Let's Cook

One thing I really enjoy, is cooking. Not to be confused with *baking* - that's a completely different animal that I don't seem to have acquired a knack for yet. Although if I had a new mixer/blender thing... hmmm...

Where were we? Cooking! Right... Since I write about anything, today I will write about one of my recently-found new-favorite recipes - Roasted Pork Loin w/ Asparagus and Mustard Vinaigrette Sauce. If you like pork loin or asparagus, this might be a winner for you too. I happen to like both, and I count mustard on my short list of "favorite condiments" - so this one is right in my wheelhouse.

Prep on this dish is pretty simple, which is why I like it. Often when I get home, I don't have a ton of time to cook dinner so I like stuff like this that involves hands-free cooking. You can add more flavor to it if time and circumstances allow, but really you can do the basics and get a nice easy meal out of this. Kudos to Real Simple magazine for publishing the recipe!

• Pork Loin ~1.5lbs or so - a bit more if you want leftovers.


• Salt and Pepper - Stolen Salt = More flavor!


• Good quality gin - (Plymouth, Bombay Sapphire)


• 1 bunch of Asparagus (usually about a pound, good for 2 big servings, 3 small)


• 2-3 golf ball sized Shallots - 1 small sweet onion if not available


• Olive Oil


• Tonic Water (Schweppes is my brand)


• Over-safe skillet or pan


• 1 tbsp Coarse-Grained mustard, I like something brown and spicy


• 2tbsp Cider Vinegar


• Highball glass w/Ice

So its pretty simple: Pour an ounce or two of gin (depending on your day) into the highball glass. Add tonic to taste. Set aside. Turn the oven on, to 400... turn the stove on to medium high, put a splash of oil in the pan and the pork loin. Season to taste with salt and pepper... I don't put a ton on, but I think the original called for 1/4 teaspoon which seemed way too little for a 2lb pork loin. Drink a bit of gin as a reward - now we're cooking!

Let the loin cook and brown a little on each side, turn it every 3-4 minutes until the outside is cooked all the way around. WHILE the loin cooks, rinse off the asparagus, and slice the shallots (onion) into small wedges. Lay out the asparagus in a single layer on a cookie sheet - I always line mine with foil for easier cleanup. Now layer the chopped shallots over the top... then sprinkle with Salt and Pepper to taste.

By now the loin has likely cooked all around, it usually takes me about 10 minutes to prep the asparagus. Take another swallow of the G&T, then take the entire pan, and stick it in the oven - Set timer for 20 minutes...

At this point, I usually do 2 things. Drink more gin, and change out of my work clothes into something comfy like jeans or sweats. I suppose I could clean up the kitchen a little, but then the Life Partner wouldnt have much to do when she gets home. By the time I return, the timer is down to around ~8 mins and its time to put in the asparagus! Drizzle the asparagus with the olive oil, using a couple tablespoons... My tool of choice here is an oil sprayer I got for Christmas. Once its been drizzled (Not jizzled - that's what Pawl does) slide it into the oven. Didn't burn yourself? Celebrate with another swig of gin! Note how much time is left on the timer, too.

While the last of the timer counts down, mix the Cider Vinegar, the Mustard, and 1/3 cup Olive Oil together to make the sauce. A whisk works awesome for this - you need to aerate the oil to get a good mix, and a spoon won't cut it. Just takes ~90 seconds of whisking, and your sauce = done. Did the timer go off yet? No? Well then we should take another sip...

Ding! Timer! Your pork roast should be about done - you can get fancy and check it with a thermometer if you want. Now reset your timer to 15 minus when you put in the asparagus.... hopefully something around 10 minutes or so. The pork needs to "rest" for at least 5 minutes before slicing... I don't remember why, but all the good cooking books say to do it. Maybe its for the cook to rest? I prefer to drink while I rest... your call though.

Once the timer is down 5 mins, I start slicing the pork and plating it. (That's a fancy cook term I learned watching Iron Chef) By the time I get a couple plates cut, the timer goes off, and I add a pile of asparagus and shallots to the plate. To top it off I drizzle (again, NOT jizzle) the Mustard Sauce over the meat and veggies... and viola!

I like to serve it with a crusty bread on the side (as you can hopefully see in my picture) that I dip in olive oil on the side. Pork, Asparagus, Bread. Ready in 35-40 minutes, and really pretty easy...

Some customization ideas: If you plan ahead, you can also marinate the loin the night before, giving it some added flavor. I have used Teriyaki and a Garlic/Balsamic Vinegar mix before. And the Asparagus can take some added flavor too if you like - squirt some lemon juice on there in the last 5 minutes of cook time, or add garlic cloves to the shallots at the start. Roasted Garlic? Mmmmm... I better go eat now.

Its Friday...!

I rebuilt my PC yesterday. The results? Wow. I'm not half-bad at this computer thing... haha!

Ok seriously - from looking into it a little further, my machine had been running on the same installation of the OS for FOUR YEARS! I had files stacked upon files upon files, all over the drive. I had 62GB worth of games - many of which I haven't played in 3+ years, some of them I thought I had uninstalled(!) previously. What made me do it? Just a general feeling that it was time and a few specific things...

Stuff like trying to open "My Computer" and it sits there for ~30 seconds before it actually OPENS the window. Bizarre things like, opening a Word document, and waiting a minute before stuff appears on screen. It still played games Ok, mostly, from what I could tell... most of my gaming is done on my laptop these days so I can't say for sure.

Past experience has taught me that regular rebuilds of Windows are a GOOD thing, for system health and sanity. Imagine your operating system as say... the hull of a ship. When you plop it into the water for the first time everything is (usually) pretty tight. But then ... there are some "patches" released, for holes you didn't notice before. Then a few more patches... then a Service Pack.... maybe the odd "tool" that they "recommend" you have. Ohh and hell - why not a full blown browser overhaul! Fast forward, and you can barely see the original "hull" with all the shit plastered over it! And face it - the patch jobs are never as stable as the original...

SO with this in mind, I rolled out a fresh XP Pro install yesterday, which ended up taking most of the day. Did a complete re-format, reloaded the OS, and by last night I had all the basics back on there. Only had time to install a couple things - Office 2007 and RACE 07 (new driving game) - but files opened instantly, and the gameplay was smooth as butter... noticeable improvement!

I guess the moral of the story is... rebuild your box every now and then, if you want to keep it running in top shape. Its not terribly hard if you prep yourself before hand. A quick and dirty prep list:

• Gather CDs for everything you want to reinstall. The OS, Office, Anti-Virus, etc
• Pull all of your data together on the drive, to make sure you have all of your stuff. Then backup the data to another machine or external drive.
• Open the Device Manager, and document all of the critical hardware make/model information: video card, ethernet/network card(s), and motherboard chipset are the Big 3.
• I prefer to download the latest drivers for all my stuff - and do it BEFORE the wipe! That way you install only the freshest drivers from the start - as opposed to reloading old versions, then patching to the newest.
• Finally, before pressing "L" ... let someone you trust, or another user of your computer (Life Partner) look it over before you go. Never hurts to check twice!

There are probably some further explanations and comments I could make on those steps but I have reached my lunch-time! A Jimmy John's sub and cold medication awaits....

Sick = Sucks

I hate getting sick. It happens like clockwork every spring though, when the first really warm day hits. I've been told its a mold allergy - when the dead shit that was frozen all winter thaws and rots - I get hit. Sinus pressure, nasty drainage... its a rotten week ahead for me. I sound like I have been smoking for 15 years right now. Wonderful.

Anyways, tax season is almost over - a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, The Life Partner will be around again, for more than evening meals and 20 minutes of conversation. On the down side, The Life Partner will be around.... hahah! It just means an end to my pseudo-bachelor status. Less Wii and PC, more "doing stuff" and TV. Hmmm...

The last 2 years, she has literally gone and lived elsewhere for days at a time, to be closer to work. It was a nice break, and I didn't get to see all of what goes into her seasonal grind. This year I got to see it all.... I think we came out OK.

And as it happens, the Subie is coming out of its almost-5-month marathon session at the repair shop on the 15th - same day tax season ends. Talk about painful. I wasn't going to drive it this winter anyways... but its costing BIG coin to fix/upgrade/maintain, which isn't too fun. Still, it should be worth it to get it back. The motor is essentially refreshed, lots of new internals. New hoses, new clutch, new turbo... its going to be wicked fast!

Have to go now though - need to finish up at work so I can go spend my week-night with the Kids. Think we'll go to BW3 for dinner tonight... they dig it, and its Kid's night so there is free ice cream involved. Wooo Hoo!

Lata....

Right, Ok then.

Since this space is basically dead, I'm posting here. Its a writing exercise. If that's not OK just let me know, Librarian Lord Randy.

Sometimes, I daydream.

Sometimes it involves a vaguely-Asian, slightly built housekeeper in a french maid outfit, and.... well never mind those. Other times, mostly while sitting amidst traffic calamities, I daydream about posting driving aids along the freeway. I fully admit - I am probably in the minority when I see this as a "problem" since most people tend to blunder along from point A to B without thinking about it.

But I'm starting to think Steve Jackson was on to something, putting guns on cars 20+ years ago. I have to believe it would cut down on the number of lunatics out there. And hey - I'd compromise, say maybe just legalize paint-rounds or something else non-lethal. But damn... some people out there need a shot.

I drive with a few basic concepts in mind, that you could easily put on signs: Don't get in anyone else's way. Don't make other people crash. Drive in the lane you belong in.

Its a pretty simple set of concepts, I think. If I am pulling out into a road, I look to see who is coming like anyone does - and then I think about what *I* am driving. Is it my POS Cavalier? I better have a wide cushion there. Is it my Land-Rocket Subaru? I'll be doing 50 before they could finish calling me a motherfucker, and there will still be 40 feet between us. If I make someone hit the brakes to accommodate me, I fucked up.

On the freeway, I drive as fast as traffic allows. I don't expect to do 80 on the morning commute, and I drive accordingly. I always get a chuckle out of the guy who is weaving like mad in the morning - only to end up 3 cars ahead of me, on the off-ramp. Whats the point, at times like that? If you're in a real hurry - just use the damn shoulder and be done with it. On a related point: why are you driving like a madman in a goddamn MINIVAN?! That thing is a roll-over waiting to happen, you don't need to do 90mph and make it that much more likely... People need to think about what they are driving!

When traffic is lighter, off-hours and weekends, I go a bit faster. If I'm in the left lane, where I belong, why not get out of my way? I do it for others, especially driving the Cavalier that tops out at ~75mph... just looking for some reciprocity out there! If your exit is coming up, say within a mile, GET OVER! Waiting until the ramp is in sight, to try your 3-lane-change is just fucking STUPID. I'm willing to give some people the benefit - maybe they were zoned out there - but when its Captain Swerves-Alot that ends up doing it... well, I find myself reaching for the trigger on my non-existent Anti-Tank Gun. People should pay more attention to where they are at on the road, not just where the road is taking them.

I think its pretty simple, really. Which might be why so few people "get it" - people try to make driving seem like such a hard complicated thing. I can accept that most people don't CARE enough to learn the rules of the road, but I did mention I like to daydream, right....?

Ahhh well, back to my Asian housekeeper fantasy....

So there I was, on the internets... when I came across this story. Sort of reminded me of Dave's Singularity blurb that he shared a while back, and since I know the readers of this blog (all 10 of us) like neat, geeky ideas...

Time Travel May Be Possible...!

Check it out, as they say.

Top Ten Vampire Books

In no particular order, these are my favorite vampire books. I have a real love of the vampire story but I prefer the ones that break out of the mold. What are your faves?

1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley *Recipe for tasty vamp yarn*Place in plot one young Minnesota girl working hard for the money, fold in turf war, vampire kidnappers, charming vampire lord and romantic involvement. Allow to slowly rise. Sprinkle with sardonic wit and a post voodoo war US and bake at 416 pages. This is a clever vamp romance with cinnamon buns what could be tastier.
2. Agyar by Steven Brust - Steven Brust has always written lovely rich characters. He has a penchant for biting humor, noir dialog and twisting traditional genres. Who better than to write The Spy Who Came in from the Cold for the neck biting set. Agyar is an old vampire with old enemies. He is tired after generations of cruelty and horror. He just wants to settle down somewhere and live a quiet life. Saddly, for him but not the reader, this is not to be.
3. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - Using vampire as the definition of monster, Mr. Matheson crafts a post apocalypse story unlike any other. Blending equal parts horror, thriller and survival tale with a strong dose of science fiction, he creates not only a ripping tale but a calculated examination of what it means to be a monster.
   
4. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice - Lestat, a bi-sexual eighteenth century French rogue with the morals of a rutting cat, tells what is like to be a vampire from his own charming ego centric point of view. This is a vamp tale with none of the Bram Stoker posturing just a happy serial killer trying to find love in the world. This book and the next virtually started the Romantic Goth movement and paved the way for Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
5. Interview with the Vampire: Anniversary edition (The vampire chronicles) by Anne Rice - This is the Lestat tale from the other side. Though it was written and published before Lestat it feels like its sequel. It is darker, moodier and yes, a good deal more frightening. If Bram Stoker had ever written a sequel to Dracula, after getting drunk on Faulkner and Dashiel Hammet, with a vampiric John Harker as the protagonist, it might sound a lot like this.
6. The Blood Books, Vol. 1 (Blood Price / Blood Trail) by Tanya Huff - It is practically its own genre now, the street savvy detective yarn with the occult oriented protagonist and this is one of the best of the breed. Take one tough street smart lady cop with a fouled up love life add a true prick of a sixteenth century English lord vampire (with a penchant for little boys no less) and you have the makings of one of the best buddy cop teams ever. It is a classic clash of cultures between these two, funny, clever and with just enough pathos. Oh, and the mysteries are good too!
   
7. Sunglasses After Dark (Borealis) by Nancy A. Collins and Thom Ang - If your a vampire and you want to push the envelope don't hunt humans hunt the other vamps. This is a no holds barred dark vampire thriller, in fact a series of them, that places the vampire mythos where it belongs far from mansions, money and the elite and down in the grime and grit, graft, lowlifes and murder. This eighties look at the world is nicely vicious and cool.
8. The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen - The classic meeting between the Great Detective and the original Prince of Darkenes. Move over Moriarity this is the real test of Holmes' intellect.
9. Twilight (Twilight, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer - It's a natural. There is nothing more teen angst than a vampire romance. Don't think I am knocking it, far from it, if you have to talk about teenage love, use a metaphor, and there is no better one than a romantic encounter with the undead. Twilight just might be the best of its breed here. A somewhat naive, though smart and well read, high school girl, must move in with her dad who lives in the middle of nowhere. There she deals with being an outsider, cut off and unhappy. Unhappy, that is, until she meets Edward. He is one of the most beautiful boys in school but because of a dark secret he is also alone. They immediately bond, beginning a wonderful and tragic love story. Really good read here, I highly recommend it.
   
10. 30 Days of Night Hardcover (30 Days of Night) by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith - It had to happen some day. Those poor vamps condemned to only hunt and kill at night, a measly few hours of darkness, hardly enough time to wet your appetite, let alone, slake an undead thirst. Finally, somebody somewhere, points out the Arctic Circle. A place where it is night for a month or more at a time. And what's more, it is dotted with these little, lonely, out-of-the-way towns just begging to be rampaged by a horde of fierce, ravening killers. This is a true piece of horror fiction, graphic, wicked and savagely vile and best of all it is a graphic novel lavishly illustrated by a master. One of the best.

Top Ten Teen SciFi for the HS Set

SciFi is a difficult subject for a lot of teachers and librarians I find. It is rarely their favorite genre. So here are ten great reads that no student should leave high school without reading, in no particular order.

1. Ringworld by Larry Niven - Eons ago, a race, long gone, utilized the entire material of their solar system to create a habitable ring surrounding its star. The ring is populated with uncounted races and cultures and is many, many times the size of Earth. Louis Woo and his companions have discovered it and intend to exploit it and make their fortune. These would be Conquistadors have definitely bitten off more than they can chew.
   
2. Peeps by Scott Westerfeld - Did you ever wonder about vampires? Legends of blood suckers that walk the night abound in almost every culture of the world. How could they exist? Why would they exist? And if they did exist, why does everyone think they don't? Scott Westerfeld uses Science Fiction to tell a phenomenal adventure story that rings so true you may go to sleep clutching garlic after you've read it.
3. Neuromancer by William Gibson - This is the absolutely frigid cool story of a terrifying future. A future when humanity is clicked into a cyber-spacial world where business is transacted by multi-national countries who pull the strings while nations dance. A future filled with people all but living online. This absolutely killer thriller tells a tale of a time not so far from our own and is a must read.
4. Sagramanda by Alan Dean Forester - India is one of the most populous countries on the globe. It's civilization is eons old. Now it is rapidly becoming the source of high tech labor for the West. What happens when fabulous new wealth, an ancient culture, unimaginable overcrowding and high technology meet? A police detective, a shop owner, a technology embezzler, a hired assassin, a father, a serial killer and a tiger are about to all find out in a town called Sagramanda.
5. World War Z an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks - This is one of the finest pieces of Science Fiction written in the last few years. What would happen if the world were overrun by zombies? How would civilization cope? Could it cope? In a brilliant novel written as a series of interviews with supposed survivors of the war, Max Brooks ask a question that should be on every American's mind. Can we prepare for real disaster?
6. The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven - A true classic of interstellar empire fiction, The Mote in God's Eye takes an all powerful stellar empire and runs it straight into a truly alien race. This is a war story of the finest sort and at times a mind bending examination of what we are willing to do to protect the status quo.
7. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - This is arguably the best post apocalypse story ever written. The story pits a single man against a society of night dwelling horrors that live on a diet of blood. It is a story of vampires, survival and horror. It is also a terrific examination of what constitutes a true monster.
8. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov - What is the nature of slavery? What constitutes intelligence? How do we decide if something is a living sentient being? The three laws of robotics are probably the greatest creation of that most prolific of writers Isaac Asimov. I, Robot allows Asimov to once more to twist those three laws and apply them in a classic defense of what constitutes sentience.
9. The Time Machine by Herbert George Wells - Now more than one hundred years old, H. G. Wells masterpiece defines time travel stories and its trappings have suffused our zeitgeist. We fear a future filled with beautiful morons hunted by dark technologists who live underground. This beautiful Victorian tale of a scientist who travels both to the extreme future and the extreme past is haunting in its simplicity and far too familiar today.
10. Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - The story that became the movie Blade Runner is a noir thriller of the best variety. A bounty hunter attempts to hunt down and "retire" a group of dangerous androids. This simple story holds a magnifying glass over what makes people become enemies of the state.