#Store-Bought Tomatoes

[solarpunkani]

"Oh no, someone's attracted to the aesthetics of my -punk movement but doesn't know the praxis and history behind it like I do--"

OK. Tell them. Make it a teaching moment. Everyone who's in your movement learned the background from somewhere at some point, maybe this is that point for that person. Give them a jumping off point that they can dive into later.

"Oh but I shouldn't be responsible for teaching baby -punks about the history and the how-tos and--"

OK. Then don't tell them. You don't have to be responsible for teaching people with a budding interest in your group the ins and outs and how-tos. That's fair and valid! It can be a lot of work. Someone else will handle it

"But I'm annoyed that they would try to claim to be part of/be interested in my community without knowing all the details that I know after being in it for months/years/decades, they're dumb, they're posers, they're--"

OK. Then don't engage with them, if it's that bad. Maybe someone else will come around and tell them the history, maybe they'll pick it up on their own, maybe they'll just enjoy the fashion elements for awhile.

"But they shouldn't claim to be part of the -punk community if they don't know the--"

I feel like we have a few options here. People can either talk to them, share the history, share the values, share the praxis. Or they can just chase off anyone who even thinks about dipping a toe in their community, and then wonder why it's dying off later down the line.

I dunno, maybe I'm too naive and patient or whatever. But if people are entering your -punk spaces without knowing The Rundown of what you feel they need to know, maybe being nice about it and informing people instead of immediately assuming stupidity and malicious intent could help you make a new friend. Even the loudest voices in a space had to learn from somewhere, and not everyone has the luxury of being in the space as the History was Happening--whether it's an age thing or a not being aware of the space thing. Or maybe I just don't see what the big deal is behind people hating people who like the aesthetic of something and don't know the behind the scenes history about it yet.

Because I believe in the word 'yet.' No one comes into this world knowing everything about everything, and we're all constantly learning new things. I'm not gonna degrade someone and call them a poser for not knowing what I know. Because if it were me, interested in a scene but getting chased out and called a poser? I wouldn't hit the books and study up, I'd go 'that fuckin sucks, those people sucked' and then avoid anyone and anything having to do with it.

So chase people off and call them posers if you want. But if your community starts dwindling, don't be fucking shocked.

#out of queue #ani rambles #punks and posers #i cant even call this a 4am hot take because its 7pm but like #idk i keep seeing posts about like 'how DARE people think I bought my punk clothes how DARE they not know the how-tos and DIYs' #or 'ugh people only care about the ~aesthetics~ of my movement if you don't know shit get out of here' and like #maybe I'm just a shy ass introverted nerd whos scared of social rejection! but I avoid that shit like the plague #so if someone were to reject me based on not knowing about something I'd never even heard about? something i was JUST getting into? #there's a high chance I'd just scram and never look back. i don't wanna be the one who causes that emotion in someone else #granted this is coming from someone who STILL doesn't know how to make her own patches or worked up the courage to do direct action praxis #outside of offering neighbors to my tomatoes and trying to talk to people about what I'm passionate about #but still imo unless someone's a malicious intentional bad actor i dont see the point in scaring newbies off #thats how movements die imo #i know this is my solarpunk blog but its not a solarpunk specific thing #i think the main post that inspired this was about store-bought versus self-made spiked leather jackets #which honestly just feels petty to me but who knows. #might delete later

[magicmalcolm]

Trying to read my mind would be useless, all you'd get is the Tomato Convenience Store Theme on loop.

#anata no konbini tomato ma-to! #the shenmue soundtrack is really good is what i'm saying here #shenmue #tomato convenience store #“especially since you bought merchandise”

[coolerdracula]

fuuuck I don't have any vegetables to add to my rice. Senshi is going to be so mad at me

#bearer of the curse #should've bought more cucumber at the store but I got scared #I have an old tomato...

[feeshies]

My goal for the new semester is to not bother making my own food. I just wasted a lot of time and ingredients for the worst tomato soup I had in my life.

#my free time is a precious commodity and I can’t squander it on being bad at stuff #I just don’t know how to put love into my food #I bought some tomato soup from the grocery store yesterday and it was actually edible why didn’t I do that again? pride?

[softquietsteadylove]

Hiiii!! I love these rare moments when Thena successfully cooks/bakes something for Gil! So how about she make something for him and it turns out good??

I think it would fit for the Bodyguard AU. If you think it would fit into another AU better please do it!

"Thena?"

Gil walked into the apartment, smelling...quite a few things, really. First and foremost, he could smell the evidence of something burning, which was his main concern.

Thena had told him not to bring food with him when he came over today. Apparently she was 'trying something'. He was pretty sure he had never seen her so much as attempt to use her fancy penthouse kitchen, so he wasn't entirely sure what she was 'trying'.

But she sounded excited, and that alone made him agree to it.

"What, uh," he blinked, on the verge of laughing when he arrived a true disaster in her stunning kitchen. There were bowls and failed attempts still in pans strewn everywhere. That was that weird burnt smell. He smirked, "is going on here?"

"Gil!" Thena emerged from behind the countertop with a bright smile. Her hair was pulled back and there was evidence of stuff all over her flawless skin. But she seemed positively elated to see him. "I'm so glad you're here!"

It was such a simple statement, but it really made his heart start flip-flopping around in his chest with glee. He shirked off his bomber jacket and laid it over the back of one of the counter chairs. "Is this what you've been up to?"

"Okay," she sighed, turning back to the stove.

It was going to take hours to get this place looking presentable again.

"I remember you telling me that you hum in the kitchen because your grandmother would," she narrated as she stirred the pot of...something. "Aren't some of your favourite recipes from her?"

"Uh, yeah," Gil blinked as Thena offered him sparing and fleeting looks over her shoulder as she tasted her creation. He had mentioned it, ever so briefly in passing. He didn't think she had remembered it.

"Well, my grandmother also made me most of my meals in childhood."

Gil blinked; Thena had never brought up her family before. Not much was known about them, and certainly she had never even so much as mentioned them.

"She was quite a good cook, or perhaps everyone else in my family was just so bad that she was the lesser of evils," Thena continued to talk as she added the very last dash of salt to the pot before turning off the burner. "She used to make us a soup called Ukha."

Gil had read about it--Russian or maybe Slavic in origin? It was a fish stew. He raised his brow, "fish?"

"I know," she sighed, finally turning to him and tossing away her hand towel. She tilted her head, "I knew you would catch that."

He chuckled, holding up his hands in surrender, "I'm just saying--you always have some complaint when I make fish for you."

"Because I used to eat Ukha all the time!" she huffed, rolling her eyes. He had never seen this particular light in her eyes, before. But it was quite similar to when she was particularly pleased with her latest performance.

It was pride.

Gil inhaled reflexively as she pushed the bowl in front of him. It was a semi-clear broth, probably a seafood stock, although it didn't smell super fishy. There were large, uneven chunks of carrots and potatoes and onions, and some very whole herbs that probably could have been ground up finer.

It was beautiful.

"You said you were still a little bit stuffy after being sick," she murmured more sheepishly now, toying with the apron she had on over her clothes (an apron he had bought her, since of course she didn't own one before). "I know you like soup--and it's rather hard to mess up broth. So, I thought... "

"It's great!"

Thena sighed at him, "you haven't even tasted it!"

He didn't care. It looked beautiful, and the hopeful eagerness on Thena's face said a thousand words. He picked the bowl up and took a deep, loud slurp.

"Gil!"

He made a nice loud 'ahh' sound too, as if he had taken a deep swig of beer after a hard day. But really...it wasn't bad. It was maybe a little over-seasoned, too many flavours battling it out for dominance. Even after her last dash of salt it could probably use more. He would guess that some of the larger veg pieces might be a little under done in texture.

But none of that mattered because it was the best thing he had ever eaten. "It's not bad."

"Really?"

He smiled, genuinely eager to offer his praise of the simple white fish stew. "I bet your grandma would be proud."

Thena blinked, her eyes going glassy. She sniffled, turning back to the pot for herself. "Well, I wanted to do something for you. Especially since I meant to, and then..."

She was referring to when she came over to his place to take care of him while he was sick and then fell asleep on his bed. He had eventually gotten up and made some miso soup for the both of them, much to Thena's embarrassment and frustration.

"Come on," he chuckled, taking a more civilised spoonful of soup. Actually, it was pretty good on his second taste of it. She had actually cooked the fish just right, which was probably the hardest part of things.

"Hm," she mused, taking only a few spoonfuls for herself in a small tasting bowl. "I suppose I've made much worse."

"It's good," he assuaged, although she still seemed to be ignoring his open praise of it. He tilted his head to try and get a better look at her, "careful, Thena."

She tilted her head at him as well.

"You'll get me hooked on this stuff. Then I'll be asking you to make it for me all the time."

She rolled her eyes at him, now more flustered over his warm reception of her first successful meal attempt. "You will not."

"Why not?" he shrugged, taking another spoonful and chewing the fish. It was actually nice and soft, almost...buttery? His eyes dashed over to the counters again and he spied one of the pans with what was definitely burned butter crusted onto the bottom. That was the smell; she had taken a few tries to get the fish butter basted before adding it to the soup. It was a nice touch, though.

"How are you feeling, by the way?" she peeked up at him, still somewhat shy from his open adoration.

He sniffed the soup again, letting its heavy dill and tarragon scent push through his sinuses. "Much better, now."

#Thenamesh Bodyguard AU #Thena thinks about what she can do for Gil #she looks up recipes and always concludes that something will be too hard #she won't strain the miso right and she doesn't have dashi anyway #she doesn't dare tarnish his love of seaweed soup or sundubu jjigae #even tomato soup requires a hand blender and she wouldn't dare #plus a lot of them call for heavy cream and she's trying to keep things light on Gil's stomach #then she remembers that soup her grandmother made #herbaceous and fishy and warming even when you didn't want it to be #she does her best to find a recipe she thinks she can do #generally it takes a lot of time #but she determines she can pre-cook the fish and some of the veg #while the stock is going #and also she used store bought chicken broth because come on she doesn't have all day to make homemade fish stock #Gil really does love it #he has four whole bowls of it and is floating blissfully afterwards #he also helps her clean the kitchen because my god #it's a massacre

[elucubrare]

finally actually making an effort to make good tomato sauce. here is the problem: intellectually i know that tomato sauce matters and has different qualities, and that yes, i have had tomato sauce that is bad. however i don't think i've ever thought, about the utterly mediocre tomato sauce i usually get from the grocery store, "wow, i'm really enjoying this chicken parmigiana. shame the tomato sauce isn't actively good." i simply do not care enough about tomato sauce for it to affect the dish unless it's terrible.

#also i've made several tomato sauces and never been like 'wow! i am glad i made this instead of using the store-bought!' #whatever. every day is a new day and MAYBE the recipe i'm trying will change my mind #i also do have an immersion blender now. uh. somewhere.

[meatsound]

every time someone posts groceries with the price people like to nitpick their diet but thats not the fucking point lmaoooo

#personally i dont care if someones buying pre shredded pork instead of spending 8+ hours making it themselves #everyones like ohhhh you bought hatfield ground sausage instead of buying store brand THERES your problem #and people are like oooh just dont shop at this brand when that brand has a monopoly in my hick ass hometown lol #like are you just being willfully dense bc thesr are normally republicans #my grocery store has an 85% markup on TOMATOES dude #it costs like 20 dollars for me to make chicken noodle soup from scratch #and the expensive grocery store has a monopoly in my hickass home town #a different grocery store is a 30 minute drive one way WHO has the time for that

[el-im]

#all i do is post sauce pics #mira. #having a little pile dexter moment (made a beautiful dinner for armando and melissa and then went to my room and ate the rest of the pasta i #didn’t use with a store bought tomato/basil sauce I’m trying to get rid of) #captain's log

[fantabulisticity]

I relearned a lesson recently: don't eat tropical fruit from the grocery store if you live way away from the tropics region. It so rarely is worth it.

#i tried a pepino melon; a star fruit; and a kiwano melon and they were all varying levels of meh or actively not good #and i KNOW it's the same thing as with tomatoes and strawberries. store bought tomatoes and strawberries are pretty eh. #but homegrown? fresh off the plant? they fuck SO SEVERELY. #i love to try new foods and especially new fruits but. fruit that has to be shipped a long way just isn't very good. #bc they have to pick it before it's ripe so it can ripen on the shelf and it just isn't good that way. #i still love pomegranates and persimmons and mangoes and shit but like. i KNOW they're even better where they're from. #personal #food

[asjjohnson]

I just looked up how tall pumpkin plants grow, and it said they can grow up to 20ft (6m).

I don't have anything that tall for my plants to steady themselves with.

#I guess this is the problem with growing seeds from fruit at a grocery store #I thought pumpkins were supposed to be Vines. I didn't know they were giant tomato plants! #I don't know their specific variety so I can't do a specific search for them. Pumpkin plants are said to grow somewhere between 2 and 20 ft #...maybe I could check to see if I'd taken a photo with the sticker on the pumpkins. I think it had some kind of sugary name... #I tied a rope to a shed roof but they really dislike that rope. And the fastest growing one is almost to that roof already. #I probably should've suspected the plants wouldn't be like what I'd pictured. When I bought the pumpkins last year... #I'd always assumed pumpkins were these solid Things. Instead they were like large bell peppers. They rot. They're just an average fruit. #But they're also a lot like cantaloupe. Very cantaloupe-like. They have cantaloupe innards. #But the plants are like tomato plants but with larger flowers. #I found a photo! and... it just says Pie Pumpkin. ...that's... just the general kind of pumpkin isn't it. Not what plant it is. :/ #Well at least the pumpkins are small? Forgot how small they were. And I'd figured if I get 2-3 to grow this year then they'd be smaller. #Since I'm not taking care of them like a farm would. So I figure they'll be pretty small. Probably could hold one in the palm of my hand. #...like. unless I'm wrong and the pumpkins end up growing huge. Or if there ends up being a whole bunch of pumpkins. Who knows. #Pumpkins are weird.

[jedi-bird]

Since I couldn't stay asleep this morning, I decided to just start making the pasta sauce eat earlier than I normally would. I'm currently on hour two of the multi hour process and dozing off while waiting to start the next part. Turns out making pasta sauce puts me to sleep. There's got to be an easier way though.

#i decided after last weeks do nothing because of being sick to be extra ambitious this week #so homemade pasta sauce that requires hours of cooking #i had to modify my recipe a lot because i can't use home grown super ripe tomatoes this time #and since the store bought ones need a lot more help I'm experimenting #we'll see if I'm successful later #the repetition and waiting around between parts though is so tiring and i start to regret it after an hour #we're in hour two and there's still so much to do...

[deepfriedseagullfeet]

put in a pick up order for groceries at 7 pm. time to have anxiety about it for the next 5 hours

#AAAAAAAAAAAA I HATE ANTICIPATION #i like to do pickup when i have lots of groceries/specific grocery items cause the store stresses me out #also its free over 35 bucks #luckily i bought enough food for a week so even tho i drained my bank acct i get paid in a week so it all works out #im gonna try this tomato feta pasta #and a shredded jalapeno chicken salad that i can have for lunch :3 kinda hype to cook more this week #life with seag

[shining-gem34]

||I am back but also tired from walking. Overall experience: could've been better. I didn't get to try some of the foods I wanted to try. It is expensive but I expected it at least. Parents were kind of reluctant to eat anything else so just walked around some more and left.

#jadecoocoo (mun rambles) #the only excitement I had was eating the cheese wheel pasta #I got pesto and dried tomatoes so it was tasty! #Wish I could've bought antoher to take home with me #I did get the fruit tanghulu #It is unique texture with hard candy but I be too worried about teh sharp edges so it will be more like a craving #I didn't get to find the merch store either #I'll be playing HSR or napping.

[esleep]

i actually do kinda like delivering groceries on the side because it gives me such a unique cross-section of the community. i never know whose groceries im shopping for until i finish the delivery and see them/their home and it's like it adds more detail to the picture of who they are. the baby supplies going to the apartment that i know for a fact is one bedroom (they'll be moving soon - i bet they're apartment hunting, i hope they find a place). the new cat litter box, bowl, and kitten food going to the house covered in "i <3 my dog" paraphernalia (a kitten definitely showed up on the porch recently and made itself at home). the fairly healthy boring grocery order that includes an incongruous tub of candy-filled ice cream going to the home of an elderly woman with toddler toys in the yard (it's clearly for her grandkids, whom she sees often).

shopping for someone else's groceries is a fairly intimate thing. i've bought condoms and pregnancy tests, allergy medicine and nyquil, baby benadryl and teething gel, a huge pile of veggies paired with an equally huge pile of junk food, tampons and shampoo and closet organizers and ant traps and deodorizing shoe inserts and a million other little things that tell a million different stories in their endless combinations. one time someone had me buy one single green bean. i messaged them to confirm that's actually what they wanted, and they said yes - neither of them liked green beans very much, but they had a baby they were introducing to solid foods, and they wanted to let him try one to see if he liked them. another time i had someone request 50 fresh roma tomatoes - not for a restaurant, but for a person in an apartment. the kitchen behind them smelled like basil and garlic when they opened the door. another time i brought groceries to three elderly blind women who share a house. that was one of the few times i have ever broken my rule and gone inside a place i've delivered to, because they asked if i could place the grocery bags in a specific location in the kitchen for them to work on unloading and there was no way i was going to refuse helping.

i gripe about the poor tippers, but people can also be incredibly kind. one time i took shelter from a sudden vicious hailstorm inside an older lady's home in a trailer park, while i was in the middle of delivering her groceries. we both huddled just inside the door, watching in shock as golf-ball-sized hail swept through for about five minutes and then disappeared. she handed me an extra $10 bill on my way out the door.

when covid was at its deadliest, people would leave extra (often lysol-scented) cash tips and thank-you notes for me taped to the door or partially under the mat. i especially loved the clearly kid-drawn thank you notes with marker renderings of blobby people in masks, or trees, or rainbows. in summer of 2020 i delivered to a nice older couple who lived outside of town in the hills, and they insisted i take a huge double handful of extra disposable gloves and masks to wear while shopping - those were hard to find in stores at the time, but they wanted me to have some of their supply and wouldn't take no for an answer.

anyway. all this to say people are mostly good, or at least trying to be, despite my complaints.

#long post

[ceaselessbasher]

I arrive at the yarn store and grab a skein off the shelf, the exact same brand, type, weight and color of the one I bought a week ago. Everyone in the store immediately knows that I miscalculated the amount of yarn I'd need for a project. They start booing at me. They are throwing crocheted tomatoes at me. The old lady giving knitting lessons in the corner is shaking her head. She had such high hopes for me. The cashier spits at me when I pay for it.

#aaaaand scene. this is a dramatic reenactment of what my brain is sure should happen. #mogologue #knitting #crocheting #crafts #yarn crafts

[bearisweet]

being lactose intolerant & being allergic to nuts is literally hell when trying to find things for cooking. i try to have dairy but i wind up having stomach issues for like, days. so i really need to try and pull away from dairies.

then im trying to eat better and it's so expensive. like i got ingredients for pasta salad which can make 2 nights worth. but it cost almost $20 for a few ingredients e_e

why does it have to be so difficult to eat better.

#.txt #i have to keep buying new veggies cause the ones i bought a week ago are bad now! #i know my local grocery store is like in a higher class neighborhood but still!!! #one small pack of grape tomatoes was like. $4 for maybe a handful? #and ppl say to try protein pasta to help. but that's like $4-5 as well? #so might as well get the cheap $1 pasta that's not the greatest but still