To Save You, I Must Eat You
The NY Times recently published an interesting article with a great headline: "An Unlikely Way to Save a Species: Serve It for Dinner." It's about a guy who's trying to save endangered plants and animals by creating consumer demand for them. It makes sense to me: if humans develop a taste for something, it's highly unlikely to go extinct. And conversely, if humans have no vested interest in a species, it's pretty much on its own. I mean, try getting anyone to pay more than lip service to the endangered Northern Flying Squirrel:
"Si quisieras ayudarme, deberÃas comerme."
But if you found the Northern Flying Squirrel to be absolutely delicious, if no meal was complete without a heaping helping of Northern Flying Squirrel, you'd never allow it to go extinct. Imagine if cows were facing extinction. There's no way we'd let that happen. An America without hamburgers? Hamburgers are more sacred to us than our constitutional rights. Delicious animals have no need to fear extinction.
2008-04-30 22:03:18 UTC
Hot for Teacher
A writer at the Washington Post decided to check out a bunch of young teachers' MySpace and Facebook pages and then write an indignant article about what he found. The article has that "Won't someone think of the children?" bent to it. There's no denying that it's deeply stupid for teachers to post information about their personal lives online and allow the public access to it, but is it really anything to get all worked up about?
I mean, why does anyone care if a teacher uses a "slang term for oral sex" in her personal life? Or a "crude acronym for attractive mothers"? Is it really all that scandalous or surprising? The most egregious thing that the author found in his "research" was a photo of a teacher "lying on her back, eyes closed, with a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila between her head and shoulder." She sounds like a monster. If I was still teaching in the public schools, I'd have a bottle of tequila to my lips right now.
If people truly gave a shit about what was happening in the public schools, they wouldn't let their kids anywhere near them. It's easier to focus on the minutiae. Getting angry about this type of minor thing makes people feel like they're caring, but they're really just judging. And avoiding thinking about the deeper issues, like say allowing a poorly-run government program to basically raise their children.
2008-04-29 20:09:40 UTC
Biscuits and Chorizo Gravy
Sundays are made for eating and lazing about. Biscuits and gravy are the perfect dish because after you eat them, you don't wanna move for several hours. They're kind of a pain in the ass to make, but they're totally worth it and I've been working on ways to cut down on preparation time.
El desayuno perfecto: panecillos con salsa blanca de chorizo
One of the things that irritates me about making biscuits is that most recipes require that you cut cold butter into the dry ingredients. For that you need either a food processor or a pastry blender. I try to avoid busting out the food processor whenever possible and I didn't even know what a pastry blender looked like till I googled it. This biscuit recipe is nice b/c it avoids that problem. Another thing that I never plan on owning is a biscuit cutter. This recipe sidesteps having to roll out the dough. I just recently came up with the idea of baking them in a muffin pan so now my biscuits are easier to portion and more uniform. I can't believe it never occurred to me before. Anyway without further ado, here's the biscuit recipe.
Biscuit Ingredients:
- 5 T butter
- 2 c flour
- 3 t baking powder
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/4 c milk (it's ok if it's sour)
- 3/4 c plain yogurt
Instructions:
Melt the butter and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes. While it's cooling, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the yogurt and milk to the cooled melted butter. I usually just dump the yogurt and milk right into the pan with the butter to save a dish. Mix it until the butter has formed into little clumpies and then add it to the dry stuff. It should mix right up into a nice dough. Put heaping tablespoons of the dough into a greased muffin tin. There should be enough for 10 or 11 biscuits. Bake for about 10-12 minutes in a 400° oven.
I usually make the biscuit dough first and have them ready to pop in the oven shortly after I start on the gravy. This recipe will work fine with country-style sausage or chorizo.
Gravy Ingredients:
- 12-16 oz chorizo or country-style sausage
- 1/2 c flour
- ~4 c heated milk
- salt (and pepper if using country-style sausage) to taste
Instructions:
I found the basic recipe and the secret to great gravy here. Her main innovation is to heat the milk. It seems simple but it makes a huge difference. It's changed my life. This way you don't have to drain the sausage which is a huge pain in the ass. You just brown the sausage, add the flour, stir it for a couple of minutes, and then add the heated milk. If the milk's not heated, it won't mix right. And don't be stingy with the salt! I usually add almost a teaspoon. Keep stirring till it's all thick and creamy and ready to smother over the biscuits.
Don't plan on going anywhere for a while after eating. The food coma strikes hard and fast. If I'm feeling really decadent, I'll put a fried egg on top and sprinkle shredded cheddar over the whole delicious mess. Seriously. Try it some time.
2008-04-27 19:39:23 UTC
Adventure Bar
The new Snickers Adventure bar is kinda mysterious. It's a tie-in with the new Indiana Jones movie and the only clue that it's going to taste any different than a regular Snickers is that it says "New Flavor Kick!" on the package. There's no indication as to what that flavor will be. So, much like the intrepid archaeologist whom the candy bar was inspired by, I endeavored to unveil the mystery.
While it was really more of an adventure in gluttony than archaeology, I eventually discovered the candy bar's secret. At first, the Adventure bar tastes exactly like a regular Snickers, but then the aftertaste kicks in. It's puzzling yet familiar. It's like too-sweet fake coconut. Think Banana Boat suntan oil with a dash of cinnamon. I wouldn't bother buying one. If you like the sound of it, just squirt a little tanning oil onto a regular Snickers and enjoy.
2008-04-27 12:48:19 UTC
Biking Towards Nirvana
I was really hoping that my new foldable bike would be waiting for me when I got back from Wisconsin. Unfortunately it was placed on back-order and I'll have to wait two more weeks. That means two more weeks of riding with the nutjobs on the Albuquerque buses, which can be both enormously entertaining and terribly frightening. (Albuquerque's mass transit system is really only used by the poor and the insane, unlike in Madison where people from all sectors of society take the bus.) It can be a little stressful but my new bike will surely be the anodyne. According to the Dahon website, it may even lead to a higher form of consciousness:
¿SabÃas que un bici puede darte paz interior?
Are they suggesting that the road to nirvana is actually a bike path? Am I gonna stumble into a state of oblivion free from all desire if I ride this bike? I'd just like to know, because I'm not sure I'm ready to be free from all desire quite yet.
Gee, I wonder why they chose an Asian model for this ad...
2008-04-25 15:48:44 UTC