Sous Chef Oscar
I don’t like to eat leftovers. Leftovers can be convenient for lunches or future dinners, but with the exception of chilis, stews or some soups, most recipes just don’t benefit from reheating. If a recipe doesn’t reheat well, it doesn’t freeze well. Making a single portion lets me eat good food and avoid leftovers.
It is easy to come home from work and order in or use processed food to throw together a dinner– that’s not healthy for my waistline or wallet. I need to make sure that cooking dinner is easier and better than ordering in or eating something already prepared.
A few principals of cooking for one before we start:
1) Season your food. Salt is why food in a restaurant tastes good. Use it.
2) Use garnishes like parsley, chives, a bit of cheese or nuts. Those little touches at the end really do improve the experience for very little effort.
3) Pay attention to presentation. When the food looks inviting, it tastes better. And, even though it seems counter-intuitive, when food looks inviting and tastes good, you actually eat less because it is more satisfying. So, if you are interested in losing weight, take time to make your food special.
I need something that is quick and easy to prepare and cleanup for those nights when I don’t feel like cooking. So, let’s start with the simplest method I know; the brown and bake. I want to make this feel like a composed dish by using two or more vegetables. It makes the meal feel more special than just tossing something together. To demonstrate the method, I’m making a chicken thigh with sweet potato and spinach.
1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Season a skin on, bone in chicken thigh with salt and pepper. Add a little oil or butter to an oven safe skillet, then add the chicken thigh, skin side down.
3. While the chicken browns, peel and chop a sweet potato into 1 inch pieces. Once the chicken skin is brown and crispy, add the sweet potato to the pan and season with a little salt. Put the pan into the oven keeping the chicken skin side down, and bake for 15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes, turn the chicken over and stir the sweet potato around, then return to the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes.
5. When the chicken is done (at least 165F – use a meat thermometer) remove from the oven, and put the chicken thigh on a plate.
6. Add spinach to the pan with the sweet potato and toss until the spinach wilts. Sprinkle on a little blue cheese and serve.
That’s it. Crispy chicken skin, soft sweet potatoes and tangy blue cheese paired with the slight bitterness of spinach. You have a satisfying dinner for one that looks and tastes like a composed dish in about one half hour and with little effort and an easy cleanup. Perfect for a weeknight.
Done!
This method is easily adaptable for a variety of proteins and vegetables. For example you could use new potatoes cut in half and tossed with a little fresh, chopped, rosemary before adding to the pan. Then toss with the spinach as above. A little blue or feta cheese works here as well. Butternut squash can also be substituted for the sweet potato.
Other variations:
Cut carrots and parsnips into matchsticks and toss with honey and cayenne pepper before adding to the pan. Top with a little chopped fresh chives.
Pair a thick pork shop with Brussels sprouts and apple. Cut the Brussels sprouts in half or quarters depending on the size. Cut the apple into pieces about the same size as the Brussels sprouts – add the apple at the halfway point.
Salmon works well, but choose vegetables that cook quickly – like asparagus and cherry tomatoes, finished with a splash of balsamic vinegar and some capers. Or, use green beans and mushrooms.
Your imagination is the only limit.
Next time I will talk about making a skillet dinner with a pan sauce.
Nice pussy.
Had to be said. ?
Thanks for this post, Tulip. I completely concur that people need to learn cooking improvisation and not be too intimidated to experiment. Cooking doesn’t need to be a major ordeal to be good!
My wife never uses recipes and comes up with fantastic stuff all of the time. I do use recipes, but also improvise and experiment with recipes.
I’m not much for cookbooks that are just collections of recipes, especially since we now have the internet, but I do love books that talk about cooking theory and technique. One that’s really good is The Improvisational Cook, it breaks down recipes and points out how to make variants. And one book that I recommend anyone interested in cooking look at is The Flavor Bible, it is almost entirely a list of what flavors match with what.
I love The Flavor Bible.
It’s much better then one of their other books, What to Drink with What you Eat. I expected the same level of detail, which exists for the wines (to my admittedly lacking wine knowledge) , but on the beer side they rarely give style examples. For example, for some of the foods, they say to pair it with “Ale” (which is about 80% of beer brewed, with flavors that range all over the place) or “Lager”, instead of saying to pair with a Stout or a Vienna Lager.
Read The Brewmaster’s Table.
I’ve read that one already, it’s a good one. Garrett Oliver knows his stuff, and he’s a solid speaker as well. I’ve got a documentary that includes a portion of a grape vs. grain pairing where he represented the beer side, and it’s hilarious. The closest I could find to it was this clip.
In a similar vein, the book “Ratios” by Michael Ruelman is great teaching how to make your own food without resorting to recipes.
There are ratios that provide a guide to most baking, marinades, sauces, etc.
I got this book for my wife and her baking game went from great to amazing.
“When you know a culinary ratio, it’s not like knowing a single recipe, it’s instantly knowing a thousand.
Why spend time sorting through the millions of cookie recipes available in books, magazines, and on the Internet? Isn’t it easier just to remember 1-2-3? That’s the ratio of ingredients that always make a basic, delicious cookie dough: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. From there, add anything you want—chocolate, lemon and orange zest, nuts, poppy seeds, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, almond extract, or peanut butter, to name a few favorite additions. Replace white sugar with brown for a darker, chewier cookie. Add baking powder and/or eggs for a lighter, airier texture.
Ratios are the starting point from which a thousand variations begin. ”
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1416571728/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517171125&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=ratios+cookbook&dpPl=1&dpID=51JIkVVObaL&ref=plSrch
Added to the shopping cart, appreciate the heads up.
Ditto that books sounds really helpful.
I’ve always improvised when cooking, but that book gave me the confidence to do it when baking.
Ratio and the Flavor Bible are 2 of my go-tos, along with anything by Harold McGee.
I also love Tamar Adler’s “The Everlasting Meal”.
Looking into it now, thx.
And, “Cooking for Geeks”
I also add Alton Brown to the list of book purchases. I did get tired of trying to explain to people the brilliance of the Mean Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe in Cooking for Geeks.
For those who don’t have the book he compiled a bunch of online chocolate chip cookie recipes and then averaged them. It includes notes like “Preheat oven to 354.17 F/178.98 C” and “Place parchment paper on one-third of cookie sheet”.
I blindly bought The Flavour Bible based on your reviews.
YOU BETTER NOT LET ME DOWN. I’M ONE MEAN MUPPET WHEN DISAPPOINTS.
I’m not sure what board game write-ups have to do with the Flavor Bible, but the book is really excellent for finding and reinforcing flavor pairings.
Nice, except the sweet potatoes, I would eat that. Also, cute kitty.
I’m making chicken soup right now because wife wanted chicken soup. Chicken breast pre-rubbed with spices and cut into small pieces, cilantro, oregano, some homemade salsa, okra, olive oil. That’s about it. I make a few variations of that. Most of the time I use mushrooms and rice instead of the okra.
How do you keep the okra from getting slimy?
Doesn’t matter, the soapweed kills it for me first. 😉
I feel so bad for you folks who can’t enjoy the wonderful flavor that is cilantro. BTW, the soup has very little cilantro in it. The fresh salsa I just made has more, but it’s still a small amount in a gallon of salsa. Doesn’t take much, the stuff is quite potent.
But I have to admit, I love that term ‘soapweed’, that’s funny. I have no idea why cilantro tastes like soap to some people. I don’t get that at all, it’s just an herbal likes spicy taste, I love the stuff.
have no idea why cilantro tastes like soap to some people.
OR6A2
Well, there it is. I’m glad I don’t suffer from that undesirable gene.
Exactly, it doesn’t take much!
I never got that, It has a Lemon taste to me, but the Wife says Soap
It is rather an astringent taste, but I never likened it to citrus. It’s quite unique, but pleasant for me. So happy I found a mate who also loves cilantro and spicy food. Latin women are the best.
Soaking okra in vinegar before cooking will cut down on the slime, as will cooking it at very high temperatures. Also, use smaller pods, they produce less slime, and make sure the okra is bone dry before cooking. Any extra moisture will help make me slime, so the dryer the okra the less slimey the finished dish.
Always use younger, smaller okra. It gets fibrous when too mature. In Brazil they have a different variant of Okra, the taste is the same, but it’s bigger and does not get fibrous like our Okra does. There’s also the Indian variety which I really like.
I’m assuming because the volume of water in the soup absorbs it. Anyway, I’ve been making gumbo soup with okra for decades and it doesn’t get slimy.
Gumbo soup? No further comment.
Yes, and everyone I’ve ever had try it, loves it. Spicy goodness.
There is no way to keep okra from being slimy and is why it should not be eaten by humans.
Yeah, except for that’s not true. It’s not slimy in soups or if you fry it. Okra is wonderful stuff.
Just because you cannot discern a slimy food when you eat it does not mean you can force okra on me.
It’s not slimy if I experience no perception of sliminess. Now eat your okra, comrade, or else!
That’s cool. That just means more for us with more advanced palates.
😉
Testing to see if new and improved Q without triggering URL can post…
Also, great article. The user submissions on this site blow 99% of the internet out of the water.
Success! HAHA!
Not to mention that the commentariat blow 100% of the internet out of the water. I know, I’m too modest.
For throwing random, marginally associated ingredients together that somehow end up being delicious, my go to is the Crock Pot. I think I could put lawn clippings, an old cowboy boot and a live pigeon in one, cook on low for 8-9 hours and it would be scrumptious.
You know, I’ve always wondered if there’s a use for all of that compressed clippings you have to clean out from under your lawnmower deck. Maybe Q has the answer.
One thing I like to do is when I cook bacon, I always make extra and keep in fridge. Nothing spruces up a meal like bacon. Plus if you also have pasta and a couple eggs on hand which must people do, you have pasta carbonara in 15 minutes any weeknight. I also have dozens of spices and blends on hand so that can make a huge difference in making sumpin’ outta nutten’ which I’m pretty good at. Some various assorted condiments on hand doesn’t hurt either. Airways try and have onions, peppers, and rice on hand as well.
“Extra bacon”
I’ve never ever had that.
If you’re the one cooking it, make sure that no one knows about the extra that you cooked and set aside. Of course if you’re the one eating all of the bacon, that is a different problem.
Thats impossible in my house. I put the extra bacon on top of the fridge only to find my, then three year old son to have climbed the counter, traversed the sink and sitting on the fridge–munching on bacon.
So we just assume that you don’t have a cat.
That’s a good assumption.
I once had three. They will literally go into a death match fight over bacon. It’s worse than putting a bunch of women in the workplace together.
Huh. My cats are completely uninterested in bacon.
They’ll come running when I open a can of tuna or open up some deli turkey, though.
I think cats are like libertarians, you can’t herd them. I had one who loved canned cat food and would snub his nose at an open can of tuna.
I had one once who was nuts for bread, of all things.
Speaking of weird pets, I had an Aussie dog whose favorite foods were brussels sprouts and broccoli. He also loved beer and wine.
Mine likes to watch water go down the drain. My washing machine empties into the laundry sink and when he hears the spin cycle start he freezes and then races down stairs.
Does he like to drink from the faucet also? I’ve had several cats who would go to the sink when I’m in the bathroom and meow for me to turn the faucet on to drink from and stick their paws in to use to groom themselves.
I used to have a fountain for him, but he would just drink from the dog’s bowl.
A lot of cats like to drink from a faucet. I think cats prefer to drink from running water (as opposed to stagnant) in the wild too. It makes sense.
Is he still a circus monkey?
That reminds me, we’re out of bacon. Wife talked me into buying 5 lbs instead of 2 next time. And next time is tomorrow. In the meantime, the soapweed soup is done, just needs to simmer now.
I cooked a big batch (almost 2 gallons) of green soup yesterday. We’ll see what it contributes to the weight loss program.
Not sure what’s in green soup, but that reminds me of a soup wifey makes. It’s called caldo verde and the green part is actually collard greens. It’s really good.
I love collard greens.
Kale, swiss chard and spinach are the bulk – this batch included a couple of leeks. Starts with carmelized onions & garlic, celery, scallions and some basil. And I use chicken stock since I’m not trying to be a veggie purist. Also some cayenne pepper, black pepper and lemon juice. Let all that cook down, blend til smooth and then blend in some fresh avocado for a creamy texture (also tones down the cayenne as I tend to be a little heavy handed with that).
Mmm, sounds good. Heavy handed with cayenne? How is that possible? Cayenne is elixir of the gods.
Thanks for this. Friday dinner planned. Crusty bread. Maybe some homemade parmesan/cheddar bread.
Prep note I overlooked (you might have found it if you consulted a recipe) – cut the stems out of the chard (especially red) and kale. I discard it, but others suggest saving it for some other use.
?
I do that too, nothing like a little bacon as a garnish.
We make crumbles out of it also and put on salads, which is more than 50% of what we eat.
I usually bring a salad for lunch.
I do that every day. Salad and a little meat.
Yep. I am thinking of post on salads you want to eat, and making single portion dressings.
Looking forward to your next post, Tulip. I think we should have a section like this is in the Glib cookbook.
One note I forgot. If the vegetables are done before the protein, just take them out. You can put foil over the plate to keep them warm. I just put them on a plate and put it in the microwave, which is over the stove and stays warm. It also keeps my food safe from sous chef Oscar.
I just wait to put in ingredients that cook faster. For instance, if I use shrimp in anything, I throw it in at last moment and then turn the heat off, it will cook just from the heat of the other stuff. I hate how most people overcook shrimp and turn it into orange rubber.
Timing is everything, presentation is important, but I like all the Dishes ready at the exact same time, Juggling in the Kitchen!
It’s really easy for us now that most of what we eat is uncooked greens. I typically prepare salad while the wife maybe cooks something. Last night she made fried chicken that was awesome. Today she asked me to make chicken soup, since I’m the master soup maker in the house. I don’t know what’s up with this chicken thing as of late, but whatever, chicken is good food.
I cook for one as well and it can be a pain. I end up throwing away a lot of food. I usually make enough for two servings and do leftovers for lunches, but sometimes stuff just needs to be chucked.
Tonight’s dinner with a movie: layer nacho cheese doritos on a baking sheet and cover with colby/jack. Add another layer of doritos and cover with colby/jack. Top with pickled jalepenos and serve with a bowl of chili.
Pickled jalapenos, yummy.
Nice Job Tulip! Only difference is I bake at 350 not 400. Once the Kids moved out, we had to adjust our recipes to avoid leftovers, so I went Spontaneous, with Pork, Beef and a crock pot.
I find the skin is crispier at 400.
Damnit, I miss John and Eddie. There are no good fights on Glib now! What have you wrought, you shitlords!?
I don’t miss them in the least.
Tis the season. My in laws gave us 5 pounds of lemons again. I guess tonight I’ll be having lemon chicken.
Can I have one to make a lemon slice to put in my last weizenbock? Oh, never mind, it’s gone.
Nice. I cook for one too & always looking for easy ideas.
Looking forward to pan sauces!
Brazilians kill me. Listening to wife talking on phone and none to my surprise, when they talk about facebook, it actually comes out ‘facee bukee’. LOL, I love those guys, well at least one of them.
I’ve heard “Patreekee” for “Patrick”. And it was spelled the same as ours. Don’t know why they do that.
Because they like putting long vowel sounds at the end of words. It’s very common in the language. I first noticed this when I first met my wife and she referred to the jeep I was driving as my ‘jeepee’ They really do this with everything. Club is ‘cloobee’, for example. My wife still has a habit of doing this even though her English is very good now.
“”Brazilians kill me.””
1. Insert tasteless joke about planting two lips
2. Kimberly Strassel looks weird on TV. Like one of Cartman’s soulless gingers.
She looked better when she was younger. Still one of the better columnists in the Wall Street Journal.
And I think she’s strawberry blonde. I don’t think she’s a redhead
Kimberly Strassel has beady little black eyes. She’d look fine as ever if she’d just go with the makeup they used to give her. She was cuter with the crooked teeth too.
Chicken thighs are the jam, but I usually do them on the stove the whole time. Chicken thighs are one of those awesome things you can pick up from the meat section that are versatile and cheap. Pork is another one. Beef is oftentimes pretty expensive lately, but if you get “stew cuts” you can do a lot of different things, from actual stew to stir fry type stuff.
I found that there are two schools of cooking that prepare you well for spontaneous, easy, cheap cooking, even for one: Italian and French. From French cuisine you learn sauces, and once you can make basic sauces you’ve pretty much already made the meal, and they’re very easy. Hell, just knowing that you can deglaze a pan with wine and end up with a sauce that will cover up whatever culinary sins you’ve committed against the cut of meat that just came out is a big help. From Italian cuisine you learn the importance of fresh ingredients and that the best foods are simple.
If you like playing with stew cuts, try getting a sous vide when they’re on sale.
In my mind, a nicely seasoned chuck roast cooked for 24 hours at about 130F will rival a prime rib any day of the week. In fact, sometimes I prefer it,
Just salt, pepper, and raw garlic (limited to 6 hours maximum contact time with the beef, otherwise it starts tasting weird.). Blacken in the oven for 8-10 minutes at 500F, slice, and serve.
Interesting. I’m on the fence about sous vide. I have a buddy who did a brisket entirely sous vide and I have to confess I wasn’t wild about the texture. It tasted a little like what I imagine synthetic beef would taste like. On the other hand, he did a couple racks of ribs and then finished them under a broiler and they were fantastic. I think I’ve got to have that browning.
By far, the best brisket I’ve ever had is sous vide.
There’s room for mistakes if you have the wrong recipe.
If you’re curious, google “Chef Steps Smokerless Brisket”. It’s better than Franklin’s. Not even close.
I want to add a sous vide to the wedding registry. My fiancee and I have lived together for several years, so we don’t have a lot of household goods we need, but I have a fair amount of kitchen gadgetry I want.
So which one should I add to the Amazon registry?
Get a stick. You can use it in any container. I have the Sous Vide supreme, and it’s too bulky. I ended up getting a Gourmia, which I use several times a week.
My friend uses those Lexan Cambro rectangular tubs and puts a stick in. According to him, it’s cheaper and it’s much more versatile. He did a turkey in a five-gallon bucket.
Yes. But, “home-brew” insulation helps. I did a massive turkey for TG 2017, and it took forever to get the water to temperature in the Lexan tub. I ended up wrapping it in baby blankets that I had stored in the garage.
Yeah that was my main thing, if a stick was just as good as an actual unit.
alright, Gourmia added to registry.
Do you need to vacuum seal stuff, or will a freezer bag rolled and clipped for minimum air work?
A stick is better, and a fraction of the price. You’ll find excuses to use it, even when you don’t need to.
I stopped vacuum sealing most things a few years ago. For things like steaks and roasts, the displacement method with a ziplock bag is more than adequate.
If you’re cooking things that are irregularly shaped (i.e. chicken wings, which I’ve never done in a water bath), vacuuming can help get rid of the air bubbles. Or, you can just weight it down for even heating.
Great article, Tulip. Oscar is adorable. Hat tip to Suthenboy for my dinner. We made a variant of the Swedish meatball framework he posted in the Saturday morning lynx.
I missed it the Swedish meatballs! I’ll have to go look.
There wasn’t much to it; just a short post but more than enough to get started.
Thanks!
Needs fresh parsley
I ran out of beer. Back to rum. Burnt oak barrels… yummy.
OT, we watched Hacksaw Ridge this afternoon (had recorded it a while back). What a movie, and what a story.
I think it was in one of Ambrose’s books where he related the story of how the COs who served as medics got teased or even outright physically assaulted through training camp and in barracks, right up until the first time the unit saw combat…..and then no one ever said shit to them ever again.
I will say though, on a more artistic/cultural note, it seems to be impossible to make a real war movie anymore, where the heros are fighting soldiers who are killing the enemy. Black Hawk Down was probably the last one. A blockbuster, big budget, modern SFX remake of The Longest Day or A Bridge Too Far would rake in over a billion, no doubt in my mind. But they won’t make it.
Dunkirk was basically a traditional war movie.
I haven’t yet watched it, but obviously the events depicted are of a defeat and a retreat. Yes, a retreat that staved off total disaster, but still a defeat. It’s one of those things that counters the whole “Hollywood just wants to make money!!!” line for me. Pearl Harbor was a fucking awful movie, and it made a profit of 300 million dollars. Like, if you did an actually well done old fashioned war movie, it would make a billion.
Like, shit…..if you did an epic bloody R rated movie covering the fight for Guadalcanal, the whole thing, the Chinese market would fucking eat it up, and so would the American market. The initial invasion, the Navy sailing away, the Marines hanging on by a thread, the Cactus Air Force, the fight against the Tokyo Express. It wouldn’t be artistically difficult at all, just costly. You could make it for 250 or 300 million and I bet you it would sell 1.5 billion.
Like, is Hollywood that fucking stupid?
Fury did pretty well.
Budget
$80 million (gross)[4]
$66.5 million (net)[4]
Box office $211.8 million[5]
Fury was pretty much a “war is hell, and turns people to shit” movie, though. I argued that War Daddy is the antagonist of the movie.
“war is hell, and turns people to shit”
Heroism aside, that is generally true.
Tali Ihantala is a Finnish war movie that’s basically that. To the point that it has characters just drop halfway through the movie because their role in the battle is finished. It jumps around a lot (General in charge of the armoured division, his son manning an assault gun, crew of a captured Soviet tank, Swedish volunteer battalion) but it’s an old-school war movie with some cool restored vehicles showing up (T-34s, Stug, KV-1).
I think for WW2 specifically, lack of functional equipment is a big problem – you want badass tanks on screen, but the originals are 70 years old, CGI can’t replicate the feel of the real thing, and if you swap in more recent vehicles (like Leopard tanks in Bridge Too Far) it doesn’t look quite as good. Sans tanks, you might be able to do ‘special force team does stuff’ in the vein of Guns of Navarrone or Where Eagles Dare, but that’s usually more of action-heist than war movie.
Speaking of equipment, that stuck out to me in HR, there were a number of BARs in the unit, the M3 carried by the Sgt, 2 or 3 Thompsons, quite a few carbines and seemingly not that many M1s. Was that accurate? It seemed a little odd to me.
Carbines, far as I know, were reserved for support troops and maybe officers. IIRC US Army issued one BAR per squad, Marines by 1944 a lot more, and soldiers would seek to acquire as many as possible. SMGs were for NCOs, so bulk of troops should be using M1 Garands (as opposed to M1 Carbines, fucking US Army stupid designations).
Basically this^. Infantry would have been pretty much all Garands and 1 BAR. The BAR is heavy and was an impediment to rapid movement, so a unit wouldn’t by choice lug more than they needed.
Tankers, artillery, transport and support were usually M1 Carbines and sidearms. The general idea there being you’re in the shit and being attacked, you don’t need (and don’t have the space or time) to deal with a battle rifle. You’re probably in a shitload of trouble- you don’t need something that will reach out and touch someone 300 yards away, and you certainly didn’t want to be carrying a load of 30-06 ammo.
The M3 was phased in thru’ 1942-43 and from what I can tell, wasn’t very popular. The design was continuously refined thru’ to about late 1948, and even at its best, it was never considered to be field maintainable. If it broke, you threw it away. The Thompson was a far more popular weapon, but it wasn’t without problems of its own; the British shipped back all the drum mags to the US in exchange for far lower capacity box mags. They were hard to maintain, and weren’t great for field stripping to clear malfunctions. Both guns were lousy in thick cover, common in the Pacific theater, and were often abandoned in preference to a second BAR (despite the encumbrance).
That would be because, despite the encumbrance, the BAR put out more firepower than any other man portable weapon in the inventory. SMGs are fun and all, but for serious work, you need a rifle.
The soldiers of Doss’ company aren’t portrayed unheroically, nor are they just background to his story. Not sure how you could ask for more fierce combat than what I just watched.
I just have to link this, to prove a point. We cannot, apparently, rid ourselves of the Luddites. And their newest comrades, appear to be the SJWs and feminists.
Whenever an article of this type appears, the luddites come crawling out of their slimiest and lowest inhabitations. The difference here is that it’s one of the luddites who penned the article and instigated the luddite outrage.
Luddite alert
Fuck these mentally underdeveloped cretins.
Oh god, 2nd sentence and I’m tapping out.
Christ, what an asshole!
–You are a body, only a body, and nothing more.
anti-science AND anti-religion!
#metoo
Dumbass doesn’t even research in the paper she writes for. Yes, immortality for the invulnerable. Cue the cats puking to techno.
My favorite Medal of Honor winner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_Harrison_Smith
Short, 32 years old, a bibliophile- he was not a typical solider
***
Smith quickly gained a reputation as a stubborn and obnoxious airman who did not get along well with the other airmen stationed there
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It was during his first mission, on May 1, 1943 that Staff Sergeant Smith, who was assigned to the ball gun turret, helped save the lives of six of his wounded comrades, put out a blazing fire, and drove off wave after wave of German fighters.
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Staff Sergeant Smith’s bomber was hit, rupturing the fuel tanks and igniting a massive fire in the center of the fuselage. The damage to the aircraft was severe, knocking out communications and compromising the fuselage’s integrity. Smith’s ball turret lost power and he scrambled out to assist the other crew members. Three crew members bailed out, while Smith tended to two others who were seriously wounded.
Smith manning a machine gun
In between helping his wounded comrades, Smith also manned the .50 caliber machine guns and fought the raging fire. The heat from the fire was so intense that it had begun to melt the metal in the fuselage, threatening to break the plane in half.
For nearly 90 minutes, Smith alternated between shooting at the attacking fighters, tending to his wounded crew members and fighting the fire. To starve the fire of fuel, he threw burning debris and exploding ammunition through the large holes that the fire had melted in the fuselage. After the fire extinguishers were exhausted, Smith finally managed to put the fire out, in part by urinating on it.
Staff Sergeant Smith’s bomber reached England and landed at the first available airfield, where it broke in half as it touched down. Smith’s bomber had been hit with more than 3,500 bullets and pieces of shrapnel.
The three crew members who bailed out were never recovered and presumed lost at sea, but Smith’s efforts on that day undoubtedly saved the lives of six others aboard his aircraft.
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Smith was assigned to KP duty the week that he was awarded the Medal of Honor as punishment for arriving late to a briefing. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson placed the medal around Smith’s neck during a formation.
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But the story doesn’t end there. After the war, he had several failed businesses, including an erection ointment he dubbed Firmo. His reputation increased when he talked a suicidal woman off a balcony, until it was later revealed the rescue had been staged.
He eventually succeeded in business and reconnected with his estranged son. He spent later years in Florida researching UFOs and paranormal phenomena.
I always liked Ben Salomon’s last stand. Don’t fuck with the dentist. Shugart and Gordon’s last fight is up there too. I confess I have a certain weakness for imperial grunts, of any time and place.
YouTube recommended me 7 One-Man Last Stands, some of which I knew about and some which were new (like Ben Salomon). If you ever wondered, “did Portugal have a real badass in 20th century?” the video answers “Fuck. Yes.”
This story is epic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibor_Rubin
***
In 1949, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army. He failed the English language test, but tried again in 1950 and passed with some judicious help from two fellow test-takers.
…
By July 1950, Private First Class Rubin found himself fighting in South Korea with I Company, Eighth Cavalry Regiment, First Cavalry Division.[9] According to lengthy affidavits submitted by nearly a dozen men who served with Rubin in South and North Korea, mostly self-described “country boys” from the South and Midwest, an antisemitic sergeant named Arthur Peyton consistently “volunteered” Rubin for the most dangerous patrols and missions.
…
For this and other acts of bravery, Rubin was recommended four times for the Medal of Honor by two of his commanding officers. Both officers were killed in action shortly afterwards, but not before ordering Rubin’s sergeant to begin the necessary paperwork recommending Rubin for the Medal of Honor.
…
Toward the end of October 1950, massive Chinese troop concentrations had crossed the border into North Korea and were attacking the unprepared American troops now trapped far inside North Korea. Most of Rubin’s regiment had been killed or captured. Rubin, severely wounded, was captured and spent the next 30 months in a prisoner of war camp.
Faced with constant hunger, filth, and disease, most of the GIs simply gave up. “No one wanted to help anyone. Everybody was for himself”, wrote Leo A. Cormier Jr., a former sergeant and POW. The exception was Rubin. Almost every evening, Rubin would sneak out of the prison camp to steal food from the Chinese and North Korean supply depots, knowing that he would be shot if caught. “He shared the food evenly among the GIs,” Cormier wrote. “He also took care of us, nursed us, carried us to the latrine…, he did many good deeds, which he told us were mitzvahs in the Jewish tradition… he was a very religious Jew and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him”. The survivors of the prison war camp credited Rubin with keeping them alive and saving at least 40 American soldiers.
***
This was 1950. The Holocaust was fresh in the world’s mind. How the fuck could someone who most likely saw action against the Axis be an antisemite?
***
Judge Thurmond resigned from the bench to serve in the U.S. Army, rising to lieutenant colonel. In the Battle of Normandy (June 6 – August 25, 1944), he landed in a glider attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. For his military service, he received 18 decorations, medals and awards, including the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star with Valor device, Purple Heart, World War II Victory Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Belgium’s Order of the Crown and France’s Croix de Guerre.
***
And the he went back to being a racist jackass.
I just ate mojo chicken and saffron pilaf. I was good.
Um, it was good.
I ate Waffle House for the 2nd time in 5 days.
waffles >>>>>>>>>>>> pancakes
The choicest derp from Hyp’s luddite article
***
The people publicly championing life extension are mainly men.
…
I came across Mr. Nygard’s ode to human endurance three years ago while beginning research on a novel about a woman who can’t die, and watching that video allowed me to experience something close to life extension. As Mr. Nygard compared himself to Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin while dancing with a bevy of models — or as a voice-over explained, “living a life most can only dream of” — nine minutes of YouTube expanded into a vapid eternity, where time melted into a vortex of solipsism.
At that time I was immersed in caring for my four young children, and this paean to everlasting youth seemed especially stupid. I recall thinking that if this was eternal life, death didn’t seem that bad.
But now, as powerful men have begun falling like dominoes under accusations of sexual assault, that video with its young women clustered around an elderly multimillionaire has haunted me anew. As I recall my discomfort with the proclamations of longevity-driven men who hope to achieve “escape velocity,” I think of the astonishing hubris of the Harvey Weinsteins of the world, those who saw young women’s bodies as theirs for the taking.
…
Only for a nanosecond of human history have men even slightly shared what was once exclusively a woman’s burden: the relentless daily labor of caring for another person’s body, the life-preserving work of cleaning feces and vomit, the constant cycle of cooking and feeding and blanketing and bathing, whether for the young, the ill or the old. For nearly as long as there have been humans, being a female human has meant a daily nonoptional immersion in the fragility of human life and the endless effort required to sustain it.
…
The most obvious cure for today’s gender inequities is to put more women in power. But if we really hope to create an equal society, we will also need more men to care for the powerless — more women in the boardroom, but also more men at the nurses’ station and the changing table, immersed in daily physical empathy. If that sounds like an evolutionary impossibility, well, it doesn’t violate the laws of physics, so we can achieve it. It is surely worth at least as much investment as defeating death.
***
How dare old, wealthy men cavort with young, beautiful women! Men have never done any jobs that are unpleasant or dangerous! More female CEOs and more male kindergarten teachers!
Sandy Shaw is a woman.
Sneering condescension + social justice hooey = NYT shoo-in
Hell, isn’t that Pulitzer consideration?
I’m pretty sure you have to fellate a communist dictator to get that.
Tulip, my compliments!
I like that you use a gas stove- electric is an abomination. And I’ve just started using a cast iron skillet like yours (mine is a Lodge, Festivus gift from Heroic Mulatto) and have been delighted with the results- this seems much, much better than the cast iron of yesteryear. I’m using my All-Clad saute pan and Matfer carbon steel frying pan less.
Improv is key. Once you get basic techniques down, it’s just a matter of using your chops and feel for flavor balance to make a dish work. And you also pointed out something that my favorite chef of all time taught me: “Home cooking suffers from the same common defects: not enough salt, not enough butter, and not enough heat.”
How can any serious cook, cook electric? When there’s no choice? There’s no other answer.
Meh, It’s what you are used to. I have an ancient ‘lectric range and about 4 square feet of counter space at home, My sister has a restaurant quality gas range in a kitchen the size of my house. I cook circles around her. Even when I house sit for her I don’t notice any improvement on my skills just because I have her deluxe kitchen at my disposal.
From what I know, electric is better for baking, while gas is better for a cook top.
I, like Tulip and OMWC below, made a gas line to the kitchen a must have when I was house hunting.
Once in new construction and once as a remodel I ended up with dual electric ovens and gas range. Currently making due with gas stove. Electric ovens are superior and I’m not even the baker in the family.
There was an Anthony Bourdain about Montreal I believe where he went to this hipster restaurant where all the cooking was done on crappy apartment-grade stoves and ovens, toaster ovens, shit like that, and the stoves were electric. IIRC, the way they worked it was they a.) cooked stuff using techniques that pretty much stayed at a given temperature, and b.) had the coils going at different temperatures, so that there was a “high” one, a “medium” one, and a “low” one, and they’d move the pans rather than adjust the coils. Seemed like a lot of trouble for a gimmick.
Gas cooking was one of my no compromise criteria when I was house hunting.
Us as well. And the oven had to fit our pizza stones.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an electric stove. Is it a regional thing?
Definitely harder to find in areas that use natural gas heating.
Sadly my kitchen has one anyway. They’re definitely harder to cook on.
My parents installed an electric stove when they remodeled. Of course, the house is on a 1000-foot hilltop driveway, so the propane company never wanted to deliver in the winter if they could avoid it.
“California Woman Sues Walmart for Racism over Products in Locked Cases
A California woman is suing Walmart, claiming that the store’s policy to lock certain products subject to a higher rate of shoplifting inside glass cases is racist.
Essie Grundy is taking a Walmart in Perris, California, to court, saying she felt like a second-class citizen because items popular with black customers were locked behind glass doors, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Grundy explained that she originally bought a small comb in another Walmart outside her neighborhood and wanted to get more as gifts, but when she went to the location near her, she found the 50-cent items inside locked glass cases.
“I noticed all of the African American products was locked up under lock and key,” Grundy said at a press conference spearheaded by activist lawyer Gloria Allred.”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/27/california-woman-sues-walmart-racism-products-locked-cases/
TW: Breitbart
“Would you like to pay a dollar instead of fifty cents?”
Same kind of argument used to try and ban Plexiglas barriers at convenience stores. I guess it’s racist to not want to get robbed.
***
For Jeff Liu, the thick plexiglass window that separates him from patrons at his Germantown beer deli, Kenny’s Seafood & Steak, is a matter of safety. For City Councilwoman Cindy Bass, the barrier window is an insult.
The plexiglass partition serves to protect workers from crime, but it also cuts them off from customers — a literal and metaphorical divider between their worlds.
Several years ago, after Liu argued with a man selling drugs in the Wayne Avenue deli’s lobby, the man returned with a rifle and shot Liu’s car, shattering its windows, Liu said.
Bass says the windows only foster a sense that the establishment – more specifically, its clientele – is dangerous. And that too many of those stores masquerade as eateries when their biggest sales draw is alcohol, feeding vices in the city’s struggling neighborhoods.
“It’s an indignity” to buy a meal through such a window, she said.
[…]Yale sociology professor Elijah Anderson, who has written extensively on Philadelphia’s urban environment said the plexiglass window sets up “a symbol of distrust” in neighborhoods where many African Americans live.
“Of course some people are bad, but most people who come to that window are good, and they’re not trusted either. That angers, alienates them,” said Anderson, who previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania. “They know they’re civil, honest people. They’re hit with this symbol of distrust and it works on your psyche in subtle ways. You know that you’re devalued as a customer.”
But Adam Xu, 54, chairman of the Asian American Licensed Beverage Association of Philadelphia, said the protective window should be a business owner’s choice. His association represents 217 beer delis in the city, about 70 percent of which are owned by people who are ethnic Chinese and another 20 percent of Korean descent.
“Most of our businesses,” he said, “are in not-as-safe neighborhoods.”
***
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-05/plexiglass-racist-philadelpia
If its such an indignity, don’t eat there.
I have some choice words for that woman but my mama taught me better than that.
You got it all wrong- she did it for the children, you see. From the ever-trustworthy Snopes:
https://www.snopes.com/2017/12/12/philadelphia-bulletproof-glass-racist/
***
Would you feel safe with an illegal liquor store next door to you, selling shots of cheap booze at 10 a.m. to loitering alcoholics? That’s what my bill debated last week by a City Council committee is about. Unfortunately, the bill has been mischaracterized by the people who run those stores – people who are exploiting a loophole in state law and hurting the neediest neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
[…]
Unfortunately, “stop-and-go” outlets – which are now trying to rebrand themselves as “beer delis” – have popped up in many poor neighborhoods in Philadelphia. They sell bottles of beer to drink off premises and shots of liquor for people to drink on the spot. Oh, and they also sell candy-flavored cigarillos to get kids hooked on smoking and big boxes of cold medicines that can be turned into street drugs, but they don’t sell much else.
[…]
Legally, the city cannot regulate alcohol sales. But it can set standards for restaurants, and outlets must maintain restaurant licenses to keep their liquor licenses.
***
Bzzzt. Try again.
Of course they is illegal – they ain’t contributin’ to my campaign!
you notice how one side is constantly talking in terms of “Symbols” and “sense of” and “fostering an environment of” and being “devalued” blah blah blah….
…while the other side talks in terms of “actual risk” and “examples of events” … aka “the real world”?
“sure, there is some crime, but most people are good”: as tho this is an argument.
The US embassy in Iraq doesn’t put up security barriers because EVERYONE is a terrorist: they do it because some people – a minority – want to blow it up.
In any sane world, people would look at the community, and say, “The problem isn’t that the stores serving these communities are scared of risk”; the problem would be “risk is too high”.
If the alternative is between security and no security, most businesses would simply stop serving these high-risk communities.
The councilwoman is doing what shitty rabble rousers have done in black communities going back decades: demonize the asian shop-owners, as though they’re ‘parasites’ to the black community, rather than the only people willing to risk serving them.
The city councillors are obviously anti-Asian.
…products was locked up under lock and key
The state of California education these days.
Gloria Allred.
If i were a god fearing person i’d probably throw holy water on her just to see if she’d explode in a ball of satanic fire.
Good article and I’m looking forward to the pan sauce one next.
I get a ton of use out of my cast iron skillet too.
“I got banned for having an African cooking stream today on Twitch because they thought it was offensive. My mom is black, I was raised by her -a black woman. They just assumed my race and banned me. I have DNA testing to prove this. Here is the email they sent me.”
https://twitter.com/BrittanyVenti/status/957379376080916481
Reading the comments sounds like she’s being a bit disingenuous.
You think someone would do that? Go on the Internet and tell lies? Well, me, sitting here in my tropical retreat poolside, balancing my laptop on my washboard abs while I watch my harem swim, I have never heard of such a thing.
Dunphy, is that you?
Something something Morgan Fairchild surfing hth smooches.
lol-busted
Chicagoland glibs. I am going to be in the area (Elmhurst) and would appreciate eatery suggestions. Lunch time joints mainly as my evenings will be filled with beating some decency, consideration, and respect into the spoiled and ungrateful pigs that claim to be my nieces and nephew. Burger and BBQ type joints are my faves but I’d entertain any ideas, such as the Afghan place OMWC mentioned in the AM links.
Latest news about Elon Musk/Hank Scorpio https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/27/boring-company-flamethrower/
I will have you know that I just successfully employed a female argumentative technique and I am quite happy to say that they hate it when ‘we’ do it
Is that the one where you admit you shouldn’t have done X, but you wouldn’t have been forced to do X if they hadn’t done Y?
Nope, I did the “do you want to keep talking about it” after she was caught being wrong on a situation and she tried play the overly guilty card
If a man says something in the woods and no woman is there to hear him, is he still wrong?
The man is always wrong. And if you can’t blame the man, blame God.
At least, that’s what I learned from Mom’s decades of screaming fits.
Brought up something that happened 20 years ago?
“I just successfully employed a female argumentative technique and I am quite happy to say that they hate it when ‘we’ do it”
So how’s sleeping on the couch working out?
He may have a spare hot rock in the guest terrarium.
Actually she was rather cowed…meanwhile my current alcohol consumption will preclude any concerns about sleeping arrangements
+1 Jai Alai
I think they call it “slightly smaller rock”.
Was it more satisfying than an orbital nuclear bombardment?
Being sure
Always!
“You’re just getting mad at me because I’m mad at you for something you did wrong.”
Today’s Race track,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sze77kZmoWlozPk2
Lots of in car camera, Throw up cam!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyV3hG1iXnk&list=PLOzWB7QtgFirUXGzbHNt2FvMGwUhOY4eG
Cool. What do the cars look like?
Here’s 1 of 14, they are about 1/28 scale, and I did custom paint and decals, kinda cartoonish, but they race Awesome
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vyeetbbhGYZdTjpl1
Camel Racing,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5U5hAuxlF64hYRe02
Oh how I laughed.
Katy Tur crush on Donald Trump tribute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1Y0RKuM7DQ
Would. Reminds me a little of Erin Andrews.
The best trolling is the one that’s plausible. There was a funny meme of a bunch of prog women posting “EWWW I JUST HAD A SEX DREAM ABOUT DONALD TRUMP!!!!”
Was it PJ O’Rourke? “No one ever fantasized about being tied up and ravished by a liberal.”
In rare moment of double stupidity, also known as a derp eclipse, Maxine Waters mistakenly yells at Katy Tur.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTbjUfx9B9Y
Rare?
I fell asleep on the couch in front of the fire on a dreary Sunday and while it was nice…I missed your article Tulip. Damn.
It’s just the wife and I now, no kids. We dont eat that much anymore. It sure saves on groceries but I have had some trouble learning to cook in smaller amounts. I think I just about have it down but need a little more practice.
Our kids are gone too but we’ll still cook a family size meal and then use leftovers for lunches.
Yeah it’s just me and the fiancee, and I cook everything in big batches. I would rather cook something we each eat two or three times than cook every night.
I like sending people over here, Just got me an Aussie! YARG!
Thank you Glibertarians for giving me the opportunity to talk about cooking!