Month: April 2017

From the Kitchen and from the bar – new beers, new food and a tattoo!

Well, we never made it to the March for Science.   I did watch it on CSPAN, and they had pretty good coverage of it.   Some of the signs were priceless. I did like the one that read something like “we knew it was going to rain because of science”. I find it terribly weird that some people are offended that anyone dare have fun making the signs and dressing up, seeming to indicate that we all must be the stereotypical scientists with no senses of humor and no lives outside the laboratory.

This is to catch up on some of our gustatory and other adventures over the last few weeks.

On a visit to the grocery store, I found a “prime” top round aka London Broil. Prime generally indicates a cut that has a lot of marbling in it, and that is just a weird thing to claim for top round which is very, very lean. But there are other ways to determine “prime”, so maybe that’s how it works.   In any case, my curiosity got the better of me and I bought it since it was on sale. I couldn’t tell it was any more tender than a regular top round (the south end of a north facing cow).

I found a marinade on Saveur’s website. Since I didn’t have fennel, I used some star anise that I’ve had lying around.   I generally don’t care for the flavor of anise/licorice but I do like it in combination with other things. Spouse made a very hot fire in the charcoal grill and we had flames licking up around the meat as we like, and grilled it to a nice medium rare. Cut on the bias, it was tolerably tender and had a great flavor. We had it with fried potatoes and onions.

During that same shopping, I also found a pair of small beef tenderloins for about half their usual price. They were netted, which indicated that they weren’t holding together well (being three separate muscles).   But they’ll make a treat for beef stroganoff, or just slices of it raw since I tend to like that kind of thing. Continue reading “From the Kitchen and from the bar – new beers, new food and a tattoo!” →

Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – They can’t even get egg rolling right

(as an aside, look like I was wrong about North Korea being the first tail to wag the dog in my last post, see postscript).

In this atmosphere where the clown Trump and his circus are threatening the world with destruction thanks to their incompetence, one wouldn’t think that a story about the annual White House Easter egg roll would have much play. However, it underlines that this self-proclaimed great manager and his buffoons can’t even get things right that have been done for years. The New York Times has an article on the ineptitude again being shown.

Now, it is hard to arrange a public event of any kind, and especially one for tens of thousands. One has to start planning for such events months, if not years, in advance. Orders have to be placed, people have to be hired. And Trump, Melania, Ivanka (daddy, bomb them because they make me feels bad but screw the refugees) and their staff have done none of this. They blame others for their incompetence as usual, underlined by them trying to blame the manufacturer of the commemorative eggs by saying that the manufacturing time was cut and that is not true at all. They were told when they had to get the order in and they ignored it.

One might think that Trump is afraid of failing at the egg hunt too.  “I got more eggs than anyone.  My eggs are the best eggs.  No one’s eggs are better than mine!”

What’s even more pathetic is that Trump et al, also asked that PBS supply them characters for the event, when doing their best to kill PBS Kids, culture and the arts.   PBS seems to be providing *one* character, and at this time, it’s not known which one. I hope it’s Oscar the Grouch, who can tell the pointed truth about these idiots.

Postscript: On the subject of bombing Syria, it’s most curious that Trump’s son said this ““If there was anything that [the strike on] Syria did, it was to validate the fact that there is no Russia tie.” Hmmm, so we have a president who is facing an investigation for ties to Russia, and who ordered an attack on Syria that did little damage, and we have his son saying “look, look, we did something that Russia didn’t want us to do, so that means we’re not Russia’s pawns.”  One gets this ploy and the attempt for Trump to say “think of the children!” all in one package.

 

Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – chance of war? High

with the noose tightening around Trump regarding his contacts with Russia, and his nepotism, it is no surprise that the sabres are rattling about North Korea.  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/04/politics/white-house-north-korea-china/index.html   It’s a common tactic, a failing administration saying “Look, a bunny!” to get the media focus from them.

Also no surprise that Trump’s support of Assad in Syria has resulting in gassing civilians.  It’s what you get for supporting ignorance and dictators.

 

 

Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – No, many conservatives really are this ignorant

I haven’t had a Pennsylvania politician post for a while.  But oh this one deserves it in spades.  Scott Wagner, a Republican (what else?) state representative from the district to the south of me, has said the following about climate change:

I haven’t been in a science class in a long time, but the earth moves closer to the sun every year–you know the rotation of the earth. We’re moving closer to the sun.” [WITF-FM, Harrisburg, 3/28/17]

And not satisfied with this, he also said:

“We have more people…you know, humans have warm bodies. So, is heat coming off?”

No, despite the date, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke.

Keystone Progress is looking to send this pathetically ignorant man to school to learn the basics about reality.   Hmmm, I wonder if I still have college books for astronomy, meteorology, geology, etc. If so, someone’s getting a package!  Indeed this man is a great example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, as is that clown Trump.

This is why everyone who can should attend the March for Science, write your legislators, and always *always* counter the ignorance and outright lies of those who would try to ignore science in favor of their ignorant ideology.  No one has the right to take away the ability of people to make an informed decision.

This stupidity makes the kitty angry.