“I’ve stated my opposition to this. I think it’s unnecessary. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.”
“I think that the vast majority of Americans find [same-sex marriage] to be something they can’t agree with.”
“Marriage has got historic, religious, and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.”
Who is the twisted, hate-filled misanthrope who said these hurtful things? Was it that nasty old Carrie Prejean, who had the criminal temerity to respond to a question about her beliefs by airing her beliefs? Nope. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But where’s the hate? Where’s the scathing, misogynistic, sexually-charged negative commentary? Will no wise and noble crusader like The Village Voice’s Michael Musto tell the truth: that they are “dumb and twisted”, the kind of people who “sit on the television and watch the sofa”? Will no brave feminist stand up and give Hillary the same vitriol they’re unloading on Ms. Prejean for her equally unacceptable and unauthorized opinions? Why is Keith Olbermann shamefully silent when it is his duty to publicly shame them? Dammit, where’s the hate we so desperately need? These people have the same opinion as the enemy girl!
After kicking off the grilling season last weekend with New York stripsteaks and buffalo burgers, I decided to address the poultry situation.
the constituent parts of a whole chicken, separated (4-7lbs)
32oz plain yogurt
1/3 cup olive oil
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch mint, minced
2tbsp kosher salt
1 lemon
fresh ground pepper
Combine the oil, yogurt, mint, garlic, and salt in a large bowl. Zest and juice the lemon into the bowl and grind in as much black pepper as you want. Mix until smooth. Ladle out about a cup or two and reserve for dipping. Pour a little into a zip-top freezer bag and then add some of the chicken. Continue alternating chicken and yogurt until you’ve got all of the chicken, then squeeze the air out and seal the bag. Work the bag until you’ve got all of the chicken covered and then put the bag in a bowl (to catch drips) on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for 4-24 hours.
Fire up the grill and spread the coals in an even layer on the bottom (for gas, maybe medium-high?). Wad up a paper towel and pour on some vegetable oil (damp, not saturated), then, once the grill is hot, wipe the grate with the oil (don’t drip). Just before it goes on the grill, dose the chicken with black pepper and/or cayenne. Grill the chicken on both sides until you get an internal temperature with a probe thermometer of at least 160F (180 is better). Remove the chicken and let it rest 5-10 minutes and serve with the reserved yogurt as a dipping sauce.
Lay the pastries out on wax paper to thaw at least 45 minutes. Thaw the spinach, either in a microwave or with a steamer basket on the stove (don’t boil; you’ll lose all of the nutritive value). Park the spinach in a strainer basket and press with a weight on top of a plate to get rid of the moisture. While it’s draining, put the feta in a large mixing bowl and crumble it (a potato masher is handy for this), then grate the jack cheese into the same bowl. Cover the bottom of a large nonstick pan with olive oil and add the garlic cloves, then bring it to medium-high heat. Once the garlic is sizzling nicely (but well before it browns), add the spinach and heat while stirring gently until you get bored (about 5 minutes), then turn off the heat, remove the garlic, and add the spinach to the cheese bowl. Before you lose the heat in the spinach, quickly blend it in with the cheese until it’s even and the spinach is softening the cheese. Set this bowl aside and address the puff pastry. Start by pre-heating the oven to 375F.
A puff pastry package generally contains two leaves which are folded like a trifold brochure. Once they’re thawed, lay them out on a cutting board and make four even cuts until you have nine equal squares. If you have a paper slicer in your kitchen, you can use the ruler to make sure you have even squares, but you’re also the kind of person who has a paper slicer in your kitchen. I use a pizza cutter.
Place two squares in front of you and stack the other 16 off on the corner of the cutting board (if your sizes are uneven, try to pair two like-sized squares). Prep a cookie sheet with non-stick spray and set it somewhere convenient, then acquire a teaspoon and a fork. Take one of the squares in your palm and cup it slightly, then add filling until you have a pile of filling in the dough, enough that you get a nice little mound but not so much that you won’t be able to seal the edges. Place the second square over the first (you might need to stretch it a bit to get the edges to meet), then place it on the board. Interface the two dough sheets by pushing the fork through on the edges (see below). Finally, poke vent holes with the fork. Arrange the finished pies on the sheet and continue until you’ve gone through all four sheets (2 boxes). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until they look good. I tried brushing butter on some, but it didn’t seem to make any noticeable difference (I suspect the dough has butter already). Anyhow, this should yield 18 pies.
Alternately, you could use only one box of pastry to make MEGAPIE. After thawing the pastries, lay one on the bottom of a casserole dish so that the edges come halfway up the sides. Put all of the filling in the dish, then lay the second dough sheet over the top, squeezing out the air and mating the edges of the two sheets. If there is any excess dough sticking off the corners, trim it off and discard it (it’ll burn). Then, poke vent holes and bake as above until it looks browned and flaky.
This one’s Carter’s. He did it in the style of something I can’t remember. It’s a little dry and hard, plus we don’t have a deli slicer, so slices are a bit thick. We started it in… maybe November? Anyhow, it’s eminently edible, but IMO tastes better if you fry the slices before ensandwiching them. Also, the casing is effing enormous, so we couldn’t use the stuffer attachment on the Kitchenaid, which led to occasional pockets of air. Stuffing will need to be addressed in the future. Still, we’ve set the precedent. Salami is achievable.
Combine all ingredients. Cover lightly and rest at room temperature for at least an hour. Refrigerate leftovers.
Variations: use peeled, seeded diced tomatoes if you can’t find tiny tomatoes (the exposed meat will also absorb the flavor). Substitute mint and parsley for the cilantro and basil. Use firm tofu in place of the mozzarella. Replace the garlic with chopped shallot and green onion. Order a pizza. For a half-assed oriental-style salad, swap orange for lemon juice, a few drops of sesame oil and teriyaki for the olive oil, tofu for cheese, and skip the herbage and tomatoes in favor of celery, asparagus, mandarin orange, and fried chow mein noodles, which on retrospect is actually a completely different salad. Nevermind.
Q. How is the stimulus package really going to help small businesses?
A. it may very well be that she is in a circumstance where she is not able her customers aren’t able to get to her there’s no transit capability the bridge going across the creek to get to her business needs repair it may very well be that she’s in a position where she is unable to access the her energy costs are so high by providing smart meters by being able to bring down the cost of her of her workforce i mean excuse me cost of operating her business
To be fair, he got blindsided by the question. How is he supposed to prepare for a question about how the stimulus package helps small businesses when the stimulus package has nothing to do with helping small businesses? He deserves credit, though, for addressing the shameful state of the bridge over the creek, which has needed repair ever since them Duke boys jumped it while fleeing from Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.
