Publius & Co.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

I'm at the beach and you're not. However, the midgets have been left behind with a bushel filled with casaba melons and the trapeze has been balanced for maximum swingability. Further, the tampoline has been replaced with a moon bounce and the lock is off the liquor cabinet.

No molesting the guinea pigs, and remember the rats have very sharp teeth. Enjoy the party.

Friday Rat Blogging

It has not been good for our rat family lately.

Misto was diagnosed with a collapsed lung last week. Leather broke her leg on Monday. And last night, Arwen was put to sleep, because of an ulcerated tumor.

Good night, sweet Arwen, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

Does anyone need to know...

...how many trips through the clothes washer it takes to ruin a cellphone? If you do, I can answer that question for you.

No Rat Blogging Today

One of our boys, Misto (who was featured in this spot a few weeks ago), has a collapsed lung. You can read about what's going on with him at the Ratablog.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the Friday Ark over at The Modulator's hangout.

Bad Places to Work

Anyone who's read Susie's blog knows she has a crappy job...and if you don't read her blog, click the link and read about job crappiness. Yes, she has a crappy job, but I think I've found a worse one.

One day, the gf and I were coming out of one of our favorite restaurants, which happens to be located near one of these stores. I saw a couple walking out of the store, and the male half of the couple...let's just say he didn't have a spring in his step. I had the feeling that given a choice between going back into that store and having his fingernails ripped out, he'd opt for the fingernail ripping-outing and throw in a swim through a molten glass furnace.

He was not happy. He needed alcohol, and lots of it.

And then something struck me. Now, don't get me wrong: I think children are wonderful things. My mother had some kids, once, and they were OK. Your mother probably had at least one at one time in her life, and I'm sure that child has grown into a fine citizen. But before those kids were born, your mother (yes, and mine) was a sea of conflicting hormones that would test the virtues of a saint.

Can you imagine working at a store that actively caters to massively hormonal women? Can you imagine having those massively hormonal women in there with their mothers...or worse, their mothers-in-law? (Or, may God have mercy on your soul...both?) Especially if it's your parents/your in-laws first grandchild?

No. No way, Josie, would I ever subject myself to that. I took one look at that guy walking out behind his wife, and I knew. I knew he had had a peek at Hell, a Hell Dante couldn't--wouldn't--let himself imagine.

Hell must be the inside of a Buy Buy Baby.

You know, if you're going to submit a news article to The Manolo, I guess you should have some content up for when he gives you credit.

Welcome to the many internet friends of The Manolo! I am very grateful for the link he as given me; at the same time, please allow me to apologize for the lack of real content. I assure you this is a working blog; feel free to dig around in my archives for discussions of pet domestic rats, cycling, pet domestic rats, hockey and other sports, pet domestic rats, my fellow Munuvians, my gf, and pet domestic rats.

You might also find a recipe or two you'd be interested in. Perhaps a dinner of beef medallions in a mustard-cream sauce? And should you try that recipe, believe me when I say you will be justified in having Eggs Benedict ready for breakfast the next morning.

I can also assure you your pet rats will love any leftovers from either of those two meals.

It looks like a bachelorette party attacking the dessert cart.

The girls get avocado and tamale pie. It was not a pretty sight.

Don't forget to check out the Friday Ark over at The Modulator's!

...and let there be Hockey!

And the fans looked down, and saw that it was in principle, and said, "What the fuck? Just sign a CBA and start playing already!"

And someone tell Leonsis to resign Peter Bondra, too.

Not Afraid!

Not even the guinea pigs (from We Are Not Afraid).

Bonus Rat Blogging!

Watchrat Roo is on the job! (Thanks to ratfriend Angelratgirl for the animation!)

Friday Rat Blogging

Zoe curls up in a box. And don't forget the Friday Ark over at the Modulator's place.

Hell's Bell's, put Lance's name on some go-go boots and I'd probably wear 'em.

The gf saw an advertisement for this notebook, and she said, "What a marketing ploy! What kind of sucker would fall for that?"

I'm reasonably sure she meant, "Wouldn't you love this?" I'm blogging from my new computer. It's a lot like blogging from my old one, only with a smaller screen. But hasn't the quality of my posting gone up already!

Britons never will be slaves!

Would it kill you to use some punctuation?

A request for help, from one of my rat discussion lists:

well i got my new rat the other day and he's all black but has some white around his eye and his paws and his name's frank they didnt have the one that i was suposed to get they sold it it made me kinda mad any ways...... he sneeze's but he's helthy he eats a lot n drinks a lot to he met friz today n they had a blast n what ever friz did (my big rat n my first one) he did the same they love eachother but im not moving frank in w/ friz b/c of 2 things 1)they just met n need some time to get to know each other 2) frank can fit threw the bars of friz's cage .... okay well see he squeeks or well he makes sounds all the time n i dont know if he's scared or if somethings wrong b/c friz never made any noise's and he sneezes what can cause him to sneeze??

Eggs Benedict

One of my all-time favorite meals is Eggs Benedict, but I don't eat it that often. It's difficult to make, and if you go out for breakfast...let's just say some restaurants don't go to the trouble of making it properly. What is absolutely necessary for Eggs Benedict is a real hollandaise sauce; anything else isn't worth eating...especially that pre-packaged Knorr's that is served in so many restaurants. The gf and I went out for breakfast a few times this year and she ordered Eggs Benedict--I was appalled at the taste and appearance of their "hollandaise." With the new kitchen and a long weekend, I decided to prepare real Eggs Benedict for her.

I worked in a French kitchen for over two years and I made two hollandaise sauces a day, for lunch and for dinner, whipping by hand over a gas flame. The time needed to make a sauce is close to 30 minutes, whipping all the time, and yeah, I do have carpal tunnel syndrome.

Hollandaise isn't made from stock and roux; it's an emulsion of butter and liquid--in this case, wine. For a chicken or vegetable dish, you'd use chicken stock, and fish stock for a fish dish. Egg yolks are used to help bind the emulsion together, then lemon is added as a flavoring. A good hollandaise will have a satiny texture, a nice yellow color, and a taste that is a beautiful combination of butter and lemon. It's one of the best tasting things you can put in your mouth, but your heart probably won't be too thrilled: Its main ingredients are butterfat and egg yolk. It is, to say the least, a royal pain in the ass to make, but it *really* impresses the girls.

I prepared this one in a manner completey foreign to me: I used an electric mixer, and I cooked the egg yolks in a water bath. As is stated here, one can't control the heat over a water bath as well as one can over a gas flame; I was afraid I'd scramble the eggs. As it happened, though, this hollandaise came out beautifully, and my mouth was very happy.

Hollandaise Sauce
4 eggs at room temperature, separated
1 pound of butter, melted
white wine
salt
pepper
lemon juice

1. Leave all eggs out of the refrigerator overnight and separate them when you're ready to start. Eggs in uncracked shells are ok to leave out for up to a week so don't worry they'll go rotten overnight. Using room temp. eggs will give you a better volume when whipping and a better texture when the sauce is finished.
2. Melt the butter. It will separate into three parts--the bottom is water and minerals and is useless. Very light milkfats will float on the top; skim that off and discard. The golden clarified butter in the middle layer is what you'll use.
3. Take four egg yolks in a stainless steel bowl and add an equal amount, by volume, of liquid (white wine, in this case) (I do it by eye), a dash of white pepper, and a dash of salt.
4. Start beating the bejeebers out of those eggs over low heat. I prefer doing it over a gas range, but since I no longer have a gas range, I did it over a water bath. Low temps are used so that the eggs won't scramble.
5. When your arm falls off, remember you've another one on the other side. Keep beating...or use an electric mixer.
6. As you mix in air, the yolks will increase in volume. Over time, however, the eggs will begin to break down and decrease in volume. When the volume starts to decrease, lift the whip every now and then. The sauce is ready for the next step when the tracks that drip off the whip hold themselves for several seconds--say a count of five or so.
7. Remove the eggs from the flame and beat for another minute or so, until the bottom of the bowl has cooled a bit.
8. Start adding the clarified butter v e r y s l o w l y, and beat it well after adding it. When you start off, just add it a teaspoon at a time (I'm serious!); when about half of the butter has been added, you can increase the rate at which you add the butter.
9. There's a point at which you stop adding the butter, but you should have someone who's made a hollandaise sauce before show you when. You will probably use close to the entire pound of clarified butter...but sometimes you won't. Experience will tell you when to stop adding it.
10. Almost done. Add the juice from one lemon and taste. You may have to add a bit more salt to temper the sharpness of the lemon juice; do so if necessary. There should also be a hint of butter to the taste; add a bit more if necessary. If there's not enough lemon flavor, of course, add a bit more juice, but be careful not to go overboard. Also, if the sauce is very thick, you can add a bit more of the liquid to the sauce.

Eggs Benedict
Hollandaise sauce
Two eggs for poaching
English muffin, split in half and toasted
Canadian bacon or ham
1. Make the hollandaise--see above.
2. Heat the water for poaching. Use a large, relatively shallow sauce pan, and do *not* let the water boil. The water should have large bubbles on the bottom of the pan, and one bubble will rise to the top every now and then.
3. When the water is ready for eggs, start toasting the muffin.
4. Crack each egg into a small bowl. This will allow you to discard an egg should the yolk break, and it also allows you to slide the raw egg into the water gently, resulting in a better-formed poaced egg.
5. Slide the eggs into the water one at a time. Put them toward the edge of the pan so that they won't slide into each other.
6. Heat the canadian bacon/ham somehow. Or don't--if it's sliced thin enough, the heat from the egg will warm it up. Trust me.
7. Construct the Eggs Benedict with a muffin on the bottom, ham on top of that, a poached egg on top of the ham, and cover it with the hollandaise sauce. Sprinkle a bit of paprika on top to give it a bit of color, and enjoy the party in your mouth.

There is, of course a price to be paid for this, and I'm not just talkin' about a sore arm and hardened arteries. As with all good parties...the kitchen will probably be trashed.

Friday Rat Blogging

Misto (Mistoffelees) enjoys a little rest.