I bought a Bethany Homes Lefse griddle. It’s cast aluminum, gets up to 500 Fahrenheit, and is the closest thing you can get to a restaurant flat top without rewiring your kitchen. I’ve saved my wife and I so much money cooking at home. I’ve owned griddles before, but nothing this high quality, high temp, and easy to clean. I now prefer my homemade smash burgers to eating out and by the time my patties are done resting, I’ve already cleaned the griddle.
So, for serious, that’s the nonstick version; I’ve never tried that one. I have the cast aluminum one, which I guess would be pretty similar to using a larger cast-iron skillet. The problem with a cast-iron skillet is there care and maintenance and how long it takes to heat up and cool down. If you try to wash a hot cast iron skillet, it can eventually crack.
This thing has a built-in heating element, so it heats up a little faster than on an electric stove-top (I don’t have gas elements), within 10 minutes, the whole 16-inch surface is at a relatively uniform temperature and it maintains that temperature nicely, and when I’m done I can immediately clean up. Cleanup consists of pouring hot water on the surface and then pouring/scraping off the greasy water over coffee grounds, then a little more water and wipe down the surface with a folded bar rag to get off any food or remaining grease, flip the rag and wipe the dry surface/check for any dirty spots. I also use metal utensils all over the surface without worrying about ruining a seasoning or flaking off nonstick coating.
Ha! Your answer is a not cast iron pan, but I’m pretty sure the cast iron collection I have totalled under $100 and has been used for thousands of meals, plus bread baking, making lard from pork skin, and like flannel it gets better with time, instead of wearing out. I don’t like cooking on aluminum though. You have some funny ideas about cast iron - you can’t ruin it with a spatula, or with dish detergent, it’s not fussy at all.
I hear rumors that these are meant for making flatbreads, but my fat Texan ass took one look at it and said “mmmm… Burgers and tacos.” What it’s intended to be, how it’s intended to be used, or how it’s traditionally designed is all beyond my concern. I make 16-inch crepes filled with bananas, Nutella, and peanut butter and then pretend like I’m a classy mofo because I say words like “crepe,” and “cholesterol-induced hypertension.”
They sell those things here in Norway, but always as like a way to make American style pancakes or way too many eggs at once. Never seen them as a lefse pan, which is why that name confused me because like, we invented lefse. If any country would make a pan for lefse, it would be Norway
The company claims to have been making these things for 50 years, so on behalf of my forefathers, thank you for loaning us culture long enough for me to get the best fucking griddle I’ve ever owned. Imma gonna make my wife and I some chilaquiles tacos on it tonight.
I adopted a defective lizard from a breeder for a 20$ fee. This particular defect often results in culling the animal, as it is often too expensive and time-consuming to care for. Because of this, not much is known about its care.
I now am one of the most prominent “experts” on caring for this particular subset of creature. Though no one but the most experienced keepers should own one, I am still happy to give information to folks who may have to care for one, either from rescue or purchasing one before knowing exactly what they’re getting into.
Aside from being able to give advice on keeping these creatures alive, that’s not all the value: the real value is my stupid lizard. I got him literally just a couple of weeks before the pandemic & lockdowns started. He’s an absolute angel who has brought me so much joy in my darkest times. He’s sweet, gentle, goofy, and is a wonderful companion animal. He now has complete freedom in the front of my home (when he’s not in his vivarium) with his own heatlamp, ramp, and a view of the road where he love watching all the cars go by.
I love your sweet boy, what’s his name? I had a buddy with a bearded dragon named Mothra and I loved that little dude. RIP Mothra, you were taken way too soon.
Thank you! His name is Pączki. Pronounced like “Pawnch-key” or the more common American pronunciation “Poonch-key” is also cool. He doesn’t mind, either way. Americans will recognize it as “the donuts they sell before Fat Tuesday/Lent/Mardi Gras.”
I’m sorry to hear about Mothra. Loss is never easy. Bearded dragons are such wonderful creatures. Definitely not for everyone, but, personally, they’ve made my life so much more vibrant with just how sweet and goofy they are.
I used to think that people who owned reptiles were crazy (they still might be, but for different reasons lol), but when a bearded dragon was suddenly thrust upon me one day… it took a while, but I came to absolutely adore them.
TL;DR at the bottom. But do note that you SHOULD NOT set out to own a scaleless bearded dragon!! Aside from their crazy difficult care, they are often NOT produced ethically, resulting in sick dragons that often suffer and meet an early end.
I used to foster dragons, so I already knew tons about their ideal care & conditions. However, when looking up care for this particular defect (they’re referred to as “silkbacks”), a ton of it was/is just people parroting information they’d only heard thirdhand, as there is barely anyone who actually owns one/has one that isn’t a rescue of questionable origin. Because of that, tons of myths and misinformation are online now about silkback care. I essentially had to start from scratch on care and use trial-and-error to figure out what was true or not. It’s not malicious misinformation, though! It’s just ignorance.
Let me be clear: the reason barely anyone owns one is not because they’re rare! They’re actually very easy to produce. It’s just that most ethical breeders do not sell them to the general public, for a very good reason. It’d be like someone selling one-legged puppies and advertising them as “rare.” My breeder genuinely produced Pączki by accident (genetics are crazy), and separated the pair afterwards. They only offered him up to me after I brought up my credentials/experience while attempting to purchase a different dragon from them (who was sold before I could get them, unfortunately).
Owning one of these is bearded dragon ownership cranked up to “Nightmare Mode”. The dragon can grow up fine, but it takes a ton of time, energy, money, and dedication to do so. I’m an idiot who decided that I had all of that, plus a curiosity to see the difference between the silkback vs. normal dragon care in case I decided to foster again and found myself in possession of a rescue.
Here’s an abridged list of extra care requirements: no rough surfaces or sharp edges in their habitat, no bugs that risk bites (so no crickets, which are a common staple), slightly reduced/farther placed UVB due to higher eye sensitivity since they are prone to blindness/eye issues, same heat requirements, weekly/biweekly baths IN CONJUNCTION WITH: specialized lotion, aloe, massages, shed “help”, etc.
They will injure themselves, no matter how safe you make their environment. The injury may also stem from you, as I’ve even accidentally gouged him with my fingernail before. They’re not extra-fragile or anything, but they do require careful handling. It’s basically like human skin… but much slower to heal and much more prone to infections because of that– it’s a trait of cold-blooded animals.
TL;DR: I basically had to figure out care myself, due to widespread misinformation from folks who have only heard thirdhand.
Their care requirements is a lot of buying extra things and constantly paying attention to prevent & treat any injuries that may occur because of their skin.
There’s a lot more, but those are the basics. Hopefully that helps!
Again, DON’T GO SEARCHING TO GET YOURSELF A SCALELESS BEARDED DRAGON!!! If you want a less prickly dragon, look for a “leatherback” bearded dragon! Their care is the same as a standard dragon and they still have all their scales.
Thanks! I’m just a sucker, tbh. He was on the cusp of being culled if he wasn’t taken by someone, and, even though he wasn’t what I was looking for, I was in the market for a dragon, so…
But I’m glad I did. He’s my best buddy, and we’ve helped to inform more people about dragons and their care. I’m happiest when I’m able to help people.
When I was doing research on getting a reptile pet I thought about getting a bearded dragon. But they really need a set temperature, in a big enclosure, and eat bugs. I got a ball python instead.
Form me personally, I’d have to say my automated espresso machine. For context; I was buying 1-2 coffees from a shop per day (let’s say 10/week on average).
Cost me $700 on a sale. Grinds & presses the beans by itself, then pushes boiling water through to give me espresso shots. It paid for itself in 8 months of ownership by weening me off the local shops, and it’s lasted for over 6 years so far.
Came here to say this. Wasn’t as often but I’d get specialty coffee for $8-$10 a couple times a week. I bought a off brand espresso machine for $100 that is running to this day. If I include various accessories I’ve probably spent around $200. I did wind up getting a work bonus and splurging on a $400 Eureka grinder so I can have freshly ground.
Last I did the math at most I spend around $1.00 a cup, for a savings of around $8. I’ve made at least a couple hundred coffees it has definitely paid for itself and then some.
It makes about 2.2 US quarts of cold brew in a batch. It’s plastic, but I’ve used it consistently for over 6 or 7 years now.
It has a center sleeve/filter for putting grounds in. They should be coarse ground, but I’ve used Cafe Bustelo (espresso ground brick) and had good results.
Just let it soak for a day or two in cold water.
Now, I don’t use it per the instructions. After it has appropriately steeped, I pull out the filter, empty it, rinse it, and put the empty filter in a 2qt pitcher, and run the coffee from the brew pitcher into it. This leaves a little extra which goes right into my cup.
I then immediately prepare a new brew pitcher and drink out of the 2qt.
That cost me $30 back then, and I brew 2-3 pitchers per week. I don’t know what that works out to in Large Dunkin’s, but I’m sure it has paid for itself, several times over.
No, I think mine was called a Primula. Want to say I bought it at JC Penny. Not sure if they still make the same model. This one came with a tea/fruit infusion sleeve too but I never used that. If I want to make cold brew tea I just get a dozen or so teabags into a 2qt and let those steep overnight.
Probably the SawStop cabinet saw I bought a few weeks ago. It’s way easier/less sketchy than my job site table saw when cutting large panels, and the peace of mind it gives me from a general safety perspective is priceless. I have been doing a lot of projects with full sheets of plywood since I bought it, which has been an aspect of woodworking that I dreaded before. No more crawling around with a circular saw or precariously balancing between a job site saw and an extra table
I have a sawstop PCS also, and I still can’t man handle a full sheet of 3/4 on it. I find my track saw is better at handling sheet goods. Do you have an outfeed table or something else to help?
Yubikey support, 2fa support, and I wanted to donate anyways because it’s a great password manager and I love FOSS. However, the server software isn’t FOSS but you can self-host vault-warden for complete control and I would bet those same features.
My cat. With cats you get a better bang-for-your-buck in terms of maintenance costs vs years of utility.
(please don’t be offended, this is meant as a joke. I love dogs. However I do refuse to get one because I personally am too emotionally delicate to fall in love with someone who I know might not be around for more than 12 years. I know it’s better to have loved and lost, etc, but I don’t know if I could handle it. Everyone who adopts an older dog, you are my hero)
My dry herb vaporizer, used to spend 0.3-0.5g on a spliff joint and now I’m using 0.05-0.15g per bowl while getting great effects, flavour, and level of convenience, and ofc… I stopped combusting, so it’s better for my health too. Returned it’s value after few weeks tops.
I had a PAX when they first came out and never really got the chance to figure out how to use it. I could never find the right temp and it felt like i was going through the bud too fast. I suppose i just didn’t know how to use it.
I didn’t have it very long because, unfortunately, it was confiscated by the authorities and i never got another one.
First, sorry to hear that. Most people fall to those headshop vapes, which IMO that includes the pax. It uses old tech that doesn’t suit to moderate-heavy users.
Try to pack the bowl pretty tight, and let you pax heat back up between draws, I guess around 30 secs.
See my other comments for recommendations if you want and anyway visit !vaporents and !vaporents. also fuckcombustion.com is an awesome forum about the field.
Something I wish my employer realized is how much value they would get out of providing their developers with good hardware instead of crappy laptops. When it takes 15 minutes to change a line, compile and run the software I’m working on, I’m not going to be very productive.
For context, I work on 2 separate projects that need separate development environments (because they have some conflicting dependencies). One of them has to be in a VM, which significantly affects performance. The laptop was high end 3 years ago, but now it’s beaten even by an Intel i3. It also doesn’t help that the compamy has installed 2 anti-virus software that take up like 30-40% cpu while I am running builds.
Another crappy thing they did was move the infrastructure to AWS… And it costs a ton, performance is shit, and copying files from the build servers is a nightmare… we have to remote into some “copy machine” on AWS, copy the files from the build server to the “copy machine” via samba, upload the files to some internal tool (that’s like OneDrive but worse in every way), and the tool will sync it to our machine. Oh, and the copy machine has very limited storage, it’s win10 on a 40gb drive. It’s insane.
That sounds horrible! How could a machine like that have been high-end in last 15 years? Unless it’s a chromebook. Seriously, is that a typo that it has a 40 gb drive? If not, I’m amazed it can even boot to windows.
I’m so glad my current company is not like this; Couple months ago my coworked started to have issues with running out of ram (16 gb), and noticed that there was an amazing deal on some thinkpads: P14s gen 2, 32 gb ram, 4K, Ryzen 5 pro: 970€ without vat. And now almost everyone in the company has a new laptop! Granted the company is small, 13 employees, making thanigs like this easier.
I have a 9th gen i7. It sounds pretty good, until you look at the i3-13100F which is 30% faster. CPUs have had a huge jump in performance in the last few generations. The laptop is a Dell Precision 5540 from roughly ~2019-2020. I recently received an upgrade to 64GB of ram which helps a lot, but the main bottleneck is the CPU.
The company has a 5 year machine replacement policy… I have to use this slow piece of shit another 2 years until I can get it replaced.
Yes, 40gb is right. To be fair, we only use it for copying files. Cost cutting because AWS costs money.
My toaster oven. By far it is the one small appliance that sees use nearly everyday for something.
Sometimes I’m reheating pizza, toasting a bagel, using it as a small oven when I don’t feel like waiting for my big oven to preheat. It’s so versatile I don’t know if I could live without it.
And to the dudes in their 20s who missed the George Foreman Grill marketing from the 90, go get a foreman grill. I made so many drunk burgers and hotdogs and sausages on that bad boy. Still have it somewhere. Paninis too!
If you can afford it, I highly recommend the ninja foodie grill. Easier to clean than a George Foreman grill and it’s an electric grill plus air fryer. We have the XL model so it is definitely bigger than the Foreman, but it gets used so much more. Huge plus, for me, is the built in meat thermometer probe. Choose the meat and the wellness, stick in the probe, and it’ll cook it to that temp for you. No more guessing for me!
(Take my suggestion/recommendation with a grain of salt because I am used to cooking for a crowd and don’t know how to make smaller amounts anymore.)
You should check out air fryers then. They’re basically toaster ovens with a fan for blowing the hot air around. Amazing for making things nice and crispy!
Sort of. I paid for Linode so I could stop babysitting dynamic DNS. Before that I had a piece of hardware sitting at home and did weird stuff to make it routable from elsewhere.
The surprise benefit of Linode was their web interface to tear it down and reimage it for free whenever I bricked it. And I bricked it at least half a dozen times.
Today, instead of dynamic DNS, you could probably just use IPv6, or maybe get a nice router with built in dynamic DNS? But I haven’t researched those options.
Because I now pay around $2 per month for a root account on a small dedicated cloud hosted Linux VM from AWS EC2, and that includes some pretty nice non-dymamic real enterprise DNS for like another 10 cents per month.
I bought a Global brand Santoku knife like 20 years ago and it’s still my favorite knife. It was when I got my first solo apartment and I had basically no kitchen stuff. Instead of a cheap knife block, I got one good knife.
I hate calling “purchases” “investments” but it might apply in this case.
Was going to comment about a knife as well but you beat me to it. Though I went with Wusthof. The difference a good knife makes a huge difference for cooking.
The same applies to cookware. Don’t overpay buying a whole set is a waste. Buy the couple pots and pans you need individually and save.
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