Strawberry Swing (video)

This is the coolest music video I've seen in a while (and, as it happens, my favorite song off Coldplay's last album). They won't let me embed it, so skip over here to see 'er.

Primum Non Nocere

"First, to do no harm."

Your meats will thank you.

There are dozens, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of kitchen tools out there that are no good (some of them are plain dagnasty evil, its just a fact). Granted, most of them are easy enough to spot and avoid--they usually only have one function and they are the same color as the food they are meant to be used on (exempli gratia) However, one odious kitchen tool has been around so long that familiarity has helped it avoid detection.

I am talking about your meat tenderizer. That's right, your meat tenderizer...you barbarian. Recognize it? One of these nasty numbers, left over from some medieval torture chamber. The problem with these things is just that, they're better suited to corporeal punishment than to "tenderizing" anything.

When you take to whacking your meat with this war-hammer, you're doing more than flattening or tenderizing; you are tearing and severing the muscle fibers, destroying the body and integrity of the meat. But there is a better way:

Get your hands on one of these beauties. A little more modern, and not so Spanish-Inquisition-y. The virtues of a flat tenderizer extend beyond their more civilized appearance, though. The wide, flat surface transfers force away from the point of impact and eliminates the blunt-force damage from those spiked hammers. These are advantages because the tool can still thin/spread the muscle fibers and flatten/tenderize the meat without mangling it or leaving it flaccid.

The make the most of your new tenderizer, cover the meat you're tenderizing with plastic wrap, dampened on both sides, to reduce friction, and use glancing strokes instead of straight-down strokes. After all, the days of the hammer are behind you.

If you're anxious to tenderize some meat, try this simple recipe for Chicken Kiev/Chicken Royale

Putting Off the Gear

"Sam did likewise, and put aside his orc-gear; and he took out all the things in his pack. Somehow each of them had become dear to him, if only because he had borne them so far with so much toil. Hardest of all it was to part with his cooking-gear. Tears welled in his eyes at the thought of casting it away....The clatter of his precious pans as they fell down into the dark was like a death-knell to his heart." (Bk. VI, ch. 3, pg 214)

I felt a pang of deep sympathy for Sam as he and Frodo put aside their things for the end of their long journey, and it revealed to me a sin I am particularly susceptible to. I've often thought that I would be very disappointed to find, when the present things were passing away and the new earth was coming upon us, that our need for and interest in food would finally be put off -- never again to dig up growing things, pick their fruits, put them in our hearths and our mouths (a surprising many folks feel this way).

I've known people who have the same hangup with marriage, but I'll leave them to agonize over what it means to be "like the angels." Today I don't even feel like defending food as vehemently as I might usually, because too often my resistance to change is a true failing. In Lewis' words, it is a foolish thing to ignore the coming waves of the ocean because we long for the ones that have already come and gone; and forsaking today's meal will not bring back yesterday's. In the defense of glorious things, we may too eagerly turn from the greater reality still to come.

But maybe the great meal of mankind, when all things have changed and are remade, will be the same tomorrow as it is today. Till we know, I am just glad I was not made to live at the end of an age, when the gear from the old lands must be put off, and the cookery let fall into darkness.

Morning

I wanted to share this in conjunction with yesterday's post. Billy and I have our differences, but he does manage to capture the greatness of the early hours.

Morning

by Billy Collins

Why do we bother with the rest of the day,

the swale of the afternoon,

the sudden dip into evening,

then night with his notorious perfumes,

his many-pointed stars?

This is the best—

throwing off the light covers,

feet on the cold floor,

and buzzing around the house on espresso—

maybe a splash of water on the face,

a palmful of vitamins—

but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso,

dictionary and atlas open on the rug,

the typewriter waiting for the key of the head,

a cello on the radio,

and, if necessary, the windows—

trees fifty, a hundred years old

out there,

heavy clouds on the way

and the lawn steaming like a horse

in the early morning.

While It Is Yet Night

According to Cake, "today is tomorrow, and tomorrow today," and I'm going to take that to mean that our present and future existences are bound up tightly together. This should be sobering for young men. John C. Ryle called youth the "seedtime of full age...the turning point in the history of man's mind." 

Every habit we have now is a habit we'll be hardpressed to break in the coming years, for better or worse. The character and conduct of the 20-year-old is a glimpse of the 40-year-old. "By the shoot we judge of the tree--by the blossoms we judge of the fruit--by the spring we judge of the harvest--by the morning we judge of the day." This final metaphor is especially appropriate because of one virtue recommended to all young men and cultivated only by some--rising early.

If a man desires to know God, he will be driven to rise up early:

Psalms 5:3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

Psalms 59:16 But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.

Psalms 63:1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

Psalms 88:13 But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

In rising to seek after Wisdom, a diligent man is rewarded:

Proverbs 8:17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

Rising early to work hard, you will not suffer want:

Proverbs 6:9-11 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

Plus, the women you run into in the early hours are good and wise:

Proverbs 31:15, 25 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens…. Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come

"She shall rejoice in time to come," and so shall the man who rises up early to meet her and meet His Lord. Paul says, in Hebrews, that the Lord appoints a special day: "Today" and "as long as it is called Today, if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts." For the Hebrews, "tomorrow" was not an option. Paul was telling them they would have a load of "today's" in which to repent, and when it was no longer "today" it would be too late. "Tomorrow" would be the day of judgment and for those who did not turn there would be no tomorrow.

Though maybe not so dire as that, the young man's "tomorrow" may also find them too far down the sluggard's path. Four years of saying "I will consider the ant tomorrow, I will store up tomorrow, I will rise up early and seek my Lord's face tomorrow," can turn into a lifetime of wasted "Today's."

"Today is tomorrow, and tomorrow today, and yesterday is weaving in and out."

After Years

Yes, two poems today, and not an original thought in sight. Proverbs leads me to believe that's an ideal arrangement, so with no more gilding the aster, After Years:

Today, from a distance, I saw you 
walking away, and without a sound 
the glittering face of a glacier 
slid into the sea. An ancient oak 
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only 
a handful of leaves, and an old woman 
scattering corn to her chickens looked up 
for an instant. At the other side 
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times 
the size of our own sun exploded 
and vanished, leaving a small green spot 
on the astronomer's retina 
as he stood on the great open dome 
of my heart with no one to tell.

                 -Ted Kooser

Crossing the Bar

SUNSET and evening star,
  And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
  When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
        
  Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
  Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
  And after that the dark!
        
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
  When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
  The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
        
  When I have crossed the bar.

                         -Alfred, Lord Tennyson