Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly; Anthony Bourdain (Harper Perennial, 2007, ISBN 978-0-06-089922-6).

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Here's an advance look at an upcoming set from Spacecraft Films. Their Space Shuttle: First Flights set will include a look at early proposals including the USAF's Dynasoar vehicle.

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Another new venture was the preparation of some brown stock. Now, I've made chicken stock for years and years and years. It's second nature—roast a bird, when you are done picking over the carcass, you take the carcass and make a broth out of it. The same with a ham bone. Eat a ham, finish the ham, toss the bone into a pot with dried peas and make pea soup.

Earlier in the year I took a lamb bone and made stock out of it...so I thought I'd give it a try from start to finish with the intention of making broth. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One new entry in this year's feast will be a Yorkshire Pudding. I did a "dry run" a few weeks ago using a recipe that Vincent Price had written (a friend sent me a photocopy). Alas, I used butter (low smoke point) as the fat, there was a lot of smoke, it set off my allergy-induced asthma and I had the worst attack that I've had in a couple of decades (still trying to recover).

So I'm going to do another "dry run" today. There are about a billion recipes for this dish out there, here's one.

I blame Sherlock Holmes and Jack Aubrey. If I hadn't read so many tales about either character that involved food...

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The main course for the holiday feast is going to be a standing (beef) rib roast. One thing I'm doing that is new for us is allowing the beef to age. I blame Alton Brown; I saw an episode of Good Eats where he showed how to do this. So now I've got eight pounds of beef in the refrigerator, three thermometers monitoring the situation.

Will this work? Will it taste better. Nothing, other than the Yorkshire Pudding, is making me more nervous about this meal.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been working hard on our various holiday feasts. We're hosting (maybe) twelve for Christmas, so this past weekend has been a lot of preparation work, cleaning and the like. I started off yesterday by making scones, lots of scones. Some will be for us, some will be for guests, some for co-workers.

The recipe I use was first published in 2000 in Bon Appetit. I found it at The Gunroom site, which has a collection of recipes suggested by list members. I've found it to be a very versatile recipe. For example, one time I dropped the lemon and ginger and added a tablespoon of cocoa powder and chocolate chips. I usually swap the lemon peel for orange peel, add dried or fresh cranberries, use dried blueberries and the like.

The recipe makes about twelve scones, when I use my middle-sized pastry cutter. Yesterday I made six batches, sprinkling each with red, green or blue crystallized sugar for the "seasonal touch". So, I made 72 scones! more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Looks like we've finally found the Giant Rat of Sumatra!

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The Top Ten Reasons My FTL Car Rules

10) Stephen Hawking always wants to carpool.

9) Breaking the laws of physics is only a misdemeanor in most states.

Traffic enforcement is pretty much limited to cops with Ph.D.'s in Quantum Physics.

7) Bugs—they never see you comin'.

6) I can get to the good hookers before Charlie Sheen.

5) I made a fortune selling pizza with the slogan "It's there before you order or it's free!"

4) I sleep until noon and still get to work by 8:00am!

3) I'm never in the car long enough to hear an entire Madonna song.

2) My cigar butts don't land in the back seat, they land in last week!

... and the number one cool thing about my faster-than-light car is ...

1) I get a license plate that reads "ME = MC^2

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A professor of physics is finding fame on the internet. (Sounds like he's a fantastic teacher. Alas, at my alma mater, they went for "world-class research" not boring stuff like teaching ability. Being a good teacher was a sure-fire indication that you would not be recommended for a tenured position!)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 02:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In which the magic of Photoshop is applied to Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World to yield a Christmas special...

In the same spirit, Steampunk Girl brings us a holiday card from Captain Aubrey and his crew.

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You look out at the stars and galaxies with your backyard telescope and you ponder how peaceful the universe is. It's easy to overlook test runs of planet-destroying weapons or bad driving on the galactic scale.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A recently discovered asteroid has a 1 in 75 chance of hitting Mars on January 30, 2008. Aside from any photo-op interest, there are a couple of interesting things that could come out of a actual strike. The flash could be examined by orbiting telescopes. It would be interesting to see what an impact would do to Mars, in terms of any climate change. And, the resulting crater might be a interesting place for a future probe to explore (almost like having a drill go into the planet).

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Astronomy Picture of the Day site has chosen their best astronomical pictures for the year 2007.

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So, according to this, my obsession with collecting books and games is actually good for the environment.

Like I needed an excuse...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Vorpal Blade; John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor (Baen Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4165-2129-7, cover by Kurt Miller).

The review can now be found here.

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I have friends that will do this sort of thing for any show. Or book series. It's a game we all play.

Addendum: More nerdness!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"The lunatic, on the other hand, doesn't concern himself at all with logic; he works by short circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars."

"Invariably?"

"There are lunatics who don't bring up the Templars, but those who do are the most insidious. At first they seem normal, but all of a sudden..."

(Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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More flowcharts than you can shake a stick at. What would Richard Feynman do? Dog eating. The end times (expand to read the tiny bits). Bacon! Science fiction double feature.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Twas the Night before Chitlasha and all through the clan
Not a person was stirring, neither Pe Choi nor Man.
The slaves were all locked in their stables with care
For I didn't wish any more trouble down there.

The children were nestled all snug on their mats,
With nightmares of Ssuganar tormenting the brats.
And I hung the meshqu "Don't disturb, I relax",
While my wives settled down for a night on their backs.

When out in the courtyard there arose such a clatter
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Leaping over Third Wife, cross the room did I dash
Threw open the shutters and saw a great flash. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:34 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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...collection of Philip K. Dick books? (What did you think I was going to ask?) Total Dick-Head, home of all Things PKD, takes a look at a few collections, including his own.

I can't claim to have anything this...um...lengthy. Now if you were to ask "How long is your Heinlein?" or "How long is your Clarke?" or "How long is your Anderson?", etc., I might have these folks beat.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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