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Wednesday, April 29, 2015
The Waterboard by M.W. Thomas
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Monday, April 27, 2015
Bad Belly's Shrimp Jambalaya
Lordy! I'm gonna tell you all about how to whip up one of my favorite spicy suppers. It's a shrimp Jambalaya that's super easy to make, although it does have a bunch of ingredients, which to get off on the right foot happen to be these:
1 lb 26/30 ct. shrimp, peeled with tails off
1 lb Andouille sausage
2 c. chopped yellow onion
1 c. diced bell pepper
4 cloves chopped garlic
1 tbsp sage
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp flour
1 28 oz. can whole plum tomatoes
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. Cayenne pepper
2 tbsp. Tabasco sauce
2 tbsp. fresh chopped dill
2 tbsp. fresh chopped parsely
Juice of 1 large lemon
Salt and pepper
Rice as an accompaniment
The neat thing is that if this dish becomes part of your repertoire, it's very easy to keep these provisions on hand, since frozen shrimp will do, and Andouille sausage does well in the deep freeze as well. However, it is imperative to use fresh herbs. If you need to go shopping, go ahead. I'll wait.
Back? Good. Bad Belly's recipe is more a Cajun style Jambalaya, although in New Orleans you can get a more refined Creole version. Stop the ponies! you say. What's the difference?
Let's back up. In crude terms, you could say that Creole cooking is for the City Mouse and Cajun cooking is for the Country Mouse. The ingredients tend to be largely the same, except that Cajun cooking was designed to help us po' folks choke down rancid meat. Oh, I guess that doesn't sound so good inside a recipe. Forget I said that.
The term "Cajun" derives from les Acadians, who were the French that colonized North America in the seventeenth century. The Creoles are more specifically the settlers of Louisiana and New Orleans in particular. They were French and Spanish, and their cuisine was very much in the Continental tradition, while Cajun cooking was, shall we say, a bit more rustic. Thus you might find that the thickener in Creole Jambalaya will be a roux of butter and flour, while in Cajun Jambalaya it might be a slurry of oil and flour. But don't worry. We're having the good stuff.
Let's be clear though: we're not having authentic Creole or Cajun anything. We would have to go to Louisiana for that. But we're having the next best thing: home cooking using a rigorously tested recipe. I promise a delicious outcome or I will hang myself. Let's get started.
Using a chef's knife, break the Andouille sausage down into bite size pieces and commence to brown it in a pre-heated cast iron skillet until - wait what did you say? You forgot the sausage on your grocery run?
Don't worry. Bet you have some bacon. You can substitute and that works well. Just run your knife through about a third of a pound of bacon and drop that in the pan instead.
Whether it's the Andouille or the bacon, brown until the fat is fully rendered. Turn the heat down to medium low. Add the chopped onion and peppers and sauté until tender, adding the garlic, sage and thyme toward the end. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the flour and make a slurry. Adjust the amount of flour until the oil is fully absorbed. Add the canned plum tomatoes (crushed by hand), together with any liquid, add Worcestershire sauce, tabasco, and cayenne pepper. Stir. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the shrimp and fresh chopped dill and cook until shrimp is done (about 5 minutes.) Add the juice of 1 large lemon and stir, then sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley. The lemon and parsley perform crucial magic and make the dish explode with life and freshness that you will want to share with everybody you know. Go ahead. Brag. I do.
(Serve over rice.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please leave a comment below, or you can email your comments to: myirrefutableopinion@gmail.com. I am looking forward to hearing from you!
Please share...
1 lb 26/30 ct. shrimp, peeled with tails off
1 lb Andouille sausage
2 c. chopped yellow onion
1 c. diced bell pepper
4 cloves chopped garlic
1 tbsp sage
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp flour
1 28 oz. can whole plum tomatoes
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. Cayenne pepper
2 tbsp. Tabasco sauce
2 tbsp. fresh chopped dill
2 tbsp. fresh chopped parsely
Juice of 1 large lemon
Salt and pepper
Rice as an accompaniment
The neat thing is that if this dish becomes part of your repertoire, it's very easy to keep these provisions on hand, since frozen shrimp will do, and Andouille sausage does well in the deep freeze as well. However, it is imperative to use fresh herbs. If you need to go shopping, go ahead. I'll wait.
Back? Good. Bad Belly's recipe is more a Cajun style Jambalaya, although in New Orleans you can get a more refined Creole version. Stop the ponies! you say. What's the difference?
Let's back up. In crude terms, you could say that Creole cooking is for the City Mouse and Cajun cooking is for the Country Mouse. The ingredients tend to be largely the same, except that Cajun cooking was designed to help us po' folks choke down rancid meat. Oh, I guess that doesn't sound so good inside a recipe. Forget I said that.
The term "Cajun" derives from les Acadians, who were the French that colonized North America in the seventeenth century. The Creoles are more specifically the settlers of Louisiana and New Orleans in particular. They were French and Spanish, and their cuisine was very much in the Continental tradition, while Cajun cooking was, shall we say, a bit more rustic. Thus you might find that the thickener in Creole Jambalaya will be a roux of butter and flour, while in Cajun Jambalaya it might be a slurry of oil and flour. But don't worry. We're having the good stuff.
Let's be clear though: we're not having authentic Creole or Cajun anything. We would have to go to Louisiana for that. But we're having the next best thing: home cooking using a rigorously tested recipe. I promise a delicious outcome or I will hang myself. Let's get started.
Using a chef's knife, break the Andouille sausage down into bite size pieces and commence to brown it in a pre-heated cast iron skillet until - wait what did you say? You forgot the sausage on your grocery run?
Don't worry. Bet you have some bacon. You can substitute and that works well. Just run your knife through about a third of a pound of bacon and drop that in the pan instead.
Whether it's the Andouille or the bacon, brown until the fat is fully rendered. Turn the heat down to medium low. Add the chopped onion and peppers and sauté until tender, adding the garlic, sage and thyme toward the end. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the flour and make a slurry. Adjust the amount of flour until the oil is fully absorbed. Add the canned plum tomatoes (crushed by hand), together with any liquid, add Worcestershire sauce, tabasco, and cayenne pepper. Stir. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the shrimp and fresh chopped dill and cook until shrimp is done (about 5 minutes.) Add the juice of 1 large lemon and stir, then sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley. The lemon and parsley perform crucial magic and make the dish explode with life and freshness that you will want to share with everybody you know. Go ahead. Brag. I do.
(Serve over rice.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please leave a comment below, or you can email your comments to: myirrefutableopinion@gmail.com. I am looking forward to hearing from you!
Please share...
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Gift of Gab
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| Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa |
Yes, Regis is the Titan of Talk. When Kathie Lee left Live! in 2000, the hunt was on for a new sidekick. I recognized this empty chair problem immediately as a particularly interesting one. (It wasn't that I was a regular viewer of this broadcast, mind you. There are such things as sick days from the day job, you know.) Who could be the immoveable object to Regis's unstoppable force? All of the guest cohosts were pushovers. Except for one. Kelly Ripa.
When Kelly arrived, now it was Regis who had to fight to get a word in edgewise. And she wouldn't take any guff. If Regis puffed up a story, Kelly made it clear she just didn't believe it and grabbed the steering wheel. Gotta love it! The audience did love it. And Kelly got the job.
This gift of gab is a wondrous thing to watch, since I don't possess it. There has to be a lack of self-consciousness a person must have to be free with their thoughts, nearly uncensored in their disclosures, and so confident in their own trivia that their words flow like an open fire hydrant on a summer street without any inhibition. Rachel Ray is another TV personality that comes to mind. I am not a "fan" of Rachel's, I just like her. Who wouldn't? She can talk to anybody like she is talking to her own grandmother. In fact, she can talk to a television camera like she's talking to her own grandmother. Who does that?
Conversationalists and storytellers still have a unique place in our popular culture. The best of them really do seem to warm our lives. I am sorry to say that I do not walk among these tongue-gods. My silly blog will have to suffice. And, yes, that's my final answer.
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Saturday, April 25, 2015
Team of Rivals
Recently added to GOOD READS page...
Team of Rivals
Genres: Non-fiction, History, American History
Date read: October, 2014
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin, b. January 4, 1943
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York (2005)
Awards: 2006 Lincoln Prize; Inaugural Book Prize for American History, New York Historical Society
Quote: We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We need to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Opinion: Doris Kearns Goodwin's exploration of Lincoln's political savvy in our time of greatest national crisis won the awards noted above quite deservedly. In her book, she adheres tightly to her thesis and does not wander off into other circumstances or subjects related to the American Civil War. Does she succeed in making her case? That it was Lincoln's political brilliance that saved the Union? Her argument is compelling. As she polls Lincoln's cabinet members she adduces what seems millions of data points to support her. But is it evidence or anecdote?
I am not a professional historian and cannot credibly review her scholarship. And I have heard no grumbling from her peers. Nevertheless, I am a critical reader, and I am not sure I am inclined to swallow her whole, without her servings being passed through a poison-tester first. The Union was saved. With that hindsight, isn't it easy, tempting to ascribe it to Lincoln's godlike wisdom? Maybe there was a lot of good luck involved too; not to mention the superior economic and military strength of the Union side. Or maybe she's right: things came out right because Lincoln was a political genius.
Her study is excellent and is certainly recommended reading. I give it four stars (I don't read bad books, and neither should you.)
Please share...
Team of Rivals
Genres: Non-fiction, History, American History
 |
| Doris Kearns Goodwin |
Date read: October, 2014
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin, b. January 4, 1943
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York (2005)
Awards: 2006 Lincoln Prize; Inaugural Book Prize for American History, New York Historical Society
Quote: We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We need to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Opinion: Doris Kearns Goodwin's exploration of Lincoln's political savvy in our time of greatest national crisis won the awards noted above quite deservedly. In her book, she adheres tightly to her thesis and does not wander off into other circumstances or subjects related to the American Civil War. Does she succeed in making her case? That it was Lincoln's political brilliance that saved the Union? Her argument is compelling. As she polls Lincoln's cabinet members she adduces what seems millions of data points to support her. But is it evidence or anecdote?
I am not a professional historian and cannot credibly review her scholarship. And I have heard no grumbling from her peers. Nevertheless, I am a critical reader, and I am not sure I am inclined to swallow her whole, without her servings being passed through a poison-tester first. The Union was saved. With that hindsight, isn't it easy, tempting to ascribe it to Lincoln's godlike wisdom? Maybe there was a lot of good luck involved too; not to mention the superior economic and military strength of the Union side. Or maybe she's right: things came out right because Lincoln was a political genius.
Her study is excellent and is certainly recommended reading. I give it four stars (I don't read bad books, and neither should you.)
Please share...
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Alabama Shakes
Well drive me to Hades in a PT Cruiser! I just heard this new (to me) group called Alabama Shakes that is basically musical apoplexy. Holy smokes, just go to YouTube or your other favorite digital music source and push play and I swear it's like 10 megatons of TNT just exploded. (NPR is currently hosting some good examples.) And you didn't turn up the volume. They did. This band is amped up like nothing I've heard in a long time. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's like a car crash that sounds good.The singer Brittany Howard has to be heard to be believed. She is not going to be satisfied until she's taken you to a different universe and left you stranded there with no way to get back. Man alive, she should be completely hoarse after singing the first twenty-five notes. How she gets through an entire performance, I do not understand.
It's amazing how, now and then, a new troupe comes along, and basically reinvents music. If you don't already know about them. Go check 'em out. Tell them their new friend Mike sent you.
Please share....
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Spread-head Viewer
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| The Spread-head Viewer. Through Gimmicks with Mirrors, The Effective Pupillary Distance is Increased From About 56mm To Approximately 260mm. |
Here's the basic idea of the spread-head viewer. Normally our eyes are a shy bit under three inches apart, which establishes the parallax for our stereoscopic vision. That stereo effect allows us to experience the world in many nuanced ways. We see objects in their total context, we see the front and the back, and from side to side.
The Spread-head Viewer takes it to a new whole level. It spreads our pupillary distance of about three inches to ten or twelve inches, and potentially beyond. Think of the applications. The Secret Service can use it to see around trees, vehicles, and other obstacles to keep us safe from democracy. Park Rangers can use it to count the squirrel population more accurately.Your Walmart can figure out where that goddamned last box of Kleenex is.
I am working up a licensing agreement for my Intellectual Property rights. If you or your company are doing this technology and trespassing on my rights, do contact me so we can duke it out. I am confident we can reach an understanding to bring this great invention to the American People.
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