E C

"Best" in this case taking into consideration longevity, taste, and cost.

I've tried Mountain House, and it definitely is tasty enough and relatively affordable. What are other brands out there and how do they stack against Mountain House?

Thanks!

Now I am aware through a bit of Googling that there are some tribes in Central-Southern China that have a cheesemaking culture, but for the most part Cheese is foreign to Chinese cooking (as is the consumption of non-human milk I guess).

Why was this the case? There are a number of water buffalo that would have existed in China since ancient times, yet cheesemaking never became widespread. Even the Indians have paneer, and India isn't that isolated from China.

Thanks!

So at my local Italian restaurant I had a simple but excellent dished called "Penne Papalina" on the menu. Was an orangish color and described on the menu as "red sauce and a touch of cream".

Well a week later I remember to try and find a recipe online, and to my amazement "penne alla papalina" seems to be a dish that involves white sauce, peas, and proscuitto. I can't find any recipe that resembles the tasty meal that I had earlier.

Is "penne papalina" the same as "penne alla papalina"? And does it refer to one specific dish, or are there variants of it?

Thanks!

Link to the menu

http://www.scardinositalian.com/MenuPro%20New%20Me...

I figured that in Canada it would just be called "bacon", while real bacon would be called "American bacon" or something. Is that true, or does something else happen?

I have one organic Japanese cucumber at my disposal, so I only have one shot at this to get it right. This is serious business!

I want to make one of those dainty tea time cucumber sandwiches that those British people seem to enjoy so much. But I really don't know where to start, apart from knowing that I need crustless white bread, something that is possibly mayonnaise, and of course my one cucumber. But I am unclear as to the steps and such, like "do you peel the cucumber before you slice it" or "would adding a hamburger patty not be traditional".

Thanks! And it's almost lunch time (oh and is it a lunch thing or do I need to wait for tea time? When is tea time anyhow?)!

I was playing Borderlands 2 and (spoilers) Roland dies when he is shot by Handsome Jack.

But almost everyone in Borderlands just respawns at a station when they die. At least Roland was capable of doing that in Borderlands 1. Yet when he dies in Borderlands 2, why doesn't he just respawn like normal?

Come to think of it, why doesn't Handsome Jack just respawn in this fashion after the final boss fight? Kinda makes the entire game seem to be rather shaky plot wise.

I'm looking for a red dot sights that is 1) 1 MOA and 2) has a lightweight and small profile. It's for a Ruger Mark III handgun. At less then 50 yards the standard 3 MOA dots are simply too large to use. And I like to keep the sights lightweight and unobtrusive, so I was hoping for something along the lines of a Burris FastFire or C-More STS. Except none of those has a 1 MOA dot.

Thanks!

So I just had a minor kitchen fire, and I used a fire extinguisher to put it out. In the process though I'm sure I inhaled some of the stuff that came out of the extinguisher. It was some sort of yellow powder and tasted sour.

Will I be okay, or should I take precautions? It's been maybe 4 hours now and I'm not feeling especially different just yet.

Thanks!

So I've been watching a pet snail for a bit, and I've noticed that it doesn't seem capable of traveling in reverse. If I put a tasty bit of lettuce behind it then it needs to slowly turn around to get at the leaf. It seems like it would be so much easier to back up, yet it hasn't done it the last three times that I tried.

Are snails physiologically incapable of backing up? Or is there something in snail culture that makes it taboo to do so? Or is my snail just a bit "unique" in the head?

Thanks!

I just finished "Prelude to Foundation" which I would guess came first. But there are many others, and I'm not sure what order they should be read in.

Thanks!

I recently got an inexpensive pH meter, and I'm wondering how I should correctly use it. I noticed that if I polish the probe every single time, I get a reading that is 0.8 below what I would have gotten if I had just rinsed off the probe without polishing (a 6.2 reading becomes a 7.0 reading).

So...

1) Are these inexpensive meters worth it? Mine was a cheap $10 Ferry-Morse detector that I picked up from Home Depot. Would it be accurate enough to give reasonable readings?

2) Should I be polishing the probes after each use, or just rinsing it off if I'm using it immediately? These two methods give significantly different results when used in the same spot.

And any other input on these pH meters would be great! Thanks!

I'm interested in figuring out the acidity of my garden soil, but I don't have a garden test kit. I do have a kit for my aquarium however. Would it be possible to dissolve soil in distilled water and use the aquarium test kit?

Thanks!

I understand that the basic idea is to boil everything, but afterwards is it served as a soup, or are the individual items in the water taken out and the water discarded?

Thanks!

Well I'm finally down to the bottom of my giant Hoppe's #9 bottle and I've been looking around for alternatives. Gunzilla caught my eye, though I'm also open to anything else that people have had luck with. Or should I still stick with Hoppes?

Thanks!

I've seen some aftermarket triggers that are simply a straight stick instead of the usual curve. What's this design for, and what advantages does it offer to the more traditional curved trigger?

Thanks!

Back in August 2009 I asked around here about a bolt-action rifle that would take 5.56 STANAG magazines. And back then the answer was a sad "no".

But now there's a new offering by Mossberg, the MVP. I was wondering if anyone had any firsthand, secondhand, or fifteenthhand information about it? I'm specifically interested in accuracy, as well as if Mossberg will continue to improve and develop the line to include different features (stocks, barrel twists).

Thanks!

Here's a more detailed scenario. There's a shooter at an outdoor rifle range, shooting at steel plates. There are about double the number of benches as there are steel plates as the shooting line is multipurpose. Most of the other steel plates are being used, except one to the far end of the firing line. This bench is undesirable as it's right next to the shotgunners.

A second shooter arrives, and sets up next to the first shooter. The second shooter also intends to shoot steel, and begins plinking away at the same plate that the first shooter was using.

What's the right thing to do here? Have the first shooter give the second shooter a chance since he was there for awhile already? Have the second shooter move on and pick another target since the first shooter already claimed the spot? Or share the target (hopefully when magazines are being reloaded)? Maybe something else?

This did happen to me of course (won't say which shooter I was) and guidance would be helpful!

I've been looking to get some 5.56 rounds and my little carbine likes light XM193 rounds. I've noticed that rounds produced at Lake City are much more expensive than other rounds. I've also noticed that Lake City rounds are produced to Federal Cartridge Company specs. And that Federal sells their own XM193 rounds.

So first, since all XM193/M193 rounds should be produced to the same pressure/velocity/temperature stability specifications, would it matter if it was a Lake City round or not? And second, if Lake City rounds are produced to Federal specs, then are there significant differences between Lake City and Federal XM193? Finally if there are differences, are these differences worth the extra expense?

I noticed that Aguila offers two flavors of .22LR match ammunition, in pistol and rifle varieties. But there doesn't seem to be a readily discernible difference between the two:

Both use 40 grain lead round nose bullets

Both go 1080 FPS (not sure if measured out of the same barrel)

Both have about 100 foot-pounds of energy (which makes sense as the bullets weigh the same and go the same speed)

But the pistol ammunition is slightly cheaper than the rifle type. Could I just get one type for both my rifles and pistol to use?

Thanks!

I have a Ruger 22/45 Hunter model (with a ridiculous 6 7/8" barrel) and I just can't seem to use the iron sights very well. It's not the gun, it's my eyes that have problems adjusting to the fiber optic sights (especially when it's a red fiber against an orange bullseye).

For awhile I was using a Simmons pistol scope but between the weight and the eyestrain it's just not that enjoyable. So now I'm looking for a red dot, and I could use some help with finding a 1 MOA red dot sight (3 MOA is just a bit too large for me). And with a red dot sight it means that I don't need so much rail on the top of my gun, and I think a shorter, lighter rail would be useful too. Does anyone have recommendations or leads on a good sight and rail?

Or should I just get a 1x scope? I'd be okay with that too instead of a red dot, since it wouldn't need batteries and would still be lighter than my old 2-6x pistol scope.

Thanks!