Super Sunday... Super Meal..?

Been too long since my last post. When was it I said I was going to try to post twice a day? And the refuckyoucan party loves Amurrka. OK, whatever. So catching up...

I have to admit, I wasn't nearly as pissed off as I expected to be after bummer's SOTU address. Seemed like he was calling out the opposition for their obstructionism and basic asshattery. At least in his fashion. He managed to tell the SCROTUS they fucked our system up with their corporatic decision on campaign finance. As an aside here, that decision points out the true genius of Dubya: Od something so apparently stupid and inept to cover your true evil intent. Harriet Myers, anyone? He never intended for her to sit on the bench. She was named as a smoke screen so he could appoint the one he wanted: Scalito. What were Democrats going to do after bitching about her? Bitch about him? Leave the opening for the, "OK, what the fuck do you want?" accusations? Like they could get off their backs and stop wishing for the belly rub from Refucks that they'll never get. Come on. Anyway...

Aside from that and his minor chiding about having to take responsibility for (the non-existence of) government, he seemed to be the picture of the disappointed dad, talking to his children who he wishes could just for a time, get along before he dies. He seems to really believe his bullshit about bi partisanship... getting along... and all that. Is it still bullshit when you believe it? Or are you just that much more deceived and demented?

Then again, I remember during the primaries,everyone wanted him to drop the gloves with Hillary. Get down in the mud with her, Slug it out, and all that shit. He didn't.

And he won.

Then with McStain and the Talibunny, making their acusations about him being a friend of terrorists, and Muslim (because he attended a Christian church), and a Kenyan, and... Once again everyone was calling for him to call them out and duke it out and put them in their places. He didn't.

And he won.

Will he win this time? Sure looked like that a few days later when he lectured the children at their refuckyoucan retreat. They had NOTHING. He made them look so fucking bad their private noise machine had to turn off. Like Hitler's news channels when Joe Louis beat hell out of Max Schmeling.

I was hopeful until the otherday's news of Shelby placing holds on 70+ Obama appointments. So he could get his own version of a Cornhusker Kickback or Loiusiana Purchase II. That's right, I'm not carrying Obama's water on this one. He has no fucking leg to stand on. He's already given in to the proverbial gun to the head with Landrieu, Nelson and LIEberbitch. What moral high ground does he have to refuse Shelby?

None

OK.... game time...

I tried my first Brisket. I have a long way to go to learn the art of slow cooking.

Supposedly it takes 1 1/2 (give or take) hours per pound at 225 - 250 deg F. I can't get my Green Egg grill that cold and still cook. I get it hotter and it cooks too fast. A couple of months ago, I did a pork shoulder. The internal temp hadn't budged after 6 hours at the low temps.

My 8 1/2 lbs brisket was at 170 after 4 hours @ 300. It was at 210 after 10 hrs. And that time includes 4 1/2 hrs with the fire shut down, burping the heat out of the grill every 10-15 mins or so. I was planning on 14 hrs of cooking, so I could pull it off at halftime and slice it after the game. Now it's already be resting and I'll be cutting it before the fucking game. Oh well. Live and learn.

Oh well. With luck it'll turn out better then the healthcare fiasco.

VD is Coming

Prepare yourselves for the yearly pain-in-the-ass, guys.

No, not the clap, doofus. Valentines Day.

Card? Check

Flowers? Check

Present? DON'T buy anything useful: No appliances, no clothes, no tools. Call it a bauble, a gee gaw, whatever, it absolutely cannot have any practical value or use.

Not sure what to do about dinner? Check this out for ideas.

Hey Rachel Maddow

I hear you're in Seattle, but can't find out anything more than that. E-mail me to confirm an invitation to dinner. A good friend is over and she's making a gooooood Spanish style paella. Or if tomorrow or Sunday is better, I can grill some ribs.

Update:

Better let me know soon Rachel; I like to let my ribs percolate with the rub for a good 6-8 hours before cooking. 2 hours would be the absolute minimum.

But hey... ribs aren't cast in stone. I could do a beer can chicken...? Or a cedar planked salmon...? or would that be too Palinesque? Tuna steaks...?

Update II:

All jokes and/or fantasies aside... seriously.... Just dinner. Drinks if you like. Conversation.

Update III:

Is she a vegetarian? I could do mushrooms..? Portabellas...? Psychedelics...?

Update IV:

I guess she's not coming. :sniffsniff: I even saved the good stuff and ate spaghetti last night.

Happy Independence Day

Possibly our last as a free people

I've sat here now for about 15 minutes as the weight and meaning of that phrase sink in. Everything I had planned to type went, "Poof."

Seriously, if next week's vote on the new Freedom Is Superfluous Act goes as it did in the house, we as a nation are truly fucked. Which makes me wonder a few things:

Will this be the day that Dubya wipes his ass with the genuine article, rather than a mere facsimile of the Constitution? Or will he wait for the day of the vote?

What will he claim as his new national holiday? The day of the above mentioned vote? 9-11?

So much for a nice happy cheery post on boozing and grilling and timing orgasms with the fireworks' grand finale.

Damn Refuckyoucans and "Centrist-Nazis... Harsh my fucking buzz.

You Are what You Eat?

Rut Roh! I know eating raw clams is iffy, but my favorites, the bearded varieties, don't lend themselves to cooking.

h/t to the Firestarter and the little digg tool he has in his sidebar.

What a Wastoid

I should apologize to the fine folks at Crooks and Liars, who gave me a super gift by plugging my blog on Sunday. Virtually anyone in my blogroll would have been far more deserving than I. I also want to apologize to all those who stopped by and were totally underwhelmed by either the quality or quantity of content here. I mean, Thank You for coming, but I'm sorry I didn't bake a cake or anything. All right... I can't bake, but I can grill and I could have rotisseried a chicken for you with what turned out to be an excellent Creole rub, taken from the Barbecue Bible:

3 tbs Paprika
2 tbs Salt
1 tbs Garlic Powder
1 tbs Onion Powder
1 tbs Black Pepper
1 tbs Cayenne Pepper
1 tbs Dried Oregano
1 tbs Thyme

I only used half the pepper called for and substituted white pepper for the black (which the wife doesn't really like). It could have been a tad bit hotter for my taste, but the wife, Ms Thing and the grandmonster all liked it. I think the M-I-L liked it too, but if I asked her, she won't remember. Oh well. One thing I was tempted to add was a tbs of ground cumin. Any way...

Try it. Then go buy the book.

Happy Independence Day

Wow. The first of five days off for me. It's going to be a busy one too.

We moved into this house five years ago; it's probably the nicest house we'll ever have. Lots of room; too much room; enough room to allow Ms Thing and the grandmonster to live here along with me and the wife and her mom. Ahhh, but it does have a second story deck with a beautiful view: Downtown Seattle, Mt Ranier, the Olympic Mountains, and best of all the 4th of July and New Years Eve fireworks. We can't see all of them but we can see two, sometimes three display and best of all: No fussing with crowds! The wife hates crowds. We discovered this when we had a housewarming party on the 4th back in 2002, and have done a 4th party every year since.

For the most part my social life with my wife could be called, "The Ex-files." Seems like most all of our social contacts have something to do with her ex. Their kids, his new wife and her kids, his new wife's kids' families... you get the picture. Dale's one of these; What the fuck are you, Dale? In proper relative terms I mean? It's OK, since I actually like most of them, but it got a bit old, and over time we've launched out, and get this: We began inviting neighbors over. This year actually will feature one of Ms Thing's friends from her recovery groups (another subject), a couple who are friends of she and her brother and a co-worker of mine; we're reeeeeally getting out there. So what to do..?

Well first off I have to tire out the dog at the off-leash park, so she doesn't drive everyone crazy. She Loves to swim, but won't fetch a good tennis ball; it has to have some cuts and holes in it; it's best if it sinks to the bottom and she has to dive for it. Next I have to get going on my cooking. A short history:

Back in about 2003, the wife made what I thought was a STUPID investment: She was craving a grilled steak and bought a gas grill. "OK. So we have a couple of $100 steaks and then watch it rust. Smooth move Ms Ex-Lax." Who'd a thunk it: I fell in love with grilling. First it was just your standard fare of burgers and steaks; then the beer can chicken; then a beer can turkey; then for Christmas, our next-door neighbor and best friend bought me a rotisserie; and just after my last birthday I bought what I hoped would be my dream grill: A 4-burner, 100% stainless steel jobbie. Coulda got a better one at Costco though; one with a rotisserie burner in the back, for $50 less; guys are never satisfied. Lots more grill surface and lots more head room. Add to all that, several cook books, and web links supplied by my neighbor -- who's one excellent cook herself -- and you have the monster I am today. I'm no pro; I can still ruin a meal with the best of 'em, but I've fallen in love with the whole process, experimenting with rubs and marinades and sauces and techniques... So for today's menu:

Pork spare ribs and chicken tenders. Two racks of the ribs will first sit with a rub consisting of some brown sugar, powdered mustard, paprika, garlic powder and onion powder. The recipe calls for some black pepper, but I'm going to skip that since the sauce I'll use -- after about one hr on the grill -- is a sweet sauce with maple syrup, ketchup, bourbon, oil Dijon mustard and cider vinegar. A third rack of ribs, for our booze-paranoid guests, will be a bit more traditional with an off-the-shelf sauce.

For the chicken, I'll use an Asian, sweet and garlicky sauce/marinade. The recipe was written up for pork chiops and I've used it before for both chops and a rotisseried loin, so today will be a first for me. I'll mixed up some brown sugar, fish (or soy) sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, grated ginger, salt and pepper and the ever present garlic (can never have too much garlic for my taste), put it an a bag with the chicken and let it stew for a few hours. The plan is to do the chicken -- which shouldn't take too long -- after the ribs, while everyone chows down and oooos and ahhhhs.

If anyone wants either recipe, drop me a note or comment, and I can either email it, or post it here for everyone. In other news of the day:

Today the wife and I plan to declare our independence from cancer sticks. The other day at Firestarter, Kimmy K mentioned a drug called Chantix. The wife's doc recommended it, my doc recommended it, my pharmacist spoke well of it... every seems to speak well of it. It's supposed to me MUCH more affective that any of the nicotine stuff out there. I've been a 1 1/2 to 2 pack a day guy for about 25 years now. I've tried cold-turkey before, but haven't lasted 24 hours -- even though I quit for 8 1/2 yrs in my twenties. Hopefully this stuff is all it's cracked up to be. You'll hear about it either way. Lots of recovery type stuff going on around here.

It's also been a month since I've had any booze other than weekend Irish Cream in my coffee. Not sure if I'll drink anything more than that today. My brother-in-law -- not at all affectionately known as "The Republican" -- will be here and the last time he was here socially, I drank more and more, and went further and further off with everything he said. The problem is, if I'm sober, I might just be physically able to throw him off my deck. All I can do if I'm plastered is be loud and crude. This guy comes up with such gems of wisdom as, "Why's everyone complaining? The economy's better than it's ever been," and "You know, people without health insurance heal faster." He's so frickin brillyunt. The wife's biggest job today will be to keep us separated. God help us all if she fails.

So there you have it. What's on your agenda?