Friday, July 3, 2009

Recipe from the TWiT Army Mess Hall - Frogmore Stew

Frogmore stew is a popular dish in the south that is very casual and often served poured out onto newspapers so that everyone can sit around the table and help themselves. If you have a large enough pot the recipe is expandable indefinitely so what I've listed below is the proportions for one person. Just expand as necessary.
N.B. Classic Frogmore Stew contains new potatoes so I've put that into the recipe but I don't like boiled potatoes so I normally leave them out.

Ingredients:

Crab boil (I use Zatarains) enough to season enough water to cover everything you'll throw into the pot
Corn on the cob - 1.5 ears, broken into pieces
Potatoes - 2 new, cut into quarters
Clams - 4 littleneck or other steamer sized clam
Shrimp - 4 to 5 medium sized, Easy clean but leave the shells on
Sausage - Spicy precooked cut into 2 inch pieces (I use andouille but you can use any hot sausage you'd like, it just need to be precooked)
Crab claws - 2 in the shell, if you like crab and want to add them, just don't use lump crab meat or surimi (faux crabmeat)

Preparation:

Bring seasoned water to a rolling boil, add the potatoes & corn & boil until potatoes are tender & corn is almost done. Add sausage and clams and continue boiling until the clams open, discard any that don't open after 10 minutes. Add the rest of the seafood and boil just until the shrimp and, crab (if using) are done. Drain the stew, the broth really isn't edible. Pour the drained food out onto the table in front of everyone and enjoy.

Monday, June 29, 2009

El computador...

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike

English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa..'
'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer'
should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:

  1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
  2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
  3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
  4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The woman's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el computador'), because:

  1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
  2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
  3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
  4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won.