Deep frying: skill: in works.

I deep fried calamari once when I was in grad school, while hosting a dinner for a friend and her brand new fiancé, he loved calamari. And was a decent guy, and last I heard, they're still together, though last I heard was over 15 years ago.

After grad school, I worked at Safeway frying doughnuts for a few months. That was freaking miserable. but I did deep fry stuff.

Since then, and it's been over two decades, I have never to best of my recollection fried any-freaking-thing. Just not worth it, a mess, it stinks, the oil must then be dealt with etc. The calorie count of deep fried food was less of a consideration than either of those.

But. I've been wanting to make good falafel for a while. I've baked them, and they're ok, but not great. I can eat them out, but the amount of cilantro in most restaurant falafel.... well, I guess people eat Tide Pods, I could eat those?

I decided it was time to try to deep fry falafel at home.

And it went... surprisingly well. It wasn't as hard as I thought, a lot less splattering (like almost none) than I'd feared, and the falafel came out good.

I still need to work on the recipe, they were good, but not the spices were not what I wanted. I just added a bit extra parsley for the cilantro. The recipe just called for cumin, but I should have added coriander as well (which, note, does not taste like soap!), and more pepper. I'll also try adding some mint next time, just a bit.

Perry and I made pita breads, and dh cooked them on the griddle while I was frying the falafel. The breads were good, but did not separate the way they should have. I'll have to work a bit more on that.

I winged it on tahini sauce and it was good.

Linnea had a friend over. She's lactose intolerant and gluten sensitive, and we invited her to stay for dinner! Linnea, btw, was horrified that I was serving vegan food. Linnea, my little darling carnivore, views vegan food as a a crime against humanity. We've all be sworn to secrecy, we're not supposed to tell anything that she actually ate and enjoyed vegan food. Heh.

I did toss the used oil. I don't think I'll be deep frying enough to warrant keeping it in the fridge. That was a waste, and something I'd need to work on.

I had bought an air fryer and gave it to AC when we didn't really a) use it or b) think that it was any better than baking. I might see if I can borrow it to try falafel in that, but considering how everything else worked -or didn't- in the air fryer, I doubt it'll be a success.

Anyhow, I feel like I now have a meal that while not-fancy, was well enough liked to be a "high value" meal for the kids.

My biggest fear: that Linnea realizes that if I can fry falafel, I can fry beignets. Repeat with "Perry/potatoes" and "dh/sopapillas".

Serves me right

So. I needed laundry detergent. Perry uses Tide Pods, because easy. So I went to Target and bought a box of Tide Pods Original Scent.

This is what I've bought in the past for travel, and for Perry. But not often.

What I did not know? They changed the scent earlier this year.

The pods in Original Scent now smell like you've come from a two-bit whorehouse. Seriously cheap, stinky perfume. Perry and Linnea, who used them before me, both complained. And then I went and checked and OMG, yech.

Then I checked the reviews at Target.com and saw all the ew, stinky reviews. Sigh.

What really gets me? This answer from an official Tide Team, responding to a comment:

We always want your clothes to smell as great as they look, so we're sorry to hear that you're not a fan of the scent change. We'd recommend giving our Tide Ultra Oxi Pods a try and they will have a similar scent to the old version of the Original. If you have any further questions, please give us a call at (800) 879-8433.

Hello, no? Clothing out of the washer/dryer should not smell. At effing all, or if there is anything smell, it should not really be noticeable. This stuff reeks, a nasty cloying odor.

Anyhow, returned to Target, at least that. Bought some of the oxy stuff. Now I'm concerned about the powder stuff I usually buy, I hope it hasn't changed scent too.

I don't get it. In this era where people in offices are asked not to wear perfume or use strong scents, Tide wants your clothing to smell even more?

This reminds me of how Febreeze, which in it's hard-to-find unscented version is an excellent odor eliminator turned itself into a stinky odor masker because people didn't want to smell nothing, they wanted to smell cheap-flowery perfume.