20090105

Tis the season

Apparently everybody got a Wii for Christmas this year except the homeless and those who got their Wiis last Christmas.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

My daughter has beaten me out of putting a glottal stop between the i and the i. "Daa-aaaa--aad, it's not We-ee, it's just Wee."

So a number of Miis piped in from other peoples' Wiis is a Miiting? I'm putting a claim on that term, muthas.

20090104

best damn kim chi made by a Polack in Wyoming

ingredients:
1 large head of napa cabbage
1 nub of ginger root, about 3 tbsp when peeled and minced
garlic, about the same amount as ginger root
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup Sri Racha sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce

Rinse and quarter the cabbage. Discard yellowish or gnarly outer leaves. Cut out the stalk. Slice through each quarter to leave the cabbage in strips about 2cm wide.

Place the cabbage in a large container, scatter with the kosher salt and mix it well. Cover with sterile water.

Place a clean gallon Ziploc freezer bag in the container, atop the cabbage. Fill the bag with tap water so its weight rests on the cabbage, pressing it under the brine. Cover and let rest in cold, dark place overnight.

Tomorrow, remove the bag weighing the cabbage down and set it aside on a clean surface. The bag should have squashed the cabbage to less than half its original volume and there will be much more liquid resting on top of it.

Drain the cabbage in a strainer and catch all the brine. Put the cabbage back in the container. Mince the garlic and ginger root. Mix with the brown sugar. Add a dash of chili powder or hot pepper flakes. Add these to the cabbage. Add the Sri Racha sauce and fish sauce. Toss the cabbage around to mix (use a gloved hand or tongs).

Put the heavy bag back atop the cabbage. Add just enough of the brine back in to cover the cabbage again. Pitch the rest.

Cover and put in cold, dark place. It's ready to eat in another 24 hours or so. Keep it cold but not freezing until it's gone.

With all the trimmings

Blogroller James Rummel points to very old advertisements for the Thanksgiving dinner of pre-NFA Lugers. James admits to a fascination for a pistol with all of the trimmings---optics, stock, muzzle devices, extended barrels and such.

This reminds me of one of only two great unrequited loves and unfulfilled material yearnings of my life.

Reprint permission for the photo comes courtesy of www.automagpistol.com


The AutoMag.
A rotating-bolt pistol, all stainless, with shoulder stock if you wanted it, and changes of top-end for your taste of barrel length, compensator, and optics.

It fired cartridges based on the 7.62 NATO case cut short, straightwalled, and turned inside to take a .44 bullet. Or necked down to .41 (ideal Thumper cartridge) or .357.