Saturday Snippets, best ever French fries, cleaner laundry, and is the internet making us stupid...

because it's the weekend and who needs to be mentally hassled?

Let's start with a subject of deep importance and dear to just about everyone's heart - French fries.

If you've been around here for awhile you know I'm completely sold on the need for everyone to have and use an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker - which, incidentally is on sale right now for $99.99 at Amazon.

It would be faster for me to tell you what I don't make in my Instant Pot - which is almost nothing.  Roasts, turkey breasts, stews, soup, chili, beans, lasagna, rice, hard cooked eggs, steamed veggies, cheese cake, are all done in my Instant Pot in a fraction of the time as the old way and ten times better.   

Yesterday a lady posted a picture of her Instant Pot French fries and a link to how to make them on the Instant Pot community page on Facecrap.  I was intrigued and since I have some potatoes I decided to try it.

The concept seemed pretty simple.  Pre-steam the potatoes in the Instant Pot with Kosher salt and baking soda in the water, and then fry them (either deep or shallow) and enjoy crispy fries.

Allow me to inform you that I've never, ever had a French fry that was so delicious.  Never!  They were fluffy and hot on the inside and a wonderful crispy golden brown on the outside.  They were so good that we're having them again tonight.

She has all the instructions with tons of pics at her site, but trust me, the entire project is quick and easy.

It took about 10 minutes to make them not counting the time to slice up a potato.  If you have an Instant Pot, read and follow her instructions exactly.  She also has all the chemical info on why this works.

How clean is your laundry?

Probably not very.

We purchased a new washer and dryer a few years ago and from the get go I noticed that the rinse water always looked dirty.  This is just a bottom of the line ordinary top load washing machine, so I figured you get what you pay for.

I think we all know why our dishes are not getting clean in the dishwasher - no phosphates.  I solved that problem by buying original Cascade that still had phosphates from Restockit .  Be aware that hospitals, restaurants, and other commercial concerns still use dish washing soap with phosphates so that the dishes are actually clean.  What does that tell you?

 While wandering around the intertubes (a bad habit of mine), I stumbled onto a discussion of TSP (trisodium phosphate) and laundry.  It never occurred to me that laundry soap of long ago had phosphates as part of the ingredients.

Most of the older readers here will  remember their childhood home being stocked with TSP for all the really hard cleaning jobs.  Many people still use it for cleaning and dulling painted surfaces before repainting.

After the government got involved and banned most phosphates, based on some really faulty reasoning and bad science, our dishes are no longer clean and our clothes are not clean, either.

After doing my due diligence on the subject, I popped over to Lowe's and bought a small box of TSP to add to my laundry along with my detergent.

The purpose of adding it to your dishwasher or laundry is to chelate calcium, magnesium, and other 'hardness' metal ions in the water which would otherwise form insoluble salts with the detergents.  It helps your detergent work better, keeping everything in solution so it can be removed with the water. Those insoluble detergent salts (soap scum) are far more effective at gunking things up than the relatively unsticky phosphate-metal salts.

NB: It is not a replacement for laundry soap, but only used as a booster.

I am happy to report my rinse water now looks clean and my clothes are much cleaner and smell much better than they have in years.  I have noticed no negative effects to either white or colored clothes.  I even finally tried it on my precious (and expensive) bamboo sheets.  They look and smell great!

I use 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) in a large load, and about one TB is a small load.  After using it for several weeks I will probably cut back on the amount as it appears all the old soap scum has been adequately removed from my laundry.

The TSP pictured is available at Ace, Lowe's, Home Depot, and probably independent hardware stores also.  Beware of packages marked TSP with a flag that says "phosphate free."  WTHell?  How can you call it TSP if it has no phosphate?

Is the Internet Turning Our Brains to Mush?

Probably.

I finally acquired a copy of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2011 for general non-fiction.

Much as I'm looking forward to reading this, it will, no doubt, confirm what I already know to be true.  In 1990 Jane Healy, Ph.D explored this idea of neural reprogramming of children's brains being done by excessive TV watching in her classic book  Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It. 

In 1999 she published FAILURE TO CONNECT: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds -- and What We Can Do About It

Anyone who thinks that overuse of computer technology by children, or even adults, is not a problem has not been paying attention - or maybe they can't pay attention due to over use of their technology.  Witness people walking around clutching their smart phones likes it's a pacifier, and you'll know there's a problem.  

I spend an inordinate amount of time online and have noticed an inability to concentrate as well as I used to be able to do.  Lately, I have also started to "flit" from one thing to another while online like a drunken squirrel has been turned loose in my head. This cannot be healthy.  

No - I'm not advocating throwing your computer out.  I am suggesting that most of us need to keep this wonderful tool in its proper place and perhaps limit our exposure.  I mean, really - do we need to look up the best way to make the perfect soft boiled egg again? 


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Some great Amazon OUTLET deals




 

Snippets...

of the past few days.

* Of course, we'll have to start with the Super Bowl.  I actually turned on my big TV and watched it.  I did miss the halftime show, but I understand Lady Gaga didn't get all in-your-face political, and may have actually entertained the hoards. Good for her.

Since football is not really on my radar, I had no pigskin in that fight.  I thought it was a fun game.  And really, that's all it is; a game.

The ads were either boring or downright ludicrous and ham-handed.  Equal pay, Audi?  Not to be missed (and I'm sure no one did) were all the pretty little Muslim ladies wrapped up in their designer scarves sucking up modeling jobs that were formerly held by blacks.  Yawn.

On the upside President Trump called the game and Tom Brady is a Trump fan, so the #nevertrumpers are all #notmysuperbowlwinner.  They never fail to delight.

*  Huffington Post actually admitted Trump was right about something?  Why, yes they did.  Trump Is Right: Silicon Valley Is Using H-1B Visas To Pay Low Wages To Immigrants  Of course it was buried on some back page, but better than nothing.

* It's been reported that Judge Neil Gorsuch banned laptops in his classes.  That makes him way smarter than the average bear, but we already knew that.  Many studies have proven that note-taking on computers is the worst way to engage in the material being presented.  Sad to say, but many, if not most, schools don't teach cursive anymore, thereby making note taking by hand much more difficult.

I've recently started using the Cornell Method of note taking (yes, even little old ladies take notes.)  I was a bit skeptical of the method, but after employing it for a few months, I'm totally sold and use it for any book that requires deeper study.

*  A bunch of SJW's from my old neighborhood in St.Paul are making noises about high tailing it out to protest the oil line at Standing Rock Reservation, which proves how out of touch libtards are.  The Sioux tribe just managed to get rid of the old bunch of protesters they did not want there in the first place, and these loons are going to trek over to North Dakota to "help."  The only help the Sioux needs is cleaning up the massive mess the last bunch left behind, which is pretty much what libtards always do.  

 *  In other SJW news the ladies who march™ are all elated that some over-priced snob stores are not going to carry some of Ivanka Trump's clothes and accessories.  But, wait - I thought they were all for supporting women.  Isn't Ivanka a woman?  And what exactly did Ivanka ever do to them?  Last I heard, she was spearheading some plan for universal or free (or something) child care (I'm against it).  Isn't that a women's issue?  I'm so confused.

*  Personal update:  I've been so bad at keeping up with my schedule the past few weeks.  My morning pages are not getting done, and my bullet journal is barren.  I think many of us expended so much psychic energy the past year and a half that we now feel like deflated balloons.  Does it feel that way to you?

If you're in need a good journal for bullet journaling (or just a cool notebook), I have some great ones listed on ebay plus some other cool stuff.

*  Prayers needed.  Frequent commenters MadJack and Vladimir Solaratovare are both experiencing some very significant health problems.  Please keep them both in your daily prayers.

*  Birds.  Our busy bird feeder has attracted a few new visitors.  We've had quite a bit of snow and for the first time ever the quail (skittish little clowns) have actually come on to the deck to eat spilled bird seed.  They've even walked up to the slider and peeked in the house.  And..........................a lady pheasant braved the deck, too.  I doubt we'll ever see the male pheasant on the deck.  They're all alpha male types and probably tell the ladies to go grab them some seed - the bird version of "make me a sandwich and bring me a beer."

Here's a guy who feeds bald eagles up in Alaska.  You won't believe what you see when the camera starts panning around the ship.




Some super good deals on Amazon Deals of the Day including tax software, Kindles, and Fire Tablets. 

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