Shortening, buying a house, cat favoritism, and test questions
Hello, hello! We're having a Q&A session today, so let's get into it.
Shortening
Before we get to some questions, I wanted to say something random. In the comments, you guys were recently discussing shortening options regarding a recipe, and here's a nerdy baking fact: shortening got its name because it literally shortens the gluten strands in the dough.
That's why when you want a soft, not-chewy product (like a cake or a biscuit), you use lots of fat.
But if you want a sturdy, chewy result (like a baguette), you use little to no fat. Lots of gluten = a stretchy dough and a chewy end product.
And this is one reason that yeasty doughs with a lot of fat in them take a long time to rise. All the fat is interfering with the gluten strands, and stretchy gluten strands (which holds the air bubbles that yeast produces) are essential for helping dough to rise.
Anyway, things like butter, lard, or Crisco could all be used as shortening.
Relatedly, this is why gluten-free baguettes are usually more terrible than gluten-free muffins; muffins don't need that much gluten, but baguettes do! So you miss the gluten more with a baguette.
And it is why low-fat cakes/muffins (remember the 90s??) tend to be more tough than tender. Not enough fat to cut the gluten!
You’ve mentioned a couple of times that you eventually want to buy a house instead of continuing to rent. Your rental house seems nice and seems like it’s located in a good area. Just wondering if there’s a reason why you’d rather buy them continue to rent.
-Laura
Oh yes, my rental house is lovely and it is in a very good area (especially because it is so close to my college).
I would eventually like to own a home again partially because it could make sense financially. I rented this house when I had both Lisey and Zoe living here, but if I buy once I'm an empty-nester, I can downsize and get a small, affordable little house for myself.
I could probably pay it off in not too long since I have a hefty downpayment (due to getting a payout for half the value of my marital home.)
Also, I'd like to own because I would love the freedom to modify the home as I like. For instance, if I owned this home, I would replace the cloudy windows in a hot second!
But for now, renting is good because other than the fact that I will graduate from nursing school and go on to get my BSN, my future is sort of a big question mark.
How long will Zoe be with me?
Will I stay in this area once she moves out, or will I land somewhere else?
Will I get married again? (for the record, I am not dating right now because PLEASE WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT IN NURSING SCHOOL?)
So because there are some question marks in my future, the flexibility of renting feels right to me.
Even though it is a little painful to keep making that rent payment every month!
What is the recipe for the shrimp, bacon, cheese, you posted on the site? It looks so good and I would like to make it. I am not sure if it has creamed potatoes in it or not.
-Karen P.
Unfortunately, I do not have a recipe for that. It was one of those meals where I just decided to wing it. It does not have bacon in it, but that would be a tasty addition!
I made a base of mashed potatoes.
While the potatoes were cooking, I patted some shrimp dry, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and sauteed them in a very hot stainless steel skillet. I removed them from the skillet, then sauteed some chopped jalapenos and some halved cherry tomatoes.
When those were cooked, I added a little broth and some half and half to deglaze the pan (scrape up all the browned little bits as they loosen) and make a sauce. I added the shrimp back in, mixed it all together, and poured it on top of the mashed potatoes.
Zoe hates cooked tomatoes, so I only do this when I'm on my own, but man, I think they taste SO good and they add a nice depth of flavor to the sauce.
I know this might seem like a lot of work for a single-serving dish, but I usually make enough mashed potatoes for a couple of meals for myself.
And the veggie/shrimp/sauce part is honestly so little work. Just saute, saute, deglaze, and season if necessary.
Also, as I always say: I am worth feeding!
I think we tend to imagine self care is all massages and facials, but fueling myself and eating yummy food is also a good way to take care of myself. Even if it is just me feeding me. 🙂
Is the Martti app the approved translation service at your facility? We have phone interpreters (and some in-person interpreters for more commonly spoken languages like Spanish). I don’t love the phone interpreters–some are fantastic, some aren’t, and many interpreters work from home so you hear the inevitable background noises. And when I have patients who are confused, it would be helpful to have an interpreter who has visual cues. Anyway, just curious about how other facilities address this.
-Kris
Yes! It's approved by my hospital and installed on the patient iPads.
I can definitely see why the Martti app is superior to a phone interpreter; so much of communication is visual. Also, the Martti app allows for ASL interpreters, and obviously, that would not work over the phone.
Plus, with the video call, you could show a treatment, device, or medicine, or point to a body part.
Petition for Kris's hospital to get a Martti account!
“Emotional support cat” – but what about Shelley?? She might need an Emotional Support Human.
-Jana
Haha, DO NOT FEAR. Shelley is Zoe's velcro cat, and Chiquita is mine.
In fact, when Zoe lays down on her bed, Shelley almost always lays down on Zoe's back. Ha.
Is Shelley supporting Zoe, or is Zoe supporting Shelley? Who knows? It is probably a symbiotic relationship. 😉
Anyway, this is why you see more pictures of Chiquita than of Shelley; Chiquita is the one who is always around me, so she's the one who gets photographed more. If you looked at Zoe's camera roll, the opposite would be true.
This question reminds me of when my kids were all younger and my camera memory cards had a proportionally high number of Zoe pictures.
Experienced moms know that you do not let preschoolers out of your sight for long and because Zoe was the preschooler at the time, she was almost always by my side.
If you hang with the photographer, you get photographed more. 😉
Kristen, did you have an inkling of the questions you missed while you were taking the test? And do you get to see which ones they are and find the right answers? It used to really bug me (prolly before you were born) when I didn’t get to see the correct answers, because how else can one learn??
-also Jana (ha)
There are some questions on a test that I know immediately I got right. Then there are others where I'm pretty sure.
Annnnnd there are always some where I am super unsure if I chose the right answer (those are the ones I tend to google after class!)
Usually my sense of how I did after a test is pretty accurate; the two times I felt the worst were when I got an 80% and an 86%. I knew I didn't feel A energy coming out of those!
There have been persistent cheating problems at my nursing school, so we are never allowed to see our tests. This is extremely frustrating to me because seeing what you get wrong is such a helpful learning experience.
They do offer exam review sessions for the class and in those, they go over some general concepts that a lot of people got wrong.
I attend these sessions almost every time, but it feels like the questions I get wrong must not be the same ones everyone else gets wrong, because they are rarely going over the topics I struggled with!
Let it be known: I have a pretty bad attitude about the cheating that happens in school. Other people's choices to cheat have resulted in a seriously negative consequence for the rest of us, and that feels unjust.
Also, I think it is pretty short-sighted to try to cheat your way through nursing school. How are you going to pass the NCLEX? And even if you figure out a way to cheat on the NCLEX, how are you going to be a competent nurse?
Oh well. I am doing fine despite not seeing my exams, so I guess that is what matters.
I have strong thoughts about the test questions, not buying vs renting! As a teacher, I hand back tests and usually give students a chance to redo their errors for partial credit. I want them to learn the material, and seeing one's mistakes and working out how to do things correctly is an important part of the learning process. I have reused exams at times ( changing some numbers around ), and if students have cheated , it's certainly not evident. The grades are usually well in-line with their homework. I've also started giving out last year's exam as a practice test ( my students can be really weak, and need a lot of help.) So even if someone had an old exam to try and cheat from, it wouldn't matter because everyone now has it. It makes me work a little harder to make up a new test, but really, there are so many questions I can ask, it keeps me thinking about what's important for assessment.
My kids' high school does not give the tests back, and it drives me nuts. How can they learn what they did wrong and clear those misconceptions up? They might over them in class, but really, it never seems to be enough. It puts more emphasis on the grade than the knowledge .
@mbmom11, wow, you are an EXCELLENT teacher! The goal is to learn, and you are doing everything you can to facilitate that. I am Very Impressed.
I love: "I always say: I am worth feeding!" I think a lot of people could benefit from feeling that way.
I think renting for you at this stage in your life makes perfect sense. I'm sure the monthly rent payment is painful but also the best choice.
I'm sorry about the school cheating situation. It seems that more people feel it is okay these days but your take on it is 100% spot on.
I do have a question: Are you still eating as much protein as when you were working with the personal trainer? Maybe you can address that in another Q&A.
I'm still trying hard to eat plenty of protein; I'm not quite hitting the goal Ben had me shooting for, but I am eating more than I was before!
@K D, I also love “I always say: I am worth feeding!”. I may start using that for myself. Another phrase I’ve been using in terms of being kind and caring towards my body and mind is that “I deserve it.”
@Kristen,
Thanks for letting me know. I sometimes find it hard to eat enough protein as well.
@K D, I need to get enough protein for a medical condition and it is hard. Having a few spoonfuls of cottage cheese (only the ones with live and active cultures for max result) after every meal and at bedtime, for a great night's sleep, helps me.
Also, tricks like, instead of mashed potatoes (one of my most fave foods) I try to put a grain into the dishes Kristen makes. Like farro, brown rice or quinoa. Not as tasty so not always but IF I do it, I feel full longer too, an added advantage to the higher protein and the way higher fiber is a weight-loss (or keep steady in my case) advantage. But right now, I want some mashed potatoes!
@ErikaJS, The struggle is real. I find it is SO hard to get enough protein in a day without having an extra protein shake or serving of something....
@ErikaJS, I've added filtered milk (specifically Fairlife Protein Shake) to add both protein and calcium to my diet.
@K D, protein is always the most expensive component of a meal, which makes it more of a challenge for Frugalistas.
And it is why most meals out are not gonna be enough for a protein goal; if you get, say, a noodle bowl, it's gonna be mostly noodles and not much chicken!
@WilliamB, I used to be able to count on Greek yogurt for protein...until I developed a dairy allergy. Sadness.
@Karen A., The RX bars Kristen mentioned have egg whites in them. I find them an easy, non dairy, way to add protein.
@Linda Sand,
We have been eating RX bars for a few years and I do like them. I do not sleep well if I consume any chocolate or caffeine (even decaf tea/coffee) so many of the flavors are off limits for me. There are non-chocolate flavors.
I have plain Greek yogurt with breakfast and that's score 20 grams of protein.
It's as much the environment cost of meat as anything that keeps me trying not to eat a ton of it. I stick to chicken and occasionally eat fish. They also are good protein sources.
@WilliamB, Ooh, thanks; I will look into this.
@Kristen,
My professional opinion, but I think the goal he set for you was high. I get that you want to build muscle, but if you (anyone) eats more protein than your body can use, it just gets metabolized and used as energy.
Regarding cats, they have their own options on who their people are. Firstly I admit to being a cat person. We always have had cats (except for the first year of my marriage because we moved and lived in a pet less apartment) my daughter's cat passed away 3 years ago and I had to get my cat Max, a partner. He was showing signs of depression and had never been friendless. So my brother stepped in with Penny.
Here is the funny thing, my son is not a pet person. They live here and he does but just isn't interested. But Penny quickly decided that he was her person and love bombed him until he agreed. So even though she is my cat and I take care of her, and she loves spending time with both my daughter and I; she still spends more time with him or in his room. He has most of the pictures of her on his phone.
@Amy cheapohmom, I love this and the cat’s persistence! Perhaps he will always have a cat in his life now thus aiding the “cat distribution system”!
@Amy cheapohmom, goes to show how great cats are.
@Amy cheapohmom, We feel pretty lucky in that Clark seems to be almost a Everybody's Cat, in that he likes everybody. I think he rotates a little depending on his whims or how well he feels somebody has treated him. Or if he feels he's neglected somebody. The other night he slept the whole night in our bedroom, and the next night he favored DS#2 with his nighttime presence. He definitely misses people when they're gone, even if there's other people home...he thinks EVERYONE should be home!
Hi
With regard to purchasing a home. I rented for six years after separation and divorce. I recently purchased a home so I could pay myself and have the deductions.
When you start looking investigate all the programs available to home buyers 1. If you haven't owned a home in 3 years you are considered a first time home buyer
2. Many grants are available
Continue to press on
Oooh, that is a helpful hint! Thank you!
Another Ooooo from me, Sharyn! I'm in the exact position you were in, so I can look forward to applying for all that.
Thank you so much!
First thought on the cheating: it is like shoplifting: general prices go up because the shop included the loss of theft in the overal price.
In 10 years or so I may want to move into a rental home and leave the house we own now, because it may become too much work for me then (I do the bigger part of the household chores). My husband does not see it that way now, but by that time, who knows? Some maintenance and DIY projects we have done now instead of doing them ourselves, like we would have even 10 years ago. I think it is wise to move along with the different stages in life and also take decisions before others need to take them for you.
One of the BIG plans I am reasoning through right now is what to do about down-sizing. I love my home and having it paid off will be a serious thrill, but I envision a smaller space, with only the things I love and want to keep, and just enough room for myself and a pet. My four peeps can visit and I might have one guest room, but I am so looking forward to a house that's the perfect size for me. I don't think I will ever be in a rent situation, but I think that has been a very good thing for you, especially if you like your landlord and can count on them to fix what goes wrong. Once you own your own home, all of the repairs and upkeep will fall to you - at least the decision making if not the actual jobs.
Yes, I feel you on this! A family-size home feels a little excessive once you hit the empty nest stage.
It's not like my current rental house is a mcmansion or anything (just a little ranch), but it's definitely more space that I'd come close to needing once I have no kids with me.
@Kristen, But always have a big enough place to welcome your children and grandchildren! Our house is two story, though quite small (about 1100 square feet). Due to a muscular disease, my husband can no longer climb stairs, so we made the dining room into a bedroom. But when our children and grandchildren visit, they have the whole upstairs to spread out in (it's not big, three bedrooms and two of them are quite small and there's a small bathroom, too). We are thankful for the space for them to be able to stay with us! So regularly, we just heat and cool/use the downstairs (about 600 square feet), but it's nice to have the space for them to visit often!
@Debby, That's what I'm planning to do in the future.
One reason I won't downsize is because really, there's no place to downsize to in this town, except maybe a condo which wouldn't work since I have so many dogs. Another is that I would owe at least $400,000 in capital gains tax as a single person, which I resent.
@Debby, there's a similar-sounding disease in my housing group. Our solution was to move to a house that had everything we need, even though we don't need everything it has. To be honest, I'm loving all the space. I love my huge desk and it makes it easier for me to keep on top of all the paperwork. I love that I don't need to share space with, or see, anyone else's office mess. I love not sharing a small bathroom. As long as I can afford it, I'm staying put.
@Rose, remember there is no such thing as a free lunch. What comes close is your children inheriting the property at a stepped up cost basis (thankfully the harebrained idea of eliminating the stepped up cost basis never got traction under the bush II administration).
I think cats have exceptional instincts about people and chose their people partner. I don’t think a person choses the cat. I have had 3 cats in recent years that lived with me over the years. All were found as strays by my older son.
He brought our first cat home on the school bus when I had the chicken pox. My son said it was a get-well present. My mother was alive then, and she made sure that the cat made it to the vet the same day. This cat was truly extraordinary. He loved all of us.
The second kitty was pulled out of Intracoastal Waterway when he was kayaking. He adored my son, because my son saved his life. The cat lived to be 20.
I currently have a 16.5 year old calico kitty with a little pink nose like Chiquita’s and similar markings. My son found her when she was just a few weeks old. I bottle fed her. She sleeps on my stomach and thinks I’m her mother.
@Bee, Awww I love your cat stories. The kayak save is impressive!
I forced my cats to bond with me. The first one, I got because of her name (Chai) and because she looked like a cat I used to catsit in college who was so beautiful. She has quite a surly personality but I have won her over. The second, I mostly got her because the matched the first! She ended up having a much sweeter disposition, so was easier to win over. There's a cat in our new neighborhood that looks just like mine, but I hear it's not a stray, so I will resist the urge to add to my collection...
@Bee, Your son sounds as caring as you do in your posts. Congrats on raising a fine boy.
@ErikaJS, A Cat Whisperer! He should get his own Saturday morning TV show. I'd watch it - and I'm a dog person.
@Bee, your son is an extraordinary person g-d bless him and you for raising him.
@Bee, Wonderful stories.
@Bee, We know that Clark chose us. We had been volunteering at the no-kill shelter that rescued him (he'd had a bad leg wound that kept him from walking until they healed it), and every time we went to clean and service the room he was in, he would body-check the other cats to get in front of us for attention, even letting me pick him up and hold him like a baby! He was a door-darter and one time he got out or his room and DH followed him to an outside door, where Clark mewed at the door but let DH pick him up. While he was carrying Clark back, he came up to me and said "I think he's our cat now, he wants us to take him home." Ha.
@Bee, I love your cat stories--especially the one about your current Calico Kitty. DH and I acquired our third cat, Disraeli Diehard Dreadnought (Dizzy for short), after he turned up under the hood of DH's Chevy Suburban one cold December day as a much-too-young kitten. From the moment DH brought the small, grease-smeared object in to me, Dizzy decided I was his bio-mom. I lost a considerable chunk of my cat-loving heart to him then and there--and an even bigger one when we lost him much too soon at age 7, from a disease he probably picked up from the feral cat colony next door.
@A. Marie, @Karen A. , @Andrea G, @ William B, @ErikaJS, JDinNM, and @Anita Isaac
Thank you for the kind words, and I love hearing everyone’s stories about their cats. Cats are certainly interesting creatures.
I am just so thankful that my son brought home kittens and not snakes or baby alligators,
We bought a 3-bedroom rancher early in our marriage with the thought of buying larger in about five years. However, we could never afford to move, so we raised our two sons in this house. They are gone now and it is the perfect size, and paid off. I never wanted to worry about a house payment or rent in our retirement years, which to me is the best reason to buy and not rent.
@Mary Ann, this is exactly what we did, although any thought of moving up in house was never more than a vague idea. At any rate, the point at which many people would have moved up (our third child outgrowing sleeping in our bedroom, requiring our older two to begin sharing a room) coincided with a temporary loss of over half my income due to my employer’s financial ineptitude. We stayed put, the older two sharing a smallish bedroom until the elder left for college.
Remaining in our “starter” home even after my income recovered allowed us to cash flow 100% of our children’s college educations - all three went away to four-year schools - after the scholarships they received. And now we are approaching retirement years with a paid-for house and no need to downsize. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
@Meg in SoTX,
sometimes the best thing is to stay put - yes, it may be tricky for a time, and of course one wants the best for one's kids, but it's not actually cruel and unusual to have 2 sibs in a bedroom! We recently bought, having emigrated from what was 100% our beloved forever home, and have made a conscious decision not to fall for buying more house than we absolutely need. Honestly, it is quite tight at the moment (though everyone has their own room, lol) because I work remotely and so does husband, at least 3 days per week, but this is the fullest it will ever be, and one day, almost certainly within the next 5 years if not potentially sooner, we will have at least one moved out, possibly the second / at least partly if studying elsewhere, and all of a sudden, a very big house will simply be too much house to maintain, improve, heat, clean blah blah.
3 bedrooms is totally reasonable. It's a good size home to live in forever!
@Caro, I used to live in Germany. A woman I knew told me that after WW2 they had lived in a 1 bedroom apartment.
The parents slept in the living room and the children in the bedroom. They had 6 kids and they were in triple bunks. She said her children fondly remembered this from their childhood.
It would have been 50’s-60’s.
Eventually they were able to purchase additional space on that floor and expand their apartment.
I remember sharing a bedroom with my two brothers until my parents could build an additional bedroom in the basement ( early elementary school).
My own daughters (3) shared a bedroom till we moved. The first 7-9 months they continued to sleep together, then eventually moved to their bedrooms.
@T, Sounds like my great grandmother's cottage in which I spent my summers as a kid. (It's two doors down from me now.) Nana was in the main house, we six were in the minute guest cottage. Four beds in the living room (which was packed), a tiny kitchen, an even smaller bathroom (with a note in Nana's handwriting to renters which always puzzled me: "Do not put sani's in toilet! Put in rubbish!" What's a "sani"???) and the bedroom, which housed two twins where my parents slept. Every inch of that cottage is beloved to me.
@Rose, "Sani" was probably short for "sanitary napkin", aka menstrual pads.
@Karen A., Yes, I figured it out eventually! Just not as a kid. Usually when I add extra punctuation, it's sarcastic.
In the 70s, I remember seeing ads for "feminine napkins" on TV. I thought that meant paper dinner napkins with especially flowery designs.
@Rose,
The napkins are hilarious
Euphemisms are so confusing for kids! lol
@Rose, So did I!!
@Lindsey, Ha! Glad I'm not the only one.
Except when it comes to Deer Zing! (Xing) which I think I am the only one. In my defense, it's an X not a cross, dammit.
I love your gluten explanation!!! Thank you!
@Plaidkaren, yes!!! Something to lean early in the morning. Thanks Kristen!
@Plaidkaren, now I understand why gluten-free bread slices are rather small.
This is the first time I have ever seen the term shortening explained. Thank you!
Yes---thank you. Kristen!
I appreciate your description of how gluten works. As a 12 year gluten-free person, I can tell you that there are very few gf choices of soft white bread. It’s best to avoid all together.
There’s nothing better than to be the person a cat chooses!
We currently own our home, but at this stage of my life, I would prefer to rent and leave all the maintenance and repairs and risk to my landlord, especially if I was on my own. DH always wants to buy a vacation home and I really do not. It just sounds like an enormous headache. His parents just bought one in the mountains of NC and it got wiped out.
It makes sense to do the math- depending on the market and interest rates, it can be cheaper especially if you figure in the inevitable maintenance and repairs. Then you can invest the difference and come out ahead. Interest rates are higher now, so investing extra capital can be more beneficial than taking on a mortgage.
I do not want a vacation home either!! I have seen it go sideways too many times.
@Tarynkay, But you need to investigate your prospective landlord, just like landlords check out their prospective tenants. If you're going to rely on someone else to do the repairs and maintenance and stay current on property taxes and insurance and utility bills...
@JDinNM,
Definitely! I’ve had good landlords and lousy ones. The nice thing is you can move if they are terrible. Also, tenants generally have more rights than they realize, so it’s worth checking into what your landlord is legally obligated to do in your area.
@Tarynkay, I like your "at this stage of my life" thinking. At this stage of my own life, I'm a 69-year-old childless widow in a 3-bedroom, 1.5-bath house with a full basement and attic. I'm strongly attached to this house for many reasons and don't want to leave till I have to--but I can foresee that the upkeep and maintenance may well become more than I want to deal with, physically, financially, or both. At that point, I'll finish downsizing (I'm working on this already), sell, and move into an apartment.
And I thank the universe that DH and I didn't follow through on buying the one vacation house we ever looked at, also for many reasons. At this stage of my life in particular, I need a second home like I need a hole in the head.
I have to stick up for vacation homes a little! Buying this house was probably the second smartest financial decision I ever made. It was my dream to own a house here and I made it happen when the town was still semi-affordable.
I didn't rent it out for years and years, until one August we came out here after a two-week vacation in Scotland and I thought, I am really missing a trick. Why wouldn't I rent it while we were gone? etc.
@A. Marie, most people need a second house like a hole in the head. Especially when it is in a certain state, especially in a condo complex.
@Tarynkay,
I think vacation homes work for some people, and not for others. (Myself, I have no interest in owning a vacation home). I have a work friend who bought what she called "a tiny cabin" in the Gatlinburg, TN area of the US. She and her DH traveled there on a regular basis so her DH could sell his woodworking projects at craft shows, and they rented it our during times when they didn't plan to be there. Well, long story, but they both ended up with long Covid, the upkeep became too much, and she said she was tired of replacing things that were lost, stolen, or broken by renters. They recently sold it, and I have no idea if they made any money on the sale - but it was a huge relief to my friend to get rid of it.
I have thoughts about the cheating, actually. I’m with you Kristen - I simply don’t understand why nursing students in particular would want to cheat, since you can’t be a good nurse if you haven’t learned the material. Although, I’m guessing that nursing students who cheat aren’t going to want to put in the work required to be a floor nurse - they’re going to try and get a nursing consultant job, or some such.
Yes, I'm wondering if that kind of student is the sort that is not looking at this as a passion job or a calling. I don't know!
@Kristen, Maybe they're looking for a doctor.
@JDinNM, Ha! You crack me up!
Your dinners always look so yummy and I am sure after so many years of cooking you are experienced enough to wing it and still have things turn out great. Question- when recipes call for just a little bit of chicken broth, what do you do with the rest of the carton? (Or jar if you made it)? I know it goes bad in the fridge after a couple days. I’m always worried I’ll forget about it so I just use water but I’m sure broth would taste better. I might be overthinking this but I’m curious what you or others do!
@Katie, sometimes I just use the Better than Broth concentrate that I get at Costco and can make a very small amount.
I usually make my broth and freeze in my assortment of thrifted silicone muffin/mini loaf pans. The puck’s pop out and I freeze them in bags. I just add to recipes frozen usually.
@T, oops the broth I freeze is homemade broth. Frozen into pucks.
If I don’t have any available, then I’ll just whip up some “Better than Broth”.
@T, thanks a wonderful tip
I get my food sensitivity panel results later today. Please think GLUTEN AND DAIRY = GREAT for me so I can continue to enjoy quality baked goods 😉
@Andrea G / Midwest Andrea, even if you don't get the results you want, take heart! You can still eat very well both gluten and dairy free. I have 2 celiac kids and one of them is also dairy, corn and soy free. That combo makes restaurants tough but she still can eat plenty of deliciousness!
@Andrea G / Midwest Andrea, Oh, my, as somebody who needs to avoid both of those, I certainly hope you don't have to! But if you do, as Susan said, it's not that bad and a heck of a lot easier than it was, say, ten years ago when I had to give up gluten.
*Bacon grease is shortening too! I might make some chocolate chip cookies with some of my saved grease.
*The one time I cheated in college was on a take-home Latin exam. And I failed the test anyway. Just goes to show.
*All three of my dogs want to touch me at night. Sometimes they snarl at one another jealously. It's annoying but I guess they need the reassurance? The two puppies play a lot (and get into trouble) but Percy the older beagle stays glued to my side.
*Since you don't know what the future is, continuing to rent is smart.
Yup, and coconut oil too!
... of course you know (and anyone who has ever read a romance novel knows) that saying "I am not dating right now" is absolutely the trigger for someone to waltz onto your radar. 😉
@Karen., Hahaha, cue the meet cute!
Hahaha, is this what happens in Hallmark movies?
My friend and I planned to write romance novels at the same time. Mine was gonna be called Off the Leash, about a divorcee who runs a charming inn in a seaside town. She meets the new town vet when he catches her dog which is running away from her. Can they heal one another's broken hearts?
The answer is no. But it would have to be yes in a romance. I never did write that.
@Rose, The answer is "no" because he (a) turned the dog over to Animal Control when it ran away from its negligent owner who (b) hadn't even had the dog microchipped and (c) he's gay. The vet, that is.
@Rose, you really should write it. hallmark will option it for a movie. i love the story.
@Karen., That's hilarious and so, so true. That happened to my SIL soon after she divorced her (details omitted) husband. She did not expect to get married again, that's for sure.
The first one died in a car accident, the second one she divorced, the third one is (still?) with us. I've been trying to come up with an appropriate "divorced, beheaded, died" jingle for her but haven't found the right one yet. Suggestions welcomed!
@JDinNM, dying laughing.
Much more my speed is the Ruth Rendell-ish suspense novel I mapped out the other day. The angry neighbor says to jerkoff motel owner, "If another of my dogs get sick I will burn that motel to the ground." He reports it to the police and then thinks....maybe this is a really good time to burn the motel down for the insurance money, with a readymade scapegoat. What he doesn't know is that his estranged daughter has been camping out in an empty room....
@Rose, Then the Angry Neighbor's dogs save the Jerkoff Motel Owner's Estranged Daughter who ... works undercover for the arson division of the Insurance Company Claims Department and turns her father in to the Police!
@JDinNM, mmmm....doesn't sound very Ruth Rendell. (Who I worship.) There's gonna be some quirky lives drawn together by fate and someone or more than one's gonna die tragically. I am thinking the jerkoff motel owner and the young grandson he didn't know he had who was camping with his estranged daughter. Also almost certainly the angry neighbor is gonna experience some heartache too, possibly fire damage to her own house, but no dogs are gonna die in my books. The daughter was on the run from abusive husband/pimp/the mob, gambling debts and so on, and figured her dad hadn't changed the master digits on the locks (her mother's birthdate). Angry neighbor has some kind of sad back story, like her own daughter died in a house fire 20 years ago because Neighbor was warming their squat with a kerosene heater that one of the dogs overturned.
I can continue with this forever! That said, read Ruth Rendell. Unfortunately she is dead but I adore her. Master of the Moor was BFF's favorite, while mine is A Sight for Sore Eyes.
@Rose, I've read all or most of Ruth Rendell. Much prefer Dorothy Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey.
@JDinNM, I do love them too. It just squicks me out a little how much in love Dorothy was in love with Lord Peter.
Re our cat, DinGus is really my daughter's cat. She's the kitty lover among us but I heart Gus very much. I'm the one who saved his life and gave him his first bath; after that, with him wrapped in a towel, I knocked on her bedroom door and said, "Here's a kitten. Take care of it," because I was afraid one of the dogs might hurt such a tiny thing.
He is rather magnificent looking, pointed with long fur like a Balinese and blue eyes. We had his genes tested and that was a mess, since he was "negative for long hair" and "negativc for Siamese color." The science is really not there yet!
That's fascinating about the etymology of shortening. I know what it does and have always wanted to know where the word came from. One thing I wonder about: when the word got that meaning, did people actually know the mechanism? I wonder if maybe the understood the outcome - less chewiness - but knowledge of the mechanism is more recent.
"And this is one reason that yeasty doughs with a lot of fat in them take a long time to rise."
Or not at all, ahem.
https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/a-failed-bread-dough-rescue-with-williamb/
@WilliamB, The dough that stretches more is a long dough rather than a short dough. Simple as that.
Then when it comes to pastry, you have shortcrust, which is the crumbly kind, or the flaky kind which is cut in. There's also the laminated crusts like phyllo or puff pastry, which are folded and stretched over and over.
@Rose - yup, I'm aware. As I wrote, what I didn't know is *why* it's called shortening and then wondering if people in the 1590s (first attestation) or before, knew that fat shortened gluten strings? That's a rather technical fact for people living in a pre-Enlightenment-science world.
@WilliamB, They didn't. They just knew it didn't stretch so far.
Do you think you will immediately go for your BSN fulltime or maybe work for a bit and then go back? Maybe part-time school and work? I guess I'm really wondering if you are a bit burned out with school and will take a break, or if you want to do it all in my big swoop and be done.
So, as I understand it, the classes for the BSN are online and largely consist of discussion posts and essays. Mostly writing. Which for me is like breathing.
Give that, I'll probably tackle it right away. My hospital offers tuition reimbursement, so I plan to get the RN job and then start the BSN classes.
If the BSN classes were as heavy as what I'm doing right now, I'd need a break, though.
@Kristen, my cousin's daughter completed her nursing school classes & got her RN degree & is currently working at hospital full time (I think 3 days 1 week & 4 days next week) & is going to school for next level degree also. She is so busy (& luckily sort of single, has boyfriend in same field/no kids) that doesn't see or barely talk to family (close in same area). If it works for you now, go for it! You are already in that zone, keep going if you feel you can.
@Kristen, yay for tuition reimbursement! That's a great benefit!
I loved the gluten tutorial!
Cheating just shortchanges the student.
It’s truly stupid to cheat in professional school, where you need this knowledge to take care of human beings.
There was a cheater in my PA program.
He was caught, and was promptly removed!
@Kim from Philadelphia, in this field, cheating will also shortchange the patient. Not good!
@Kim from Philadelphia, YEA for consequences! I'm all for reinforcing integrity, and it takes consequences and deterrence, which seem to be in short supply.
Kristen, You are going about things in the right way, in the right order. Renting now, while get your education out of the way, then having a well-paying job to apply to a home you will own along with your saved money.
Because of your writing skills and calm explanation of your coping skills, you could very well create a booklet (Gazette-like?) for those not as well organized to help them through your difficult path.
@ErikaJS, great idea!
Oh, YES!!
While I definitely agree with your own a house versus renting, keep your options open, especially if considering buying right now.
I think house prices are currently over priced/valued. Example-- I had to sell my (former) marital home & it was bought for twice as much as we originally paid (foreclosure that was worth more, but not twice as much) 16 years before. Granted, yes we did make improvements that added more value but the buyer really wanted this house. Now 1 year later that buyer decides to sell house, but not in same condition (rumored drug house--you could smell) with visible damage not repaired or upkeep (including property). They try to sell for (even) more money ($50,000 more than paid). After very low ball offers, change realtors & (put lipstick on pig) made look more attractive (without repairs) asking for same price. Did sell & now (same) house valued at $50,000 more than sold less than 1 year ago (& $100,000 more than 2 years ago) with absolutely no changes (it looked better when I sold).
Prices like we are seeing just seem over inflated right now. Or maybe I'm just so frugal that I'm looking for a better price.
Thanks for answering my question! Also, on a different note, I never gave thought to why shortening is named "shortening ", but that makes sense.
Although I know there are downsides to owning rather than renting, having control over your home counts for a lot to some (including me) and I know renters who were suddenly tossed from their home when it got sold, couldn't get maintenance done in a timely manner or saw their rent increase to amounts beyond what they could pay and be forced to move. Not to say homeowners don't get ugly surprises - like a flood and no floor insurance - but I'm with Kristen, I prefer to own my home. We lived in mobile homes for years, so when we built a home, we built with the knowledge that we would be empty nesters in less than 10 years, meaning we built small. It makes utility costs less, cleaning it is quicker and I'm not rattling around in a big house by myself now.
Cats are so funny. DH loved cats, but only one of our cats over the years chose DH to be his person. DH favored calico cats, but the calico I got for him after "his" torby cat died chose me instead. Oops. Most of our cats chose either one or both of our girls.
I never knew that about shortening. I know I used to hear older people describe tender, flaky pie crusts and biscuits as "really short."
Cheating: I don't condone it, but I can kind of understand cheating on a subject you will literally never need once you leave school. However, if it means you got a grade perhaps as good as or better than someone who truly worked to learn the subject, that is hardly fair to them, and when it alters the way tests are done for everyone and they can't see their work they missed, that harms them all. And for classes in which one NEEDS to learn the subject, like nursing, cheating is just - well, couldn't it be deadly for a patient down the road? That's not to mention the nurse would probably never make it in the field of nursing, which is probably as it should be if the nurse never bothered to learn.
We moved 12 years ago to be close to my husband's job and were very deliberate about choosing a stepless, one-level home with a flat yard, as we aren't getting any younger. Moving was so miserable that I hope to never do it again.
Our younger cat is our cat, but she immediately gravitated to our son because she had been rescued from an abandoned homeless camp and clearly had a lot of affection from young men. She's become very friendly to us but still is just besotted with him.
i feel the same way about cheating that you do. i never encountered it until speech class in college. it was right out in the open when the teacher was not in the room. i am a ny native who went to college in macon, ga. thanks for the explanation of all the chiquita photos. and thanks for the shelley photos. i wish they got along better.
i prefer renting because my rent is so low. live in stuy town since 1991. when i moved here my rent was $546. and my rent in bklyn was $292. i walked to work and brought my lunch. but after my friend who taught me about stocks created a budget for me i started taking public transit. there was a very nice guy in the company cafeteria who always gave me extra food in my order. i hated bringing lunch mainly because i always nibbled at it before lunchtime. i tried hard not to spend more than $5 a day.
I would love a $546 rent payment! lol
@Anita Isaac, I forgot you lived in Stuy Town! Good for you.
Meanwhile, my daughter can't find a room--not an apt, but a bedroom--for $2500 or less in Manhattan.
@Rose, she should try stuy town. she is allowed to rent with a few roommates and that makes it reasonable. would love to meet with you and your daughter irl sometime.
@Kristen, and that was with gas and electric and still includes gas and electric.
when i moved to my bklyn apt my electic bill was $9 a month when i moved to stuy the bklyn bill was $13 a month. even though i had stock in con edison i never used a lot of electicity. and as we know i ate take out chinese almost every night.
@Anita Isaac, Good idea and ditto.
My hubby goes out of town a couple of times a year and I ALWAYS plan some of my own personal favorite meals to make for myself.YES! To feeding oneself as self care.PLUS my time in the kitchen is fun time,for me,I put on music and enjoy it!!
Renting is where you are at right now and it sounds as if in the future housing prices will price may come down some, maybe even interest rates will, and I-bet you’ll be ready to buy at just the right time.There is nothing more satisfying than having a PAID OFF HOUSE in retirement. I completely support your purchasing when the time is right!
As a retired Nurse,I am APPALLED that any nurse worth her stethoscope would cheat!!!!! Nuff said.
YAY for thinking ahead to the BSN.. use every drop of employee reimbursement and get that degree!! While you’re in study mode!! It gets harder to re activate that study mode once you're working,getting a paycheck and having a social life again,lol… just stay in the groove if you can!
That's what I'm thinking....that I should just put my head down and knock out the BSN right away. Then I can take a nice break before considering a master's down the road.
Thank you for answering my many endless questions! I would be pretty PO'd about the cheating thing too. Just a few bad apples ruin things for everyone. If consequences were tailored and administered to those who cause trouble, then the big sweeping Everyone-Must-Suffer "solutions" wouldn't be necessary. I see this in all of life.
Owning a home feels so much more secure than renting! Renting is right for you now, but I commend you for having ownership as a goal in the future.
I worked in a bookstore for many years. Nursing (and other medical) test prep books were among the most frequently stolen. I always thought it'd be awful to be treated by a medical professional who'd stolen their books.
I just wanted to say based on those notes that I still find it amusing that Coxsackie NY has a virus named after it. It's an alright place (most known for the prison that people mispronounce a lot on Law & Order) and for people just snickering at the name itself.
Otherwise it's just a little Dutch settlement town on the Hudson River.
Nasty virus though for kids to get.
I guess one positive about the old house being sold was that it must've gone up in value since it was purchased. Buying a house when you aren't in the market and/or don't have a huge downpayment is not getting any easier. There's definitely a lack of small houses for single people unless you want a condo or something like that. At least not around here, anyway.
I actually just got a payout for half the value of the house (without the house being sold), but yes, the payout was based on current market analysis, and the house had definitely gone up in value since the purchase year (2005!)
The prison I most remember hearing about on Law and Order is Rikers. 🙂
Did you know a Coxsackie virus infection is now thought to be a contributor to Type 1 diabetes in children?
@Kristen, I did not know that!
Also, Old Lyme, Connecticut, is a pretty nice town except for that disease and all.
Rikers is a jail, not a prison. That is, it's basically for people awaiting trial in NYC, not long term prisoners. The most notorious prisons in New York are either Sing-Sing, where Ol' Sparky is, or Attica, where there was a famous prison riot in 1971.
@Kristen,
Since two of my grandchildren had Coxsackie, I hope the virus isn't a big contributor! On the other hand, my husband, his sister, and my great-niece never had the virus and they all were/are Type 1. In fact, until my grandkids got that virus, I never personally had known of anyone at all having it.
I've heard that mono is a possible contributor to the development of autoimmune conditions. Is that idea still being tossed around, I wonder?
@JD, They might have had mild Coxsackie infections when young.
It's actually amazing to me, as someone who's paid close attention to medicine since 1990 (since that's when I got sick) how many autoimmune/other illnesses are now associated with viruses and bacteria. Of course, some of them are actually protective and others only trigger certain genes we might or might not have, and then there's the hygiene hypothesis. It's really fascinating.
@Rose, My husband is a criminal defense attorney and has visited clients in several notorious upstate prisons, but Attica rattled him. He said the atmosphere of menace and despair is palpable, and he's not a really sensitive person.
@kristin @ going country, Oooof. I can imagine.
It's also quite a hardship for loved ones who live downstate. Who, coincidently of course, are most likely poor. Hours and hours on a dreary bus to see family members.
When I was an undergrad (20 years ago this year...yikes!) we had an exam "bank" in the student union building. Students could bring in their midterms and they would get filed for future students to come in and make photocopies for reference. I found those so helpful for studying!!
I can't remember not getting a test back...ever...but I can see with cheating on the rise why teachers would withhold the tests. I did know of a few students who cheated on their exams, though. One girl would wear a skirt and write answers on her leg. I never turned her in, but assumed it would catch up with her eventually? Hopefully? I heard she went on to med school 😐
Some teachers did recycle exams. One is particularly memorable. I had a copy of several years of old midterms for Plant Biology, I loathed the class and the teacher. When we went to write the midterm, the final question was on a topic we hadn't covered in class. I got it right because I had studied the old midterms, but most students didn't and I was saddened the professor had literally just used an old midterm that included material that hadn't yet been covered in the current year. I think she ended up dropping the question in the end because almost everyone got it wrong (as they should! we hadn't learned about it yet!)
You asked "And even if you figure out a way to cheat on the NCLEX, how are you going to be a competent nurse?" Unfortunately, there are incompetent nurses with licenses out there, especially in settings where warm bodies are valued more than competency. I'm not saying all nurses are like this, but sadly in some settings, employers are looking for warm bodies to fill positions, not competency. That's why it's fun to watch your journey to becoming a nurse. YOU will be a more than competent nurse.
@Jan, One of my friends was sort of the cause of death of a patient and she was fired but didn't lose her license. A patient who was nearing death had one of those annoying alarms. He was setting it off every 45 seconds or so, until my friend, exasperated, turned it off. The patient died. He was gonna die anyway, buuuuuut...you don't do that.
She's still a nurse.
@Rose, oy vey. you have the craziest stories. but i love them. this one is scawwy though.
I have read that cheating has increased everywhere since Covid and online schooling.
Young people seem more fatalistic about their future now and may figure why try.
I was surprised when relatives were hospitalized how nurses duties were very specific. I always thought you could stick a nurse anywhere and they could do it. Maybe cheaters figure they’ll learn the job when they get there.
And the huge amount of time nurses have to spend on the computer really surprised me.
It is true; there's a lot of computer documentation that has to happen every day, and it is not generally a nurse's favorite thing to do.
I think some units are more specialized than others. The floor I work on is a general surgical unit, but if you are a chemo nurse or a dialysis nurse or a cardiac nurse, you're going to definitely have some very specialized skills for your job!
@Kristen, I wonder if AI could help documentation for nurses?
Impetigo - a memory of my younger years. There was a foster family that lived not far from us - they "specialized" in keeping siblings together. I distinctly remember one of the kids have impetigo and the foster mom handled it like a pro. None of the other children contracted it. It was a lot of work for the foster mom, right down to labeling plastic drinking cups. The amount of laundry she did at the time exhausts adult me.
They fostered for decades and ended up with a "bad seed". Her accusations were baseless and a good number of the former foster children testified on the couples behalf.
This is what happens when you post your index card notes lol.