Thursday, May 29, 2008

My Name Is Michael. I'm a Cullinary Lush.

Admittance is the first step to recovery, right? What if I don't want to recover? What if I want to wallow around in it and let it progress to the point that I can never, ever, in a million years get better? It seems that I no longer have the ability to do your basic mac-n-cheese. When I cook, I get cooky. For instance, on New Year's Eve, I knocked myself out with this feast:

PC311551

I don't appear to have any pics of the veggies, but they were there as well. Here you can see the grilled shrimp:

PC311549

...the yellowfin, sashimi and seared:

PC311548

...and my crowning achievement; the grilled calamari, drizzled with my home-made wasabi mayonaise:

PC311547

Good lawdy, that was good! Of course, it was all served with plenty of rice, and sauteed snow peas and Thai eggplant. I typically hate eggplant. It's always that gorgeous shade of purple and smells wonderful, but I have an aversion to smooshy vegetables. The Thai variety is green and crunchy. It sautees very nicely and stays crisp like vegetables should. This is my style of cooking. My dishes like to make a splash. I don't feel I have made my point unless there is a room full of people silently eating, taking seconds, analyzing each bite, and cleaning out whatever it is that I've prepared. It's like painting or sculpting. There you have it.

This evening, I decided to grill hot dogs. Yes. Nice, simple hot dogs. Hmm. I started with whole wheat buns and 1/4-lb all-beef franks. Add a little Maille stone ground mustard...

P5291971

Yes, folks. That is a slice of bacon on my hot dog. I'm hopeless. I may as well commit myself. At least I'll die fat and happy...

The Moral Line in the Sand

I just read this. Go ahead and read it, as it is short and sweet. The thing that this issue says to me is that there are no boundaries. I could compare homosexuality and the toleration of it to pedophilia. What if someone made a stand for illustrated child pornography? It doesn't hurt anyone, does it? There were no victims if there were no models for the artwork. But, the argument against it is that it hurts society as a whole. It is a perversion, pure and simple, and is not socially-acceptable enough to deny as a perversion - unlike homosexuality, or promiscuity for that matter! I would like to see more people break it down like I have done above to really put the perspective on where we as a society have drawn the lines, versus where they should be. The inconsistencies will bely the social boundaries through such arguments. I have more thoughts on this that I will have to get into later.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

A few days ago, my wife brought this to my attention. I think it's interesting that I have been seeing the start of a grassroots movement toward old-fashioned, traditional values. I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy, and have been sickened by modern society for some time. I feel that the above link ties in nicely with my Truck Nuts Entry. For that matter, it ties in well with several of my entries. I'm getting so sick and tired of people with the victim complex, trying to assert their "rights." If people would stop and evaluate whether what they perceive as their rights infringe on anyone else's rights, many of the world's problems would simply vanish. If I feel like I have a right to a bigger, nicer car, but realize that you worked hard and paid for your car, and have a right to keep it, I'm not going to steal it from you. Similarly, if I feel that I have the right to do whatever I want to my body, but understand that the baby growing inside me has his or her own rights, I might think twice about killing him or her. Ouch. I went there. Fortunately, I don't stand much chance of ever personally being in that position, due to the fact that I'm a man. --not an altered woman on Oprah at that!

But, I'll now get back to my point. I hold doors for women. Heck, I hold doors for other men. My Bible says to love my neighbor as myself, but treat others as if they are better than me. This is not to say that everyone is to have an inferiority complex, quite the contrary. If I am nice to you, and feel that you have been such a great friend to me that I can never repay your kindness, and you feel the same towards me, nothing will come between us. Plus, my God has given me a responsibility to be His light in this world. I'm not always successful, but I do try.

I treat my wife with respect. I may give her a hard time every now and then, but it's always in good fun and full of love. I don't believe that I am better than her, but I do know that I am stronger, and that it is one of my life's duties to take care of her and keep her safe. It is also one of my life's duties to instill these values into my son, so he can grow up to be a man and not a criminal. He is well on his way to becoming a good man (Thank you, God!).

I'm risking some feminist flames here, but in our household when we make decisions, I get a slightly heavier vote than Jenni. This is not because I'm better, wiser, or more intelligent. This is because someone has to be assigned as the tie-breaker. To date, I have not "put my foot down" on any issue. On the rare occasion that there has ever been a disagreement between Jenni and me, we have talked our way through it and come up with a compromise. Indeed, the head-of-household vote is not something that I take lightly, but we have assigned it for the worst-case-scenario impasse where we must make a decision, and simply cannot agree on what that should be.

I don't know why society is the way it is now. People in general don't believe in personal responsibility, gender roles, or the rights of others; and yet they do believe everything that they see on T. V. It makes me sick. I believe though, that we are on the cusp of a revolution - for the better or for the worse. I would personally like to think that it will be for the better, that in the end people will come out thinking analytically and taking responsibility for their bad decisions without beating themselves up over it. Then, there will be men in our society again.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

New Drink...

rose petal extacy

Recipe:

2) Large martini glasses
1) Large rose in full blossom
1) cc-agave nectar (check Target or natural food stores)
High-quality whiskey, gin, or vodka

De-petal rose. Rinse petals and put two aside, the rest in a shaker. Measure into shaker one and a half martini glasses full of bourbon or other type of whiskey. Don't go with the extremely smoky, peaty, or woody stuff. Delicate flavors work best here. If it comes in a plastic bottle, don't do it. Fill shaker 1/2-full of ice cubes. Pour in no more than 1-cc of raw agave nectar. Raw honey would make the appropriate flavor, but does not dissolve as nicely in cold liquid. It should pull the bitter out of the taste, but should not make this a sweet drink. Cap shaker and shake. Once rose petals are well macerated, and the liquor is ice cold, pour into martini glasses. Garnish each glass with one of the remaining petals.

This is like drinking liquid Victoria's Secret. It is so worth the experience. If you don't have the guts to do it in public, do it in private and don't tell anybody. OMG!!! Good stuff!