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

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Thursday, December 26, 2002

Now the Jung Turks have built a campfire out of discarded bamboo skewers. They are circled around it. One of them, Barry McChanterelle, has fashioned a primitive guitar from a matchbox and cat hairs. He sings, quietly at first, then more assertively and one by one the circled mushrooms join in and become a chorus: The Eastern world, it is explodin', Violence flarin', bullets loadin'. You're old enough to kill, but not for votin', You don't believe in war -- but what's that gun you're totin'? An' even the Jordan river has bodies floatin'. But you tell me, over and over and over again, my friend, Ah, you don't believe we're on the Steve Of Destruction. At this point, I noticed that the soil surrounding them had become a bit dry, so I got out the plant mister and moistened it. Too bad it also put out their campfire. 9:28:28 PM    comment []

News For People Who Have No Minds CNN: Jerry Lawler: Kaufman fight was a set-up Didn't anybody see Man On The Moon (1999), with Jerry Lawler as "Himself"? 8:48:27 PM    comment []

psssst...wanna build your own still? 8:28:46 PM    comment []

Good thing I lined the Romertopf with foil. When I lifted out the non-stick Brioche pan, there were a few tablespoons of butter left, probably nicely seasoned by the truffle and foie gras that baked within the puff pastry shell. I poured it into the pan where Steve, et al, are sauteeing. Now he'll probably be only a bit player at his own honorary dinner. The Jung Turks, an anarchistic clump, are having a ball with all this. They are singing "Senor Wenceslaus went out, on the feast of Steve-oh" and digging up bits of horse manure to fling at each other. 2:19:03 PM    comment []

There has been a secular revolution in the mushroom kit box. The smaller mushrooms of this generation, calling themselves the "Jung Turks", have overthrown the religious leader they call "Boring Steve". They summarily executed him and all the mushrooms that had bowed towards him. There really wasn't much of a fight. Steve was so afraid of saying something that I might take as offensive that he submitted without protest as the smaller, but more violent fungi slaughtered him without mercy. They put his mottled cap on a bamboo skewer, held it high,  and marched around the periphery of the mushroom kit box singing "Lute...Eh...Fisk...Boom-boom, Boom-boom, Boom-boom, Boom-boom, BOOM...Waaaaah!" to the music of Also Sprach Zarathustra. They trotted double-time on the boom-booms. It was very entertaining, bordering on a spectacle, and I can safely expect a lot more from the second wave of the second generation. Steve and his disciples have been sliced and sauteeing right now. Maybe mushrooms are like chicken, they gotta dry out a bit after you kill them or they don't cook up right. A lot of moisture in the bottom of the pan as these guys fry. Guess I'll have to turn up the heat. 2:10:49 PM    comment []

Salting Trough Have a wooden salting trough, six feet long by three feet wide; made of 1-inch board, with a 2 1/2 rim all round and with an opening left at the lower end to allow the melted salt to run off. One end of the trough should be slightly raised so that the pickle may run off, as indicated below, into a stone jar placed beneath. Put the hams on the trough, rind downwards, and rub in some Lisbon sugar and pounded saltpetre; then cover them with a layer of of fine and dry salt 1/8 inch thick; The hams should be pressed by placing on them a board with a single light weight on the top, during the whole time of salting. 1:25:18 PM    comment []

Romertopf. I finally found a use for the Romertopf. It's heating up in the oven right now. I lined a non-stick (Thank you, baby Jesu, for inventing that. Life on earth for a sinnerman klutz has been improved beyond sugarplum visions of pearly gates. Thanks again, and say "hello" to Dad) brioche pan with store bought puff pastry and transferred the truffled pate to it. I'll make a little "lid" of puff pastry and bake it in the Romertopf. Before the 'Ove' Glove, this concept would not have been remotely possible. Seriously. Bulky oven mitts can't finesse handling the Romertopf lid. 11:36:27 AM    comment []

Just looked at the sneeze pastry link again. Why are people so hung up on wooden spoons? They stain, they gum up, you can't put them in the dishwasher, they harbor bacteria, they kill trees! Use plastic! They're cheap, disposable, washable, and clean. The petro dinosaurs are long dead! When your house burns down, they won't burn, just melt. Plastic is good! 3:03:53 AM    comment []

Just added runswithscissors to Navigator Links, not just because of the Christmas in Madrid blogscape portrait, also because the sights and sounds were augmented with a tastebud treat, a link to Churros Con Chocolate. Even after a day of gluttony, it made me hungry again.. Imagine not-so-deep fried sweet sneeze pastry and rich hot chocolate made with dark chocolate, thickened with cornstarch. Can you see the steam? Liz gave me a VacuVin wine opener for Christmas. It comes with an operator's manual. Once you figure it out though, it's hard to stop. Bottle number 5 coming up! Now I have to drink this all very quickly before it oxidizes. 2:11:53 AM    comment []

Snapshot taken shortly after 12pm EST, 25 Dec 2002. We were so close to matching the low-water mark. Look at the blog titles of my fellow co-conspiators, is anyone suprised we would be the ones to smudge a holy day? We are the Christmas Seven, and we don't care what day it is.   Recently Changed Weblogs 1. Secular Blasphemy 9:10 AM 2. Playing with my food, and other things 7:50 AM 3. STANDING ROOM ONLY 6:53 AM 4. Tales of Drudgery and Boredom 3:30 AM 5. paulapalooza's recommended reading and.. 3:21 AM 6. An Bingbing's Radio Weblog 2:59 AM 7. Musings From The Left Coast 1:42 AM The high-water mark is 82 weblogs, on 7/30/2002; 9:46:49 PM. The low-water mark is 0 weblogs, on 7/13/2002; 8:53:20 PM. 1:07:13 AM    comment []