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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Friday, December 13, 2002

A new expression, "vacant mandate", mysteriously entered my mind at about 5:59pm tonight, probably subliminally transmitted by Larry The Mushroom, whose bodyguards have grown so large that they threaten to tip him over. It was so disturbing that I might have missed the news about Kissinger and Lott. It happened shortly after the analysis on NPR that Lott might have negotiated yesterday's condemnation-short-of-demanding-resignation speech by his Commander-In-Chief with a "disrespecting the Bing" plea bargain. The informed guess was that Lott threatened to resign from the Senate itself if forced to resign as Senate Majority Leader. That would put the entire Republican agenda at risk. Lott is savvy, he has known all along what he has been saying. Machiavellians are not stupid. Kissinger is not stupid. Neither is Lott, but he misread the political landscape by making the worst of beginner mistakes, believing in the biased press reports and his own invincibility, He thought he could walk. Kissinger, the greater master and Nixon survivor, did not. His trained eye never strayed from the sign and when it switched to "Don't Walk", he balked. Lott might still make it across, but he's been bruised. Unfortunately, the psychic message from Larry interrupted both my NPR transmission and thoughts at that point My mind drifted to the more pleasant processes involved in making sausage... 6:08:01 PM    comment []

Mark Lewis, writing  for Slate, is not too impressed by James Cameron's second attempt to tell the story of a large ship that sank, opening with: Decades before filmmaker James Cameron re-enacted the death of the battleship Bismarck for the Discovery Channel, my brother and I staged a "sink the Bismarck" tableau in a plastic wading pool in our driveway. I had built a model of the ship from a kit, so we attached some firecrackers, set it afloat, doused it with highly flammable Vitalis hair spray and applied the fatal match. The neighborhood kids were very impressed by the results. And unlike Cameron, we didn't con them into watching by pretending the real Bismarck had almost changed the course of history. Still, Johnny Horton's immortal Sink The Bismarck is the best song about a battleship sinking with all hands ever written..."They had to sink the Bismarck, the terror of the seas, Stop those guns as big as steers and those shells as big as trees..." Robert Frost couldn't have forged better metaphoric imagery. Visualize, if you will, castrated bulls attempting to ejaculate gigantic logs with the branches and leaves still attached. It was an ugly war. 4:44:37 PM    comment []

I'm making another batch of farofa this afternoon, starting out by browning the chopped onion over low heat in a mixture of olive oil and butter. When the dende oil arrives, I'll try another batch using that. Something tells me the dende, which is really a palm oil, will give it a real kick in the flavor. This is the third batch I've made and it keeps well ziplocked and chilled. It can be easily rewarmed in a skillet just before serving. A cold day, persistent rain and fog, one where your fingertips go numb on the wheel , prompted me to take a half-day, go to BJs, and then cocoon for the duration. My "girls" expressed some excitement at the 33-pound bucket of Fresh Step I brought home, I was more excited by the three yuca roots I got for $3.50. The last preparation worked so well that I plan to duplicate it without any modifications: Peel, cut into Cuisinart chute compatible pieces, shred large,  then process with the blade until fine. I'll try dehydrating some. The last experiment, years ago, with slices, made pieces hard enough to cut diamonds. These are cheap, a third of the cost at chain stores, so a little foodplay is in order. Two very cheap turkey breasts are thawing. Harris Teeter is selling them at 77 cents a pound, limit one, with $10 additional purchase. They include wine on that $10. I had to make another trip for the second one, and another bottle of wine, of course. My experience deboning birds the past couple weeks have given me the confidence to take them on after they thaw. I'll smoke them over the weekend and take them to our office "Festival" potluck next Tuesday, where they'll slice easier than the bone-in ones I made in November. 3:21:23 PM    comment []

Mushroom Kit Update: "Larry" has been deposed in an apparent overnight Palace coup. He still seems okay and has even grown, nearly doubling in size, but is strangely silent and has lost all interest in establishing communication with the internet. He is either propped-up, surrounded, or guarded by three smaller mushrooms who have caused him to tilt slightly to the right. There is no apparent successor, though one in the corner, has soitenly assumed the role of Secretary General. The smaller mushrooms, which today are as big as the small ones were yesterday (thanks to an economic expansion), are beginning to form cliques and groups. One such group, going by the name "Vibraspores", are singing primitive doo-wop, exhibiting particular delight on the "Mu-aaahs", but just moving their lips when they come to words like "Episcopalian" which they have difficulty pronouncing. The only time the mushrooms respond as a united group is when I approach their box wearing the 'Ove' Glove, which causes them to cower, shudder and tremble in a manner resembling a fear reaction. 2:31:07 AM    comment []

Looks like a jet-lagged Leah Lohmann Adams and family are back from Spain. This is the same Leah who renewed my interest in cheese bread a week ago after I'd blogged about manioc. Since then, I've ordered a couple cheese bread kits from Tienda just to give myself an idea what to shoot for. Leah blogs at Struggle in a Bungalow Kitchen and I'm glad she's back. I rarely buy coffee table books, but can heartily recommend Culinaria Spain if you can find it. Amazon is apparently sold out, so is Barnes & Noble. The photography is beautiful, some of the best food and landscape porn I have ever held in my sweaty trembling hands. If you've never seen a 6-foot paella pan, look no further than page 359 and you'll find one filled up with Valencian paella loaded with simmering snails and rabbits! The Culinaria series features cuisine from around the globe, including England (which is really just a pamphlet telling you where to find the Indian restaurants and how to prepare a variety of dyspepsia remedies), and they are all visually stunning. You might be able to find the one for Spain in a bricks & mortar bookstore, if there are any of those left. A nice Christmas gift. If you don't have a coffee table, you should probably get that first. 1:32:23 AM    comment []