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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsEver feel stupid?
Tonight my husband and I (both college educated and I have my JD) were in the kitchen and I making some brownies. I realized I had to 1/2 the recipe. No problem!
I was doing ok until I came to 3/4 of a cup. Husband and I just looked at each other - I said "I know we covered in this middle school, but I am blanking out". He looked at me and said "I wish I knew the metric system" . I said "what? how the hell would that help now?"
No way I remembered how many tablespoons were in a cup - that was home ec class back when they still had home ec and shop. I printed off a cheat sheet to stick in my cupboard.
Brownies came out fine because you know, chocolate.
I have a lot of these moments where things I should know... nope. But I do know random useless pieces of info.
catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)three times-but yeah, I had to pause....
nadine_mn
(3,702 posts)thought for sure I had one I used for coffee. The frustrating part was knowing that this was something I should know - I should know how to figure out fractions.
petronius
(26,595 posts)That's a typo, right? You meant to say "double," I would imagine...
nadine_mn
(3,702 posts)I had a limited amount of adzuki beans - thought I had two cups but when I defrosted them, they mushed into one cup.
I mistakenly bought adzuki beans once, then had to find a way to use them. Found a yummy recipe for adzuki bean and sweet potato burgers and the recipe for bean espresso brownies.
Otherwise - heck yeah I would double it
elleng
(130,697 posts)mackerel
(4,412 posts)break it down into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup and then half it from there
so it's 1/4 & 1/8 respectively. I think it's 2 Tablespoons for an 1/8 cup.
Solly Mack
(90,758 posts)It happens.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,570 posts)I can be counted on to do something stupid at least once a day. Fortunately the consequences are usually not catastrophic.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)3/4 is 3/8. 1/2 would be 1/4.
Four tablespoons to 1/4 cup. That is very easy to remember since they both use the number 4.
Metric sucks for cooking since most older recipes don't use it but it is easier for dividing.
The other day we made risotto and needed about 9 cups of stock. The bouillon gel stuff we had each made 1/2 a liter. But, the directions were in french and we mistook where it said there were 250 mls (There are 236 mls in a cup) a serving to be the amount each made so we ended up with double strength stock. A little salty but we realized it and adjusted.
Skittles
(153,104 posts)nadine_mn
(3,702 posts)But it hurt my head that I completely spaced out on how to do fractions. Just a blank spot where numbers used to be....
Phentex
(16,330 posts)I just don't. I CAN do them but it takes too much effort.
So I either ask my husband or I google. My husband is a human calculator and it's very handy.
My sister and I used to laugh till we cried trying to double or triple a recipe or cut something in half. Too much work!
One of my boys can do it so I'll yell into another room "What's half of 3/4 plus twice 2.5 cups minus a 1/4 of a tablespoon?" and somebody will shout it back.
nadine_mn
(3,702 posts)We just have furry kids however I am sure they could have barked out the correct answer by the time I was trying to remember the difference between the denominator and the numerator.
It hurt my pride to google later but then parts of math class came back to me and yuck.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)Way too often I have to google for correct spelling. And grammar and punctuation---- yikes. It has become a struggle although I used to be a very good writer.
As for half of 3/4 of a cup, I would eyeball it. LOL
greymouse
(872 posts)words I am starting to have to fish around for.
greymouse
(872 posts)Everybody, almost, in my family cooks.
Loved the metric system remark
Orrex
(63,165 posts)that there re 24,192 tablespoons in a barrel, but that might not be correct.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)I use it all the time, for things just that simple too.
Kaleva
(36,238 posts)or my grandparents. I can ball park it down to the decade but that's as close as I can get.
I don't know the birthdays of any of my siblings or step-children. I don't know the color of my wife's eyes nor do I know the color of anyone else's eyes either other then my own. When I was first going out with wife, it took awhile before I could recall her name without sometimes having to think about it. When cooking, I can't recall how many quarts to a gallon, pints to a quart, cups to a pint and so on. I have to look it up every time.
For some reason, there is certain info that I just can't retain.
GreydeeThos
(958 posts)Three fourths is 0.75.
One half of 0.75 is about .38
Go to the cabinet and get out your engineering measuring cup that measures in tenths, instead of your architectural measuring cup which measures in eighths. Portion out .38 of the material and you are done.
Easy Peasy