away and eat it for lunch the next day anyway - have never had a problem in decades (vegetarian).

Busted lol

Here is one I took using our hands to create the effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penalty_(Mormonism)

It is part of Mormon temple rituals. They don’t phrase it like that but it’s what they are doing. Luckily I got out before I participated in any of that.

Years ago I had “pantomiming_suicide” and someone created one about calling the suicide hotline. It’s actually a Mormon reference that I just thought would make a funny name but I can see how that wasn’t obvious now.

Beans and eggs are good together. If you want to make them look appealing just plate them together instead of mixing them together. Beans under with eggs on top or plated next to each other can both be easily combined by the eater and won’t look awful. Flavor wise you get the same result.

It’s not just superheroes. There are so many movies that boil down to whoever punches harder wins and it’s always the good guy. I find myself asking, *is this a punching movie" quite a lot. They all try and spin it to be about family or overcoming the odds or even try to blur the line between good and evil. Unfortunately in the end the protagonist punches harder and the story ends, “zzzzz”.

Would be interested in more about the order - wondering if there is a name for that? I have been called out by teachers and friends and colleagues about strange sentences and it was often because I wouldn’t write the ‘normal’ way. I’ve learned the conventions over the years and often find myself making edits to swap words and phrases around to meet expectations.