Misc and a Recipe

By now it would be passé to comment on the professor who claimed that bloggers were lonely and futile. Besides, how are you supposed to defend that? It’s the classic setup. On the other hand, to lump in all blogs together would be like to say “all people who write for magazines.” My response: Salon.com has a blog. Is it lonely? My other comment: yet another example of how, once you get tenure, you can pretty much publish anything regardless of whether it has scholarly merit.

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Yes, I’m looking forward to the Super Bowl, though the conference championship weekend (2 weeks ago) is the best day in football. As others have said, the Super Bowl ought to be played in front of a home crowd, instead of rich dignitaries waiting for Prince’s halftime show. Not that I mind Prince. I am from Minneapolis, after all.

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I leave you with a recipe. It was named by Carrie, which actually is a bit of a story. You see, Carrie calls me the opposite of what everyone else calls me. In college, I was “Jon” so she called me “Jonathan.” In grad school, people started calling me “Jonathan” I think because that’s what they heard her call me. In my first job, the department had 3 Jons so Jonathan was a useful strategy of distinction. It also looks better in articles. More serious. But now that everyone calls me Jonathan, she calls me “Jon.” And so, I wonder if the pendulum won’t swing again in a few years. We’ll see. In writing, anyway, I will always go by Jonathan, but in person, both “Jon” and “Jonathan” work equally well.

And so, with that, I give you last night’s dinner:

Jon’s Dry Curry Coconut Delight

1 large onion
1 leek
1 sweet bell pepper
2 cans mock duck (or 1 large cake tempeh or tofu or other veggie protein)
½ cup desiccated coconut
oil for stir-frying
1.5 tsp black mustard seeds
1.5 tsp cumin seeds
¼- ½ tsp asafetida
1 dried hot chili or ½ tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
2 tsp good curry power
½ tsp salt or to taste

Slice onion and leek thin, chop the bell pepper small and cut the protein as you see fit.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. When hot, dump in the mustard and cumin seeds. Once they start to pop (which will be almost immediately if the pan is hot; be ready), add the onion, leek and bell pepper. Sautee until almost done. Add the protein and coconut. Then add the spices and salt to taste.

Serve with whole grain rice and your preferred fruity hot sauce. Or roll it up in a roti.