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

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Sunday, August 31, 2003

The new Virtual Occoquan is up - and I helped! There is no theme. It is a wandering morass of unconnected, yet immeasurably cogent thoughts. There is no connecting tissue - yet it vibrates, it moves, it's alive, ALIVE! The winners of the Spam Deconstruction Contest are there, but so are the losers (including myself!). Enjoy the wonderfully rendered, but vaguely disturbing cover artwork of Susan McNerney; Wonder at the verbal Poetry of Dana Pattillo, Neva Cavataio, Kara, and Christopher Key; Videe well the Visual poetry of Mark Hoback, Kara, and Paul Hinrichs; Explore The Dangerous Kitchen with Deb, Susan, Leah, and Paul; Revel in Innovation with Daniel Dolinov and Gavin Morris; Let out a patronizing belly laugh at Arabic Humor as presented by Gina Bass and Jan Haugland; Amuse your inner child with Cartoons by Maxine Daley and Gregorious; Stimulate your remaining brain cells with Opinion and Composition by Scott Jorgensen, Dick Jones, Leslie Talbot, Catnmus, runswithscissors, and Rayne; Save the Icelandic Whales with Rich P&S and Paul Hinrichs; Contemplate the Post-Bush Universe with Dave Pollard; Then go to Dinner and a Movie with Steve Raker and Mark Hoback, but DON'T - let me repeat that, DON'T - try to make any sense of it because the overall unifying concept is JUST NOT THERE, meaning no more than figs floating down the river in an inflatable raft or bubbles randomly bursting in a water bong. There is no theme! It isn't Existential! It's NOT even, or even uneven DADA! So don't try to figure it out - just read it. I thank you for your time. Especially thanks go to all the contributors and to Mark Hoback who made working on this issue a genuine joy. As Sammy Davis, Jr. would say, if he were still alive, "It's a gas!" Or maybe Sinatra said it first. Did I say there is no theme? 10:48:36 PM    comment []

Twirlin' The Kebabs They baste each other. 2:50:17 PM    comment []

Stuff for kebabs later Liz said I should photograph this. The round steak to join this cast of supporting characters has been marinating in jerk sauce for 24 hours. To the right of the mushrooms are some red pearl onions. Unusual. I had to try some. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. 1:05:45 PM    comment []

Liz says this split pea soup is just as thick as it should be. Now midnight, on a day when the thermometer hit 90 before noon, is not the normal time and place for split pea soup, but I had been surfing around Struggle in a Bungalow Kitchen and found Leah’s post about split pea soup and it made me hungry for it. So, while at the grocery store, I picked up a package of Hurst’s HamPeas, you know, the brand with the little package of ham flavor powder. I already had a nice ham steak in the refrigerator, so midnight was as good a time as any. Last time I made split pea soup in the pressure cooker, it burned on the bottom. Determined to find new mistakes and not repeat an old one, this time I added 4 parts of water for 1 part dried split peas (I used the whole package). I cut up the ham steak, added it and a tablespoon of Pocahontas Ham Base, and brought it all to a boil with the lid removed so I could stir it. After cooling just a little bit, I put on the lid and cooked under pressure for 20 minutes (at a lower heat than usual – about “3” on my stove). Then it cooled a bit until it was safe to remove the lid. Naturally, it was still pretty watery. Continuing the slow simmer with lots of stirring (and EZ-Stir's couldn't reach across the pressure cooker top - so this was manual stirring), I cooked it down, adding a few tablespoons of butter and that silly ham fairy dust in the process. When it got just a little too thick, as planned, I poured in a cup of half-and-half. It’s the best split pea soup I ever made. It was soup then, not the solid mass it turned into overnight. Notice there were no carrots or onions in this recipe. I would have put in carrots if I had them. I had an onion, but Liz said it wasn’t traditional (although she wouldn’t mind, she added, saying that she loves onions). I’m putting the leftovers into quart Mason jars and sealing them up with the FoodSaver. It tastes pretty good cooled down too, like room temperature ice cream. Looks like there’s just a little more than two quarts. 8:27:57 AM    comment []