The Everything Drawer - Everyone has one, right? (post anything - within the rules)

@Devil Doc
Too many hot peppers? Candy them. Great little condiment. Sweet and hot.

A Google search brings up all kinds of recipes, but here’s one that produces some good stuff. You can do them for the reefer for short-term or full canning routine for a year storage. DH likes these on a turkey sandwich.

 
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I received a brand-new free NRA backpack today.
It smells like a$$ and bananas. I have it in the washing machine right now. If stink smelled it, it would say "geez, that stinks!"

It's "desert colored" so I guess that makes it "tactical". I'll bet that the trip through the washing machine will make it fall apart.
Made mostly of Covid-infused nylon mesh from China, of course.
 
@Devil Doc
Too many hot peppers? Candy them. Great little condiment. Sweet and hot.

A Google search brings up all kinds of recipes, but here’s one that produces some good stuff. You can do them for the reefer for short-term or full canning routine for a year storage. DH likes these on a turkey sandwich.

Thanks for the tip. Before the apocalypse I would take peppers to work to give away. A neighbor grows peppers from his country Nepal and we used to swap but mine apparently weren’t hot enough so we stopped.
 
Pepper Trip. If you ever get the chance, stop and take the tour of the Tabasco Factory at Avery Island in Louisiana. It’s fascinating. I never knew of all the varieties of Tabasco and ways to use peppers. The McIlhenny family, which makes Tabasco, had ties to the Marine Corps. The President of the company, Walter McIlhenny, long since deceased, saw combat at Guadalcanal and later used his experience to get little bottles of Tabasco into military C-rations. He was quite the businessman.

Aside from this military tie in, there is pepper research at Avery Island. One can see where peppers from around the world rate on the Scoville Scale. The scale indicates the amount of heat in a pepper. The gift store has samples of Tabasco variety flavors of ice cream which I shied away from - I couldn’t bridge the mental block thinking of Ben and Gerry’s Phish Food and my favorite gelati from Italy. Tebasco Peppers.JPGIt's still a good tour.
 
Since we are in the ET drawer, the previous post made me think of other good “brand name tours.”

Celestial Seasonings tea in Boulder, CO. Interesting. There is a gallery with the original paintings of all the artwork on their boxes. It’s also fun when they have you stand behind a safety line halfway across the facility, warning buzzers sound, guys in full face coverings roll up the door to the massive Mint Storage Room, and a concentrated blast of mint whacks you.

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Waterbury, VT. You get to see the flavor of the day made, and, of course, taste it.

Any others?
 
Raise your hand if you knew what "Stare Decisis Doctrine" was, before this SCOTUS hearing.

I sure didn't. It's a good week. I learned something. ;)

I imagine for the sea lawyers it was along the lines of “squids go pro” or was it quid pro quo? I get ‘em mixed up. At any rate, I was taught that it wasn’t nice to “stare”.
 
ANY distillery or brewery tour is a great tour! ;)

Not exactly tours that the public can take but my civilian career has taken me on the production floor of almost every food packager, beverage manufacturer in the U.S. (along with a lot of other production plants). A few highlights...

1. Eating Nabisco Oreo cookies right out of the oven!
2. Pop tarts right out off the line.
3. Taste testing dog biscuits with the QC crew in the morning meeting (yes, they are made to human consumption standards)
4. Drinking a beer on the line (back before OSHA shut this down) or in the employee lunch room with the operators
5. Eating Kellogg's Cornflakes on the production line out of those tiny individual wax coated paper boxes
6. Learning Heinz ketchup is formulated differently in the US and Canada (apparently Canadians prefer a sweeter taste).
7. Learning the Coca-Cola secret formula story and how they protect the integrity while bottling soda
8. Visiting the Hershey production lines (and sampling some chocolate of course!)
9. Working in the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese plant and getting covered from head-to-toe in orange "cheese" dust
10. Watching an AMF bowling ball being made out of 16 different pieces of wood
 
Surly Brewing is very near my home and a great tour. Let's just say they are not always particularly disciplined about quantity management during the tasting section of the tour.

A few years ago I had to kill a half day in eastern PA while my DD was off with the Admissions people. I went on the Martin Guitar factory tour and it was fantastic (and free!) You end up walking through the aisles very near the people doing tiny, delicate work. It felt like the Waterford Crystal tours in Ireland except you get way closer to the workers. The museum and factory are closed for Covid now, but there are a bunch of versions of the tour online.
 
Since we are in the ET drawer, the previous post made me think of other good “brand name tours.”

Celestial Seasonings tea in Boulder, CO. Interesting. There is a gallery with the original paintings of all the artwork on their boxes. It’s also fun when they have you stand behind a safety line halfway across the facility, warning buzzers sound, guys in full face coverings roll up the door to the massive Mint Storage Room, and a concentrated blast of mint whacks you.

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Waterbury, VT. You get to see the flavor of the day made, and, of course, taste it.

Any others?
Jack Daniels distillery - two great standouts from this tour about 20 years ago. First, they make their own charcoal for filtering. They have rickers who stack milled oak into stacks about 5 feet tall and burn them so the coals are uniformly created. Second was shortly after that, in the filtering room they show you a barrel with the charcoal that is actively filtering the whiskey, the barrel has a plexiglass lid and the tour guide lifts and closes the lid rapidly for a few seconds and the malty, smoky, whiskey aroma wafts through the air, the entire group is captivated and is looking for glasses to drink the air.

Coors brewery, 1988-9, great tour, very informative and interesting, complete with brew / tasting room at the end of the tour. IIRC, full size glass for each participant to sample two beers.
 
Surly Brewing is very near my home and a great tour. Let's just say they are not always particularly disciplined about quantity management during the tasting section of the tour.

A few years ago I had to kill a half day in eastern PA while my DD was off with the Admissions people. I went on the Martin Guitar factory tour and it was fantastic (and free!) You end up walking through the aisles very near the people doing tiny, delicate work. It felt like the Waterford Crystal tours in Ireland except you get way closer to the workers. The museum and factory are closed for Covid now, but there are a bunch of versions of the tour online.
I missed the Martin tour when DW and both DS's visited a couple of years ago. She's been hankering for a Martin ever since and her surprise Martin bday present showed up yesterday. Now if I can keep from giving it to her over a month early.
 
Since we are in the ET drawer, the previous post made me think of other good “brand name tours.”

Celestial Seasonings tea in Boulder, CO. Interesting. There is a gallery with the original paintings of all the artwork on their boxes. It’s also fun when they have you stand behind a safety line halfway across the facility, warning buzzers sound, guys in full face coverings roll up the door to the massive Mint Storage Room, and a concentrated blast of mint whacks you.

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Waterbury, VT. You get to see the flavor of the day made, and, of course, taste it.

Any others?
McCormick Spices in Hunt Valley MD.

I worked at the drone factory (Textron/AAI) for a while and when outdoors, the smell was generally wonderful. Cinnamon days in the spice mill were
my favorite.
 
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