MLK meets Lt. Uhura. Great story. If you got marching orders from that guy, you sure as hell carried them out.
A nice story: Donor takes care of the entire state of California on DonorsChoose.org.
Yet another sort of tasty-looking yet simultaneously horrifying food item: the McDonald's 10:35, an Egg McMuffin-double cheeseburger concoction.
Wild and crazy video of a cruise ship in a nasty storm. Grab something that's bolted down and hold on for dear life.
Two Steinberg items: First, he pretty well puts to rest the question of female reports in locker rooms. Then, with help from Chris Cooley, they explain blocking schemes on field goal attempts. Not interesting to everyone, I guess, but it's the kind of down-in-the-weeds how football works stuff that I think is all too rare.
This was a good food weekend.
Friday night: pork loin with concord grape sauce, thus using the small quantity of grapes we got from the CSA. I billed this as "purple pork chops," but the girls still resisted.
Saturday lunch: squash and basil soup, thus using the pattypan squash from the CSA. Not going to go out of my way to make this again, but a good use of squash if one is over-squashed.
Saturday dinner: grilled black cod with garlic oil, thus completing the goal of cooking the entire Steven Raichlen international grilling article from the July 2009 Bon Appetit. But it was a bit of a let-down. First off, where he said "lightly oil the fish basket," I think he should have said "Oil the living crap out of the fish basket." The fish pretty well disintegrated when I took it out. Furthermore, between it flaking all apart, my not having the garlic oil ready the moment it came out, and the family's inability to come to dinner until ten minutes after I've called them, the fish got kind of cold. And cold fish generally does not equal good fish. I mean, it wasn't terrible, but after all the effort it took to find this fish (not to mention the price tag), I was disappointed.
I served it with chard with raisins and pecans (I didn't have hazelnuts on hand) which was surprisingly good. And desert was peanut-chocolate chip blondies, so there's that.
Sunday dinner: grilled brined chicken with chimichurri sauce, which was basically like treasure. I used an organic/free-range chicken from the farmers' market, which was fantastic. Of course, for $20 or so, it better be. I know there are plenty of reasons why I should buy higher-quality chicken from local producers, but damn, sometimes $1.99 a pound at the Giant is hard to argue with.
I just posted the queso recipe to Facebook, and I figured I should tell this story. I first found this recipe while living in Lancaster the year after I graduated from F&M. Rob had moved back to Albuquerque after college, and knowing my love of cooking, he sent me a package of green chile with instructions for preparing it. So I roasted it up, peeled it and chopped it, and found the queso recipe in a cookbook. I made up the cheese one night while Jeff and Joel were at the house, and we proceeded to eat the whole thing.
The next night, I was puttering around at the house when there was a knock at the door. It was Jeff and Joel. Hey guys! Come on in, sit down! What's up?
"We were just wondering if you could make that cheese stuff again."
THAT'S how good it is. I sent them off to the store for a tomato and a block of cheese.
An on-time LFF? Impossible!
Ground Zero mosque? Tell it to this guy. Or this one. Frank Rich has more on how this latest fake controversy on the part of conservatives to flog Democrats ultimately does more harm than good.
Here is a good piece on the shredding of the social contract in the name of lower taxes. The ever-awesome Slacktivist has another good piece on the politics of resentment. I like the suggestion that when someone says the poor or prisoners or whoever are lucky, ask if they're saying they'd like to switch places with that particular group.
Germany's workers have higher productivity, shorter hours and greater quality of life. But thanks to the power of VIGOROUS ASSERTION, the U.S. is still the greatest country in the world.
I heart Snopes, but it's depressing to read their discussion of how people believe what they want to believe, even in the face of contrary evidence. Can't say as I'm surprised, though.
Graphical breakdown of the student loan machine.
I know fast food vs. reality is too easy, but it's so damn entertaining. I also know I posted Hungover Owls to Facebook already, but it's worth repeating.
Lastly, worlds collide, though I don't know if the suggestion about the Phanatic and Foofa is funny or just gross.