Shameless Self-Promotion (again)

A new version of my great-great-grandfather's book is now available on Amazon.

An Adventure with Guerrillas is the same third edition text that had been available, but sourced through a new manufacturer, which means we've been able to drop the price.
A lot.
From $9.95 to $5.95.

Now is your chance to read a wonderful memoir of adventure, danger, friendship, and faith from the US Civil war.

Check my author's page on Amazon for this and my other books.

Enjoy!

Carnage du Jour - 28 January 2013

Leftover pulled pork (pork shoulder in the crock pot for a full day or more - wow!).
Leftover stock from a batch of Swiss chard and a rib steak.
Royal Rice blend (white, brown, red, and wild rices).
Sautéed celery and crimini mushrooms.

That's the survey of the main ingredients.
The rice was cooked in the stock (1C stock, 2C water to the 1C rice in the microwave - believe me, it's the only way to cook rice).
While the rice cooked, the pork was pulled and chopped a bit, and the celery and mushrooms were sautéed in a bit of olive oil.
The pork was added to the sauté pan for a nice heating, then about 2/3 of the rice went in.

When it was all nicely mixed and melded and all that happy kind of thing, a head of lettuce was grabbed, and a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce lined the bowls.
The rice and pork mixture was spooned atop the rice, and the results were delicious.

Try it, you'll like it.

Etymology du Jour - 21 January 2013

Acoustic (adj.)

From:
A, meaning not or without and
cous, meaning grain (witness couscous, the grain dish)

Thus an a-coustic space is one without grain.
Originally this referred to granaries or barns which had been emptied to make space for barn dances (and hootenannies!).
These impromptu musical venues lent their name over the years to the general idea of spaces for music, and the study of the properties thereof.

Now you know.

It's Time for a Visit to the Commonwealth

... the Commonwealth of Letters, that is.
"What's that?" you ask. Ah, it's the conceit of one incredibly fun novel: Silverlock, by John Myers Myers. (The author so nice, they named him twice?)


DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK!  

This is one of the greatest picaresque novels you'll ever read, bar none.  It's a romp through of the "Commonwealth" - the land where all the great characters of literature live.
The protagonist, A. Clarence Shandon journeys from our own dull world (he has a business degree from the University of Wisconsin, if you can believe it) to Greek myth (Circe) through Teutonic and English legend (Beowulf and Robin Hood) to places I'd rather not mention, so I don't spoil the read for you.  See how many of the folks he encounters you can recognize - this book will send you back to re-reading the classics, or inspire you to read them for the first time.

I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TOO HIGHLY - IT WILL REPAY EVERY EFFORT YOU PUT INTO FINDING AND READING IT.(I know that's shouting - I meant to shout.)

Really, I mean every word.

 

Vegage du Jour - 08 January 2013

I know I've posted about roasting asparagus here before, possibly more than once, but this one was worth an extra note.

As always, the roasting takes place in a fairly hot oven (375F this time), but rather than dropping the spears in a baking dish, this time it was in a skillet.

First, I got the skillet - non-stick with no oil or spray or anything - nice and hot.
While it heated, I cleaned and trimmed a small bunch of scallions and dried them with a paper towel.
Directly into the hot skillet went the scallions, being turned now and again to get a nice brown heading to a char on each side.
Once they were nicely coloured, they were moved aside, and the asparagus was added to the pan.
A drizzle of olive oil and a few good-sized pinches of Herbs de Leelanau went on the spears, and then the scallions were draped over them as well.

The skillet went into the oven where everything roasted away until done, and my goodness but it was tasty!

Highly recommended,
Enjoy!

Belgians and Buffaloes

Well, after decades of painstaking research, the mystery of why Belgians are called Buffaloes may have been solved.
It seems that back around the turn of the century (from the 19th to the 20th), Buffalo Bill Cody took his Wild West Show to Belgium (among other European countries), where the people of Ghent took to him in a big way.
The football team there - K.A.A. Gent - took as its nickname the Buffaloes, and their logo is an Indian chief in profile.
It seems that many of the Belgians moving to the Detroit area came from that part of Flanders, and brought their team affiliation with them.
A mystery neatly solved.

Don't miss this book

No, this time I'm not plugging one of my own.
I'm recommending A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller, Jr.

This is one of the most important works of Science Fiction I've ever read.  It's all there: Good, Evil, Art, Faith, Technology, Science, Politics, Life, Death, Redemption.
Don't miss this book; it's simply too good not to be read.

Spanning centuries during which we pass from post-nuclear holocaust Dark Ages through another Renaissance, another "Enlightenment", and eventually to the brink of another nuclear war, this novel examines human history from the viewpoint of a small religious community - and from the general viewpoint of the Church.
As stated above, don't miss this book; it's simply too good not to be read.