Binzy_Boi

Hi all,

I've been in a weird spot the last little bit. I recently bought an air-fryer at the thrift shop for a decently cheap price. The thing works like a charm, and I'm excited to start using it on the regular to make recipes like falafel and beet and potato chips.

The issue I'm currently having is just cleaning the damn thing. Clearly it had a lot of use from the previous owner, and I while I want to do the same myself, there's this tough to clean spot on the base that I can't figure out how to clean.

The model is a T-Fal Actifry 2-in-1, so rather than being the typical air fryer I've seen with the basket, this one has a rotating piece in the centre that can either be used to stir ingredients to keep them from sticking using a paddle, or have a rotating pan attached instead which keeps things in place.

The area in question I'm having trouble cleaning is in the base here, behind the plastic filter:

I've tried using an all-purpose cleaner, as well as a stronger cleaner that claimed to have degreasing properties (Vim Pureboost Power Shine), and neither of them have removed any of the mess. It was suggested by someone I try baking soda and vinegar, but I'm not even going to think about that, as I'm worried about things getting behind the slots there and frying the circuitry.

Thanks in advance.

Hi all,

I'm currently wanting to make a few wiki pages for a community I host here on PieFed. Not trying to advertise the community, but for context, it's a community about BY-NC-SA licensed music, and I'm wanting to create a guide as to how to find new music with that license on certain platforms.

My trouble is this. I want to provide those viewing posts with the ability to find music with ease utilizing search engines when that's the best option to do so. However, I also don't want to have that search engine be Google if that's at all possible.

The main features I'm needing are to only fetch results from certain websites, and to specifically include or exclude specific phrases. For example, if I wanted to find BY-NC-SA power metal music on BandCamp, and exclude songs from the band Blind Desire for some random reason, I'd have the following search:

In this case, Google only fetches results from bandcamp.com, only with the BY-NC-SA license, and only with the words "power metal" in the page, while also removing results from Blind Desire.

Are there any privacy-friendly options that have similar search features? Being made aware of an alternative like this will definitely help me kick what little reliance I have left on Google.

Thanks in advance.

Hey all,

Sorry to flood the community, just been working a lot about getting acquainted with the kitchen as of late, and learning more about navigating and utilizing it.

In three cookbooks, I've come across four recipes for soups I'm wishing to try. One for Borscht, one for Minestrone, one for a lentil soup, and one for Cauliflower soup. While I have the needed ingredients for these recipes, all of them call to cover the pot as the ingredients and/or soup are cooking.

My problem is that my pots don't have lids. When I first got the one pot, it came with one, but I can't recall what happened to it, all I know is that I no longer have it. I've brought the one pot to the thrift shop seeing if any of the loose lids there fit, but they were either way too large, just too small, or were perfectly sized, but refused to sit stable.

I was wondering how important it is to cover the pot as the soup and/or ingredients for the soup cook. Are there any consequences for not covering the pot, or does it simply take a longer time for cooking to finish?

Thanks as always in advance.

Hi all,

I recently came across a recipe that I wish to try for a lentil bolognese. I'm excited to try it as I've been trying to find a recipe I can use my red lentils with, but I'm curious about one thing both with this recipe, and recipes in general.

This recipe calls for the pan to be deglazed with red wine. This is something I've seen before in other recipes, though this recipe is the first of which I'm taking an interest in exploring. I'm personally fine with regular red wine, but my concern is that I have a friend who is incredibly cautious with alcohol, and says she'd refuse to eat things if they had alcoholic ingredients.

Putting aside my personal thoughts about that, I was curious if using a non-alcoholic wine would work just as well, or if the alcohol adds certain properties to the wine that make it function better as an ingredient or for deglazing. I'm mainly curious as I hope to invite friends over for dinner in the future, and want to make accommodations where possible, especially if it's as easy as simply buying a slightly different ingredient.

Thanks in advance!

Hey all,

I was making a smoothie for breakfast this morning, and was confused briefly as to where my frozen bananas went when I realized, whoops, I placed them in the fridge and not the freezer last I used them.

I've since put them back in the freezer, which I hope is foodsafe, but I was curious if I would be able to use them for banana bread if I ever make this mistake again. Based on smell and appearance, they seemed as though they'd be perfect for it, but figured I'd ask in case something differed based on water content of thawed frozen bananas, or if they lose certain qualities important for banana bread once frozen and thawed.

Thanks in advance!

Hey all,

In my recent post about popcorn kernels, I had a comment suggest that I could also just put the leftover kernels or stale popcorn to use for compost.

This has been something I've been thinking of for a while now. Guilty as charged, I've let good food spoil in my fridge while I've been figuring out what to do with it. While this has been getting better as I've been learning more vegan substitutions as I'm new to being vegan, as well as home cooking in general, I don't want to throw my food waste in with the garbage as I have been doing for eons now when situations arise where something spoils on me.

My issue is that, while I was taught how composting works in school, they only ever taught us how to do so if we lived in a detached home that had a backyard. I have always lived in apartment buildings, and currently am living on a second floor apartment unit. While my city does allow for people to separate food waste from other garbage and recycling, and even encourages it, my current building does not have a designated area for food waste.

What options are available to me when it comes to disposing of food waste so that in the end, my waste isn't quite "waste"? I should also likely add that I live in an area with a colder climate where winter (which is coming up soon here) often hits -30 C.

Thanks in advance!

Hey all,

Been wanting to reduce the amount of waste I generate, and one small way I was thinking of doing so was perhaps by reheating the unpopped popcorn kernels that appear in the bottom of my bowl after making a batch with my air popper.

Would this be safe to do, or is it recommended against? I'd love to reuse them if possible and ensure I have no unneeded waste there, but I also want to make sure I'm not making myself sick by eating something I shouldn't be.

Thanks in advance!

Hey all,

My friends and I have an inside joke that involves cinderblocks that has been a few years old now. There's a house under renovations across the street from where I live, and I asked the people doing the renovations if I would be able to have a cinderblock I saw on the front lawn, to which they said I could! (for context, the house hasn't been sold yet and they were getting rid of them anyway.)

I am literally doing nothing with this cinderblock other than having it as a decorative piece in my apartment for the joke. I have put the cinderblock in my bathtub and sprayed off most of the dirt on the surface, but I was curious as to how I would clean it to get it looking more or less good as new.

Thanks in advance, I'm really excited over this stupid thing lol

Hey all,

Just making a quick announcement about the plans for this community, as well as giving some transparency about a post I deleted last night, as the two are tied together, and I feel it would be best to address both in one go.

So last night I deleted a post I made a few weeks ago sharing this song, which was a nice Complextro track that I heavily enjoyed. Reason being is that if one looks at the licensing terms, it gives an asterisk next to the Noncommercial point, stating that details can be discussed if one wishes to use the song for commercial purposes.

I feel that while the song showcases that it is BY-NC-SA via the Commons Deed, that the spirit of the deed is not being adhered to with this exception. I found last night in trying to find new music to share from Newgrounds that this is a very common exception for uploads to the site. On top of this, tracks from Newgrounds can also not follow the spirit of the BY-NC-SA license in the opposite direction, being more restrictive in only allowing noncommercial use if the music is used for webgames and animations, and requiring artist permission for other uses.

As this community is hosted on a PieFed instance, I have been meaning to utilize the wiki feature for some time now in order to create a guide for means to find new music that adheres to the values of the community and the BY-NC-SA license. For example, I have recently discovered a method of finding good BY-NC-SA music via BandCamp, and wish to share it with others here so that they can find and share BY-NC-SA music that they personally enjoy.

I also want to point out certain genres of music that are harder to work with, for what reasons that's the case, and on what specific platforms that's an issue if applicable. Examples include personal favourite genres of mine such as Frenchcore and Mashcore, which often remixes of one or multiple songs that don't use the BY-NC-SA license, or Country music, which has a unique issue on SoundCloud of having unlabelled AI-generated content that a trained ear can catch.

While I will continue to try and post music daily to this community to keep it active, if posts slow down, I want to make it clear and transparent that the community is NOT dead. The slowdown will be because of work being done on the community's wiki in order to help future members of the community find music that adheres to the spirit of the license, and showcase to people wanting to change their listening habits based on license type that it is possible to make change with the proper tools and knowledge.

Please let me know your thoughts here. As stated before, I want to build a community here, and don't want this to be a space which is molded by one person. If you feel that I'm being too restrictive regarding posts, or have any other concerns regarding the community that you wish to voice, I want to hear them.

Cheers!

Hi again y'all,

Sorry for flooding the community, but I'm currently been trying to find new recipes to work with, and came across one that called for fresh green beans. I have a bag of frozen ones, and am curious as to whether or not I can use the frozen ones I have as a substitute.

In general I was curious that if I were to substitute fresh produce with frozen, if there would be anything I'd need to keep in mind. Would the cooking time differ? Would I need to thaw the frozen produce prior? Is some produce unable to be substituted with frozen equivalents?

Thanks for help in advance.

Hey all,

I am currently working on shifting towards a vegan diet. I have recently purchased a number of cookbooks from the thrift shop, most of them older cookbooks not centred around any specific diet, some of them based on a vegetarian, and one single one about vegan baking.

My reason for getting older cookbooks and ones focused on vegetarianism rather than veganism despite me trying to go vegan is because I've also been challenging myself to purely purchase second-hand goods whenever possible. This, when paired with my tight budget, has unfortunately made most vegan cookbooks too expensive, as the thrift shop I most often frequent, sells their books at a dollar a piece.

The one vegan cookbook I have has some suggestions for ingredient substitutions. For sour cream, it suggests using either 1 part soy yogurt, 1 part soy cream, and a splash of lemon juice as one option, and finely pureed silken tofu as another option.

My three questions are the following:

1. Considering that this cookbook is focused specifically on vegan baking, will these sour cream substitutes work as such in general cooking, or purely where sour cream is used in baking?

2. For the soy yogurt-based substitute, would oat or almond-based equivalents also work, or are there certain qualities exclusive to soy alternatives that other plant alternatives don't have that makes them most suitable as a sour cream substitute?

3.When shopping, are products labelled as "creamer" the same as products labelled as "cream"? I was only able to find the former at the supermarket.

Thanks for any and all help in advance, and I apologize if this isn't the community best suited for a question such as this. I've been especially curious as I have an older blender-centric cookbook from 1961 that has some vegetarian soup recipes with the only thing keeping them from being vegan being the inclusion of sour cream as a thickening agent.

Hey all,

The other day I went to the thrift shop and while browsing, came across some pressure cookers that were being sold for cheap. I've heard of these things before, but this was my first time actually seeing them in person.

I did some research as to how they're used and what for, and I'm thinking I might as well purchase one. However, I know there is a risk of the thing exploding, especially seeing that they aren't new models sold from the store and all.

My main question is how I would go about preventing an explosion happening in my apartment if I were to use one. The two are stovetop ones rather than electric ones, and look more or less like this.

Thanks for any help in advance!