Re: the last post...

I sure like commas, don't I?

Todays meal...

Had lunch with Mistress K today... always a pleasure. I haven't actually made this meal in a while, but I'm planning on it for this weekend. It's a favorite.

Meat and Veggies in beer (original name, huh?)
Ingredients:
1 lb. red meat, cut into strips about one inch thick (mutton, beef or, preferably, game meat)
1-2 pints dark beer (brown ale is about perfect)
1 large onion
1 large bell pepper
2-3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Ingredients:
Splash of cider vinegar
Handful of wheat flour for thickening

Directions:
Rub meat with salt and pepper
Place in a large, heavy pot with 1 pint of beer
Add a splash of vinegar if you want for taste
Simmer for 50 minutes

While it simmers:
Chop the garlic and cut the vegetables into strips
At 50 minutes, add veggies and garlic to pot
Continue simmering for 5-10 minutes;
Beer should be boiled down to a thick sauce... if it gets too thick, add more beer; if it's too thin, turn up the heat to boil it down (adding a bit of flour helps as well)

Cook Time: ~1 hour

Servings: 4ish

Notes/Serving suggestions:
This is a medieval recipe for mutton in beer that I found while looking for ways to cook with homebrew and tweaked a bit; mainly to include more veggies. Boiling the beer down carmelizes the malt sugars, which really compliments red meat, particularly game meat (elk is great for this recipe). It also is a delicious sauce; I'd serve this with chunks of sourdough bread for "mopping up".

Bite me, PK...

:P

I was busy yesterday. Really busy. Incredibly busy. Super busy.

Actually, I stayed home from work and played handyman yesterday. I could've blogged, but I was too occupied with building and fixing and painting. Which, I suppose I could've blogged about. But it would have been boring.

Anyway. This week's drink is... the Whiskey Smash!

I live in the desert; my first two featured drinks have been minty and refreshing... notice a trend? What was it you once said about sunburns in February, E.? :)

Anyway, departing from my previous affair with Maker's Mark, I bought a bottle of Knob Creek when I was last at the store (It has a cork! Yes, I'm easily amused and somewhat sentimental. Sue me.). Ah, bourbon. What can I say about bourbon? Need anything be said about bourbon? I didn't think so.

So, the Whiskey Smash (from Jerry "the Professor" Thomas' Bartender's Guide or How to Mix Drinks, 1862... he called it "a julep on a small plan"). (I originally saw this at The Cocktail Chronicles... Thanks Paul.)

Whiskey Smash
(Use small bar-glass. [Old fashioned glass])
Take 1 tea-spoonful of fine white sugar.
2 tea-spoonfuls of water.
1 wine-glass (2 oz.) of whiskey.
3 or 4 sprigs of tender mint.

Put the mint in the glass, then the sugar and water [Jac's note: Simple syrup FTW!]. Mash the mint to extract the flavor, add the bourbon, and fill up the glass with shaved ice. Stir up well, and ornament with two or three fresh sprigs of mint.

Sip slowly. Laugh at people who only experience 3 month summers.

This week's meal...

I skipped two days!!! Lawda mercy! Ah, well, I've been busy.

So, this week's meal is a staple in our family; I've probably had a thousand of 'em (two within the last 24 hours). They are only made properly with my dad's chili bean recipe* (for which there isn't really a "recipe"). Anyway, it's pretty simple fair, but it contains all the food groups (carbs, fats, proteins and chili), and is very filling. And, for some reason, they're always bigger than you intend them to be.

Haystacks
Place a handful of tortilla chips on your plate (not Fritos, please... if you use Fritos, the Mexican Food Fairy will kill you in your sleep). Ladle beans onto chips and sprinkle with cheese. Top with lettuce (iceberg is best for this... it's crunchy!), tomatoes and onions. Add, to taste, salsa or hot sauce.

Try not to make a mess while eating.

*Chili Beans
(This applies to our crockpot size... YM, as they say, MV)
Rinse 5 cups of Pinto beans, cover with water and soak overnight.

In the morning, rinse again and transfer to crockpot with enough water to cover. Add, to taste (like I said, this has never been written down), chopped garlic and onion, salt, ground chili (you can buy this, or the dried red peppers to grind yourself, in any proper Mexican market) and butter.

Cook until soft (but not mushy), stirring occasionally. Add water as needed.

Talk Like a Pirate Eve...

Is upon us. T'morrow be our day, me hearties, t' talk like the buccaneers we be. Aaargh!

MxMo was certainly enjoyable yesterday... Gabriel has a nice round up, with pictures (so you can read it too, Li'l P!). Some nice looking drinks there... I swear these people are obsessive; someone help me please, before it's too late!

In other news... the TCF/TMM changeover continues, with some interesting discussions taking place, and some interesting descisions being made. I find myself alternating, at times, between feeling disturbed and flattered when a Certain group of individuals is so often mentioned as a primary cause of recent discord. And sad... there's certainly a fair bit of sadness there. O'course, there is always a certain part of me (would that be the Certain part?) that is pissed off at the thought of being a scapegoat (even if, personally, only by implication and association) for all the troubles of late. I'm not saying the CPC was a font of calming wisdom or anything, but c'mon...

And anyway, doesn't anyone realize the incredible egos most members of the CPC (not me, of course) have?!? Infamy is like catnip to these freaks... they eat it up. :P

Anyway, I've said it before: I don't know what went wrong. But I will say now that I sure as hell know that the blame (if there even is any) can't be placed on the shoulders of just a few.

Just had to get that off my chest, I guess.

Drink of the week, and MxMo...

Well, week two of the blogging thing commences. So far, I've been blogrolled (it tickles) thrice... hopefully, the peer pressure will keep the bloggin' on track.

I've been doing the cocktail thing lately (it's like chemistry sets... with booze!), so I was thinking of starting this week off with a drink (see previous references to food and drink). In my recent delvings into the world of cocktail geekery, I've stumbled upon many great cocktail blogs (Yes, blogs devoted to cocktails... it's a sick world we live in.), a few of which are listed to the right.

Sidenote: Y'know, I think I'm wired somehow to identify with subcultures... I mean, there's the whole libertarian thing, and the anarchy thing (which is a subculture within the libertarian subculture, sort of), and the CPC. And now I'm a cocktail geek. There must be something in my brain that really hates being normal.

Anyway, today happens to be a Mixology Monday, so I asked myself why, since I am now blogging, I shouldn't participate in it. And I couldn't really give myself a decent answer to dissuade me, so...

Today's MxMo, hosted by Gabriel at cocktailnerd.com, is themed Fizz!! (Two exclamation points because... fizz is exciting, I guess? I had fun, anyway.)

So, the drink of the week, and my MxMo entry is (gimme a drumroll, Kirsten)... the Mojito! Rather boring, compared to some of the other entries, but I'm no mixologist, and it's a new drink for me, so I don't care if it's boring. It's definitely a top summer drink for me now, and since I'm a desert rat, that means I'll be drinking Mojitos about 9 months out of the year. :)

It is a simple drink really, but it's a charming simplicity, rather than the vulgar simplicity of a Vodka Redbull, or whatever the kids are drinking these days. When you need to pound a nail, you grab a hammer; when it's a hundred degrees in the shade you grab a Mojito. Y'know, that kind of simplicity.

Anyway, before I start waxing too poetic about booze, I'll just post the recipe and send it up. I really do ramble, don't I?

The Mojito:
10-12 fresh mint leaves
1 tbsp sugar (I use a 1:1 simple syrup made with raw demerara sugar, plus a pinch of crystals for abrasion)
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1 1/2 oz. white rum (Cuban is best, but try finding that in the States... free market; what's that?)
Ice
Club soda
Sprig of mint and slice of lime for garnishment

Muddle mint leaves and sugar in a heavy-bottomed pint glass. Fill to half with ice, then add lime juice and rum; stir well. Top with ice and soda, then give it another stir or two. Rub the peel of the lime slice around the rim of the glass, then drop the lime in. Lightly pop a sprig of mint between your hands (to bring out the aroma), then place it in the drink.

Blissfully ignore the current popularity or non-popularity of the Mojito, and drink up.

Check it out... I'm posting once a day!

That means you're really getting your money's worth here. So, to business!

Goals for this blog:
-Get Mistress K off my back (check!)
-Freak out the straights
-Freak out everyone else
-Remind Li'l P of his status as my bitch, early and often
-Provide an outlet for the Dark Rage that Consumes me

Topics this blog will cover (or will it?)
-Anarchy (politics, economics and ethics... you know the drill)
-The Family*, and Dynamics of same
-Airplanin' (flying, for those of you who aren't my 3-year-old nephew)
-Food
-Drink
-Food and drink
-Computers and Geekery
-And whatever else happens to come up... BECAUSE IT'S MY BLOG! MINE AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME! hAHAhahHAHahahAHAA

*From Kirsten: That vaguely defined set of individuals somehow affiliated with the pro-freedom movement who may or may not be properly termed libertarians or some other related term.

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

...And, pressing submit, he set into motion events that would forever change -- indeed, destroy -- the world as we know it.

Okay, I have a blog now. Happy, Kirsten?

This isn't the first time I've tried the blogging thing, actually. Being habitually lazy and a master procrastinator, though, they haven't lasted long. Maybe this one will.

So yeah... Jacques has a blog now. Sorry.