2008 archive
Sauerbraten 0
This is not the recipe to which I linked in this post. This is the recipe I used, Craig Claiborne’s recipe from the 1971 New York Times International Cookbook, the best cookbook ever written.
As with any of Craig Claiborne’s recipes, it is to die for. We verified that tonight.
Ingredients:
3lbs. Bottom round of beef (I used 2 lbs. chuck roast)
3 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard seeds (I substituted horseradish because I had no mustard seeds and didn’t want to go back to the store, and the Internet told me I could use horseradish)
25 whole cloves
25 bay leaves (only had six and some flakes)
3 large onions peeled and sliced (I used only two, because I was using less beef)
2 cups wine vinegar
1/4 cup butter
salt to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp. sea salt)
6 slices bacon (I used five, because that was all I needed to cover everything fully)
beef stock
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 cup cold water
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream
1. The meat must be marinated three days in advance. Trim off most of the fat from the beef, then cut the beef into six large chunks. Select a glass, enamel, or stainless steel bowl large enough to the been comfortably. Combine the peppercorns, mustard seeds, cloves, bay leaves, onions, and vinegar and pour all of it over the beef. Refrigerate for 3 days.
2. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Melt the butter in a casserole.
4. Drain the meat and reserve both the meat and half the marinade with the seasonings.
5. Place the meat in the casserole and add the reserved liquid and seasonings. Add slat to taste. Place the casserole, uncovered, in the oven. Cook about one hour, then reduce the heat to 300 degrees.
6. Turn the meat in the liquid and cover each piece of meat with bacon. Continue cooking about one hour, or until the meat is tender. Remove the bacon and discard it. Cook the meat about ten minutes longer, then transfer to a warm platter and strain the cooking liquid. Discard the solids. To the cooking liquid add enough beef stock to make four cups. (I made three cups because of the smaller quantity of beef.)
7. Return the meat to a clean casserole and add the liquid. Bring to a boil. Blend the flour with the cold water and add it to the boiling liquid, stirring. Simmer about five minutes, adding more salt, if desired. Stir in the cream. Serve hot, with noodles, dumplings, or potatoes. (We served it with rice. I know, thanks to Bush and his ethanol scam, once we run out of rice, we won’t be able to afford any more.)
H/T to Linda for transcribing the recipe.
Bushonomics 0
I had to fill up with gasoline on the way to DL last night.
$3.57 per gallon.
Driving to my training gig this morning, I saw prices in Pennsylvania in the $3.75 range.
Three houses on my way had Corvettes parked in front “for sale by owner.”
Now, Corvette mileage ain’t bad, at least on the highway. Not great, but not terrible. But Corvettes are essentially toys.
My guess is, those folks have to sell the cars so they can eat or pay their mortgages.
Endless War: John McCain Doesn’t Like It When Persons Actually Pay Attention to What He Says 0
Josh Marshall:
Now that the nomination process for the Republicans is over, McCain is running and hiding from what he said on his quest for the nomination. He’s no Horton the Elephant–but, then, we have already established that “Horton the Elephant could not have been a Republican.
More from TPM:
The rub here is this: McCain does not want to leave Iraq. Period.
He wants tens of thousands of troops to stay in Iraq permanently. He made a big point of this during the primaries when it was politically advantageous to do so. And he followed up with a qualifier explaining that it’s okay because our occupation of Iraq will soon be like our presence in Germany and Japan where nobody gets killed. But there’s little reason to believe our occupation of Iraq will ever be like that.
(snip)
The relevant point is that McCain believes American troops should stay in Iraq permanently. His pipe dream about Iraq turning into Germany doesn’t change that. It just shows his substitution of wishful thinking for sound strategic judgment.
Catch 22 0
It’s the best catch there is.
Support the Troops, Bushie Style 0
There’s really nothing to add to this:
So, Frawley did what any concerned citizen does — he posted a video on YouTube two weeks ago, containing still photos of moldy ceiling panels, broken toilet seats, backed up sewage water flooding a bathroom, exposed pipes — and demanded that viewers contact their congressmen.
Fortunately, First Son lives off-base.
H/T Linda.
Drink Liberally 0
Tonight, Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Philadelphia.
Festivities start at 6 p. m.
Bugs 1
Great commercial. Low production values, stupid costumes, silly plot.
Kind of like Fox News, but with some little bit of truth in the message:
Of course, I use Paramount and am quite happy with them.
But it’s still a great commercial.
100 Years Is a Century 0
Pine View Farm, which my grandfather purchased in 1912, has been in my family for a shorter time than that:
Honor 0
Or not.
Honor killings in the Democratic Republican Republic of Iraq. Follow the link for the details.
Richard Blair asks the questions:
Q: How can “democracy†flourish in this kind of an environment?
A: It can’t.Q: Why is the U.S. government (and many Americans) still supporting this crap?
A:
Enhanced Dentistry Techniques 0
I was at the dentist’s today have a temporary cap replaced with a (what I hope will be a) permanent one.
Unfortunately, in this case, my dentist is very good. The temporary cap fit so perfectly that it didn’t want to break free and come out.
The tech wiggled it and wiggled it. No go.
It wasn’t very pleasant, because, as she wiggled the cap, the tooth rocked back and forth. The tooth itself didn’t hurt, but the rocking did. I nearly crushed my cell phone, which I was holding in my hands.
Finally, she said, “I’m not trying to hurt you” and called in reinforcements.
I said, “That’s okay. I know you aren’t working for Dick Cheney.”
She laughed.
Horton the Elephant Was Not a Republican 0
because he meant what he said, and he said what he meant.
That Sinking Feeling . . . . 1
The current BoatUS Magazine (BoatUS membership required) has a neat article on personal submarines.
But you can learn all you need to know to buy or build your own personal submarine (no missile silos included) here.
John McCain Is a Conservative Hack (Updated) 2
As I have mentioned before.
And, like most politicians who call themselves “conservative,” he has no principles. Just conveniences.
Josh Marshall has more.
Addendum, 4/27/2008:
Trudy Rubin. Follow the link for the complete analysis:
In an obvious effort to distinguish himself from Bush, McCain describes himself as “realistic idealist.” Yet his speeches and comments reveal a disturbing lack of realism about the world, especially the Middle East.
(snip)
Has the Arizona senator not noticed the world has changed since George W. made similar pronouncements at the turn of the century? The illusion that America alone can shape the globe should have passed.
(snip)
Yet, when McCain lays out how he’d exercise American power in Iraq and elsewhere, he seems unaware of the consequences of seven years of Bush policies.
I Think I’m Finally over This Thing That’s Had Me Down 1
(Link Fixed.)
I voluntarily did more today than I have done in a month.
I started a Sauerbraten. I’ve considered cooking one before, but the problem is that you have to start three days ago.
Now, I didn’t use the recipe that I linked to. Rather, I used the recipe in the New York Times International Cookbook by the Greatest Cookbook Author Ever.
I also prepared a ratatouille for tomorrow (again, not the linked recipe). It’s sort of a vegetable casserole with aubergine, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and assorted other stuff. Takes about half an hour to cut everything up and about an hour of messing about with the ingredients before it’s ready to go into the fridge for tomorrow.
I spent all afternoon slaving over a hot stove. So Linda cooked supper.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Bushisms 0
From The Nation:
“For the record, we invited Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and NBC to participate but they declined our offer or did not respond.”
John Stauber, coauthor of Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq, contended that the Pentagon’s “surrogate” program violated federal law against domestic propaganda and called for a congressional investigation. “This war could have never been sold if it were not for this sophisticated propaganda campaign,” he said. Former ABC correspondent Bob Zelnick largely defended the program as standard operating procedure–an odd claim since the administration went to court to prevent its disclosure. Zelnick did concede, however, that news organizations should disclose more about military analysts’ conflicts of interest when they provide commentary.
Drumbeats 0
Phillies vs. Pirates 0
The Phillies were ahead, 6-0.
Now it’s Phillies 6, Pirates 5 (which turned out to be the final score) in the bottom of the eighth.
But, whatever the outcome, it is undeniable that the Pirates have the dumbest looking uniforms on the planet.
DVD Players in Automobiles 3
(Prompted by a commercial I just saw.)
What the hell kind of kids are we raising if we sedate them with movies on long drives, rather than letting the little bastards darlings fight it out like God intended? Siblings are supposed to hate each other. It makes the love they feel for each other when they grow up so much more precious.
How will they learn to deal with adversity when they don’t even learn to deal with their brothers and sisters?
Dammit. My parents knew enough to point to the center seam in the seat covers (okay, so seat covers don’t have seams any more–there’s always masking tape) and say, “Stay on your side.” And my brother and I still haven’t killed each other.
Yet.
Christalmighty, I drove 31 days and 7100 miles about the country in a van filled with three kids and with no DVD player and, you know what? we made it home.
(We didn’t like each other any more, but we made it home with no fatalities.)
Generation of wusses.
Not the kids.
The parents.
Who have to sedate their kids with Disney rather than deal with them.