Plus Ca Change

Tim Abbott quotes:

If(sic) soon however appeared that part of this intelligence was false, and the rest greatly magnified.

About the Revolutionary War.
(Ours. Not theirs)
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

Where We Stand?

When G W Bush assumed the position...
He tipped us 600 bucks.

We cheered until we got sandbagged.
Tax cuts for the rich.
War on people whose land contains oil.
Welcome to authoritarianism!

"Doesn't that burning constitution
Give a warming glow to my backside?
Kissme!" he postured
as his poll numbers drooped.

He killed thousands of us.
And hundreds of thousands of them.
His pals took a balloon ride,
or three, or more, on us.

He put us in hock for 4 Trillion.

As he prepares to pass the baton
(to one that's
just more of the same)

He tips us $600 again.

--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

Not to Worry

Herrington pauses. "George W. Bush," he adds, "would do what they are doing here in a heartbeat if he could."

Except...
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

The Old Guard Changeth

After 30 some years my old reliable Sabatier carbon steel Chef's knife is retiring to an honored position as kitsch hanging on my kitchen wall. There it is between the two new arrivals: another 10" chef knife and a 6" utility knife.
Maybe this time I will remember to hone the blades on the steel before use so I can avoid hollowing the edge on the stone. I also know to use a cleaver to smash garlic cloves rather than the chef knife, so the handle may stay intact.

Earle used to say:

Too soon old.
Too late smart.

--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, chef knives

She Protests Waaaaaaay More Than Too Much?

Digby quotes Ann Coulter:

I don’t know if you read the Starr report, the rest of us were glued to it, I have many passages memorized. No, there was more plot and dialogue in a porno movie.

Does anyone else see the connection to this joke told by my Band Master in High School , ca. 1960:

Kid goes to a psychiatrist.
Shrink givess him a Rorschach test.
"What does this make you think of?" says the Doc.
"Sex," says the kid.
"What about this one?" says the Doc.
"Sex," says the kid.
"Okay... try this." says the Doc.
"Sex," says the kid.
"Hmmmm. Und dis?" says the Doc.
"Sex," says the kid.
"Boy," says the Doc. "Do you have problems!"
"But, Doc! You're the one drawing dirty pictures!"

--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics, Digby, Ann Coulter

Hullabaloo Said It Too

Despite Obama's advantage in delegates and popular vote, 64 percent of Democrats in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say Clinton should remain in the race. Even among Obama's supporters, 42 percent say so.

That's not a majority endorsement of Clinton's candidacy; Democrats by a 12-point margin would rather see Obama as the nominee, a lead that's held steadily in ABC News/Washington Post polls since early March. Instead it reflects a rejection of the notion that the drawn-out contest will hurt the party's prospects. Seventy-one percent think it'll either make no difference in November (56 percent) or actually help the party (15 percent).

--ml
c. f.:
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

To Be a Skeptic ...

To be a skeptic
Means not only to say:
"You're wrong!"
He he he!

To be a skeptic
is more than
"That's not so!"
He he he!

To be a skeptic
Suggests a teacher
Did less than say so.
He he he!

To be a skeptic
Donkeys must not
Have their way!
He he he!

To be a skeptic
I must not say
"Because I was told so..."
He he he!

To be a skeptic
Is to repeat:
"I don't know.
I really do not know."

--ml
Link
Link

tag: Dum Luks Community, fat

Rubber Duckies

Rosserjb at EconoSpeak notes the New York Times report:

So, today a second US aircraft carrier has entered the Persian Gulf ...

Picture. if you can stomach it, dear little Georgie in the claw foot tub with his little toy boats bobbing all around him. Down comes his fist as he chortles Ka-BOOM! and sends the aircraft carrier to the bottom.
For a contrary, but coincident opinion, please see the Watley Review.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

"All Men Are ..

Created Equal..."
So says the Declaration of Independence.
What is the definition of "All Men"?
The rich, white male population? Or is it somewhat broader?
This is the fundamental question of the United States of America since its inception.
We still struggle to agree on any part of the definition.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

Try It

Del was at the door. He unslung his pack to settle down.
"I've brought something for you to try."
As I handed him a glass of wine he pulled a jar from his pack and offered it to me.
Pickled Garlic read the label.
"It's more of an ingredient looking for a recipe than anything else," he said.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Community, Del Stories

In Support of ...

The preceding post is not an endorsement of negative campaigning by any Democratic candidate. That is a tactic required by the moral bankruptcy of the other side.
The vote so far demonstrates that almost as many Democratic voters favor one candidate as the other.
Now I would rather see the reasons to vote for a nominee rather than reasons, sometimes spurious, to vote against a candidate.
The world is indeed a vicious place in which violence is endemic. What I want to know is what the nominee plans to do in office to mitigate that fact.
--ml
tag: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

Count the Vote

Goldy urges the superdelegates to throw their weight behind Obama to make him the Democratic nominee because "Hillary can't win." He opens his post:

Well, of course, she could win. Shit happens. Scandals. Wars. Terrorist attacks. Assassinations. But barring some paradigm-shifting calamity crushing Barack Obama’s presidential aspirations (or the man himself), Hillary Clinton just can’t win the Democratic nomination.

Didn't we get a President in 2000 on the basis of not counting votes, or completing due process, because five Supreme Court Justices (who were appointed by Republican Presidents) thought they knew who won?
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

CW = Contrary Words?

One notes the conventional wisdom:

One thing seems quite evident prior to getting the vote totals: while Obama has a floor, McCain and Clinton have ceilings, and they've already hit them. ... check out Charlie Cook writing about Obama's chemisty: "This unusual combination created the equivalent in Democratic politics of nitroglycerin. It has already overpowered all but Clinton and is pushing its beneficiary closer and closer to the nomination, despite the inherent advantages that she began with."

--DemFromCt

But I note the delegate count is within a 150. Also noteworthy are: The high number of Republican Congressional retirements; The many highly qualified, serious, Democratic candidates running all over the country; The enormous number of new voters who register as Democrats; The flood of small donor funding for many of these candidates.
Nitroglycerin separates particles dramatically. When any candidate has the political equivalent of nitro, they blast ahead of expectations and their opponents, e.g.: Darcy Burner's Washington 08 fund raising.
I don't think a 1650/1508 delegate split is evidence of nitro, no matter how enthused the supporters of either candidate are.
That those eligible to vote in the Democratic primaries consistently divide so nearly for two candidates, while offering major support to Democratic candidates in Congressional races might be interpreted as a desire in the electorate to change the composition of the Executive and Congress (and therefore the Judicial) and an acceptance of either Democratic Presidential candidate, rather than an overwhelming preference for one candidate.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, Politics

Another Trip to the Well

On listening to streaming audio:
A commercial classics station that broadcasts in a language I do not comprehend is much more bearable than one that broadcasts in English. From annoyances the ads rise to mildly intriguing puzzles.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, management

A Fool's Day Squib

The Vancouver CBC station reported more anti-intellect acts by CBC's management this morning. The reader assured us this was not a joke: The CBC, after better than 30 years on radio and television, has canceled the Canadian Air Farce.
For those unfamiliar with Canada's premiere satire troupe think of the network canceling Saturday Night Live.
But my favorite CBC/April Fool memory is of Bob Kerr, host of Off The Record. This was a long running afternoon classics show which could play a full Mahler or Buxtehude symphony without interruption. And just as well do a smattering of art song fragments. Bob featured his favorite instrument on his Organ Thursdays which introduced more than one generation to the breadth of the King of Instruments. His commentary on both composers and performers was always considered, informed, and zestful with never the least hint of academic stodge or snobbishness. Never did he indulge, as is the fashion in the US, in an attitude of: "Now, do listen [children], this will be so-o-o good for you."
One April first, mid 80's or thereabouts, he burst into his opening theme glowing with the excitement -- very infectious -- of this marvelous discovery that only just arrived in his mail box. He had played it once before the show and now promptly played it for his listeners. What we heard was a more than acceptable standard of play of the Minute Waltz distanced by the obvious youth of its recording technology, like listening to a cleaned up wax cylinder of Caruso. Bob was utterly fascinated with it. He played, he said, a British CD Mags' insert which claimed to be a recording of Chopin playing the Minute Waltz in something just over 60 seconds.
How was this possible?
The magazine claimed that a hitherto obscure Frenchman had invented a recording device -- I think it involved smoke patterns on glass but, then again, that might be my imagination supplying what my memory lacks -- and just happened to live near the villa occupied by a Mme. Sand and M. Chopin. The latter was gracious enough to perform for the instrument. The result was buried in the back garden to preserve it from one war or another until it was forgotten. Gr gr gr gr someone overturned that corner and retrieved the precious artifact. Science was enlisted to devise a means of reproduction. This led to the flimsy CD included in the magazine.
Bob was oddly skeptical and enthralled all at once. Partly he denied the notion of the inventor while he so much wanted to hear Chopin play even at the great technical remove offered. He played it once or twice more, interspersed with this information and his reactions, before turning to the day's program. But he did so only to clear our palettes. Soon he was back to play the cut and marvel at the wonder of actually hearing Chopin perform the Minute Waltz in something like 68 seconds. This was more than the title called for, but rather less than the vast majority of pianists managed, as somebody hastily sent to the disk library for examples proved.
Over and again was the wonder that we listened to Chopin himself.
And what did we think of that?
Then the canker worm raised its head. A listener called in to report that Bob might want to examine the mast head.
There it was: "Issue 0401." The rage for a lost penny wasn't in it.
Bob informed us he had already sent a postcard to the magazine canceling his subscription. For several minutes he fulminated against the asininity of the perpetrators. The imbecility! The Rudeness! The just plain impoliteness of it!

And the wonder we felt: "What was it about that recording that we experienced when we believed it was genuine?

That passionate, intelligent, involvement with music is what CBC used to be. Since Brian Mulroney gutted the CBC budget causing the decimation of the news department, until then one of the finest in the world, in the late 80's 'til now when the boobitariat reins at CBC headquarters it has been downhill all the way up.
--ml
tag: Dum Luks Stockpot, CBC Radio 2

Koan of Stupidity

The Encyclopedia of Stupidity by Matthijs van Boxsel has, at last, risen to the top of the pile. It proves better than advertised. Better than I expected when I first posted about it.
Boxsel's thesis is that:

No one is intelligent enough to comprehend his own stupidity. And that is all to the good. Cognition has a disastrcous effect not only on stupidity, but also on the intelligence based on it.

-- The Comic Hiatus, pg 47

This suggested a koan of stupidity:

I have my little ways of doing things,
Which make sense to me.
Fold the towel narrow to fit in the bar,
Then fold in half and half again to fit the shelf.
It makes no sense to you, no matter how I explain.
So I must let it go. It matters not that you do it.
Only that I do it.
Because I am the one who wants to do it that way.
So where is the stupidity most?
In my insisting all do it my way?
Or in my insisting I do it my way?
Or is it both?

--ml
tags: Dum Luks Community, Foolasophy

mauger mauger mauger

When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.
Stephen Jay Gould
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Community, politics

Coming February 7...

To a calendar near you!--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Chinese New Year

Ruminations

A friend once challenged me:

"If you can't afford broad cast, do narrow cast!"

Television is broadcast. One source presents itself to many.
What is Narrowcast?
My friend meant one talks with a selected few, i.e.: use direct mail which would avoid the waste of TV ads,
Now he might mean social networks, or You Tube, or podcasts, or blogs.

At which point Narrowcast becomes: "Many talking to a self selected number between few and many" with a chance that those many might talk back.
So the problem is now: get the message to those who want to hear and give them a means to respond. And let everyone listen in.
Many talk with many.
This I like.
--ml
updated in a vain attempt to improve the quality of thought. 2/29/08
tags: Dum Luks Community, U S politecs 2008

Steps to Paradise # 27

Crisis Avoidance is better than Crisis Response if you want many happy returns.
--ml
h/t Matt

Of course you have to be right.

That is very hard.

tags: Dum Luks Community, U S politecs 2008

Bitter Truth

They cover politics as if the Media aren't part of the process and as if reporters, pundits, editors, publishers, producers, and anchors have no influence on anything---not on the way stories are covered, not on what stories are covered, not on what people think about the stories.

-- Lance Mannion

--ml
tags: Dum Luks Community, Mannion on Fineman, media sucks

Oliebollen

Little oily balls.

Direct translation. Not so appetizing in the midst of our current anti-fat bigotry.

Fruit doughnut? Only a little better.

Apple Fritter, suggests the MacGear.

And I accept it as descriptive and inviting. For a translation.

But Oliebollen is the name as this is the progenitor of all doughnuts: A yeast raised sweet dough, filled with fruit, and deep fried, traditionally eaten in the Netherlands at New Years since the late sixteenth century. Approximately guessed.

For certain it attracted the notice of that famed historian Diedrich Knickerbocker who describes a a high tea among the Dutch settlers in the Hudson valley as including:

Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks—a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known in this city, except in genuine Dutch families.

-- Washington Irving, Hist of New York,
Chapter III

Thus Oliebollen are as native to this country as the Dutch farmers and merchants who built Wall street.

The Congressional Club Cookbook of 1927 is the earliest recipe I have. My transcription (possibly not verbatim)

13 oz flour	7oz currants
1/2 pint milk	4 oz raisins
3 eggs	1 1/2 oz citron chopped fine
1 1/2 oz yeast	1-2 sour apples chopped fine
2 oz butter

Mix above in bowl. Stir well. Let stand 30 minutes. Drop by spoonfuls into hot oil. Cook slowly until brown.

-- Mrs. Jacob Steketer

But, as with any traditional dish there are many variants' only one of which will be acceptable to the one who grew up with a particular recipe. The rest may pick and choose and use the result as a springboard to their own version.

For your browsing pleasure we offer a round half dozen out of the myriad your search engine will find:

Oliebollen

Oliebollen (Dutch Doughnuts)

Oliebollen

International Recipes: Oliebollen

Oliebollen -- New Year's Eve Doughnuts

Recipe for Cooking Olie Bollen

Although essentially the same in the main ingredients, variation appears in the fruit used, how it is incorporated with the dough and the consistency of the dough which may be a batter or a soft, but moldable dough, or any likely point between. In some recipes the dough wraps around the filling rather like Bao. This requires dough to work. If the fruit is mixed in with the flour and liquid, then a batter consistency is good, though the dough still works.

Dum Luk's, but of course, does it other.

Dum Luk's Oliebollen

1 cup starter (or yeast)	3 eggs
1 cup cream	2 tbl Butter, melted
1 cup Flour	nutmeg
1 tart apple grated	1/2 cup filberts,chop fine
sugar

Mix all of the above, except sugar, in a bowl. Adjust flour until you have a good batter. Deep fry in your Christmas goose schmaltz, or lard, at 350^of (180^oc) until brown. Turn halfway through. Drain and cool slightly. Then roll the oliebollen in sugar. Powdered or granular as you wish.

Goed Niewe Jaar!

--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays. New Years, oliebollen, Dutch doughnuts

Iowa News

Hubris Sonic at the Group News Blog nails it:

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Iowa Wrap Up

Total Voter Turnout (approximate)

356,000

Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

Hubris Sonic 9:21 PM

All else is spin.
--ml
tag: U S politecs 2008

Dum Luk Nogs Eggs

One of my favored youthful seasonal indulgences was the local dairy's eggnog which showed up maybe December 5th and was gone by the 31st.

Nowadays it seems to appear before Halloween and stick around until after Valentine's. Like xmas tree lights it is stretched to serve every occasion of the dark, cold, time of year.

The Kid^tm enjoys the stuff as I did. So every year I get to sample the local brews, which are mostly not remarkably different from my memory. Well, except for one very small local organic dairy who make an excellent, in all respects, eggnog.

except...

They put cinnamon in it.

To them, I suspect, this is an old family recipe that they have served time out of mind and adore. I have even less doubt that they have a loyal following who approve of this practice, for each year they bally forth's the same treasured product.

So, what I say here has nothing to do with their hard earned success in all they do -- including their eggnog. But... I find the addition a specious adulteration which no sane, or opinionated, asshole, such as my self, will tolerate. There.

I know, he perorates, how to nog an egg properly. Attendez, mes enfants, so:

Separate a dozen eggs.
Beat the whites stiff.
With the same beaters, without cleaning, beat the yolks until thick and light. Add a cup or more of granulated sugar a little at a time. Less is best but this measure is entirely to your own taste. Add a tablespoon of vanilla and a teaspoon (or more) of freshly ground nutmeg. Now add a quart of heavy whipping cream. When mixed pour into a suitable bowl.
Fold in the beaten whites.
If not serving immediately, cover and refrigerate.
Else: Ladle into mugs, cups, glasses, steins, dancing slippers or what you like.
At this point you have a sort of ecumenical, or Unitarian Universalist, nog which can be offered to everyone able to stand. For those who like to blunt their wits with something of the maker's art, elevating their soul to commune with the higher spirits, add a wee, or not so wee, dram of what you fancy.

"Pairsonally," said the auld git, "Ai prayfer the malt on t'side."

And a very happy New Year to us all!!

--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, New Year's, eggnog

On Ways to Stuffing a Goose

n.b.: Cooking fowl at proper temperatures to insure succulence and tenderness creates an excellent environment to grow bacteria in stuffing inside the goose (Turkey, duck et al.) Better to use discardable aromatics in the cavity and make the dressing in a casserole.

An Evolution of Dressing

When I commenced to start to begin to learn (as Del would say) how to cook a goose, I followed the recipe in the Horizon Cookbook, and used this for stuffing:

Persian Cracked Wheat and Apricot Stuffing

½ lb dried apricots, pitted	1 tsp dried sage
1 cup tawny port wine	salt and pepper
2 cups cracked wheat bulghur)	½ lb dried prunes, pitted and halved
¼ cup butter	2 med onions chopped
1 /3 cup pine nuts	1 cup beef broth

Soak the apricots in the port overnight. Reserve port to baste bird.Soak the cracked wheat in 4 cups of water for two hours. Drain well.Melt the butter and fry the onion and celery, add the well-drained cracked wheat, and sauté for five minutes. Season with sage, and salt and pepper to taste.Mix in prunes, pine nuts, drained apricots, and broth and simmer for 30 minutes. Makes about 6 cups, enough to stuff body cavity and neck of a 10-pound bird

-- Horizon Cookbook, 1968

This is very good.

But, always one to paint a gilt lily, I became so full of myself as to make this:

FOESTAG
(Full of enough shit to stuff a goose)

By Martin Langeland
C 2001

This is my evolution of the Horizon Cookbook's Persian Cracked Wheat Stuffing.

A day or so before use fill a quart jar half full of dried apricots. Fill the remainder with your selection of dried fruits such as Prunes, dried cranberries, dried sweet or tart cherries and so on. Chop if you like, I leave them whole. Add a cup of tawny port, cover and turn end for end several times each day until used.

On the day, sauté a medium onion and the top of a bunch of celery — the more leaves the better thinks I — in butter or butter and olive oil until the onion softens. Add garlic, celery seed and a bit of cayenne.

Take a half cup each of cracked wheat, pearl barley, white and brown rice and add to the vegetables. Substitute grain of your choice for some or all of the above. I found this a very pleasant combination, though I am not certain anybody else who tried it agreed. Sauté the grain (two cups in all) for about five minutes. Add a quart of chicken stock. You may need to add more if the grain absorbs it. Cook about twenty minutes until the grain is cooked. Past crunchy is better than at crunchy. Add the dried fruit and port mixture.

Fill a casserole or mold with the result and bring on the goose.

Reheats just fine. Those who like consider it a fine winter breakfast without any toppings.

My problem with both came about when I discovered that dried fruits were too much sugar for me. So this year I made the following:

Dum Luk's Cherry-Hazel Nut Stuffing

Soak a cup of bulghur in 12 oz. water for one hour. Meantime sauté a finely diced sweet onion in a quarter cup of butter until translucent. Add a tablespoon or so of garlic. Salt and pepper and celery seed to taste. Add two ribs of celery finely diced. Then add the bulghur with its water and a can of chicken stock. simmer 20 minutes or so until the bulghur is cooked. Add a cup of dry roasted hazel nuts, a cup of sour pie cherries. Fill a casserole. Pour on a miniature of Frangelica, or a couple of tablespoons of tawny port, or what you will. cover and refrigerate until needed. Heat about 30 minutes or more at 350^of.

Go, thou, and vary according to your taste, your cupboard and the company you keep!

--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Christmas menu, Christmas goose, stuffing, dressing

My Foolish Feast

I have long believed, without evidence beyond my laughable wit, that the Twelve days of Christmas were twelve days in duration.
Elaine informs me otherwise:

My source (Matthews, J. 1998. The Winter Solstice) says that

Christmas Day is just Christmas Day and thus = Day # 0
Day #1 = St. Stephen's Day a.k.a. Boxing Day
Day #2 = St. John's Day a.k.a. Mother Night
Day #3 = Holy Innocent's Day or Childremass
Day #4 = The Feast of Fools
Day #5 = Bringing in the Boar
Day #6 = New Year's Eve a.k.a. Hogmanay
Day #7 = New Year's Day, a.k.a. The Kalends of January
Day #8 = Snow Day
Day #9 = Evergreen Day
Day #10 = St. Distaff''s Day
Day #11 = Eve of Epiphany, a.k.a. Festival of the Three Kings
Day #12 = Epiphany, a.k.a. Twelfth Night

also note that Matthews considers the Winter Solstice to last two days, 12/21-22

So, happy fourth day all even though five days have elapsed since Christmas.
I have no problem adding twelve to zero to produce twelve, the math works. But I think there may be some objections in making Christmas a nothing day.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Twelve Days of Christmas

How Cooks My Goose

Goose do require a modest amount of fuss in prep. After that they are no more challenging than turkey. Thinks I.

First item: Have two roasting pans and a rack that allows for easy transfer of the goose from one to the other.

Fetch your goose, between 8 and 12 pounds, early enough to be completely thawed by the time you mean to prepare it for cooking. Wear expendables: grubbies or a working apron. Roll your sleeves up. You will get intimate with this goose which always means a bit of mess.

Preheat oven to 350^of. Unveil the goose from out of its packaging and rinse it. If the innards are in the cavity, remove them and reserve. Inside one end will be two great wads of fat. These pull away easily. Do so and reserve them to render later for deep frying oil. Slide your fingers or a rubber spatula (I end up using both) between the skin and the meat. Try not to break the skin. Do this all over the trunk of the goose. Prick the goose with a fork all over through the skin BUT NOT INTO the meat. Spoon as much garlic as you like between the skin and the meat. Salt and pepper ad libidum inside and out. Collect a bouquet garni of sage, thyme, rosemary and what-have-you-else. Add the leafy end of a celery rib or two and a halved onion with its dried outer layers and ends still attached. Shove all of this into the cavity and place the bird breast side down on the rack in the first roaster. Cover with a tent of aluminum foil, shiny side in to reflect the heat. Convey the goose into the oven.

That is most of the fuss.

Let the bird render for one to one and a half hours, until you have at least an inch of fat in the roasting pan. Set the innards to simmer in a pot of water, with a bay leaf crumbled in, covered, for about an hour. Meanwhile finely dice a small onion, a rib or two of celery, and a carrot. Place this in the second roasting pan with some garlic, sage, thyme, etc. When the hour expires remove the first roaster from the oven carefully to not spill any of the quart or so of hot fat you now have. Place it in an out of the way spot where you can leave it 'til the next day. Transfer the goose to the other roaster. Turn it breast side up. With its foil tent tucked in put the bird back in the oven for another hour to two hours depending on the size of the goose. You can tell it is done by how freely you can move a wing or a leg in its socket. Remove the foil tent and rub the bird with a stick of butter (or brush melted butter over the skin). Return to the oven for fifteen minutes, or so, until the skin browns and crisps to your preference. Remove from oven and transfer the bird to a carving platter and let it rest for twenty minutes or so, before carving.

Whereas the first roaster was filled with mostly fat, the second roaster should contain a nicely browned collection of vege, juice and fat. Pour this into a blender or food mill and whiz it into a puree. Add a tablespoon or so (depending on thickness desired) of flour while it whirls. Deglaze the pan with a half cup or so of tawny port. Add to the liquefied vege/drippings mixture in a frying pan or sauce pan, and heat. Stir frequently as it nears the boil. As it thickens add buttermilk (about two cups) and, or, the water the innards simmered in (about one cup), to the gravy. You can add the heart and liver to the blender, or not. Or feed them to the cats or dogs.

--ml

tags: Feast of Holidays, Christmas goose, Christmas menu

Boxing Day Morn

The ghost of Gluttony Past conjoins with the remains of Gluttony Present:1. Sourdough Kaiser Rolls; 2. Mince Pie; 3. Pumpkin Pie; 4. Anise cookies; 5. remnants of peppernotten and pfefferneuse; 6. Chocolate Pepper Cookies; 7. Fruit Cake.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Christmas afters, Christmas menu

Boxing Day Cat

Lapsang takes his ease after breakfast.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Community, cat blogging

Cooking is Science

Science is experiment.

Experiments do fail.

Saa-a-a-a...

My post, Another Fruit Cake, contains a recipe for Tropical Fruit Cake which came out of Dorothy's recipe file. It is a light, as in color, fruit cake featuring Brazil nuts, dates and maraschino cherries. I vaguely remember Dorothy making this, though I preferred her darker Royal King Fruit Cake.

Ann remembers it, too.

So, for the first time, I tried to follow the recipe on Dorothy's card. Uncharacteristically I stuck pretty close to the directions and measures on the card.

The result was not good.

It made eight small loaves. It over baked, slightly, in an hour, rather than an hour and a half to two hours, in a cooler oven than called for (because my oven usually runs about 25^o hotter than set). Each is an Andean diorama of Brazil nuts, cherries and dates barely connected at the bottom of deep crevasses with a rubbery sponge. There was not enough batter to cover the nuts and fruit, which is how I remember this cake. Separating the batter ingredients from the filler shows the recipe to be a basic sponge: Roughly equal parts of sugar, flour and eggs. (I think three eggs would be about three-quarters of a cup.)

So the problem would appear to be a mismatch in the quantities of fruits to cake. I would recommend cutting the fruit and nuts in half, or doubling the batter parts. Except. I double checked the recipe I used with the original card. They are the same. Here's an almost identical version of Dorothy's recipe that I found through Google.

Now I have about a pound of beautifully roasted Brazil nuts agglomerated to a scant pound of too dried out dates by a thin plastic sponge.

Maybe I could add more batter and steam it to rejuvinate the dates. Maybe I could break it up and start over with just the batter?

Maybe I could just start over?

Maybe I could forget it?

hmmm.....

--ml

Update: Steaming makes the dates soft and the sponge less rubbery which saves the cakes. Moral: Watch the oven to prevent over baking. Still don't like the proportions.
tags: Feast of Holidays, fruit cake, Christmas cake, solstice

Yes, If ...

I whole heartedly support Digby's point here ...

IF!!!

Like South Africa, who created the truth commissions AFTER the Blacks were freed to be equal to the Afrikaner Party of De Klerk and VerWoerd, The Re-Thugs and the Media grant that Democrats, progressives and all non re-thugs are equal to Capitalists.

--ml
tag: Dum Luks Stockpot