One big gripe of mine is with the underlying societal
mindset that created fast food.

I can understand that. I just prefer to eat alone if I am not at home

unless I

have someone with me. It's nothing that society has or hasn't taught me; I just have grown tired of dealing with people on my own time. I deal with enough of them when I am at work (when I'm working, heh).

I can't say much to that - it's very understandable that
one might not want to deal with people face to face,
especially when one has repeatedly been burned.

Moderate pace is preferable in most things, from the
factory to eating. I'm impressed with the French lunch
hour in what they deem to be fast food joints - you get
your meal and a sit and relax and even have a smoke!
within an hour that has not shrivelled into a half hour.

Well, that's the French for you. :D

But their productiveness isn't worse than ours, and
they make fewer sacrifices. That's the thing. We can
learn a bunch from such different cultures.

At least it has ham in its name.

True. It's my shack cum office cum computer room. It's amazing how

much crap

you can stuff into an 8x10' room. I'm living proof...

That's almost as small as my storage unit; I used
to have a bathroom bigger than that!

Is it a hatred of technology or a hatred of the
individual being rendered redundant?

Maybe both? People fear what they don't understand and around here,

they ...

how do I put this ... it's beyond their understanding if they can't put

their

hands on it. If you go farther out to the big cities, that doesn't

apply as

much.

Maybe a bit of both. In the rural areas, I suspect
that as long as people are doing individual and
nonhivelike, they're less threatened by the
redundancy issue.

That's not ideal, but maybe the night shift is a
good thing for you - though I used to like working
at night (part of what drew me to music) but not
because of diminished human interaction.

Rather, if I shop on a day off, getting up at 0500 to go shopping is always preferable than going out at night. It's partly my social anxiety

disorder and

Social anxiety is nothing to be ashamed of.

partly my loathing of being around noisy people when I shop (I take

shopping

pretty seriously). :)

I loathe noisy people and shopping (for anything except
food- and cooking-related stuff) equally.

The exception is driving to a Dollar General out in the sticks.

They're always

pretty well-stocked and mainly quiet if I shop during the day. After 5 PM, they pick up business from country folks realizing they forgot to buy

something

when at work in the town/city.

I'm more Dollar Tree than Dollar General. The former
has a sleeve of Lay's Stax for a buck (they're better
than Pringles, which they also have and I also like).

It does look a bit on the sweet side. For me another
issue would be the amount of dairy - though I am much
better at digesting milk products than previously, it
is still possible to overload the system. I can go from
0 to 60 in seconds if I'm not careful.

I have learned that non-commercially produced milk has a protein in it that allows one to tolerate cow's milk better. Evidently this protein has

been bred

out of commerical milking cow breeds. I don't remember all the details

but I

can look it up again.

That's interesting, and I'll have to look at that. There
is a brand of milk that is supposed to be more tolerable,
but I've not investigated. Thing is that lactose intolerance
and milk-protein intolerance are separate problems. I've had
both, the latter leaving first, the former now not so serious
as it was for most of my life.

Then again, I am weird and enjoy eating baker's chocolate
straight...

Nothing wrong with that, and quite a bit better for
those who are sweet, extra-sweet, or pre-extra-sweet.

I'm still sweet enough to have to worry about it. But baker's chocolate doesn't make my stomach queasy like milk chocolate (the kind used in your run-of-the-mill sweets) does.

American milk chocolate is worse than European milk
chocolate is worse than anyone's dark chocolate.

Here's something that sounds really good right now:

It does indeed.

Title: Oakwood Feed Store Chili
1 lb Bacon, chopped
3 lb Lean beef chuck roast, cubed

I'd use marbled beef.

Fry bacon in a heavy pot till crisp and the fat is rendered. Remove
and reserve bacon. Pour off most of the bacon fat into a heavy cast
iron skillet, leaving s small amount in the pot. Brown the meat and
garlic in the skillet.

Saute onions in the fat remaining in the pot until soft. Add the
meat, bacon, ground chilies, dried spices, the sauces, green chilies,
Jalapenos, stock and tomatoes. Simmer for two hours.

I'd dip out a couple tablespoons of fat into the skillet and
cook the onions there, cooking the meat in the bigger pot.

Allow the chili to sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours to give the
spices a chance to intensify.

A good idea; I'm not sure the point is to intensify
flavors but to mellow them.

Leeks Lucullus
categories: dairy, pork, rich side
serves: 4

8 leeks, trimmed and chopped
8 potatoes, peeled
4 oz cream or demi-sel cheese
4 oz butter
5 oz [grana] cheese, grated
salt, pepper
8 bacon rashers, rinded and grilled

Cook the leeks and potatoes in boiling salted water
until they are tender. Drain well, then rub through
a sieve.

Beat the cream or demi-sel cheese into the puree,
then add the butter, 4 oz of the cheese, and pepper.

Turn the mixture into a shallow flameproof serving dish.

Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and brown under the grill.

Serve garnished with the bacon.

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