Well Kikey sure liked Quaker oats. Whatever happened to Maypo?
I love this site. I now know more about starters, grounding for intermittent electrical problems from the engine to the dash, electrical problems under the dash, tires, alignment and camber, upholstry, winshields, tops, carpets, shifting issues and parts, highway group trips, emergency kits to have in the frunk, oils, how to fight rain intrusion, putting in subaru engines with compatible trans, speedos and tachs and lights and swithches...and, now, oatmeal and how to shine one's own pipes with a plethora of line extension versions! And never, never a thread drift! Is this a great country and web site...or what?!
Can we descend into grits ? I might need an EJ22 soob soon. ....
@Idaho - You forgot oil! But then, we don't talk about oil.... 🤫
Here's just the site for you. You can plan your next visit to Florida around places serving Grits (or Polenta, if it's a classy Italian place, like Romano's) .
Especially at that Mecca of Southern Food, a "Waffle House".
If we lived any deeper in the south we would need swim fins, and we find grits on a lot of menus. (I exclude the Florida peninsula from the south as it has become lower New Jersey due to migration from the north.)
Ate them once and decided they are a waste of good "eating out" money, no matter what you team them with.
That extends to most anything I can cook in my kitchen in 10 minutes or less that has the consistency of dense paste.
Bon apetit'
Hominy grits have done a poor job of marketing themselves when compared to oats and antifreeze.
Perhaps what is needed is 420 permutations of the same product, marketed by a trustworthy cartoon from our agrarian past, or for the grits themselves to be colored with different florescent dyes. Would blacklight grits be a thing?
Perhaps a new name would help, although “nixtamalized field corn” doesn’t really have much market appeal either. Maybe “steel cut grits” or “cold-rolled nixtamalized field corn”.
We’ll need an Amishman for the box, or Jimmy Hendix for the blacklight version.
I like grits, for about 40 years now. I almost always get them when down south. A little salt, pepper, and butter. Mmmmmmm!
@David Stroud IM Roadster D There used to be a Subaruvanagon usegroup on Yahoo groups that was a fountain of information. I spent some time there when I was gonna do my EJ25-Westy. Had the motor and ECU, but ended up selling it all. Anyway, a lot of the information transfers to any VW conversion, the easy-button of the Vanagon was the already existing radiator and pipes.
I grew up on a dirt road in NC and am glad to say that grits never graced my mother's kitchen table. Shrimp & grits is a dish I can get behind, but otherwise I agree with Bob, a waste of eating out money.
For some reason, my parents preferred a yet to be mentioned, mushy, hot cereal dish: Cream of Wheat. It ok, but nothing like steel cut oats (because it's wheat and more mushy).
I won't even get started on boiled okra or chitlins...
There are some people in Québec who have specialized in Subie conversions. Vanagon lovers up there. oui, oui, but no grits. : )
@IaM-Ray posted:There are some people in Québec who have specialized in Subie conversions. Vanagon lovers up there. oui, oui, but no grits. : )
Yup, there and Toronto too. There is a guy who does conversion wire harnesses specifically for the Vanagon conversions. I helped my friend convert his Westy Synchro Vanagon to EJ22 power. Then I sold my engine/ECU to another friend and he converted his.
When we lived in Beaufort, SC (Where Grits are King!) there was a caterer named Steve Brown. Steve grew up in Beaufort but went to Culinary school at Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI. He was an excellent cook/chef/caterer and much in demand for all sorts of social events and some Marine recruit graduations.
We were chatting at one of those one time and I mentioned that Grits were far from my favorite dish. He told me that's because I'm from Massachusetts, that Bastion of Yankee mentality, and I never learned how to eat them right.
"Grits by themselves are pretty bland. Yah gotta mix stuff with 'em!", Steve said. "Here in the Low Country, the white folks like to mix in shrimp and a very light sauce. The Gullah folks, out on the sea islands, do too, but then they add in spices like a Creole mix to jazz it up. I've learned a lot from the Gullah ladies and their cookin."
"But for you people from "Up No'th" and tryin' to fit in down South, you can just mix cheese with 'em like this!" and he hands me a bowl of his special, 3-cheese Grits. It was like a whole new flavor world to discover. Since then, in the couple of times we've had some extra Polenta from doing an Italian meal, we've mixed in some cheese blend and remembered Steve.
Steve Brown was a wonderful chef but he was huge - He had the body build of Paul Prudhomme, the famous (and equally overweight) chef from New Orleans. Both of those wonderful chefs died about the same time around 2015.
If you want to try some of that Gullah seasoning, which is sweeter and milder than Creole down on the Gulf, try to find some "Gulluh Luv Seasoning". You'll love it, too.
@Gordon Nichols posted:When we lived in Beaufort, SC... etc. and so forth...
... You'll love it, too.
I remain highly sceptical. I'm satisfied to be missing out on the delights of field corn boiled in lye.
@Michael Pickett posted:I grew up on a dirt road in NC and am glad to say that grits never graced my mother's kitchen table. Shrimp & grits is a dish I can get behind, but otherwise I agree with Bob, a waste of eating out money.
For some reason, my parents preferred a yet to be mentioned, mushy, hot cereal dish: Cream of Wheat. It ok, but nothing like steel cut oats (because it's wheat and more mushy).
I won't even get started on boiled okra or chitlins...
Mmmm.. shrimp 'n' grits is the national dish of Charleston, and most variants range from good to spectacular. I'm with Michael - grits without shrimp are to be avoided.
Been a Southern boy all my life and have so far escaped chitlins (and plan to continue doing so). Don't like boiled okra, but fried, pickled, or in a gumbo it's terrific.
Fried pickles...not to change the subject.
@Panhandle Bob posted:Fried pickles...not to change the subject.
I'm in favor in principle, but you've got to choose the right pickle. I can remember many an afternoon with friends snarfing down fried pickles and chasing them with a Voodoo Ranger or Dead Guy (obligatory beer reference, since this is a SOC thread).
So how do you choose the correct pickle, Michael?
Trust me, @Michael Pickett, No one, outside of the Low Country or the Carolinas, has ever heard of Dixie Voodoo Lager beer. But they had it in Bill's state ABC store on Lady's Island. It ain't Murphy's Irish Stout or Boston Lager, but it's a halfway decent Lager with the best can and six-pack art ever!
This is the classier version:
Certainly a better beer than Yuengling 🤮 the fav of the Beaufort car club. (mostly because it was cheap) and popular with the Marines at the Marine Corp. Air Station, Beaufort. It's a lot like Magic Hat beer here in Vermont/New England and just as weird.
Those outsiders prob'ly haven't heard of "Carolina Beach Music" or "Shag Music", either. I guess you had to be there, listening to the Embers or the Chairmen of the Board or the Drifters and dancing the Carolina Shag. Tommy O'Brien, my friend and the very last aircooled VW mechanic in Beaufort County (and an award winning Shag dancer) taught Kathy and me the basic Shag moves. Now, all we gotta do is get back there and get our groove back on!
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@Panhandle Bob posted:So how do you choose the correct pickle, Michael?
The ones I like. Definitely not sweet pickles (fine for tuna salad, but...). Deli pickles are probably my favorite (think Katz Deli half sours). That's as long as they are well drained and not too mushy.
Dill pickles vary widely, but as long as you pick one I like, I'm fine with them.
Oh, and Voodoo Ranger, @Gordon Nichols, I'm actually more partial to the New Belgium Voodoo Ranger. Originally brewed in Colorado, but they now have a brewery in Asheville, too.
I knew what you were talking about, Mike. Voodoo Ranger and Dead Guy Ale were both regular residents of my beer fridge.
I hate to disagree with you Gordon, but this is the best art to ever grace a bottle:
A bunch of dudes rowing a boat through hell is THE BEST!
A great winter beer(weee heavy) is good in the cold. Also The Mad Elf is GREAT.
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Gents, I think we have set a record for thread drift, and on the SOC that's saying something. I have nothing to offer wrt antifreeze, still believing that they are all the same, (ethylene glycol) but that's just ignorance. As to oats, I'm astonished that nobody has mentioned the latest (to me) variation: Oat milk. Which is not bad, although I prefer almond. Lastly I'll just submit my favorite oat meal is the aforementioned Quaker "old Fashioned". a little water and a few minutes in the microwave and I don't know how more "instant" you might want to be. They will be cooked but not too mushy either. I find them just right this way. I think the little packets of "instant" oatmeal that Ed seems to favor an abomination, with entirely too much sugar and various artificial flavor chemicals. adding fermented fish does not seem to me to be an improvement, although I've never tried it. My Favorite topping is honey, sometimes with butter, and maybe a splash of half and half. Raisins work too. You might like to try Craisins. Or mix in some blueberry all-fruit. the options are indeed endless, but never, it would seem does anyone praise the serving of just plain with no nothing.
TTFN
@Jay Barrow Have you tried any of the aforementioned suggestions? Have you had any luck in getting it sorted?
@Robert M posted:@Jay Barrow Have you tried any of the aforementioned suggestions? Have you had any luck in getting it sorted?
Wait, Robert, recommendations about mushy breakfast foods, fried pickles, beer, or car starting? A wise person would answer "Yes."
@Michael Pickett posted:Wait, Robert, recommendations about mushy breakfast foods, fried pickles, beer, or car starting? A wise person would answer "Yes."
Maybe the first six comments or so only then.
We had 13 comments on hard/no starting covering every aspect of the starting system (battery, cables, starter)... which when you think about it is a best case scenario for how internet troubleshooting threads go ("hey, look at every last aspect of the starting system"). Aside from driving over there and diagnosing it, we did everything a random group of guys from all over can really do. I'd say, as these things go, it was pretty thorough.
At the end of the day, there are only a few things that can be wrong in a "won't crank" situation and we covered them all (at least twice, if I'm not mistaken). It's hard to feel bad about that, and this would be a pretty boring place if we didn't drift.
The irony here is that you brought up a problem with a plugged heater core in your water-cooled diesel, which inadvertently got us off on breakfast mush. The breakfast mush was a pretty amusing diversion, and I learned more from it than I did from the answers to the original question. I'll probably try Pickett's gruel, just because Pickett likes it (I'm a closet Mike Pickett fanboy) - although I tried the coffee he recommended a few years back and my socks were not blown off.
The alternative is a dozen similar threads ("here I am at a car show", "what wax do you use?", "my car isn't running right", and most reliably, "what oil should I use?") on closed loop. If this is like every other car-site, there will be two or three guys cutting and pasting answers they pulled from other places, and a gaggle of people calling each other idiots.
I like this way better.
Hey - All you "Quaker Oats" eaters!
There is currently a recall of a bunch of Quaker Oat Products due to the potential for Salmonella Poisoning (this is not a joke).
https://myfox8.com/news/quaker...-to-salmonella-risk/
This is a Public Service Announcement from "Thread-Drift International"
Oh shyt, here comes another page or two about the best coffee. Nice going Stan.
@Stan Galat posted:The irony here is that you brought up a problem with a plugged heater core in your water-cooled diesel, which inadvertently got us off on breakfast mush. The breakfast mush was a pretty amusing diversion, and I learned more from it than I did from the answers to the original question. I'll probably try Pickett's gruel, just because Pickett likes it (I'm a closet Mike Pickett fanboy) - although I tried the coffee he recommended a few years back and my socks were not blown off.
The alternative is a dozen similar threads ("here I am at a car show", "what wax do you use?", "my car isn't running right", and most reliably, "what oil should I use?") on closed loop. If this is like every other car-site, there will be two or three guys cutting and pasting answers they pulled from other places, and a gaggle of people calling each other idiots.
I like this way better.
In all fairness I brought up the plugged heater core. Which, btw, I was able to get fixed yesterday. It took me 3.5 hours to get the entire job completed. I had to remove the turbo air-box, battery, battery tray, and the wheel well liner so that I could remove the coolant reservoir just so I could replace it. Prior to starting the removal of all of the parts I open the petcock on the radiator to drain out as much fluid as possible since I was doing a fluid exchange. While that was draining I set about removing all of the buts that were in the way. Installed the new coolant tank and reversed the process getting it buttoned up. Then I set about in flushing the heater core. Overall that was very easy since it was just a matter of hooking up hose extensions to the inlet/outlet hoses for the heater core. Flushed all of the junk out in both directions until the water ran clear. Then I filled the heater core with CLR and let that set a bit then flushed it all again in both directions until the water ran clear. Reconnected the hoses, closed the petcock, and filled up the coolant system with 4.0 gallons of pre-diluted OAT coolant via the new tank. I also disconnected the large radiator hose coming in to the top of the radiator and filled that with another gallon of fluid. I ran the truck and squeezed every hose I could get to so i could burp out as much air as possible. I'll carry a gallon of coolant and check it after every drive until I get all of the air out of the system. I actually put in more coolant than I drained. I attributed the extra amount I put in to the heater core since I flushed that out separate from drained out.
The good news is that the coolant tank light went out and I have in-cabin heat again. As per Danny's suggested I'll flush that heater core every year before the winter to insure I always have heat. As easy as that part was there is no reason not to.
You're all drifters, as in thread drifters.
Unfortunately, I am one too. Do we need to start a self-help group?
Robert, glad you have heat(but do you really need it in California?). I mean, here in NY, we NEED some serious heat at times. Not like Mr. Flyover, Marty to the G and Joe. They need it MORE!
In respect for the original poster, I'm creating a new thread on post drift. It should be at the top of the home page at all times in the future. Feel free to go to the bottom of the thread to express your opinions on just about anything but pie.
The title of this new thread may change frequently, but don't be distracted, it's still all about post drift.
@Michael Pickett posted:In respect for the original poster, I'm creating a new thread on post drift. It should be at the top of the home page at all times in the future. Feel free to go to the bottom of the thread to express your opinions on just about anything but pie.
The title of this new thread may change frequently, but don't be distracted, it's still all about post drift.
But, but, but... I like pie.
I like pie too!! And I REALLY like it with coffee. But not any old coffee, has to be dark roast, freshly ground, no sugar, maybe a dash of half-half. Espresso, double machiato is really the way to go. Bitter is better. Stan likes Charbucks for that reason, as I recall. And @Lane Anderson fancies his fancy espresso machine for many of the same reasons. Perhaps if one used coffee to flush his radiator/ heater core it would work better -- but I have never tried that. And if you really had to have your espresso no matter what AND they made one that ran on 12v, you could have it with you in your car at all times. But you would really need to keep your battery cables clean since that machine would likely draw a lot of current. See above for ways to maintain good battery cables. Just sayin'
Ok, you can post about pie, but not strawberry-rhubarb.
Can't find the Thread Drift post --- maybe its just called General (non technical). But that does not always cover it, as most of the really good drifts are all technical. Hmmm . . . need to run this one by Theron.
"strawberry-rhubarb." Isn't that Garrison Keiller's favorite?
@El Frazoo posted:Can't find the Thread Drift post --- maybe its just called General (non technical). But that does not always cover it, as most of the really good drifts are all technical. Hmmm . . . need to run this one by Theron.
If you can't find it, feel free to just post into the top thread. It'll work just the same 😄
@El Frazoo posted:… has to be dark roast, freshly ground, no sugar, maybe a dash of half-half. Espresso, double machiato is really the way to go. Bitter is better. Stan likes Charbucks for that reason, as I recall.
Absolutely. Over-roasted Arabica beans, hold everything (no H/H). If I can see the bottom of the cup with 1/2” in there, it’s too light.
You need that kind of coffee, just to get up on a store's roof to service the chillers in this weather. It warms your hands, then warms your gullet! 😉
@Gordon Nichols posted:When we lived in Beaufort, SC (Where Grits are King!) there was a caterer named Steve Brown. Steve grew up in Beaufort but went to Culinary school at Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI. He was an excellent cook/chef/caterer and much in demand for all sorts of social events and some Marine recruit graduations.
We were chatting at one of those one time and I mentioned that Grits were far from my favorite dish. He told me that's because I'm from Massachusetts, that Bastion of Yankee mentality, and I never learned how to eat them right.
"Grits by themselves are pretty bland. Yah gotta mix stuff with 'em!", Steve said. "Here in the Low Country, the white folks like to mix in shrimp and a very light sauce. The Gullah folks, out on the sea islands, do too, but then they add in spices like a Creole mix to jazz it up. I've learned a lot from the Gullah ladies and their cookin."
"But for you people from "Up No'th" and tryin' to fit in down South, you can just mix cheese with 'em like this!" and he hands me a bowl of his special, 3-cheese Grits. It was like a whole new flavor world to discover. Since then, in the couple of times we've had some extra Polenta from doing an Italian meal, we've mixed in some cheese blend and remembered Steve.
Steve Brown was a wonderful chef but he was huge - He had the body build of Paul Prudhomme, the famous (and equally overweight) chef from New Orleans. Both of those wonderful chefs died about the same time around 2015.
If you want to try some of that Gullah seasoning, which is sweeter and milder than Creole down on the Gulf, try to find some "Gulluh Luv Seasoning". You'll love it, too.
I ADORE grits! During my time living in the Big Easy I really had the best; especially under BBQ shrimp, but am blessed to have them in FL. There's the salty and the sweet schools of thought. I go for the salty and season with butter and salt and definitely some places make them creamier than others; I am thinking milk or cream of some sort might be the key difference.