27 posts tagged “politics”

I am so beyond sick of this now, have been for months, so I'll keep it brief:  Norm Coleman's out; Al Franken's in.
 
Hal-lay-freak-in-LU-yah.
 
Now can we please get to work?

Well well.  After playing hooky from most of his impeachment trial, so he could play at being a talk-show TV darling, Rod Blagojevich has just been UNANIMOUSLY voted out of office.
 
Who's surprised?

It matters.

(CBS/AP) President-elect Barack Obama warned of dire and lasting consequences if Congress doesn't pump unprecedented dollars into the national economy, making an urgent pitch Thursday for his mammoth spending proposal in his first speech since his election.

"In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse" if Washington doesn't go far enough to address the spreading crisis, Mr. Obama said as fresh economic reports showed an outlook growing increasingly grim...

(view full article here)

I'll admit this post is mostly to bump Coleman & Franken down from my top-story slot (finally).  But it is 2009 now, good riddance 2008; may I remember you only for the election.
 

Did my first cheese fondue this morning, with me Schmoop.  They're a bit tricky, are fondues; it looked like it was going to be a complete disaster (including 1 false start involving Epic Cornstarch Fail) -- but then, very suddenly, everything seemed to click into place.  It even got creamier after I transferred it to the fondue pot, so the last bit of cooking was done over Sterno.  Very yummy.  I'd try to recall & reprint the whole recipe & procedure here, but as it turns out, this blog post (where I found the photo) details what I did almost exactly.  I halved the recipe, though, since it was just the 2 of us.
 
Here's one trick that turned out to be critical:  In a separate small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch with just a little of the wine.  Drizzle barely enough liquid in there to make it mixable & pourable, i.e. just past the oobleck stage.  Then and ONLY then, mix it into the rest of the wine, over low heat.  When it starts to "set", you'll notice it right away -- suddenly it won't be milky white clouds, it'll be thick threads of clear goop.  (Apologies for not phrasing this in a more appetizing manner.)  This is when you should start adding the shredded cheese.  Stir stir stir.  I was afraid to overcook and/or burn the cheese, but really it can take more heat than you might expect -- in fact it needs to cook a little so it can get to that nice creamy stage.  But do keep stirring.
 
I'd made a nice loaf of herbed bread in the bread machine the night before, so I cut half of that into large cubes and toasted them on a tray in a 250-degree oven while I took my time prepping the fondue itself.  By the time everything was ready, the bread cubes were perfect for the fondue forks, and very tasty with the cheese.

If ever somebody needed to be in a pillory, in the middle of town square, I give you: Rod Blagojevich.
 
Maybe under a banner of No You Can't.
 
Bastard.