The blog of Luther M. Siler, teacher, author and local curmudgeon
Note that a) the storm has not started, and b) I’m pretty sure that my initial impression was correct: that beef stroganoff, while unquestionably delicious, would look considerably prettier if I photographed it before it was cooked. Remember, Burneko’s recipe:
Om nom goddamn nom.
Storm’s coming; not sure if you’ve heard about it or not. In my neck of the woods they’re predicting somewhere between six and twelve inches of snow tonight through to tomorrow morning, depending on where you look, and temperatures– not wind chills– around ten to fifteen degrees below zero for Monday. Along with 20-30 mile an hour winds, which will probably mean wind chills around forty to fifty degrees below zero.
The governor of Minnesota has apparently cancelled school in the entire state on Monday. He did this yesterday. My local school corporation/state government isn’t quite as on the ball but I figure there is exactly zero chance that there’s going to be school on Monday (and if there is, I’m betting we’ll have around 30% of our students) and a pretty damn good chance that there won’t be school on Tuesday either. There’s always a delicate balancing act in situations like this; on the one hand, fucking cold; on the other hand, many of our kids are flat-out going to be safer and, more importantly, better fed at school than they will be at home. I know for damn sure some of my students get their only hot meals of the day at school. Then again, a lot of those kids who aren’t getting fed properly at home don’t have coats, either.
Now, in this specific case, it’s pretty clear-cut– if there are really ambient temperatures of fifty below zero outside, the buses aren’t even going to start– but if you’ve ever wondered why the big districts don’t close at the same rates that smaller/more rural ones do, that’s probably a big part of it; student safety cuts both ways. Either way, I don’t really mind; I’ve had enough of being off of work and am looking forward to getting back– which will probably last through all of an hour or so of actual school.
The wife made a trip to the grocery this morning, returning with piles and piles of food; the two of us sat down and put together three or four days of meals and went out and got everything we needed. I’mma eat real good for the next few dinners, y’all:
As usual, recipes are heavy on Thug Kitchen and Albert Burneko, and both of these sumbitches need to give me a cookbook I can buy now.
Also? My wife bought me a mortar and pestle. Which means I can grind up those dried ghost chilies I bought a while ago and make death chili. Which I won’t even be able to eat, and neither will anyone else, but omg excited. I need to find some uses for it other than grinding up those peppers, I think, but surely there’s something out there.
Wait! I have one: I can also commit felonious assault, because holy shit is this thing bigger than I thought it was going to be:
Stay warm the next couple days, y’all.
Announcement follows! Beginning this Sunday, the sixth of October, in the 2013th year of the Common Era, I shall become a vegetarian for the time span of one (1) Earth week. Here is my definition of “vegetarian”: I will not eat anything that at any point in its life walked. I shall limit myself to one (1) serving during the week of anything that used to swim, and I shall only consume things that swam if the alternative is devouring an enormous steak and destroying my streak. Things made from former things that walked, or things that came out of things that walked are exempt; in other words, if I want some chicken stock or beef broth in my food, or if I want to eat eggs, I’m gonna. Honey, despite being an animal product, is also clearly not meat. Plus whatever other rules I feel like I need for whatever reason I choose to need them.
Why am I doing this?
Well… uh… no reason, really. I’ve had, through the purest chance, three dinners in a row where I didn’t have any meat, and something like six of the last eight meals (lunch today had turkey) were meatless and I noticed. I’m curious to find out if I can drag it out for an entire week. I have no actual attraction to vegetarianism as a sustained lifestyle choice– I don’t actually eat all that much red meat, to be honest, but doing without chicken is unimaginable– and animal rights appeals do not particularly move me. No, I don’t slaughter my own meat, but you can be damn sure that if I had to I’ll kill the hell out of a chicken or a pig or a cow no matter how pretty her big brown eyes are. I wouldn’t like it very much the first time but I’d get over it quick. No, it’s mostly just curiosity. I wanna see if I can. The wife claims that it’ll be a piece of cake for her (she’s participating in the game is as well, which means so is the boy) but I’m waaaay more of a carnivore than she is.
Anyway: gimme some recipes, kids. Nothing’s off-limits.
(Also: I’m starting Sunday because we have preexisting dinner plans for my mom’s birthday tomorrow, at a Chinese restaurant, and while eating vegetarian Chinese isn’t exactly terribly difficult I’m not going to want to, and we’re out of town all day on Saturday, which will involve unpredictable food options. I’m not going to set myself up to fail and I’m sure as hell not going to be a dick about what I’ll eat at my uncle’s wake, so we’ll start the day after and go Sunday to Sunday.)
This’ll be fun.