__________ is/are underrated.

[hbelkins]

OK, but if the bowl also had milk and brown sugar, would you still push it away?

Yep.

[paulthemapguy]

I have a shaker prepped on my table full of 1-part cinnamon, 2-parts sugar.  Goes a long way in improving oatmeal AND toast!

[JoePCool14]

Oatmeal can be decent, but it's difficult to find the right consistency. And you have to eat it right away as well, otherwise it turns to cold mush.

[abefroman329]

Oatmeal can be decent, but it's difficult to find the right consistency. And you have to eat it right away as well, otherwise it turns to cold mush.

It's easier if you don't use instant oatmeal and don't mind experimenting with cooking times and temperatures until you find a combination that works for you.

[kphoger]

I once kept adding more and more syrup to my oatmeal, but it still wasn't sweet enough.  Eventually, though, it started getting this weird flavor to it.  That's when I realized I'd been pouring vanilla extract in instead of syrup.  (A co-worker had brought me a huge bottle of vanilla extract back from Vietnam, and both bottles of dark liquid were in the same cupboard.)

[formulanone]

Oatmeal can be decent, but it's difficult to find the right consistency. And you have to eat it right away as well, otherwise it turns to cold mush.

It's easier if you don't use instant oatmeal and don't mind experimenting with cooking times and temperatures until you find a combination that works for you.

I like my oatmeal with the consistency of wet cement.

[kphoger]

the consistency of wet cement.

I've never tasted that.

[abefroman329]

the consistency of wet cement.

I've never tasted that.

You don't have to eat something in order to determine its consistency.

[kphoger]

There's a difference between what something feels like on my fingertip (I haven't put my initials in wet cement for years and years either) and what it feels like on your palette.

[wanderer2575]

Even better than oatmeal:  Cream of Wheat.  I actually prefer the instant; I find the cooked version has a gumminess I don't like.

[J N Winkler]

I have been eating oatmeal for breakfast for years and years since it is one of the best sources of dietary fiber among breakfast foods.  (Cooked wheat farinas, like Malt-O-Meal or Cream of Wheat, have less fiber.)  Generally I start by mixing one cup of Quaker Oats minute oatmeal with two cups of half-percent milk and zapping it for 2:36 in a 1200 W microwave under cover.  Then I allow it to sit for about an hour until it has cooled and congealed enough that it can be drunk as a thick slurry after stirring.  I used to add brown sugar, but quit years ago when I realized that the lactose in the milk is enough of a sweetener.

Using milk straight from the refrigerator eliminates much of the batch variation since it is maintained at a consistent temperature, unlike water from the tap.

[kphoger]

microwave under cover

[zachary_amaryllis]

National forests are underrated.

While not as well developed or advertised as national parks, they are usually less crowded and don't have an entry fee (usually just a flat rate for parking). A little research is required to find really good trails, but the payoff is pretty good and you can be in-and-out in a fraction of the time.

This is why I live in one. 

[kkt]

Seems like a better question would be why some Federal lands for mixed uses are National Forests, while others are BLM lands.

The BLM is the institutional successor to the General Land Office (managed homesteading) and the Grazing Service (managed grazing leases), both of which were under the Department of the Interior.  The USFS itself is the result of a Congressional decision to exempt certain timber lands from disposal.

thank you

[GaryV]

Even better than oatmeal:  Cream of Wheat.  I actually prefer the instant; I find the cooked version has a gumminess I don't like.

Grits, aka cream of chicken feed.

[webny99]

- The vibes of rush hour at twilight

[bm7]

80s pop music

80s music seems almost universally liked in my experience. I'm one of the few people I know who doesn't really care for it.

[kurumi]

80s pop music

80s music seems almost universally liked in my experience. I'm one of the few people I know who doesn't really care for it.

I think especially in hindsight, most of us can find something we like there.

The stuff I liked was on commercial radio until about 1984 (Madness, the Police, Genesis, Prince, etc.) and then TBH only on college radio afterward (Siouxsie, Depeche Mode, The Damned, Dead Kennedys etc.) So yeah it was all 80s music, but the second list was definitely not the stuff filling the airwaves.

Maybe nostalgia, but it seems like there was a lot more variety in pop music back in the day, where guitar rock, country, prog, R+B, power pop, folk, etc. would share the charts. Now it seems a lot more optimized for current tastes, like everyone's chasing it. Ah well, grumble grumble, kids these days, etc.

[hbelkins]

I don't care for 80s pop, but 80s AOR and metal rules.

Earlier this year, I went through a list of albums released 40 years ago (1982) and found that there's a large number of them in my music collection. Same for 1987 (35 years ago) that I plan to review before long.

[kphoger]

Maybe nostalgia, but it seems like there was a lot more variety in pop music back in the day, where guitar rock, country, prog, R+B, power pop, folk, etc. would share the charts. Now it seems a lot more optimized for current tastes, like everyone's chasing it. Ah well, grumble grumble, kids these days, etc.

I mean, this was the first year that a single artist swept the Billboard top ten, but let's not forget that another artist bagged nine out of ten just last year.

So yeah, I agree that radio music nowadays does seem to be more homogenous than in the 80s.

[thspfc]

Maybe nostalgia, but it seems like there was a lot more variety in pop music back in the day, where guitar rock, country, prog, R+B, power pop, folk, etc. would share the charts. Now it seems a lot more optimized for current tastes, like everyone's chasing it. Ah well, grumble grumble, kids these days, etc.

I mean, this was the first year that a single artist swept the Billboard top ten, but let's not forget that another artist bagged nine out of ten just last year.

So yeah, I agree that radio music nowadays does seem to be more homogenous than in the 80s.

I agree that a lot of current music sounds the same, but I think there's an element of survivorship bias here. When you think of 80s music in 2022 you think of the big songs that have stood the test of time and/or those those that you personally enjoy. You forget all the others because they weren't good/didn't stand out.

Basically, my point is that music has always been homogenous. Only slightly more so now than in past decades.

And if you think the songs you see on the hot 100 are all the same (which to an extent they are), listen to country or hip-hop radio. It's so bad that sometimes you can accurately predict what the last word of the next sentence will be based on the last word of the previous sentence, despite never having heard the song before.

[Rothman]

My mother has said that people can finish country song lines as long as she's been around.  So, lots of decades.

[bm7]

Maybe nostalgia, but it seems like there was a lot more variety in pop music back in the day, where guitar rock, country, prog, R+B, power pop, folk, etc. would share the charts. Now it seems a lot more optimized for current tastes, like everyone's chasing it. Ah well, grumble grumble, kids these days, etc.

I mean, this was the first year that a single artist swept the Billboard top ten, but let's not forget that another artist bagged nine out of ten just last year.

So yeah, I agree that radio music nowadays does seem to be more homogenous than in the 80s.

I think that's more due to the Billboard lists now including streaming listens. When it was just based on radio plays, pretty much only singles would end up on the list, which would generally make it impossible for more than a few songs from an artist to be on the list at a time. Nowadays when an extremely popular artist releases an album, often times the whole album will end up in the top 100.

[kirbykart]

Thoroughly soft pasta is underrated. I don't like "al dente".

[kphoger]

Thoroughly soft pasta is underrated. I don't like "al dente".

I was just talking about this with my wife the other day.  I am pleased whenever I'm at a restaurant that properly cooks al dente pasta, but I also have nothing against overcooked pasta.  In fact, in my own kitchen, I err on the side of overcooking.