A Call to Arms

I can’t watch this drivel. When does he actually make the call to arms? Blah blah blah, I’m sure Jefferson would have swooned if he could see us now, etc.

@IanJ:

I know, right? This shit couldn’t be any more masturbatory unless Hannity pulled out a tube sock and some Vaseline and went at it onscreen.

@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket:
Gah. More nightmare fuel.

I’m trying to imagine revolutionary Sean Hannity camped with his guerrilla band in the hills of West Virginia. Something very Fidel or maybe more “Red Dawn”. I can’t do it. Apparently he actually lives in a very liberal town on Long Island which makes me suspect he’s only playing a loony conservative. That makes him even more reprehensible.

@ManchuCandidate:

You should hear my campfire tales….

OT/They have Myst on the Iphone?

@Dave H:
Could be more like the campfire scene from Blazing Saddles with more farting or Three Stooges with AK-47s and M-16s.

@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket:
I’m already scared.

So, I gots me to thinking, what must Jefferson have thought about the Treasury? So, I gots me to googling. Then I gots me to concluding: even the Founders were arguing over the interpretation of the Constitution!

Oh and, Hannity is a total douchesack.

Jesus Fuck. “our liberties once again in peril.” Fucking completely insane.

This is the propaganda arm of the GOP, its their Pravda, and they got nothing left except inciting the resentful moron segment, the Joe the Plumbers of Amurrica.

This is not alarming, its great.

When Obama was elected, I was afraid of spontaneous pigfucker demonstrations, something like what happened when Martin Luther King was assasinated, except instead of the ghettos going up in flames, it would be the trailer parks of the bible belt.

But no. There just ain’t enough of them, and although they love sitting in front of the TV and watching Hannity while they drink a 12-pack, they don’t seem to like to actually get out and endanger their pasty shitstained selves.

This shit isn’t going to lead to real civil disobedience, what its gonna do is marginalize the entire GOP, its gonna do more damage than Bush did to them.

@Promnight: I hope you’re right.

Hey, tonight I made seared salmon, coated with finely chopped onions and scallions, so the onions formed a caramelized coating on the salmon, and served it over and under caramelized beets, slowly sauteed in butter, with some brown sugar, a pinch of ground dried scotch bonnet peppers, and a splash of bourbon, hot sweet buttery purple glaze. Oh my god.

Please god let me be able to perform like this in mass quantities and wow those who try out my place.

I am much more afraid of being unable to produce the quantities needed to meet demand, and keep the quality high, than I am that people won’t come in the door.

Anyone want to come work a summer job on LBI? I got openings, I will teach you to be a chef. Anyone got any summer break teenagers need a job? I’ll put one up.

@blogenfreude: Limbaugh spent the 8 Clinton years saying the same shit, “America held hostage, day 487,” remember that? It didn’t do shit, there is nothing more ineffectual than a raging Limbaugh listener, like their God, they are all bullshit, no action.

The one thing, still scary if you think about it, is the possibility of a nut assassin who happens not to be stupid and incompetent.

Somebody do the unspeakable to Obama, and there will be hell to pay, I pray FSM. I think you will then see pacifistic liberals starting to arm.

@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: As of Monday. No sign of Riven.

@Promnight: I think you will then see pacifistic liberals starting to arm.

I don’t think so. I was reading the comments the Freepers had written about the kid arrested for making bomb threats. They were being really gung ho about taking out the FBI agents and police and “going out in a blaze of glory”. That’s an example of somebody who’s really living in a fantasy world. When you pull a gun on these people you end up DEAD. End of story. They are training every day to make sure you will be dead and not them. They are very very good at it. The political implications of your act won’t matter a bit to you because, I repeat, you will be DEAD. There’s no glory in being dead.

I think most pacifistic liberals understand that simple fact.

@Promnight: Wonder if that recipe would work w/ black cod – the GF’s favorite fish. Send me some quantities and I’ll try it. Also – wish I could come down there and cook with you, but I’m stuck here on a contract job that (thankfully) won’t die. Done fine dining cookery for 2, 3, and 4, but never a crowd.

@Promnight:

We’re all sending good vibes your way for the restaurant, Prommie!

@blogenfreude: Bloggie, my favorite way of doing good fish is simple pan-searing, really sauteeing, just getting a nice light brown crust on it in a pan with a small amount of oil. I pat the fish dry, season with salt and pepper, I like it just less than an inch thick, then dredge in a bit of flour, just enough to give a brown slightly crispy coating to contrast with the delicacy of the fish, which I do medium at most.

One trick thats really good is to use Wondra flour, not regular flour, for coating fish you are going to cook this way. I don’t know why, but its better. I think the granules of flour in wondra are larger, and something about the processing, but it really is better than regular flour.

Earlier tonight I was experimenting with dal pancakes. Indian “dal” flour is ground chick peas. Mix it half and half with water and whatever herbs, spices, finely diced fresh herbs, onion, whatever, it works great, just pretend you are making little pancakes or blini, and whatever you put in it will shine through, too, its great. Tonight I made italian-indian beef sushi, I took thin sliced flank steak, looks like fish cut for sushi, marinated for a moment with the usual italian carpaccio ingredients, lemon, love oil, rubbed the surface with a garlic clove, then made a gremolata of scallions, parsley, picholine olives, and reggiano parmagiano, all diced fine and tossed with a tiny bit of lemon and some olive oil. I put a slice of raw beef atop each little dal blini, topped each with a sprinkle of the gremolata. It was carpaccio sushi style on a dal blini.

So I had some leftover finely shreddded scallions, and I added some finely diced red onion, and thrashed it around in what little was left of he marinade I had done the raw beef in. Then I threw in a pinch of the dal flour, which made it very sticky, and I took the salmon filet, which I had dredged in the Wondra, and worked this sticky onion mixture all over it, a very thin layer, little bits of onion, it adhered well, and caramelized perfectly on the fish.

And I had stewed those beets in butter and hot pepper and brown sugar and bourbon, it was like a vibrant purple spicy sweet beet sauce, it was perfect with the salmon.

When it all comes together like that, all just extemporaneous, just playing with the ingredients, its as good as sex.

Not better, though, nothing is better. At least, not better than with Mrs. Prom.

@Promnight:
love oil?

@ManchuCandidate: I used grape oil for the sauteeing, is that what you mean?

I do so hope to see you all stop by over the summer, and anyone who is thinking of making a trip this way, I mean this, I have two unused bedrooms in my house, they are yours. Thanks so much for the encouraging words, they do mean a lot, especially during those times when I think I am just a crazy dreamer.

@Promnight:
Okay. Figured it out. It was a typo. I’m guessing olive oil.

@Promnight: I’d pepper the fish after searing it – pepper turns bitter when seared. I’d also use white pepper after the fish was seared, but then I’m a Julia Child acolyte – she said white pepper and shallots instead of black pepper and onions. Purist, she was.

@ManchuCandidate: Olive oil is not good for sauteeing. Its got a low “smoke point,” it starts to burn at lower temps than other oils, and its a waste of olive oil, it destroys the flavor anyway. For high temperature sauteeing, you want peanut oil, a good vegetable oil, I used grapeseed oil, thats nice stuff. If you want the flavor of oilve oil, drizzle some extra virgin over the top right before you serve.

And don’t be afraid of butter, and porkfat, salt pork in moderate amounts, small amounts, improves the flavor of abolutely everything.

@blogenfreude: White pepper is tricky, she went with the french idea that you don’t want the black dots on your white fish. But white pepper has such a different flavor, it so easily overpowers. But you are absolutely correct, pepper does not survive cooking and if you want the flavor of pepper to be significant, add it after cooking.

I’da definitely used shallots if I had them.

I absolutely love all the members of the onion family, treated right, they can produce such a beeautiful umame sweetness.

@Promnight: I can FedEx you shallots, just say the word.

@Promnight: It’s been so long since we’ve had food porn. Yum!

What sort of marketing strategy are you doing for the opening?

@Promnight:
Jeez, you’re so much more advanced than me. I like to get some wild salmon (farmed salmon? feh!). Marinate it in fresh squeezed citrus juice for maybe an hour. Maybe wander over to the nearby Montessori school that has a hunking big rosemary bush in front and get a few sprigs. Then put the fish and some rosemary on it in my stove top smoker with some alder dust for awhile. Once a year luxury–it’s almost Copper River salmon time!

@SanFranLefty: The key is to create a pre-opening buzz. I would invite the local paper’s food/features writer over for a tasting of some of the specialties and a bit of Prom philosophy on food. Something that the writer will appreciate is the creative urge/expression here – Prom *has* to cook for others, like a true painter has to paint – but or boy also has significant real world experience in the restuarant biz, so he knows what it takes.

Free ink. Tell a good story and get free ink – that’s advertising you don’t have to buy. Offer a mini course on something easy and qick on a Saturday afternoon, and publicize it with a press release, not an ad.

The stupid “u” on Mrs RML’s old Dell sticks . . .

@redmanlaw:
I agree. Free press is always the best press, that’s my philosophy.

I was also thinking of an exclusive cooking seminar for the local media. Including local Jersey/Philly bloggers.

But how big of an operation is this going to be? Is there staff? Or is it all Prommie?

@SanFranLefty: Prom could do his thing with ‘maters for the local hacks and get a feature spread. Also, sell the stuff used in the cooking clinics.

You know, that could be a standing feature – this month’s thang with the local produce, feesh, or whatevs.

@Promnight: America held hostage

Once again, we thank Ted Koppel for his service to journalism.

@Promnight: they love sitting in front of the TV and watching Hannity

I don’t have the numbers at hand, but the Fox News audience is old. They’ll revolt as soon as they find their teeth.