Huh? What is that?

IIRC, because I added it only relatively recently after getting sick of the incessant watering thing and getting frustrated with the stupid sprinklers, "Perfect Plants" will work immediately when you put it in your game. No replanting needed. The plants will just "freeze" at whatever state they were in when you added the mod, though. So, if they needed weeding/trimming/watering, you'll need to tend them, but after that they should stay "perfect."

As for prickly pears...Not only are the fruits edible, but so are the pads. We grill them with some lime juice and olive oil, serve with sour cream and homemade salsa. Quite yummy. Also very nutritious. So, a good trespasser-deterrent AND a good source of nutrition.

I'd love to try some prickly pear fruits. Are the ones you eat full of seeds?

Not really. They sort of wrap around the part you eat. They are, so I'm told, also edible, although I've never eaten them, myself. If you harvest the pears yourself, they definitely require delicate handling, though, because they're covered with hair-thorns that are nasty and go everywhere. That's why the plant is a good trespasser-deterrent. They've usually been removed if you buy them in a store, just require skinning and brushing off the seeds if you don't want to eat them. It's not much harder to do than removing seeds from a pepper or a cantaloupe. The fruits are quite tasty. When they have a lot of water in them and are well-ripened (the redder they are, the riper/sweeter they are), they taste like a really intense, sweet watermelon with a bit of strawberry essence. The juice is used to make very tasty jams and jellies in addition to candies and such. It can even be fermented to make wine. I like the flesh as well, but some people don't like its consistency. I like to eat the pads, too, which are readily available in grocery stores here in the Southwest. They taste rather like green beans or asparagus, with a bit more of an acid kick. I like to add pre-grilled cubes to my tofu scrambles. (AKA "scrambled eggs" or "omelettes" for non-vegans. )

As long as I've been in Tucson, I've never heard of anyone eating those. Do you prepare them in any way? Do you peel the rind off first? I know they don't always have needles, but don't they always have tiny little prickly things in them?
Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing, these:

(That's not me in the pic, although there's a resemblance)

Yep, that's the plant...although I think the ones that grow wild are different from the ones that are farmed. I think the farmed ones are selectively-bred to be thornless or at least less-thorny. And...Really? You've not heard of people eating them? Well, I suppose they are more popular as a foodstuff in Mexico proper, but still I'd think they'd be eaten in Tuscon, especially in Mexican restaurants. We go down to AZ/NM to harvest fruit and pads wild sometimes. They do grow up here, but they're very stunted, due to the climate, rarely getting taller than about knee-height. However, pads (called nopales in Spanish) and fruit shipped up from Mexico are always available in grocery stores up here, too, which is how we usually get them.

It's pretty easy to harvest/eat the fruit, if you want to try them. Use BBQ tongs to pull the fruit off the pad when ripe, which for most kinds is when they're red/magenta. When they're ripe, they should pull off pretty easily if you twist them a bit. Don't touch the fruit because of the hair-spine things. Wear gloves while harvesting to prevent getting airborne hair-spines in your skin and stick the fruit in a bucket. There are many different ways to remove the spines. Since we just eat them one at a time, we tend to just burn 'em off over a gas stove burner, holding the fruit with BBQ tongs. It's kind of fun because sometimes they give off sparks. If you're preparing a bunch of them, say for juicing, there are more efficient ways. However you do it, once the hair-spine things are gone, use a sharp chef's knife and cut about 1/4" off each end of the fruit, then cut them in half vertically. Pull off the rind -- which can be pretty thick but it pulls off easily -- scoop out the seeds (if you want, otherwise leave 'em), and eat. Or juice. Or whatever you want to do with them. Very tasty, as I said, can be very sweet. Syrupy-sweet, even. And high in vitamins A and C. If you eat the pads, too, those are very high in calcium, which, as a post-menopausal vegan woman, is why I eat them often and in quantity, since I don't drink cow milk or use dairy products.

OK, thanks for all the info.
I'll have to buy me some prickly pear jelly first, to see if I even like the flavor.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that people eat these things, which grow in every dusty, dirty back alley in town. The fruits OK, but the pads?
I'll make it a point to further enquire - thanks.

https://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=288772
http://cyjon.net/node/172



Wine? What happened to tequila? XD

Nothing at all. Just different cactus products, is all. Well, if agave is a cactus, that is. I really don't know. Anyway, plenty of room for both! Well, if I could have either of them, that is, which I can't, but...

I have a new peeve out of last night's gameplay:

There isn't a fish tank for fish that you catch in the ponds.

Is three weeks considered threadcromancy? I didn't feel like starting a new topic because it really this list seems like an ongoing thread like 'what did you learn today?' and 'stupid/quick questions'.

A pet peeve I forgot about and experienced this weekend when a sim I hadn't played in a while finished his novel. Well heck, I don't remember what sequence of icons I had picked for the plot line, all I knew was that he was a Romance sim so figured it was a romance novel. I named it 'Lust of the Spring' and gave it a synopsis of 'Humble Greek hunters are seduced by forest nymphs' and then the book is delivered and it's a sci-fi cover and he thinks of astronauts while he reads it and it should have been a book about hot alien seductresses!

I wish there was a way to review or remind the player what the events of the story were when the sims tarted writing. of course he gets a phone call a few minutes later from his publisher saying it was selling poorly. Probably because sims were buying it thinking it was a sci-fi novel and then they get a eye-ful of steamy romance text!

God yes, that's so annoying. I don't get why one doesn't pick all of it at the same time. Considering it takes a while to write a novel, it's not unlikely that real life time passes between starting and ending.

I've had that happen. I actually write the name of the book and what it's about in the sims's bio but I still have to remember to check that before the novel is finished. It's easy playing rotations to move on when the novelist was at 90% and when I come back to playing him forget how close to finishing he was, hit play and suddenly be faced with the what is this book screen. last time that happened I was totally wrong. I knew my sim wrote children's books but my guess was so far off it was funny. It would be better to pick the cover and what the book was to be about when the novel was finished rather than when it was being started.

Well, according to me, it is better this way. In the Sims 3 there is..and I do not like it.
Some fish are "pets" maybe, and buyable in pet stores..but who put trout in a fish bowl?..And who eats goldfish? come on..lol
The fish you can catch in the Sims 2 are all edible-kind of fish..not pets. maybe this is just me.

The category in which a book will be in, depends on the cover. And what does the sim thinks about, the thought bubble when reading it, IS..whatever icon you chose, the story or plot whateveryoucallit.
If your sim have the choice amongst different novels, he will go for the cover that fits his interests.

I hate how there are no headmistresses in my game...
always a male; BJ Ryan, Vince someone...

and two turn ons and one turn off
why not two of each, or one of each?

On a related note, why are most of the teen store clerks female in the game? Yes, I do have George. and occasionally, a guy pops up, but very rarely. Sometimes I like my teens to flirt with the clerks. and I'd like more variety in the male department. Hey, George has his charm, but ....

I even tried moving store clerks into households left and right (after making sure that's OK, of course), and I still get almost all females when the game spawns new ones.

Start over with clean or no templates at all. My game spawned a very cute male clerk.

I started with clean templates..and the only clerk spawned was..a female teen
For other reasons, I had sent her to college from the 'Hood view thing. Game spawned a new clerk! A female clerk.

Funny how the game can have a run like that, spawned or born in. I got lucky with both a cute male clerk and a rather good looking evil warlock. Still haven't seen the good counter part yet.

What do you need exactly again..to have them show up? I have all EP..but maybe I have a mod stopping them.

To have what show up?

Evil warlock. and the good counter part.
I just cannot remember seeing them in pretty much..never.
(and i would still their cat)

You just need to visit community lots with your sims. You probably have them banned through a mod.