Rum, The Lash and Sodomy: The Senate Social Thread and Amateur Naval History Hour

That's what I was thinking, although taking the eccentric route is typical Qadaffi. I wonder how much they were discounted as well?

 

I have to say that I really enjoy a good meal.

Tonight I had some friends over for dinner and a little Babylon 5. Since I recently got a pasta machine, I decided to fix Chicken Alfredo from scratch. Whole wheat pasta, freshly made Alfredo sauce, a nice green salad, and peach cobbler for dessert. I evidently got rave reviews, with my friends saying that it's probably the best meal that I've ever fixed for them.

I guess my cooking has improved over the past year.

Kimball Kinnison

 

Babylon 5 and chicken alfredo?

Now, everyone knows Serenity goes with alfredo.. For Babylon 5, you have to have Beef Wellington.

Sounds good though...

 

That's a good skill you have KK. I can't cook for the life of me. My wife is a wonderful cook. Thank G-d, because otherwise we'd starve to death. Every time I try cooking for my family, we all get sick.

The only exception is BBQ. I am a good grill man.

 

No, no, no. Serenity goes with ham, in honor of Mal. For Babylon 5, you really need to serve Breen, or if that's not available, Swedish Meatballs. Spoo is another good choice (as it's the other gray meat).

I learned years ago that if you want to eat well, you need to learn to cook well. This past year for Christmas, I got a load of cooking supplies and cookbooks. I've been having a lot of fun since then.

I wish I could do more grilling. Unfortunately, I live in an apartment without a balcony or patio, so I have no place to grill. But then, I need to move by June (my ex-wife's best friend's mother moved in next door, and that's just a little too close for comfort), so hopefully I'll wind up in a place where I can do more grilling.

Kimball Kinnison

 

Sounds great, KK. One thing you can do to make alfredo sort of 'fancy' is to put a few drops of good white truffle oil in it. You can get a small bottle for a reasonable price at Whole Foods, but look for the naturally infused stuff... no artificial flavors.

I'm a foodie and serious cook, myself. I guess it's in my family, and part of my regional heritage. My brother worked under Emeril Lagasse at his flagship restaurant here in New Orleans.

Last night, I stuffed some thin chicken breasts with duxelle, pan seared them, served them with the pan jus.

One of my favorite things to do that's so easy is moules mariniere as a starter served with a french baguette, followed by steak au poivre with gruyere gratin.

Man, I'm hungry.. heheh I have to wait until my lunch break to eat though.... I usually do that halfway through the shift, because they're long... If I eat too early, I'll be starving by the time I get home!

We're always talking about food amongst friends and coworkers, especially the restaurant scene here in New Orleans.

 

Actually, the secret that I was taught to a good alfredo sauce is the add just a pinch offreshly ground nutmeg. (I learned that from a friend's mother who immigrated here from Italy about 40 years ago).

I really enjoy good food, but I don't really eat out that much. For me, the joy is not just in the eating of the food, but in the preparing as well. I find it relaxing to putter around the kitchen or learn a new style of cooking.

My personal specialty is homemade ice cream and toppings. Last month, I made an amazing dark chocolate rocky road ice cream (with homemade marshmallows) to go with a cherry chocolate cake for my birthday. I then topped it all with a homemade dark chocolate syrup (of which I still have a bottle remaining).

You know, we probably ought to look at starting a cooking thread here. You know, a place where we could swap techniques, recipes, and ideas. Something like that would never work in the JCC, because it would get off track too easily, but the Senate environment would probably work almost perfectly. I have a few good recipes that I could give you, and I'm sure that you've got some I'd adore.

For example, I found a wonderful 0.50 lb block of high quality blue cheese (possibly my favorite cheese) for a fantastic price, but I haven't used it yet because I haven't found a recipe that would be "worthy" of such an ingredient. Any suggestions?

Kimball Kinnison

 

My cooking skills extend to only things that come in a box and generally require little more than adding water or oil. The only thing I have recently cooked was an angel food cake, which I only started because I didn't realize how much work it was. And actually I had gotten up real early that day for some odd reason so my mom woke up and found me in the kitchen cooking an angel food cake at 6:30 AM.

For me all the joy is in the eating, which I tend to do a lot. I'll cook something if it isn't too hard and it will be a good meal.

My grandfather was actually a professional chef, but my mom was the youngest of 5 kids and since she was always the worst cook, I guess she never cooked much and didn't pick it up. Now she cooks fine, but I guess I didn't learn that much either. Also when I was in the Dominican Republic I had maids the whole time who cooked five days a week, so I didn't even how to cook there when I couldn't really afford to eat out and most of the time there wasn't anywhere to go anyways. And KK I don't want to hear any crap from you about getting pampered because we also lived without power and running water for days on end. Oh and if we had passed around a list around RS they would have laughed us into the street.

 

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For a bit of film news, I just watched a movie the other night that almost perfectly depicted the conflict (and post conflict military mission) in the former Yugoslavia.

It's a Richard Gere/Terrence Howard movie titled The Hunting Party.

Now, it has some minor continuity errors, and the last 30 minutes or so kind of fall flat in a Hollywood sense, but the first hour could have been taken directly from home movies shot from when I was there.

What stands out are the frustration and paralyzing bureaucracy that the UN operated under and the effects on the population in having to live in a post genocidal country.

It's difficult to describe, but some scenes actually gave me goosebumps out a personal connection. I still remember my own feeling on being part of the discovery of the remains of an entire family in a small house. The bodies were all mixed together, and crudely hidden, but it was sobering to think that an entire family was murdered because of attempted ethnic cleansing. Of course, Bosnia was also where I got my shrapnel wounds, and my two scars that are still with me.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in seeing a half-way decent depiction of the Yugoslavian conflict (at least for the first 3/4 of the movie), The Hunting Party would be of interest.

 

Sounds interesting. I'll check it out, though I know very little about the Yugoslavia conflict, so it might affect my viewing of the film.

I saw Michael Clayton a few nights ago. It was good up until the last few minutes.

 

Just reading the new Ben Elton book, Blind Faith, and I came across this fantastic line:

It almost seemed to be a function of government that it existed to frustrate the clear-sighted common sense of men and women of faith

I lol'd.

ES

 

Would anybody be interested in an investing/finance/stock market type thread? I'm just starting to study for the Series 7 exam and getting into all this, so it might be interesting. I think I might need to be a little careful though because I really have no idea what all the regulations and rules I'm going to have to comply with are.

 

They got them used on Amazon.

Although I gotta say, not many fighters out there that have the whole just-plain-cool-looking factor the Rafales do. Sure as hell the eurofighter doesn't.

 

I'd be glad to post there. Just let me mind my mom's economics/business finance books

 

Yes, that's a great idea! I'm finally getting out of the whole mutal funds and IRA crap and am finally looking into real investing!

 

This is Ender.

The Ender account is on a ban which I requested because I've got a lot on at the moment and don't need the distraction that the JC can be, but being as how I'm moving into finance soon I'd be keen to track markets in a discussion thread.

The only reason I logged in on this sock was to link this piece.

http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10608842

With all the focus on American markets, nobody is paying attention to China which is frankly as big a worry as the US market.

Anyway, I'll see you all again on Ender_Sai

Not_E_S

 

No wait! Ender!

You need to see what I wrote in the elections thread....

 

Well I've been learning about all the regulations and about all the different markets in general, and actually I could get into a lot of trouble with the SEC if I started suggesting stocks on here. Anybody that works for a broker-dealer in the US has to pass this Series 7 exam, which covers the basics of not just the equity markets but also the bond markets and all the regulatory bodies and rules that govern the industry. When ES comes back it would be interesting to compare our system with theirs.

The biggest thing I have come away with so far is just how archaic the whole system really is. If you were going to create a financial market from scratch, our system would just look crazy. You wouldn't want to go to 10 different markets, you would want everything in the same digital marketplace. So many things are the way they are just because they are the way they have always been. Now that I am getting into it, I understand a lot better what that Rigged book was talking about. In our day an age it really is wierd to think that we are still moving around billions and trillions of dollars a day with a bunch of guys yelling at each other in a big room, and even when we are doing it digitally, it is still largely the same basic system.

And even with all the government regulation and Self Regulatory Organizations like the NASD, it still seems like there are plenty of ways to commit fraud.

 

Understandable..I think everyone's interest in this place must wane from time to time. I know mine does.

 

But who shall preach of the glory of the Economist?

 

Well, the Australian government finally issued an apology today in Parliemant to the stolen generation of Australian Aborigines:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kevin-rudd-says-sorry/2008/02/13/1202760342960.html

I think it was a good move and overdue.

 

I just have a lot on my plate, and this place is more a distraction than I can allow. I will post, but very very irregularly for some time.

 

OWM!!! CALLING OWM!!!

You said to come see you when it has been six months since my last smoke.






Well, it's been six months!