Hello! Where can i buy cheesecake that can be compared with Le Tao of japan?

My dad just turned 60 and lives alone. I’m 28 and moved out last August after living with my dad for 4 years while I went to school. He had retired earlier that year before I moved in and began living in my grandpas second house in a secluded area.
I liked living there because of the location. It was quiet and I had lots of hiking trails, but living with my dad was kind of hell on earth. I couldn’t move out due to being in school and cost of living, so I basically had to live there and be my dad’s caretaker. He’s also a complete slob. There would be dirty, cracked socks all over the floor, sliced cheese packages all over, the carpets would get caked with cigarette ash from his shoes..etc.
I would pick up food for my dad and cooked often to make sure he ate something. I’d have to monitor the oven to make sure he didn’t leave the gas partially on. There were times when I’d have to dig the ATV out of the woods when he’d get drunk and go off the trail.
Anyways, you get the picture. I took it upon myself to manage someone else’s life. I moved out into an apartment last August and felt tremendous guilt. It was really hard to imagine him being all alone but with the support of my sister I realized it wasn’t my problem. I confided in her all of the messed up things I had been through while living there that I had kept a secret because I felt stuck(couldn’t move out).
I convinced my dad to get an apartment nearby so that he wasn’t all alone 2.5 hours away in the woods. He did and even then he basically isolated himself and I would be the only one calling to make plans for lunch. He ended his lease last month saying getting that apartment was “the worst mistake he’s made all year” because he barely got to see my sister, nephew and I.
Now he’s been back up there permanently for 3 weeks. I have some time off work so I went up yesterday planning on staying the night but when I walked through the door my chest sank. He was gone but the door was unlocked. The entire house reeked of cigarettes(he’s never smoked in the house before), the kitchen countertops were covered in trash. A trash can buzzing with flies was in front of the porch. I saw his dog sleeping on the couch and I thought she was dead. I shook her about 8 times and she woke up and just stared straight ahead. Her water dish was bone dry. I went into the garage where he smokes and drinks and the entire garage floor was covered in cigarette butts and cartons and trash. I called him and he was at the doctors because he recently injured his back. I said with a shaking voice “do you want to come back and stay with me tonight?” He said he’ll talk with me later.
I called him again and asked when he was coming back and he said “you’re not planning on leaving right away, are you??” I said this house is really dirty, dad. He said…I know. I’ll talk to you when I get home. Okay.
He gets back and I clean up the house. He recently injured his back so he couldn’t help. He just seemed off, broken. Wasn’t talkative at all. It was like the isolation killed something in him.
I stayed for an hour and a half and left. I couldn’t stay the night there. It stunk. I recently bought my first home that has 4 bedrooms and a basement but this is my home, I can’t have him here smoking and drinking. He also has terrible hygiene and my car still has a smell to it from yesterday. Plus this is MY space. I finally got away from living in that environment and I know if I invited him to stay here it would go downhill so fast. My sister doesn’t help with anything so all of this has fallen on me.
What do I do?

Hey guys, years ago I stayed with this family on a dairy farm as a farmhand when I was travelling around europe. The lady I stayed with fed me this incredible, fairly dense cheesecake. It was pale yellow if I remember correctly with a pale interior.
She made it with farmers cheese (just fresh cheese curds, like twarog in poland) as opposed to cream cheese and it was honestly the most delicious cake I've had. Now we didn't really stay in contact and I no longer have their contact info so here I am begging you guys for a recipe.
First off I don't even know if this is actually a traditional latvian dessert but since I was given it by a latvian farmer in rural latvia I would think it's at least from one of the baltics.
Secondly I've found numerous recipes online off various latvian/baltic cheesecakes but most of them have 0 reviews and are on english websites so I just don't really trust them and I really want a tried and tested authentic recipe.
If the description sounds familiar and you have a recipe I would love to have it if you can be bothered to give it.
Sincerely,
a dude who has been thinking about the same cheesecake for 6½ years

calling all chai (spiced tea) or cake lovers! whether you're a fan of this tea or you have a sweet spot for delicious cakes, this is an invitation to indulge in an amazing experience. you can look forward to a treat that has the essence of a steaming chai latte with a cream cheese frosting and a moist, irresistible texture.
if you like the thought of a chai-infused fluffy cake with an amazing taste, gather around! we’ll be sharing our chai cake recipe to make crafting this masterpiece an absolute breeze – experience the joy of baking and tasting this dessert.

i introduced my parents to jeni’s about a week ago and we’ve had at least 10 different containers in our freezer since then so here’s my ranking! if anyone has any questions or wants a review of any flavor i got you
ranking (best to worst)

1. (not pictured) gooey butter cake easily tied with jelly donut
2. cinnamon roll
3. banana french toast
4. (not pictured) maple pancakes
5. biscuits and peach
6. pineapple upside down
7. lemon and blueberries

I wanna hear about everyones food lists- their safe foods, the things they use to make things bearable and/or healthy, the once in a year meals- any and all of it. It is late where I am right now, but I plan to make this a masterlist post to come back to and drop all of mine. It has been helping me a lot to see other peoples arfid recipes, so I hope to help others
Safe Foods/meals
- Baby bells - Goat Cheese (trader joes is best, but there's this brand with Vermont in the name, that's a good alternative) - Mac and Cheese (private selection 5 cheese, cook aldente or to your liking, add full cheese packet/ add half + any slice cheese, my pref is goat cheese and other seasoning. My fave seasonings are: chives, Italian seasoning, worschtersire of all thing) - Dominoes Pizza (small-medium handtossed Wisconsin six cheese, minus orange cheddar blend, sub tomato sauce for garlic parmesan)
Additives for health/bearing it
- Freeze dried and grounded up spinach for added nutrients - protein drinks (I haven't found one I can handle for more than a week though so I'll keep posted if I do)
Recipies
- (instapot or something of the sort re) Homemade yogurt - Get yogurt with active cultures, an amount of gallons of milk that's between one or two but I can't remember atm, keep it in the instapot overnight (i think like 20-26 hours, don't do this recipe yet till I am sure on this stuff) - Protein smoothies (cherry juice, raspberries but not a lot bc seeds, banana, strawberry, sometimes peach, maybe peanut butter if you're feeling spicy, and milk. On protein, you can use protein powder, but I found that using liquid whey is super beneficial).
Anyways, lets talk about foods!!

Title is self-explanatory, I think Wales needs a new wave of innovation when it comes to cuisine. Wales as a whole has never been one for cooking, I understand looking at the history and geography of the country but even still other countries have managed to innovate in poor, stressful situations so why not give it a try too. I can name on two hands the dishes Wales has, and if anyone’s seen the Tasty world cuisine ranking for 2023 you’ll know that our food isn’t perceived as great.
What Wales has is pretty decent I’d say, I always bake Welsh cakes for others and they never get a bad review but that’s really all I make. I know it’s easier said than done thinking of a new dish but some discussion about the topic could be interesting. Might even be a new avenue for tourism if we had better food, I mean people go to places like Italy or Greece for the foods (as well as the scenery and historic places yeah but whenever I hear discussions food is always either the first thing mentioned or at least up there).
But aye, that’s my thoughts at least. Could be an interesting convo to strike up, Wales have some good already and is a pretty damn organic country when it comes to how much locally grown/raised foods are here, from Lamb to cheeses and beers to laver to root veggies it’s a good start. We now have easy access to spices and herbs too so they can actually be included in the dishes now, so idk if anyone else feels this way but I’d love to be able to show off some Welsh culture in the form of some new dishes. Cheers for reading my waffle, have a tidy one 👍🏻

There's a "dad joke" I heard that goes: My therapist told me to write out a big long rant letter to everyone I have a problem with, burn them all to ashes, and scatter the ashes into the wind. I did all that last weekend, but now I'm not sure what to do with the letters.
This post feels like that big, long rant, but I genuinely could really use some help/ideas beyond "go to marriage counseling." I provide so much to the family and household that isn't reciprocated, but trying to set boundaries to feel more balanced gets passive-aggressive and/or silent treatment. I'm not writing all this here just to vent, I've actually edited this down pretty significantly to summarize what I'm going through and giving some examples.
Thanks for giving me the space to share this.
Me (50/M), Wife (45/F), two kids 15 and 13. We have no family who live anywhere close to us. We're in the middle of America, her divorced parents are on the coast, and mine's in Canada where I'm originally from (in case my username didn't give that away).
TLDR at the bottom.
Trigger warnings: a ruined birthday, shared/not-shared finances, me losing my cool and walking out on my family and getting the silent treatment since, and apparently being the only parent/grown-up in the house.
To this family, I feel that all I am to them is the income/paycheck and personal chef, and I'm ready to walk away. My wife won't communicate, gets defensive and angry, and doesn't contribute to the marriage or teach our kids about responsibility, so I look like a jerk all the time. If I speak up and ask her to help, I'm treated like a jerk. If I don't speak up, she does nothing.
Background about physicality, work and finances
I work in tech, typically 50-70 hours per week, and take on occasional (< 5 hrs/week) contract work as a side business to pay for my 3D printing hobby that I'm also trying to turn into a side business. She works part-time maybe one full day of work throughout the week on an as-needed basis.
My job pays the benefits, and I've established a retirement fund for us, plus a 401K and Roth IRA, plus a 529 account for each of the kids that I've been investing in since they were born. I paid off both cars. We're debt-free except for our mortgage, and we have enough assets to pay off the house if we choose to.
We each have a bank account for ourselves, plus a joint bank account. Her part-time paychecks and other money from an inheritance, goes 100% into her account only, and I use my account for my 3D printing business to maintain an LLC. Just about everything financial is paid for from my paychecks. I've always treated this as "our" money. All bills, mortgage, memberships, subscriptions (Netflix, etc), things the kids need (clothing, shoes, school supplies, etc), furniture, medical bills, etc are all paid from a joint account that is funded 100% by my paycheck. She makes no contributions to this account, but she does withdraw from it for fast food, snacks she buys just for herself, her own crafting hobbies, and she'll pick up maybe $100/month for some groceries.
I promised her before we were even married that if she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom or, at any point, go back to work, she'd have my full support either way, and I've kept that promise. She worked full-time for about 2 years before we had kids and worked a fair bit of part-time work before the kids started school in 2013. She's been at her part-time job for 2 years, so quite a span where she didn't work at all.
She works as a 1099 contractor and, despite repeatedly being asked to, won't reserve money for tax time. So, not only does she spend 100% of her paycheck, but I have to be sure that we save enough to cover her tax bill every year. She's never offered to contribute to tax payments we have to make.
I had gallbladder surgery and bariatric surgery, so I've had pretty restrictive dietary needs for the past 5-6 years. She often made comments about me being heavy and having a shortened life span, but since my bariatric surgery, she's expressed resentment about my body changing (I lost 120+lbs) and now doesn't care to learn what kinds of protein/carb/fat balance I need, and gained about 80lbs herself. As such, she does not contribute to any meal planning, which means I'm doing 95% of all meal planning, groceries, and cooking.
When it comes to cooking, I'm a damn good cook, and it's 100% because of YouTube. She grew up in an environment where she wasn't encouraged to cook or even learn to, so she lived on PBJ through college until we started dating and I would cook or take her out. When the kids were in their "picky" stages of 4yrs-9yrs of age, she got frustrated with cooking but years later still holds to that "NOBODY likes what I cook". So she makes maybe 2 or 3 meals per month now, and it's always the same meals. Last night, she cooked 10 people's worth of macaroni with a single pound of ground beef and more than a pound of cheese. I had to pick out the meat to get my protein and then drink a protein shake afterward, and then got offended that I threw away the noodles/cheese. (My diet needs high protein, low carbs, and almost no fat, she knows this because I tell her quite often, but she won't do anything about it; she's bought maybe 3 shelves worth of cookbooks and won't even open them or go take a class or anything.)
Our oldest kid has shown an interest in cooking and will maybe cook one meal per week and ask me to help him out, so I share what I've learned, things I've tried, experimented with, lessons learned, etc., and we have a good time, and they really appreciate the learning opportunity. On the rare occasion I do see my wife making dinner in the kitchen, I show her that I'm really happy about what she's making and ask if she wants help chopping or anything and I only get "no" as an answer and completely shut down like I'm not supposed to be in the kitchen. I'll try to have conversation with her but then she can't concentrate on cooking, chopping, etc, and then "ruined" dinner is my fault.
"Her" money versus "our" money, and how we spend our days/weekends
My wife had a relative die quite a few years ago and in the fall of 2018 was given a $250k inheritance. She has always referred to this as "her" money, "her" retirement, in case "she" needs a nursing home later. I'm not in her future plans, apparently. She gave $50k of it to a cousin who was deliberately left out of that relative's will. My wife's will leaves any remaining inheritance money to the kids. No mention of me anywhere whatsoever.
Once the inheritance money hit her bank account, she decides to buy a horse from halfway across the country and put it in a boarding stable 20 minutes from the house. It was a childhood dream of hers. Apparently, she's allowed to pursue her dreams and interests, it's "her" money, I'm not allowed to tell her what to do with it, but she complains when my 3D printing business makes enough money to buy another printer to keep up with demand... And my hobby takes up less time per week than she spends at the barn.
When she's not working her one-day-a-week job, she's at the boarding stable for a few hours per day, playing with her horse, taking selfies, taking him on walks, not actually riding him. With her remaining time at home, and when she gets home with the kids, she's lying on the couch, acting worn out and tired like she just bench-pressed the friggin' horse. (And yes, I know horse training CAN be exhausting, but she's not doing anything exhausting with him. She literally walks him on a path, or walks him in circles in an arena enclosure, or she's brushing him down and bathing him to look nice for Instagram)
In the summer of 2018, right before she got this inheritance money, she spent $50k of "our" money on a kitchen renovation that she insisted she designs herself, and then felt guilty about the bill and me having to take on more side contracting work to pay off the HELOC in a reasonable amount of time, and contributed back $10k to the whole project from "her" money afterward. "Her" money paid for the kids' orthodontics, about $3k each. But she literally contributes NOTHING else financially to the family.
If I had to guess, she's got about $150k left of that inheritance money, maybe less, she won't ever tell me about it. And we don't get a notice from the bank about interest gained at tax time every year because she put it in an account that makes ZERO interest. She sees my investments with 25%-40% gains, but won't ever ask for my help or input. Instead, she asked 3 other guys at work who told her to at least get a Vanguard account, but almost 6 years later she's never done it.
I work full-time as mentioned, and work from home. Work is typically 50+ hours per week but I try to cap it at 60-ish if I can. For the past month I've been on a project with a tight deadline, and working more like 10-14 hours per day 6 days per week. It's like that in tech, she's been understanding of this in the past, and I'm sure to take jobs where this is NOT the norm. Still, I'm always happy to help drive the kids to/from school or to music lessons or doctors, but I'm usually treated like "how dare you," that's "her" job, like that's her contribution to everything.
She works a part-time job doing marketing. Maybe 2-3 hours a day, one or two days per week. Sometimes busier in Q1 as they prep/plan most of the year, but then very low-lift afterward. She spends maybe 40 minutes per day taking the kids to/from school. Other than that, she's at the barn or on the couch. (have I mentioned we've gone through several couches that "our" money pays for??)
The marital imbalance I'm dealing with
She won't enforce chores for the kids, remind them to do laundry, or clean their rooms, or even shower. She'll text me "one of the boys smells" after taking them to school, but won't insist they shower, or back me up on the whole "c'mon guys, brush twice a day at least, and shower at least every 2 days with actual some soap on your bodies and actual shampoo on your hair, and use deodorant..." She'll make remarks like "Didn't you wear and sleep in those clothes for the past 3 days?" but won't make them change, or tell them to do their laundry.
She might do dishes 2 to 3 times per month, it's normally a chore we give to the kids, but she never enforces it. If they stack up for 3 days she'll do some of them but not all of them. One kid was born on an odd-numbered day, the other on an even-numbered day, so the rule is if today is an even or odd day, we know whose turn it is to do the dishes. And if the month has an odd number of days, I do the dishes on the 31st/29th day. But they're teenagers, they'd rather be in their rooms being teenagers, so I have to constantly remind them. Neither of them checks that the dishes are even clean before putting them away, something she specifically called out being embarrassed about when we were dating and visiting her mom's house where half of the dishes in the cupboard still had dried food all over them.
And then garbage day, or yard work, or vacuuming, cleaning a bathroom, cleaning their room, shoveling snow. She doesn't help enforce ANY of the chores that we agreed on. So I'm the sole disciplinarian around here, which makes the kids grow up thinking they better avoid me or I'm the jerk who's gonna put them to work.
Nothing happens around here unless I ask the rest of the family. I've purposefully left chores undone for "that's almost a health hazard" amounts of time and still nobody takes the initiative, nor will she ask the kids to help. They all see the work needs to be done, but they won't choose to help, and they're probably learning from her example of just sitting in some other room/area of the house and someone else will do it someday.
Even asking them "what kind of meals do you want this week, what haven't we had in a while, what's your favorite meal," you'd swear I was asking them to cure cancer every Saturday so I could start to plan meals for the following week and get groceries on Sunday, which has been our routine since the kids could talk.
Their cop-out is to skip the 3 shelves of cookbooks and flip through a binder we kept from a few months of Hello Fresh meals but then it's the same 10-12 meals that get kinda old after a while.
I feel like I have no help from anyone.
I reached my tipping point, and recently walked out on my family
A little over three weeks ago, I'm on this tight deadline at work, getting maybe 3-4 hours of sleep at night, pulling 10-14 hour days. It's a Wednesday, I remember about 430pm that I should commit my code, as I usually do 'cause I need to make dinner because nobody else is gonna do it. Oh, wait, tonight was grilled cheese and tomato soup -- literally, ANYONE ELSE in the house, including our 13yr old who has never shown any interest in cooking, could heat a can of soup and melt cheese between bread, right??? Surely SOMOENE else in the family will handle dinner, so I keep working (note, without asking anyone else to help with dinner), hoping someone else will handle the meal. (and yes, I know this is typically against my diet, but I indulge in this low-protein, high-carb, higher-fat meal about once a month.)
At 730pm my wife comes STOMPING into my office area, "I can't make the grilled cheese like you do." No politeness, just turns and stomps back to the kitchen. I follow her to the kitchen, where the tomato soup is on a RAPID boil, yet she hasn't even started making the grilled cheese sandwiches. I turn the soup off, take it off the burner, and start to describe what to do for the grilled cheese. It's honestly nothing special; I put shredded cheese in the pan to get crusty on the outside of the bread, then stack up the the grilled cheese, put break on top, let the inner cheese melt, and flip it onto more shredded cheese. Highly recommended.
She says "Oh" and ... LEAVES THE KITCHEN, leaving me there expecting me to make dinner... and I'm pissed. I should have just gone back to my work area, but she parks herself back on the couch.
I get everything made, and of course nobody sets the table, ever. Now I'm seriously pissed off, so I slam some dishes in the middle of the table and go back into the kitchen to get the pot of soup and plate of sandwiches. I get back to the dinner table, where my wife and youngest are just standing there, STILL not setting the table despite me standing there with food that I can't even put down. So I drop the food on the table wherever I can, soup splashes everywhere, and I start setting the table while they stand there and watch and ... I lost my cool. I flung bowls and spoons in the general area where they're supposed to be at the table, and I walked out of the house. I returned 4 or 5 hours later once they were all in bed.
The ONE meal in my busy schedule that ANY of them could have made, and her contribution was putting a can of soup in a pot.
She still didn't make any meals for the rest of the week. That Sunday she put a meal plan together for the whole following week. Again, all super carb-heavy when she knows my own diet can't handle that. And then she stopped planning ANYTHING ELSE SINCE THEN. The following week's "meal plan" was just a list of who was home on which night because of end-of-school-year events going on. No meals, no grocery list. Meanwhile I'm still on my deadline... Last week, no help at all. This week, zero help.
So this week's meal plan I finally set a boundary for myself that was VERY clear to them: I'm planning to cook 3 meals for the whole week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and left the rest open with no meal planned. Last night at 6pm she made her "hamburger helper" and plans "ramen" for tomorrow (again, all noodles and broth, very little protein), but no other help from her for the rest of the meal plan for the remainder of the week.
My recently ruined 50th birthday
My birthday was a little over a week ago. I turned 50. Send me your favorite dad jokes, please, I beg of you.
My wife asked me 2 or 3 months ago if I wanted any kind of party, etc. to which I said yeah, I'd love to have a few friends over, named several of them, all of whom she either has in her phone, or are guys married to women that I know she stays in regular contact with. I mentioned some all-you-can-eat places that we could go, just the 4 of us, where I could pick out good proteins etc. and they could eat whatever they wanted.
I got nothing. No dinner out. No party. No friends.
The night before my birthday, she was too lazy to get off the couch, so I went to bed alone. I woke up in bed alone. I told the family the day before that I wanted French Toast for breakfast, normally something we'd do on Christmas Day, but it was my 50th birthday gosh darn it, and I was even thawing bacon. I even bought all the groceries needed. Nope, had to cook that alone too, so I only made enough for me, and ate alone. Showered alone, 'cause we haven't been intimate in ... 3 months? 4 months? And who cares that it's my birthday.
Nobody asked if I wanted to go out anywhere, go see a movie, go for a hike with the dog, nothing. So I went out with the dog, alone.
That night I had to make dinner for the family, again, on my own friggin' birthday. Alone in the kitchen. AND I had to remind the kids to clean up the kitchen afterward 'cause they won't do it unless they're told. She bought tiny pieces of cheesecake for dessert, which she knows I don't like and can't eat because of my diet. I had one tiny piece, she and the kids ate the rest.
No cake, no candle, no balloons. It was my FIFTIETH birthday ...
We have some serious communication breakdown going on
Since I walked out of the house a few weeks back, she only talks to me when she wants something, and that comes across more as a demand, "I need you to pick the kids up from school, I have to be at work" and walks away She won't say good morning or even hi, unless I say it first. Lately, I say "hi" or "hey" as we're passing in the house and I get no response at all. I get literal one-word responses when I ask her a question. A few nights ago, several nights in a row, I'm in the living room on my laptop trying to get more work done, she'll come in the room, not ask me what I'm doing or if I'm working, and blast a TV show on her phone at near-maximum volume, and fall asleep on the couch.
She gets mad and offended any time I offer constructive criticism of any kind. And it doesn't matter how delicately I try to phrase things, I'll agonize for days over exactly which words to use, she'll get super defensive, angry and lash out, and give me the silent treatment for weeks.
Last Tuesday was an end-of-year awards show for our youngest, who's finishing 8th grade. He's really into music and he stayed after school to practice for the event. She comes home to get ready then decides to leave for the event by herself. I only noticed when the garage opened and closed. She doesn't say anything to me or our oldest kid about what time she wanted to leave or if we're ready to go, she just ... left. Well of COURSE we both want to go, but now we have to drive there separately. And he wins a TON of awards, one from his classmates, one from his teacher, and one from the school. I'd have been PISSED to have missed that. "Oh, I thought you didn't want to go..." was her reason later.
This past Saturday, I do ALL the yardwork 'cause she won't tell the kids to help and I'm frankly tired of having to ask for help. A few hours of yard work later, I tell my youngest to vacuum 'cause nobody vacuums around here unless I tell them to and honestly it's gross. I hop in the shower to clean up and cool down from the yard work. Youngest decides it's "too hot in the house" and sits in the kitchen to eat a popsicle instead of vacuuming. No backup from my wife at all on this, who's still parked on the couch. So I get upset with him, he does a half-assed job, says he's "tired' (from watching YouTube all day) and goes back to his room and we don't see him again the rest of the day. Again, no help or backup from my wife.
It's now 7pm in the house Saturday night, and -- shocker -- NOBODY has bothered to even ASK about dinner much less put any kind of food together. 8pm rolls around and my oldest finally emerges from his own room, starts thawing some chicken, and comes to ask me for help to make a meal, which I happily do. Until I get grumbly comments about "why are we eating so late." And my wife makes her way back to the couch. Not so much as a "thanks for cooking" or offer to clean up. And of COURSE nobody is doing the dishes, because DAD didn't remind anyone.
WHAT DO I DO??
19 years ago when we got married, this felt like a marriage. We did stuff together, we split things evenly, shared responsibility and chores, we both cooked, we bought groceries together. The first few years with kids were rough, but it at least FELT like a partnership once we figured out how to be parents. But something has shifted over the past decade, and this feels less and less like a partnership, much less feeling like a marriage. This whole relationship feels very one-sided, I get no appreciation for any of my constant hard work and being a provider. Instead, she's accused me, twice, of having an affair, once to the point of giving me anxiety/panic attacks for which I was almost hospitalized.
Now, she and the kids are noticing and talking behind my back (like I can't hear them) about the fact that I'm not wearing my wedding band anymore. Of course, the kids won't ask me directly, and I'm not bringing it up myself, and my wife's not talking to me anyway. Maybe she's still mad that I got mad a few weeks ago and walked out? Hard to know when the person won't talk to you unless they want something from you.
I'll put the damn ring back on when it feels like a marriage again. But then the next time it comes off, I think it'll stay off.
TL;DR! To this family, I feel that all I am to them is the income/paycheck and personal chef, and I'm ready to walk away. I can see why parents stay together "for the kids." As with most marriages, it started great; we've had bumpy times, but we always got through it together. Nothing like this, though. My wife won't communicate, gets defensive and angry, and doesn't contribute to the marriage or teach our kids about responsibility, so I look like a jerk all the time. Something has shifted over the past decade, and this feels less and less like a partnership. This whole relationship feels very one-sided, I get no appreciation for any of my constant hard work and being a provider.

Because of whimsy & completionism, I've decided to cook every recipe in the new cookbook. I thought it would also be fun to post "reviews" of each recipe for additional whimsy and to encourage/help other players who may be newer to cooking. Initial, general thoughts on the cookbook are: it is gorgeous and anyone who loves Stardew and cooks AT ALL would enjoy having it. The recipes seem thoughtful and well-crafted. It seems targeted for a more intermediate cook or an adventurous beginner. If you haven't cooked before, this could make a fun first cookbook if you're willing to do some work to learn new skills and try things out. The instructions do a good job of hand-holding without any steps left out. They are (obviously) mostly made from fresh, whole ingredients and most of them are a little more work than a usual weeknight dinner. Scratch cooking with a side of game lore, who could ask for anything more?
I'm going to follow each recipe exactly as written with notes of any substitutions (e.g. I'm not sure if I can source fiddlehead ferns where I live) I plan to do it with teen daughter and we've created two rating systems. Both ratings are completely subjective and just for fun. I'm a hobby, but very experienced (*), cook/baker. Teen is about to turn 16 and obviously not as skilled. Between the two of us we should be able to give you an idea of how hard a recipe would be.
I'll add links here along the way.
First rating scale: Grandpa's candles, This is how much we (again, subjectively) enjoyed eating the dish.
Second rating scale: Tool rating Complexity/difficulty/time consumed. On a scale of copper, iron, gold or iridium, how much work is this recipe? The rating might reflect a trickier technique or just a lot of steps/time involved.

Spring

Complete Breakfast
Farmer's Lunch
Vegetable Stock
Chowder
Fiddlehead Risotto
Pizza
Carp Surprise
Stir Fry
Cheese Cauliflower
Salad
Rice Pudding
Rhubarb Pie
Ginger Ale

Summer

Bread and Bruschetta
Maki Roll
Fruit Salad
Tropical Curry
Lucky Lunch
Shrimp Cocktail
Crab Cakes
Fish Taco
Mango Sticky Rice
Banana Pudding
Pink Cake
Blueberry Tart
Piña Colada

Fall

Radish Salad
Autumn's Bounty, Vegetable Medley and Red Plate
Pumpkin Soup
Shrimp Stock
Fish Stew
Bean Hotpot
Survival Burger
Stuffing
Super Meal
Salmon Dinner
Blackberry Cobbler
Pumpkin Pie
Cranberry Candy

Winter

Roots Platter
Strange Bun
Fried Mushroom
Tom Kha Soup
Pepper Poppers
Eggplant Parmesan
Baked Fish
Seafood Pudding
Spaghetti
Cookie
Poppyseed Muffin
Chocolate Cake
Triple Shot Espresso

I'm very border line 2/3B and trying not to cross into 3B, also diet managed Type 2 diabetic.
Next week I'll be working at a baseball championship for 7 days. It's a wee bit high stress. I do have medications to help with high blood pressure. I'll be stuck at the stadium from 8am - 11pm. Last year they catered food from the concession stands. Breakfast was Sausage egg & biscuits and prefab muffins (500mg), Lunch and dinner options were cheese burgers, Philly steaks, nachos.
The (very posh) Hotel has a $20 breakfast buffet that I plan to avoid. So no continental breakfast of grabbing a yogurt and some fruit.
The restaurants nearby are places like Firehouse Subs and a BBQ House that close before I get out of the game. (most of their menu doesn't seem sodium friendly)
I'm planning on stocking up at Costco
Breakfast: greek yogurts, + bananas
Lunch: might be some salad mix with rotassary chicken chopped, tunafish pouches
Dinners: not sure yet, something that can keep all day and I can mix/make in the hotel room before hand and keep in a cold bag
Snacks: unsalted mixed nuts, rice cakes & PB
A previous post (thanks for the replies) had mentioned that a cheat meal/day isn't so bad, but I'm worried about this being a week's worth of meals and don't want to blow my sodium on multiple days.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I've got several boneless chicken breasts in the freezer.. Think I'm going to smoke/bbq sauce those, then shred for sandwiches. Jalepeno Poppers (those were a big hit last time I made them)... Mac and Cheese, Cole Slaw.
I'm thinking dessert, I'll probably just do a Apple and Blueberry dump cake with some ice cream.
Hosting a total of 10 people

So I'm having a wedding on 32 people in total. We're doing a appetizer, dessert and drink table, and a family-style dinner. If I hire a bartender and servers, is it possible to make the dinner and do bakery/grocery store catering for the appetizers/desserts.
Appetizers:
Fruit Salad, Cubed Cheese, Naan Chips w/ Hummus, Assorted Olives & Pickles
Main:
Minestrone & Split Pea Soup (ppl rsvp their choice ahead of time), Mini Quiche & Tourtiere Tarts, Purple & Carot Coleslaw, German Potato Salad, Dinner Rolls & Individual Margarine Packets
Desserts:
Donut Cake, Assorted Mini Dessert Squares/Cheese Cakes, Chocolate & Yogurt Covered Pretzels, Rice Pudding
The venue I'm looking to book with allows us to bring our own food, and has a commercial grade kitchen onsite for heating/refrigeration. It would just be the 2 of us (although i'm sure a few friends and family members will be willing to help, just don't want to fully bank on it in case people flake), but the tarts could be made well in advanced and frozen (kept in my future MIL's deep freezer in her basement), same with the soup and be canned. Would purchase the naans, pickles, and cube up the cheese and vacuum seal a week in advance. Probably prepare the coleslaw, potato salad and rice pudding 2 or 3 days in advance. Would be picking up the rest the night before/morning of from the grocery store/bakery (2 places so not too much running around) and immediately storing in our venue's walk-in refrigerator. We're hiring the venue's staff, who would reheat the soup and quiches/tourtieres, plate everything and serve. Does this make sense, or am I just crazy?