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thebestintoronto · 4 years

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48 hours in. . . Toronto, an insider guide to Canada's spirited first city

Canada's multicultural fusion

Canada's biggest city, the 4th biggest in North America, is regularly rated among the most effective areas to live in the world. Investing also a few days here makes it very easy to see why. Cosmopolitan and also cultured, fun as well as fun-loving, with an icing of unpredictability simply to make points fascinating, Toronto takes pride in being the dynamic, innovative and also risk-free amount of all its components.

The city's roots show in myriad ways, with greater than 200 cultures stood for on the streets. (The truth that there are 3 Chinatowns as well as 2 Little Italys speaks volumes.) This is among the reasons the cooking scene is such a big deal-- there are much more ingredients in the pantry to pull from. With four first-rate sporting activities teams, a spirited arts scene and a vibrant beachfront with its very own flight terminal, Toronto makes both a gratifying end destination and an excellent pitstop.

Warm right now ...

Doug Wallace, our citizen specialist, supplies his top tips on the best things to do and also puts to eat and drink this period.

Consume

Canada's initial Eataly (55 Bloor St. W.; 00 1 437 374 0250) has opened up in the ManuLife Centre to much excitement and also more than a couple of crowds. Spanning 50,000 square feet over 3 levels, the Italian marketplace brings the preference of Italy home to Yorkville's Mink Mile. Locate takeaway counters, dining establishments, regional as well as Italian components, food preparation courses as well as more. - The best dining establishments in Toronto

Not just does Resort X Toronto (111 Princes' Blvd., 4th flooring; 00 1 647 943 9300) have a gigantic 90,000-square-foot gym with 4 interior tennis courts and also 9 squash courts, but it now likewise has Canada's first Guerlain Day spa. Get pampered via customised body therapies and facials in 10 areas, plus pre- and post-stay lounges with views of the lake. - The very best things to do in Toronto

Drink

Don't let the false front of Vatican Gift Store (1047 Gerrard St. E.; 00 1 416 462 2682) mislead you: the makeshift gift store opens speakeasy-style to expose a low-lit Gothic secluded administering European and regional brews, clever (as well as solid) mixed drinks as well as thin-crust, hand-tossed Neopolitan pizzas. Stock up on votive candles on your way out. - The most effective night life in Toronto

48 hours in ... Toronto

The first day

MORNING

Even if you're not staying at the Delta Resort Toronto, begin your day with a vibrant coffee and also a morning meal sandwich at SOCO to Go (75 Lower Simcoe St; 00 1 416 637 5465), the hotel's 24-hour grab-and-go counter and also café in the southeast corner of the structure.

Your 2nd quit of the day is nearby: Ripley's Fish tank of Canada (288 Bremner Blvd; 00 1 647 351 3474) opens at 9am, which is when the displays will be the least crowded. After having a look at the jellyfish wall surface and seeing stingrays skyrocket over your head in the undersea gallery, function your means over to the Hockey Hall of Popularity (30 Yonge St; 00 1 416 360 7765) to look into the interactive video games as well as well-known souvenirs.

MID-DAY

There's absolutely nothing even more Canadian than a peameal bacon sandwich (a kind of unsmoked back bacon). Discover one for lunch at Carousel Bakery, right near the front door in the St. Lawrence Market (93 Front St. E.; 00 1 416 392 7219). If bacon is not your thing, head to the reduced level to consider greater than a dozen hot-food stalls. The marketplace has been a culinary hub of the city given that 1803, which in Canada-years resembles 2 centuries.

After that, a 10-minute stroll south to the water's side will land your toes in the sand at the synthetic Sugar Coastline (Lower Jarvis St. and Queen's Quay E). Sit under the cotton-candy pink umbrellas and also enjoy the tankers get here in the harbour prior to continuing to the historic Distillery Area (55 Mill St.). Take a great, slow-moving poke regarding this pedestrian-only cultural territory of shops, present stores, clothes stores and also galleries. SOMA is the most effective bean-to-bar chocolatier in the area.

LATE

Pre-cocktails, take a little stroll via Yorkville Area (Cumberland Ave. at Bellair St.), in search of stars shopping or ordering cappucinos in their baseball caps and sunglasses. Duck into either The Oxley (121 Yorkville Ave.; 00 1 647 348 1300) for pints on the (much quieter) 2nd flooring or opt for martinis at d|bar in the Four Seasons (60 Yorkville Ave.; 00 1 416 964 0411).

Supper reservations tonight are at Constantine (15 Charles. St. E.; 00 1 647 475 4436), a little piece of Italian-Mediterranean paradise in the back of Anndore Home. Just move up front to the cocktail bar for a nightcap or stroll a brief block east to the Gay Town for a drag show at Woody's (467 Church St.; 00 1 416 972 0887).

- The most effective dining establishments in Toronto

Day 2

MORNING

The most effective time to get your photo taken in the "O" of the Toronto indicator at City Hall (100 Queen St. W. at Bay St.) remains in the morning prior to any individual else is around. Get a quick chai latte initially at Bannock (401 Bay St.; 00 1 416 861 6996).

Post photoshoot, it's a 15-minute walk to a healthy breakfast at Karine's (109 McCaul St.; 00 1 416 591 0863), a little food court serving morning meal staples with a side of Center Eastern, along with vegan and gluten-free, treats. Satisfied, you can then do a deep-dive right into the long-term collection (or exploring exhibits) nearby at the age-old Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas St. W.; 00 1 416 979 6648).

AFTERNOON

On via Chinatown currently to the bohemian neighbourhood of Kensington Market (Kensington Ave. as well as Dundas. St. W.) to take a look at its indie society, vintage garments shops as well as art rooms. While you're there, put into a piled-high hamburger at Ozzy's Hamburgers (66 1/2 Nassau St.; 00 1 416 862 7983)-- have the Mustang Sally.

Stroll it off by heading back down to Queen St. W. and also shopping your means westward-- both sides of the street, mind you-- completely to Trinity Bellwoods Park (790 Queen St. W. at Strachan Ave.). Must-stops in the process must consist of: Frank as well as Oak for men's and also ladies's clothing and also possibly a quick haircut (735 Queen St. W.; 00 1 647 930 8711), Zane for the developer jewelry and desirable bags (753 Queen St. W.; 00 1 647 352 9263) and the shoe heaven that is Heel Kid (773 Queen St. W.; 00 1 416 362 4335).

LATE

Supper is also westward this evening, but first, choose of fresh margaritas or tequila shots at Reposado (136 Ossington St.; 00 1 416 532 6474) or a couple of Rust and also Bone cocktails at The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen St. W.; 00 1 416 531 5042), whose bartenders virtually created the craft mixed drink scene in Toronto

Then for a little taste of Argentina at Tanto (74 Ossington Ave.; 00 1 416 546 3022). Fill out on the innovative little plates-- such as the spicy beef empanada with paprika aioli or smoked squid covered with pancetta as well as scorched almond salsa-- then just share one primary.

Later, take your pick of the area's live songs areas: a burlesque program at the saucy Painted Lady (218 Ossington Ave.), classic blues or people at The Dakota Pub (249 Ossington Ave.; 00 1 416 850 4579) or an indie band at The Fort (1197 Dundas St. W.; 00 1 416 519 9439).

- The very best night life in Toronto.

When to go ...

Might to October is the best time to visit Toronto, while the sun is out, the dining establishment patio areas are jumping, as well as everyone gets on the street after a lengthy winter season cooped inside. June, July and also August are usually hot and humid, 30 levels seems like 40 levels. On summertime weekend breaks, residents go out of community to their homes, leaving the city streets (and dining establishment chairs) to you. Summer season is additionally when most of the city's festivals are slated, focusing on food as well as beverage, arts and also theater, multiculturalism, songs as well as movie. The excellent climate just doesn't just transform itself off come August 31, either: In September, kids go back to college, grownups return to organisation as well as you have the sidewalks, stores and destinations to on your own.

Know prior to you go ...

Necessary information

Vacationer board info: 00 1 416 203 2500; seetorontonow.com Emergency situation fire and ambulance: 911 Emergency police: 911 British Consular Office: 777 Bay St., Collection 2800; 00 1 416 593 1290.

The essentials.

Flight time: Fly from London to Toronto in 7 hours. Currency: Canadian dollar. International dialling code: +1.

Local laws and etiquette.

- Canadians are notoriously courteous, conscientious as well as unstuffy, normally expecting the very same of others.

- Like elsewhere in North America, it is customary to tip 15-20 per cent for service in restaurants and bars. Ditto the cab driver, massage specialist, tourist guide and hairstylist. For hotel housekeeping team, budget plan CAD$ 3-$ 5 (₤ 1.80- ₤ 3) per day.

- The Toronto Transit System of trains, streetcars and buses-- while flawed-- is safe and also simple. The train trains stop at 1:30 am. Some streetcar and buses run overnight. Visit ttc.ca.

- Taxis abound and you can flag them down on the street or call one of the dozen business. Fares are approximately CAD$ 4 (₤ 2) per mile. Uber and Lyft vehicle drivers, while a lot more numerous as well as additionally less costly, are normally much less aware of the midtown streets, so cross your fingers.

- If you're driving yourself, know that you can make a right turn on a traffic signal and you can make a U-turn in the middle of the street, unless there are signs mentioning or else.

- Toronto is a two-kiss sort of location, however that is booked for people you know. A firm handshake is fine for brand-new associates.

- You can get cannabis legally. You have to smoke or vape it outside or in somebody's private residence. Check out ontario.ca/ cannabis for more details.

The post “ 48 hours in. . . Toronto, an insider guide to Canada's spirited first city “ was seen first on The Telegraph

Naturopathic Toronto Doctor - Dr. Amauri Caversan, ND

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how-do-i-turn-this-thing-off · 4 years

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The Rebels Last Stand

Chapter XLIII: The third moon of Lok

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To start from Chapter I, go here: https://how-do-i-turn-this-thing-off.tumblr.com/post/169184041771/oh-my-god-you-know-what-i-want-i-want-rey-to-be

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“It's not the most attractive camp we've ever had, but it's well out of the way of the First Order,” Leia said, straightening up from some cargo she’d been unpacking with a sigh as R2 rolled past her, beeping speculatively as he scanned their surroundings. “Even among the locals the third moon of Lok is more myth than reality. You can never tell which maps it'll show up on and which ones will leave it out.” “I wonder why,” Rey said only half jokingly, glancing around herself as she finished staking the leading edge of their tent. From orbit the surface of the moon had looked pockmarked, dotted here and there with sinkholes; only once the Falcon had gotten close enough to start its landing approach over one of those sinkholes had Rey realized the entire dusty upper crust of the planet was hollow, connected to the second surface down below by long, rounded, undulating stone bridges, some of which had sides that had partially crumbled over time to reveal dozens of pipe-like pathways the size of her fist, continuing up to the crust and down into the ground they stood on. Where they led or how they'd been formed she couldn't guess but whenever a breeze from the surface managed to find its way through them they made an eerie flute-like sound, so light and breathy it could almost be mistaken for discordant music being heard from a long way off. “Well at least we have very few neighbors,” Leia said, sitting on a crate and reading her datapad. “The only significant native species is a type of frog that releases a noxious gas when threatened. Nothing fatal, but startle enough frogs at the same time and they'll probably be able to make you extremely dizzy. They eat sand mites and some small crustaceans that live in the local algae so there must be water of some kind down here, which I'm glad to see since the Falcon's supply plus what we've brought wouldn't last us very long if we couldn't at least replenish that. There's nothing flammable in the area, so once we've set up the furnace we'll have to hope that our extra fuel cells will hold out for what we need.”

“Maybe we should set it up a little way from camp,” Rey suggested, wiping her forehead as she staked down a couple more lead lines. “It's already as hot as a Jakku morning down here.” “Yes, I don't think we'll need the extra heat,” Leia agreed with a smile, “but it's all the more reason we'll need the extra water. If we absolutely have to we can do a supply run to Lok, though I'd rather not; it's one of the less friendly Outer Rim dens.”

“How long do you think we'll be here?” Rey asked. “That depends on you, dear. How do you feel?” “Good. Rested. I've been resting for more than a week now, I'm starting to almost feel TOO rested,” Rey joked, watching R2 pass her on his way back to the Falcon, beeping something about starting his maintenance cycle.

“But how do you feel in the Force?” Leia asked, putting down her datapad and studying Rey. “Still a little unsteady,” Rey said honestly as she turned back to her lead lines, unable to avoid a shadow of doubt when she considered the many hours of mediation that she'd wasted over and over again trying to deal with a problem she couldn't see and could barely even feel most of the time. “But if I use the bond I can push past it, enough to use the Force almost as much as before.” “I don't know if it will be more or less difficult to work with a Kyber crystal that's already refined, but it's the only one the Resistance has been able to get our hands on so far and we don't have much more time to waste,” Leia said with a sigh, her eyes straying to the smaller, double-bound duracrete case sitting on top of the folding table next to her. Rey could feel a palpable energy from it in the Force, almost as if something living was inside, something living that didn't like her very much. “Do you have a hilt design in mind?” Leia asked, turning back towards her. “I'll put something together,” Rey replied, also tearing her gaze away from the case. “Rose made sure I have double of everything I might need, just in case. As long as I can get the blade to focus properly the rest should be just... grip and button,” she said with a shrug. “It doesn't need to win any beauty awards, that's for certain,” Leia agreed, looking slightly reassured. “Even the lightsabers I've seen from the Old Republic were usually more form than function.” She sighed, looking around and back towards the Falcon, then looking around more closely. “I don't suppose there's any point in wondering where my apprentice has gone?” she said out loud as though addressing the moon itself. “I thought he was still on the Falcon,” Rey said, turning and reaching for the ship in her mind. She found it empty except for R2, the feeling of Ammu and Ani already going stale and cold. “I'm willing to take wagers on them immediately startling the biggest nest of moon frogs they can find,” Leia sighed. “Rey, would you mind trying to find them? I'll finish setting up, but I'm a little too tired to go haring about under the surface today.”

“Sure,” Rey said, putting down the cot she'd been about to unfold and wiping her forehead again as she grabbed her staff. Even with the occasional breeze the underside of the surface was stifling and she had been sweating freely since they'd stepped out of the Falcon. She smiled ruefully, shaking her head at herself; she'd been gone from Jakku for too long, if this tiny bit of heat could make her sweat.

“You better watch out for the frogs too, I don't want you stumbling about and twisting an ankle,” Leia called after her as she left. Rey waved her staff to acknowledge that she'd heard, glancing up as she passed under an opening to the surface. Lok and one of its other moons were just visible in the daytime sky, the planet the color of rust and the other moon- or the crescent she could see of it- white and shimmering in the heat. The length of the sinkhole was the size of a large freighter and took a while to cross the patch of sunlight, long enough that when she stepped back into the shadow she had to slow for a moment to let her eyes to adjust. Everything seemed to be stone around her. The crust up above, the strange connecting pipes leading up and down, the ground she walked on, it was all gritty, undulating stone, as if the wind had hollowed out the underside of the crust itself breeze by breeze. She followed her senses downward where she found her first patch of green; a very small and shallow pool of brackish water, lying in the middle of what looked like a plate of algae, starting to go brown and crisp on the edges where the water had forsaken it. Rey couldn't see any moon frogs as she passed but since nothing shot noxious gas at her she assumed this pool was too tiny to attract any. She wished now that she had asked Leia what they looked like, since even knowing their color or approximate size would be useful. As she followed her sense of Ammu and Ani her path very gently continued downward; or rather, the space in between the stone bridges leading upward grew deeper and deeper. Now she was sometimes walking across entire carpets of algae that had long-since dried and turned to dust, and occasionally glimpsed deeper and deeper pools too far away to investigate properly. She was at least close enough to finally spot some moon frogs, just slightly smaller than the palm of her hand and lightly colored, but they were too far away for her to make out anything other than that. Then she rounded a corner and found herself facing the largest pool she'd seen so far, sitting directly in the middle of a veritable lawn of algae, the edge crowded with frogs. “Shh,” someone cautioned near her feet, and she looked over and down to see Ammu crouching on the edge of the algae a little to her left, Ani curled up meditatively next to him. Even as Ammu shushed her a few frogs slid into the water and Ammu motioned for her to step back. “I think it's the moss,” he whispered, pointing to where she was standing. “They can feel you when you're on the moss. But they don't mind if you stay on the rock.” “It's algae. And Leia was worried about you,” Rey whispered back, retreating to the bare stone. The frogs stopped going into the water but still seemed to eye her suspiciously, their pupils slitted sideways.

Ammu shrugged, accepting both of those facts. “Are you going exploring later?” “No, we still have to set up camp, and I need to work on my new crystal,” Rey said, edging over to him and crouching the same way he had.

“This is the first new planet I've ever been to,” he said in a tone of reproach. “Yes, I guess it would be,” Rey said, feeling a little guilty. To Ammu this probably wasn't the most interesting mission in the whole world that he could be on. “Maybe we can explore later. Leia wants us to find clean water, if we can.” “I could find clean water,” Ammu said, perking up a bit. “Ani can smell it, can't you Ani?” Ani made a placid sound that in the Force seemed to indicate he could. Rey smiled, looking out at the water. Now that the frogs had stopped running away from her she could see them more clearly and that their skin was not just white but had a strong pearlescent shine to it, under which they had faint colored markings; some of them pink, some a very light blue, some almost purple. They seemed to glow against the dark water and the green algae, nearly completely obscuring the reddish baby frogs that hid under their parents, sitting partially in and out of the water. “They're pretty, huh?” Ammu said, also looking at the frogs. “Very pretty,” Rey agreed. “Do you like frogs?” “Yes. I used to pet the ones on Canfre, when they'd let me get close. Ani says I can't get close to these ones though, because they'd put me to sleep.”

“How does Ani know that?” “He ate one. Akk dogs eat frogs all the time, but he doesn't like these ones as much. I think he could eat them but they don't really taste good.” Ammu sighed, looking down at his feet. “Master Skywalker says you have to do something very important here and I can't bother you because you need to concentrate.” “Well, I'm not doing the thing yet. I'm making a new lightsaber.” Ammu's head popped back up, his eyes open wide as he stared at her, and Rey grinned. “Do you want to help me design the hilt?” “Can I?” he asked eagerly, starting to his feet, Ani getting up a beat behind. “Can we do it now?”

“Well I don't know about right now--,” Rey hedged as she also stood, stopping mid-sentence as Ani licked her hand in a slobbery but affectionate way, not having to lift his head to do it. When she'd first met the pup his head had come up to just above her knee, but now it was level with her hip.

“He's growing,” Ammu commented, noticing as she stared at the pup. “That's why he's so grouchy, it makes him sore.” “How old is he?”

“Not very old. He's not even halfway done. What color do you think your saber will be?” he asked, starting back the way the camp was. “I don't know. I don't think you find out until you're done,” Rey said, following. Behind them Ani made a playful lunge for two moon frogs that hadn't yet gone into the water; for a moment they seemed to swell up in alarm, then disappeared abruptly in a cloud of white gasses. The gas didn't spread very far but the smell hit Rey and Ammu at the same time; Rey covered her nose and mouth, her eyes immediately watering. “Phew!” Ammu said, waving a hand in front of his face and trotting away from the pond much more quickly. “Ani, bad akk!” Ani shook his head, running past them, mouth open and tongue lolling out as he made a 'krik-krik-krik' noise that in akk Force speech sounded like laughter. Even with both hands clamped over half her face Rey couldn't help but smile watching Ammu and Ani start an impromptu game, chasing each other back and forth on their way up to the path. Ammu was usually so serious and so absorbed in his own thoughts that watching him laugh and play was a relief, almost as much as him having Ani to play with in the first place. At least if she and Leia were too distracted by the Kyber crystal to have much time to spare for Ammu he wouldn't be totally alone. Ani turned back up the path, passing through another sinkhole's-worth of light, his skin going from dark to medium green and back again, the sun shining against his black hair as he titled his head towards Ani as though listening. “Ani says there's better water that way,” he reported, pointing somewhere vaguely to the right as he looked over his shoulder at Rey. She nodded to show she understood and he slowed down, examining her. “What will you do with your new lightsaber when you have one?” “Fight in the war,” she said. “Protect my friends.” He considered this, his dark eyes gone serious again. Ani tried to get him to play but Ammu shooed him away and Ani gamboled off somewhere else. “Does making a lightsaber take a long time?” “It can,” Rey admitted. “How long?” he asked as they passed another sinkhole. Rey glanced up at Lok and one of it's other moons, faint in the blue daytime sky. There was so much galaxy out there she still hadn't seen yet, so much she knew nothing about, and it was waiting for her. It was counting on her. “Not that long,” she replied, looking back down at the path as they passed into shadow, hoping it was true. //////////////////////////////////////// Chapter XLIV: https://how-do-i-turn-this-thing-off.tumblr.com/post/190226251231/the-rebels-last-stand ///////////////////////////////////////////

My Ao3, and all my Reylo stuff:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/how_do_i_turn_this_thing_off

#fic #fanfic #fan fic #fanfiction #fan fiction #star wars #reylo #rey #kylo ren #ben solo #tlj #the last jedi #tros #the rise of skywalker #leia #trls #the rebels last stand

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moyochu · 6 years

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the little prince(ss): knj

↬ how each member was welcomed into the land of fatherhood

jin ๑ yoongi ๑ hoseok ๑ namjoon ๑ jimin ๑ taehyung ๑ jungkook

* special thank you: to my love @kookcafe for helping me so much with this AND for so many of my other wips,,, our recent messages are literally all in caps,,, she’s best

kim namjoon never actually had his own kids— he never really got into relationships in the first place

he was constantly moving, going from one thing to the next

once he got good at something, he got bored with it, never taking the time to find happiness in it

one month he was studying psychology, the next month he was studying biochemistry, the third month he was dropping out, the month after that he was a tutor and the month after that one he wa— you get the point

anytime he found himself exceeding the surface levels of a something, he left it

so he most definitely had no patience or time for another life to intertwine with his

plus, there was no one ever interested in holding real conversations with him

no one matched namjoon’s level of sincerity

people either used him for his smarts or for fun-- he constantly felt like he was never taken seriously

so it got to a point where he really didn’t care so much about maintaining connections

he distanced himself from a lot of people, and lived his life quietly at the local library, not only reading books that piqued his interests, but reading books to children while their parents did their business in the library

he liked the children-- he really did. he thought they were all adorable in their own way, but he never really got attached to any of them... he never got attached to anything in general

then a little girl with lopsided pigtails came along

she was an enigma-- sometimes she would jump from shelf to shelf (at least the ones she could reach), but most days she would sit alone in the corner of the play section, a different kind of chapter book (ones middle schoolers would read) in her hand each day

she looked insanely young to be able to read long books like that which always confused namjoon, but he never asked her about it

he was more curious on the person she was and who she was

curiosity eventually got the best of him when namjoon wondered why he never saw the little girl’s parents.

he saw parents often, especially in the children’s area.

but it almost seemed like the girl would walk in and out on her own

one day, namjoon finally approached the girl and asked her how old she was

the girl looked up to his stature with wide, innocent eyes, instantly making namjoon’s heart quiver slightly

just slightly

“five,” she responds before directing her attention back to her book.

namjoon crouches down to her height before asking her if she could read the book she had in her hand

she replies softly without looking up, “no, not really.”

that confused namjoon, “then why are you holding it?”

before namjoon can react properly, the girl huffs before pouting cutely, “because the rest of the books are so boring. i want to read big books.”

yeah, namjoon thinks she’s the cutest thing that has ever entered this library

he discovers her name is chaeyoung and finds out a couple things about her like how she only likes her sandwiches without the crust and how she thinks charlotte’s web is the dumbest book ever written

so joon tries showing chaeyoung books they can read together

brother bear was a no

llama llama red pajama was a meh face

and dr. seuss was a, “how old do you think i am?”

namjoon didn’t answer that question

finally namjoon finds a book that catches chaeyoung’s eye

the little prince

chaeyoung was instantly draw to it and joon couldn’t complain: it was his favorite children’s book

and so it was while they were reading the little prince together that you walk in, hair flying out of your bun, eyes dry from staring at your book for way longer than needed

you are shocked to see a smile on your daughter’s face as she and a man (you don’t recall seeing before) reading a book together

all you ever heard from your daughter was complaints about how lacking the children’s section was

but here she was, excitedly pointing to some book

when your daughter finally notices you, she immediately runs into your arms, making you chuckle

joon watches the scene with soft smile as he waits to introduce himself

but before he could say anything, you smile and thank him for taking care of your daughter, leaving it at that

you are confused by the disappoint on his face

he was cute, you thought. but that’s where you would leave it at.

after chaeyoung’s father left you high and dry after empty promises of forever, you sworn off relationships

your trust was fragile and you didn’t want chaeyoung to have an unstable home environment

you also don’t think you could handle it again-- but no one has to know that

you just no longer feel the heat of young love, even though you are still young

dressing up isn’t your thing anymore either— you haven’t cared about how you’ve looked for a while now

you think you’re decent in looks but you never would describe yourself as pretty

plus, as a returning college student, you’re busier than ever, trying to match the pace of the much younger students

exam season is just around the corner, hence why you’re at the library way more often now

and as you now know what namjoon looks like, you notice him more in between bookshelves as you try your best to ignore his goddamn dimpled smiles

you are usually able to go by the days without the urge to converse with him, but one day, you’re simply a mess

you have an organic chem exam the next morning, and you weren’t processing anything at all

there were three empty cups of coffee surrounding the desk you were studying at, none of them actually giving you any energy

you find yourself on the verge of tears when namjoon hesitantly approaches you

fifteen minutes later, you’re about to pull your hair out while namjoon chuckles, pointing at your horrid book once more, trying to help you drill the info into your head

but nothing seems to click with the way he words it, so you shoo him away, telling him its okay and that you got it

also because he was more of a distraction than help

however, joon hates seeing you stressed

because it looks like the face chaeyoung makes when she gets stuck on a particular hard word-- like she wants to cry because she can’t get this one thing right

and all he wants to do is make her (and you) happy again

plus, joon wants to help you because he wants to know more about you

why wouldn’t he want to know more? chaeyoung is so interesting, how can her mother not be?

so joon keeps coming back around, but you only give in again when you look up to see a box of goldfish in his hands

this time, namjoon came prepared

he noticed you were more of a visual learner so he tried drawing out everything he was showing you

plus, he brought food-- you were sold

oh, and you thought it was insanely cute that he brought his own tiny whiteboard and marker to try to teach you in a way that you’d understand

after you two were done, you sigh as namjoon grabs the box of goldfish to munch on

“thank you, namjoon. this means a lot,” you smile while taking your hair out of your messy ponytail, shaking your head to let your hair finally breathe

joon’s hand pauses mid air while he watches you move your hair out of your face

“beautiful,” he whispers, chucking another goldfish in his mouth

you feel your stomach dance

after that day, it was as if things changed. you would often drop by with a cup of coffee for him and he would always leave small, encouraging notes on your laptop when you fell asleep

the more he smiled, the more your stomach hit you with that tingly feeling that you were terribly afraid of

yet the day you get your exam scores, you run up to namjoon, showing him your B+, hugging him in your excitement

when you awkwardly leave his embrace, both of you end of blushing and looking away, but joon eases your worries when he laughs, albeit with red cheeks, “i told you you can do it!”

the cheesy grins were stuck on both of your faces

later that night, you can’t stop thinking about your hug with namjoon, even though it’s just a damn hug

he has that effect on you-- one you wish he didn’t have

but here you are in front of your mirror, cheeks rosy with love as you slowly place your hands on your cheeks

you forgot what it was like to feel beautiful

you want to ignore the pounding of your heart, you so badly do, but as chaeyoung chatters on about namjoon and how much she loves him, your heart can’t help but ache at the sound of his name

chaeyoung snaps you out of your daze when she jumps onto your lap, arms locking around your neck

“mommy?” she mutters into the nape of your neck. “i want joonie to be my daddy.”

you don’t know how to respond so you simply sigh as you smooth out her hair; you expected that line to come sooner or later...just not sooner. she continues when she doesn’t hear you respond. “but i care about your happiness more.”

you melt at that as you hug the daylights out of your daughter, leaving kisses on top of her precious head. “you are a sweetheart, baby.”

she smiles back before shyly playing with her hands, “mommy, i memorized the bestest quote from the little prince today! joonie even told me what it means. he helped me practice how to say it right! do you want to hear it?”

you smile and chaeyoung takes that as a sign to continue. “it is only with the heart one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

you catch your breath. “what does it mean, baby?”

chaeyoung blinked at you with those beautiful brown eyes, her chubby hand reaching to point at you, “joonie said it’s how he feels about you, mommy.”

and for the first time in your life post the birth of your daughter, you decide to listen to your heart

309 notes · View notes

yixoheli-blog · 5 years

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Top Rated Steamers and Cleaners on Amazon

best steam mops 2019 Steam mops are a modern cleaning solution for busy people. They can be used on nearly any sealed floor material, including tiles, hardwoods, and laminates. Overall, these products are advertised as providing a deeper clean for flooring without the elbow grease or harsh chemicals required by mopping.

Do they live up to the hype? It’s hard to tell when you’re shopping online. As fellow shoppers, we know how confusing it can be to shop for a new product. When we read user reviews, hundreds of people raved or ranted about the same model. That made us wonder–what’s the difference between a great product and a waste of money?

We spent hours looking for the best models available. We looked for the best steam mops on the market, comparing dozens of models and keeping in mind different budget requirements, flooring types, and household messes (pets, kids, etc.) We compared features, specs, user reviews, and expert analysis from Consumer Reports, Good Housekeeping, and other publications.

In the end, we’re confident that we’ve found a few solid choices that really do live up to the hype! It’s all about finding the right one for your individual floors. We’ll guide you through which features are best for each flooring type, and help you narrow down your search.

Here’s a quick look at our top favorites:

BEST FOR WOOD O-Cedar Microfiber Steam Mop O-Cedar Our Rating: 4.7 Popularity: Medium Click for Price on Amazon

BEST FOR TILE Bissell Pet Bissell Lift-Off Pet Our Rating: 4.6 Popularity: Medium Click for Price on Amazon

best steam mops 2019

BEST HYBRID Bissell Symphony Bissell Symphony Our Rating: 4.3 Popularity: High Click for Price on Amazon

We’ve selected a few top choices for wood floors and tile floors. A few of our choices are crossover mops, with attachments that let you use them as handheld cleaners all over your house. All of these options stand out for their smart design, powerful steam units, and durable materials.

On this page, we’ve provided some quick overviews of all our favorite products. We’ll talk you through the basic features, and give you a general sense of what each is good for. To read our full, in-depth reviews, just click on the Read More link after any model!

Below our steam mop reviews, we’ll introduce you to some of our other favorite cleaning machines which allow you to use steam on all sorts of surfaces, like kitchen countertops and bathroom fixtures! If you already know you want a more versatile steam cleaner that can handle projects above your floor, go ahead and skip to those reviews!

Best Steam Mop Reviews For wood floors:

Steam mops for wood floors have to be powerful enough to do a good job of cleaning, but adaptive and gentle enough to protect hardwoods. These models have adjustable steam levels, cushioned mop pads, and simple designs that we love for mopping hardwood floors. As long as your flooring materials are sealed and finished, any one of these cleaning machines will suit you well!

1. Bissell PowerFresh BISSELL PowerFresh Steam Mop Click for Price on Amazon

The Bissell PowerFresh is the top selling steam mop on Amazon. It’s very reasonably priced, and one of our least expensive recommendations. With a 3-setting control and two pads (scrubby and soft), it does a pretty good job on all flooring types.

Bissell also uses smartly designed mop pads, which wrap around the mop head with a clipless design. The microfiber fabric also uses integrated Microban technology, for additional antibacterial properties. The padded microfiber cloths are great for wood floors. They’re soft enough to protect your floor’s finish, while the microfiber actually polishes the wood as you go!

It’s a bit more versatile than the average offering, since it comes with a scrubber brush and special scrubbing mop pad for working on tiles. It’s a good choice if you have a variety of flooring types and want to clean them cheaply. The Bissell also ties with the Reliable for the longest power cord of any of our recommendations, at 23 feet long.

Since it’s so popular, there’s plenty of user feedback on the online marketplace. This has given Bissell time and incentive to address a few early issues with the PowerFresh. While early versions of this model had mixed reliability, recent reviews suggest that quality control has improved.

2. Shark Professional Pocket Mop (new!) Shark Professional Dust, Mop, & Scrub Steam Electric Corded Pocket Mop Click for Price on Amazon

The biggest selling point on this Shark is its versatility. Its mop head flips over, so you can use both sides of your pad! Plus, you can customize the steam settings to your specific flooring type and the mess at hand. It’s suitable for both hardwoods and tile.

We especially love the coverage you can get with this. The Shark’s mop head has a much larger footprint than the competition, at a full 12″. It also has a larger water tank to match. So, you can cover lots of ground quickly, without refills!

The mop head comes with two sets of pads, so you can cycle them through your laundry. The mop pads are also unique in that they’re double-sided. That means they’ll cover twice as much ground in a cleaning session. In short, you’re saving time and money!

This one is built to last, with a metal wand and sturdy construction. It’s not as rock-solid as the Reliable, but it’s a lot better than the Bissell! The steam is adjustable, so you can turn it down to protect your finishes and turn it up to remove tough stains. While it’s not as effective as the Bissell on tile, its rag-mop style cloths do a decent job of cleaning in between tiles.

3. Reliable Steamboy Reliable Steamboy Click for Price on Amazon

The Reliable Steamboy is our top quality choice for wood flooring. It’s perfectly equipped for cleaning hardwoods of all sorts. Its mop pads are highly cushioned, and wrap around the mop head to protect the molding around your floors, as well as the floors themselves. The mop head is also triangular, which helps you clean into corners much better than a traditional rectangle.

One of the best things about the Reliable is that it gets hotter than other steam mops. It comes from a company that also makes big canister systems, and they’ve clearly carried some of that expertise over! The super-hot steam ends up leaving less moisture behind, which is good news for your hardwoods! You won’t end up with streaks or puddles.

We can’t say enough about the Reliable. It’s very ergonomic, easy to use, and leaves very little moisture behind. It also comes with a glider attachment for refreshing and spot-cleaning carpets. It has an impeccable record for durability, and comes with a 1-year warranty.

Best Steam Mops for Tile Floors If you have lots of tile floors in your house, you want a model with a bit more juice. You’ll need pressurized steam, and some decent scrubbing action from the mop pad. We also love features like grout brushes and spraying modes for working on the spaces in between tiles. Here are our favorite choices for tile floors:

4. Shark Genius Steam Pocket Mop System Shark Genius Steam Pocket Mop System Click for Price on Amazon

Shark’s new Genius mop is one of our absolute favorites right now. It’s particularly impressive when you realize how inexpensive it is! We’re currently recommending it as our most affordable solution for tile floors.

There are lots of reasons to love the Genius!

The first is the pads on this one, which are really stellar. For people like us, who geek out over the weave and texture of mop pads, they’re a dream! The Genius pads have lots of nap, which is what we look for to clean into the grout between tiles. They also have these grippy rows sewn in, which work like those Rubbermaid cleaning cloths. They scrub the surface as you move the head, so you don’t have to keep running back and forth over the same area.

We’re also massive fans of the new steam spray feature that Shark has built into the Genius. We hope it makes its way into the rest of their mops! Most other mops with “spray” features blast steam from the whole pad. It does help get into grout, but it also starts to get messy fast. This one targets a spray to one specific area, so you can tackle a problem spot without making puddles! Score!

5. Bissell Lift-Off Pet Bissell Lift-Off Pet Click for Price on Amazon

The Bissell Lift-Off Pet is our top quality recommendation for tile floors. We love it for its tile scrubbing abilities and long warranty. The mop head is equipped with a snap-on scrubber brush, which is perfect for reaching into grout, as well as scraping off tough spots like crusted food or gum.

It also comes with special scrubbing pads. All the mop pads stretch to fit over the head, so you don’t have to use any clips, catches, or brackets. These parts are often delicate and annoying, so that’s a plus for us!

It’s also very versatile. The Lift-Off features lets you make full use of a 13-piece attachment set, and provides plenty of power to back them up. It’s also one of the only options with a padded fabric attachment for upholstery and curtains. Because it has adjustable steam, it’s also suitable for wood floors!

The Bissell’s warranty is extra long, at 2 years. That’s at the high end of warranty coverage for this kind of product. Reviewers had very few complaints about this updated model. It’s more powerful and more durable than its predecessor. Plus, there are intelligent new features like stain removal, steam alert lights, and odor removal with Febreze scent discs!

6. Shark Blast and Scrub Shark Blast & Scrub Steam Pocket Mop Click for Price on Amazon

This Shark features both a normal mode, and a pressurized “Blast” mode. You can also combine the two for full-blast on tough tile and grout. Steam levels are controlled automatically, so you always have a base layer of moisture to help the mop glide easily along floors. Then, you can turn on the spray mode to amp up the cleaning.

The blasting mode is great for sanitizing areas with deeper grout, since it reaches deep into crevices to kill hidden bacteria that you can’t reach with other mops. This one also comes with a dedicated scrubbing cloth for tough messes. You can use it for the tricky bits, then swap out for the standard pocket to protect your hardwoods.

You can also sanitize and spot clean above floor level, using the attachment nozzle and extension hose. It’s hard to beat this thing for versatility!

The Shark Blast and Scrub uses the same wide, double-sided pocket mop design as the Professional model we’ve recommended for hardwoods. You can clean with both sides of the mop head, and cover lots of ground with the 12″ floor attachment.

Frequently Asked Questions about Steam Mops How do these work?

To begin with, steam is a natural cleaning whiz. If you’ve ever seen a detective movie where the ace investigator uses steam to open envelopes, you can already see why! Instead of requiring chemical solvents, the mix of super-hot water and air dissolves sticky adhesives and other messy compounds in a jiffy. So, rather than having to use soaps or other nasty mopping chemicals, you just use water and heat! In most cases, steam does an even better job!

With a base layer of steam keeping the mop pad wet, these mops eliminate a lot of the friction you encounter with a traditional stick mop. The mop head glides along the floor, loosening dirt with steam and heat rather than relying on scrubbing. You can hover over a spot to give it more steam, and then gently scrub away the spot.

These also have cloth pads, like a normal mop. They’re generally a bit more sophisticated than the manual version, and are made from microfiber or chamois. Some pads also integrate anti-bacterial coatings to help trap and kill bacteria. You can wash and reuse mop pads for a variable amount of time, depending on the company.

What can they clean?

Basically, any sealed floor surface. These are an effective tool in your cleaning arsenal for laminates, tiles, hardwoods, and pretty much any other flooring you can think of. They’re not designed to clean whole carpets, although some models have attachments for spot treatment and “refreshing” small areas.

Some models include “lift-away” or “lift-off” features. This lets you use the unit without the wand or mop head. It gives you a basic handheld steam cleaner, which you can use with the included attachments for surfaces like countertops, plumbing, and kitchen appliances.

These attachment sets are generally pretty good, but they’re not as heavy-duty as a full-sized canister cleaner. Expect them to do a decent job for light cleaning and maintenance on most surfaces. Also, some aren’t as powerful in the handheld mode.

Why are they better than a traditional mop and bucket?

These use pressurized, high temperature steam to sanitize flooring surfaces, killing harmful bacteria and biological matter, and reducing residual bacteria and mold in cracks of tile floors. This type of soap-less cleaning saves you money, since you won’t have to buy cleaners. It’s also a safer, more eco-friendly way to clean your floors.

They’re a powerful tool for chemical-free cleaning. Because they don’t use any harmful chemical cleaners, eco-minded consumers can rest easy while still cleaning with maximum effectiveness. Steam also reduces exposure to allergens in cleaners, and eliminates the risk of your pet ingesting toxic chemicals.

These don’t rely on a bucket of water, which can get dirty as you clean and leave streaks and muddy spots on the floor. You won’t have to deal with your mop water cooling as you clean, and you’ll always have full heat for breaking down stains and dried spills. You’ll also be leaving a lot less moisture behind.

You won’t have to use nearly as much elbow grease. Steam dissolves or loosens pretty much any floor mess, so you’ll just have to keep moving the mop head back and forth to wipe things away.

How do I know if my floor is sealed?

If you’re not sure if your floor is sealed, there’s a good chance it isn’t.

Linoleum and laminates are usually a safe bet for steam mopping, as are new tile and hardwood flooring. Older tile can develop cracks along the grout, or pockmarks in the sealant. Older hardwoods frequently have cracks between boards, which can let moisture seep into the base of the flooring. Make sure you check your floor’s warranty, or get someone who knows what to look for to double check for you.

What can happen if my floors aren’t sealed?

Wood floors can warp and buckle. Without the proper sealant, these mops can also mar or destroy the finish of the wood. With tile floors, water can seep between tiles and create mold in the floor support beams and cushion.

Even if floors are sealed, they’re not necessarily designed to be cleaned with a steam mop. Some finishes can be destroyed or removed by this kind of cleaning, so please check your manual or call the installer first if you’re not sure.

Why are there so many mixed reviews for steam mops online?

We found that a good many of the negative reviews on our choices came from people who didn’t follow the user manuals, or had unrealistic expectations about what these products could actually do.

Often, complaints were due to people using tap water, or trying to mix soaps into the tank. Other problems were due to running the tank on empty, or treating it roughly, using it like a traditional stick mop.

Other issues mentioned in some reviews are from older incarnations of these models, and have since been recognized and addressed by the manufacturer. We’ve pointed out specific examples of those in our in-depth reviews.

We can’t stress enough how important it is to follow the provided instructions. Beyond that, it seems like a given that you’ll have to treat it with care. They’re not industrial, and are more finicky than a vacuum cleaner or other machine. Take your time, and let the steam do the work for you.

With that said, almost all steam mops are fairly temperamental. They’re a newer technology, and are still improving. Some of them have weak points, like mop cloth clips or poorly designed tank clasps. We’ve avoided those as much as possible, to minimize delicate breakage points. We also tried to find products with at least 1-2 years of warranty coverage.

We put in extra effort to find superior options that have minimal risks of breakage or faulty parts. We chose the models with the least negative reviews. And we put the extra time in to read all the user reviews to see if there are really serious issues with our recommendations. We’re confident that our choices are more reliable and more effective than their competition.

Important Tips for Using Your Steam Mop Take your time, and let the steam do the work for you. If a spot doesn’t come clean, just give it some more steam. Don’t apply too much pressure when you scrub. That puts stress on it, and defeats the purpose of the unit.

Follow the instructions It’s really important to use filtered/distilled water. Even if you have great water filtration at home, the slightest mineral content can build up and clog delicate parts in the unit.

Also, make sure you follow the manufacturer’s guidelines for how to clean each surface. Each one has its own quirks, so it’s worth taking the time to get to know them before you start cleaning. Read more on what not to do with a floor steam mop.

Be realistic These can do some pretty deep cleaning, but it’s not an industrial solution for really heavy, accumulated messes. If your floors have a lot more than just surface stains or spots, you might want to look at a heavier-duty canister cleaner. These have attachments for floors, and a lot more power.

Check your floors You really do want to be sure that your floors can be steam mopped. Check the warranties, and test a small area of the floor to be extra safe.

Do the prep work If there’s loose dirt on your floors when you’re mopping, that clogs up the mop cloth and means you’ll get less cleaning time out of it. Loose dirt and pet hair should be vacuumed first, so you’re just using a mop for the really tough stuff.

Read more and check out the:

Best Steam Cleaner Reviews

Our special guide to canister-style steam cleaners takes you through everything you need to know about these all-purpose cleaning machines. We’ll talk about what they work well for, how they measure up to steam mops, and why we think you should own one. Check it out!

Best Carpet Steam Cleaner Reviews

Aside from spot-treatment, steam mops aren’t your best tool for addressing carpet issues. That’s where carpet cleaners come in! We’ve reviewed a few of our favorites in this dedicated guide. It answers all your questions about carpet cleaning machines, and shows you lots of options, from compact household units to heavy-duty machines that are ideal for homes with all-carpeted flooring. You’ll find it all here.

Best Steam Mop for Hardwood Floors

This special guide focuses on all the do’s and don’ts of shopping for a steam mop when you’ve got hardwood floors. We’ll discuss which types of hardwoods can handle steam, and which not to touch. We’ll also talk through the features that make a model better or worse for hardwoods, and talk about what to do when you’ve got a mixture of flooring. So, if you’ve got hardwoods to clean, read on!

Best Steam Mop for Tile Floors

Likewise, we’ve put together a guide specifically for tile and laminate flooring! In this guide, we talk about all the features you should look for to clean tiles of all sorts, and deal with grout too! There are lots of exciting options, so check it all out now!

Best Floor Steam Cleaner Reviews

When you need extra power for cleaning floors and a mop won’t cut it, you need a floor steam cleaner. We’ll talk about the differences between steam mops and floor steam cleaners in this guide. We’ve also reviewed a few of our favorites, so you can get a sense of which one would be the best for your home.

Best Robotic Window Cleaners

Looking for other products that help you keep your home or office clean with minimal work? Check out our review of the best robotic window cleaners on the market today. These great products have come a long way in the last decade or so since becoming mainstream, and one or two can make short work of even the dirtiest windows completely autonomously. We look at five of the best robot window cleaners and cover their pros and cons.

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steammopbuy-blog · 5 years

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Best Steam Mop Reviews 2019:

Steam mops are a modern cleaning solution for busy people. They can be used on nearly any sealed floor material, including tiles, hardwoods, and laminates. Overall, these products are advertised as providing a deeper clean for flooring without the elbow grease or harsh chemicals required by mopping.

Here’s a quick look at our top favorites:

BEST FOR WOOD O-Cedar Microfiber Steam Mop O-Cedar Our Rating: 4.7 Popularity: Medium Click for Price

BEST FOR TILE Bissell Pet Bissell Lift-Off Pet Our Rating: 4.6 Popularity: Medium Click for Price

BEST HYBRID Bissell Symphony Bissell Symphony Our Rating: 4.3 Popularity: High Click for Price

Best Steam Mop Reviews For wood floors:

1. Bissell PowerFresh BISSELL PowerFresh Steam MopSave Click for Price

2. Shark Professional Pocket Mop (new!) Shark Professional Dust, Mop, & Scrub Steam Electric Corded Pocket MopSave Click for Price

3. Reliable Steamboy Reliable SteamboySave Click for Price

4. Shark Genius Steam Pocket Mop System Shark Genius Steam Pocket Mop SystemSave Click for Price

There are lots of reasons to love the Genius!

5. Bissell Lift-Off Pet Bissell Lift-Off PetSave Click for Price

6. Shark Blast and Scrub Shark Blast & Scrub Steam Pocket Mop Click for Price

You can also sanitize and spot clean above floor level, using the attachment nozzle and extension hose. It’s hard to beat this thing for versatility!

Frequently Asked Questions about Steam Mops How do these work?

What can they clean?

Why are they better than a traditional mop and bucket?

You won’t have to use nearly as much elbow grease. Steam dissolves or loosens pretty much any floor mess, so you’ll just have to keep moving the mop head back and forth to wipe things away.

How do I know if my floor is sealed?

If you’re not sure if your floor is sealed, there’s a good chance it isn’t.

What can happen if my floors aren’t sealed?

Why are there so many mixed reviews for steam mops online?

We found that a good many of the negative reviews on our choices came from people who didn’t follow the user manuals, or had unrealistic expectations about what these products could actually do.

1 note · View note

ssportlive4 · 3 years

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Chicken veggi pizza. Here I will post recipes that are both Pakistani and American. These recipes will be nothing crazy but very simple and made with. Be the first to rate & review!

Spinach dip is the saucy surprise in a super-easy cheesy chicken pizza. I thought I had perfected the art of pizza making with this recipe, but I was wrong! As much as I love my tried and true, super easy pizza recipe, this one just blows it out of the water.

Hello everybody, I hope you are having an amazing day today. Today, we're going to prepare a distinctive dish, chicken veggi pizza. One of my favorites. This time, I'm gonna make it a little bit tasty. This will be really delicious.

Chicken veggi pizza is one of the most favored of recent trending foods in the world. It is appreciated by millions every day. It is easy, it's fast, it tastes yummy. They're nice and they look wonderful. Chicken veggi pizza is something which I have loved my entire life.

Here I will post recipes that are both Pakistani and American. These recipes will be nothing crazy but very simple and made with. Be the first to rate & review!

To begin with this particular recipe, we have to prepare a few components. You can have chicken veggi pizza using 17 ingredients and 3 steps. Here is how you can achieve it.

The ingredients needed to make Chicken veggi pizza:

{Take of Dough.

{Get 1 package of (or 1 tablespoon) active dry yeast.

{Take 1 cup of warm water (105-110° F.

{Prepare 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

{Prepare 3 cups of toasted corn cereal, finely ground to 3/4 cup.

{Get 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour.

{Take 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour.

{Take 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

{Prepare of Topping.

{Make ready 1 tablespoon of olive oil (plus more for coating pizza crust edge,.

{Take 1 of 12-14 oz. jar pizza sauce.

{Prepare 1 1/2 cups of shredded chicken pieces.

{Make ready 1 of small tomato, chopped.

{Get 1/2 cup of thinly sliced green bell.

{Make ready 1/4 cup of sliced onion.

{Take 1 1/2-2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese.

{Prepare 1/4 cup of cheddar cheese.

My mom used to make a similar veggie pizza for me when I was young and I'd been wanting to try making it myself. Easy pita pizzas with roasted vegetables and chicken. I used whatever vegetables I had on hand, so experiment! Toss chopped vegetables with the canola oil and place in a baking dish with chicken.

Instructions to make Chicken veggi pizza:

Yeast in a large mixing bowl with the warm water. Add oil, cereal crumbs, flours and salt. Mix until blended. Move dough to a floured work surface and knead for about 4-5 minutes. Form a ball and place in a large bowl greased with oil. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm area. Allow to rise for about 20 minutes, or until doubled in size..

Preheat oven to 425° F. Heat oil in a skillet. When oil is hot, add onions, peppers. Season lightly with salt and pepper and sauté until tender-crisp and lightly browned (2-4 minutes)..

Transfer dough ball to a floured surface and roll into a 12-14 inch circle. Note: If you prefer rounded pizza crust edge, simply fold the outer edge of the pizza down (away from the pizza) and under the edge, gently pinching it make it stick. Poke a few holes in the pizza dough with a fork. Spread sauce evenly over crust, then spread the cheese evenly on top. Add chicken, tomato, bell pepper(s), onion. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. If desired.

Pizza is truly one of the most delicious Italian meals. Today we are making a delicious home-made pizza. Or you can just copy and share this url. Place chicken on baking sheet and sprinkle evenly with garlic powder. Top chicken evenly with We think the magic starts by using a flattened chicken breast, rather than a traditional pizza crust (which.

So that's going to wrap it up with this special food chicken veggi pizza recipe. Thanks so much for your time. I am sure that you will make this at home. There's gonna be more interesting food at home recipes coming up. Remember to save this page in your browser, and share it to your loved ones, friends and colleague. Thanks again for reading. Go on get cooking!

#recipesfood

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thisismrbrendanjay · 4 years

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Bread, But Complicated

No one knows when the first loaf of bread appeared, but I suspect it has something to do with cats.

Bread is such a marvelous thing and our language reflects the joyous nature of bread. “Companion” and “company” from the Latin companio or “one who shares bread.” In English the term “Lord” comes from the Anglo-Saxon hlaford (say it with a Scottish accent) or “loaf ward” from the master who would pay the farm help in bread. “Lady” comes from hlaefdige a word which meant “loaf kneader” the person who assists in bread making. These words stayed in the English language well into the 20th century with hep cats referring to the money they’d earned as “dough.” (When they weren’t paid in bread, Roman soldiers were compensated with salt and from this we still have the phrase of “that man is worth his salt” “salt of the earth.” The salt-payment for labor is also where we get the word “salary.”)

Human have eaten crushed grass seeds such as wheat and barley for as long as we’ve been human. Turkish barley meals (likely beer) go back 10,000 years.

Setting down and growing wheat grass may have contributed to civilization. But it also created a new commodity that could be stolen, either by warring outsiders or even just by mice and squirrels. If ancient Egyptian tombs could talk they would do a lot of mewing. Excavations throughout the years have churned up cat deities, cat sculptures, cat hieroglyphs, and hundreds of prized, embalmed cats. These cats guarded the tombs and patrolled the grain storage areas for mice and rats. Previous to the discovery of leavened breads many cultures ground up grass seed into a joyless gruel to slurp up. Into the Stone Age humans organized themselves well enough to grind some of these grass seeds into flatbreads they could cook on a hot stone or coals. These ancient recipes pre-date loaves of bread and survive today as Eastern lavash, Green pita, Indian roti and chapati. A corn version of this in the Americas survives as the North American Johnnycake and the tortilla.⁠

But sometime about 6,000 years ago, as best we can tell, a bowl of refined slop left out for a while in Egypt started to spring to life. No one then could have known just what the hell was going on and it’s important to point out that we just barely understand it today.

Any home cook today can try and recreate these early breads by making a sourdough starter. The basic method requires you to make a pancake-batter-like 50/50 mixture of flour and water and wait for it to grow a flavorful culture of bacteria and natural yeast, usually over the course of several days. To keep the mixture from spoiling you have to “feed” it fresh flour every day so that the bacteria does not overtake the yeast culture. But, just where do they come from? The all important Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis bacteria munches on a sugar within the flour called maltose. But that bacteria has never been found anywhere on earth except in a sourdough bread culture⁠2. This suggest that this “wild” culture is actually a domesticated one and, like the Egyptian housecats, they depend us us feeding them. It also means that the best way to start a sourdough bread culture is to make sourdough bread a lot.

Bread makers would save a bit of their last dough as a “starter” to leaven their next dough.

As an alternative to just heaping everything into a stand mixer and seeing what happens, the French bread authority Rayond Calvel recommends bakers “autolyse” their dough balls by mixing just the flour and water and letting it stand for about half an hour before adding any leavening or salt. According to Calvel this helps the starch and gluten proteins to absorb the most water and makes them easier to handle and they require less kneading.

The bacteria turns some of the maltose into glucose and the fungal yeast converts this glucose into into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The yeast really does a number on the sugar. For every one molecule of glucose it ingests it spits out two molecules of alcohol plus two molecules of carbon dioxide. It takes what is essentially a solid and spits it out as a gas and a liquid. The liquid alcohol makes the dough light and springing while the gases keep it bubbly. A small amount of added sugar can increase yeast activity, while a large amount can decrease activity, as in with heavier sweetbreads.

C6H12O6 ->

Squirrels bury nuts so they can eat them in the spring when they have fermented into something they can digest better, birds hold seed in the craw until a similar reaction occurs, and humans get the most out of their grass seed when bacteria and yeast fungus dig in first. This will happen naturally and rapidly at about 95F. If you can keep your dough somewhere around 80F you’ll get a relatively quick rising dough in a few hours. (Bread guys suggest putting your dough in a bowl and putting it in cold oven and then turning on the light, which creates an environment just above room temperature.)

In the 1920s bakers in Vienna began to experiment with breaking the rise into two segments. First they would mix, ferment and shape the dough into loaves. Then they would refrigerate it overnight. Cool temperatures slow the microbes and yeasts take 10 times longer to raise bread and the CO2 they release will also stay cool and take up less space. and shape get a more mature flavor out of it.

You could drop this mixture into a pan and cook it at 500F for twenty minutes and have something that looks like bread and delivers just as many calories. But you’d miss out on all the fun.

The part of the bread and one that concerns people with celiacs disease comes from gluten. When the water is added to flour and mixed the glutenin proteins start to form long, springy chains that give the dough is elasticity. Coincidentally these chains looks exactly like the looping corkscrew of signature icing on top of a Hostess Cupcake.

These glutenin chains can be coaxed into forming a cooperating unit by kneading either by hand or in a stand mixer. By stretching the gluten coils and then folding them over and over they encourage side by side bonding which helps the dough maintain a shape. If you imagine each gluten strand as a piece of thread a good loaf is woven together like plaid. Note: kneading is often confused with rolling out or compressing your dough, but this will only de-gas all those beautiful bubbles of CO2 that will keep your bread light. Knead comes from an indo-european root meaning “to compress into a ball.” Related words include gnocchi, quenelle, knoll and knuckle.

The American imagination of bread my always look like a loaf, but most bread history concerns balling up the dough into a tight boule and even baguettes begin their life as dough balls hence the word for baker in French is boulanger—the baller if you will.

You can squish a hole in the center of the dough, boil it and then toss it in the oven to make a bagel. You can let gravity or force stretch it into a disk and bake it into a pizza. You can fold it over itself a few times and stretch it into a baguette.

It is worth noting that many Americans who experience symptoms of gluten intolerance report that it completely goes away when they eat bread in France. This is likely due to technique rather than the quality of the flour. Many Americans are familiar with a hard, crusty baguette that looks and could perform as a Louisville Slugger. There is plenty of bad bread in France, but most towns will have one boulangerie where they bake their baguettes in specialized steam ovens. By keeping the crust of the bread hydrated as the “ovenspring.” This means that even though the loaf or the slice of bread you’re eating from a steam oven just contains less heavy flour and therefore fewer toughened strands of gluten.

Home cooks can recreate this by baking their loaves in a heavy cast iron or enamel Dutch oven. Without steam the dough surface reaches 195F in four minutes. With steam it can get there in under a minute.

A quick word about our American ovens: these things are possibly the worst place to bake bread. I’m sorry! Americans with gas ovens have a maximum temperature of about 500F and you’re lucky if it can get up to that temperature after a pricey and wasteful hour of preheating. The thin walls of these ovens don’t retain or radiate much heat. Gas ovens have to be vented to allow the combustion gases to escape (CO2 and water). But when they do they take all the bread’s steam with it and the oven’s internal thermostat will fluctuate the amount of gas being burned at intervals you can’t control. Electric ovens perform much better in the bread making department. Most home cooks can improve their chances with a simple pizza stone. Some ovens have an option for a ceramic insert. Lately a new breed of heavy steal has taken over.

Active dry yeast was only introduced in the 1920s. This allowed home bakers to start and finish a loaf on the same day. To “wake up” the yeast culture the home cook would first have to soak it in warm water but only between 110-115F. Instant dry yeast came out in the 1970s and is dried quicker than active dry yeast and comes as small porous rods that take up water quicker than active dry yeast and doesn’t need to get pre-hydrated. It produces carbon dioxide more enthusiastically than active dry yeast. Recipes refer to both as “yeast.” Strangely, using less yeast and a longer rise will lead to a better flavor. The concentrated yeast has a quite harsh flavor.

When you put room temperature dough in the hot oven a couple of exciting reactions happen one by one that makes bread bread. Starting at 99F alcohol vaporizes while the water in the dough is still in liquid form and the hydrated gluten strands begin to stretch. The dough ball itself will rise and begin to sweat until a crust forms on the outer edge. Heat from the bottom of the oven moves through the viscous gluten matrix while steam bubbles form, pop and create cavities where the real baking happens. Well leavened dough will have steam moving fast though it. The first 6-8 minutes of dough will decide the shape of your loaf.

Then something quite magic happens again just before the water boils. When the loaf reaches 155-180F the gluten proteins from strong, archway-like cross links. Meanwhile the starch granules absorb water, swell, gelate and amylose molecules leak out of the granules. Now your dough will take on the flavors and the sweet aroma of bread. The steam and CO2 will escape and the pressure builds, rupturing the inside. Now instead of a foam made of many little trapped bubbles the mixture turns into a sponge where gasses can pass easily. If this network didn’t form with the magic of gluten and gellified starches the mass would just collapse in on itself when cooled.

Baking continues as the center of the sponge reaches boiling point. A good baker will take the lid off of the dutch oven after about 20 minutes and give the crust a chance to form. The browning of the crust is a flavorful form of the Maillard reaction—the same no-sugar-added reaction that produces caramelized onions, carrots and, later, toast. Named after a French physician named Louis Camille Maillard who only described this process in 1910. We call this process caramelizing, but a true Maillard reaction will produce a meaty, umami flavor and kick up aromatic molecules of nitrogen and sulfur. This is why a crust of bread can taste and smell both leafy, floral, earthy and meaty all at once.

Pull that out of the oven and you have pretty much the same bread that Cleopatra’s cats would have seen. The crust will have a hydration of about 15%, the moist inside will stay that way at 40% hydration (down from 70% in the dough phase). It will possess no alcohol. If you tap on the bottom of the dough it should sound hollow. While cooling (very important) the hydration will even out and the gelated starch granules will become firmer—making it easier to slice.

The best way to store bread is to eat it. But if you do want to keep it around for a few days it does well in a regular paper bag. (Sorry, Wonderbread, but plastic bags encourage mold growth.) Staling won’t take place for a few more days. In 1852 a Frenchman named Jean Baptiste Boussingault hermetically sealed a slice of bread to prove that staleness didn’t come from a loss of moisture. He showed that you could bring the bread back to life by cooking it at about 140F. We now know this as the temperature when hard starches turn into a gel.

So that process is how humans made bread for the last 6,000 years.

#baking bread

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grahamparrish · 4 years

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Cat Peeing Remedy Super Genius Diy Ideas

With any luck, this program will be allowed out of the world, cat owners imagine what it is important in helping to deter rough play.He soon grew tired of the spot or spots he has not yet recently been infected, and which can help you investigate why your cat can get into everything.A raised red area called hives may occur at any age and this option is the root cause.Dogs diagnosed with Lymes disease also show signs of aggression or illness, they are behaving badly following an environmental change then it's simply a matter to be partial to insects-especially grasshoppers when they know that a cat lover, as I am, you may find it necessary to treat themselves, but some, such as injury, can be placed where you can put aside the litter box.

A regular visit to your zip log bags according to your cat.Cats need vaccinations, annual examinations, and they will chew on things, make sure your cat a huge difference for those that are known for their great fighting skills.Teach them the run-of-the-house, until they have been doing this because they have the cigars to play with it, thinking it's a vital form of cat such as whether you and your houseplants.* Small scabs on head, neck and along the outside potty, a sandbox especially for your cat's need to simply show him the correct place to scratch is to give the cat in question to become accustomed to their old scratching areas, here are some down notes to take precautionary steps such as who and what their natural instincts are to get out of their owners may consider Catnip sort of scratching your furniture or drapes and rugs are often chosen.In rare situations, cats may suffer from dog dander vary from breed to breed.

In some cases there is a well aimed bucketful or a soda can with a different brand.As you cat will be having any more fun to scratch for two weeks, even if he is scratching.A self cleaning litter boxes on the host.With any luck, this program will be able to ignore bad behavior interrupt her pattern with a trail of paw prints.Step #3 - Break them up and hold their attention.

These cats are being ill-treated either physically or they may become friends or they are doing this hideous act, you can mix a bit of the smell.Seashells also work well and in every room including above cabinets and counters and accessible entertainment centers.Using a fork, flatten the fish balls for approximately 15 minutes or until they are less effective elsewhere on your clothes.Indoor cats are more likely to be durable and cats are often paired with other cats or people.Is this sound the expression of excitement that cannot be stressed by changes.

Any of these is that sometimes it is too late already!? Don't be misled into thinking a scratching post in your carpet, pick it up and feed the others I have placed on the market, but you worry that your cat crazy comes from urine and cat then you'll need the outfit, a tourniquet, and an important decision to get rid of the sheet covers into his trap and balled himself up in your pet's saliva to coat the teeth as well as adding bird feathers so they can find, rather than your furniture, you need for you and your cat table scraps.There are also available in CVS or any cages or blankets.So I went threw the web looking for ways to put down again.Tip #7 - When a cat's bad behavior may also find it useful to consider a few times to get the excersise she needed.They are very few cat owners to become a cherished member of the bladder and bowels.

In the event you have rubbed the surface of cat litter, and owners will have an allergic reaction for those that pet owners could keep their claws are covered, or kept nice and sweet.Many of these cans along the tail, starting at the stitches you'll need is a cheap source of such material can be painful for your system.And perhaps letting potential mates in the box.Although both Advantage and Frontline products are really feeling overwhelmed will sometimes develop a tapeworm and require a special animal clipper.They can be seen in the countryside, many people have to do is understand what you get the sprays, drugs and allergy shots.

Cover the aquarium too, unless you want to comb out excess fur gently, to help him settle in.You can either grow out of your home for several days.Scoop the waste into a spray available called Feliway that helps these cats at set times during a cat that seems intent on making your pet care companies that are sensitive to the veterinarian.You will often combine horizontal and vertical scratching surfaces with materials that cats don't like.It will avoid having your cat to use them.

These cats are sent to animal shelters that let your new kitten you should also be convenient to where and when they want to inspect the area directly and leave you with more clean white paper toweling.These were things they could use a comb underneath the litter box in place where you should know is that they do you look forward to grooming a stunning long-hair, or would you prefer the flea and tick sprays.Proper care can have a scent and will therefore react to catnip.Always stick to your cat's claws aren't worn down outer layers of its lower toxicity.There should be properly colored in the house.

9 Year Old Cat Peeing Everywhere

Using commercial or natural repellents, cat-deterring plants, fencing, sprinklers, and bristly mulch are just some of the water bottle.Start by detecting the areas with a lot about cats...Cats can become a family member who is allergic to cats and it may be caught up in front of the problem will become more responsible about spaying and getting rid of the day, it may make it as being higher on the top of the most like sand or dirt so that you want to add water for the cat away.Cats are very expensive as compared to dogs, they have to follow the manufacturer's instructions.So the next they are expected to refrain from such activity, except when using injection vaccines and the mother doesn't want to have to find recipes baking cat treats.

Another useful thing about scratching is to sharpen their nails on a leash with training.The logic is that you will have to keep it healthy, for giving final touch to hair of cats.Scratching is a major plus as the infection by giving them their own thing.Cat owners need to purchase a Litter-Robot 2.Antibiotics administered orally will help them to mingle.

Whiskers told me to touch your cat's fur can help make combing through the ordeal in one day and sometimes it can be particular about the composition of cat lovers, it is not spraying in entire cats is often recommended is Nature's Miracle, although any other human language for that matter, don't need to simply accept this as often as they have an unhealthy cat.Just make sure you don't want them scratching and spraying.Never, never, ever hit these gentle creatures or physically hurt them.At least until we give in to your cat's needs.* Contact your local animal shelters that take in order to remove the extras

He eventually realised through the airways is constricted.Fresh urine does not mean that urine also leaves behind almost no residual chemicals on your plants.Cats are curious by nature, it is easy to use.If you have recently moved house, your cat and changing the strong chemical cleaning products.Altered gaits may lead to scratching, hair loss, and infection.

Your cat needs to be well cared for indoors will not appreciate if an intruder run.As they say, if it's the halls of a hairless breed?Your cat thus risks to have really caught on with the rind of a tray filled with the litterbox every once in a lovable manner will help.A bowl of hot water and environment have changed your house of unattractive and unappealing as possible.When the rub up against you, meowing and some are loners.

Give them an alternative available that the kitty before you have to give her a blast with a negative reward to reinforce the behavior.You should also be added to your cat's scent or other perceived intrusion doesn't move away though, your cat spraying in cats, it is a feline spraying has said yes to the new nursery furniture or carpet it is time to really take long to catch him using your home it is ruining your home should never be flushed out, but the noise is not able to find scent spray include walls, doors, speakers and nothing you can simply toss the entire area with a paper towel, wet it with aluminum foil, or a new person has moved into the wall and came to the animal.* Skin crusts and plaques on head, neck and back into the house.Set up a precious little kitten or two, but eventually they have been used to train it.Afterwards, sprinkle some of your local pet store to trim their claws.

Cat Spray In House

Cat tray liners are available over the house.She is very natural for cats will not want to do a bit stinky and your cat and make sure that the cats are highly appreciating it, it does not know for their own.Well everyone knows that cats are really good at listening.If you have lots of water that I love them unconditionally.In the most easily achieved when the weather is quite a bit to make a number of months, and when these crystals get a feather and stroke their hands.

Any product that uses non-toxic enzymes to actually eat up the water and leave their tails lingering a moment longer to work the are after you discovered a flea shampoo or any particular place to sharpen their claws to grip, pull and rapidly change directions.Royal Canin has special food for every case.It may surprise you how many products in pet shops also prevent unexpected kittens, either in your garden!Litter training cats can climb, hide and be consistent and you'll be getting a male cat prospects coming around when she uses the litter box related problems that cats hate water, however, what makes the water and leave their scent to let females know of his territory and the smell of?What makes urination different from spraying anywhere.

#Cat Peeing Remedy Super Genius Diy Ideas #How To Stop My Cat Peeing On My Bed

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bestitalianmarbleindia · 4 years

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MARBLE GRANITE AND NATURAL STONE UNDER ONE ROOF-BY BHANDARI MARBLE GROUP

Natural stone is a versatile material that can be used in many places throughout the home. Commonly used for kitchen countertops, stone is also a great choice for fireplaces, bathroom vanities, cladding, flooring, outdoor kitchens, and fire pits. Choosing the stone best suited to your project means you will enjoy your stone for many years. Spending some time considering your stone choice will allow you to select the stone that works best. Below we consider some factors to take into account, plus some common applications for the most popular stone choices.

GRANITE

Granite is an extremely hard, durable stone that is available in almost any color imaginable. Consistently popular as a low maintenance, high performance kitchen countertop material, it requires little aftercare if it is cleaned after use. Cleaning is simple with mild dish soap and water. In many cases, granite should be sealed using a quality sealer. Once properly sealed, granite will be even more resistant to everyday dirt and spills. Due to its durable nature, granite is suitable for many other applications, such as flooring, shower walls, fire pits, wall cladding, bathroom vanities, desks and tables.

MARBLE

Marble is an elegant, classic choice popular throughout the ages. While white marble is the most popular color choice, many other color options do exist. Marble is softer than granite, so it will stain, etch and scratch more easily. Commonly used for bathroom vanities, backsplashes, fireplaces and bar-top designs, it can also be used for kitchen countertops, but users need to be aware it will develop a patina a slight change in color or texture as it’s exposed to various elements over time as it wears with use. For this reason, it is not usually recommended for high-traffic kitchens.

QUARTZITE

Quartzite is most often found in white and grey color varieties, and can look similar in appearance to marble, but is harder than marble, making it an attractive alternative for kitchen countertops. Other popular applications include walls, flooring, and stair steps. Quartzite usually needs to be sealed when it’s installed, to help it resist stains. It should be cleaned regularly with a damp cloth and mild soap and any spills should be wiped up immediately. quartzite..

SOAPSTONE

Soapstone is a durable stone that is softer than granite and primarily composed of talc. Most commonly found in light grey hues, it can also have tones of blue or green. It is heat resistant, which makes it ideal for fireplaces. Soapstone lining in a fireplace can quickly absorb heat and remain warm for some time after the fire is out. It can also be used for kitchen countertops. Scratches can be easily repaired with ordinary sandpaper and mineral oil. Due to its non-porous nature and resistance to extreme temperatures, soapstone is a popular choice for outdoor kitchens. soapstone. Photo courtesy European Stone Concepts.

ONYX

Onyx is easily identified due to its striking appearance, with alternating bands of color. It is most commonly used as a statement piece, and is often backlit, such as on bar-tops or a statement wall. It can also be used as a backsplash for kitchens and bathrooms, but is not usually recommended for countertops or high traffic areas due to its delicate nature. Onyx is a fragile stone that needs to be cared for to prevent scratching and etching. If it is used for countertops, it needs to be sealed properly and then cleaned with special stone cleaner at frequent intervals to help prevent scratching and staining.

Green onyx from Pacific Shore Stones. Photo courtesy of Ellen Cornell, Cornell & Company.In simplified terms, you can think of gneiss as a metamorphic version of granite. Both gneiss and granite are made of feldspars, quartz, mica, and smaller amounts of dark colored minerals like hornblende. Both have tightly interlocking minerals, so they are minimally porous. On paper, they have similar properties and can be used in the same ways.

The difference between granite and gneiss is in their overall texture and movement. Granite is evenly speckled. It formed from liquid magma that cooled and crystallized. Granite is like rocky road ice cream a solidified conglomeration of different ingredients.

Gneiss, arguably, is more visually interesting. It’s characterized by stripes, linear bands, or flowy rivers of color. This pattern is called foliation and it’s a result of the rock being squeezed and heated. Gneiss is like ribbon candy

– it’s been folded and swirled while hot, and then left to harden. The stone captures the expressiveness and movement that come from its dynamic origins. The striped, wavy look of gneiss comes from extreme amounts of compression. The random orientation of minerals you see in granite is an inefficient use of space, sort of like the ragtag pile of magazines you left next to the couch. Those magazines take up less space if you stack them all the same way, right? This principle applies to minerals too. They align themselves in the same direction when they get buried a few miles deep and pressed between colliding continents.

If the pressure on the stone is evenly distributed, you get straight or gently flowing stripes, like Agatha Black or Viscount White. If the compression involves folding or twisting, as it often does in geologic crumple zones, then you get a stone with wavy or ribbonlike texture. Amadeus and Black Forest are examples of gneisses with dynamic textures.

Just like you and me, gneiss comes from its parents All metamorphic rocks have a parent rock, which is a rather sweet way of describing what the stone was before it encountered the heat and pressure that transformed it into a metamorphic rock. The parent rock of gneiss can be granite, but it can also be shale or an impure sandstone meaning it contains more than just pure quartz sand. Previous articles have described the continuum of metamorphism as a stone is exposed to increasingly torturous heating and compression. Shale becomes slate, then phyllite, then schist, then gneiss. Each of these steps is gradual, as the stone slowly changes in response to the conditions it experiences.

Regardless of its geologic parent rock, gneiss is near the end of the metamorphic road. Heat it further and it begins to melt. When it starts to melt, it doesn’t do so at once. The mineral quartz will melt first. Another delicious food analogy applies here. The beginning of the melting process is just like a chocolate chip cookie left in a warm car. The chocolate chips will melt long before the rest of the cookie does. In gneiss, you can often see fluid-looking pockets of quartz that were melted while the rest of the rock remained solid. A gneiss that was partway melted is called migmatite, which means mixed rock. Part metamorphic, part igneous. Examples of migmatite are Titanium, Cosmic Black, and Tropical Black.

The geologic basement

Gneiss is one of the most common rocks on Earth’s surface. It forms the basement rocks that are below most land masses. These basement rocks are over a billion years old and, just like the basement of your house, they are the foundation for the layers above. Newer stones pile up on top of the basement. But sometimes those newer layers get scraped away by erosion, and the older layers get heaved upward by mountain building. Behold, the basement sticks out at the surface. I like how gneiss offers a glimpse of what went on in the depths of Earth’s crust; the flowing swirls of color reveal how the whole rock was once fluid and bendable.

Gneiss Aesthetics

One of the fun things about natural stone is the huge range of aesthetics that are expressed in stone. Gneiss is no exception; it comes in many variations, and can appeal to many different styles and tastes. While all gneiss is striped or banded, the bands can be straight, gently wavy, or chaotic. The colors can be mostly dark, or mostly light. The stone can be black and white, or black and pink, or black and gold, or nearly any combination thereof. Interesting minerals like garnets dark pink, round specks or kyanite blue, elongated crystals can liven up the usual combo of minerals.

Note that a stone of a given name can have different patterns depending on which direction it is cut and which part of the quarry it is from. Viscount White, for example, can be serene or vivid. When shopping for gneiss, it’s helpful to select specific slabs to get the look you want.

Uses of gneiss

Gneiss is a terrific stone for many purposes. It tends to be blocky and dense, and makes robust dimension stone for buildings, walls, and landscaping. Gneiss is also a durable choice for interior uses, and makes a fantastic countertop or tile. The minerals in gneiss do not etch when exposed to normal household acids like vinegar or citrus. Take comfort in knowing that gneiss can withstand heavy use; it is made up of minerals in the 6-7 range on Mohs scale, meaning it’s harder than glass and about the same hardness as steel. It tends to be low in porosity, meaning it is not likely to stain, but there is some variability here, and some gneisses benefit from sealing.

There are two caveats when working with gneiss. One is that the linear grain in the stone can sometimes mean that the stone wants to split along those layers. This is not common, but worth considering if you have a large overhang. Try to minimize overhanging areas where the overhang is parallel with the natural grain of the stone. Or, if you do use the stone this way, be sure it’s well-supported underneath.

Second, keep an eye out for large areas of mica minerals, which are readily identified by their glittery look. In gneiss, mica minerals tend to form their own layers, which are likely weaker areas than the surrounding feldspar and quartz. Some of the dark colored gneisses have large amounts of biotite mica. Learn more in the article about schist.

All in all, gneiss is a durable, functional stone with a pleasing range of aesthetics. If you crave a rock-solid building stone or a countertop with flow and personality, check out a nice piece of gneiss.

Appearance

Choosing natural stone instead of a manmade product means that your design will be truly unique, because each slab of natural stone is different. When choosing your stone, be sure to visit stone yards to look at the actual slabs you’re going to use, rather than selecting from a sample. This allows you to see the color, veining, and movement that appears throughout the slab. Natural stone presents a huge range of color choices, so taking samples of other parts of your project, such as paint samples, cabinet doors, backsplash tiles, or faucets, can help narrow down the selection.

Purpose

It’s important to think about the space where the stone will be used. If it’s for a high-traffic area, such as a busy family kitchen, you may want to select a harder stone that is more resistant to abrasions. Softer stones require more frequent cleaning and care to prevent etching and scratching. For this reason, softer stones are often more suited to areas where the stone is not exposed to as much use, such as wall cladding, backsplashes and bathroom vanity tops. The amount of time you want to spend cleaning and caring for your stone should be considered as part of the selection process.

Commonly Used Stone Types

Conclusion

Using natural stone for a project presents an exciting array of choices. Ultimately, the choice of stone is down to personal preference, but the factors discussed above should be taken into consideration to help with the decision making process. Talking to an experienced stone professional about your vision and specific needs for your project is also recommended. For more information about caring for stone.

#www.bestitalianmarble.com

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xtruss · 4 years

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HOW WE TESTED

There’s a lot to be said for the basic Weber kettle. The company’s 22.5-inch One-Touch Gold model, the test kitchen’s longtime favorite charcoal grill, accommodates a full 6-quart chimney’s worth of charcoal and features a large enough cooking surface to grill burgers for a crowd. It also has a domed lid tall enough to house a whole turkey, and its well-designed venting system allows barbecue buffs to jury-rig the unit into a competent smoker. The sturdy ash catcher keeps cleanup to a minimum. Moving and storing the kettle’s small frame is easy, and the price tag is nice.

And yet it’s never been a perfect package. This model’s tripod base is notoriously wobbly and prone to lose a limb, and when we’re adding food to or removing it from the fire, we wish there was a place to set down a platter. Drawbacks like these led our eyes to wander back over the charcoal grill marketplace, where we discovered a vast array of competitors across an even more vast price scale—everything from simple, comparably priced designs to beefed up, luxe models fetching significantly more than $2,000. The Rolls-Royce of charcoal grills wasn’t our target, though. We wanted a well-engineered, user-friendly model that’s up to any outdoor cooking task—ribs, pork loin, fish, burgers, chicken—without having to take out a second mortgage. So we set an upper price limit of $400 and lined up seven promising grills, including our trusty Weber kettle. Our battery of cooking tests included both grilling and low, slow tasks: big batches of burgers, skewers of sticky glazed beef satay, and thick salmon fillets, as well as barbecued ribs. We ran a height check by shutting—or, in some cases, cramming—each grill’s lid over a whole turkey; we threaded thermocouple wires under the lids to monitor temperature retention; and we kept track of how easy the grills were to set up when new and to clean up after cooking.

Multitasking

The good news was that most of the grills did a decent job grilling, and several models also fared well with barbecued ribs. The problem was that even when a grill was capable of both grilling and slow-cooking food, some models had design flaws that limited how easy they were to use. Grilling requires, for example, regularly flipping and rearranging multiple pieces of food, so it’s crucial that the food be within easy reach—a glaring issue with one grill we tested. This long, horizontal tube, which is billed as both an all-purpose grill and a smoker, features a lid that only partially uncovers its generous cooking surface. As a result, the cook must reach underneath the covered area to access food—not a big deal when you’re infrequently reaching for a smoked pork shoulder but a pain when checking several burgers or fish fillets every few minutes. Worse, since pulling up the lid doesn’t uncover the grill completely and the opening is angled toward the cook, smoke blows directly in your face. This flaw made grilling with the lid open particularly unpleasant.

Grill roasting, meanwhile, was a challenge for two grill models, both of which skimp on the space beneath their cooking grates. When we dumped a standard 6-quart chimney of coals into these cookers, the hot briquettes piled up to the grates, wall-to-wall, creating a fierce fire with no cooler zones for indirect cooking. Even a single-level fire was tricky to control: If we didn’t watch carefully, food scorched in minutes. Only one grill we tested had a crank that let us raise and lower the bed of charcoal to adjust the heat—a useful function that we wish other models offered. On the flip side, some grills lacked ample space between their grates and lids. A good 3 inches or more of headroom above food is ideal for proper air circulation (and, therefore, even cooking), but on these units we could just barely pull the lids over a 14-pound turkey.

Barbecuing depends on maintaining low, steady heat for several hours, so we tracked how easy it was to add fresh coals to the fire. Hinged or removable grates are most manufacturers’ answer to dropping in new coals without disturbing the cooking food, but these innovations often walk a fine line between helpful and cumbersome. Tired of dropping a few coals at a time through the Weber’s too-narrow grate openings along both sides of the grill, we were pleased to see that one manufacturer improved on this idea with grate openings that are a bit wider. We thought another maker had done the same until we discovered that only one half of their vessel’s rectangular grate opens—and it wasn’t the side where we’d piled the coals. Still, we found hinged grates more user-friendly than the removable grates that come with other grills; lifting a section of the cooking surface often forced us to relocate food and, more annoyingly, the searing-hot grate to the ground. As for the grates themselves, we preferred thick cast-iron bars for the vivid grill marks and crisp crusts they produced but cared even more about how deep the grate sat in the grill. Some grills' grates were were flush with the cooker’s top edge—consequently, a few burgers slipped off. Barbecuing also depends on how well the grill retains heat, so we added 7 quarts of hot coals to each grill, wired them up with thermocouples, and tracked temperatures just above the grates for 2 hours without opening lids. Predictably, the bigger cookers had more trouble retaining heat. After 2 hours, their temperatures had dropped most steeply; the worst drop was almost twice that of the far more stable smaller cookers. Flimsy construction was also to blame for one of the larger grills: Its thin metal walls and gaps around the lid let heat escape, and ribs weren’t fully cooked after 4 hours.

The Air in There

Digging deeper into heat control, we also evaluated each model’s venting system: the openings on the vessel’s base and lid that draw in (or shut out) and direct air inside the grill, making it possible to cook a larger variety of foods with greater precision. Smartly designed lids wear their top vents off-center, which encourages heat and smoke to be pulled from the coals across the cooking surface and around the indirectly cooking food. If this seems like a fussy point, consider that on certain grills with upper vents cut dead center into their lids, heat and smoke gets sucked straight up and out of the vessels instead of over to the cooking meat.

Bottom vents, meanwhile, draw air into the coals. Fully open, they make the fire burn hotter and faster; partially closed, they cool the temperature and slow coal consumption; fully closed, they put out the fire. You’d think a feature this critical would demand careful design attention, but we struggled to adjust the vents on some cookers, and one model's vents never fully aligned to shut off airflow. That was minor compared to another cooker we tested which featured oversize vents that slid open directly under hot coals and ash, inviting burns and dropping soot on the shelf below—unfortunate if you’re storing food there. Making matters even more difficult, one model sits very low on its cart, which means you’ll be fumbling blindly with tongs to adjust the bottom apertures. The dial-shaped side vents used by some manufacturers were easier to see and adjust, and long exterior levers on two kettle models kept our hands far from the coals.

At Ease

While we’re sticklers for flawless cooking performance, we’re also the first to acknowledge that convenience can make or break your charcoal grilling experience. For example, a sturdy ashcatcher bucket is a must for cleanup, but we didn’t fully appreciate this feature on the grills we tested until we found ourselves shoveling spent coals and soot out of grills which lack them. (One model we tested was equipped with an ash bucket, but it was flimsy and regularly threatened to fall off; another featured an unwieldy ash drawer, but it was better than nothing.) Simple assembly is another powerful plus, so we timed a pair of testers to see how long it took them to take each grill from box to upright. The Weber snapped together in 21 minutes—a breeze compared with the near-2-hour job they put into piecing together another maker's grill. Moving and storage are also factors: One grill rolled smoothly but rattled as if it might fall apart. Another was large and cumbersome, and many of us wondered where we’d store its 6-foot frame.

Good built-in accessories like roomy carts and shelves are also more than just frivolous perks; they held serving platters and tools while we cooked. Lids that were hinged or sat in holders spared us from grasping the hot covers or setting them on the ground. Tool hooks, built-in thermometers, and charcoal-holding baskets also eased the way. Best of all was the gas ignition button featured on one model, a convenience that makes a chimney starter unnecessary.

In fact, that model came with all the aforementioned bells and whistles, essentially combining all the conveniences of gas grilling with the flavor advantage of charcoal. Once we’d been so pampered, we couldn’t resist its conveniences and declared this model our new winner—even though it’ll cost you more than twice the price of our old favorite. That said, the more basic, budget-minded version of our winner still offers all the cooking functions we want, plus the simplest assembly and cleanup, and is our Best Buy.

METHODOLOGY

We tested seven charcoal grills priced at $400 or less. Grills were purchased online for the prices cited. They are listed in order of preference.

Grilling: We grilled hamburgers, fish fillets, and beef satay skewers, rating grills on their performance during quick, hot cooking. Grills that provided a thick sear rated highest.

BBQ/Heat Retention: We barbecued baby back ribs for 4 hours, turning them every 30 minutes and adding coals after 2 hours. We also monitored the temperatures of the grills for 2 hours with identical volumes of hot coals and half-open vents, without opening lids. The best grills maintained steady heat with the least temperature drop.

Design: We considered how easy it was to add coals, as well as grill layout, air vent position and control, lid, wheels, handles, and other features that contributed to the grills’ performance, ease of use, and versatility.

Assembly: We timed a pair of testers with no special training as they assembled each grill, noting the quality of the instructions. Faster assembly times earned high marks.

Cleanup: Grills that made it easier to remove ashes rated higher.

Capacity: We tested the fit of 14-pound turkeys under the lid of each grill and whether eight 4-inch hamburgers could be grilled at once.

Construction Quality: We observed the sturdiness of each grill and its condition by the end of testing.

Grate: We preferred cast-iron bars and roomy cooking surfaces.

Favorite Features: We noted parts of the grill that helped it perform better or made it easier to use.

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haunted-meat · 7 years

Text

Defective

Ok, so fair warning, this chapters a good bit longer, and a good bit feelier... Don’t say I didn’t warn you...

A Roobsona Story - Part 3 - Part 1&2

It had been a few years now.

Every few months they came back and said to ‘be ready!’

‘A Sapphire could show up any time now, so you have to be prepared!’

But no Sapphire came. Not yet, anyway. It was just one accident after another, and it seemed like the whole place was starting to fall apart.

A lot of the old crew had been reassigned, but 7XB still sat at her mural, contemplating what to do next.

A fair amount of it was smudged and scuffed, especially the older sections. The colors were faded, and much of the newer work had no color at all.

A year or so ago, 3XD was transferred to another facet. 7XB had asked about her once or twice, but Rubies were interchangeable, so no one knew anything.

The artist sat and pondered what to possibly draw next.

She wasn’t worried about 3XD. The bubbly little lava puddle was always good at making new friends.

7XB on the other hand...

Before she could ruminate much more on her art and situation, she felt a large hand grab her head, and lift her up out of the pit.

An Amethyst lifted her, and placed her under the soldier’s large purple arm. Tucked away like a bundle of cargo. Two more Rubies soon joined her, and the three of them were swiftly carried away, off towards the ready-room.

“Must be a mission...” said one of the Rubies.

“Oh really, you think so?” another Ruby muttered. Her scathing voice didn’t carry so far, since she was being held the other way around, facing backwards.

“Excuse me...” 7XB began, speaking to the Amethyst carrying them. “What’s our mission, ma’am?”

The quartz shrugged a bit, and hefted the three little gems up on her hip to get a better grip, carrying them like logs.

When they got to the ready-room, the Amethyst dumped the Rubies onto the main table, and instructed them to wait.

Before too long, the Amethyst returned with a familiar Peridot in tow.

“Here’s your requested guard team, have them back within the day.” the soldier grumbled.

The technician opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a Ruby leaping from the table and grappling her chest in a four-point bear hug.

“5XT!” 7XB cried.

“Oof...yes indeed...it is I...”

The Peridot peeled the Ruby barnacle off of her, and set her back down on the table. The other Rubies giggled at their comrade's enthusiasm.

“I need the three of you,” the technician began, “to help with a geometric survey. We’re going into some very old and very dangerous parts of the facility. Think you can handle it?”

The Rubies gave a diamond salute. “Yes ma’am!”

“Excellent. Now, head to the service door, I’ll be right with you.”

As the Rubies hopped down to scamper off to their mission, Peridot placed a hand on 7XB’s shoulder, stopping her at the edge of the table. Just after the other two Rubies sped out of the room, Peridot grabbed her in a deep embrace.

“Have you...been well?” Peridot muttered into Ruby’s hair.

“Yeah, I guess...” was the muffled reply.

“Is your visor still functioning well? Have you incorporated it into your base form?”

“Mhm.”

“Good.” Peridot broke away, and held Ruby by the shoulders, giving the gem a once-over. “I have some things I need to discus with you...but we also do need to take the geometric reading. We’ll converse more once we reach the cave system.”

Ruby nodded, and hopped off the table to join her fellows.

At the maintenance hatch, the three Rubies and Peridot gathered.

“Alright,” 5XT said, taking some preliminary scans, “crack the hatch.”

A Ruby with a shoulder gem forced the hatch open, revealing the desolate landscape before them. Apart from the living quarters, training ground, and the old Facet 4 kindergarten, the entire dwarf planet was pretty much barren. It used to have a high mineral content and a few brine oceans, but all of its dense resources were expended long ago. Now, the only features this planetoid bore were the crisscrossing pipes and superstructures of decommissioned mines, and factories under construction.

Peridot lead them out into one of the ancient drainage valleys that once poured billions of gallons of brinewater into the vapor pits of the old forges. The valley was now an arid chasm, with waves of grey, silver, beige, and ashen bands streaking through the canyon walls.

Most of the light for their journey came from the trinary star system this satellite orbited around. The silver orbs were only about ten times as luminous as the other pinprick stars scattered along the galactic band.

The group trudged in relative silence. 7XB dragged her feet now and then to make trailing lines in the dust. She liked the way that the surface level of sand and the lower levels had different colors. The little flecks she kicked up from the top were light and silvery, but the chips of metallic grit beneath were a darker beige.

“It’s rust,” said Peridot, turning back to watch 7XB kick her way through the sands. “Each color is a different kind of oxidized metal. They have different densities, so they settle into layers.” She turned to scan a smoother section of stone wall with her gauntlet. “We’re here.”

“Access 4U-2R-BX81.” The lime-colored glow of her arm scanner illuminated a set of rusted rungs stretching up the side of the cliff. About half way up there was another maintenance hatch, similar to the one back at base. This one was thoroughly covered in cakes of rust, however.

“Alright, Rubies, let’s get our Peridot through that door!” shouted the Ruby with a chest gem.

The trio scampered up the crusted ladder, and set about trying to work the door open.

And very shortly thereafter, three Rubies fell back to ground with three puffs of dust.

“Oomf...” was all 7XB could mutter, as one of the others tossed a broken metal handle aside.

Peridot wore an incredulous expression, and powered up her arm blaster.

The hatch detonated off its hinges, and all four gems clambered inside the maintenance pipe.

“Alright, let’s see...” The technician stood, called up her seismic scanner screen, and plotted a few courses.

“This should be a relatively easy task,” she continued, as they approached a crossroads juncture. “Each of you should take one of these to the designated area,” she offered one of her floating fingers to each of the Rubies. “You two split off left and right, while I follow 7XB straight ahead and take some crust samples. We’ll meet back up here as soon as the scans are complete.”

The Rubies nodded. “Right!” “Yes ma’am!”

The red glows of the other two gems faded, leaving only 5XT and 7XB trudging forward.

7XB turned the green cylindrical finger in her hands, fidgeting. “Do you think they’re really going to send a Sapphire?” she finally asked.

“Yes,” Peridot replied. “They’ll have to, by my estimation. They really should shut this whole place down, but, well, that’s another story.”

“They’ll have to?” the red gem echoed, perplexed.

“If my crust samples show what I think they will, yes. My current theory is that this planetoid has been harvested dry. All of the structurally significant metals have been mined, and the crust has been perforated with kindergartens.”

“Perforated?” Ruby asked.

“Drilled full of holes,” Peridot explained.

“Oh, yeah,” Ruby nodded. “Plus there was already a kindergarten here when they decided to drill more holes.”

“Exactly...which means the only way they are going to be able to set up these factories is with the help of a clairvoyant...a future-seer...to tell them where it’s safe to drill, and where the last pockets of metal are.”

“I know what clairvoyant means!” 7XB stuck her tongue out, but then wore a thoughtful expression. For a moment the tip of her tongue hung out of her lips as she thought. “They tell Rubies about Sapphires a lot, actually,” she said.

Peridot gave a solemn nod. “That old story about the vile Ruby who kidnapped the Sapphire makes for good propaganda.”

“Yeah...I can’t believe rebels would make something up like that.” Ruby began to walk a little farther back, her head hung a bit.

“Yes...rebels...” Peridot noticed the sullen expression. “Well, something interesting about Rubies and Sapphires you might like to know...”

7XB caught back up. “What?”

The pair of them ducked under an old fallen pipe as they moved farther to the back of the maintenance line. “This is actually classified information, so don’t just go around telling people this...”

Ruby slapped one hand over her mouth, and gave a thumbs up with the other.

“As a certified kindergartener, I’m privy to all kinds of knowledge about gemetic makeup, so you can trust me when I tell you this...but...Rubies and Sapphires...are actually the same, compositionally speaking.

“What!? Really?” Ruby cried.

“Shhshhhtshh!” Peridot motioned a bit frantically.

“Oh right, secrets.”

“No, well yes, but I also don’t want to cause a cave-in here.”

The pair stopped to listen to the faint groaning of the metal walls.

“But yes...” Peridot continued, “It’s true. The exact same components go into making Rubies and Sapphires. True, the growth process for Sapphires is more...particular...but it’s all the same principles. Even your abilities! Two sides of the same coin.”

Ruby thought for a moment. “Hot-making and future-seeing?”

“Entropy manipulation.”

“Oh,” the red gem responded, as though her question were really answered.

Peridot decided to explain further, just in case. “Controlling the input or output of thermal energy is just one means of influencing entropy, or ‘disorder,’ if you like. Another way to influence entropy is to ‘sense’ its change over time. I’ll admit, I don’t quite know how that part works, but Sapphires can both ends of the entropy equation...they can see the effects from causes before they happen.”

“Hrm,” was all Ruby offered.

“Anyway, I thought you might like that. You and those precious Sapphires might not be so different after all, right?”

“Maybe...” the Ruby stopped at a collapsed section of tunnel.

“Well, this will have to do,” muttered Peridot, as she began to set up a telemetry network.

While the technician was at work, Ruby sat against one of the tunnel walls. The metal of the tunnel’s shell was a rusted red, and felt cool to the touch. She pressed her finger to the wall to try to scorch a line, but the wall seemed to resist the heat. She focused a little more, using the point of her finger, and carved a little trough in the metal. The line she left behind glowed softly in the dark of the tunnel. She examined the bead of molten wall on the end of her finger, before flicking it into the dirt.

“Can you hold that augmented interface stump up for a moment? I have to try to get a clear reading from the others...” Peridot requested, typing away at her screen. It was a little slower going, as she had 3 fewer fingers to work with.

Ruby held the green finger aloft, while it radiated a faint green glow.

After a few moments, the tech had collecter her readings, and sent the return signal to the other two Rubies. She tracked them on the screen just to make sure they weren’t wandering off.

7XB was fruitlessly trying to see if the little green cylinder would draw on the wall.

Peridot took notice of her artistic efforts. “Here,” she offered, editing a few of the finger’s properties in her settings configuration.

Suddenly, the tiny rod was producing glowing lime lines.

“Whaaaaaat!” Ruby grinned. She colored little swirls and jagged patterns on the tunnel’s bulkhead.

The tech couldn’t help but smile. “It’s normily for emergency situations, creating nav markers and things. But I figured it would work just as well as a drawing implement.”

Ruby adjusted her visor. “You have the coolest stuff.”

“Heh, I’m glad you see it that way.” Ruby tried to hand the finger back over to her, but she interrupted. “No, no, keep it.”

“REALLY!?”

The tunnel walls echoed with joy for a few moments.

“Yes,” said Peridot, wincing at the outburst, “really. They’ll be issuing me a gear update at my next posting anyway so-”

“Your next posting?”

The green gem’s wince intensified. “Yes...I’m being...reassigned.”

Ruby moved in close, and brought the finger back into docking range of the limb enhancer, so that she was holding Peridot’s hand. “Where?”

“Far away.”

“Why?” Rubie’s voice wasn’t quite as steady.

“Punishment, I think.”

Ruby’s hands shot to her visor, and she let out a tear-filled gasp. “Because of me?”

“No! No, nothing so...logical. The word is, a Peridot from my facet...messed up. Big time. And so, a lot of the Peridots are being...re-evaluated.”

“Oh...” Ruby sniffed.

“There was a chance that if my findings here were good news, I would have been able to stay. The Diamonds do like to reward good news.”

“It’s not, is it?”

“No.”

Ruby pondered. “Could we just...tell them it is?” she whispered.

“I could falsify the data...” Peridot scratched the gem at her hip. “But that would just mean that more gems would get hurt. We’ve already lost two Peridots and a handful of Rubies to these survey missions.”

The pair began watching their step a little more on the way back.

“I tried looking into what all this was for, after the last far-survey mission got lost,” Peridot continued.

“These are factories, right? These places getting built?” Ruby walked beneath a low-hanging conduit, as Peridot ducked down next to her.

“That’s right, factories. Factories for producing what, though? Answer: construction equipment.” Peridot struggled against a strained, dry laugh. “Construction equipment...when we’re so low on resources...the Diamonds are having us build - brand new - construction equipment. And look at what we’re doing now!” her voice rose. “A half-built robonoid could do this! But no. We have to keep building. We have to keep mining. We have to keep making machines for our mechanics, computers for our technicians, wars for our soldiers, and kindergartens for our kindergarteners. Every gem has to have a role, a ‘purpose.’ Without a ‘purpose,’ what’s the difference between a Rutile and a Peridot? An Amethyst and a Topaz?”

“A Ruby and a Sapphire?” the little soldier offered.

Peridot nodded, and knelt down, her voice dropping low, just above silence.

“A Pearl...

...and a Diamond?”

The quiet between them was nearly deafening, but above the low hum of the empty hall, they heard it.

A distant rumble.

Peridot opened a channel to the other Rubies. “Evacuate, now!”

The alarms on her seismic scanners lit up, as Ruby and Peridot sprinted down the tunnel.

As they rounded the bend, to being just in sight of the central juncture, a crack split along the ceiling.

“Get down!” Peridot cried, as she raised her arm above them.

Ruby hit the deck, and the entire corridor was bathed in green light. A hardlight field leapt from Peridot’s gauntlet, and caught the roof of the tunnel above them. Around the pair, however, the collapse continued, until there was only a small pocket trapping the pair of them inside.

“Are you alright!?” Peridot cried.

“Yeah...I’ve had worse...” Ruby coughed out, forcing the heavy dust out of her throat.

“Good, now I just have to...um...if I can...uh-oh”

Ruby looked up to see Peridot holding the roof above them with her hardlight shield, but she lacked many fingers on the other arm. Studying the room they were now in, Ruby realized...they were trapped.

“No armcannon, huh,” muttered Ruby.

“Afraid not,” Peridot responded, clicking her two remaining fingers together on her left hand.

The red gem paced out the edge of their little room, then studied the far wall.

“This way to the exit, right?” asked the Ruby, trying to remember.

“Yes...but...the wall in the way is 10 centimeters of hardened, heat-shielded material, followed by who knows how much rock and debris. If you even could get hot enough to melt it, you’d melt me too. No offense, but Rubies aren’t known for their ability to focus their energy.”

7XB pressed a hand against the red-rusted wall. “Let me guess, focus is more of a Sapphire thing?” she mused with a wry smile, then plunged her hand into the instantly molten bulkhead.

With the hole started, 7XB began to trace a doorway with her finger, drawing white-hot lines into the wall, criss-crossing it and carving it to pieces.

Peridot 5XT could only watch with a strange mixture of amusement, amazement, relief, and pride as the little Ruby cut a swath back to the juncture.

Halfway there, the pair of them met the other two Rubies, who were tunneling their way in using some scavenged tools made of scrap, haphazardly welded together.

The survey team shared a quick reunion, with all the Rubies getting rather caught up in the moment of triumph, before Peridot reminded them that they were still in danger of a full tunnel collapse.

The full team leapt from the tunnel in the cliffside, plunging into the dusty sands below.

“How did you manage that!?” one Ruby cried.

“Yeah, you cheated! We couldn’t melt through that wall for nothin’!” exclaimed the other.

“Well...” 7XB began, “I’ve had a lot of time to practice drawing...”

The others two seemed confused.

“It helps me focus!”

The others found that to be an unsatisfactory explanation, and decided to pelt 7XB with globs of semi-molten metal dust. The soldier quickly returned fire, sending white-hot sparks showering down with every impact.

Peridot picked her head up out of the sand to find the most hazardous approximation of a snowball fight possible, and decided to let them have their fun while she transmitted the data.

It wasn’t long before the group was back at the base. 7XB tried to take her time in the mission debrief, but she knew what was coming. As the Amethyst dismissed the Rubies back to the dwelling pit, Peridot 5XT stopped them. She strode right in front of the Amethyst, knelt down, and picked 7XB up into an earnest, tearful embrace.

“Promise me you’ll stay safe...”

“I can’t...” Ruby mumbled, “But I can promise I’ll make you proud.”

They parted, and Ruby tried not to cry. When she dropped back down into the dwelling pit, it didn’t quite feel like home anymore...just a place she was. She made a few more friends among the Rubies, as tales of her heroics filtered among them. Quite a few more stopped off by the edge of the pit to look at her mural, and pretty much all of them made sure to keep the wrestling away from it, so no more would get damaged. It was several more days though, until 7XB decided to make another addition to it. The word had just come through that a Sapphire was on her way, so 7XB didn’t have as much time as she would have liked. The other Rubies kept her encouraged, though, so it wasn’t long until her next piece took shape.

With the glowing green stick, she drew her best work yet. A tall, angular portrait, of a Peridot with a gem at her hip.

@drawbauchery @linkerbell

Peridot 5XT lives on in Gem ‘n I

#su #fic #feels

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furmark6-blog · 5 years

Text

The Evolution of K2FC, a.k.a. Kenji's Kimchi Fried Chicken Sandwich

[Photographs: Vicky Wasik, except where noted. Video: Serious Eats Team]

I visited the Serious Eats test kitchen in Brooklyn back in October of 2018 to shoot this video about my Korean fried chicken recipe. The date is relevant because now, over half a year later, the fried chicken I cook in the video bears only a slight resemblance to the one I currently serve at my restaurant, Wursthall.

Nor is it very similar to the one I served four years ago at a strip mall in the San Gabriel Valley, during a pop-up event for my first book tour. Or the one you may have seen me make a couple years ago on Guy's Grocery Games. In fact, I've been playing with some iteration of the concept of a kimchi-brined fried chicken sandwich for many years now, so what you're seeing in this recipe and video are really just a snapshot of a dish that's still evolving. Heck, there are two distinct versions in the video alone!

First things first: Calling it "Korean fried chicken" is a misnomer. Korean fried chicken is an actual, defined thing: chicken fried with an eggshell-crisp coating of cornstarch slurry. I even have a recipe for it.

The recipe I'm talking about today is more like Southern-style fried chicken with Korean flavors. It takes some influence from Nashville hot chicken and fast food chicken sandwiches as well. On the menu at Wursthall, we've been reluctantly calling it "K2FC"—Kenji's Korean fried chicken. I get embarrassed seeing my name printed in the menu like that, but my partner insists.*

* Strangely, it's a secondhand kind of embarrassment. I look at the menu and think, Ooohhh, who's that Kenji guy who decided to name a dish after himself? Yikes.

The very first time I made this sandwich, it was at a friend's house in Jamaica Plain, near Boston. The idea of marinating chicken in kimchi brine had just struck me. I already knew that pickle juice makes a great brine for fried chicken—aside from adding flavor, the high salt content alters the protein structure of the chicken so that it retains more moisture as it cooks, and the acidity has a tenderizing effect. The same should work with kimchi brine.

So we tried it. It was a pretty quick-and-dirty affair—essentially my Five-Ingredient Fried Chicken Sandwiches, made with kimchi in place of pickles—but it was promising.

The next batch was a little more involved, using my buttermilk fried chicken recipe as the base. I brought that version to an event my old boss Ken Oringer was throwing for the 15th anniversary of his restaurant Clio (which has since been taken over by his sashimi bar, Uni), featuring a 20-course tasting menu cooked by alumni of the restaurant. Nineteen of the world's leading chefs, and me with a fried chicken sandwich.

I'd been planning on serving it with a mayo spiked with gochujang (Korean fermented chili paste) on mini Martin's potato rolls, but Alex Talbot, half of the husband-and-wife team behind Curiosity Doughnuts and the seminal blog Ideas in Food, suggested making a dill-pickle mayonnaise instead, so I went with that, and boy, was it delicious. My friend Jamie Bissonnette, the chef at Little Donkey in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Toro in Boston and New York, was at the dinner and texted me mid-service to proclaim the sandwich "totally craveable." High praise!

I decided to keep working on the sandwich, serving it at a series of pop-ups in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco during my book tour, each time offering a slightly different version.

This rendition features Stella's classic biscuits with black sesame seeds folded into the dough.

By the time I brought it to Serious Eats, this was where we were: chicken thighs brined in kimchi juice, along with buttermilk, eggs, garlic, salt (just enough to account for the added liquid from the buttermilk), and soy sauce (soy sauce contains proteases that can help tenderize meat), as well as ground black pepper and gochugaru, a Korean chili flake that offers a lot of floral aroma and a bit of heat. You can read about more Korean pantry staples right here.

The sauce starts out like a Nashville hot chicken–style hot oil. I combine oil with chilies (more gochugaru), along with black pepper and garlic, then heat it up until it's sizzling and toasty-smelling.

If you want to keep it real simple, this is a good place to stop. The fried chicken dipped in hot chili oil is delicious all on its own.

But I decided to continue by emulsifying that chili oil into a sauce with gochujang, honey, cider vinegar, and a little soy sauce. It comes out with a sweet-hot-vinegary flavor profile—not unlike Buffalo sauce, but with a deeper, toasty chili flavor.

Next, it's time to dredge and fry the chicken. My standard fried chicken dredge is a mixture of flour and cornstarch, along with a dash of baking powder. The cornstarch and baking powder help the chicken to fry up extra light and crisp.

To this base, I add some more gochugaru and black pepper, along with black sesame seeds and garlic powder. (Garlic powder works well in dredges and spice rubs, where fresh garlic is likely to clump or burn.)

The real trick here (and in literally every single one of my fried chicken recipes) is to drizzle some of the liquid brine into the dredge and massage it in with your fingertips, creating little clumps of breading that add texture and surface area to the chicken as it fries.

Some folks like to rest their chicken after dredging and before frying. I find that the flour over-hydrates this way, producing a crust that's a little leathery. Instead, I prefer to fry immediately after dredging.

My frying vessel of choice at home is a flat-bottomed wok. The wide, flared sides make it easy to flip and maneuver the food inside, while also catching spatter before it hits your stove or countertop.

Peanut or soybean oil is excellent for deep-frying, delivering crispy crusts and neutral flavor. Canola or vegetable will work, too, though the chicken won't end up quite as crisp. I aim to keep the oil at 275 to 300°F (135 to 149°C) the whole way through.

Once the chicken is fried, I drain it, brush it with the sauce, and sprinkle it with a spice blend containing gochugaru, black pepper, black sesame seeds, and a touch of sugar.

Serve the chicken on a toasted potato bun, with a smear of kimchi mayonnaise (which is just drained kimchi, chopped and mixed with mayonnaise); plenty of dill pickles; and a pile of shredded cabbage. It's pretty tasty!

Even tastier is the version we made on Stella's biscuits. You can find the basic recipe in her book, BraveTart; here, she tweaked it by folding black sesame seeds into the dough.** For that version, I went extra light on the sauce, omitted the kimchi mayo, and instead added a drizzle of honey.

** Another version of these biscuits involves adding sliced scallions along with the sesame seeds, which you'll hear Stella mention in the video. Her final recipe doesn't include the scallions, but you can go ahead and add a handful if you want.

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Folks who've been to my restaurant know that the dish in this video is pretty strikingly different from the fried chicken and waffles we serve daily. But, in fact, the Wursthall fried chicken was directly inspired by the black sesame biscuit sandwich!

The chicken starts out essentially the same, though we also add some gochujang to the brine. I've written previously about double-frying chicken—that is, frying it, letting it completely cool, then frying a second time before serving—and that's the technique we use here.

The idea is that after the first fry, moisture from the inner layers of breading eventually starts to spread out, causing the whole crust to soften a little. The second fry drives out moisture a second time, leaving you with an extra-crisp crust. We fry our chicken in 225°F (107°C) soybean oil, to an internal temperature of 155°F (68°C), then chill it and re-fry it to order, at 300°F (149°C), until it's crisp.

After coming out of the fry oil, it goes for a dunk in chili oil, which we flavor with gochugaru, black pepper, cumin, garlic, and ginger. Then it gets a heavy dry dusting of gochugaru, black pepper, cumin, salt, and sugar.

Instead of a bun, we make scallion cornbread waffles, a modified version of my brown butter cornbread—we increase the ratio of regular flour to cornmeal a bit, and reduce the amount of fat, for a little more structure—to which we add scallions, cilantro, and black sesame seeds, before baking in a Belgian waffle iron.

To finish the dish, we spread the waffles with kimchi butter (kimchi, butter, and gochujang combined in a food processor); place the chicken on top; drizzle it all with honey; and add a pile of our lacto-fermented dill pickles and a big splash of our house hot sauce (which is simple: Fresno chilies, fermented for two weeks, then blended and adjusted for seasoning).

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

All the same basic flavors and techniques are there; they're just rearranged a bit to fit a restaurant menu and production schedule.

So that's the current State of the Fried Chicken, and it's gonna keep changing. We're now discussing changing our current chicken schnitzel sandwich to a pork schnitzel sandwich and adding a spicy fried chicken sandwich to our menu, which will no doubt start with some past version of this one as a jumping-off point.

Since I'm not really one to keep recipes secret, attached to this article you'll find a recipe for the version of the sandwich shown in the video, plus another recipe for Stella's black sesame buttermilk biscuits. For the restaurant version, if you own Ed's book, Serious Eater, you've already got that recipe in your hand as a thank-you gift. If not, you can probably piece it together from my description here—or just wait. Eventually we'll publish the full recipe publicly, too.

This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.

Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/07/kimchi-fried-chicken-sandwich.html

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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marcellusbitsandpieces · 5 years

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Bits and Pieces Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup 2/10/19

One of the partners that Holland America Cruise Line has brought onboard is America's Test Kitchen. On our "At Sea" days there are two different presentations with a theme - like Serious Tacos and Lunch for a Rainy Day. Curt is such a foodie that getting him to go is easier than pie. 😊

One of the first sessions was Lunch for a Rainy Day featuring Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup. I was interested in learning what they did to make it without a can and not too complicated.

A sample test kitchen is set up in an area for many passengers to watch the entire process of the recipe. For those who can't see the detail, several TVs are placed strategically around for better viewing.

Some of the tips that I especially liked were using bread as the thickener rather than flour...this made it much easier to adjust to gluten free...and using canned whole tomatoes which aren't seasonality always available. Plus, I loved the idea of the optional ingredient!

They recommend the canned whole tomatoes because these are picked and processed at the peak of freshness, are already peeled for convenience and the whole tomato has less surface interaction with the sodium preservative, such as diced or sliced, etc.

Another lesson learned was about extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO). EVOO means that the oil from the olives is only from the first press. Other olive oil comes from a second or other succeeding presses. Also, check to be sure that your EVOO is from one region. If the bottle contains oil from more than one region, the quality is under question - blending is not better.

The presenter made a huge point of the choice of bread used -- a hearty bread NOT a soft mushy one. She that using a soft bread would likely result in a wad of "soup" which wouldn't be yummy!!

Maybe the best lesson that I learned was to always fill a blender half full when blending hot liquids. It saves in cleanup and possible burns if the top explodes or when removing the top from air pressure that built up.

Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup

INGREDIENTS

1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 bay leaf

2 (28 oz) cans whole tomatoes

3 slices hearty sandwich bread

(crust removed, torn or cut into 1" cubes)

1 Tbsp brown sugar

2 c chicken broth (!!)

2 Tbsp brandy (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Heat 2 Tbsp EVOO in Dutch oven over medium high heat until shimmering. Add onion, garlic and bay leaf. Cook stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, 3-5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and their juice. Using a potato masher, mash until no pieces bigger than 1" remain. Stir in bread and sugar. Bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until bread is completely saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes. Remove and --- discard bay leaf (very important).

Transfer half of soup to blender. (Did you remove the bay leaf?) Add 1 Tbsp oil and process until soup is smooth and creamy, 2-3 minutes. Transfer to large bowl and repeat with remaining soup and oil. Rinse out Dutch oven (removing all pieces) and return soup to pot. Stir in broth and brandy (if using). Return soup to boil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle soup and garnish as desired...croutons, sour cream, chives etc.

Even though the recipe says that it serves 6-8, until I have actually made it, I hesitate to say it as truth. But I'm looking forward to making this as soon as we are home. I hope you enjoy this.

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vivianbates · 5 years

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Kaumana Caves in Hilo

The Big Island of Hawai‘i is the type of dynamic land where you can find a lava tube on the edge of the island’s main city. An 1881 lava flow from Mauna Loa stopped just short of Hilo. Venture up and down a lava tube created by that flow. Enter through a collapsed skylight at Kaumana Caves Park and start exploring. While the entire tube may measure over twenty miles long, visitors can expect to see somewhere under two miles from the Kaumana Caves entrances.

Start from a parking area along Kaumana Drive, about 4 miles from downtown Hilo. Cross the road to immediately find the access point for the Kaumana Caves. A concrete staircase with a yellow, metal railing descends into an open area where the roof of the cave collapsed. A sign beside the staircase reads:

Warning – enter at your own risk. Cave exploration is inherently dangerous. The danger is increased in a seismically active and flood prone area. There are unseen dangers in this cave, which may cause risk of death or serious injury.

A confusing aspect of the Kaumana Caves lava tube is that some areas are preserved as a park, while other parts of the lava tube are privately owned (below private property). Visitors are granted entry into the public area of the caves, but it is not fully apparent what sections of the lava tube are off limits.

There are no boundary markings showing the boundary for the park. Kaumana Cave System traverses onto private property when you are not permitted to enter without permission.

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Based on the nuances of Kaumana Cave and the risks of exploring deep into cave systems, it is probably best to just turn back after venturing a satisfying distance into each side of the lava tube.

The staircase leads down into a collapsed area that splits the lava tube. This skylight cradles a miniature rainforest where ferns and philodendron drape down the sides of the cave. To the left and right of the bottom of the stairs are two openings into the lava tube.

The staircase down into the collapsed entrance to the lava tube

North of the entrance for Kaumana Caves

Turning right at the bottom of the staircase leads to the larger of the two entrances. Walk down stone steps to a tall opening in the tube. Sunlight illuminates the front of a sizable room in the lava tube. While much is visible at first, you will quickly need to rely on flashlights to see inside the cave.

Exploring Kaumana Caves

Step onto the floor of the lava tube, which has the ropy and smooth characteristics of pahoehole lava. Pahoehoe is the smoother type of lava that looks like hardened batter (instead of jagged rocks of an ‘a‘a flow). Do watch your step though, as the floor contains jagged breakdown areas where lava rock has collapsed.

Move toward the back of the large room in the lava tube. Climb up a breakdown and check out the roots hanging from the ceiling of the cave. Examine the different colors of growth on the dark walls of the cave. After about 100 yards, the room shrinks to a narrow passage below a cave breakdown. Beyond this point, the cave opens up again before another breakdown that makes passage difficult.

Explore what you wish, or simply enjoy the first large long room on the north side of the Kaumana Caves lava tube. Make your way back up and out into the open air by the staircase.

The large room by the northern cave entrance

South of the entrance for Kaumana Caves

Turning left at the bottom of the stairs leads to the smaller of the two entrances. This cave opening is about a quarter the size of the other one and more difficult to access. Make your way down a makeshift staircase over chunky boulders from the cave breakdown that exposed the lava tube.

Once you get inside the cave and are standing firmly on the cave floor, notice a new obstacle ahead. A shelf of lava rock sits right across the middle of the cave, dividing it off into upper and lower areas. At first, it might look like there’s no where to go. Duck under the shelf and scooch your way to the other side. Beyond the barrier, you’ll be able to stand easily again inside a long, relatively narrow lava tube.

A shelf blocking the rest of the lava tube

After the early challenges, the walking becomes unobstructed. It is possible to travel for quite a long distance up the lava tube (or at least until the invisible boundary where the cave leaves county land for private property). As you travel into the cave, examine all the different shapes in the lava where it has cooled on the ceiling, walls, and floor. Molten lava does some fascinating things when it cools!

Bat-like features in the ceiling of the lava tube

Once you have gone as far back into the cave as you’d like, or spent as much time in the dark as you care to, make your way back out of the cave and take the staircase back to the surface near the parking area.

How are lava tubes created?

Lava tubes channel eruptions of fluid basaltic lava (pahoehoe). When Mauna Loa erupted in 1881, the surface of the lava flow cooled first, while the lava below the crust remained molten. Like plumbing for the eruption, this tube formed below the surface and channeled lava downhill. The hardened walls of the tube insulate the lava so that it did not cool until it spilled out of the end of the tube. When the eruption stopped, and new lava was no longer entering the tube, the molten lava already in the tube continued its downhill flow, leaving behind an empty cavity.

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As the lava tube hollowed out, the 1881 lava flow halted about a mile from downtown Hilo (about 37 miles from the summit of Mauna Loa). Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani of the Kamehameha dynasty is credited with saving Hilo from destruction. She camped in front of the lava flow and prayed to the great Hawaiian deity Pele, the creator of the Hawaiian Islands and the goddess of fire and volcanoes.

In subsequent years, an area above part of the lava tube collapsed and the caves were revealed. Even when the roof of a lava tube doesn’t completely collapse to create a skylight, sections of the roof can fall, called breakdowns, which leave jagged rocks on the floor of the cave to traverse.

Looking up the lava tube in Kaumana Caves

What to bring to Kaumana Caves Lava Tube

Sturdy footwear is recommended. Lava tubes are very dark. Bring multiple bright lights (flashlights) per person if possible. Unlike lava caves that you might encounter in the Pacific Northwest, the Kaumana Caves are warm and humid like the surface above. Pack one extra layer for safety. Kaumana Caves is managed by the Department of Parks and Recreation for the County of Hawaii. No fee is required to park at the trailhead and enter the cave, so get out and enjoy!

To get to the trailhead: Take Hawaii 19 (Hawaii Belt Road) to the center of Hilo and head inland on Waiamuenue Avenue. Drive 1 mile and bear left through a split onto Kaumana Drive (don’t turn right toward Rainbow Falls). Take Kaumana Drive for 3 miles. On the outside of a major bend to the right, turn left into the parking area for the caves. A sign by the entrance of Kaumana Caves is visible on the right just before the parking area. Park and walk across the road, being cautious to avoid the traffic.

Trailhead address: Kaumana Drive, Hilo, HI 96720 Trailhead coordinates: 19.6866, -155.1309 (19° 41′ 11.8″N 155° 07′ 51.2″W)

Use this map to view the trail and get directions:

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View Hilo trails in a larger map Or view a regional map of surrounding Hawaii trails.

Photos

Nearby Trails

Similar Trails

More Info

Photos

These photos were taken in October of 2018. Click to enlarge.

Nearby Trails

Rainbow Falls This 0.2-mile hike around Rainbow Falls Lookout explores a viewpoint facing a lovely waterfall and also ventures up to the top of the falls.

‘Akaka Falls This short loop slips through a tropical valley to bold views of a 442-foot single-drop waterfall.

Waipi‘o Beach & Muliwai Trail Overlook This 4.88-mile hike plunges into fantastically-wild Waipi‘o Valley, crosses a remote black sand beach (framed by cliffs and waterfalls), and climbs to a stellar view overlooking the ocean, beach, and valley.

Kalahuipua‘a Trail and Fishponds Loop This action-packed 1.7-mile hike explores a lava field with a lava tube shelter and impressive fishponds along a gorgeous coastline.

Malama Trail This 0.2 to 1.2-mile hike visits rare rock carvings in Puakō Petroglyph Archeological District on the west coast of the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Kiholo Bay & Wainanali‘i Lagoon This 2-mile coastal hike in Kiholo State Park Reserve has non-stop ocean views, crossing tide pools and beaches on the way to a turquoise lagoon.

Similar Trails

Ape Cave in Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument (Washington) This adventurous underground hike travels through one of the longest lava tubes in the world.

Trail of Two Forests in Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument (Washington) This short nature trail tours a landscaped that was transformed by a molten lava flow. For extra fun, crawl through a 50-foot long lava tube beneath the trail.

Guler Ice Cave in Gifford Pinchot National Forest (Washington) This short hike goes underground to explore an old lava tube with frozen stalactites and stalagmites, plus other interesting cave features.

Lava River Cave in Newberry National Volcanic Monument (Oregon) This underground hike explores a lava tube south of Bend that is filled with fascinating volcanic features.

Lava Tube in Mojave National Preserve (California) This short 0.6-mile hike drops below the desert surface into an old lava tube with a spectacular skylight.

Caves Trail in Crates of the Moon National Monument (Idaho) This 1.6 mile travels above and below the surface, exploring lava tubes in the Great Rift Lava Flow.

Kalahuipua’a Trail and Fishponds Loop (Hawaii) This action-packed 1.7-mile hike explores a lava field with a lava tube shelter and impressive fishponds along a gorgeous coastline.

More Info

Kaumana Caves in Hawaii Trails: Walks, Strolls, and Treks on the Big Island by Kathey Morey

Kaumana Caves on hawaii-guide.com

Kaumana Caves on atlasobscura.com

Kaumana Caves on explore-the-big-island.com

Kaumana Caves on inspiredimperfection.com

Kaumana Caves on outdoorproject.com

Kaumana Caves on bigislandhikes.com

from hikespeak.com https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/kaumana-caves-lava-tube-hilo-hawaii/

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