1.21.2009

The King of Meats

The beginnings a of collection of my methods of meat preparation.
Broiled Chicken
-first we flatten out the chicken:
- take a smallish fryer 2-3 lbs., place it breasts up on a cutting board, insert a chef's knife into the cavity and cut along both sides of the spine and remove it. (this may take a little work, and the extracted spine is pretty cool/gross)
- flip it over and slice along the bottom of the breastbone to split the connective tissue and then spread the chicken out flat and flip it back over
- lightly coat the chicken in olive oil
- cover the top skin in salt and pepper and whatever herb/spice you enjoy (I just used garlic salt and it tasted great - Herbs de Provence next time)
- Heated broiler (mine is high/low - I use high) and the rack just above middle
- Put the chicken on a broiler pan breasts up and into the oven for 15 minutes
- Flip her over and herb/spice up the inside/bottom and then back in for 10 more minutes under the broiler
- take it out, flip it over and rest it for 5 minutes
- put together your sides (I used brocolli & cheese and s small salad this time)
- dig in

King of Meats II

I shared my Thanksgiving Standing Rib Roast preparation method this year (Turkey is for festivus):
- leave the roast in the microwave for a bit to get it closer to room temperature
- preheat the oven to 500 degrees
- cover the roast in salt & pepper (use a lot)
- put the roast in (ribs down) for 10 minutes (until the fat on top begins to brown)
- pull the roast out and lower the oven to 250 degrees
- put the probe thermometer in the roast with a 120 degrees cutoff
(for very rare, of course - more if you want less)
- put the roast back in the oven once the oven temp drops
- pull the roast on the alarm and let it rest for about 10 min. to finish

1.17.2009

Strange Audio from Tor.com


ERRATA
by Jeff VanderMeer
VanderMeer is a well known sci-fi editor/writer and Argosy Quarterly was a well-respected mag that went under recently.

I've found a lot of sci-fi subculture stuff searching for mp3's lately.

An Airing of Grievances


Over festivus I posted a rant on a column on the Daily Beast.
The column basically said that the Republicans lost because old white guys had to learn how to use computers to reach younger voters.

My response:
How does one write this column and comment on it and not mention Ron Paul? This is *exactly* what is wrong with the GOP. There was a massive internet-based movement of young people in the Republican Party that was completely ignored by the old men running the party (into the ground). Instead of even giving air to the ideas of limited government, the protection of individual rights, and a non-interventionist foreign policy - which should be the ideological basis of the Republican Party - they ignored this grassroots movement of several million largely young people who badly wanted to vote against the government expansion of both the Democrats and the mainstream Republicans. Simply put: the modern Republican Party has lost its way. True libertarian ideas are the only way to appeal to intelligent young Americans distinguish the Party from the government-expanding Democrats. Few young Americans favor the excesses of the Patriot Act, billions of dollars for a failed financial industry that does *not* operate in a free market on enlightened capitalist principles, nor do they favor torture and the Forever War. They will listen to reasonable arguments about the failure of the War on Drugs and the basic idea of Equal Rights and legal protections for everyone. The Democrats have gained a majority because the Republicans became the extreme caricature the opposition hung on them: religious extremist, war-mongering, fascists operating at the whim of big business and out of touch with the majority of Americans. The party got what they deserved. If the Republicans continue to cast aside libertarian principals and push intelligent people out of the party then they can try all the strategy and tactics they want but it won't do any good, we, the people they want, will already be gone.