I usually buy the kind that comes in a tube for that purpose. I can use a tablespoon at a time, and it seems to keep forever in the fridge after being opened.
That said, the last time I needed a tablespoon of tomato paste I didn’t have the kind in a tube on hand (I thought I did, but apparently I used it up and forgot to replenish it). So I opened a can, used a tablespoon, and put the rest in a jar in the freezer. The next time I need a can of tomato paste, I’ll use the stuff in the freezer. As I said before, cooking isn’t engineering; using slightly less tomato paste won’t make a huge difference. But I suppose I could make up the difference with some from a tube now that I have more of that on hand.
It is a brand name of clementines. I included it because I once overheard a woman at the farmers market say to her kid “Should we get some Cuties?”, referring to the mandarin oranges the vender was selling.
Yes, we usually have a can in the cupboard and most of a tube in the fridge, and those serve us well. I really like the tubes for small portions of tomato paste.
Not my cat, alas (though he’s a gorgeous boy) – my two orange tabby boys would never put up with costumes. There was a thread a few months ago about cat avatars, and I did a Google image search for “Jedi Cat,” and found that picture.
My group of friends and role-playing gamers still use Python quotes regularly – especially lately, as we’ve been playing a campaign of Pendragon (a RPG in which the players are playing Arthurian knights).
For that matter, you can mess with cake, souffle, etc. recipes, too. Yes, you will get a different result. But in generally predictable ways. I routinely bake by looking up about 3 recipes for the thing I want to make, and interpolating.
My family, even my mother could quote it despite never having sat through the entire movie. My nieces and their boyfriends, too.
It all started because my father was the first in the neighborhood to get a VHS recorder/player and the first thing we recorded was that movie because it was the last time it was being played on PBS. And, boom, we became very popular kids with all our high school friends coming over to watch it at least weekly.
My dentist and I do dueling quotes on it, or we switch to Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein. Hey, we are of an age. The much younger assistants are clueless about our conversations.
In my group of friends and gaming folks, it’s those three movies, plus The Princess Bride, Stripes, and a bunch of Star Wars and Star Trek quotes. We, too, are of an age.
