:: Ray's Periodic Rantings ::

:: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 ::

Food Porn

As a big fan of cooking shows in general, and an admirer of beautiful women, I have long been intrigued by Nigella Lawson, but I hadn't actually seen much of this British culinary babe until her series Nigella Feasts came to FoodTV.

Having now enjoyed several episodes of this show, I am no less infatuated with Nigella than ever, but at the same time, I frequently find myself laughing out loud at the over-the-top sensuality she brings to it. She seems to spend equal amounts of time flirting with the food and the camera, with frequent sideways glances and licking of fingers. Verbally, her staff must have worn out several copies of Roget's Thesaurus, as she constantly spouts phrases containing words not usually associated with food, such as, "idiotically vibrant pea puree," or "beat up the eggs, and you've got a glorious yellow puddle."

I have only one argument with the food she cooks. The dishes are simple and wonderful, yet they are all heart-stoppers, featuring large amounts of eggs, butter, cheese, double cream (a British dairy product which contains 48% fat as opposed to our heavy whipping cream with a mere 36%), and of course, bacon. This is also not cheap food to make. One could spend a small fortune in chocolate alone attempting to reproduce some of Nigella's desserts ("look at this ravishing pool of chocolate...it's quite mesmeric.")

Only Nigella can suggestively cut bacon with scissors over a hot pan. She makes Rachael Ray look like a hick tart. And though the food may shorten my life by a year or two, I will continue watching, cooking, and eating, at least once in a while, because I would rather enjoy my time here than deprive myself in an attempt to live a bit longer.

Speaking of food, I wanted to do a post mortem on my Thanksgiving efforts. Once again, I had planned to smoke a free range turkey from Liberty Family Farm on the Weber, along with mashed potatoes, gravy, brussels sprouts, and delicata squash with lime butter.

Although I followed the same grill procedure as in previous years, we had unusually warm weather in Chicago on Thanksgiving, which I believe caused my grill to be much warmer inside than before. As a result, I overcooked the turkey. Not tragically so, and the brining helped keep the meat from being overly dry, but I was dissappointed. Still, it had fantastic flavor, and the gravy from the nearly grease-free drippings was wonderfully smoky...wow!

I had wavered about whether to use bacon in the brussels sprouts or not. At the last minute, I went ahead and did it. Everyone else liked it, but I thought it was too salty, and the bacon's smokiness became too much on the plate along with the turkey and gravy. Next time I will stick with just olive oil and almond slivers.

Finally, I had mixed results with the delicata. Again, I baked them and served them (with gracious assistance from Carolyn) with a lime butter with a bit of chili powder in it. Everyone else liked them but me. You see, delicata is supposed to have skin tender enough to be edible, not requiring peeling. I still think the skin is a bit tough and flavorless, however, but when served as a baked half (the way I did), it is difficult to separate the flesh from it. I have more of them in the larder, and another guest to serve them to next weekend, so I will have to do a bit more research, while I help myself to yet another slice of the perfect pumpkin pie made by Carolyn.

Which reminds me, at her suggestion I tried adding a splash of maple syrup to the cream before whipping, which gave it rich flavor with a hint of sweetness...just right. That idea is a keeper!
:: Ray 1:19 AM [+] ::
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Reaffirmation from the New York Times

Greg Giroux on Dan Seals from 11/17:

Most valiant effort: Democrat Dan Seals of Illinois' 10th District. It was a tall order for corporate marketing director Seals, little known when the campaign began, to take on Republican Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, a popular GOP moderate seeking a fourth term in the politically competitive 10th District anchored in suburbs north of Chicago. But Seals took a respectable 47 percent of the vote to Kirk's 53 percent, suggesting potential for a bright future in politics if he so chooses.

It's nice to know our efforts were noticed.

The most interesting twist I have heard on rumors that Mark Kirk might run for senate in 2008 instead of trying to retain the 10th district congressional seat is that he would have more of a future in politics if he lost to powerhouse Dick Durbin than if he lost to relative newcomer Dan Seals.

Go Dan!
:: Ray 10:11 PM [+] ::
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I like Mike

Well, I like his Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives, anyway.
:: Ray 4:31 PM [+] ::
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A Day Later

To paraphrase an email read on the BBC hour on public radio today, "To the rest of the world, the curtain has begun to close on the nightmare, yours and ours, of the Bush presidency."

I would like to think I did my part in IL-10 yesterday. As team coordinator for 9 precincts in my township, I monitored, cajoled, consoled, and took care of a score of volunteers who were pollwatching, knocking on doors, and making phone calls. I put a good 70 miles on my car, never leaving an area of about three square miles filled with suburban subdivisions. I did battle with an overzealous village employee, who had been told to remove ALL campaign signs from the parkway, enforcing a village ordinance, but violating federal election law. After following this guy around, rescuing my signs, and replacing them when the situation was resolved, I had to argue with one of the opponent's people, who accused me of the mass removal, based on the evidence that only my candidate's signs were up. And I managed to call in most of the numbers I was responsible for collecting, relatively on time. The day was fun, but exhausting, as I was on the go from 5am to after 9pm, and didn't get to bed until after midnight.

I am sad that we lost our race. Dan Seals took about 47% of the vote to Mark Kirk's 53%. It was a good showing in a district that has been solidly Republican for a long time, and it gives me glee to have heard from someone that knew a Kirk staffer that he was really scared. We were outspent by about 3 to 1. For an unknown challenger, Seals raised an impressive million bucks on his own. It annoys me that Rahm Emmanuel and his DCCC parachuted Tammy Duckworth into neighboring IL-6 and heavily financed her, when in our district we could have won with that money.

Some friends of mine, seeing my relatively political awareness and activism, tell me that I should run for office. I disagree. I enjoy aspects of campaigning, but I would make a lousy candidate. I am terrible at canvassing, which entails face to face persuasive conversation with strangers, and I am not good at compromise. You see, I have little but comtempt for the people that voted for Mark Kirk yesterday, and I am not very good at hiding it.

Kirk voters, thinking that they are "Republicans," are either uneducated or stupid. Despite the way he describes himself as a moderate independent, Kirk is firmly aligned with the failed Bush administration. He has voted for absurd tax cuts for the wealthy, massive budget deficits, reckless military adventurism, unconstitutional intervention in the affairs of the family of a dead woman. He has voted against the establishment of a Truman-style committee to investigate the rampant, obscene war profiteering that is occuring in Iraq. What could possibly motivate such a vote? Is he in favor of corporations raping and pillaging the treasury, our tax dollars? Kirk voters voted to have their pockets and yours and mine picked by Bechtel, Halliburton and the like!

As for Mark's "independent" claim, in what world is the Assistant Majority Whip, whose job is to help make certain that fellow Republicans vote the party line, considered independent? Far from it, Mark Kirk is party hack who has not yet opposed any of the failed Bush administration policies.

I would like to have someone I am proud of representing me in Congress, but for at least another two years, I will have to live with someone who only makes me sigh and scowl.
:: Ray 11:42 PM [+] ::
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