Bread Puddin’ and Jack Daniels Sauce

I don’t make a lot of desserts. Baking, for the most part, is too precise for my style of cooking. Perhaps one day when I move into an apartment with a kitchen that has ample counter space and … ah, who am I kidding. All that measuring and math isn’t for me. Until recently, my best attempt at dessert was “pudding pie” (mix up some instant pudding, slap it in a pre-made pie shell and cover with Cool Whip–now that’s good eats!).

Anyway, I’ve learned how to make Bread Pudding, something I don’t think I ever ate until I was well beyond 25. I’m still futzing with this recipe, which I’ve cobbled together from a few sources.

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Why I Won’t Chuck My Canned Peas

emergency_pyramidVia Instapundit, I came across two pieces advising the home cook on the things they should excommunicate from the kitchen. One is from Mark Bitman (surprise the wife didn’t see this one first) at The New York Times, the other from Megan McArdle at The Atlantic. Both are well worth a read and I have to agree with most of their lists.

But I’m not going to be tossing out canned vegetables or the bottled water just yet. I would never ever use canned red beans to make red beans and rice (perhaps I’ll share that recipe soon), but they do come in handy for chili (another recipe I might share). Further, as a kid who grew up on canned, tender young sweet peas (yes, even in Louisiana), I can’t quite bring myself around to the flavor of frozen peas. Bottled water, I can take or leave in terms of flavor. As McArdle points out, bottle water IS tap water in many cases (Aquafina, for example). And New York City tap water actually beats most bottled water in taste tests.

But I’m holding on to canned goods and bottle water for one good reason: emergencies.

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More Squirrel Goodness

Big week for squirrel and squirrel-flavored products. Walkers Crisps (that’s chips to Americans), as part of its Do Us a Flavour (that’s Flavor to Americans), has included a Cajun Squirrel flavor. MMMMMMmm. MM. Good eats.

According to the bloke what came up with the flavor, “This gentle Cajun flavouring will be delicious for the public and although the idea might sound bizarre, it really works. No squirrels were harmed in the making of these crisps!”

Brits Discover the Joys of Squirrel Eating

squirrel“With literally millions of squirrels rampaging throughout England, Scotland and Wales at any given time, squirrels need to be controlled by culls.” So begins an article in The New York Times about the Brits adding gray squirrel to the menu. Granted, you have to take such reporting with the Times with a grain of salt as their reporters seem to be particularly gullible when reporting about food trends in strange places.

I don’t have to tell my Louisiana readers that squirrel is still eaten there.  Indeed, in Ville Platte, La., the Friday before squirrel season starts (in October), the kids get the day off of school. Before any New Yorkers  get any silly ideas about just walking up to one and grabbing it, the squirrel in the wild (as opposed to the one in Manhattan and on college campuses) isn’t exactly easy to find or shoot. In 18 years of living in Louisiana, I managed to shoot exactly one (1). I’ve eaten a lot more, but killed only one. Men will stand in the woods for hours and not see a squirrel … because the squirrels KNOW better than to show their damn faces.

Same goes for the deer. (Comments here are worthy of a chuckle or two)

I’m in My Second Trimester

As part of that whole New Year’s thing, this week I did two things: 1) I started work on my second novel and 2) I went to the gym. While at the gym, I weighed myself. I can’t say that I’m surprised with the results. Last year, I had plenty of excuses for not working out. First, I was having back problems. Then I was getting married. Then I was having back problems again. Then I had surgery on my back. Also, I’m lazy and good with coming up with excuses.

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Benjamin Button vs. the Yellow Lab

There are worse ways  to waste time than staring at Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt for close to three hours, but the beauty of the two stars is about the best thing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has going for it. Too long and too shallow, the movie comes off as a curious amalgam of Forrest Gump meets Titanic (or so says my wife).

I’m a huge fan of Forrest Gump. Hell, I’m a huge fan of sappy story lines, but the problem with Benjamin Button is that it’s all surface. No relationships are explored in depth, no emotional connections made with the characters. Opportunity after opportunity is passed up to explore loss, to probe deeper. Say what you will about Forrest Gump, but I think his relationship with Bubba is fucking touching. When Bubba got killed in the shit, it was all I could do not to cry. And there were times when I wondered if Forrest and Jenny would ever get together.

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Dutch Left Kicks Multiculturalism to the Curb

Looks like certain lefties are finally realizing that it doesn’t quite work when only one side high-mindedly believes there’s no such thing as “us” against “them.” If the other side is saying, it’s “you against us,” you’d damn well better pay attention. As any first-grader who’s gotten the snot kicked out of him can tell you, the rules of Sesame Street only work on Sesame Street. The sooner grownups — politicians especially — realize that, the better for all involved.

Of course, this lesson came the hard way–after a few needless deaths at the hands of “immigrants,” who really saw no reason to give up the barbarism of their home countries. “Immigrants” is code for hardcore Islamists who insist on Sharia law, subjugating women, honor killings and violence toward anyone who criticizes them, all of which were to be understood and tolerated under old-school multiculturalism.

But no more. “Instead of reflexively offering tolerance with the expectation that things would work out in the long run, she said, the government strategy should be ‘bringing our values into confrontation with people who think otherwise.'”

Note that this isn’t a reactionary party, some xenophobic group of knuckle-draggers. These are members of the left, who’ve belatedly realized that what was under attack wasn’t some vague notion of multiculturalism, but the very liberal ideals they supposedly valued: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, gender equality, etc.

The paper just released states: “The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance.” It includes attacks on “self-victimization” and the grown-up notions that punishment for broken laws must be severe enough to actually deter crime.

Goodbye moral relativism. And good riddance.