Thank goodness for the Dope, otherwise I’d never know I’m “some kind of animal” (I routinely reach into the bag of shredded Mexican cheese to sprinkle some on my hash browns in the morning).
Even worse, I reach into the bag to get a few morsels to sprinkle into the bowl of some kind of animal - Pluto the field spaniel, who relishes his breakfast with a bit of garnish.
Hey, me, too! Although I grab hand for anything that is better with cheese (ie. almost anything), not just for hashbrowns.
On a lesser level of oops, I discovered that I accidentally used almond extract instead of vanilla extract in my banana bread yesterday. Found out this morning when I had a slice and my tongue started burning. How I didn’t smell the difference when I was making the bread… I can only think the banana smell overrode the almond smell. And why my tongue burns from almond extract? I have no clue.
I’m not here to cast aspersions on anyone, but have learned from personal experience that if you take steps to minimize the contamination of open containers of refrigerated food, it lasts a lot longer, sometimes long past the expiration date. This includes:
*In particular, shredded cheese will last months past the expiration date, even after it’s been opened, if you don’t contaminate it. Stick your hands in there, though, and all bets are off. (That’s probably why the bag says to use it within a week of opening it.)
I have to agree with this. If you’re the only one who’s eating the cheese, stick your hand in the bag all you want. But if other people eat the cheese, too, keep your damn hand out of the bag. Pour it out, instead.
If we are close to the bottom of a tub of sour cream, and going to open another before dinner is over, I always use a clean spoon on the new tub, rather than use the same spoon and potentially contaminate it with invisible mold from the tub that’s been sitting around a while.
I have no idea if this keeps the new sour cream mold free for longer, but I imagine it could help.
That actually sound really delicious, at least to me. I love the taste imparted by almond extract. It’s never tasted particularly like almonds to me, it’s a thing unto itself…but I love it.
Sorry about your tongue, but how does the bread taste?
Primarily because of the recommendations on the MSDS. On which Precautionary Statement P405 says: Keep locked up.
That said, I was misremembering the typical dilution of household isopropanol (91%, not 3% like hydrogen peroxide, or 5% like apple cider vinegar). Sorry for overreacting.
It’s a little weird. Looked for luscious vanilla and…nope. The toasted pecans on top somewhat mitigated the almond taste, but the tongue burning made me toss the loaf.
A few months ago I made cherry almond bread that tasted great. I blamed the tongue burning on the cherries. Guess not.
I can have marzipan, raw almonds, macarons, pretty much anything almondy- it seems the culprit is extract. However, I can have spritz cookies just fine. I wonder if it’s because I have pure extract and mom uses imitation in her spritz.
IIRC pure vanilla is extracted with alcohol, whereas imitation is not-often imitation is labeled vanillin and may come from a less expensive source, without whatever component you are reacting to.
Maybe a ‘Doper chemist can hop in here.
Vanilla in either iteration is fine. It’s almond that causes the tongue burning.
Well, considering that I tried to make pickles with it, yeah, it probably should be kept locked up! 
I think that your almond banana bread sounds great and I might try it next time I’m baking.
Orange extract makes me burp orange for hours and sometimes days. I’m saying that to say that I agree that its probably the extract.
Over the summer, I noticed I was getting a lot of hair fall. Like, a lot. A concerning amount. Then, I noticed the hair on the top of my head was thinning. Also a lot, a really concerning amount. So I did what any sane person would do. I ignored it to the best of my ability. I did cut my hair short to help make the thinning less noticable but I didn’t do anything else about it.
Until today. I’ve finally made an appointment with my doctor. But now I feel silly. Is this really something to go to the doctor about? I don’t know, maybe I’m being a hyperchondriac.
Note: I’m a 31 year old woman.
Good thing to check in with a doctor about. Hair loss can be a symptom of many things, thyroid or other endocrine disorders for one. May also be nothing, but good to address.
Here’s the thing. I could be bleeding from the head and still feel silly about calling the doctor. I basically always feel silly, even when I feel like I’m actively dying, when I call the doctor.
But hair loss seems so cosmetic. So I feel extra silly. Even though it could mean my thyroid condition, which I do have, has gotten worse.
Apparently, extensive mask wearing may cause contact dermatitis of the eyelid if you’re not accustomed to frequently having warm, moist air blown up near your eyeballs. Also, tubes of opthalmic ointment look suspiciously like the tube of oil my husband uses to maintain his electric shaver and, since they were sitting side by side the other day, guess which one I threw away? So now my left eye is crusty and swollen and gross and super dry all over again.
Genius me, I decided to google it and self-treat. After all, it was just prescription strength neosporin, right? Surely regular neosporin would be sufficient? Right?! Wrong. Time to call the optometrist. Goddammit.
You can get eyelid wipes at any pharmacy over the counter. I use it to keep my blepharitis under control, especially since a spectacular incidence of conjunctivitis I had around the middle of March. It’s not a cure, but it might help you, too. My eye doctor recommended OcuSoft.
[Lucky me, this is all I need as I am able to work from home and don’t have to wear a mask for long periods of time. And I use an eye mask when sleeping to protect the eyes from any leaks from my CPAP or from the fan I keep running at night to keep the air moving near my head.]
When I was at the doctor last week he checked my blood iron level. Despite the fact that I haven’t been having my previous anemia symptoms, my iron level was low enough that he felt an iron infusion (instead of my previous blood infusions) was called for. He sent a referral to UNC Hematology, and they called me this morning to set up an appointment for a virtual visit prior to scheduling the actual infusion. I assumed this would be a simple phone visit, but it turns out that it has to be an online video call. When I went to the UNC website to verify how it has to be set up I found out that their system is only compatible with Chrome or Safari. Since I only use Firefox, this means I’m going to have to set up Chrome on my laptop (since I don’t have a workable webcam on my desktop) and make sure that the microphone on my laptop is working, which is wasn’t the last time I tried to use it.
@LurkMeister, often videoconferencing systems are set up so that you can use a speakerphone for the audio and just use the system for video. I’ve done that specifically with a medical office recently. I hope that helps!
Thanks for the tip. I’m not sure why this appointment has to be a videoconference; I had had a remote appointment with my primary back in May which was just a simple phone call.
I schedule appointments for doctors offices for my work. This means I have to ask people if they’ve had anything from The Big List o’ Covid Symptoms whenever they want to make an in person appointment. I have a few requests:
Wait until I’ve finished reciting the Big List o’ Covid Symptoms before you say “no.” You don’t need to say “no” to every single one of them as I say them. If you keep yelling “NO” to everything it really makes me doubt if you’re actually listening.
I know you’re annoyed at having to answer these questions all the time. I’m tired of reciting them. However, there’s a deadly pandemic going on and this is a medical office so deal.
You don’t need to prove your purity when I ask you if you’ve been in contact with anyone diagnosed with covid. “I’ve been quarantining since March! I never go anywhere!” The more you protest the less I trust you.
I don’t care about your opinions of covid. Germs don’t give a shit about your beliefs and neither do I.
The way we all get through this is for you to just answer the questions at the end of the questions with a simple yes or no and then we can all move on with our lives. It saves time and aggravation and Lord knows we all need less aggravation right now.