tandu

Jerk chicken kabobs and pineapple with asperagus! Yum!

I bought 2 lbs of pork side, presliced. I cured it for 7 days in salt. Then I smoked it for 4 hours with hickory chips.

It's delicious. It's bacon. Rather fatty, half-way precooked bacon, but bacon.

Pictures:





The first bite gives you flavors of... SALT! Then more salt. Then some salt. Then yummy bacon grease and smoke. Then salt.

Lessons learned:

1) I need a cold smoker. The one I have is too hot. I think I'll build a ceramic one, and use this one as the cold box. I'll pipe the smoke out of the ceramic smoker into the garbage can one. Then I can smoke cheese, too.

2) Pork Belly. Need real unsliced pork belly for the curing, to cut down on the OMG SALT experience.

3) Smoke: I have to keep a closer eye on it. It took 15 min to go through the first set of chips. I soaked the second set of chips, and they lasted a lot longer, but took more time to work up some smoke.

Brought to you by the First Westboro Church of Cthulhu.

I've been recording my sermons lately, as I put a lot of work into them and I think they're pretty good. :)

Here's my latest one: http://johannite.org/blog/?p=41

Got on the scale today.

I've lost 5 pounds.

Since 1/5.

I was 250 when I weighed myself before going to the nutritionist's office. Now I'm 245.

Not bad for just changing the diet. Haven't changed WHAT I eat so much, as how much.

Of course, I have about 50 extra pounds to lose. The first 5 is easy. We'll see how we're doing down around 35. I bet the loss will slow down. And, when I start upping the exercise, I'll be putting on muscle in addition, so the loss will slow down.

Still, it made me happy. :)

I've decided to depreciate this entry, and keep track of my books read this year on Library Thing. It allows me to just put in the title, and all the info shows up.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tandu

( Books of 2009 )

I've wanted to do one of these posts for a while. The problem is thinking back over everything I've read this year. I think I'll just start. Stars are how much I liked it. I might do commentary. Might not. It's long, so I'll cut it. Also, if you want to recommend books, I'm always looking for new stuff to read.
( Read more... )

Prop 8 ~ the musical!

ganked from chiyo_no_saru

May it be a wonderful day, this anniversary of your entry into the world.

Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the people* who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

(I was in a heterosexual marriage, and gay marriage neither harmed nor protected my marriage. It's this weird thing called "Personal Responsibility".)

(*Original post says "bigots". I would think this word covers the well-intentioned folks who just want to help and are ignorant, to the willful ignoramuses who are actually promoting this out of a political adgenda. Plus, I still think bigots are people.)

to quincidence! Many happy returns.

I'm sitting here on the shores of lake Monona, watching the sun rise and waiting for Lazy Jane's cafe to open. It's 7:10, and the don't open until 8. So, I thought I'd go watch the sun rise. The geese are honking overhead, and there are gulls on the dock, talking through their morning grooming ritual. There's a light fog coming off the lake.

I thought this was going to be a wasted hour. Instead, it has turned out to be an hour of great beauty and solitude. It's a quiet natural moment in a busy city, the kind that refreshes the soul.

An actual email I recieved:

Dear Sir or Madam: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion USD. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you. I am working with Mr. Phil Gramm, lobbyist for UBS, who (God willing) will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a former U.S. congressional leader and the architect of the PALIN / McCain Financial Doctrine, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. As such, you can be assured that this transaction is 100% safe. This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred. Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds. Yours Faithfully, Minister of Treasury Paulson

At least they're honest about it. Oh, wait...

http://allspinzone.com/wp/2008/09/22/your-urgent-assitance-required/