Politics of other than the presidential variety...

I'm actually a little surprised at myself right now. I know I've been saying I'm a 90-degrees-from-both sides libertarian (not Libertarian), but in practice, that generally ended up meaning I voted for the democratic candidate anyway, given my litmus issues tend to be social ones and not economic.

But... in my district's House race... it looks like I'm actually going to be voting for the Republican. ::gasp:: With one glaring exception, Lawson's views seem to more closely match my philosophy on politics... and so even though I've been fairly satisfied with Price, I think I'm not going to vote for him.

Of course, I may change my mind again - I really am having issues with voting for the non-pro-choice candidate, but at the same time I don't want to be a one-issue-voter. ::sigh::

Recipes...

So politics doesn't get comments, how 'bout food? (I'm posting this mostly so I remember the recipes, but I can vouch that they are all tasty).

harleenquinzell and foklens came over for dinner last night, and since the food turned out nicely, I figured I should post recipes. The main dish was Pomegranate and Spice-Braised Pork - I followed the recipe reasonably closely (for me), with only a few changes:

• Ignore the part where you sear the meat in a separate pan than the dutch oven you use to braise it in - just sear it in the dutch oven, remove it, saute your onions, and add it back in. The added advantage is that the onions get seared in the released pork fat rather than having to add more olive oil. Yum.
• The hoisin sauce is optional, the fish sauce isn't.
• More garlic is always better.

We also had fried polenta with garlic (saute some garlic in a small saucepan, add herbs of your choice, in my case thyme and sage, then make old-fashioned grits according to the package direction (err on the side of less liquid) with chicken broth as the liquid...pour into a cake pan and chill till solid, then cut in squares and fry until crispy, and pan roasted broccoli.
The broccoli recipe is from cook's illustrated, so I can't link, but the basic idea is cut the broccoli into florets, and cut the stems into bias-cut strips - the idea is you want flattish rectangles, more or less, that'll cook evenly.  Mix some salt and pepper (I used szechuan pepper, because I was out of normal pepper. I don't know what that says about my kitchen, but I love this stuff.) with a few tablespoons of water and set aside. Heat a bit of oil in a pan with a lid, put the *stems* in and let them cook without stirring until lightly browned, 1 min or so, then add the florets, stir to toss, and leave to cook for another 2 mins without stirring anymore. Add the water/spices, cover tightly, and steam until the broccoli is bright green. (Apparently it was good, I didn't actually eat it.)

And of course harleenquinzell made lemon cake, and brought wine, and That Was Tasty Too. :)

Earlier in the week, we had beef roast, as it was on sale and I had promised nikulai and lukasbrierley dinner at some point. I tried another Cooks Illustrated technique, which was to roast the beef at a very low temp (225) until it hit 115 degrees internal temp, and then turn the oven off *entirely*, without opening the door, and let it coast up to 135 or so (medium rare). If you like your beef nicely pink all the way through, this is a lovely idea, although it's a little difficult to get the pan sauce made before the beef gets cold. Green beans steamed with tarragon and roasted potatoes-and-carrots were the rest of that meal, along with some sort of nifty weight-watchers friendly chocolate pie which was MUCH better than I would have believed, given the healthiness of it.

Have I mentioned I love the new kitchen?