Red Pepper Soup

2 tablespoons butter
4 red bell peppers, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
24 fluid ounces chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Place the red bell pepper, onion and garlic in the saucepan and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, or until tender.
2. Pour in the chicken broth, stirring well, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Transfer to a blender and puree until smooth.
3. Run the soup through a strainer and return the liquid to the saucepan over medium low heat. (optionally, leave it a bit dense, if you like)
4. Stir in the heavy cream and the ground black pepper and allow to heat through, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Can't See My Tweets?

I apologise if you can't see my tweets on the right-hand side of the blog. I thought the tweets would automatically publish to the blog and could be viewed by everyone, but it seems that you need to log in to Twitter in order to see the tweets. I'll try to find a work-around for this, but until then, you'll need to be logged in to Twitter if you want to see my (very interesting) tweets. If you're one of the five people on the planet who doesn't have Twitter account, what are you waiting for? While no one has been able to figure out a way to make money using Twitter, it is a useful tool and won't be going away any time soon. By the way: if you're got an idea on how to turn Twitter into a money-making venture, drop me an e-mail with your business case. One of my New Year's resolutions is to spend some time in 2010 working on web/tech ideas with a few colleagues; we're just brainstorming at the moment, though. If we strike it rich, I'm sure you'll hear about it. . .

Gordon's Goose is Cooked

For Christmas Eve dinner I cooked a goose, using Gordon Ramsey's recipe. While goose may not be to everyone's taste, this one turned out well. The lemon and lime zest will create a great aroma in your kitchen, and it makes the skin on the goose very tasty. I expected the goose to be quite gamey, but in fact it wasn't. It does have it's own unique flavour; it isn't duck and it certainly isn't turkey. But it is a I wasn't too impressed with the gravy made from the goose fat; I used my standard gravy recipe, but the fat didn't have much flavour.

I bought the goose at the Albert grocery store at Vinohradska 90. Not all shops in Prague sell game birds, but this Albert always has them in stoch. The goose weighed about three kilos, could probably serve four people, and it browned up nicely in the oven. I didn't pan-fry the skin as suggested in Gordon's recipe; the ten minutes under high heat when I first put the goose in the oven did the trick. Tip: use a bit of tin foil, as Gordon suggests, to keep the top from burning; near the end, remove the foil and allow the skin to brown a bit more, if you like.

Bad Bloomberg

In my recent post about recommended podcasts, I included the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast, a daily re-broadcast of interviews with economists and analysts who appear on the Bloomberg Network. As soon as I blogged about it, they announced that starting in January they will charge an annual fee of eighty dollars for a subscription to the podcast. Shame on Bloomberg. I enjoy this podcast, but I won't pay eighty dollars for it.

Gigi's Ground Beef Chili

1-2 pounds ground beef
1 small onion, diced

Group 1
2/3 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

Group 2
2-3 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 - 2 cups tomato juice
1 can (16 ounces) chili beans

Brown beef and onion together; drain. Add first group of ingredients (ketchup, water, etc.) in dutch oven or stock pot; simmer low for 30 minutes. Add second group of ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with cheddar cheese, bread/crackers.

podcast recommendations (updated)

I've been talking to a few folks about some podcasts that I've become addicted to, so I'll share them with the rest of the world:

Mysterious Universe -- I am hooked on this one. Ghosts, UFOs, and anything mysterious and unexplained. Benjamin Grundy and Aaron Wright examine the latest sightings and stories with a critical eye. They'll call out what they think is a hoax, but also discuss the possibility of what could be. Some scary stories included each week -- this is podcast is not before-bedtime listening.

Cato -- some great podcasts here to help you think outside of the Demo-publican box. The podcasts cover domestic and global topics -- great stuff to take with you to your next cocktail party, or for a good old fashioned argument with your family during the holidays.

American Interprise Institute -- right-leaning analysis and commentary on economic, social and foreign policy issues. I recommend the Foreign and Defense Policy podcasts -- less partisan and more pragmatic, and they often have panelists with a good range of views.

Scientific American -- a great podcast that covers the biggest stories out of the most recent edition of this great magazine. Always very interesting and engaging.

C-SPAN: Q&A and After Words -- you don't need to sit in front of the television and watch Brian Lamb interview authors. These two podcasts (the first with Lamb as interviewer, the second with a guest interviewer) are just as good in listen-only mode.

The Slate Cultural Gabfest -- this show annoys me more than it entertains, but I keep downloading. Perhaps I'm lacking enough idle chat about films, pop culture and the like; this podcast helps feed that craving.

All of them can be found on iTunes as well.

Lemon Cookies

1 package lemon cake mix
2 cups whipped topping, not frozen
1 egg
½ cup powdered sugar, sifted

Combine the cake mix, whipped topping and egg; roll into balls. Roll the balls in the powdered sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

If you can't find American-style lemon cake mix, the standard yellow cake mix will do (and add a bit of lemon zest to it); if the mix is too dry with only two cups of whipped topping, it won''t hurt to add more until the mix is doughy enough to knead into balls.

Broccoli Casserole

Yum, comfort food. This casserole is always a part of our Thanksgiving meal, but we rarely make it otherwise. That's changing this winter, as I've made it as a side for chicken and for pork -- the casserole is too good to make it only once a year.

1 stick butter
1 onion, diced
2 cups uncooked minute rice
2 cans (12 oz each) cream of mushroom soup
2 boxes chopped broccoli, cooked and drained; you can use fresh (about 2 cups) I recommend using frozen broccoli flowerettes -- fewer stems.
16oz goat's cheese (or Cheese Whiz)

Saute the onion until clear. Combine the remaining ingredients except the broccoli and mix well by hand. Add the broccoli. Pour into 9 x13 baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes.

Local Freezing

What global warming? Ironic. . .


Wouldn't it have been better to hold the summit in, say, Perth, Australia, where it is around 100F this week?

Film Review: Das Boot

Simple, yet powerful. Definitely on my top 100 of all-time list, maybe in the top 50. It is long -- if you suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder or have no taste in movies; a masterwork of filmmaking if you don't. Sure, it is a "guys' film", but it is beautiful -- the epitome of depth (no pun intended) of story with a minimal amount of action. Marvelous acting by Jürgen Prochnow -- I don't know if Prochow's character is intentionally modelled after Captain Ahab, but he is the modern equivalent. Understated, unpretentious, but a classic "odyssey" film. Much better in the original German with the English subtitles, if you're into that sort of thing.