Posts of interest to me: cooking, shaving, politics, science, cats, movies, books, ….
I just read what seems to be the first of a series of mysteries by Barbara Cleverly, The Last Kashmiri Rose, set in India shortly after The Great War. Quite good, and some surprising turns. It looks to be a promising series. I’m now starting the next. Thanks to The Eldest for pointing it out.
From today’s NY Times. Mark Bittman says:
Some differences were predictable: when frozen, the cornstarch puddings did not have the luxurious mouth-feel of eggy ones, and they were not as filling. On the other hand, the add-ins do not compete with the eggs, which, after all, have a lot of flavor.
The texture of the cornstarch ice cream was better than almost any commercial ice cream, many of which are filled with air (at least when the ice cream was fresh, which is how it should be eaten — straight from the machine, if you ask me).
You can see a video here. (He seems to be using this ice-cream freezer.) Here’s the recipe:
Time: 20 minutes, plus chilling
2 1/2 cups light cream, half-and-half or milk (whole or skim), or a combination
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cornstarch.1. Put 2 cups cream, half-and-half or milk, the sugar and salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat. If using a vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise and scrape seeds into liquid, then add pod. Cook until mixture begins to steam.
2. In a bowl, blend cornstarch and remaining cream, half-and-half or milk; there should be no lumps. Remove bean pod from pot and discard. Add cornstarch mixture to pot. Cook, stirring, until it starts to thicken and barely reaches a boil, about 5 minutes. Immediately reduce heat to very low and stir for 5 minutes or so until thick. Stir in vanilla extract, if using.
3. If mixture has lumps, strain it into a bowl. Chill until cool, a couple of hours (you can skip this step if you have a machine with a built-in freezer). When cool or if there are no lumps, pour into an ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Yield: 1 generous pint.
Honey-Jam Variation Substitute honey for half the sugar. Add 1/2 cup good jam to mixture before freezing.
Buttermilk or Yogurt Substitute buttermilk or yogurt for half the cream or milk.
Cherry-Vanilla Add 1 cup halved, pitted cherries just before freezing.
Strawberry, Blueberry or Peach Add 1 cup hulled, sliced strawberries, blueberries, or peeled and chopped peaches before freezing.
Coffee Substitute 1/2 cup very strong coffee for 1/2 cup cream or milk.
Coconut Substitute 1 cup coconut milk for 1 cup cream or milk; add 1/2 cup toasted dried coconut if you like.
Mint Chocolate Chip Add 1/2 cup minced mint and 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate just before freezing.
The LA Times had a review of ice-cream scoops. The winner was the KitchenArt scoop.
Good space opera is hard to find. The very best recent example of the genre is A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge, a quite remarkable novel. Another space opera is the one I just finished: Empire From the Ashes, by David Weber, a trilogy bound into a single volume. Not so deep as Vinge’s novel, but still some good swashbuckling. And you can read it online, if you want.
Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, whose home back in Alaska was raided by federal investigators Monday in a wide-ranging corruption investigation, has threatened to place a hold on the Democratic-drafted ethics legislation just passed by the House and expected on the Senate floor by week’s end.
The senator told a closed session of fellow Republicans today, including Vice President Dick Cheney, that he was upset that the measure would interfere with his travel to and from Alaska – and vowed to block it.
And Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), confirming Steven’s threat, said bluntly: “There could be a lot of holds on this bill.”
Why do you pay so much for prescription drugs? Because the pharmaceutical industry controls Congress on those issues:
If you have ever wondered why the cost of prescription drugs in the United States are the highest in the world or why it’s illegal to import cheaper drugs from Canada or Mexico, you need look no further than the pharmaceutical lobby and its influence in Washington, D.C.
According to a report by the Center for Public Integrity, congressmen are outnumbered two to one by lobbyists for an industry that spends roughly $100 million a year in campaign contributions and lobbying expenses to protect its profits.
One reason those profits have exceeded Wall Street expectations is the Medicare prescription drug bill. It was passed more than three-and-a-half years ago, but as 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft reports, its effects are still reverberating through the halls of Congress, providing a window into how the lobby works.
The unorthodox roll call on one of the most expensive bills ever placed before the House of Representatives began in the middle of the night, long after most people in Washington had switched off C-SPAN and gone to sleep.The only witnesses were congressional staffers, hundreds of lobbyists, and U.S. representatives, like Dan Burton, R-Ind., and Walter Jones, R-N.C.“The pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote the bill,” says Jones. “The bill was over 1,000 pages. And it got to the members of the House that morning, and we voted for it at about 3 a.m. in the morning,” remembers Jones.
Why did the vote finally take place at 3 a.m.?
“Well, I think a lot of the shenanigans that were going on that night, they didn’t want on national television in primetime,” according to Burton.
“I’ve been in politics for 22 years,” says Jones, “and it was the ugliest night I have ever seen in 22 years.”
Remember the guy in the Bush Administration who said (prior to the war, as part of the war sales effort) that the total cost of the Iraq war would be $2 billion? And remember all the Bush Administration people (e.g., Paul Wolfowitz) who said that the war would be paid for by Iraq’s oil sales? Today:
The war in Iraq could ultimately cost well over a trillion dollars — at least double what has already been spent — including the long-term costs of replacing damaged equipment, caring for wounded troops, and aiding the Iraqi government, according to a new government analysis.
The United States has already allocated more than $500 billion on the day-to-day combat operations of what are now 190,000 troops and a variety of reconstruction efforts.
In a report to lawmakers yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that even under the rosiest scenario — an immediate and substantial reduction of troops — American taxpayers will feel the financial consequences of the war for at least a decade.
The calculations include the estimated cost to leave some US forces behind for at least several years to support the Iraqi government, but they also predict other long-term costs, such as extended medical care and disability compensation for wounded soldiers and survivor’s benefits for the families of the thousands of combat-zone fatalities.
The cost of the war in Iraq and other military operations has soared to the point where “we are now spending on these activities more than 10 percent of all the government’s annually appropriated funds,” said Robert A. Sunshine, the budget office’s assistant director for budget analysis.
Those costs — both to sustain the current mission in Iraq and to pay longer-term “hidden” expenses like troop healthcare and replacement equipment — are far more than US officials advertised when Congress gave President Bush the authority to launch the invasion in March 2003.
At the time, the White House and then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld predicted a quick, decisive victory and counted on Iraqi oil revenues to pay for the war. And when Lawrence Lindsey, one of Bush’s top budget advisers, estimated in 2003 that the entire undertaking could cost as much as $200 billion, he was fired.
Even that estimate — which the Bush administration described at the time as far too high — was still well off the mark. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that as of June, up to $500 billion has been spent on combat operations in Iraq.
I used a new Treet Blue Special in my Slant this morning, with the expected result: an extremely smooth shave. The soap was a shave stick from Boots the Chemist, thanks to a reader abroad, and I used the Simpsons Duke 3 Best shaving brush—quite similar to the Chubby 1 Best, though I think I like the Duke a little better.
Very smooth shave, and finished with Royall Spyce aftershave. A good start to the day.
Written for the man who wants to enjoy his shave. User comment: "I bought this as a gift for my fiancé, along with a wet-shaving starting kit and a safety razor. He DEVOURED this book, and finds himself reading it again and again. He finally enjoys shaving. This book has helped him figure out so many things about wet shaving, and has recommended it to all of his friends and family. Truly a great source of information for any man."