Inaugural Lunch

Here is what the Obama's are having at their luncheon today. I'm having an egg salad sandwich and a handful of M&M's, how about you?

The 2009 Inaugural Luncheon Menu
First Course
Seafood Stew
Duckhorn Vineyards, 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley
Second Course
A Brace of American Birds (pheasant and duck), served with Sour Cherry Chutney and Molasses Sweet Potatoes
Goldeneye, 2005 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Third Course
Apple Cinnamon Sponge Cake and Sweet Cream Glacé
Korbel Natural “Special Inaugural Cuvée,” California Champagne

Recipes from Barack Obama's Inaugural Luncheon: first course
Seafood Stew
Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

6 (1 lb) Maine lobsters
20 medium size Sea scallops
36 Large shrimp, peel, cleaned and tail removed, aprox. 2 lbs.
10 (1 oz) pieces of black cod
½ cup small dice carrots
½ cup small dice celery
½ cup small dice leek
½ cup small dice Idaho potato
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground white pepper or black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 quart heavy cream
1 cup dry vermouth (can be made without)
10 (5 inch) puff pastry rounds

Equipment
10 (3 ½ inch) terrines/ramekins or serving dish of your choice

Directions
1. Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil; poach lobsters, then shrimp, then black cod and last scallops. After
seafood is cooked, remove from water; reserve water and bring to boil.
2. Cook all vegetables in liquid that was used for the seafood, remove vegetables when tender. Allow
the liquid to continue to boil until only 1qt of liquid remains. This will be the base for the sauce.
3. Bring seafood liquid back to a boil and add the vermouth and heavy cream and reduce by half,
season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste. You have reached your desired thickness when
the sauce will cover the back of a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool.
4. Cut Maine lobster, shrimp and scallops into bite size pieces.
5. Pre-heat oven at 400 degrees.
6. Fold seafood and vegetables into cool sauce, being careful not to mix too much as this will break up
the seafood. Scoop mixture into terrines or oven proof baking dish of your choice.
7. Cover terrines with puff pastry rounds, brush them with egg wash and bake them until golden
brown about 8-10 minutes, allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. You can cook this 2-3 hours
ahead of time and keep warm at 150 F degrees.

Updates to What is Going on in my World

Obama is the new President-elect (was there ever much doubt?) He has some tough decisions to make to get this county back on track when he takes office. Now he needs to put his money where his mouth is. I hope that he can deliver on his promises because I think this country is really counting on him.

Principal photography began on Vegas Schmegas on Saturday and I think it's looking great so far. The poker scene looked even better than I expected and the cast and crew really came through. Kudos to everyone. Especially Mark for some tricky lighting cues and Kelly for being a great director. Saturday I played a dealer so I got to be more of an actor than crew and it was fun. Everyone is doing such a great job that I feel a little superfluous, but I guess that's how a lot of writers feel on set. (We usually have a really small crew so I do more but we have actual help on this set. Still, I helped move tables and track and dolly and stuff so I'm not completely useless.) Next shoot is on Sunday, and we have two different sketches to film. It will be a good ramping up for the 14th when we have a twelve hour shooting day.

I am behind on my NaNoWriMo project, but I knew I would be since I was out of commission (writing-wise) over the weekend. I also started a new novel, not the WIP I thought I'd use, but I figured I would use the 50,000 word parameters to write my "Harlequin" novel. I have loved Harlequin since I was about eleven years old and I graduated from Little House on the Prairie Books and Nancy Drew novels to the paperback romances that my Grandmother read. The ones she bought were always set in England or Canada and the heroines were always nurses and they spelled things differently like "humour". I was excited when I finally discovered ones set in America. I think that's what this one will be for, the Harlequin American line. It's an idea that kicked around my head so I'm letting it out for NaNoWriMo. I'm going to have to put in a few 'cram' sessions to make the word count by deadline but I can always re-write next month.

And Thanksgiving is coming so I'm trying out a few things in advance to see if I can improve upon the traditional dinner I usually make. I'm not allowed to mess with it much, we MUST have turkey and The Graminator's stuffing and my home made pumpkin pie (with fresh, not canned, pumpkin). I have been reading about 'dry brining' your turkey and I tried it out on a turkey breast last night so I could see how it was before trying it on a whole turkey. I usually inject my turkey with an herb steeped butter mixture but I thought I'd try this instead. My mom told me not to mess with it, that my turkey was already great, but I had to check it out for myself so I bought a turkey breast and dry brined it. The result? The vote was unanimous and I am NOT dry brining the turkey this year, we are sticking with injecting. While the turkey was fine and stayed moist, it didn't have as much flavor as the injected turkey does. Injecting, to me, makes the turkey moist and flavorful and is easier and less time consuming. So while it was a noble experiment, dry brining falls into the "not worth it" category for me. I also made Sunset magazines sourdough artichoke Parmesan stuffing and it was delicious. I won't make it for Thanksgiving (as this could get me killed by my Uncle) but I'd definitely make it for us again. And there is enough left over to make "Bobbies" this week. (Those unfamiliar with the "Bobbie" at Capriotti's sandwich shop, it's turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce on a sub roll and it's delicious!)

I ordered my first iPod. (yes, I have fallen into Apple's clutches, now that I love my Mac I'm trading my Zen for an iPod) it's the iPod Touch and it's supposed to arrive by tomorrow. I've been following it's progress and it's gone from Kunshan, China to Shanghai, China to Anchorage, Alaska to Indianapolis, Indiana so far. My iPod will have seen more of the world than I have. I know it's a luxury, not a necessity, but I decided to put my comedy money towards something I wanted instead of something I needed. I can't wait to play with it!

Okay, that's my world. Hope all is good in yours, Loyal Readers!

He May Be An Old Guy, But He's a Smart Old Guy

Okay, the suspense is over and John McCain is going to pick Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Brilliant I say, just brilliant.

I'll say it now, as I've said before, if Barack Obama had chosen Hillary Clinton as his running mate, I think he would have won the election, no contest. Their competition for the Democratic nomination really split the part into two factions. By uniting those factions I think they would have had an unstoppable force. But he picked a really boring white guy who has run unsuccessfully for president himself, twice. I think it was a poor choice. I know, I know, balance the ticket, shore up Barack's weaknesses, blah blah. Poor choice, that's all I'm saying.

On the other hand, McCain picking a woman, is really smart. Not just because the Republicans are so behind the times (which they are, sorry) but because all of those disenfranchised Democrats can now justify voting for McCain. Many Hillary supporters can feel better voting for McCain and I think they will jump ship.


Sarah Palin is an interesting choice. Mother of five, including one baby with special needs, reformer and renegade to her own party, former Mayor in and now Governor of Alaska, a state that most of us don't even think of as a real state. I know, beautiful, full of wonderful natural resources and most importantly, in my opinion, way more guys than girls (hmm, maybe I should move to Alaska...nope, too cold.) But it's really more like Canada than the rest of the U.S. Still, I think Sarah is a good choice since she has experience actually running a government (granted again, it's Alaska). Plus she has that 'hot librarian' thing going for her. You know what I mean. She has the bun and glasses but looks like she could whip them off at any moment and start dancing to Van Halen's "I'm Hot For Teacher".

I honestly don't know who I'm voting for this election. As most of you know, I was a John Edwards supporter and still would be if he wasn't an ass@%# who slept around on his cancer stricken wife. Ugh. Sometimes men disgust me. Seriously, gentlemen, why would you risk your career, your family, your reputation and possibly the presidency of the United States just on getting some? I mean it, explain it to me, because I just don't get it.

Anyway, I have a lot of thinking to do because I can see great strengths and major weaknesses in both candidates. I want this country to be better off in four years than it is now. It's up to me (and you) to help that happen. Let's have a clean fight, no hitting below the belt and how about some real answers to some serious problems.

Politically Correct or Abominably Stupid?

Barack Obama had a fundraiser in Chicago last Friday night. (Actually he had several, this one was at the Hyatt Regency). The opening act at this $2300 a person event was Bernie Mac, the comedian. Bernie did a ten minute set. Towards the end of a set he did a joke that went something like this. (Please note that I am paraphrasing as I was not actually at the event but I believe you will get the gist of the joke.)

-My little nephew came to me and he said, "Uncle, what's the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?" "I said, 'I don't know, but,' I said, 'go upstairs and ask your mother if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000." He came back and said, "She said she would make love to the mailman or anyone else for $50,000". Then I told him to go ask his sister if she'd make love to the mailman for $50,000. He came back and said, "She said she would make love to the mailman or anyone else for $50,000." So I told him, "Hypothetically we would have $100,000 but realistically we live with a couple of ho's."-

Ba da bum. (That's the blog equivalent of a drum rim shot) Apparently the audience got upset at this joke because it was "offensive to women". This was after Bernie's set included jokes about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity. Okay, so when I heard the joke, I didn't think it was offensive. So I told it to my mom and she laughed, a lot. (Maybe I just tell it better than Bernie?) So then she had me tell my bother and Val and my grandma. And they laughed, a lot. So apparently, the joke was funny to them and not offensive. To people ranging from their thirties to their eighties. Most of whom were women. Granted, we are a small sample, but a pretty good one in my opinion.

Then Barack came on to make his speech (it was his fundraiser after all) and then made this comment.

"We can't afford to be divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by region or by class, and we can't afford to be divided by gender, which, by the way, that means, Bernie, you've got to clean up your act next time," Obama said. "This is a family affair. By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."

An Obama spokesperson later said "Sen. Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn't condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate."

Inappropriate? Has Senator Obama seen Bernie Mac before? His entire act could be deemed inappropriate, depending on who was in the audience. He's not Mr. Rogers and I find it hard to believe that no one who organized this event knew that Bernie was going to use crude language and crude humor. I also find it hard to believe that there were many children in the audience of a $2300 per person evening event. And crude humor will offend some people, no matter what. That's just how it is. So don't blame Bernie for doing what he does, that's why you hired him. Blame yourself for not booking a 'cleaner' comedian.

Look, I'm all for the Obama campaign showing us their values, heck, how else are we going to get to know the candidate? But part of that is showing is also using your judgement and acknowledging some personal responsibility. Don't hire Bernie Mac if you don't want Bernie Mac style humor. Pretty simple. There a plenty of other comics out there. But they wanted the appeal of Bernie Mac. (He has a huge following both as a comic and as an actor.) They hired Bernie Mac. Bernie Mac delivered. Then they ripped on Bernie Mac. Not cool, not cool at all. If it was truly a 'family affair', why book Bernie Mac?

He told a joke. Some people thought it was funny, other people didn't. Hey, that's comedy. But to hire that type of comic, then disavow his style of comedy just because it offends a few people? I guess that's politics.