Green mushrooms

MEXIVEGS

3 zucchini
2 yellow onions
8 roasted, peeled, seeded anaheim peppers
2 dried guajillo peppers
6 cloves garlic
some oil
ancho chili powder to taste
smoked paprika to taste
salt & pepper to taste

pan roast guajillos & soak in hot water 20 minutes
then remove seeds & stems, & scrape pulp from interiors

chop remaining vegetables &sautee
add spices

===

GREEN SAUCE BASE

1 1/2 cups cashews
10 tomatillos

soak cashews at least 1 hour, drain
peel, wash tomatillos, boil until soft about 10 minutes, drain

put all in blender & puree

==

MUSHROOMS

1 lb mushrooms
1 tbsp soy sauce
some oil

stir fry mushrooms until starting to soften
add soy sauce, sautee a little longer

==

combine about 1 c mexi-vegs, 1 c sauce base, all mushrooms, adding fresh thyme
heat the whole thing up

yum.

Vegan Cauliflower Cabbage Carrot Corn Colcannon

Cauliflower
Carrot
Cabbage
Can of Corn - drained & pureed

some roast garlic
some raw cashew butter
some nutritional yeast
a bit veggie Better Than Bouillon
lots of fresh black pepper

Shred & steam fresh veggies but leave some tooth
microwave creamed corn

stir together, over medium heat

add flavoring ingredients until it tastes good

===

This idea is vaguely Irish, as if I knew anything about that, inspired by a cauliflower colcannon at Whole Foods around St Patty's day.

I suppose you could add some boiled potato if you were inclined toward authenticity, but it does not start with the letter "C".

The main idea is that the creamed corn substitutes nicely for the traditional dairy cream.

Linda's amazing Fake Bacon

Shredded raw coconut

marinade:
 2 T liquid smoke
 1 T soy sauce
 1 T maple syrup
 1 T water
 1 tsp smoked paprika

marinate
Bake 325 F 20 min, turning frequently

better than bacon!

Nobel Prize Winning Latkes

What, there's no Nobel in Latkes? Well there should be.

These were extremely successful.

These are amazing hot.

Even a bit stale at a potluck they were appreciated.
==

INGREDIENTS

Two sweet potatoes
About the same amount of waxy (red or Yukon gold) potatoes
A half a beet
A medium sized peeled yellow onion
2 Tbsp ground flax seed (or 2 beaten eggs)
Chick pea flour (maybe a cup?)
Better than bouillon Not-Chicken (or other bouillon concentrate) 1 tsp
Black pepper and salt to taste
Canola oil

===

MAKE THE BATTER

Peel and coarsely grate sweet potatoes. Microwave for about 5 minutes until almost cooked.
Peel and coarsely grate beet. Microwave for about 2 minutes until almost cooked.
Let them cool a bit.

Corasely grate potatoes (not necessary to peel)
Drain potatoes in colander, squeezing out excess moisture.

Peel onion and grate on finest side of box grater.  This is quite tedious.
You should get a sort of oniony slush. Drain as much onion juice as you can from the slush in a fine-grain sieve.

(Running the onion through a food processor is less satisfactory but much easier. You will get a stronger onion flavor as the juice won't separate. You may want to use less, maybe half an onion.)

If not using eggs:
  Bring 1/2 cup water to a vigorous boil in small pot. Reduce heat.
  Add flax, and bring back to a slow boil.
  Whisk vigorously for about 2 minutes, to form a sticky substance.

Combine root vegetables and onion in large mixing bowl.
Add chick pea flour until the vegetables clump together. I think about a cup.

Add seasonings and flax or eggs and mix thoroughly.

==

FRY EM UP

The hard part is getting the oil to the right temperature.

Pour oil into a large, good, smooth or non-stick pan to cover bottom to at least 1/4 inch. If you don't have a good pan, don't bother trying this.
Heat oil, medium hot.
Put a small amount of test batter in oil. It should sizzle but not spatter. If it doesn't sizzle you'll get a greasy mess. It it spatters you'll get a coal lump before the pancake cooks through.
When you think the oil is the right temperature, make a test latke.

Drop about 2 tbsp of batter into the oil. Be careful - if oil is too hot this can be dangerous - keep your face a good distance from pan.
Flatten batter to thickness of about 1/2 inch. Ideally half the latke is in the oil and half not.
Wait until the edges are quite dark, and flip. Ideally do not flip a latke more than once. (I am not sure but I think about 4 minutes for one side, 3 for the other.)

Do NOT flip the latke before pushing on one side of the latke with the spatula loosens the whole bottom and moves the entire latke. If it just squishes a bit, it is too soon to flip. Once it doesn't squish but slides, you still want to give it about a minute. Flip.

The outside of the latke should be mottled dark brown and crispy. If it is soggy, your oil is too cool or you flipped too soon. If it is black, your oil is too hot or you cooked too long.

Wait a couple of minutes and taste. Decide if it is delicious.

Is it delicious? Make a batch of 4 or 5 in your pan.

Is it not delicious? Adjust your strategy and try again with a single latke.

These things are greasy, so they absorb some oil. As you make batches, adding oil and getting it up to the right temperature is something you will get to practice.

===

QUANTITY

This recipe makes a whole lot of latkes.

Serve with sour cream or vegan sour cream. Have some applesauce on hand for random goyim that think that is how to serve potato pancakes.

Note: latkes can be vegan but they cannot be health food. Also, let's face it, they are worth it, but a lot of trouble. Once a year, please.

FIghting Fire with Fire

Radical intolerant Islam is not the same thing as Islam, in just the same way as radical intolerant Christianity is not Christianity.

The battle is between terrorism and tolerance, between violence and peace, within each culture. It's amazingly symmetrical between Christians and Muslims, where the most dangerous people pick a few passages out of an ancient book and represent them as key to their holy war.

As someone without roots in either Christianity or Islam living in Texas, guess which bunch of extremists I find myself more afraid of on a day to day basis?

Angry people who take ancient books too seriously are dangerous. That's surely true. But it really doesn't matter much which book they are worked up about.

The way to fight them is not by mistreating all their distant relatives just because of their culture and background.

My grandfather ended up in Hitler's gas chambers because of thinking like this. When you think of "Muslims" as the enemy you are no better than someone who thinks of "Jews'" or "Christians" as the enemy. All of us have good sensible people and terrible, evil people among us. The question is which tendency we want to celebrate.

When you buy into an enemy extremist's view of what their culture is about, you are doing them a huge favor. Is that really what you want?

The way to fight extreme intolerance is with extreme tolerance. "Fighting fire with fire" actually is not the strategy of most fire departments.

mt's vegan wheat-free low fat cornbread recipe

mt's vegan wheat-free low fat cornbread recipe
---------------------------------------------------------------

I'm very pleased with this recipe and now make it regularly.

0) prepare flax

grind golden flax seeds in coffee grinder to a fine powder

1) liquid ingredients

• bring 6 Tbsp water to a boil & reduce heat
• add 2 Tbsp ground flax, whisk for 2 or 3 minutes until a paste forms
• add 2 Cups unsweetened soy milk 
• add 2 tsp maple syrup
• whisk until roughly mixed (won't blend perfectly)

2) prep

• spray or lightly grease a 9" square glass casserole with oil 
• preheat oven to 450 F

3) dry ingredients

in mixing bowl combine thoroughly

• 1 1/3 Cups cornmeal

• 2/3 Cup oat flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

try to avoid lumps in oat flour

4) bake

• add liquids to dry
• pour into casserole
• bake for 23 minutes

NOTE: after 12 minutes baking, it's nice to spray oil over top surface - this prevents grittiness

5) don't eat yet

• let cool 5 minutes
• run a knife around edge of bread to separate from dish

6) eat warm
(or next day split horizontally & toasted in toaster-oven)

• adding Nature's Balance avocado butter is nice nut not so low fat
• or regular butter is not so bad but not so vegan
• if you're feeling indulgent, a little extra maple syrup or honey

7) don't keep more than a day or so without freezing

Spinning Tornados

Adopting Andrew Sullivan's methodology I point you to interesting stuff elsewhere.

There's a huge kerfuffle about attributing severe weather in Alabama to climate forcing. Kevin Trenberth and Peter Gleick come out strongly in favor of "this is the sort of thing"-ism.

Trenberth:

It is irresponsible not to mention climate change. … The environment in which all of these storms and the tornadoes are occurring has changed from human influences

David Appel, who gets far too little credit as a pioneer of climate blogging, is, perhaps surprisingly, appalled.

You don't have to look very far to disprove this -- in fact, you don't even have to look farther than the Drudge Report, which today links to this story:

TuscaloosaNews.com
5 P.M. UPDATE: Hundreds treated at DCH
"The loss of life is the greatest from an outbreak of U.S. tornadoes since April 1974, when 329 people were killed by a storm that swept across 13 Southern and Midwestern states."

When are activists going to learn that they will never make their case by falsifying the science, and that, in fact, they only harm their cause when they do so? You cannot draw conclusions about climate based on weather. You can only do it via long-term (decadal or more) statistics.

Please tattoo this on your foreheads, so you don't ruin this for those of us trying to communicate actual, real science, with all its inconvenient unknowns and uncertainties.

Judith Curry, who has many good links, is somewhat more predictably appalled.

I think that we are seeing another instance of excessive attention to "attribution" in a statistical sense. The climate is changing with increasing rapidity. Some of the changes will be anticipated, some not. We shouldn't presume that changes will be locally monotonic. They won't be. Under the circumstances, we'll get extraordinary runs of just-the-sort-of-awfulness-we-get-around-here in various places as the system wobbles about. I mean, what did you expect?

On that basis, +1 Trenberth
==
140

Almost Didn't Cut My Hair

Summer's basically here already, and long hair in Texas summer is something to avoid.

But that sort of motivates me not to bother cutting my hair in spring, knowing that I'll be chopping it all off in summer.

But I was tired of my wife's snooty hairdresser, and went into this new place, a chain popping up around town that has a sort of a funky Southwest, Freebirds burritos kind of a vibe if you know what I mean.

I was looking particularly gnarly, unshaven, scraggly, sandwich sauce on my shirt, when I walked in. I woke up with this headache. The haircut I had been longing for was the only useful thing I could think of to do with myself besides spilling a sandwich on me.

I took one look at the the tattooed young barberess and said "don't restrain yourself. Make me look like a Republican". She blinked for a second, then said "oh, sure, you want the Uptighty Whitey." I said I reckoned that I did, "The Uptighty Whitey is just exactly the thing" I allowed.

She said "I'll have you lookin' like Dan Quayle in no time," and I sort of shrugged. Haven't laid eyes on the fellow in years, but he was always kind of good looking that I remember. Unstressed fellow. Golfer. You know.

About three quarters of the way through it I allowed as how it was working. "I am trying to think of a small country to invade" I told her.

As a first timer I got a delicious shampoo, head massage, hot towel on the face and shoulder massage for free, normally $3 extra. Floyd's, the barber shop is called. But it's nothing like Mayberry. Good haircut too, for a UyWy. I recommend the place.

Southern Cogitation Words

Reckon: Think; "I reckon I've got me the fannest pickup in these parts"

Think: Believe; "I hardly think she'll be comin back here anytam soon"

Believe: Intend; "I believe I'll have me another one o themmair biscuits"

Crumpets and Tea

Your search - "crumpets and tea" "boys from lcc" - did not match any documents.

hrmph. What kind of internet is that? It's time somebody fixed that.

Crumpets and tea.
Crumpets and tea.
We are the boys from LCC.
We're not rough.
We're not tough.
But boy, are we sexy!

Used by opposing schools to taunt us, generally just before we obliterated them.

Easy yummy cross cultural snack

Black forest ham sliced thin (not shaved though).
Cream cheese. (Philly or such. Plain, no pineapples or chives or nothin.)
Flour tortilla, as Tex-Mex as possible. HEB brand or El Milagro will do nicely. Regular size (a bit bigger than a ham slice).

Apply about 1.5 tbsp cream cheese to one thin ham slice.

Warm a tortilla in a dry nonstick pan on medium-high until just starting to toast on one side. Flip and apply ham cheese side up. Brown second side lightly. Fold in half and press flat with a spatula. Heat to taste a few seconds more. The tortilla should be hot, the ham should be warm, the cream cheese should be soft but not totally melted.

Prep time about a minute. The NAFTA special. Yummm...

Fake Villages

Apparently the big budget corporate fake village shopping zone is catching on in Europe as well. This scene, meant to emphasize the fact of snow, is of "Clarks Village" in Street, England.

Here is a busy day at Austin's "The Domain", a privately owned shopping center that is also one of our few tolerable walking neighborhoods.

(To be fair, I am discovering that the park system here is great on foot, though the idea that it is bikable is pure BS.)

But I don't see why a place with real villages would want fake ones.

Somebody's top 100 SF list

From here; I made some effort to clean up the html. Somebody explain what Ayn Rand is doing here.

• 100. The Word For World Is Forest by Ursula K. LeGuin


• 99. Sorcerer's Son by Phyllis Eisenstein


• 98. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress


• 97. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch


• 96. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson


• 95. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke


• 94. The Company by K.J. Parker
  


• 93. An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe
  


• 92. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton


• 91. Dhalgren by Samuel Delany


• 90. Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch


• 89. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner


• 88. Song of Kali by Dan Simmons


• 87. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card


• 86. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller


• 85. Sphere by Michael Crichton


• 84. Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin


• 83. The Alteration by Kingsley Amis


• 82. The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey


• 81. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers


• 80. Watership Down by Richard Adams


• 79. Griffin's Egg by Michael Swanwick


• 78. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan


• 77. Free Live Free by Gene Wolfe


• 76. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke


• 75. Ringworld by Larry Niven


• 74. Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling


• 73. Old Man's War by John Scalzi


• 72. Maske: Thaery by Jack Vance


• 71. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley


• 70. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury


• 69. Flow My Tears The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick


• 68. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov


• 67. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson


• 66. The High Crusade by Poul Anderson


• 65. A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin


• 64. At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft


• 63. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes


• 62. Wildlife by James Patrick Kelly


• 61. The Book of Knights by Yves Maynard


• 60. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan


• 59. Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman


• 58. Nightwings by Robert Silverberg


• 57. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien


• 56. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut


• 55. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon


• 54. The Book of the Short Sun by Gene Wolfe


• 53. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman


• 52. Foundation by Isaac Asimov


• 51. The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin


• 50. The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe


• 49. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand


• 48. The Demon Princes by Jack Vance


• 47. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card


• 46. The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson


• 45. Alastor by Jack Vance


• 44. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells


• 43. Flatland by Edwin Abbott


• 42. Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein


• 41. A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick


• 40. Animal Farm by George Orwell


• 39. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams


• 38. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.


• 37. Lyonesse by Jack Vance


• 36. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein


• 35. True Names by Vernor Vinge


• 34. Ubik by Philip K. Dick


• 33. The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons


• 32. Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein


• 31. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle


• 30. A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge


• 29. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov


• 28. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon


• 27. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury


• 26. 1984 by George Orwell


• 25. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson


• 24. The Cadwal Chronicles by Jack Vance


• 23. Lost Horizon by James Hilton


• 22. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll


• 21. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum


• 20. The Fifth Head of Cerebus by Gene Wolfe


• 19. A Song of Ice And Fire by George R.R. Martin


• 18. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein


• 17. The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay


• 16. The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov


• 15. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick


• 14. All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman


• 13. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien


• 12. Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance


• 11. Dune by Frank Herbert


• 10. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess


• 9. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin


• 8. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe


• 7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley


• 6. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley


• 5. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay


• 4. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin


• 3. The Dying Earth by Jack Vance


• 2. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein


• 1. The Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe

Bad guys

When did "bad guys" become a term of art in the US military? Apparently it means somebody you are allowed to kill.

It's infantilizing and dehumanizing and grotesquely avoidant. The decline of the language isn't usually an ethical issue but this time it is.

For the Love of All That's Holy

This is so wrong.

Mexican Poutine Contest!

Too Horriffic

Boomers and Our Kids

To complicate the emergent emergency, we do not find ourselves in an era of international trust and good feeling, though after the defeat of the Soviets one might have expected we would. I attribute this largely to a tragic failure of leadership by my own (boomer) generation in the western countries. We made great breakthroughs in music, cinema and technology, we finally brewed some decent coffee and beer in America, we trashed the landscape and we kept on making enemies and starting wars. Not what I, for one, was hoping for.

And my suspicion is that we made a successor generation that, while to our credit is kind and creative and empathetic, seems to me passive and intellectually lazy and defeatist.

If there is hope, I do not think it will come from the west. But the rest of the world lacks our creativity. So it doesn't look pretty.

Haircut Advice

Vache qui Rit Queso Fresco y Chipotle - Reduced Fat

You think I am making this up but I am not.

I have it on Jewish rye just to round out the multicultural experience. It's better than you'd expect but I imagine it is only available in the southwest. I don't think most people elsewhere have any idea of what "queso fresco & chipotle" might taste like, which by the way, this doesn't really very much.

Just askin'

Was there actually much more to Ludwig von Bertallanfy than a shabby math-less imitation of Norebrt Wiener, likely with a more cultivated accent? And was Ludwig von Drake, in turn, based on von Bertallanfy?

If so, my fascination with Norbert Wiener goes back even longer than I had thought.