My oh my.

[pecunium]

It seems (from the slew of new names in my inbox) that my recent flurry of public outrage has caused some new people to swing by.

Welcome. This is an open forum, what rules exists, can be found here. Mostly I just ask that you don't stink up the place.

For those who haven't been by before, I do write about politics, but it's far from the only thing. This is where I write what I feel like sharing, sometimes it's politics. Sometimes it's not.

In fact, more often it's not.

I like cooking, eating, photography, sharp things; and things that go boom, I speak (with varying degrees of fluency) four languages, I'm in the National Guard; went to Iraq in OIF-1 (Deployed OCONUS from Feb. 2003 to July 2003, when your tax dollars made it possible for me to manifest an auti-immune arthritis, don't worry, I won't hold it against you. I still have all my parts, and they work, mostly. Shit happens).

I'm an interrogator.

I like the Dodgers (and baseball in general, though my second favorite team is whoever's playing the Yankees, and there's no love lost between me and the Giants) curling, fencing, shooting, bowling, archery, riding, hiking, bouldering.

I cook. I sharpen my own knives, butcher my own meat (when I can) make my own bread and try to keep a ready supply of stock in the freezer. No one leaves the house hungry.

I've been known to swig beer, swill wine, and slug whisky. I sip my tea and swallow coffee in great gulps. I have strong feelings on strong flavors. Lapsang souchong, Laphroig, kidneys and asparagus are divine, but earl grey, blended scotch, artichokes and cooked spinach are abominations in the sight of God and all right thinking men.

I'll eat just about anything, from dirty-water dogs and powdered lemonade at a little league game, to a truffle risotto under magritte of duck and an onion tomato reduction, with a bottle of appassiamento.

I've got just as disparate a set of opinions on matters political, and am just as reticent in sharing them.

I've been called everything from a communist to a mindless shill for the government. There are those who think me a blinkered fool because I think torture is useless as a system for gaining information. I've also been called a saint for the same belief. I try to let neither of those go to my head.

Sometimes I fail.

So, welcome to my piece of the web. If you like it, feel free to tell others, theres always a few more electrons to go round



.

Comments

[ms-tek.livejournal.com]

=)

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

What, you don't like spanakopita?

What on earth is magritte of duck? Does it have a green apple floating above it?

I'm with you on keeping plenty of stock in the freezer, we just had the santoku sharpened, and we're roasting a whole suckling pig tomorrow night. Mmmm.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Spanokopita is the only form of cooked spinach I can eat.

Otherwise, I retch. It's really annoying.

Magritte of duck is a breast, deeply scored in the fat, and then placed below a high flame, so the skin crackles, the fat melts and the meat is cooked just pink.

Then it's sliced across the grain, and at an angle, and laid on a bed of something.

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention, I love a suckling pig, and have carved three of them for theatrical dinners, in public places.

I hope yours was good. There's a bit, way back on the belly, behind the short ribs, practically to the slack of the gut, which is amazing; sweet, crispy, savory and redolent of everything good on a pig.

I call it the desert course of suckling pig, and there are about four servings on the whole beast. It's the carver's perogative, and the best part is sharing it out with those people deserving of favor.

The master doesn't get it, the servants keep it for themselves.

TK

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

You drink powdered lemonade?

...

So do I. Love "Country Time" the best.

:-)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Not by choice.

TK

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

I do enjoy real lemonade when I can get it. I found a lovely recipe in Cooks Summer Grilling and Entertaining that is excellent- It involves a dozen well scrubbed lemons, cut in half from pole to pole, and then sliced thinly and thoroughly muddled with 1 1/4 cup of sugar. The recipe suggests using a potato masher to get the maximum amount of juice and lemon oil out of the lemon slices. Then you add about 5 cups of cold water to the resulting lemon syrup, and serve over ice.

Mashing the lemons gives them an incredible flavor boost.

Beats powdered lemonade by a mile.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I, too, like spankopita (and quiche Florentine), but add Japanese spinach to the "edible & even tasty" list. Not just "Japanese style" -- I think it's a different species, or at least much different variety, than common in Europe & the U.S. -- steamed lightly, formed into a small block, chilled, and drizzled with a sauce of ground sesame seeds & oil. And, perverted though it might be, I consider artichoke an acceptable vehicle for a good sauce Mayonnaise.

And thanks for the reminder -- it feels like about time to check on the date of the St. Nectarios church annual Greek Festival here in Covina (even though it's gotten so large that the Chruch Basement Ladies no longer cook the food themselves).

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look for it.

The pickled stuff I've always gotten at Korean places is quite nice.

TK

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

It might be one of those things that seem to disappear (or perhaps cease to exist) when they're being actively looked-for. Quite possibly it's seasonal -- late Spring or early Winter, I'd guess, in our climate. In my experience it's not been especially common -- just one of those side-dishes (or nibblements, in sake-ya) that sometimes appear. Actually, it's unusual and minor enough that I've never learned the Japanese name for it.

I suspect it's often a matter of the food-planner thinking "We need one more side-dish to make up the proper five [or three, or seven, depending on the elaborateness of the meal], and it needs to be bright green in color and rectangular in shape, to balance...." (And yes, I think it's quite common for the Japanese to approach meals that way, though perhaps not so consciously & verbally.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I think they do think of it semi-consciously.

It's part of why the preferred tomato color for tomatoes in Japan is almost pastel.

TK

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

Spinach does have other edible contexts; it's wonderful as part of a dhal and actually miraculously good layered into a lasagne.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

That I can eat spanokopita is amazing.

Because when I said I retch, I meant it.

I made the error of assuming that discovering spanokopita meant I might be able to eat spinach that was moderately cooked.

So I ordered a burger florentine at a restaurant I was eating at weekly (social engagement). The spinach was added to the burger, and wilted from the heat of the meat.

I had to send it back, because the bite I took was, quite literaly something I had to choke down, and chase with coffee.

TK

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

Flavour or texture, or something more subtle? While there are foods I don't like, I can't think of anything right now that I would reject for how it tasted. Mouth-feel and bite, on the other hand: avocado, liver, kidneys, hard-boiled egg yolk turn my stomach unmediated, but all are fine suitably post-processed or combined.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's a taste. There's something (I'm guessing phenolic) which happens when heat is added.

I can makes some educated guesses as to why this is something intrangient to change, but that doesn't change the fact that for more than 35 years, I can't eat it.

Save in spanokopita.

And, like cilantro, you can't slip it into something on the assumption that it's all in my head.

TK

[kebechet.livejournal.com]

I'm a Dodgers sympathizer (my dad and the team moved out to Los Angeles from Brooklyn the same year -- strange things breed fans sometimes), and have a long-standing animosity towards the Yankess.

Arthritis is a terrible thing. A friend of mine developed early-onset autoimmune arthritis, and, after many different runs with many different types of therapy, started on a regimen of Supergreens. It sounds a little silly, but after a few months, a *lot* of his joint swelling subsided, and while he wasn't 100%, the pain was reduced and his mobility improved tenfold. I don't know if it'll help, but I thought I'd throw it out there. =)

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Earl Grey is as close to divine as tea gets (not to mention being cultural as transcultural as a beverage can get). Kidneys, however, are excellent.

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, Laphroig, Laphroig is proof that the gods love us and want us to be happy. And Oban, Oban is just pure divine bliss. YMMV, but oh my. Things that make me smile and shudder and melt, those two are on the list.

Now Jura, Jura is not to my taste. Perhaps I could develop the taste for it, but I have not done so yet.

I have -got- to go to another tasting soon. Once a year is not enough.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Talisker?

Or Caol Ila? The latter is an Islay, and I have some cask strength of it, and Laphroig. We did a tasting (with some scottish burn water to bring it down to bottle strength) at my birthday party last month.

I really like the Caol Ila. I commend it, and if you can get some cask strength, enjoy the revelations.

MacCallan, however, doesn't do much for me.

TK

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

Talisker made me happy when I tried it. Verrry happy.

Never seen Caol Illa, and would be -most- interested.

Now MacCallan, I had one MacCallan once that did make me a Very Happy Girl. But, I did not take note of how old it was and whether it was cask strength or what the story was. Argh. One of those moments I'd like a do-over for. I've learnt my lesson since, always carry a little notebook.

I'm still learning, and know that I generally prefer peaty things to less peaty things. But that's only one axis of taste and smell. There must be others. I'm looking forward to learning and trying enough different things to get a vocabulary of tastes and be able to articulate -why- I like this more than that.

The idea of doing a tasting at a birthday party strikes me as absolutely delightful. Perhaps I should float that idea around friends when the time approaches!

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

If you like peat, you'll want to try Caol Ila.

There are seven distilleries on Islay.

Bunnahabhain
Bowmore
Bruichladdich
Caol Ila
Ardbeg
Lagvulin
Laphroig



The last three are the "peatiest".

I've had them all (the Caol Ila was the last, and it took going to Scotland to find it... then I saw it when I came home)

The only MacCallan I ever really liked was a 25 (hell of a thank you present). Generally I find it to have notes of butyl rubber, but that was subdued in the 25.

When you do the tasting, get some good water and after you've tried it from the bottle, add a "drap" and see the changes. If you can find some Cadenhead bottlings, or other cask strengths, try those, and then move them to bottle strength, and then another wee drap to open the nose some more.

These days my preferred whisky tipple is either Lagavulin, or Talisker, though I'm not likely to turn my nose up at anything which didn't spend it's life in a sherry cask.

TK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I am amused, as I read old threads.... The night we actually met, I had Caol Ila to serve you.