Stuff I've Learned from Television

[akirlu]

I watch too much television lately. I knew this would be the problem if we ever got cable, and I was so right. What's interesting to me is that there is a new reason why I'm so fascinated with the magic box: learning stuff. For all sorts of practical pursuits, watching a task-competent person do it and explain it is an excellent way for me to learn, and therein lies the fascination with all the HGTV and Food Network and Discovery programs I spend too much time on. Luckily, there are some practical benefits.

Stuff I learned from Alton Brown:

Chlorine in tap water kills yeast. If you're making bread with tap water, filter it first.

A box grater is absolutely magic for making cold butter into small enough bits for mixing easily into flour.

Pop-bottom fluted tart pans are da bomb for making fruit pies that are easy to cut cleanly.

A large, inverted terra cotta planter saucer works just as well as a custom pizza/bread stone, without the custom price tag.

Stuff I learned from Rachel Ray:

If you're cutting up a whole bunch of grape or other small tomatoes, you can cut them all with a single slice if you trap them between two plastic deli lids and simply make the slice between the two lids. Magic!

Stuff I learned from HGTV:

Rosin paper is a much easier way to tarp hardwood floors for painting than actual tarps.

If you're painting furniture, prime with gesso.

Acrylic medium or shellac painted over the edge of your painter's tape and allowed to dry will keep your taped edges sharp and prevent paint bleeding under.

It's all good, in other words, but every time I use one of my new tricks to good effect, it just feeds the compulsion to keep watching television, lest I miss learning something important.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

If you're cutting up a whole bunch of grape or other small tomatoes, you can cut them all with a single slice if you trap them between two plastic deli lids and simply make the slice between the two lids.

I have the feeling that if I tried this, there would suddenly be tomatoes flying all over the kitchen.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It may be the visual demonstration that helped, but it's actually pretty foolproof, so long as your knife is appropriately sharp. The lids hold the tomatoes quite stably, so long as the bottom lid is a plenum, tomatoe-wise. It doesn't take much pressure or dexterity to hold them, at all.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Oh! I was visualizing the lids being perpendicular to the counter. You mean parallel with the counter.

[off_coloratura]

Acrylic medium or shellac painted over the edge of your painter's tape and allowed to dry will keep your taped edges sharp and prevent paint bleeding under.

But then you've got acrylic medium or shellac on your walls.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Sure, but it's *under* the paint you just applied, and if any of the shellac or acrylic medium isn't covered by however many coats of primer and paint, it's in a fine line right up against your trim, anyway. Not really problematic, especially when compared to the annoying retouching you have to do when the paint sneaks in under the edge of the painter's tape.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been wondering why you were so quiet on here lately. But those are interesting things.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Actually, the reason I've been so quiet lately is because I've been laid low with flu since November-bloody-first and can't say I'm fully recovered even now. Add to that the fact that my job ramped from Hella Busy to OMG A Tornado Sat on My Head Busy in the last couple of weeks, and won't really let up until early December, maybe, and you get a lot of radio silence. The only reason I'm posting today is that I'm in waiting-for-stuff mode and have hit the end of my tether when it comes to flogging faculty.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about the illness and job tornado. With that in mind, thanks again for thinking of Corflu Zed before you headed to OryCon!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I live to serve.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope you have a good time at the con.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I think I will. I almost always enjoy Orycons, and Portland in November, and now that I've got a dogsitter locked down I can stop stressing about whether we might have to sneak Sarah into a No Pets hotel, or switch our reservation to the Motel 6 and commute.

[k6rfm.livejournal.com]

I love Alton Brown, but I've made yeast breads with tap water for years and never had any trouble. (Well, I did get a dud batch of yeast from the grocery store once.)

We've become horribly addicted to "Semi Homemade Cooking" on Food Channel, which Lin refers to as "Bad Eats" in contrast to AB's "Good Eats." Once she made a cocktail with tofu in it. The kitchen is redecorated for every show; one time it was black lacy and shiny things draped all over (so practical for the kitchen, don't you think?) The snarkers over on "Television Without Pity" decided the right name for the style was "Funeral in a Bordello."

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Well, chlorine levels do vary from one place to another. Bread has been giving me trouble since I moved to Seattle.

I haven't seen Semi Homemade Cooking, but will have to check it out. That's what the DVR is for.

[chiefwirehead.livejournal.com]

I relayed the "box grate for butter into flour" tip to Donya, and she just sneered and told me to go suck eggs. Hmmph.