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For the chefs here, what are you making for Christmas dinner? Appetizers?

 

I always do a rib roast, still deciding on the rest. Thinking maybe twice baked potatoes and some kind of veg....

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If you are paying $20 for a haircut, I imagine people assume you did it yourself anyway.

and after 3 days, he is risen!

Pocket change cost me my first and only black girlfriend.   It was in the middle of a roaring poker boom and I was flush in ways most men don't even bother dreaming of. Money, it was like dirt to me

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almost nobody without a pension has any true disposable income, if they want to retire pre-65 and keep the same lifestyle. that's been my experience having seen what people making $250+ do with their money. and believe me, I'm talking about the 'savers' who have accounts big enough for us to be interested in them as clients.

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I'm in the experiences camp, just need to get the snowball started and a better income stream established beforehand. been thinking about a rule about disposable income--maybe at most 2% of your retirement assets, the rest going into savings? I don't know.

 

 

Not saying you're wrong or right, but I see your future as you thinking you never have enough squirreled away, never getting a high enough return, never making enough salary, no matter what the actual figures are or reality is, and you'll be 40 wondering if you can now afford to get married or have kids

 

I hope I'm wrong.

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But I also think you're right, we could all stand to save more and sacrifice a little more in the process.

 

I think this is hard to argue. I know it's true for me. At the same time, I would rather travel and do things in my forties when I have the energy and physical ability to really enjoy myself than in my sixties when that may or may not be the case, at least to the same degree.

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I have really backed off of saving so much since my uncle's estate settled. I spent $45 on booze today (why is weller 7 so cheap and so good? it's probably the fact that I am obsessed with wheat things), and have stocked the fridges with beer completely for the last two months. I buy lunches for people, demand to pay for my own stuff, etc.

 

it was really necessary for me to be a nit to the extent that I was when I first moved here--recall that I blew up all of my savings to buy my car to be able to drive out here, leaving me with like $1,000 total in the bank--but now I'm in repayment mode, even though nobody's asking me to do it. and even though I'm doing all this extra spending, I can tell that I'm still going to be able to save at least $500/mo in 2015, possibly as much as $750+, not factoring in any raises.

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the girl at work wants kids before too long, so if that works out, I won't make it to 40. I didn't ask, she just randomly mentioned it (at the christmas party, while buzzed). I don't even know if I want kids.

 

let's focus on putting the peen in the hoohoo without pregnancy for a while first, eh slugger?

 

I think this is hard to argue. I know it's true for me. At the same time, I would rather travel and do things in my forties when I have the energy and physical ability to really enjoy myself than in my sixties when that may or may not be the case, at least to the same degree.

 

I don't do much usually. I get take out every friday night and eat at a fast food type place 2-3 more times during the week. This fuddy-duddery allows me to save up enough to go to vegas (or something else big) a couple-three times per year. i think the key for me was getting to a salary point where basics were covered without stressing, building up a good cash reserve, but then continuing to live most of the year below my means. things are changing a bit in '15. i'm contributing more to 401k and also resuming my individual investment contributions (going with a fund over individual equities this time, I just can't dedicate proper time to research anymore and the volatility right now is a killer especially for the hobbyist) and I recently took out a car loan so that has taken up about 25% of discretionary cash flow. However, I figure I'll still be able to do 2 modest vacations per year or one extravagant one. That might change as well though. If things keep going well with blondie I imagine I'll be wanting to put a down on a 4-5 bdrm house in the next couple years.

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let's focus on putting the peen in the hoohoo without pregnancy for a while first, eh slugger?

**** no I'm not rushing for kids. I can't even commit to buying a cheap house.

 

edit: I think you may have been talking to her, not me. yes, I agree. if she's in settle-down mode, I don't want to get involved at all.

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That might change as well though. If things keep going well with blondie I imagine I'll be wanting to put a down on a 4-5 bdrm house in the next couple years.

 

Oh brvy, no. Please no

 

 

Just, no

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going with a fund over individual equities this time, I just can't dedicate proper time to research anymore and the volatility right now is a killer especially for the hobbyist

if I were doing it on my own, I'd just open a brokerage at TD and invest everything I wanted to save into AOA (or AOR for pussies) over time. free to trade (can't sell until 30 days since your last buy, or you get charged $20), has most of the diversifying asset classes you want, costs .3%. I'm personally doing something like that with the money I want free for a downpayment.

 

http://www.ishares.com/us/products/239729/ishares-aggressive-allocation-etf

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My adventures in steak continue...

 

I decided to try sous vide cooking. The concepts made great sense to me and I asked for a sous vide cooker for Christmas before I realized they were about $500. So I decided to give it a hacked together try first and followed the beer cooler method from here: http://www.seriousea...vide-hack.html. In a word: success!

 

I had some steaks left over in the freezer that my mother in law bought this summer. She doesn't have the same requirements that I do when buying beef, so to put it into perspective: these steaks were 4 for $7. I pay twice that for one ribeye. Could it possibly compare?

 

I followed the lessons learned in previous steak cooks. I salted and left the steaks to dry overnight in the fridge. Then this morning I seasoned them with a mixed pepper medley, thyme, rosemary, garlic, and a small pat of unsalted grass fed butter, left over from my experiments with Bulletproof Coffee.

 

Steak%20Sous%20Vide.jpg

 

I used a straw to suck all the air out of the ziploc bag but I ended up having to reseal them in the water anyways. The "submerge in water" method in the link above worked as well, if not better.

 

Steak%20Sous%20Vide-2.jpg

 

Into the water bath at 11am. I used a wide but shallow cooler meant for hor d'oeuvres. One big spaghetti pot of boiling water and then a bunch of cold until the temp was 140 degrees. I tested the cooler last night and it loses about 5 degrees per hour so I was confident the temperature swings weren't going to be an issue.

 

Steak%20Sous%20Vide-3.jpg

 

One hour in and the temperature has dropped as expected. But calamity has set in and the meat is overcooked. I had in mind that 135 degrees should be the target, and the thermometer has a little scale on it that says rare beef is 140 degrees, but looking at them the steaks are clearly not rare. I checked online for some recipes and they say to shoot for around 125-130 degrees. I am despondent but there is nothing to do but carry on. I had planned to add more boiling water at this point but I obviously do not.

 

Steak%20Sous%20Vide-4.jpg

 

Another hour and we're still on track.

 

Steak%20Sous%20Vide-5.jpg

 

I'm sad about my little lumps of overcooked meat so I stop taking pictures, but I check every hour. At hour three the water had dropped to 125 so I replaced about a liter of tub water with boiling water, the temp bounces up to 130. Hour four was 125, left it alone. Hour five it had dropped to 120, I added boiling water to bring it back to 130. Hour 6.5 temp is back to 122 and I started to prep the sides, just leaving the meat in the water bath under the assumption that the searing would bring it back up to serving temperature.

 

I quartered a few white potatoes and steamed them in my steamer basket on the stovetop while I pre-heated the oven to 450. I put my cast iron pan in the oven to preheat too. I tossed a bunch of pearl onions into the water to parboil at the same time. After about 5 minutes, I removed the onions to an ice water bath and peeled them. By the time the onions were peeled the potatoes were steamed enough so they went into a bowl with the onions, olive oil, salt and pepper, thyme, and oregano. Tossed them to coat then onto a baking sheet and into the oven for ten minutes, then turned/tossed them and back in for ten minutes more.

 

With about five minutes to go on the potatoes, I put the asparagus into the steamer and turned on the stovetop element for the cast iron on high. Added a bunch of avocado oil and preheated that until just smoking. While it heated I took the steaks out of the water and bags and onto paper towels to dry them off - the drier the outside of the steak, the better the sear. Patted dry then into the pan, one minute per side. After I flipped them, I added a little butter on top of each steak for the 2nd side/minute, then off the heat onto the plate.

 

Steak%20Sous%20Vide-6.jpg

 

At this point I was pretty confident that a 7 hour cook was going to make the cheap cut of beef pretty tender, but I was very sad that it was going to be overcooked. So you can imagine my elation when I cut into the steak.

 

Steak%20Sous%20Vide-7.jpg

 

Holy Shitballs!

 

The steak was amazing. The texture was so soft, it was almost closer to pate than to a steak. The flavour was unreal. The crust was great. The meat was super moist, considering the complete lack of any marbling. It was just a little bit too cool for my taste, so I guess I should have kept the cooler a little warmer near 130 for that last hour. After the first few bites, I tried to cut the steak with my fork; no problem. Jess, who is not a steak eater (and didn't like the butter basting method, really) pronounced it the best steak she's ever had, even saying she would be willing to eat it "all the time". For less than $2 of beef, I am AS-TOUN-DED. The time required was significant, but with a proper sous vide cooker (or even just a circulator) you don't have to monitor it every hour and can just set it in the morning before work and come back to the last bit of prep before dinner. I want one!

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I read something about using an electric pot cooker and an aquarium bubbler as a step above a cooler but still below the cost of a full on circulator and way below the dedicated thing.

 

I'm just not sold on the time commitment yet, I guess.

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I read something about using an electric pot cooker and an aquarium bubbler as a step above a cooler but still below the cost of a full on circulator and way below the dedicated thing.

 

I'm just not sold on the time commitment yet, I guess.

 

Yeah I actuality sketched out last night how I could build one for less than $50 with an element from a salvation army kettle and a temperature probe but realized that the project would be fun but the result would be messy compared to the elegance of a $200 sansaire circulator.

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I'm 5' 4", 120 lb. I should be able to charge for the privilege of sitting next to me on all public transportation.

 

 

Edit: sure to ramen, I've been all about tacos lately. I have a beautiful photo I'll share with (Hank) when I get back to LA.

 

Oh! Has anyone here seen RTJ? They've got a show in January and I'm thinking of scalping.

Thera went. He said they were hella wicked good.

 

RTJ was really great. If you like the music at all, and love an excited, small concert atmosphere, it'll be worth it to go. All the fans are into it, and it's straight up a great time. They're just finishing up a quick Euro tour, and then I think it's right into the studio to record RTJ3, so I'd highly recommend seeing them soon, because if they really blow up, a bigger stadium show won't be nearly as good.

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This was the first of the last four years where I didn't have Bowe on a fantasy team and it was great. Always played just good enough to make you think he might finally breakout next game and so you couldn't take him out and the he'd put up 5 points.

 

I desperately need to workout tonight but my desire do so is nil.

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This was the first of the last four years where I didn't have Bowe on a fantasy team and it was great. Always played just good enough to make you think he might finally breakout next game and so you couldn't take him out and the he'd put up 5 points.

 

I desperately need to workout tonight but my desire do so is nil.

 

Fantasy football rule #1, never choose a WR on a team with Alex Smith as QB. I love Smith for his resiliency with all he's been through but he is not the type of QB that is going to make prolific WRs.

 

Chill day here too. Going about an hour away to train a new dealer soon. That should last an hour or so then I'm done for the day.

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WR's or not, the 49ers would have been a better team this year with Smith at QB.

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I'm in Iowa for the week. Like everyone else in here I assume, I don't work again until January 15th.

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I'd like to make a correction to an earlier post.

 

"Draught House 50" is named because there is another "draught house" bar and this one is located on 50th street, hence the 50, and not because they are advertising 50 beers on tap.

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