Consider the Following

Being the Trekkie that I am, I recently purchased the Star Trek Cookbook. I thought it would be a nice idea to give you all here a taste, so to speak, of what this book has to offer. To accomplish this, I invited a friend over for dinner and picked out a recipe.

The recipe is Alfarian Hair Pasta. Before I go on to the Earth variety of this dish, I'll give you some background on the original. The Alfarian Hair Pasta is made from the hair-follicles of an Alfarian. This high-protein and fibre hair is harvested during shedding season on the planet Tarkannan. Since the Alfarian is not present on Earth, some adjustments have been made to the recipe and the ingredient list (for four servings) is as follows:

1 16-ounce package of angel hair pasta
1 6-ounce can of anchovy paste removed
1 6-ounce can of tomato paste
6 large tomatoes, chopped not present
2 medium onions, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped became red pepper
½ clove of garlic, sliced thin
½ clove of garlic, crushed
¼ cup of parsley, freshly chopped not present
1 teaspoon fresh basil not present
1 tablespoon oregano
2 teaspoons sugar
1 bay leaf removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Grated Parmesan cheese to taste not used
half a courgette (aka Zucchini)

I slightly modified this due to not having tomatoes, parsley or basil. It being Pentecost, I could not go to the store and get is as they were all closed. I also did not have a green pepper so substituted a red one. A final modification was the removal of anchovy from the ingredient list (I hate anchovy) as well as the bay leaf (no idea what that was). I added courgette and some more tomato paste to make up for the lost real tomatoes and anchovy paste.

The cooking procedure itself also underwent some modifications as the recipe, when followed to the letter, takes more than 1½ hours to finish, and we just did not have that much time.

So, on to the actual cooking itself. The process as I describe here is what I did, and is not a direct copy from the book. It also assumes that all the necessary chopping, slicing and crushing has been done.

Put the olive oil into a large pan and add the sliced garlic. Quickly cook the garlic and then add the onions and pepper. Then add the tomato paste, stir and let simmer for a bit. Keep stirring or else it will stick to the bottom (as happened to me, I did get it all off but it's a pain in the ass when doing the dishes). This can be stopped by adding a generous amount of cooking cream (I use light) to make the paste a bit more fluid. Add the herbs, sugar and courgette and stir again so it mixes nicely.

The dish is a vegetarian one, but this is a nice time to add some meat to the mix (chicken or something). You can either use precooked meat that you dice and add to it so it can heat up again, or prepare some meat in a separate pan while you make the sauce and add that.

When you're almost done with the sauce, cook the angel-hair pasta following the directions on the packaging. In general, the noodles need to be put in a pan of water and placed on the fire until the water boils or is near boiling. When that moment comes, stir the noodles to make them loose and leave them in the water for a few more minutes. Then remove them from the water and drain to get rid of all excess water.

For a fancy way of serving this, put the noodles in a bowl and place some sauce on top. Put the rest of the sauce in a separate bowl and serve. Regular, plain-ol'-Jane style involves the noodles being divided between, and placed directly on, the plates. The sauce then follows the same procedure and you just hand out the ready plates.

I really liked what I made and so did my friend so I'm hoping this will inspire (some) of you to wander into the kitchen and try it out for yourselves. Have a fun time cooking and enjoy the result.

Heya folks! It's been a bit but then, I've been busy Last weekend (9-12 June), Othalla and I went to Gent to pay Zel a visit. We left Friday morning around 11 and finally arrived at Gent Station around... ehm... sixish? Something like that, it was a hell of a train trip anyway. Went out to eat that evening and then had a good time out in the city.

The rest of the weekend were fun where we got to see some of the sights Gent has to offer and enjoyed the good weather as well as the new X-Men movie. Monday morning, we left again taking the elevenish train out of Gent and finally arriving back in groningen around 7. Ugh! Almost all the trains we were in had a delay of some kind and the weather was terribly hot so all in all, the train trip back could've been better. Although, pleasant company does make up for a lot of it

June 2nd was my Dad's birthday, the old man turned 63. The family came by and we had a very nice day and evening. I really like my family (and I have a lot of them) and am always pleased when special occasions or events (like a birthday) bring the family together. Just two days after my Dad's birthday, my uncle had his so there was another get together.

Coming weekend, the 18th, another aunt and uncle of mine will celebrate their birthdays. The 18th is not the actual date but since their birthdays are only about ten days apart, they usually pick a date in between and celebrate both birthdays together. I'm not sure whether or not I'll be going seeing as how they're having the event in a nearby community centre thingy and not at home. So, whether or not I'm going depends on if my parents can bring the dog. If they can't, I'll be dogsitting.

The Saturday before, on the 17th, me and some of my friends will be going to a Rapalje performance in Nieuweschans. Fun!

Finally, Sunday the 25th I'll be dogsitting as well when my parents are going to visit another aunt and uncle of mine and, if all goes well, the day after that my excavation will start. We'll be registering the profile of a wierde in Anjum (as far as I know, I will be going down to the city to check up on the exact specifics). It's gonna be exciting as it's down to the original habitation layer at some points.

Fun, fun, fun. Zel came by last Thursday. Or rather, that's when he arrived at Oth's place and the two of them came to see me on Friday and it was fun! Tse likes Zel!

I also got a new sofa that day, it's actually a new secondhand sofa but it's so much better than the one I used to have. Now, when I have somewhat older people over, they can actually get up from the sofa again. :D

And in the Equilism Elections Neo became President, having gotten 9 votes and me 5. FarmerLaborerers became Prime Minister just beating EC. The new cabinet the selected is now up for a 48 hour confirmation vote and I will be Minister of Intelligence, yeehaw! It's clear already that all Ministers (West, Asta, Tycho and I) plus Chauce as Cabinet Advisor for FA will be approved so I'm looking to get a hold of Noot and have a little chat about things.

Your Quirk Factor: 58%

You're a pretty quirky person, but you're just normal enough to hide it. Congratulations - you've fooled other people into thinking you're just like them!

Gert called me Thursday and asked if I wanted to go to Gent with him in June. Of course I said yes so we'll be going there June 9th to visit Zel. I'm sure it'll be fun and we can show of the group picture, that I insist we make, on the forum.

Speaking of the forum, it's election season. The campaigning started last Saturday and saw me, Asta and Neo running for President and FL and EC for Prime Minister. Voting was opened on Wednesday and so far, it's not looking too good for me with Neo having 8 votes and me at second place with 5 and the voting period almost over (20th).

I've been living on my own for three months now and I'm amazed at the improvement it has had on my social life. I feel as if I've spend more time with my friends than before (especially Gert/Othalla who has been here, four, five times now in three months and before that two times at my parent's place in all of three and a half years we know each other).

Speaking of Othalla, he came by Wednesday and we had a fun day and evening sitting in the sun taking a walk (he)/cycling (me) and playing scrabble. Finally, late in the evening we did the dishes and sat down again to talk and he missed the 23:30 bus. No problem we figured as last time he was here there was a 00:30 bus as well. So, about an hour later, we were standing at the busstop waiting. And waiting. And waiting but no bus. So Gert went to take a look and goes like "it says here, 00:29". So we waited some more. And more. I then went to take a look and couldn't help laughing as Othalla had been looking at the Saturday schedule...

I said to him he had two options, take a cab or sleep over. So, long story short, a little while later, I was up in the attic taking down the spare mattress and sleeping bag and pillow.

Now then, Equilism. It's almost election time again. This Saturday they will start and I am going to run for president. I'm looking forward to it but at the same time it scares the hell out of me, and it's just a game... Well, not really, it's very important to me but still...

But, until Saturday, I'm still the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and as such I wrote a draft statement concerning The West Pacific and outlined my election program points. I won't be creating a pre-made speech out of that though. I will write my initial candidate post from the heart at that moment incorporating my outlined plans/ideas.

I also found another meme that's fun! It's called Six Degrees of Booking (can't quite remember where I found it) and is about linking six books in your bookcase together.

I'll start with the last book I finished, Saturn 3, a novelization of the movie of the same name (which is where the link leads to). The movie is from 1980 starring Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett as the good guys and Harvey Keitel as the bad guy. It apparently is a really bad movie, having been nominated for Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Kirk Douglas) and Worst Actress. The novelization was written by Steve Gallagher.

This reminds me of David Gallagher, actor in the dramaseries 7th Heaven where he plays a character called Simon. Which in turn reminds me of Simon & Schuster, the publisher of (among other things) Star Trek Books. Leading eventually to the second book, the last Star Trek book I read Articles of the Federation, written by Keith DeCandido. The book basically details a year in the life of the president of the United Federation of Planets and I it.

Keith DeCandido also writes Buffy the Vampire Slayer tie-in novels which brings me to the book What Would Buffy Do? The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide by Jana Riess. I don't actually own this book myself, I bought it as a birthday gift for a friend when I was in the UK. However, I did read it myself and it's actually quite fun. A sort of mellow self help book extensively referencing BtVS.

This makes me think of the Buffy episode "Once More With Feeling" and iits soundtrack (which I have). That, in turn, makes me think of other sound tracks I have, including two LOTR ones. So, fourth book is The Lord of the Rings. No link as I assume everyone knows it, either having it read it or because of the movies. Or even just having heard of it.

The fifth book, lead on by the orcs in Tolkien's work, is Grunts by Mary Gentle. A very fun fantasy book where the orcs are the main characters this time. They are always the underdog in wars as Good always has to win and they're unhappy with that but unable to change it. Until they stumble upon new, fancy, 20th century, weapons and actually get their act together and resemble an army.

All this talking about war leads me to the sixth and final book, A History of Warfare by John Keegan which is one I haven't actually read yet as I have it more as a reference/research book when/if I need it.

So, that's it for now. See you next time.

So yeah, bored and such, not much happening lately 'cept that I've been luring Gert to come and play NationStates (succeeded), join the forum (succeeded) and get on irc (succeeded). Three out of three, I rule.

Here, have a meme.

Your Brain's Pattern

Your brain is always looking for the connections in life. You always amaze your friends by figuring out things first. You're also good at connecting people - and often play match maker. You see the world in fluid, flexible terms. Nothing is black or white.