#874
10:09 pm, Sunday, July 22nd, 2007So tonight’s dinner was pretty “haute cuisine” compared to my typical cookery: Tilapia Francese with baked potato. (It was supposed to be Flounder Francese, but the store didn’t have any. Tilapia’s a good substitute though; it’s firm, which is important for pan frying.)
I fried the seasoned, floured, and egg-dredged fillets in an EVOO (yes, it’s a Rachel Ray term, but typing it all out gets tiresome) and butter mixture with two cloves of minced garlic. When the fillets were finished I set them aside and cranked the heat up so I could deglaze with some of Brett’s sauvignon blanc. Then I added a little milk, sour cream, some lemon zest (and juice), some herbs de provence, and capers. Topped the tilapia with toasted, sliced almonds and covered with the sauce (now reduced by two-thirds). Very fancy. First time I’ve ever cooked with capers (which taste kind of like a piquant, generically-herby pickle when eaten alone, IMHO).
The chives I topped the baked potatoes with are actually from a live plant Brett brought back from Spokane this weekend (he was up there for a mini-family reunion for a couple days). The red and black plates are also his doing — he finally used the Fred Meyer gift card he got for Christmas. (He would’ve used it sooner, but there aren’t any Fred Meyers near Pullman.)
I’m getting towards the end of the second season of Sports Night. It’s weird what’s happening to the show — it’s getting much better but I’m hating the characters more and more. Especially Dana. Ugh, irrational women! Dan’s increasing emo-ness is pretty disgusting too. Yet it’s getting more interesting. I hope they don’t end the series with a cliffhanger.
Also been watching season four of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.
(Tangent: How annoying is it that the title of that show ends with a punctuation mark? I want to end my sentence there, but I don’t want to shout it. And there’s something so uncomfortable about putting a period right next to an exclamation point when it’s not part of an ellipsis…)
I have mixed feelings about their show. I think Penn Jillette is an annoying blowhard and I hate their morals (e.g. thinking parents that have extra-marital affairs aren’t harming their kids by doing so, regularly hiring prostitutes is a healthy behavior, etc.), but I love their politics. They really embrace a pure, libertarian view of the role government should play. I just think it’s just a little disappointing that they don’t draw enough of a distinction between what should be allowed and what’s right.
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:22 pm
What evidence, other than anecdotal, do you have that extramarital affairs are harmful to anyone? It’s a very difficult thing to study since it’s impossible to have a control group on the same people. As soon as you take imaginary friends and fictional books with morals out of the equation, it becomes very difficult to say there is any basis for monogamy.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
The funny thing about that, is if you add two words, and remove one, it’s still true, but it’s the opposite argument:
“What evidence, other than anecdotal, do you have that extramarital affairs are not harmful to anyone? It’s a very difficult thing to study since it’s impossible to have a control group on the same people. As soon as you take imaginary friends and fictional books with morals out of the equation, it becomes very difficult to say there is no basis for monogamy.”
You’re perfectly right in that, in situations like this, science is nearly impotent.
But tell me, where are the anecdotes that show relationships and lives improved because of a lack of monogamy? If nothing else, monogamy is a solid choice to limit the spread of certain diseases.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
What evidence do you have, other than anecdotal, that they aren’t? There are a lot of behaviors that I’m sure are harmful. But not all of them have been the subject of studies to “officially” determine that. Should we assume something is healthy just because [insert organization here] hasn’t yet done a study on it?
I take it the “imaginary friends and fictional books” comments are a dig at religion. It’s hardly germane here because (a) I never cited such things in my statement above and (b) it’s not my touchstone for knowing what’s right and wrong in every situation. I really doubt most people need millenia-old texts to know that lying and cheating on their spouses is likely to create an unpleasant environment for their children.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hah, Robert and I took similar tacks almost simultaneously!
Edit: BTW, Robert, glad to see you were able to get back online.
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Only from the university computer lab so far, sadly.
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:41 pm
love the random folk who just wander upon peoples blogs making asses of themselves. “gee, why don’t this fella think like me?”
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Re: Amy: lol, no kidding — like that one super-hostile guy that came on yours a while back. At least “reader” is polite.
July 24th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
My pet theory is that they’re out googling their favorite topic and when one of us /dares/ to mention it, often in a negative context, it sets them off. I had one when I mentioned Dr. Dre some time ago.
July 24th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Clever! I like it — explains a lot.