food

Randomness for 12/16

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1) Library book overdue by 99 and a half years.

2) Humans vs. Zombies, the live game. Photos of the event. (Humans won! Yay humans!)

3) Connecting fructose and childhood diabetes.

4) And, for a different sort of unhealthy ingestion: Blood drinking 101

5) A wooden castle–built from 396,000 popsicle sticks.

6) Lawsuit seeks to remove atheist from public office. It seems North Carolina’s state constitution bars atheists from holding public office. It’s an unenforceable law, thanks to a decades-old Supreme Court decision, but it’s the basis of a suit seeking to have Cecil Bothwell removed from a city council seat.

7) In contrast to my Author’s Big Mistake post from earlier today, a hilarious book review with a very smart author response.

Date night

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Last night my wife and I went out to dinner for a date (we were celebrating the getting of a sitter) and dropped in at a place called Lola on the recommendation of a friend.

Wonderful. It was really amazing. It was mainly a high-end Greek place with North African and other influences. We had a targine of red wine braised goat with quince and chocolate, pita with a cauliflower/anchovy spread, fried chick peas, octopus, brussels sprouts, omg it was just so good.

And we had a chance to talk uninterrupted, which was nice. I don’t really see us going back, because it’s not in our budget (see special occasion above) but what a fantastic experience.

SETI@home and recipe contest followup

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As a followup to the previous post about a guy fired for loading SETI@home, apparently, he’d done other things as well, such as “bring home” 18 computers, download pron at work, and claim to have done work he hadn’t done.

So, it’s not the wacky story the idiotic cnet writer made it out to be.

Also, we ate the T-Day leftover empanadas from the recipe contest for dinner on Monday. Verdict: we liked it! The next time I make them, I’ll cut the salt in half for the pastry–it was a little thirst-inducing. Least favorite for everyone was the bacon and cheddar mix. The favorite was different for each, with the boy liking the gravy best, and my wife and I favoring the cranberry.

Yeah, I’ll be making them again.

Black Friday Non-Shopping and Leftover Contest Winner (Exclamation point!)

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And the winner is…

(drumroll)
Continue reading

The most boring Turkey Day report ever

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You know what’s interesting? Conflict, crisis, disaster, and unhappiness. That’s why this will be an incredibly boring post.

Everything I made turned out. My wife and son made an apple pie that was a little too wet, but it still tasted wonderful and the boy ate almost a third of it that day. The stuffing could have been more moist, but that’s my personal preference for clumpability; it certainly wasn’t dry by any standards. Our oven has been a little wonky lately, but the turkey was very nice and juicy. Even the last minute decision to make dinner rolls after all turned out beautifully.

My wife and I had Alton Brown’s sweet potato pie, which is fantastic for breakfast the next day, and made me feel like a Yankee. I’m going to have a lunch break in a few minutes, and a turkey/cranberry sandwich (on yesterday’s roll) is waiting.

It was a simpler year, with simpler recipes and a smaller spread. Even though we brought out the large plates (we usually eat our meals on small lunch plates to discourage binges) I took moderate helpings and left the table feeling full but not mistreated. And the giblet gravy was fantastic.

I even managed to do a little writing, play a board game with the family, and take a nice walk around the neighborhood to admire some of the fancier houses up the hill. I wish we could have more days just like it.

Today I’m at the day job, and things are very quiet. I guess everyone’s buying Lego Rock Band or whatever instead of refilling their meds. It’ll be nice to sit down with my lap top and get more writing done.

If you missed the Black Friday Leftover contest in my previous post, check it out.

Black Friday Non-Shopping and Leftover Contest!

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I’m scheduling this post for early Black Friday morning, when I’m going to be sound asleep. (At least, I hope I will be.) So I’m writing this just after eating a sizable but not gluttonous Thanksgiving dinner.

So! Have a friend who likes urban fantasy? Want to have a gift sent to them at no cost to you? You’re in luck: the prize for this contest is a signed, inscribed, giftwrapped copy of Child of Fire, which I will mail to your friend/family member/loved one/mortal enemy anywhere on the planet Earth.

I’ll inscribe it any way you like (within reason), and the gift wrap will be nice but non-denominational. I’ll also include a nice but non-denominational card, too, with “Do not open before [date you choose]!” written on the envelope. And don’t worry, my wife will do the actual wrapping; that ensures the package will not only look nice, but it won’t be sloppily cocooned in scotch tape.

This lets you cross someone off your gift list without spending a cent! How do you win the prize? Well, we have the remains of a 20 lb. turkey in our fridge, and we’re looking for recipes for the leftovers. Suggest something. You can give the recipe in detail, describe it in a general way, or just drop a link to something you like. On Sunday morning, my wife, son and I will look at all of the suggestions on my main blog, LJ, and Facebook, and together we’ll choose a recipe to try. If we choose yours, you win!

Helpful tips for folks thinking of entering: soups, sandwiches and pot pies will have to be really unique or special, since we make a lot of them already. Cheese will be a tough sell (we’re open-minded, but cheese and turkey?), and any sort of hot sauce or spicy pepper will get an immediate veto by the child. And, if we find two recipes that look great, we may have two winners.

At any rate, we’ll make the winner’s recipe and I’ll blog how it turned out.

You didn’t want to go shopping on Black Friday anyway, did you?

It’s late.

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The stuffing is in the fridge, the pies are cooling in the chilly part of our apartment [1], and my brilliant “starfruit only” strategy failed to win the “Last Stand” minigame in PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES.

Damn, I need to get to bed.

For everyone out there celebrating Thanksgiving in the morning, may you have a joyful one, and may you have twice as much to be thankful for next year.

[1]Which part of our apartment is the chilly part? The inside.

Turkey Day preparation

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The turkey is in the brine as of 6 am this morning, along with plenty of ice. The pork roast has been ground and mixed with spices for the sausage stuffing. The cranberry sauce is finished (with extra sugar this year to appeal to the boy–but not too much extra). I probably should have made the sweet potato pie last night, but the fridge had an awful lot of turkey in there and I was worried about the space. At least the dough for the crust is ready.

I’ll do today’s writing at lunch, then tonight I’ll make the pie and the stuffing. That leaves very little for tomorrow: taters, glazed onions, and whatever else I’m forgetting. My wife isn’t keen on dinner rolls, mainly because they take a lot of time, but we have the stand mixer now, and jeez, they make great sandwiches, so maybe I’ll toss those in the oven.

I have a lot of things to be thankful for this year, and maybe tomorrow I’ll make a full accounting. Today I’m just grateful that I seem to have stopped checking my Amazon.com sales ranking every 45 minutes.

Early in the week

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It’s still early in the week, so I’m not online very much. I do want to say this, since I’m prepping for Turkey Day.

I will be brining my turkey, a la Alton Brown. I will also be baking an AB sweet potato pie. However, I don’t care what he says, stuffing is NOT evil.

Yeah, it adds cooking time, but I run potato skewers through it to bring heat to the inside of the bird. The slightly damp stuffing gives off steam that helps cook the bird from the inside.

Evil? I think not.

To shift gears.

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Actually, let me pause a moment before I shift gears. My anniversary was nice. My wife loved the flowers I brought her and I loved the dinner she prepared (little steaks with sauteed mushrooms, noodles, and bleu cheese salad).

I also went to bed early (actually, I was *sent* to bed) and got a decent night sleep.

*Now* I’ll shift gears:

What are your three favorite movies about ghosts? Or just list three that you really love. Or one. Ghost movies, please.