Wine

...is delicious.

A quick post on Foie Gras.

Let's talk liver. For those unfamiliar with foie gras, wikipedia describes it accurately as: "the liver of a duck or a goose that has been specially fattened by gavage (as defined by French law)."
Basically it is the swollen, decadent liver of a force-fed duck or goose. It is one of the most popular French delicacies, as well as one of the oldest (the ancient Egyptians were creating similar items more than two millennium ago). Foie gras is in danger though. Many US cities/states are looking into passing bans on the sale and production of foie. California has already passed a law that will ban the dish starting in 2012. Chicago has already passed a ban on selling the food, complete with a $250-$500 fine for breaching said ban. Trouble is brewing overseas for the dish as well. France (which produces almost 80% of the world's foie gras) is equally under attack by various animal rights groups who view the force-feeding process as inhumane. The European Union has already disallowed production of foie gras in any country that isn't already producing it.

You can read more on the issue here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras_controversy



Anyway, I'm curious what everyone else's opinion on this topic is.
Me personally? I hate to sound cruel, but I don't see the problem with it. We're just a part of the food chain, eating a critter lower than us on the chain. Maybe it's not the most humane of conditions, but honestly I'm not bothered. But, I am very interested in this topic as I have not yet had a chance to try this legendary dish. So my new mission in life is finding a good place that offers foie and getting my fill while I still can.


Thoughts on the topic or even on foie gras itself?

I promise someday I'll have a full-sized entry again.

My friend Danny is a rockstar. He upgraded his computer massively so recently, and was nice enough to give me his old RAM - which I was in desperate need of. Upgraded my computer thus from 512 worth of RAM to 1GB. Between this and the new video card I put in, I feel like I'm finally caught up. Well, caught up with 2004 at least.

I should update more often.

I don't really have a lot of time right now to say much, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the more I read and hear about republican candidate Ron Paul, the more I like him. Of course doesn't align with all of my views perfectly, but I don't think I'll ever find a candidate that will. He's probably as close to total agreement as I've seen yet though - and that says something.

More on the upcoming election later - hopefully including a concise breakdown of the candidates positions on key issues.

Hottie of the Month - December

Continuing the tradition I started last month with my post on Lucy Pinder, it's time for the December Hottie of the Month! This month we have one of my favorite actresses from one of my old 'guilty pleasure' TV shows. Best known from the O.C. where she played the complicated and high-strung Taylor Townsend, it's the beautiful Autumn Reeser.

Autumn Reeser is sadly a still fairly unknown actress in Hollywood. Aside from her role as one of the four leads in the final season of the O.C., she has starred in a only a small number of low budget and/or indie films and had the occasional small role on various other TV shows. She's a phenomenal actress though, and easily the strongest actor of the O.C. younger group. She's just about the total package - she's smart, she's playful, she's funny, and she's drop dead gorgeous. Her figure is fantastic, but honestly everything that sets her apart is in her face. Autumn might just have the perfect face - her hair is always incredible, her eyes are as deep and inviting as any could be, her lips are just full enough and let her beautiful teeth show through while smiling, and even seemingly smaller things like ears and neckline are somehow incredible attractive on Autumn. I look forward to seeing her in bigger and better things in the future, but for the time being I highly recommend watching the third and fourth season of the O.C. to check this girl out. You won't be disappointed in the show, and you certainly won't be disappointed in the girl.










(click the pictures for larger versions)

...Unfortunately I spent way too much time tracking down interesting pictures of Autumn that I didn't leave much time to find decent videos... But here's a little taste of her playing her O.C. character Taylor Townsend:




As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this entry as much as I did - and let's all keep hoping the girlfriend never starts remembering to check my blog!

Disgusting.

I learned something new today: Coca-cola mixed with cream soda tastes like ass.

Dirty ass.

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D&D pdf preview: classes

I know nobody cares about my D&D stuff, but since I don't really have any readers anyway, I'm still going to post about it.

My next game is good while away still (a couple months at least), but I'm putting together a campaign pdf for my players this time. Hopefully it will go over well enough. If anyone is interested, I'll post a preview of the class section of the file.

Hottie of the Month - November

I'm starting a new feature here as per the request of a friend of mine. He liked my post on Casey Bachelor so much that he insisted I do similar on a regular basis. Thus, a new hot girl shall be posted each month. And to ring in the tradition (and since it is starting on the month of my birthday) I figured I'd start with a woman that just might be the single hottest girl alive. The one and only, Lucy Pinder.

Lucy is a British glam model known for her frequent appearances in various lad mags (the term the British have coined for magazines like Maxin, FHM, and Stuff). Unlike a lot of the models in her field, Lucy never actively sought her position. She was just discovered by a photographer that happened to catch her sunbathing and was almost instantly signed based solely on the photos he took that day. Also unlike others in her field, Lucy had originally chosen not to fully expose her chest in her shoots (British lad mags allow frontal nudity). She has since signed an exclusive deal with Nuts magazine for topless shoots. Anyway, speaking physically, Lucy is just about as perfect as a woman can be. Of course her breasts stand out as the most prominent feature, but honestly everything about her is amazing - her hair, her eyes, her lips, her nose, her hands, her feet, hell even her teeth are beautiful. If she has any flaw at all, it's that she often wears the same expression on her face in her photos (though I've tried hard to find good pictures of her for this post so you won't see as much of that here). Her more candid shots are always incredible though. Anyway, enough text - enjoy the pics!













(click the pictures for larger versions)

...isn't she incredible? Anyway, I can't let you leave without taking notice of one of my favorite things about Lucy... ...her voice. Watch the videos below to hear it.


Video 1 features Lucy talking about her boobs. I love this chick.


Video 2 is some tech segment from some British show where Lucy talks about her Motorola KRZR.


Video 3 is from some British sketch comedy show, but damn does Lucy look amazing in it.


Finally, video 4 is Lucy reciting a part from War of the Worlds. Seriously.

Hope you folks enjoyed today's entry - it was definitely fun to put together for you. Let's all just hope the girlfriend doesn't find time to read it!

Recipe: hoisin chicken eggrolls.

(heavily adapted from a recipe that appeared in Gourmet magazine)
I'm not a big fan of eggrolls at most places... something about mystery fillings just bother me. So when the girlfriend was in the mood for some, I decided to make my own. This recipe started as a mu shu recipe from Gourmet magazine, but I think lends itself well to this super easy take on eggrolls. And trust me, they're way better than you'll get at your local chinese takeout joint.

HOISIN CHICKEN EGGROLLS

Ingredients
1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1 (16-oz) bag coleslaw mix
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 packages of eggroll wrappers
2 1/2 to 3 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken, without skin (from a 2-lb rotisserie chicken)

Preparation
(I like to begin by mixing about a tablespoon worth of soy sauce, another tablespoon of teriyaki, a teaspoon worth of fish sauce, and a pinch of salt into the chicken and stirring it around until the chicken has absorbed everything. Then just set the chicken aside covered with plastic wrap until you need it later. You're more than welcome to skip this step though.)
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook eggs, stirring, until just cooked through. Transfer scrambled eggs to a plate. Add remaining 3 tablespoons oil to skillet and heat until hot but not smoking, then cook garlic and red pepper flakes, stirring, until garlic is golden, about 1 minute. Add coleslaw mix and 2 tablespoons water and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until coleslaw is wilted, about 5 minutes.

Stir together soy sauce, sesame oil, remaining 2 tablespoons water, and hoisin sauce in a small bowl. Add to coleslaw mixture along with eggs and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Place about a spoon full worth into each eggroll wrapper, fold and seal with water. Deep fry in enough hot oil to submerge until golden brown. Serve with additional hoisin or soy sauce, and enjoy!



From there you can edit them as much as you like - last time we made them we added some leftover corn niblets to the mix and they turned out better than ever. So experiment with it all you want. And if you do try the recipe, please come back and let me know what you thought!

You may not know this, but I'm an old man.

Wow, more than 10 days without an entry... I committed a blog-sin. I apologize to my readers (yup, both of you) for the absence. In my defense, a lot has been going on lately - some of which I'll be writing about today.
  First and foremost, I have the body of a 60+ year old man. I'm serious. In 2003 I missed the first half of my high school graduation because I was in the emergency room. What was I there for? Kidney stones. Kidney stones, a problem most people never have to think about until they're much older. And I've had quite a few of them by this point in my life. Now I have yet another old man condition. I have shingles. I shouldn't even be at risk for it until I'm much older - hell, the vaccine isn't even recommended until you turn 60! To quote the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: "About 25 percent of all adults, mostly otherwise healthy, will get shingles during their lifetimes, usually after age 40. The incidence increases with age so that shingles is 10 times more likely to occur in adults over 60 than in children under 10." Ridiculous, isn't it? Anyway, shingles is basically a resurgence of the chicken pox virus that stays dormant in your body (yup, the pox never actually leaves you after you've had it), only this time it attacks your nerves specifically. So when you get shingles you don't get the characteristic spots all over your body, just concentrated in a few batches or as a band around a single nerve cluster. Additionally you can't spread the virus through the air (by sneezing, coughing, talking, or anything else) because shingles doesn't infest your respiratory system like chicken pox does. The only way to spread it is through direct contact with the sores (or obviously by touching your sores and then touching somebody else before washing your hands). And you can't infect somebody with shingles - you can only give them chicken pox, and then only if they have not had them before. They say shingles can grow to be quite painful along the infected nerve. It's also not uncommon to end up with long term or even permanent nerve damage due to the infection. But honestly, so far it hasn't been that bad. I'm a little more than a week into the infection and it's been fairly manageable. I rarely itch and my spots (a large patch on the small of my back and smaller patches on my inner thigh, butt cheek, and shin) only hurt when something accidentally bumps or brushes against them. The medication is kicking my ass though. I'm taking Acyclovir and almost immediately after taking a pill I always feel weak, woozy, kinda silly, and get a fairly harsh headache. Ah well, I can handle it. Supposedly shingles typically last around 5 weeks or so, so I've still got a fairly long journey with this stuff. Sucks that it has to be at Thanksgiving though - it's my favorite time of the year!
  Speaking of the holiday season, we reach my second point for today... my birthday. Being born between Halloween and Thanksgiving, my birthday has always sort of marked the beginning of the winter holiday season for me. For birthdays and Christmas in my family, we always do wish lists. I usually try to put at least 5 or so items on the list and range the prices from 10 bucks to about 60 or so. This year I think I got everything I asked for on my birthday (man, what am I going to ask for on my Christmas list?)! My list was fairly modest, but that's excited none the less. Here's a quick list of my relevant loot:

• Large book-style cd wallet, holds more than 200.
  
• 7in high-quality santoku style kitchen knife.
  
• A couple of heavy-duty high-quality nonstick pans (nice to have finally have a few that aren't just cheapos).
  
• D&D core book set to replace those lost and/stolen by the moving company a year ago (technically I got a Borders gift card, but that's what it was for).
  
• Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC game).
  
• Enough money to buy a new graphics card that can actually play my new game.

All in all, I was pretty happy with my birthday. Not only did I get some fantastic presents, I also had some incredible food. Duck a l'orange special ordered from this great little gourmet marketplace down here, almost-free crab legs at the Jolly Roger seafood joint, and many helpings of Brenda's ever-incredible chicken cordon bleu. I couldn't have asked for more.
  The final point worth mentioning today, is the upcoming move. I'm not sure whether of not I've already mentioned it here, but come early 2008 we're moving away from our dreary little town of Currituck, NC and heading back home to the DC metro area of Northern Virginia. We've officially told my parents (we're renting the top-floor apartment from them) and now we're looking for places and starting to put in applications for employment. We miss the convenience of life of there, and more importantly we really miss our friends. But the rent prices are much higher - so every pray or cross you fingers that we'll be able to find a suitable place that we can really afford. As for jobs, I put in an application to the work in a Marriott kitchen with a recommendation from a friend who works there. It may not be my long-term career choice (eventually I'd like to go into something in finance, preferably as a financial planner), but the culinary world is hobby I'm fairly passionate about so I'm still excited about the prospect of learning as much as a I can in a commercial kitchen. Once we're settled and I can afford it, I'm plan on taking some classes to work more towards my goal in finance.

Well folks, that's it for now. Sorry about the lapse in updates. I'll try to get better about that. I know I have at least two more posts I want to make before November is over - a really good eggroll recipe I created by adapting a slightly similar recipe from Gourmet magazine, and a hottie post starring a woman I think is probably the single most attractive lady alive. So look forward to those and thanks as always for taking the time to read!