Dec 28

MadMan Dan’s Emerald Isle Stew

Just in time for Christmas New Year’s! You wanna make some yourself? Here’s the recipe:

MadMan Dan’s Emerald Isle Stew

  • 6 potatoes
  • 5 carrots
  • 5 sticks of celery
  • 6 leeks
  • 1-3 lb lamb shank / leg of lamb
  • salt
  • pepper
  • thyme, (chopped fresh thyme is best, but dried is doable)
  • chicken broth
  • fresh parsley

Hardware required:

  • good, sturdy knife
  • cutting board
  • tablespoon
  • cast iron skillet
  • large pot
  • aluminum foil

This recipe is based on a year of research culminating in the best batch I ever made back in October of this year.

  1. Cut up the potatoes, carrots, and celery into small bit-size pieces.
  2. Cut the whites of the leeks in half lengthwise, and then slice into small pieces
  3. Put all the vegetables into a pitcher. Sprinkle in 1 tablespoon of thyme and a teaspoon each of salt and pepper
  4. Pour in chicken broth until it covers all the vegetables. Put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge for 1-4 days (this step is optional, but it was contributory to my best batch of stew ever).
  5. 1-4 days later, cut your lamb shank into bit-size pieces. Set the pieces on the cutting board on the counter and sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of dried thyme. Let it sit for a half an hour.
  6. Set aside a sheet of aluminum foil on the counter large enough to contain the cut lamb.
  7. Heat up your cast iron skillet crazy hot and put just a wee bit of oil in the bottom.
  8. Brown your lamb in the skillet. After it is browned, wrap it in the foil from step 6 for 10 minutes, then dump them in the stew.
  9. Bring the stew to a boil for 5 minutes, then turn down the heat and simmer for 60-90 minutes.
  10. Chop your fresh parsley and sprinkle on the top of the stew when it’s time to serve.

Like most good food, it tastes better if you stick it in the fridge overnight after cooking.

Enjoy!

Dec 22

My fingers smell like leeks

That’s not a complaint. Last night I cut up all the vegetables for MadMan Dan’s Emerald Isle Stew.

Dec 17

15 Years Today

Today Heather and I celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.

I knew I wanted to marry Heather a week after our first date. It’s been a long, bumpy ride, but I wouldn’t have missed it. We certainly rushed in (we dated three weeks before we got engaged, then got married 10 months later). We did some things right, and we did a lot of things wrong, but (largely) by God’s grace we have made it this far.

Happy anniversary, Heather. Thanks for the best 15 years of my life.

Dec 16

Overheard: 60 year old female

“I’m a big woman; I need a big inbox.”

Dec 12

Review: Julie & Julia

julie-juliaI just finished staying up with Heather watching Julie & Julia, a 2009 movie about two women: Julie Powell, as she spends a year cooking her way through all the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking while living in post-9/11 New York with her husband. It also tells the story of Julia Child, living in post-WWII France with her husband, learning to cook and to write and publish said book.

I really, really liked this movie. I know, some of you are probably thinking this is a chick flick, and in some ways it is. However, this movie was about a lot of things I love: eating, cooking, writing, blogging, books, and being married. How can you not love a movie about food and marriage? I freaking love both, and consequently loved the movie.

However, the ending does seem kind of incomplete and anticlimactic, kind of like they brought in Zombie Michael Chrichton to write it for them. SPOILER ALERT: if you think the two women are going to meet you are going to be disappointed.

Speaking of cooking, I made my second attempt at pasta sauce this week, and I was very happy with it (much better than last week’s mediocre maiden sauce).

Also speaking of things in the movie that I can relate to in real life, like the protagonist I am staying up doing one thing when I should be doing another. Good night.

Dec 11

Happy Birthday, Mrs. MadMan

For those of you who didn’t know, yesterday was Heather’s birthday.

I can’t say how old she is, but I will say she has been with me almost half her life.

Dec 09

Da Bears

About three years ago Heather’s dad went hunting and shot a black bear. If you have never tried it, let me tell you that it is amazing. It is glorious. It is quite possibly the best meat I have ever had. Contrary to what most people ask me, no, it is not greasy. It is wonderfully moist, though.

By the way, I got into some trouble with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources a few years ago for leaving large jars marked ‘hunny’ lying about my back yard.

I’d have gotten away with it too, if Christopher Robin hadn’t narc’d on me.

Dec 07

Review: Sophos Antivirus for Windows

A lot of you out there ask me for computer advice. I don’t mind; I like feeling important, and giving advice helps me do that (so does making my own blog).

Probably the question I get the most often is, “What kind of computer should I get?”

My answer is, always, “You should get an Apple Macintosh.”

The usual reply is, “But I don’t want to spend that much money.”

Then I say, “Then by a Lenovo.” It’s a cruel second answer, I know, as Lenovos cost about the same as Macs. But the truth is, when it comes to hardware, if I wasn’t an Apple guy I would be a Lenovo guy (it’s not a perfect analogy: I buy Apple hardware because it comes with the Mac OS).

But sometimes it’s not a question of money; sometimes people tell me this:

“I’d like to encourage viruses and spyware to run rampant on my computer while simultaneously preventing my most important programs from installing and / or running.”

Of course I point out that they could simply run an unpatched version of Windows and use Internet Explorer to visit sites that offer free hacked software.

“Isn’t there some other way?” they ask me.

Yes, yes there is. You could install Sophos Antivirus. Sophos is just such a program. While there is legitimate debate over whether it is pronounced SAW-fos or SO-fos, there is no debate that Sophos Antivirus will prevent you from installing, say, Hewlett Packard Web JetAdmin software. If you are wondering what nefarious deeds HP WJA is used for, it is used for remotely managing large numbers of HP printers. Wicked!

However, I don’t mean to insinuate that Sophos can only prevent you from managing your printers remotely. It can also prevent you from installing remote computer management software.

Right now you are probably thinking, ‘I would still like to install and run viruses, though.”

Not to worry; Sophos won’teven keep itself from being infected by viruses, let alone keep your PC from running them. Don’t believe me? Have a gander at this:

sophos-infected

Dec 04

My Christmas List 2009

Once again I have been asked to provide a Christmas List. You would have thought that people learned after reading last year’s, but you would be wrong. To you readers who did not specifically ask for or hint at what to buy me for Christmas, don’t buy me anything: this is strictly for your amusement.

You might wonder why I don’t just refrain from giving a list and thus thwart those very generous persons, but the answer is this: I have some stubborn relatives  (which is probably where Heather gets it). Besides, I like to buy people things, and it aggravates the heck out of me when they won’t give me a list either.

At the very least, you deserve something that is hopefully well-written, interesting, and humorous to read.

So at any rate, whether you buy me a thing or not, please enjoy the list. You may notice some repeats from last year. For the repeats that you do not notice, thank you very much for those nice gifts.

MadMan Dan’s Christmas & Birthday List 2009
(abridged)

Delicious Monster. As I have mentioned ad infinitum, I love books. New books, old books, handmade books, you name it. Thankfully, I did receive both shelves and shelving materials this past year. What does this have to do with monsters of the yummy variety? Delicious Monster is software that helps you organize your library, and keep track of your books, especially if you have a habit of loaning them out and forgetting to whom you loaned them. Or even worse, loaning them in and not returning them.

Dress shirts. You don’t want to see me topless do you? I didn’t think so. I just need some long sleeve, button up dress shirts, in either black or green. Neck is 15-1/2 – 16, and the other numbers inside my shirt say 32/33.

Bowler derby hat. The older I get the more I like old things; first it was the handmade journals, then it was the book press to hand-make journals with. Now it is the now-archaic custom of wearing a hat. My favorite is the Belfry Deuce-Stingy Brim Bowler.

Lamb Shanks. No, there is no hidden irony in this request. I really want lamb meat. The reason is that since last Christmas when I first made O So Glorious Irish Lamb Stew, I have been addicted to the dang stuff. Problem is, lamb meat is expensive and hard to come by. At least one day of my typical week goes like this:

Heather: What do you want for dinner?

Me: Irish Stew!

Heather: We can’t afford Irish Stew. Besides, Piggly Wiggly doesn’t have any lamb meat.

Me: Fine. I don’t want anything. I’ll just starve to death.

Set of 36 Marking Punches. Now that I am starting to acquire tools with which to fix things around the house, it would be nice to have some way to mark them with my name and lucky number.

Wireless X-Box 360 controller. Come on; what am I going to say about this? Um…I need this to pwn n00bs. Happy?

Digital Innovations SkipDr. Motorized AutoMax Scratch Repair System. Someone in my house keeps leaving discs out and they tend to get kind of scratched. Someone told me he came to an unhappy end and drowned in the creek, but I could see him if I peered in.

1.1 Liter MSR Stowaway Pot. Someday I hope to eventually go on a backpacking trip that doesn’t start out with me going to the hospital with heart problems. If that ever happens, I would use this pot to cook up some amazing stew.

Apple Brood. What the heck is Brood? It’s this malt-flavored soda pop that’s bottled in Lebanon. Yes, that Lebanon. I don’t know where to order it; right now I just have to buy a few bottles here and there whenever I go to eat at the Habashi House.

Blackthorn bush. Blackthorn is a shrub that grows in the UK, and the Irish use it to make shillelaghs. I intend to do the same thing, but the stuff’s so hard to get ahold of. I tried to grow my own, but it’s too hard. It’s also known as Sloe-berry or by its Latin name, Prunus Spinosa. Where can ya get it? Kick me if I know.

The Oxford English Dictionary. What’s so special about this dictionary? It’s the dictionary. Every word in the English language dating back to the time when Beowulf was the new hot item. This thing is 20 volumes, weighs in at about a Brazilian pounds, and costs about 1,000 bucks. So don’t buy me it. I mean it. So why did I list it? Because how can you not list an item that you have to say in the drooly Homer voice?

Dec 03

Smileyeth

In 1 Chronicles 5:2 (KJV) I have  found what might be the earliest emoticon; I think the placement is kind of humorous (I have included a bit of 5:1 for context):

…and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s:)