I'm looking for insight for what does and doesn't work with professionals including doctors, insurance agents, and darn near anyone.

I'm chief tech support and lead researcher for my wife and her siblings. My FIL is 90 yo. He's self sufficient. His wife (second, not my wife's or her sibling's mother) passed in January this year. He drives. He is very good with awareness of his limits. He knows the day will come when he can't live alone. That day is not yet.

He (Paul) has language issues. He was born in Italy and came to the US (on the Andrea Doria as it happens) as an adult. His English is good but not perfect and at 90 it takes him time to process. That makes interactions with professionals laborious. My wife goes with him when she can but he's three hours away.

What experience does r/AgingParents have with dialing into doctors--especially specialists--and lawyers and other professionals to support in-person meeting between aging parents and those professionals. What sort of reception have you gotten from those professionals? I know my FIL's eye doctor was greatly relieved that my wife was present for an appointment yesterday. The technology is certainly there, but what experience do people have making this work?

Thank you in advance for sharing.

Good day community at large!

We're glad you are here, and that we are here for you. The rules here are simple. You'll find them on the sidebar on desktop and under the ... menu on mobile. Touch 'Learn about the Community.'

The biggest problem we have is promotion. The same sort of scams we worry about our parents falling for. Any post or comment that includes "I built an app" is suspect. Promotion is against Rule #3. That doesn't mean you can't mention tools you find handy. We encourage that. If you read something and are in any doubt please use the report button to flag the moderators. We (mostly me, as the top moderator is busy with a new and growing family) can't be everywhere. We're volunteers and have work and lives and other hobbies. Please help us to help you.

When you report a post or comment it sends us a notification with a link so we can go straight to that contribution. We read it, scroll the profile of the contributor, and do a little other digging to make a determination. We may reach out to the author. We may or may not agree with you (usually we do) but we appreciate and value every report.

Don't hesitate to reach out through Message the Moderators if something concerns you. The best place for tech questions of course is a post or comment of your own.

Best regards, dave

I don't trust anyone, including myself. I have been working under the assumption that mirepoix (onions, celery, carrot) morphed into the Cajun trinity (onions, celery, bell pepper) as growing carrot in the Gulf Coast of what is now Louisiana and adjoining areas is due to the difficulty of growing carrot with high water tables. Did I read that or make it up?

Any discussion of the difference between mirepoix and soffrito would also be gratefully received. Google is loaded with AI and sources I don't find credible.

My intent is to share what I know and have experienced and foster discussion that may expose options I don't know about or haven't thought of.

For context, most of what I've learned is from a different application. I'm a yacht delivery skipper and feed my crews of four or five off the grid for weeks at a time. There are no stores mid ocean. Almost all my experience is US East and Gulf Coasts, Caribbean, Atlantic Islands, and UK. At home, we use curbside pickup a lot for groceries, hardware, prescriptions, chandlery, and pet supplies.

InstaCart is the 800# gorilla in this space. Item prices are higher than shopping in-store and here are substantial fees as well. The cost of InstaCart runs 10% to 20% of the order amount depending on size with smaller order being more expensive. Groceries are selected by random drivers who may not know much about food. Substitutions are a real problem. There is a famous story about an elderly gentleman in the UK who ordered dental adhesive and got a feminine hygiene product. Doordash has a similar service with some limitations.

Online shopping for curbside pickup is the silver lining of COVID. There may be small fees and/or minimum orders. Sadly, some grocery chains have outsourced curbside to InstaCart. Curbside, not just delivery. Back to higher prices than in-store, fees, and random people picking your groceries. Wegmans, Publix, PigglyWiggly, and Aldi come to mind as having this approach. Uber has a service to pick up groceries from curbside and deliver them to you. This is cheaper than riding both ways and you don't have to leave home at all. It does take some coordination to manage the pickup. I set up a file with all the necessary information and cut and paste that into the rideshare app for the driver. The driver's job is to deliver to the address. That may or may not mean to the door. Delivery indoors is a courtesy. Tip. If you find a driver that works you can arrange to use that driver regularly. That is a win for everyone. Lyft has a similar service with more restrictions and limitations.

Amazon Grocery has been advertising pretty heavily recently. I've never tried it. Supposed to deliver to the door but there are stories of orders left at the end of driveways.

Store websites and apps are generally pretty good.

On yacht delivery trips, we'll often order curbside and someone will pick it up on the way from the airport to the boat. If InstaCart is our only option it's often cheaper to rent a car for a day than to use InstaCart. I've used Uber a good bit.

At home we drive for curbside. It's worth noting that pet supplies are cheaper at pet stores and delivery service Chewy than grocery stores.

My 90 yo FIL drives and shops. His computer skills are limited to Facebook and YouTube. He has a dumb flip phone. Or plan for when he doesn't drive is for him to call my wife and read her his list. She'll build his cart, I'll review it (I'm tech support, including for some Gen Z niblings), pull the trigger, and set up Uber for pickup.

Comments and other alternatives are solicited.

I just found this sub. I've read the rules. I searched first for previous treatment of my question. I'm an engineer and a scientist but not a food scientist. Organic chemistry is a weak spot for me. Please don't hold back. If I don't understand I'll ask.

My question is about what is happening during long simmers referred to in cooking as "coming together" or "marrying flavors." I understand long simmers and slow and low cooks to break down fibers and collagen. For example, why is common guidance for a ragu with ground meat and finely diced veg still sometimes eight to ten hours? Is it tradition from other ingredient forms? Something else? What is actually happening in there?

Good day. My name is Dave. I'm your newest moderator. I've been around for a while. You'll be seeing more of me now. I'm an engineer and scientist. I have a 90 year old FIL I provide tech support for (in addition to most of the rest of my extended family). I'm personally a big fan of technology that adds value as opposed to solutions looking for problems.

I moderate six other subs so I've been around the block more than a few times. Three sailing, two project management, and one cats. Now I'm here also.

While I have you here, I'd like to remind everyone of the rules. They're on the sidebar on desktop. On mobile touch the three dots upper right, then 'Learn more about this community.'

Be Patient & Supportive

I think of this as "be nice, or else."

Keep it Focused around Tech

Venting is allowed. Please try to frame your post in a way that centers around technology.

Provide Value, Don't Just Promote

We are here to learn from each other's experiences, not to be sold to. Market research and requirements definition are self promotion. This is our biggest problem.

The community here is pretty well behaved. Please keep it up. You can help by using the 'Report' button to flag posts and comments that you think violate any of the rules. The moderation team may or may not agree with you, but we always look and we always value the community participation in keeping r/TechForAgingParents on track.

If you have something more than a report, you can reach the moderation team using the 'Message Mods' button. Remember that moderators are volunteers who have lives, work, and other interests. We aren't hovering over Reddit.

Someone posted here recently that Sam's Club was finally going to support Apple Wallet for touch payment. It works now. I added mine this morning. The original post said the equivalent was coming for Android as well but I have no way to confirm that works.

Broccoli is coming up as a side in our meal plan. I love broccoli. It's my favorite veg. I steam it. I can eat it just like that. Or pepper. And/or butter. I have a horseradish sauce that is really good. I'd like to avoid getting in a rut.

I did a Google search for sauces and the answers are cheddar cheese, garlic lemon butter, soy garlic, and peanut sriracha sauce. I found a mustard sauce. Interestingly horseradish sauce doesn't show up. What other interesting choices are there that haven't cropped up. I'm not particularly interested in cheese sauces. Soy garlic and mustard sauces are intriguing. Garlic lemon butter is easy. What am I missing?

Please no cheese. The world has gone nuts over cheese. I don't want it everything.

ETA: I greatly appreciate the input. Thank you all. I'm continuing to work my way through the responses. Many ideas have been cut and pasted into my kitchen working notes. The good news is that I have lots of reasons to eat broccoli now! I'll do my best to keep up.

Apparently there is a shortage of ground lamb due to market shifts (more people buying it) and a reduction in exports from AU and NZ. Flocks in the US are down (I didn't dive into causation for that).

Here is my story. I'm in Annapolis MD. Ground lamb was readily available at Giant Food (regional chain), Safeway, and Aldi as well as more expensive places. Last year it was $5/lb. Then Giant and Safeway dropped it. Not out of stock. Dropped it. Aldi still carried it at $6/lb (Aldi as cheapest is marketing hype - I always check them and lots of places but Aldi rarely turns out to be cheapest. Aldi has now dropped ground lamb as well. We can get ground lamb at Whole Foods and Fresh Market for $15/lb. We'll do without.

My wife went to NJ to spend several days with her father (90). I cast a wider net along her route home. ShopRite in NJ has it for $9.50/lb. Acme in DE for $11/lb. Food Lion in DE and MD have it for $9/lb. Fortunately the Food Lion in the town where my wife stopped for lunch had it in stock. We bought their last three. It's a little expensive but no more than what we pay for tuna and salmon at Sam's Club. We'll just freeze it for special dinners.

We've seen market shifts affect price before on chicken thighs, chicken wings, brisket, and oxtail. Changes in exports from other countries (imports to the US) definitely leads to out of stock.

This is for entertainment. My FIL turned 91 last week. My wife (69) drove up to visit. A niece and nephew (20s) and BIL (late 50s) went up to visit. I had the idea of sending up an iPad and doing a big family Facetime group call. My wife didn't think it would work. I lined up the equipment, did a test run with a BIL and a nephew, trained my wife to answer the d@mn phone. To my wife's surprise I pulled this off. All four siblings (children) online. All but one nibling (grandchildren) online (the missing one is a PITA - not because she didn't sign in but because she is a PITA). Four great grandchildren.

Singing happy birthday was an utter disaster that had everyone rolling on the floor. We'll have to practice that ahead next year. Apparently worrying about the tech was the wrong priority.

The really funny bit is that someone has butt dialed the entire Facetime group twice since. Not FIL as he has a dumb phone and his end was my iPad sent up with my wife. Definitely not me, as my phone was sitting in it's charger on my desk when it went off. I have some suspects. Doesn't really matter.

The upside is I know who in the family is Johnny on the spot to answer calls.

All together now: "Happy birthday Paul!"

edit: typo

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My mushrooms didn't last long. Please forgive a lengthy post - I want you to have the context. I'd value thoughts.

I bought two 8 oz boxes of whole mushrooms. Washed them^(1). Sliced them. Single layer on a sheet pan with parchment paper in a low oven at about 135°F all day (about 12 hours)^(2). They seemed dry but not crispy when I took them out. No apparent problem when I put them in a Lock-n-Lock plastic container for storage. Within a month they were soggy in the container.

Please see footnotes.

My thoughts so far:

Use a salad spinner after washing mushrooms before slicing.

Turn on convection fan during drying.

Dry them longer despite consistent Internet content that four to eight hours is enough.

Your ideas are more than welcome before I kill mushrooms again.

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1. All indications are that washing mushrooms making them soggy is an old wives' tale. Harold McGee is a pretty credible source. Link.

2. We have a dehydrator. I want to use the oven. I have a constituency (long distance cruising sailors) for my cookbook. Drying mushrooms is of value for off the grid cooks and a dehydrator is too big an ask on a small boat. MODS: This is not self promotion or any other sort of spam (rule #2). I don't charge for the book and I regularly cut and paste from the book on a wide range of sailing ( r/sailing, r/SailboatCruising ) and cooking ( r/Cooking, r/cookingforbeginners , r/CookingForOne , and others) subs.

BGE says two hours.

Spa Rd closed. No access in or out from Hunt Meadow, Harness Creek Overlook,or Ferry Point. Major gas leak. Latest projection for access 2pm, possibly 3pm.

@ u/jfrenaye

Dev v. user

I just found your sub.

My contribution coming in is that a 9x13 casserole is a lot of lasagna especially for a small family or a couple. If you double that recipe you can make three 9x9s or five 8x8s and feed the freezer.

My lasagna: https://auspiciousworks.com/Lasagna.pdf .

Observation without judgement: Eastport Kitchen has moved a lot of sandwiches from sub rolls to buns. I shopped the menu today for a possible lunch. Surprise!