I’m going to try and write up the recipes for my dinner Saturday night. Some of it was sort of winged, so it’s not going to be a perfect accurate recipe but should be enough to reproduce.
The Salad:
The salad was really simple.
1 head of Romaine Lettuce, chopped into strips
1 pint (? one of the small containers of them) of cherry tomatos
1/2 a red onion, sliced thin and cut into half rings
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup (? or so) of crushed walnuts
Mix it all together well, chill and let it sit for a bit before serving.
Basil Lime Salmon with Steamed Veggies and Rice
Another deceptively simple recipe.
2 salmon steaks
3 limes
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Fresh basil (not sure how much, maybe… 1/4 cup chopped? maybe?)
salt
pepper
Squeeze the juice from the limes into a bowl with the olive oil. Chop the basil and mix into the lime juice and olive oil with a few turns of ground sea salt and black pepper. Mix well and pour over the salmon steaks, letting them marinate for a couple hours.
After a couple hours (use this time to do the veggies and rice), remove them from the marinade and make sure to take most of the fresh basil off them. Grill them (I use a Foreman Grill) for about 10 minutes (or 5 minutes a side on a regular grill) or until flaky all the way through.
The Veggies:
1 Yellow Squash, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 Zucchini, cut into 1/2 slices
1/2 cup (? or so) of baby carrots, cut in half.
Steam them in a rice cooker with some salt and pepper.
Server the salmon and veggies on some steamed white rice.
Baked Pears
The pears were the only thing that wasn’t a recipe originally by me. The recipe is available here. Advice: use red pears or a pear better for baking, and make sure you bake them long enough to get soft all or most of the way through. Also, put on PLENTY of the brown sugar and butter mixture. it will run off the pears and then harden on the pan when taken out of the oven. You can use that to create hard little strips or strings of the brown sugar as a garnish on top of the ice cream. And definitely use a nice soft vanilla ice cream.
If you try any of these on your own, let me know how they turn out.
My other recipes:
Via Sadly, No!
I’d like to make one thing clear here - a lot of lefty posters on the original Death of Science thread tried to make out that I was some sort of Luddite opposed to scientific pursuit. This assertion is rather flabbergasting when made against a man who favors a massive increase in spending on NASA. When I say “Science” in this context, I mean that worldview which placed science athwart religion and said the two cannot mix. My contention is not only that they mix fine, but that you can’t really do science unless you are firmly grounded in faith and have a general knowledge of theology.
I will now drive a railroad spike through my temple in an attempt to forget this immense stupidity. I doubt it will work. This is the sort of stupidity that burns forever into one’s mind.
So I’m cooking dinner for someone tonight and I’m possibly biting off more than I can chew (pardon the pun). here’s the menu (pictures hopefully to come tomorrow):
Salad: Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red onion, feta cheese and a light italian dressing
Main course: grilled basil-lime salmon with steamed vegetables (yellow squash, zucchini and carrots) on rice with french bread
Dessert: baked pears with vanilla ice cream.
The salad and main course are both dishes that I came up with. The pears are courtesy a friend who recommended it.
Here’s hoping it all turns out well and decidedly non-poisonous 
Update: So it turned out quite good and non-poisonous. The salmon was excellent. I was worried the fresh basil would be too strong but I think the lime juice cut down on it a bit. The salad was excellent and didn’t even need a dressing.
Oh and Trader Joe’s french bread kicks ass.
The dessert of the baked pear was good, except I should have a) served it in a bowl because it’s slippery and b) baked it a little longer so it would get softer. The best part was the brown sugar and butter mix melted onto the pan and then hardened after it came out of the oven. Made a great garnish on top of the ice cream.
So I would say mission accomplished. Definitely the most ambitious meal I’ve tried to make. I should try this more often.
Tonight is Drinking Liberally: Indianapolis!
7pm-whenever
Spencer’s Stadium Tavern
802 S. West St. (SW Corner of West & McCarty)
I’ll be the tall redhead with glasses and a beard.
Also, we’re having an election night party. So come down to Spencer’s on Tuesday, Nov. 5th. We’ll have the results coming on on the TVs in the bar, good brew, and good times with fellow Indy Democrats. Hope to see you there! Feel free to pass it on to other Dems you know in the area and mailing lists, etc. If you have any questions, drop a line in the comments.
Here’s round three! Crossposted from my last.fm music journal. I’ll keep voting open for a week or so.
For Round 3 I’m going to ’seed’ the bands by the number of votes they got through rounds 1 & 2. Vote for one in each grouping.
A.
1. The Beatles
32. Death From Above 1979
B.
2. Beck
31. Fiona Apple
C.
3. Nirvana
30. No Doubt
D.
4. Johnny Cash
29. Massive Attack
E.
5. Pearl Jam
28. Bad Religion
F.
6. The Smashing Pumpkins
27Dido
G.
7. Oasis
26. The Cure
H.
8. Bob Dylan
25. The Who
I.
9. Radiohead
24. Tom Waits
J.
10. Gorillaz
23. Air
K.
11. Rage Against the Machine
22. The Offspring
L.
12. Garbage
21. Sigur Rós
M.
13. R.E.M.
20. Red Hot Chili Peppers
N.
14. Nine Inch Nails
19. The Clash
O.
15. The White Stripes
18. Guns N’ Roses
P.
16. Pixies
17. Jane’s Addiction
Interesting story in the Star about competitive US House races in Indiana.
The part that REALLY caught my attention was probable the least talked about in the article - Rep. Mark “Professor Chaos” Souder is getting a last minute money dump from the GOP leadership. This is usually a reliably Republican district, but back in July I posted about how the Democratic challenger Tom Hayhurst had been outraising Prof. Chaos up until then. In fact the latest report on 10/18 shows Hayhurst STILL outraising and outspending Souder.
I’m still pessimistic on the chances in that race, but this is money that the GOP is spending in what has been one of the safest GOP districts in the state as of late. That’s less money for Sodrel (IN-09), Hostettler (IN-08) and Count Chocula (IN-02), which can only be a good thing for Dems in those districts (and competitive districts around the country).
On a different tangent but related to that story in the Star - why (save the one nonpartisan U. of Evansville Professor quoted) are all of the people quoted in the article Republicans except for one campaign advisor for Baron Hill? Are you telling me that reporter Mary Beth Schneider couldn’t get ANYONE from the DCCC, the Ellsworth campaign, the Donnelly campaign or the state Democratic Party on the phone?
Let’s add them up.
Non-Partisan:
- Professor Robert Dion, University of Evansville
Republicans:
- Ed Patru, Deputy Communications Directory for the NRCC
- Rep. Mike Sodrel
- Rep. John Hostettler
Democrats:
- Michael B. O’Connor, campaign advisor to Baron Hill (IN-09)
Damn that liberal media!!
So Rep. Hostettler (R-Scared of Teh Gays!), a man so partisan even his hair is sharply divided, is officially jumping off the deep end.
As music sounding like something out of a Clint Eastwood movie soundtrack plays in the background, a narrator who’s meant to be spoofing Dirty Harry intones about what will happen if Dems take the House. “Speaker Pelosi will then put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda, led by Barney Frank, reprimanded by the House after paying for sex with a man who ran a gay brothel out of Congressman Frank’s home,” the narrator says. “I know what you’re thinking. Is this true? Well, do you feel lucky? Go ahead, vote for Brad Ellsworth. Make Nancy Pelosi’s day.”
- As much as I like Ellsworth (the dude has charisma out the wazoo, he’s not exactly strong on gay rights. It’s one of the things about him that bugs me.
- Do enough people even know who Nancy Pelosi is to make her a good candidate for smearing others nationwide? Maybe among people who are politically conscious, but among Joe Voter… what’s Pelosi’s name ID in SW Indiana?
- Are Hostettler’s internal polls so bad that he has to pull out the “Fear Teh Gays!” card in such a blatant way? I mean, what happened to “my opponent will vote against ‘traditional marriage’” attacks? At least those stupid attacks are somewhat subtle. But then again, no one accused Hostettler of being the subtle type.
Ellsworth for Congress
I want this shirt so badly. Geeky librarian type girls are hott. With two ‘t’s. heh
What a weekend.
Friday
Went to the Musical Family Tree festival set at Radio Radio. met up with CJ, Nate, Ricky and Maggie. Good good stuff.
- The Society
**
Not bad. Solid rock. Didn’t really grab me a ton but wasn’t bad.
- The Fervor
***
I really enjoyed them, but then again I am partial to female lead rock. Their songwriting seemed really good and you gotta lie a band fronted by a keyboard.
- Abner Trio
1/2
Oh my. Really. Really. Bad. So many jokes were made at their expense. “Who let them out of the garage?” “Come on guys, you can hit that note!” “Livejournal: The Band!”
- Born Again Floozies
****
KICK ASS. Tap dancers as percussion section. A tuba player. Sort of a New Orleans Vaudville Blues Rock feel (best I can come up with). Excellent songs, great banter, I’d love to see them again play a full set.
- Everthus.the.deadbeats
***1/2
Also pretty kick ass. One of thos ebands with about 500 members (okay more like 6). Lead singer has charisma out the wazoo, sort of Beck-ish in the way he moves and all. They brought up a tenor sax player for the last few songs who loked like he was straight out of some Chicago blues club, complete with sunglasses indoors.
- Spitshine
**1/2
Solid bar rock outfit. Nothing special but they played originals and had a good rock sound.
- Prizzy Prizzy Please
?
Left before their set as the whole thing was running about an hour behind schedule and I had to be up relatively early on Saturday.
Saturday
Well, I didn’t get up as early as I wanted but I still made it back home to my parents’ to help my dad install a couple windows in the house. I better start learning this stuff soon if I want to buy a house! Also, my mom made her bbq which is just about the best thing EVER. Slow cooked beef that is all shredded and faling apart and in her sauce with so much vinegar that it makes your eyes water. Perfect. You can take your sweet bbq, I’ll have my mom’s eye wateringly tangy bbq any day. She also gave me the recipe. I’ve been itching to try it out, but it’s a dish that takes practice and feel to get the balance right.
I was going to go to the Saturday night MFT lineup at Radio Radio too but by the time I got home from helping with the windows, and after the late night on Friday I decided to just take it easy and do alot of nothing. Mission accomplished.
Sunday
Slept in. Yay! Then got all ready for the Flogging Molly concert in Champaign, IL!! I haven’t seen them live in a few years and when Erin and Chris told me about it I just had to go. Not that the company of Erin wasn’t a draw either ;). So I made the 2 hour trek to Champaign and met them and a few of their friends for Japanese food (yum, Edamame and Philly Roll) and then on to the show at a club called The Canopy. Very cool place, great venue. As for the show, schuweeeet.
Zox
***
Very cool opener. Violin fronted rock band. Super kick ass. I’m definitely going to have to look up their album sometime.
Bedouin Soundclash
*
The one star is just for the bass player, who really needs to find himself a better band to join because he is REALLY good. Oh, and there should be a law that if you want to do a cover of The Clash you should have to apply for a permit and prove competence first. Oy.
Flogging Molly
****
Great great great great (…..) show. Played a ton of my favorites, I yelled and sang along and jumped and white boy danced and everything. Ears are still ringing today but so totally worth it. Only disappointment was that they didn’t play Delilah as their final encore. But they played almost all my other favorites so I’m not complaining.
Monday
Yeah, I took today off. Getting home at 4:30am isn’t really condusive to being able to function the next day. I’m not as young as I used to be heh.