Canopyflyer

Acquire all Investiture.

The powers of a dead god.

Ka’Dargo in “Farscape Peacekeeper War”. They were on their way for Moya to pick them up. The worst of the fighting was over and BAM.

At least he went out as a warrior.

The concept behind Cloud Atlas made for a much better movie than book, IMHO.

Having the same actor play the same part in each time made following the plot easier, at least for me. The book was a bit of a slog at times and following each characterization was confusing.

Plus some of the casting in the movie was really good. Jim Brodbent in particular, I thought, delivered a spectacularly good performance.

Spaghetti is not my favorite either, but if the pasta you’re using is not holding onto the sauce, then try a “bronze die cut” brand.

The brand I use and have had good luck with is Delallo.

But I completely agree with you, pasta that has a smooth exterior is useless. Since the whole point of it is to be a vehicle for the sauce.

Level 1: Can put something edible on the table, but lacks experience or does not practice enough. People may or may not want to eat it.

Example: Cooks ribs at high heat with a cheap jarred sauce.

Level 2: Capable of putting edible food on the table consistently, but still not a lot of experience.

Example: Has learned that reducing the heat on the ribs makes them come out slightly better, but still not smoking them and still using a cheap jarred sauce.

Level 3. First level of competency. Cooks often enough to have the experience to put decent food on the table, still uses some jarred sauces, higher quality ones, and the like, but starting to make their own too.

Example: Cooks ribs low and slow, but may not quite yet know what the 3,2,1 method is, but realizes that some wood chips along with temperature control makes for a better product.

Level 4: Competent cook. Cooks many times a week has a broad experience with a variety of cooking techniques. Mostly makes their own; spice mixes, sauces, gravies and the like.

Example: Not only is capable of using the 3,2,1 method for ribs, but knows that is not the only method. Is quite capable of making either fall off the bone ribs or competition worthy ribs with a delightful chew. Able to control not only temperature, but the amount of smoke on the meat.

Level 5: Professional cook, maybe even a chef. Quite capable of putting food on a table that people would pay a lot of money for.

Example: Quite capable of producing competition winning ribs using their own spice mix, sauce, and cooking method.

The polymerized coating on cast iron is stripped almost immediately with anything acidic. It’s basic chemistry.

Put some fat in the pan… You mean exactly what I do with my stainless steel?

Also cooking the way you describe builds up carbon, which is carcinogenic.

What needs to die is the emotional attachment people have to a technology that has its place, just not for every day cooking.

My grill Pan and Dutch ovens are cast iron. But they are Enameled making them a lot more useful. ,

Cooking has been a hobby of mine for decades now. I have gone through a lot of phases in cooking, especially early on.

I have used cast iron, carbon steel, stainless steel, and a dubious flirtation with all aluminum.

16 years on now and this is what I reach for 100% of the time:

Skillet/sautee: cladded stainless. Both standard side and high sided.

Dutch Oven: Enameled cast iron.

Pots Pans: Cladded stainless steel. For smaller 1qt to 2qt I like All Clads D5 for its heat retention. Larger than that I like the D3 for its lighter weight

Grill Pan: cast iron. Hate the excessive weight though

Non-stick: Ceramic coated aluminum. What ever Americas Test Kitchen recommends that year. I consider these disposable items. I stopped using TEFLON a long time ago.

I used cast iron skillets for several years. I found them to be finicky. Heat retention was stupidly high and that’s not always a good thing. Excessively heavy and god forbid you attempt any sort of tomato based sauce or anything acidic for that matter. Circumstances forced me to use stainless steel and I just found it matches my needs in a kitchen much better than cast iron. It gets used, it gets cleaned and I put it away. No having to have the vaginal juices of a thousand virgins on hand to make sure it doesn’t destroy the next egg I try to cook.

I consider cast iron skillets like safety razors. They had their day, but continue on because of a dedicated set of die hard users. Nothing wrong with that, just not my thing.

The above goes for carbon steel as well, although it usually isn’t nearly as heavy.