Text 18668, 144 rader
Skriven 2008-12-28 07:45:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE SACERDOTE
Ärende: weird relations 2 443
=============================
 ML> I haven't been to Maryland yet, 

Now I have.

 DS> Jonathan went around the house giftwrapping various extant
 DS> knicknacks and scrawling your name on the wrappers with
 DS> Sharpie.

That's the sort of thing Carol might have done, only there would
have been a certain charm in that. My brother, unfortunately,
doesn't have the slightest touch of impishness, and if he did,
he'd suppress it as something coming straight from TOP.

 DS> But you weren't home so he put on a Santa hat, opened 
 DS> them all delightedly, and put them all back.

Nah, unlikely. It's a little cruel to pile up on the poor soul,
as, as my friend Bill's boyfriend Paul keeps reminding me, it's
not his fault, he can't help it. But he doesn't have enough
humor to wear a Santa hat. And anyhow I've instilled in him the
virtues of recycling, and if any such thing had happened, I'd
have found wrapping paper in the bags kept out for the purpose.

What actually happened.

We were supposed to meet at 9 and then go out to dinner. But
good ol' United delayed its flight 2 hours, so that scotched
that plan, so I called Jonathan with the revised flight times
and went out for my charburger as described previously.

In fact, he showed up! at the right airport! at the revised
right time (11 pm, originally 9 pm)! and drove me back to
Bethesda in spooky silence. Toward the end I suggested to him
that we take a walk at Great Falls before the Xmas Sunday dinner
at the Washington Fishers', also known as the Rich Fishers, and
to be known as the Unfortunate Fishers. (As dinner is at 5, I
suggested we go out there at 3 or 4.) When we got to the house,
Jonathan looked up the weather and discovered that before noon
the chance of rain was to be 10%, and after 3, it was to be 30%.
So he suggested he go to church early, and we do an early walk.
I pointed out that (unless we went back to the house or did
other things in the interim) that would leave a big time span
before we could go to our party, and the great thing about this
park is that it's about 10 minutes from the Fishers' place, which
makes things logistically quite fine. So this morning he went crash
clatter all over before going to church, then came back at 9:30
banging things around, and since then has been beating up on
the pots and pans making pseudocooking noises. He wants me to
get up and, insofar as I'm up, let's do the hike thing early
so he doesn't melt (it's 60F). I put up with passive aggressivity
only so long, and then, as you know, I'm out of there. In this
case, I just don't want to reward the behavior so will not
pay any attention to it. If he just came and said, let's go for
our walk before lunch, I would probably say yes, but I will not
comply if he tries to get his way this way.

No gift for me, but then I asked him not to give me one. I'll
gladly give him a one-way ticket to anywhere in the world for
Christmas. Or even a round-trip one, though that's not so much
fun. Actually, I was planning to take him to Vegas or someplace
for a couple days, but [big news] he apparently has a job that
starts on 12/30. So I'll think of something. Maybe Morton's
tomorrow night?

=
 DS> Your Christmas Eve dinner sounded pretty good, though.  Especially
 DS> since you stepped into the chef's role. [g]

I like my cooking. Even among my friends, who are generally
competent in the kitchen and sometimes noteworthy, I still
like my cooking. I admit that some guy in Connecticut has a
particularly fine way with pig products.

 DS> a self-centered prick who only ever brings a single bottle and 
 DS> keeps it to himself, so I couldn't tell you what it was.
 ML> I sort of wish I could have been there.
 DS> Heh.  Yes.

I wonder what would have happened if someone had simply
wrested the bottle from his graspy grasp and said take a
nap while I finish this?

 DS> Just for the record, the BIL in question wasn't Nick, Lori's husband,

Figured.

 DS> because Google crawls the echo archives and he does vanity
 DS> searches.

Would he have the sense to google Sacerdote?

 ML> The Hess isn't bad, a bit too sweet and a bit too oaky . . .
 DS> Checked the labels this morning:  The Hess was a 2005 CabSauv.
 DS> I found it fairly decent, with a fresh cherry nose.  Black cherry, 
 DS> a bit of caramel, and some oak, but rather less than you might have
 DS> expected.  I looked up some reviews online and they mentioned
 DS> cedar and even some licorice notes, but I didn't taste any of that.
 DS> It did cut through the garlic in the roast very well.

I last had Hess Cab about 6 months ago (vintage unrecorded), and
I found it overoaked. I used to like it maybe 15-20 years ago, but
either the formula has changed or I like oak less than I used to.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v7.07

      Title: Kennet Fried Trout
 Categories: Fish
   Servings:  2

      2 sm Trout, (6-8 oz each)
      2    Rashers streaky bacon
      1 tb (heaped) coarse oatmeal
      2 oz Unsalted or clarified butter
      1    Lemon
           A little plain flour
           Salt and pepper

  Rub the skins of the cleaned and dried trout very gently with a good
  grinding of pepper - this makes the rich skin deliciously piquant when
  crisply fried - then dust lightly with flour and salt.  Warm a frying pan
  large enough to take the two fish.  Toast the oatmeal in it, or, for a
  richer dish, fry it.  Remove and reserve.  Cut the bacon into snippets;
  fry gently until the fat runs, then increase heat to crisp the bacon a
  little.  Remove and keep hot.  Dice the butter and add 1-1/2 oz of it to
  the pan.  When the butter foam dies down add the fish.  Press them down
  lightly to ensure they lie very flat, touching the pan base everywhere.
  After 4-5 minutes steady cooking in the bubbling butter, the skin on the
  underside of the fish should be crisp and golden brown.  Turn them
  carefully and fry on the second side in the same way.  Put the cooked fish
  on to warmed plates, scatter the bacon and oatmeal over them and keep hot.

  Wipe out the pan with kitchen paper.  Melt the remaining butter and cook
  to a rich shade of gold.  Quickly add generous 1 teaspoon lemon juice and
  a little salt and pepper.  Swirl to mix well, pour over the trout and
  serve immediately with wedges of lemon.

  Source: Philippa Davenport in "Country Living" (British), June 1987.
  Typed for you by Karen Mintzias

MMMMM

___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)