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Cooking with Soap
15 Plays6 months ago
Join Dave and Jake as they talk about cooking, air fryers, baking, how our tastes have changed, mandatory dinner with the family, and even more in this week's episode!
Intro:
- Gloom OST - Ascension
Outro:
- Celeste - Beyond the Heart (Celeste Farewell)
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Transcript
Introduction to Soapstone
00:00:55
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake and I am joined by my co-host, as always, Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? It is going so good. So good. It's
Grocery Adventures: Farm Store and Dispensary
00:01:07
Speaker
good. I went grocery shopping this morning um and because of where I live, there is like a ah fresh farm type thing that has like their own grocery store. I mean, that they support other things like I can go there and get Monster Energy or Any product you find is more like kick cereal. I don't know where I'm going with this local farm monster energy. You can't help them like that. Don't name the place now because they're not allowed. to It's way too close to home, literally. But they've they've worked on the farm. It is cool setup. um But yeah, I've been going there for groceries a little bit mainly because.
00:01:50
Speaker
They have some of those like homemade type items. yeah They have some premade stuff I can grab as well. And like right now I have some like lemon poppy seed bread in my fridge. yeah And it's in like one of those little aluminum tins. I'm like, oh, we're going to crack that bad boy open one day. And hopefully I ate the whole thing at once, but I am stoked. There goes the drug test. That's the one thing I know about poppy seed. Yeah. but From that episode of Seinfeld.
00:02:18
Speaker
It's so crazy that that has like a degree of opioid. but Yeah. It's just like, Oh, sorry. Sorry. The, the, uh, the reason I'm showing up as positive for this drug is because I ate a muffin yesterday, actually. So also who fucking tests for opium? and I don't, I mean, the thing with drug tests, they don't like take your blood, put it in a thing. They're like, Oh, it's coming up these colors. Therefore you have all these drugs in your system. No, that's not how that works. They tested against a specific substance. And they're not testing against opium. So if you want to get hired, but you still like doing drugs, might I suggest
00:03:00
Speaker
opium Yeah, i think I think the problem may be more, less that they're checking specifically for opium and maybe more that they're checking for opioids. And that probably has a lot more hits in the eastern US or central US, s western US. I'm sure it's everywhere now, but let me rephrase. Cover up your opium addiction by eating lots of lemon poppy seed muffins ah so that you have a justifiable excuse.
00:03:29
Speaker
uh yeah yeah i don't know it would be very funny if uh i'm sure that that happens too right like after the Seinfeld episode i'm sure that that became the the go-to cover or whatever yeah i haven't drank a lot of water i've been eating a lot of muffins that's the reason reason i tested for heroin I can't imagine a having more than one muffin in a day. If you imagine like the like pack of four size muffins, yeah, where like you kind of like loosely cup your hands together and it would be filled with muffin. Right. Yeah, those are those are an industrial offering of muffin. It's usually like that's a meal and maybe you have a beverage with it. Mm hmm.
00:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, but that's, a pretty that's a good notion for, um, my elation. The other portion is I also did some grocery shopping at a local dispensary. So.
00:04:27
Speaker
Stocked up again. Got some ah muffins. I got some medical muffins. ahha that's what That's what we call it. That's what the kids call it, at least these days. Got any muffin? Do you know the muffin man? Do you know the man? yeah No, that's good. Well, glad to hear you're doing
Air Fryer Chronicles: Convenience and Techniques
00:04:49
Speaker
well. um All of my recent adventures in food have been due to an air fryer. Ooh.
00:04:56
Speaker
i got last weekend and what's very funny sometimes I don't sequence events properly or like things happen in my life in an order that doesn't make sense so I bought a bulk frozen bag of wings And then I was like, what am I going to do with it? So I purchased an air fryer, which arrived days later. And then I, then I started actually using it for the wings, but at the time it made more sense. I was just like, it says that the recommended thing is to use an air fryer. We don't have that.
00:05:39
Speaker
and already it's like a bag of Tyson wings. So it's not gonna be like, they're good, but they're not like, I know that there's something better out there than literally the chicken murderers. Tyson, right? And so I was like, I gotta put this in the best possible light I can if it says air fryer, let's get that also might be nice for other types of food. So pick that up. How are you liking it?
00:06:07
Speaker
Is it like revolutionary technology where I can't believe I didn't have this before? it's It's for me, it crosses the threshold of convenience for things that otherwise I would need to cook in the oven. But things take longer in the oven.
00:06:23
Speaker
And it's more effort. um You manually have more interact steps of interaction when it comes to like preheating and things like that. Whereas with the air fryer, it has a bunch of options. So it's like air fry, ah broil, reheat, all that stuff.
00:06:44
Speaker
I don't know what all that means. For the most part I hit air fry and then you can just set the temperature and the the one I got only goes up to 400 degrees but most things cook at 400 degrees or less ah Fahrenheit for ah people who use the superior system and which is not Fahrenheit Celsius to be fair and then you pick the number of minutes and it'll then you just have like a bin basically it's like you You know, the stereotypical fry cooks like basket of fries, you can kind of just imagine that it's in the shape of that basically, but it's enclosed um and it just slides out from the from the air fryer. Put whatever we need in there, slide it in, hit go. It has all these fun, cute robotic beeps where it's like do to dooo or whatever. And um
00:07:36
Speaker
Then you just leave it and it takes care of like the preheating into cooking. And occasionally it'll beep, which represents like towards the end, it'll be like, okay, this is when you could turn something over if you wanted. We ignore that. We don't do that. We don't do anything with that. Um, and then it'll beep once it's done. And so it's basically a two step process where I just put some food on that and like the great thing that's in there.
00:08:05
Speaker
start it cooking and then retrieve it once it's done. And that crosses the line of convenience. It's finally, uh, on the side where I can actually make some stuff and I put forth the effort for it. Um, cause it's a very, very little effort. Can I, can I interject to ask or say, is that not an oven? I mean, outside of the, this, the area that it needs,
00:08:32
Speaker
The three-dimensional area that it needs to heat. Yeah. I feel like it works the same way. Right. But you have to bend over for an oven. So that like slides stuff in there. Oh, wait. How high are you putting up your air fryer? It's on the counter. What? Yeah. Hmm. I'm not putting it in the oven. That's the only room on the floor. Yeah. I'm just saying like you, you grab the little drawer with your feet, slide it out. Okay. Okay.
00:08:59
Speaker
shake some of the the chicken in we have it right next to the oven so like we could we could use both at once if there's one thing that was the the one downside to an air fryer i think we got like something like a a seven quart air fryer which is also kind of a fun measurement because like that doesn't tell you whether you can cook a pizza pi a piece of pizza in there it doesn't tell you much a thing much any of that and you're not really supposed to stack things that high so like surface area sort of matters more than seven quarts, right? But um it's right there next to the oven. So if there's something that we needed to cook, like you're never going to cook a pizza. the beling You'd have to stuff it into a cube and just slide it in. But we could cook multiple things at a time. What we have found, though, is cooking for two, making like
00:09:50
Speaker
Um, fish patties or, uh, wings for me or made hot dogs in there today. Cause we've got the, um, the, uh, the Sam's club, like all beef, good hot dogs. Um, and those are pretty freaking delicious. Like it kind of crisps the outside and they're very juicy and it's like, yeah, I kind of like it. Um,
00:10:14
Speaker
I mean, I hear that the main draw is kind of the crisp and the fact you don't have to add cooking oil or other things to prevent burning or Yeah, and it's kind of a bad idea to even try from what I've seen. um Basically, the closer something gets to a liquid, the less you want it in the air fryer because it is blowing hot air at it. So it immediately spreads it around. Yeah, there have been and in doing like a little bit of research, there were some fun ideas for how to handle um like drippage and stuff like that because some people cook bacon.
00:10:49
Speaker
which I would love to try, like I wanna see, I wanna see how baking comes out. But as you know, when you cook bacon, half of the bacon goes away in the form of fat. And um so in order to remedy this, since you're pretty much dealing with a much smaller surface compared to like an oven, one of the recommendations I saw was like, if you have a stale piece of bread, just slap that down underneath the grate, cause it's like,
00:11:18
Speaker
the actual bottom of the basket a grate that rests above that to lift whatever you're air frying and to allow like insulation and stuff and then the food that you want to put on top and you're like just slide a piece of bread at the very bottom and i'll just that'll just soak up all the stuff and prevent uh liquids from jostling and things like that was like that's hilarious the sacrificial bread Honey, did we grab a loaf? Oh, I guess we can't air fry it. Fuck. But yeah, there's a lot of cool stuff you can do there. um But like I said, the the closer you get to like a liquid or a sauce or something like that, it's a little bit riskier. And then you also want to make sure you don't get anything that's too high. So our our basket is it's reasonable.
00:12:03
Speaker
this is I don't know why I'm gesturing with my hands. Listeners will never know. He's trying to show me the approximate size. Right now, it looks six inches what you're gesturing. Yeah, around six inches, I would say, maybe a little bit more. As you widen here. Well, I'm doing the fish thing. Yeah, six inches. I'm doing the fish thing. Yeah, it's like... But yeah, a little bit less than a conventional toaster is tall, I would say.
00:12:29
Speaker
Maybe maybe maybe one bananas worth as well all it is um It is good to have something that's Like imagine having just an oven. You're like man. I can really go for a bagel ah Waits forever See, that's the thing is it crosses the threshold before now that I like I had the wings I would only really ever have them for dinner now It's really easy for me to just be like, oh, I'm just gonna throw something in there, like 12 minutes, whatever. I don't need to check on it multiple times. Once it's all done, I don't have to turn anything off or whatever. I can have it
Snack Debates: Homemade Chex Mix vs. Trail Mix
00:13:05
Speaker
for lunch, right? Like in the work day. What? Work day wings. That's crazy.
00:13:10
Speaker
um you do pay the price of like eating wings in the middle of the day as far as what it does to your stomach but like 3 p.m. tummy troubles I'm gonna schedule a meeting for that exactly um But there is a lot of cool stuff there. um Mostly meats. the thing So um my wife, Mango, she's ah not able to eat potatoes because they're nightshades. That's the other thing that a lot of people recommend is like almost all potato derivatives can be cooked in this. like Fries, people like to cook in it. Potato wedges.
00:13:50
Speaker
potato tots, like these are all things that are very popular in air fires. Just a plain potato. Uh-huh. Well, literally someone did. I did see a big potato. Really? Yeah. God damn. um And I'm kind of curious about that because certain things, like it's hot air, right? That's the thing to remember. So certain things you don't want to cook with hot air, like, um,
00:14:17
Speaker
roast vegetables you can do it's not going to make steamed vegetables right like anything that you put in there expect to be closer to crispy than steamed yes does that really Not supposed to retain moisture in that way. Exactly. And I had one experience where, so I made the hot dogs. I didn't have any hot dog buns. So I was like, oh, I have hot dog buns, but they were frozen. I was like, okay, science. Can I put frozen hot dog buns in here and just like do a reheat couple minutes? Yeah. No big deal. And what I ended up with was.
00:14:57
Speaker
like ultra crispy, flaky, ah hot dog bun surface. And it didn't get through to the point of actually like heating up the center because I kind of chickened out. and and stopped cooking it. They're also very hot on the outside, um but not really what you want for like a potato roll, which is what I was using um as far as like hot ice. I was like, all right, let me put a couple drops of water on this and into the microwave so it'll retain a little bit of moisture.
00:15:30
Speaker
um Because yeah, you can definitely go to desiccated pretty quickly with the food, depending on what you're trying to do. things I have done multiple times in the past and will continue to do because I do not learn. Um, my recent baking experience, um, I've been making some checks mix. I think I was just like, what would be a nice crunchy salty thing? Yeah. Looked up a simple recipe online. I've done a couple of variations, but it's the easiest thing to make. It just takes a little bit of time.
00:16:06
Speaker
But it's like, Hey, I grab a cup of. Checks and like, whatever else you want to put in there, probably more than what, just one couple of checks. But then you're essentially using a stick of butter, putting whatever seasonings you want in there. Hopefully it all kind of mixes together. Cause then you kind of just pour it over your, uh, dry mix in a bowl and then you try and toss this sort of things evenly coated and then just put it on a.
00:16:35
Speaker
baking tray and then just put in the oven for like 45 minutes that's it and like it's very hard to fuck up yeah I mean that sounds good though I mean I've always oh it's tasty I've been liking it yeah I've liked Chex Mix the problem is sometimes with pre-made Chex Mix is like there's a bunch of filler in there there's like when I say filler I mean the things that like they're less what you want to eat in the Chex Mix compared to like, what's what's like the the the the brown potatoes that's in Chex Mix? What? The little brown, like potato-looking chip things. The bagel chips? Maybe it's a bagel? I'm not sure. It should be like a Melbatos bagel chip. Yeah. It's definitely like brown. It's a dark brown. Yeah. Dark brown disk. That's the bagel chip. Those things are delicious. The Chex themselves, delicious.
00:17:34
Speaker
I like pretzels. It's the weakest part of check mix. Yeah, they're, they're fine. I'm also, I'd have to have like a actual checks mix again. I need to go hiking. That's the only time I fucking eat checks mix. Yeah. Um, but it's like a little crunchy stick that has like slight waves on it. I think it's just like a variation of a little cracker or something.
00:18:04
Speaker
I don't know it's a lot of things in there are fine but the next variation I want to do because this ah local place has one they just have bagel chips I don't need to order them online anymore right uh they also have like these seven dollar like if you imagine like a cup or two of a seasoning okay So if you go to like an average grocery store, it'd be like 350 for McCormick. Oh, you wanted onion powder. Cool. Cute little tub. Um, but these are like honking sizes of things, but they also had one of just like cheddar cheese powder. I'm like, I could just shake this over anything that I made. Yeah. Primarily the checks mix and make it more cheesy. Yeah. Like I do use goldfish in there, but I think it needs a little more. I like to go a more cheesy route if possible. Right.
00:18:58
Speaker
I do like the idea of goldfish and Chex mix, because i I don't think I've ever had that. It is injecting like a bit of premium, right? It's like, this isn't a Chex, Chex mix for the pores, obviously. Like this is an elevated Chex mix, but you mentioned something. I got to call you out on it. Um, which was hiking. Yeah. And then taking Chex mix for hiking. Wouldn't you prefer a nice trail mix under such situations or.
00:19:26
Speaker
Would you not like that because most trail mixes would kill you? I mean, ah there's definitely a lot of the second bias, so many things, because 99% of like the health stuff that I find is like, Hey, you know, it's a good source of easy protein.
00:19:45
Speaker
peanuts, peanut butter. So they put it in so much. Um, or even just in mixes because it's nice salty crunch. If you imagine like a bar snack or like a little mixed dish. Um, but yeah, I think. I don't know. I just, I think I initially did checks mix because of Shane's recommendation. And then I've been doing that consistently. We had him on one special guest Shane.
00:20:14
Speaker
Oh yeah. me what what does he um But for like all the water that you're in taking, um, because you're hiking yeah very far distance, be hydrated. You're also losing out on some other calories and some salt. ah You do have to balance it out.
00:20:34
Speaker
I could see that. I was coming at it from a perspective of if you had different snacks, would you want the thing that's salty and is going to make you thirsty or whatever? But the reality is you should already be drinking a lot of water if you're hiking, right? Like this is the number one mistake people who overexert themselves or exert themselves like make, which is not adjusting their amount of water intake.
Hydration and Hiking Memories
00:20:59
Speaker
Um, which is the reason like anytime the temperature goes 10 degrees higher than it used to, like people have heat stroke. So like, yeah, for real. yeah You're just like, it's hot. And your body's like, I'm dying. Right. From my perspective, the advocate, the advocate for, for, um, trail mix though.
00:21:18
Speaker
is you can get like a bunch of cool stuff in trail mix. Admittedly, some of the mix nuts, you're also gonna have filler, right? You're gonna have, I think macadamia nuts are the the filler nut. Nobody cares about macadamia nuts. They're fine. I don't even remember the last time I had one. Yeah, right, exactly. Little big almond slut, honestly. um For what nut? Almonds? Almonds, yeah, exactly. Almonds are the premium. Although I will say, if you're getting like almonds, almonds on their own, flavored,
00:21:48
Speaker
Probably a better option than trying to inject them in trail mix. Um, but I'm just here for the M&Ms. This is, I'm just looking for an excuse to have a snack. I could just shove in my mouth and be like, I just got a serving of M&Ms. Um, so I know trail mix, uh, falls under that. Does trail mix have fruit?
00:22:12
Speaker
Uh, you might have, I remember what's actually in trail mix. If you had fruit, you're probably looking at things like raisins or craisins. Dude, craisins. Fuck. They're pretty good. I had a sal last night. A shout out to Amanda who was helping cook with Chad. Um, she made a really nice salad, but she used craisins in it. And I wrote, I immediately got flashbacks to when I was like 15.
00:22:35
Speaker
And I would like go to the store to buy a grocery for myself. And I just get a bag of craisins and go through it the whole thing over the day. Yeah. I mean, gay for ocean spray is more than just a slogan. So for real, though, I think I could. be a it's just I like the the flavor of cranberry much more than I like the flavor of just.
00:23:01
Speaker
grape. But I'd be more like likely to eat a grape than a cranberry. But if they're dehydrated, raisins went out. Yeah. I still like raisins. They're fine. Like Raisin Bran.
00:23:14
Speaker
There's a lot of sugar in that though. It needs way more sugar to make it sustainable. Yeah, it's there's good variance to raisin bread. I was gonna mention also, you mentioned cranberries versus grapes. And it's like, that's because you're an adult. That's the difference. It's it's like okay for adults to sometimes eat grapes, but you will need to understand that you're engaging in juvenile behavior. right like This isn't adult behavior, adult eating habits.
00:23:44
Speaker
That's what a cranberry is. No kid is going to eat a cranberry like in any form. I hate that. I don't anything that's like remotely bitter. Do you know how many years it takes people to appreciate capers? Holy shit. Even know what that is. They're like small little lemony slash tart type things, but it goes in like chicken piccata, but it adds like a really nice kick. Right.
00:24:13
Speaker
It's hard to explain. It's one of those things like you have to taste it or the juice, and you're like, oh, OK. Gotcha. Yeah. But I mean, that's not something you'd ever want to eat on its own, for sure. Yeah. So that would make sense. This actually reminds me of the grape juice discussion. It reminds me of a ah Mark Norman joke. OK. Where he's like ah like, I'm happy I didn't. I'm like, I'm happy I'm not a pedophile.
00:24:39
Speaker
um Because like it it could happen to anybody, right? Right. Because it's like getting hit by a bus. You're just like. Well, I mean, I'm sure there are people who are born with a. Brain chemistry is different for everybody. I'm not getting into the whole snack. I get what you're saying. They have a predilection for that.
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's like when I was a kid or when I was like 10, I was attracted to girls my age. And now that I'm older, I'm attracted to girls my age. We're like in their 30s. When I was a kid, I liked grape juice. As an adult, I liked wine.
00:25:16
Speaker
But I still enjoy grape juice.
00:25:21
Speaker
yeah but is It is important to have that distinction yes between things you ah may have enjoyed more as a kid versus an adult. Um, but I don't find myself drinking much and juice anymore.
Evolving Food Tastes and Childhood Favorites
00:25:37
Speaker
Yeah. I think part of it is just the awareness of sugar and things and not wanting to drink calories. Um, that's the problem with juice is it's like, yeah, it's got vitamins. It's got nature and stuff like that. And people like nature, but like it's very sweet. It's so much like.
00:25:56
Speaker
Maybe if it was just the natural sugars, you could get by with some juice. But even then, it is a lot of sugar, which turns into a lot of calories. But then we live in the US. So like we put sugar in everything. Like I did get some apple cider because it is the season. um But really outside of that, I'm not really getting any type of juice.
00:26:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I think the closest I get is um occasionally when very rarely I find myself in a situation where I'm like picking up breakfast from McDonald's like um for me and the wife and like very, very occasionally because usually I'm working, but maybe I had like a appointment or something like that.
00:26:46
Speaker
Um, it's always nice to come back and be like, here's hotcakes, right? Like being surprised with hotcakes. Awesome time. Um, I'll grab like their orange juice, like as a strictly breakfast type thing, but otherwise we used to have orange juice years back, but we have not for years. Um, we just don't keep it in stock.
00:27:09
Speaker
I think once I started brushing my teeth, you know, orange juice kind of just went out of the way. Um, you're not supposed to do them at the same time or in close time, proximity to each other. Are you a pulp or no pulp? I'm a no pulp. Thank God. person There's occasionally these sociopaths who are like, no, I like when there's chunks of stuff in my beverage. Yeah. So, so cool. But what is your, um,
00:27:38
Speaker
I don't want to say Halloween, but more like October vibes as far as food. Cause like Christmas obviously has like eggnog as a seasonal item. Yeah. Is there something seasonal for this time? Are you really like, uh, I could read, I'm Jones and for this, I do find myself more, um, going for the dessert coffees, uh, you know, PSL stuff like that. Um,
00:28:04
Speaker
I didn't used to enjoy pumpkin spice as much, but I think, you know how there's conspiracy theories about people putting like iodine in the water or whatever. I don't know what it is these days, but they're putting things in the water and slowly that's changing people's taste. And we know that's literally the case for what they do for orange juice, just because of what they actually do for orange juice. Like people don't like the actual taste of orange juice.
00:28:33
Speaker
I think there's a similar thing going on with pumpkin spice, because I don't think I used to like it as much as I do, but once it got into the reservoir, I like it more.
00:28:52
Speaker
i This is a factoid. I heard once as a kid and I've never looked it up, but I'm going to take it with me to my grave. sure As you get older, your taste buds lose their sensitivity or someone was kind of like die off, which is why like you're very picky as a kid. And then as an adult, you can appreciate a lot more. That's fine. Again, I refuse to look it up to combat that belief, but that is my theory for.
00:29:19
Speaker
A surprising number of things. It just, it just seems to work. I mean, that makes sense. I've heard the same, right? Like I don't usually think of kids eating hot wings or being like, Oh, Frank's red hot sauce. Freaking love that stuff. Put that S on everything. And it's like, stop swinging. Um, but as you get older, it's like, I need to fill a life and just anything, anything to fill a life.
00:29:50
Speaker
I mean, yeah, it is some of that. It is some of that meeting diversity. Mm hmm. Because again, as like a teenager, I would just be like, what do I like that has fat in it? That I'm going to eat this can of refined beans. I'm going to eat these bagels with butter, but I'm going to melt the butter onto the plate and then kind of sponge the bagels into it. Mm hmm. Well, that's an interesting idea. But like I could do that ad nauseam. Basically, like this could be my same thing day to day. Mm hmm. also ate a lot of tuna salad back then. Shout out tuna salad. Still good. I'm afraid of the show of tuna salad. Goes and gets his cans and mayo. Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. And the other thing is you have comfortable food when you're younger, I think a lot of the time. The things that I associate as being the types of food I really looked forward to as a kid,
00:30:47
Speaker
Very kind of generic child here, but like I like lasagna. I like pizza. I liked obviously ice cream um It's like things that were more complicated to have did print textures, things like that. That was all stuff where I was like, yeah, take it or leave it. Maybe leave it. And certain things I still don't really appreciate. Like, I don't like seafood that has legs. I don't like ah mushrooms in general. um But other things, other things have kind of crept in over time.
00:31:23
Speaker
onions Onions are a big one that crept in. Onions are gods here. I hated onions as a kid. What? As a kid. Right. I didn't know better. Now it's like, they do add a lot. They do. They really add a lot.
00:31:38
Speaker
I think most dishes should have like a diced onion in them. yeah That's just me. that's pretty hot That's a pretty hot take to just drop at the generalized scope. You're like, all right, we have the Thanksgiving ah pumpkin pie and Dave has placed an onion on top of it for everyone.
00:32:01
Speaker
o Maybe you'll be lucky and you'll get the piece with the onion nu But it's just it's such a degree of savoriness that you don't understand until later Have you ever sauteed an onion?
00:32:15
Speaker
I, my, first my personal self have not sauteed an onion, but I will say this is my challenge to you. Cause I will ask you next week if I remember properly. an onion i don't I don't think it's going to check. No. Um, but honestly, if you just cut it up, put some butter in the pan and just kind of go low and slow and start occasionally. Yeah. Um.
00:32:40
Speaker
It caramelizes so fucking nicely. And if you keep doing it to the point, you can like get onion jelly. And it's just such a concentrated savoriness. Like you could take that and just like, oh, I'm going to slap it on a burger or a sandwich that make it at home. It's just, oh, it goes so far. I could see that. I could definitely see that. I do like caramelized onions, though. So.
00:33:07
Speaker
worth considering, you know, we have the stuff for it now. We have onions. I guess we don't have the stuff, we don't actually have onions, but the other things. We have the cooking implements necessary. um That would be good, because yeah, that's the trick with the air fryer stuff is you can get like a basic sort of meat sort of entree, but a little bit of like, something to take you from,
00:33:35
Speaker
I cooked a breaded fish patty and I put it on a plate and this is your dinner to like actual food is basically the the next step there. Um, so we're getting there. We're making progress. Throw an onion on there. You're not the only person who I've talked to who's like, I'm not big on cooking or I don't have a history in cooking type thing.
Cooking Skills and Creative Combos
00:34:01
Speaker
So I'm trying to like push cooking on everybody because.
00:34:05
Speaker
I like it. Therefore other people should too. Right. But also i like it it's just like a good skill to have. Yeah. Yeah. And at least for me personally, I like eating something that I've made and put the effort into. I just Be like, Oh, I made a mess in the process. Who's going to clean that? I look at the dog, she looks back at me. I guess it's me. It's me. Uh-huh. You just look at your Google search history and it's like, can dogs eat? And then just a list of food byproducts.
00:34:41
Speaker
Weirdly, I actually had not let her lick a plate clean. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that people Probably feed dogs to be completely honest that they shouldn't Um growing up we definitely fed our dogs like grapes Now I have found out grapes are not good for dogs. Yeah. Yeah There's a whole bunch of stuff like that Yeah, so I i'm just gonna err on the side of caution She will still get stuff. if She still gets street. She gets
00:35:15
Speaker
If at any point you think I do not appreciate this dog and take care of her, every time like we come in from a walk, she will sit next to me and kind of lick at my hand and then sit next to me all poised because she expects pets. And she gets them because she's spoiled.
00:35:35
Speaker
I don't know what's going with that. It's a tangent story. No, that's fair. You defended your honor as far as the the doubters and the haters. I'm a good dog, dad. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But recently I was, uh, fucking around in the kitchen and I had some leftover bread from something and I had some bananas and I was like, you know what I would like? A fried banana sandwich. Yeah. oh So anything I had or just some fried banana and bread. Well, I did add, um, some, I think it was almond butter.
00:36:12
Speaker
on the sides of the bread and then put some bananas there, but it was, it was tasty. Nice. Bananas and nuts are like a match made in heaven, similar to like tomatoes and balsamic. Um, somebody just figured that out early. I'm like, Oh, that's a great combo. Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:36:36
Speaker
And you do have, I would i would say that almond butter, I know that you don't you don't partake of the peanut. um i Almond butter is a very good alternative to that a particular pairing. Cause I think that's where a lot of people would go. They're like, okay, like bananas and know into a sandwich. Like what am we what are we throwing with this? Peanut butter shows up a lot. Bananas and peanut butter oftentimes get thrown together. um But almond butter also really good.
00:37:03
Speaker
I do recommend for obviously you Jake, but anybody else who's listening. Uh, if you think it sounds weird, try it. a general hour for I for this specific thing, yeah um, it was it was better than I expected. Yeah. Yeah. That's the, uh, that's the trick. I think sometimes.
00:37:31
Speaker
I am not the most adventurous person. And by that, I mean, like, there was a time in my life where I was literally not eating Soylent exclusively, but Soylent was like a part of it. And I've recovered, you know, we're, we're, we're beyond those darker days. Um, it just, there's that thing of like convenience, like, Oh fuck, it's convenient. It's just grab a thing, sip it down. Oh, I'm done.
00:37:55
Speaker
And then there's the like you don't get joy from it. Yes. Like part of the joy of eating is like appreciating all the sense and tastes and textures. Something that came together now is going to go into your mouth and body for nourishment right versus drink this liquid that's thicker than other liquids. Yeah, it's very utilitarian. I mean, like there were flavors that I liked, but it I think part of it is also the association, but a lot of times where I would turn to Soylent, it's because I needed to work through lunch or I was really heads down on something. I was very focused. I didn't really want to put the effort into food or whatever, but in those instances,
00:38:46
Speaker
it's so far removed from like a social lunch or a break or anything that would normally you would normally associate as like a positive, I usually had it for lunch, that's the reason I'm focusing on lunch, but like a positive midday lunch experience, it's literally like, this is so convenient that I can keep working or something like that, right? And you're like, wait a minute.
00:39:12
Speaker
this doesn't taste as good as it used to because i have this association that i'm just gonna keep working if i drink this right you're not taking a break which is part of the point of lunch imagine like you having like a soylent nightcap and you're like Maybe we should just see if I have any emails. Yeah, you just have that association. um Because, yeah, that's that's one of the biggest things. And I actually I remember back and this is years, years ago since so I've had it. Now I just have like some protein powder that I could occasionally have as like an intermediate thing or sort of a. I like protein powder, but I never think to. Oh, I should make a thing because I usually have like an energy drink or a seltzer or something else. Right.
00:39:58
Speaker
Um, but yeah, it's, I think that's one of the main issues with adoption is it's just, there's something about it that is so sad compared to because they don't have parents. Like, well, for Soylent, if you're the person sitting there drinking Soylent and everyone else is eating food, like you're going to be done before everyone else. Like.
00:40:26
Speaker
The idea of two people engaging in conversation, just like drinking soil and then going back to work is the most depressing image I can think of right now. yeah know dystopian It's It's stripped of all of the, um what would be the word for it? The rituals that basically like go into traditionally eating food.
00:40:49
Speaker
And it's so utilitarian. And if that, if you can embrace that, if that sounds ideal to you, then meal replacement might be your, your Jimmy jam, but.
00:41:02
Speaker
It is so utilitarian that for many people, myself included, it actually is a bit set more sad than literally just making a PB and J sandwich or something like that. Right. So do you remember when we used to work together and there always be discussions of like where we're going to go for lunch as like a team?
00:41:21
Speaker
Oh, well well, we're really in the mood for this. Oh, well what about this sandwich place versus like, guys, would you like chocolate or mint chocolate? What? I think there was literally some overlap there. There was a time where I had either some soil at work or our boss at the time. I know there was a time when he was also having soil.
00:41:42
Speaker
And that's kind of the issue is you don't want to be the person who stays in the office to drink Soylent versus goes out and has like a social interaction with friends or coworkers or both, you know, crazy to think about. Um, it's, it's kind of a very poor option by comparison. Yeah, there's, there's a certain, I think as you put it ritual, um,
00:42:12
Speaker
With the, because when we had had dinner last night, I was over visiting some friends next town over. ah They were kind enough to have us over and make dinner. um And there's discussion like, oh, should we like eat in front of the TV? Could you plan to watch something or should we not eat the table?
00:42:30
Speaker
um And then somebody's like, Oh, when we were growing up, we always used to eat in front of the TV. I was like, Oh my God, me too. Oh, because my dad, I'm like, yeah, dad's tired from the end of like a work day. I want you to just sit down on why some TV. And the way our even living room was arranged is like, there's these two, um, like it's not recliners. There were individual seats are with like something in between.
00:42:55
Speaker
But people had like their TV trays like put over their legs. Oh, yeah. And that just became our dinner ritual where like everyone kind of assemble in the living room to watch something with their plates. And then you try and tell the dogs not to get too close to the place. Yeah. No, I like that. I was definitely raised as a.
00:43:16
Speaker
I think there were times where there was literally like no food in the living room type rule. um But I don't believe that one stuck forever. But definitely, like it's dinner time. You need to come to the table. We're all going to eat dinner together.
00:43:33
Speaker
um still like I know some people have that dynamic or that requirement and then it's kind of like a more raucous um environment that was not ours either um but that pretty much was the requirement it's like okay are you hungry because this is the time when we're eating so you need to get in here and you gotta to eat and we're all gonna be sitting here at like a family okay It's like, who are we trying to impress here?
Family Dinner Reflections
00:44:02
Speaker
Right. Exactly. Are we being audited? Set up the tape recorder over here and everyone eat normally. But we had meals at the table, too. But I remember that those were like. It was a pretty basic white table. We were a pretty basic white family. And we kind of like loosely talk about our days or something. Yeah. But I remember being like,
00:44:28
Speaker
Me being here physically right now is an obligation. Yeah. Not like a, yeah. Cause when I got older, I would just grab food for myself kind of whenever I was feeling hungry. Right. Um, with still sometimes eat with the family, but.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, there became a lot more in the way of independence and even eating different things. Right. What did mom make? Not that. Not for me. No, thank you. Yeah, that would have been I never reached that state while I was still at home. It was very much a much more traditional American household where it's just like mom's making food, everyone else eating food.
00:45:10
Speaker
um Not that much variation from that. Occasionally, you know, go out for other food or something like that. If it was after church, maybe you go to like a buffet or whatever. But um yeah, it's crazy thinking about it now. Cause it's so, it's so different to my experiences now. Now it's like either eating at home, in which case always eating at a computer desk. Like always like yeah not not doing that is weird.
00:45:41
Speaker
Um, I literally have, I don't want to say space allocated, but like, I will push my keyboard, uh, closer to the monitors. So I have like a little bit of space to put a plate or a bowl or something, because I still have that thing where I want to get some media ingestion ah while I'm eating. Like, Oh, let me multitask. I'll enjoy food and a new episode of an anime or watch a show or watch something on YouTube. Yeah. And once you just.
00:46:11
Speaker
I live alone. I mean, I have the dog, but like we don't eat together. yeah she's She's on a different diet than me. Um, but it feels weird. Just like sit down at a table and just eat by myself. No. Yeah. Yeah. Even with two people, I can say that sitting down at a table and eating as part of the standard arrangement is odd. Um, like.
00:46:37
Speaker
I will say the closest thing to that, because there's there's two two configurations, eating at our computer desks and the parking lot across from Taco Bell. And and the parking lot, we have Taco Bell in this hypothetical. um It's not really a hypothetical. It happens very often.
00:46:57
Speaker
um In that situation, we are kind of work in more of a dialogue, right? Like we can chat and stuff, but I usually have a news podcast on, um, as kind of like a background thing. So if we don't really have anything to talk about, we're just listening to the podcast more. If you have something to talk about that's in front of the, uh, that takes the foreground. The podcast goes to the background. Um,
00:47:28
Speaker
That's nice, too. that That's the closest thing to a social, a standard social ah meal, I would say. I'm trying to think of other people we know who don't have kids. I'm trying to imagine how they eat their meals. I'm sure that there are probably a couple who probably do sit down to eat mainly because I have photos of them doing it. um Photographic evidence.
00:47:58
Speaker
I mean, friend of the show, uh, the mooch and I think they, they always sit down and they're usually cooking stuff. Um, but yeah, I'd be surprised that a lot of other friends, if they had that as part of their daily routine compared to just sitting in front of their computer and eating. Mm-hmm.
00:48:20
Speaker
I think you touched on one of the main factors too is like our generation and subsequent generations from now until the end of time, um, are going to have attention problems and there's something so implicitly Boring I guess about sitting down at a table and less like friends are over or something that changes to the dynamic entirely because they now over what What are you gonna do be like oh just sit on this random beanbag and hold your plate don't spill no It's you always get the chairs and the the table out for guests, right? Exactly um But on your day-to-day like
00:49:08
Speaker
I've had, there there have been a couple times we've sat down at the table and and eaten and it's like, you have that attention drive to just like, there should be some other media playing right now. Like there's not a podcast, I'm not watching anything on YouTube. I'm like, I'm just in a normal sort of like conversation. If there's nothing to say, then you're literally just sitting there and eating. And like so many people have died.
00:49:35
Speaker
To bring us computers so Well, I think it would be rude if I wasn't using it all the time all of the time 100% of the time um This is you look like you're about to say something no, I usually just have my mouth kind of half open by ah it but I Was gonna say um I wonder if you've had this experience because I know a lot of your history. For me, we grew up together. We did grow up together. yeah um As a single guy who's living alone, please. We know what the we know what the the call in topic is going to be today. He mentions it every episode. but no like There have been some times where I have gone out to eat by myself.
00:50:29
Speaker
Right. And some of it is just like to get out of the apartment, just get like a change of scenery. oh Yeah. Um, maybe I'll be social, literally never am. Um, but when I'm out in those situations, there is some people watching, but once that dies down and like, okay, so I'll check my phone then maybe message some people. Like it feels weird to have a major gap in online access or connection. ah hu If it's by yourself.
00:51:04
Speaker
yeah If I was with a friend, we could just go out and like sit on the grass and chat. We'd have a dandy old time. If I do that by myself, I'm crazy. Yes. yeah i think that's I think that's part of it. I think that being online and plugged in helps mitigate the feeling of the human condition in a way that usually um human company Evolution has decided that human companies should take care of that. And the alternative is the internet. Maybe it's not the best alternative, but it's like it's treating the symptom. Say it that way. It's it's easy to do. Yes. But to ah follow through on the question before I tangent it off, is that a situation you have found yourself in?
Solitude in Dining and Social Observations
00:51:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. um And part of it's just technology addiction.
00:52:01
Speaker
No, I meant like the going out to a place just by yourself. ah Ah. It doesn't happen very often because I mean, so the closest thing I can actually think of is some years back actually saying it doesn't happen very often, really underselling it because it was many years back, I guess, at this point. um But I went on a work trip to Poland. And as part of that, there were times where it was like, oh, I'm going to go Um, to dinner. Um, everybody else is working on something else or whatever. I'm just going to go like to the kebab place. I knew you're going to fucking say, I didn't want to feed it to you. I was like, he's going to the kebab place. It's the kebab place. Yeah. Um, and there was that. And then there was another time I ate like at a a local mall. Um, and it is.
00:52:56
Speaker
I 100% empathize with the like, this is the point where I bust out my phone and like, I'm not just going to sit here with my food and. let everything revolve around. like Because that's what it feels like. You said people watching that encompasses it exactly, right? Because now that you've mentioned it, and now that I've started telling this story, I can think of the other time, which is back when I worked at Sears and the in the mall. The mall keeps showing showing up in these, I guess. um I would go out for lunch. I'd go to like a pizza place in the mall or something like that. And that was just it. you know I would just sit down in my khakis with my little my blue um my boo blue polo and my name tag
00:53:37
Speaker
cross my legs and like, or cross one leg, I guess, and like eat a pizza and look at people and not be weird about it, I don't think. But like, what else do you do? Right? It almost feels like you're outside of the normal flow of society when you're just sitting there eating food yourself. Whereas if you're with someone else, you're participating in the flow of society.
00:54:07
Speaker
I've never heard it put that way, but that does kind of make sense. Because if you are eating alone, you are kind of like setting yourself not necessarily physically aside ah from other people, but like you are focused on your eating. You're not trying to make people hear you eat or anything. You're just like, this is a solo activity that I'll be doing over here. Right. Exactly.
00:54:33
Speaker
I think a lot of it honestly goes back to what we were saying as far as like the rituals and stuff like that. But eating, the reason it's sad to bring soil into a group lunch or something like that is because you in some, to some degree are excluding yourself from a group a group activity of eating with coworkers like for lunch or something like that.
00:54:54
Speaker
And you don't have to get in your head about this like all the time, but whenever I'm by myself, it's easier to be introspective than if you have another person you're engaging in conversation with taking you out of that introspection. And so when I was in Poland, sitting there, you know, at the kebab place or whatever, once the exchange with the server is done or what have you, yeah I was very, very aware that I was sitting there by myself in Poland, not talking to anybody, eating a kebab. I was going to walk back to the hotel and it's like, it's different.
00:55:32
Speaker
Yeah. It's almost like humans don't like isolation. That could be it. Whoa, whoa. We're not scientists. We can't just make claims like this. All right. I guess we'll have to test it over the next.
00:55:51
Speaker
yeah That is interesting though. I hadn't thought about it, but like once you pointed that out, yeah, it's a, It is a very different vibe. I don't want to say it. I don't want to get down on eating food by yourself either. Cause like it's okay to be contemplative sometimes. Yeah. 100%.
00:56:16
Speaker
I'm just saying that for the average person, that's not the norm. Exactly. But there are definitely times like let's say I was at a park and I had a lunch with me and I was just all just sit down here. It's bench needed. I'm obviously going to people watching kind of like look around a bit, but because I am by myself and a little contemplative and I don't want to be isolated, I'm going to be looking around at either people or the scenery and just appreciating Oh, look, there are these kids playing, have a good time. Oh, there's a dog running around. Right. Oh, the sun's starting to set. And I'm, for some reason, eating at a park. You've been here the entire night. It's a really big meal. You just get like, you get one of those um catering ah subs. Oh, no. You're just sitting there eating it on the bench all day.
00:57:15
Speaker
I take a bite, I slide it down a little bit. Uh-huh, uh-huh. It's mostly just wrapper at this point. um This brings me to, Redners had a two foot sub. I forget if they still do, because there's not a Redners too close to me. But I know they still exist. So I want to like see if they have one day. Because again, as a teenager, value proposition. Yeah, but it is nice to just appreciate the environment or your surroundings, even if it's not just eating food alone, but maybe you're stuck in a light and traffic. It just, yeah Oh, these are some nice houses nearby or. I don't know. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff in the world and there are going to be some times where you're bored or alone and you might not always have access to your phone, especially while you're driving. They seem pretty not keen on that. Um, discouraged.
00:58:14
Speaker
Frowned a upon, if you will. but
00:58:18
Speaker
But... I don't know, there's... I think it's fine that people watch. Yeah. As long as you're not actively staring at somebody, you're good. And there's... this has been covered. Just don't use binoculars. That's... that's when it gets weird. As long as you don't need binoculars, anything goes. What? See what it is, you bust out binoculars. Now you're in the wrong.
00:58:44
Speaker
What are you into birds you pervert? I think there was literally a um My brother and my my brother my brother in me ah episode where they they had somebody who I'm literally just crimping on their content now and they're a separate podcast. So check them out They're more popular than us though. So grab people from there and bring them over here anyways, but the premise was someone had ah written in ah Because it's an advice podcast And the question or the premise was, um, this person enjoys birdwatching, but they really, really don't want to look like a voyeur. How can they sell that they're birdwatching and not being a pervert in public? I mean, that's easy in my opinion. Yeah.
00:59:42
Speaker
What's your solution? So certain parks will have these things called bird blinds that are specifically designed ah to be a little shelter ah for you as a human to be there without being super conspicuous to the birds. ah But look through some of these port holes with binoculars possibly, depending on how far away they are at the birds. Yeah.
01:00:04
Speaker
Easy peasy. Two. Let's say you're just out and about and bird watching. Sure. Have some paraphernalia with you. Have a hat that's not like a baseball hat. like Give it like the ear flaps. Baseball hat. Oh, I'm doing something nature-y. Or have an open book with you. Be like, oh, these are different species of birds.
01:00:27
Speaker
It'd be very funny to just have, because I mean, if you do have binoculars, right? Because this is the the line that you, once you cross, now you need the solution. I'm imagining the book is just like tied to a chain. Like there's a loop through the book and it's just there like at your hip. You can reference it and then put it back down. Snap close. It's not a pocket book. It's a big book. And like the the text has to be, it has to take up the entire front cover.
01:00:57
Speaker
so that people can see it from a distance and know that it's a bird watching book. You got to get the t-shirt. You got to get anything like that. Just the t-shirts just like I'm here for birds, not you. Unless you're interested, then, you know, feel free to talk. um
01:01:15
Speaker
It's a it's a fun problem, though. Also, that's a great premise. So if we ever just need more content, we'll just find questions people ask online and become an advice podcast.
01:01:26
Speaker
way better.
01:01:30
Speaker
Excellent format. How do I beat this boss in Dark Souls? Get good. Get good. Yeah. That'd be very funny though if we massacre all of the humor in that potential format and instead we do it, there's someone asked the question of like, how do you beat this boss in Dark Souls? And we're like,
01:01:48
Speaker
All right, for wherere where you're at in the game, I mean, you should have access to Uchikatana. If you talk to this guy and there's the lightning urn or whatever, you can pick up from here, but you're going to need to sneak past it. You just get like a 15 minute long technical, actual answer with no humor. So pretty much once you get to the fair and swamps, you're going to run to that ladder as fast as possible so that the specific lead enemies that are there, don't worry, they won't respawn.
01:02:15
Speaker
They'll chase you, they'll fall down the ladder. ah You will get their souls, easy peasy, and they can move on. The best advice I've got for for the Farron Swans actually, to close out the bit, is um the dagger, quick dash, Art of War or whatever it's called there. It's not God of War, that's a different thing.
01:02:35
Speaker
Um, but, uh, you can use it even if you're completely out of, uh, the, is it mana MP? Yeah. Uh, I was like, literally everybody calls it something else. It's magically math it's the blue, but it's blue. it's yeah It's blue. If you, if you're out of blue stuff, you can still hit the button and you do a dash that's significantly faster than trying to roll through the swamp. So just, just bust out a dagger. It's the fastest way to get through there. Um,
01:03:04
Speaker
And with that, we've closed out the advice portion, the new advice portion of the podcast. As promised earlier, um, if you want to date Dave, you can send in your, uh, resume soapstone podcast at gmail dot.com but umly i only be expecting two references max. Yes, right. We gotta, you gotta be able to make the calls.
01:03:30
Speaker
um Or you can apply publicly on Facebook um But you know that might seem a little bit desperate Facebook dot.com slash soapstone podcast and as always we'll see you in the next one. Have a good night