Random Stuff - Pickle Tasting, Seed Excitement, Sunflower Updates, Chain Ponderings, Watercress

Erratum - the flower footage didn't render in the inset video clip at around the 53 minute mark, and I didn't notice before publishing. Can't fix this now unfortunately, but the video footage being referred to is here: https://youtu.be/wx7bwKEUU14&t=6960

Barry lewis had a challange many years ago, where he found shopping list notes people have left in shopping charts, bought whats on the list and tried to make a meal out of it. It would be interesting to see Atomic Shrimps take on that challenge.

The way that comments where someone says, that something in the video made them smile, made you smile made me smile.

Something tells me if the sunflowers do end up flowering, Mike will use video editing to make them appear blue at first.

A suggestion for the cooking challenges - perhaps take advantage of the fact that most aisles are numbered? You could roll a few dice and you have to buy something from each corresponding aisle?

On the topic of the "recipe constraints", you did the dice rolls at one point. It might be fun to bring that concept back again. I really enjoy those videos.

I love the use of “we” when talking about finding new ideas for the budget type meals, makes a real difference and feels like we the viewers are included.

On constrained cooking: my medieval reenactment group sometimes has "siege cooking" challenges, where the participants have to make food over a campfire, with the ingredients chosen by the event organizers. One woman told me she loves organizing those challenges partially because she has a wheat allergy, and this guarantees that she gets to eat nice, medieval food without having to worry about getting sick.

honestly that chuckle when you said "but i didn't ask" re the oven clock was just delightful

That little clip of the rain in your greenhouse was lovely. That’s a great candidate for future slow tv!

Thia is the second time I have watched this video in 2 days, I just find your voice and mannerisms so relaxing, The first watch helped me get some well needed rest as I have had a chest infection for the last 2 weeks and have had trouble getting to sleep. Now the following morning I have watched the video again and everything in the video still held my interest, Thank you very much Mike for all the work you put into these videos, It really is appreciated.

My husband loves when I watch your cooking videos in general as I get ideas to try in our own cooking. In fact, I've started making variations of your homemade mac and cheese dish and I make my own bread. Also, watching you pick your own herbs from your garden inspired me to start my own. I'm now growing rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano and others. Being a diabetic, Doing all of this gardening and experimenting with cooking has greatly improved my health. So please, Keep it up!

"Pedants will tell you, but they aren't in charge". That right there is why you're my favourite internet dude. Thanks for the content.

On using hot sauce to make cheese I make a thing I call “Kimcheese” where I use the acidic juices from homemade kimchi to make the acid set cheese. It’s delicious. Might be worth a try even with store bought kimchi.

A word of caution about the galvanised steel and cadmium. Unfortunately cadmium is one of the heavy metals that is highly mobile in water. It can be especially mobile if it gets any interaction with chlorine (even the tiny amount from tapwater) and sulphur, which is definitely going to be in that circulating water from organic decomposition in the soil. Some of the soil-science modules I did with fieldwork near steelworks have such a higher amount of cadmium compared to other heavy metals because of just how easily it can be moved by the environment/hydrology.

IMHO the hovering clock cover is a charming individual note, a kind of signature.

The random stuff videoes you make are my favorites! They are just the most pure Atomic Shrimp experience, a bit of everything - all wonderful.

Through inspiring me to garden, I planted a few succulents and a flower my wife liked, surprisingly with a little effort the flower has done well and we now have plans to do the entire front garden (big clean up, weed-mat, mulch, flowers) Thanks!

My challenge that helped me learn cook (aside from your awesome challenge videos) is to find recipes and make them vegan. I don't try to make things look or necessarily behave like meat. But what I am doing is trying to find an alternative recipe that keeps the spirit of the original recipe but is completely free of animal products. One such example would be a lentil lasagna. Baking also works surprisingly well without using eggs. My egg substitute of choice are usually like 20g of ground linseeds in 50ml of water. Let that sit for a little while (10-20 min) and then you can mix it into your dough or batter. I'm not strictly vegan, but these kinds of constraints (inspired by your videos) have allowed me to become a much better cook in basically no time. I've only been cooking for about a year now since I moved out from my parents and not once have I ordered any food. I always cook for myself thanks to your videos.

Thank you Shrimp for inspiring me to make my own sausage stew for dinner tonight! You are the best kind of influencer.