Election Day Ecstasy

Here's the invite to an election event that I'm hosting.
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It's been long. It's been painful. But the election season is finally
coming to an end. To celebrate the end of Bush's tyranny and the
crowning of our next despot, we're going to have a potluck dinner to
watch the tallies come in. To show up, there are only two
requirements.

1) If you're a US citizen, you have to have voted. Now it doesn't
matter if you vote for Nader or just fill out a blank protest ballot,
but there are too many people who are impacted by the election and
can't vote to justify the rampant voter apathy in this country. So,
please fulfill your responsibilities. Ok, end of idealisitc rant :-D

2) You have to bring a dish that exemplifies what you really think of
Washington. There are some examples at the bottom. If you're doing one
of these, check with me first please, but this is your chance to be
creative :-)

Date: Election Day (Nov 4)

Please RSVP with how many people you're bringing by Nov 2 so that I
can get a body count.

Cheers,
Mark

P.S. You might want to bring a chair to sit on.

P.P.S Here's some dish suggestions with inspiration by Furlong, Maggie
and others.

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Two-Faced Slimeball Sandwiches
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Pumpernickel bread on one side
White Rye on the other
A pile of slimy ingredients which might include:
corned beef
sauerkraut
onions
mayo
mustard

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A Pile of Horseshit on Crackers
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cream cheese
melted bitter chocolate + cayenne pepper (for the savory version)
melted semi-sweet + candied orange rinds (for the sweet)
crushed crispix (for extra hay-like realism)

Mix ingredients together and server on your choice of crackers

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Your Future Going Up in Flames: A Flambe
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bananas
brown sugar
butter
banana liquor
rum
cinnamon
nutmet
mint (for garnish)

Melt copious amounts of butter and brown sugar in a pan at low heat.
Add rounds of bananas and cook until soft. When simmering, add liquor
and wait until it just starts to simmer again while stirring
constantly. Turn off the heat. Light the fumes with a BBQ starter. For
added show, thrown in cinnamon and nutmeg while the flames are burning
for sparkly goodness. When the show is over, server over ice cream and
garnish with some mint.

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Dirty Bastard Martini
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2 oz gin
1 oz dry vermouth
1 tbsp of olive juice
dash of hot sauce
2 olives

Pour ingredients (except olives) into shaker with some ice. Shake
until cool. Pour into chilled martini glass.

Camping Conundrum

This weekend, I led a backpacking trip to Seneca Creek, WV. Seven people decided to brave the first sub-zero temperatures of the season and see the last vestiges of the fall colours. However, before leaving on the trip, I had to answer one tough question: what to eat? Here, I was focusing on one dinner and one breakfast but, since we were backpacking, I obviously wanted to minimize weight and I only had a few cooking tools: a small backpacking stove, a pot and a fire.

For dinner, I decided to include a rustic sweet potato and leek soup.

Sweet Potato and Leek Soup
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White Sweet Potatoes (cubed)
Leeks cleaned and diced
onion diced
cloves of garlic
water to cover
salt & pepper to taste

This soup is really simple and is very sweet. Just put everything in the pot and simmer until the veggies are soft. If it's too sweet for you, use a mix of regular and sweet potatoes. Oh, and to make life easier, you can cut up the veggies before the trip and put them in ziplock bags.

With the soup, I wanted to cook some stuff on the fire. Well, the CSA gave me some fall squash this week. Noooooo! The Sox just lost! Bloody Rays and their fans who won't even show up for the ALCS. Anyway, squash. Since it's so good to roast, I figured why not just roast it in the fire. All you have to do is make a nice big campfire to get a bunch of coals, wait for the flames to die down. Then, take your squash, wrapped in tinfoil and let it sit in the coals until cooked. You'll know it's cooked when you can poke it with a stick and it's squishy. After trying different amounts of doneness, we found that it's ideal if the skin is black and blistered. Then just peel away the skin and gorge on smokey gooeyness inside. By far the best squash I've ever tasted! Don't eat the stringy stuff inside with all the seeds. Well you can, but it's not very good.

Campfire Squash
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Squash
Tin-foil
Hot Coals
Poking Stick

For breakfast, I went with my standard camping breakfast fare: oatmeal. There's so many variations on this stuff, it's nice and light and it gives you all the fuel for the entire day. This time, it being fall, I found some pomegranates on sale at the grocery store, so I added them for a nice burst of sweetness in every bite.

Camping Oatmeal
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Rolled Oats
Trail Mix (lots of dried fruits are the best, among others, I like candied ginger)
Pomegranate Seeds
Chunked Apple
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Brown Sugar (optional)
Water

Oatmeal is dirt easy to make. Just get a pot of water boiling. Pour in enough oatmeal so that there's some weight on your stirring spoon but it still looks pretty watery. If you're off, don't worry, you can adjust at the end. If the resulting oatmeal is too running for you, just wait for the water to boil away and if it's too thick, add some more water. I usually add all the trail mix now so that the dried fruit has time to rehydrate. The fresh fruit, I add a little later so that it doesn't turn to complete mush. Anyway, just boil away while stirring occasionally (about 5-10 minutes) until it's a consistency you like. Personally, I like my oatmeal th'c en'gh to st'nd 'n :-) At the end, stir in the spices and sugar.