Happy Thanksgiving! (and a special recipe to boot!)

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and I hope Black Friday is nice to you all as well. So I'm sitting here with my oven on and I decided to share with you my favorite recipe, Broccoli Garlic Quiche. Seems a bit odd for T-Day but I'm sure my family will love it.

Recipe courtesy of Epicurious:

INGREDIENTS

• All-butter pastry dough (or store bought, because I'm a lazy ass)
• 10 ounces (1-inch-wide) broccoli florets (with 1 to 2 inches of stem attached)
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (Omit if you have a someone who can't handle any spiciness)
• 5 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, coarsely grated (2 cups)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• Equipment: a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie plate or a 9-inch (2-inch-deep) round fluted tart pan with removable bottom; pie weights or dried beans.

PREPARATION

• Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle.
• Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round. Fit dough into pie plate, letting excess hang over edge. Fold overhang inward and press against side of pie plate to reinforce edge. Prick bottom all over with a fork. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Line pie shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake until pastry is set and edge is pale golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
• Carefully remove foil and weights, then bake shell until deep golden all over, 15 to 20 minutes more. Put pie plate in a 4-sided sheet pan. Leave oven on.
• While shell bakes, cook broccoli in a 3-quart pot of boiling salted water 4 minutes. Drain broccoli and rinse under cold water to stop cooking, then pat dry.
• Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a generous pinch of salt.
• Whisk together garlic paste, eggs, half-and-half, nutmeg, cayenne, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl until smooth.
• Pour filling into pie shell and add broccoli, then sprinkle with cheeses.
• Bake quiche until custard is just set, 45 to 50 minutes. (Center will tremble slightly; filling will continue to set as it cools.) Cool at least 20 minutes.
• Serve quiche warm or at room temperature.

Random Crap I Find in the World

So I really have been searching, when I go to my local swap meet, through the Crap Pile and Kitchen Crap locations looking for oddities. Their stock doesn't change enough for me to find enough to make a full post on. On the other hand, I do find myself taking pictures (bad ones, I really need a smartphone) of other things I find funny/odd/scary and figured I could make a post with all of them. So here it goes.

How to play Facebook games and keep your friends happy

So as I was rummaging around my RSS feed I came across this link about how Zynga is going to make what appears to be a SimCity clone, and now they are worth more than the IP holders of said game, EA.

But scanning the comments I saw not complaints about how big Zynga is getting, but the fact that everyone hated either the status updates, or having to block apps they didn't like.

I felt odd: None of my friends have to do this because I take a proactive way of blocking the updates from those who could not care less to see them (i.e. non-players). So, below, I'm going to show you how to be like me: Play a metric shit-ton of games but keep those who don't happy.

End Game

I use chess a lot to describe my feelings and attitudes about the things that go on around me. I guess it's the rules of movement and lack of absolute chaos (pieces have set rules for movement and placement) that appeals to me. It also, I guess it shows my force of habit. A Knight will always move as a Knight. Queen, Rook, Bishop it will always be the same for every game.

An Artful Return: Keith Returns to Countdown in style

I'm just going to let Keith tell his story, he does it much better. Though of note I was a bit wrong about stumping for one of this donations, but it doesn't pan out as he donated after the person was on air not before. Keith will explain it better, just watch (oh and it's funny too ^_^)

I HATE Nursing Homes

Ok, this is going to be just a rant about the conditions of one nursing home. Namely the one my father was in until 10/29 (best birthday present ever was getting to drive him home that Friday). However in talking with others I’ve found that many of my experiences are in fact shared.
I’m going to go through this more or less as a narrative of the kind of shit I saw during my father’s experience there. So, with that, here’s my story.

My thoughts on the indefinite suspension of Keith Olbermann

If you haven’t heard as of November 5th Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olberman (henceforth referred as Countdown for convenience) was suspended from his show for making campaign contributions to 3 different candidates for the 2010 mid-term elections and not seeking approval from MSNBC producers.

That’s it, that’s all that has happened. It’s not that Keith did it, but it is that he didn’t seek approval for something that would have been (and was) found out by contribution rosters that by law must be published.
Now I’m going to go out on a limb, as an Olbermann and Countdown fan, and say I’m alright with him receiving a punishment for what he did. I’d also like him to return. He’s the only reason I even watch (via podcast, mind you) any MSNBC show. I don’t care for Shuester, Maddow, or O’donnel. I like Keith, I like his format, and most of the time I like his opinions. I don’t think he should be shoved off his show for one simple reason.
He never ‘stumped’ for any of those he sent a contribution to, period. While I may think he might want to screw his head back on a little tighter given that he thought it was in his power to disobey a rule of his employment, I don’t think is firing (which could happen as ‘indefinite suspension’ usually means that) will do much for him or his network. Plain and simple, bring Keith back if you want to keep your ratings and more importantly your viewers.
So why, you might wonder, do I draw the line on it being ok to donate money but not say anything? I think I’ll leave it to Rachel Maddow to explain.



Bluntly, Fox News isn’t news. Keith, while liberal, kept his overall preference for candidates minimal. He also broke a rule. He’s been punished. He can go on air and apologize. So long as he doesn’t fall victim of his own pet peeve of “to those I may have offended” we’ll be able to move on, and Keith can come back to really what he does best: Entertain me and other on a political level and at least some lean towards journalistic integrity.