Palin Again

Too funny, not to share. Worth the 10 minutes.

Sundays with the Globe

On Sundays I like to wake up, go down to Darwins get a couple of coffees and the Globe. I like to then come upstairs, put on NPR and read the paper. Basically I like a whole morning of no computer and no TV. Unfortunately, the radio doesn't turn on anymore. I had bought this great Onkyo T15 analog radio, and now it just doesn't turn on. The question is whether to get it fixed (at least $50) or buy a new one. I really like it but it only cost $100...so I'm torn. Anyway, back to the paper. I don't really read the news sections of it, but I really like the local sections. It does a good job of letting me know what is going on in Boston. There are always good ideas of museums, art shows, concerts etc. This week there was a spot about weird museums. I guess there is a guy in Portland with a museum of Cryptozoology in his house. Heike sounded interested...maybe we'll go.

Two weeks ago the Globe magazine had a great recipe. Cooking with grapes. I don't usually like mixing fruit in with real food, but we had a bunch of grapes around, and I thought we could try it. Since then, we've had it twice. We hardly ever repeat a recipe, so you know it must be good.





In case the link goes away at some point I'm pasting the recipe here:

SAUTEED CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH LEMON, CAPERS, AND GRAPES
SERVES 6

1 large lemon
1/3 cup flour
6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, 6 to 8 ounces each, cut in half horizontally to make 12 thin cutlets
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 large shallot, finely chopped (about 3 tablespoons)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup homemade or packaged low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup (about 6 ounces) green seedless grapes, halved
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Cut the lemon in half crosswise; cut one half into thin slices and squeeze about 2 tablespoons juice from the other half; set the slices and juice aside. Place the flour in a wide, shallow dish (such as a pie plate). Dry cutlets and season each liberally with salt and pepper. Working one at a time, dredge each cutlet in flour, shake off excess, and set on a large wire rack.

In a large, heavy skillet set over medium-high heat, heat 2 teaspoons of oil until it just begins to smoke. Add 4 cutlets to the pan and cook, undisturbed, until bottoms are lightly browned, about 2 1/2 minutes, then turn cutlets over and cook until second sides turn white, about 30 seconds. Transfer cooked cutlets to a plate, tent with foil, and keep warm. Add 2 more teaspoons of oil to the empty pan and repeat process to cook 4 more cutlets; finish with 2 more teaspoons of oil and the remaining 4 cutlets (adjust the burner if the pan drippings darken or burn).

Reduce heat to medium and add remaining 1 teaspoon of oil to pan if it looks dry. Add the shallot and cook, stirring constantly, to soften, about 40 seconds. Add wine and broth, increase heat to high, and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add lemon slices and any accumulated chicken juices and boil vigorously until the consistency is slightly syrupy and the volume is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add lemon juice, grapes, capers, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste, stir to distribute, and simmer until grapes are heated through, about 2 minutes. Off heat, add the butter and stir to incorporate it into the sauce. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary. Add the parsley and stir to distribute, then spoon the sauce over the cutlets, and serve at once.

Homer and Palin

Alex pointed me to his hilarious blog, and I just had to share it.

Homer Simpson vs. Palin

This one is good too. I think Tina Fey delivers the nonsense a little better.


Unfortunately we can't watch the debate tomorrow. We're off to Cirque du Soleil.

Alan on the upcoming debate:
me: Biden is intelligent

Alan: yeah

at least with McCain and Obama its a fight

you have two guys that have their strengths and weaknesses

9:53 PM but their debate was a fair fight

this is going to be like the Boston Red Sox playing the SHaker junior High school baseball team

Busy Week

The week started off with me going to Pittsburgh for NESUG, a SAS conference. Probably not that interesting for non-SAS programmers, but I was asked to present, and here is my paper if you are interested. Motivating Clinical SAS Programmers not the best paper, but it was well received and the presentation itself was fun. Pittsburgh, itself is actually quite nice, small and easily walkable. On the Monday we went to the Pirates Dodgers game (Pirates got killed). But PNC park is worth seeing, and a night at the ballpark is always fun.

I got back to Boston on Wednesday, and Heike had to give a presentation to Forsyth on Thursday. Her presentation went well, and I think everyone was impressed. Someone asked her if she was from Scotland (because of her English), which she took as an insult (if you've ever heard the scots talk you'd understand). It's like when someone asked me if I was Swiss...because of my German.

Friday, we went over to the Zahn's for Inka's book party. Her thesis was published , all 525 pages of it (Jason did the cover, you can check out his stuff here). Quite an accomplishment. As always dinner was delicious and the company was extremely interesting...some Germans, some Algerians, a couple Americans...basically you had no idea what language to speak to anyone there.

Saturday. Started with cleaning the kitchen. Doesn't sound like the best use of a Saturday, but it really needed it. Went through the fridge and threw out everything we hadn't touched in a year. It's amazing how stuff piles up. I had been putting this off for, well, about a year. I always think "Maybe we'll use this sometime" so I never throw anything out. But today it was all "executive" decisions. If I didn't want to look at something anymore...Gone! in the trash.
On to the fun part of the day. Margo turned the big 28 on Wednesday so we went over to their place to celebrate. Great food, good company and a couple of Dos Equis/Margo-ritas at 3 in the afternoon = a good time. We got home around 7, and were looking for a movie. We found something that Frau Schundler was talking about at Cris'. A skiing documentary by Warren Miller. Unbelievable. Awesome soundtrack, incredible skiing and boarding. I've never wanted to move to Steamboat Springs more. Let's start looking for a couple of weekends in the winter where we can go and find some of this powder. Anyone know anywhere good (within driving distance)? Vermont?

Tomorrow, Heike has brunch with the girls at Union Cafe. I'll try to get her to put a review of it up on the blog. Afterwards we're going to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and go for a walk at Crane Estate.

That was a busy week.

Crepes

Hi all,

we have a lot to post now that the summer is winding down. Eventually we will put up some pictures of our trip to Germany, 2nd anniversary, Karina's wedding, and other adventures we've had over the last couple months. But instead of waiting for us to get organized and do them all in order, I think I'll just post something now and then do the rest as the pictures trickle in.

Heike and my new thing is to have breakfast every morning. It worked very well this week, especially with the jet lag. (it's easy to have breakfast in the morning when you wake up wide awake at 6am). I think we'll have more problems as we get over the jet lag, but the idea is to establish the pattern now and hope for the best. On that front, this morning I got up early and made crepes. I just purchased a really cool book (cool if you like to cook) "Jaques Pepin's Complete Techniques." This book goes through, step by step, how to do eveything in the kitchen. He's got recipes along with stuff like "How to truss a chicken 3 different ways." Anyway, I decided to try the crepe recipe that he suggested.

Recipe:
1.5 cups all purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups milk
2/3 stick sweet butter, melted
1/2 cup cold water

Combine everything but half the liquid, whisk, add the rest of the liquid (I forgot the water), whisk until it has the consistency of light syrup, cook like pancakes.

The two interesting tricks here were:
1. Use melted butter in the batter. This way you don't have to grease and regrease the pan. The butter in the batter combined with using a non-stick pan is enough so that nothing sticks. None of the 20 crepes I made stuck at all!
2. To disloge the crepe from the pan, let it cook over medium (8 on my electric stove) heat for 50 seconds, then bang the pan on a dishcloth on the counter. Really hit it, and the crepe will loosen. Then wow your friends by flipping it in the air.

Delicious. Eat them sweet or savory.

More HD beatings

So AC is really on a roll. I think they've won at least the last 4 nights of bridge, and HD is getting pretty sick of it. HD has decided to give up the Shaikh bidding system, and move on to the American Standard (5 card Major) system. HD will need a little time to figure this out, and hopes that AC doesn't mind that we will be using a cheat sheet next time we play. Starting this week Bridge night has moved to Sunday's so that Cris can still play pool all summer. Unfortunately, HD is busy tonight, so no bridge this week. Unless we can reschedule for Wednesday??

Anyway, on to the scores from last week. I really need to figure out some HTML on how to enter these scores in a more readable manner. If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. I would love to have a little interface to enter the "above" and "below" points, then have the lines and such all come out correctly. My "real" programming skills are not this high...SAS programmers aren't real programmers.

Highlights from last week include Cris bidding something ridiculous like 4 NT and making 7, Cris bidding 5 spades and making like 2. This was the most aggravating "stink" bid. HD would have won the rubber except for his stupid bid.

HD | AC
------------
30|30
30|-300
------------
90|--
60|--
------------
70|--
120|--
------------
130|--
------------
------------
90| 90
-200| -400
30|20
------------
70|130
------------
120|--
------------
--|60
--|40
------------
------------
-100|-400
30|-200
20|-400
-50|40
-50|30
--|-500
--|-100
------------
120|--
------------
60|60
--|80
------------
--|60
--|60
------------
------------

Bermuda Pictures

For Memorial day we visited our friend Monbill who lives in Bermuda. I can't believe that there are people who live in Boston or New York who haven't been to Bermuda. From Boston is it a 1.5 hour easy direct flight, and you go from gloomy Boston to Paradise. Bermuda is just awesome; lush greenery, lots of birds (wild chickens), and unbelievable water. When we were there both the air and the water had the same temperature 72. Perfect for a little snorkeling, a little beach time, a little (terrible) beach volleyball, and of course a little Rock Band. You don't need good weather for Rock Band, but after a day on the beach, it is a perfect drink beer and relax activity.

Highlights of the trip were a day out on Monbill's boat, some time in Horseshoe bay
and snorkeling in Tobacco Bay.

Enjoy the Pictures.

Bermuda