Category Archives: Mrs. Charm

Pyroceram versus stoneware

Posted on August 19, 2016 | Comments Off on Pyroceram versus stoneware

Globalization has changed many a once-famous American brand that is now made in China or Malaysia or even Vietnam to something less than its former grandeur. Cheaper, yes, but often not as good.

Corning Ware, however, took its hit back in the late ’90s when the company was bought out and its famous pyroceram cookware (made of the same stuff as rocket nosecones, the old ads said) was soon replaced with cheaper, and less resilient, stoneware. And made in China.

I discovered all this the other day when I dropped one of Mrs. Charm’s Corning Ware pyroceram casserole dishes taking it out of the dishwasher. It broke in half. Replacing it I soon discovered isn’t impossible but it takes more than a quick trip to the store. I went to three before giving up. All they had was the stoneware.

Old pyroceram Corning Ware is still sold, but only mainly in used versions. Amazon has them at new prices. The material is famous for not absorbing anything, hence a used casserole dish doesn’t carry any trace of the food that’s ever been cooked in it. Plus it can be swiftly moved from oven to freezer (or vice-versa) without coming apart—stoneware does absorb and it can’t stand rapid temperature changes.

If you have trouble believing that or anything else on this arcane subject, the above link is a great place to start. And the cooking blog below provides further illumination:

Via Cooking With Love.

UPDATE:  Corningware still sells the pyroceram product but in limited sizes.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, The Economy

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Mrs. Charm’s new scholarship

Posted on July 27, 2016 | 3 comments

2016-07-stanley-scholar

Two months in the making, it’s official now. Mr. B. and I believe it’s important to work through our sorrow by honoring his mother in ways that help others. And the scholarship is a reminder that she also needed financial assistance to finish college. We plan to add to the endowment over the next few years to make the scholarship even more valuable to its recipients. They will be journalism undergraduates chosen by the university based on their need and merit.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Obituaries

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Feds further restrict opioids

Posted on June 10, 2016 | 4 comments

Tar and feathers are too good for these big government motherfuckers. Who are, quite simply, always on the lookout for new ways to justify their fat salaries and skinny efforts. While the pols are too busy thieving to help. Rope. Lamp post.

“You can bet that if the powers that be were in intractable pain they would figure out a way to get the opioids. I have a mother-in-law with spinal stenosis who was in so much pain last week that she was crying vigorously. She’s a stoic who has hardly ever cried in her entire life, but the pain was unbearable. We were able to get her fentanyl patches and the pain is reduced. However, the doctors are limited in what they can give her and it is quite scary.” —veryskeptic

“What’s it like for the kids when your mom is suffering excruciating pain because the doctor’s afraid to prescribe her enough medication to deal with the pain caused by cancer? When it seems to take an act of Congress to get a prescription for synthetic THC to deal with nausea brought on by the anti-cancer medication? When your mother starves to death because she can’t eat for the nausea and pain? And you have to watch her suffer and die because some bureaucrat was worried she might become addicted.” —Rob Crawford

Mrs. Charm was also a stoic and she was also in bad pain from her lymphoma cancer but in her case it was more a stubborn refusal to buck bad medical advice than government interference. When she finally did agree to take the pills and later the injections she died in relative peace.

My grandfather, however, died in excruciating pain because his spinal cancer occurred at a time (1935) when the bureaucrats were just starting to restrict the opioids that had, throughout his life, been available without a prescription.

Big government is not your friend. Whatever lying dipshits like Obama and Clinton say.

Via Instapundit.

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Posted in Bureaucracy, Cancer, History, Mrs. Charm, Obsessions

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Deer hunting with a revolver

Posted on March 20, 2016 | 2 comments

Mrs. Charm’s uncle, Dave Cox, retired Air Force, retired Virginia sheriff’s deputy, likes to hunt deer with a handgun.

“I’m sure there are some that think I’m nuts for using a revolver for deer hunting… Those deer that have ended up in the skillet could tell a different story. Ruger .357 magnum is an excellent caliber for deer, and if they’re within 60 yards, in woods so thick you can’t flip a booger any farther than 5 feet, a long barrel just gets in the way. Gotta save that long barrel ammo for those who think they’re gonna do some gun confiscation… 2nd Amendment lives!”

Takes a lot of skill to stalk prey close enough for a hand gun kill without spooking them away. Not to mention really great aim without benefit of a scope. One of these days…

Via Facebook.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Guns, Mrs. Charm

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East of Eden is Melvin

Posted on March 5, 2016 | 3 comments

According to Genesis in the Torah, east of Eden is where the Lord placed cherubim and a flaming, flashing sword to keep the banished Adam and Eve from returning to the Garden of Eden after they defiantly ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. Not evil. Evil is a Christian interpretation.

Later in the text East of Eden also becomes the Land of Nod where Cain is exiled after slaying his brother Abel. And, in recent times, East of Eden is the name of several movies and a novel Penguin concluded is a 20th century classic. Well, Oprah liked it.

But, in Texas at least, Eden is west of Brady on US Highway 87, and well south of Paint Rock on US 83. Actually, it’s exactly west of a smaller town called Melvin, which sports a trophy whitetail (deer) hunting ranch. So, Texana-wise, Melvin is east of Eden. Somehow that’s been left out of the other accounts.

Not to mention there’s also a garden in Eden, Texas, probably several, including the plots at the Eden Detention Center. The center is a for-profit federal prison whose inmates constitute about half the 2,766 population of Eden, according to the 2010 census. And Eden is only a few miles northeast of the exact center of Texas. 

No cherubim or flaming swords, though, off to the east. Certainly not in Melvin. At least not the last time Mrs. Charm and I were there, way back in ’93. Could a changed, though.

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Posted in History, Mrs. Charm, Obsessions, Texana

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Valentine’s Day with Mom

Posted on February 14, 2016 | 2 comments

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Mr. Boy and I took this rose and baby’s breath to the cemetery this morning and put in on his mother’s grave. We stayed a while talking about all the fun things Mrs. Charm used to do for us on Valentine’s: special breakfasts, lots of candy and cards. I’d buy the flowers.

It was warm but overcast and windy. At least it was quiet since we got there before the church crowd was released and its mourners convened. We plan to go back and do the same on her birthday. Maybe take a small cake and share it between us. I plan to order the stone later this week.

There is no “closure” with the grief over a lost loved one. You just learn to live with it. Creating new rituals is one way of coping. Mr. B. seemed a little less pensive afterwards. We both have a long way to go.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly

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Self-clean oven self cleaned

Posted on January 13, 2016 | 2 comments

For reasons I no longer recall, Mrs. C. did not believe in running the self-clean cycle on the rancho’s self-cleaning Frigidaire gas oven.I think she didn’t like the smell it put out on the self-clean setting. Result: the glass door was incredibly soiled on the inside. Most of the interior was okay. I guess she cleaned that part by hand.

The other day I decided to run it on its two-hour cycle. Opened windows and turned on ceiling fans. Fortunately it was warmish outside (well, in the 50s) so we didn’t freeze, Senor Gato and me (Mr. B. was gone to school) and the smell was tolerable.

Best part is, later, when the cycle was over and the oven had cooled down again, I followed the instructions and wiped down the interior with a damp cloth, including the glass on the inside of the door. Whoop-de-do. The glass is clean for the first time I can remember. Several years, anyhow. I’m so far successfully resisting any more major cleaning efforts, however.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly

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