OMG!! Alton brown has a Youtube channel!

Linkity!

H/T to Weerd Beard

Alton Brown is a hero to me.  Good Eats is what awakened my inner science geek and got me into cooking BIG time.  My lovely bride introduced me to gourmet home cooking, and the Food Network- Alton made it cool.

In celebration of this, I promise to get up reviews of my home Sous Vide setup and Infrared grill in the next few days.

Promise.

Pinkie Swear.

With that said.... I need a saber:

Gun stuff

I have been seriously lacking in the gun stuff on the blog as of late.  Why?  Well, ammo is expensive, time is short, and I am busy as hell with the day job.

I need to get to the range.  I cant afford it right now.  I REALLY want to fire a big boomer, and if I can load up some .454 ammo, MAYBE I'll sneak to the range in the next few days.

You want a BOOM?  You can't handle the BOOM!

Anywho... so here is some cool stuff about guns that was on the blogs this morning:

Grant Cunningham linked to Forgotten Weapons (a site that trips my oddball gun trigger) about another Automatic revolver that is just freaking cool:

 The Firearms Blog linked to another cool 'hidden safe':

Crown Royal?  A Glock?  Pfft... how positively 1992.

For Wirecutter- Fire Glass

Wirecutter posted a pic on his blog of a "Fireglass" pit.  It closed with the great line "That **** looks like sorcery"

Totally agreed.  That's why I built one in my back yard using some spare rock (there is a lot of it lying around Texas), and old copper firebowl, a turkey fryer burner that was 'spare', and some fireglass that I sourced locally.

I first saw one of these while on a work trip to Palm Springs where they had a couple of these that people were getting drunk around at the bar:

Fire, superheated glass chunks, and drunk people- what could possibly go wrong?

When I had the parts in place, I was able to build this in something close to 45 minutes:

I'll be building another one soon.  I have more glass left over.

Thought for the day- SCOTUS Case

Why in the HELL is the LBGT community fighting for more Government regulations in their lives?

Marriage is a Religious ceremony.

Why is Government regulating and blessing religious ceremonies in the first place? Why do we pay a tax and ask for permission to get married?  Don't the liberals believe we have a 'separation of church and state?' (I know we don't- that's not in our Constitution*.) 

Why is the LBGT community fighting for more Govt regulation of the relationship? Want survivorship rights- Write a will. Want Benefits? That's between you and your employer. Want to make medical decisions for your partner? Medical Power of Attorney. Want higher taxes and meddling busybodies in your life? Go to Government.

Government involvement has never made anything better in a situation like this.  The correct solution would be taking it to the Supreme Court saying that Govt blessing, taxing and regulating a church ceremony is unconstitutional.  Remove the regulations and tax burden associated with marriage.  Leave it to the private citizens to take control of their lives, get the Government out of the Church, and let the free market decide if companies offering benefits to "whatever" is a viable solution.

Default to freedom.  Less Government is always the answer.

*here is what we have:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"  Marriage is the free exercise of religion.  Congress shall make no law.  So... piss off.  There is no reason for Government to be involved in this in any way.

Same story, just a different time

This weekend, I was driving That Kid to his first T-Ball practice.  I was driving a Prius (shut up, I'm not a hippie) when some Def Leppard came on the satellite radio.  That Kid was enjoying the music, and generally rocking out.

Yes, I leave the testicles at home when I drive this.

I had a flashback to when I was young.  Riding in the back of a mid-'70s Dodge van, going to Little League practice, with my mom playing the Doobie Brothers, or Jimmy Buffet on a state of the art 8-Track player.

Google image search for this brought some flashbacks.

The set pieces might change, but the story bears repeating.

Texas lawmaker wants a Tax Holiday on guns and ammo

Texas lawmaker wants tax holiday for guns, ammo sales.

(Clickity-read)

"Texans love their independence -- and their guns.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, is proposing to give Texans more of both.
Leach has filed the "Texas Gun Ownership Reinforcement Act," a bill to create a new tax-free holiday where consumers won't be charged taxes on guns, ammunition or hunting supplies one day out of the year:
Texas Independence Day, March 2."

Texas... Gotta love it :)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/27/3256402/texas-lawmaker-wants-tax-holiday.html#storylink=cp 

Salt Dome Red Snapper

A few days ago, I was at home, and That Wife texts me:

"Bought a whole red snapper.  Start researching how to cook it"

He does not look happy about this

I have never cooked a whole fish before, but I've watched enough Food Network to be dangerous.

So, after Googling it a while, and That Wife saying 'no' to the en papillote idea, I decided to go nuts and try a technique I had seen and never tried- Salt Dome. 

So, after looking up a bunch of recipes and burning an offering to Alton Brown, I went for it.

Preheated the oven to 450

Mixed 2 pounds of Kosher salt with 1/4 cup of water and made a dry paste.

Grabbed a disposable aluminum baking pan (In case we screwed it up, we could just throw the whole thing out and order chinese), and put down a thin layer of the salt paste

Put slices of lemon inside the body cavity of the fish, and cut off the dorsal, pectoral, and anal fins with kitchen shears

Covered the fish with the rest of the salt paste.

 Threw it in the oven and cooked it for about 40 minutes. Of course, with the fish completely encased, when it came out, it was a leap of faith that it was "done" since I could not use the instant read Thermometer

So, we cracked open the dome.

Looks... like a fish!

It turned out delicious.  Soft, moist, and with a great flavor.  Not salty at all (except a small part where the salt got inside the body cavity- be careful with that.), and not fishy.  the salt dome hardens into a rock, and traps in the steam, and just steams the fish to completion. 

Try this if you get a chance.  The disposable pan made clean up a breeze- just throw the whole thing out. 

Sorry for the sparse posting

It's been a crazy time at work, and this whole insanity with the Great Panic of 2012/13 going on... well, time is thin.

Here is an example of the gun stuff that's been happening in my little world:
So far, this week, I have sourced ammo for 3 coworkers, set up one co-worker to buy an AR off of a buddy, helped my Aunt buy a .357 Mag (via text... and the dumbass at Academy sold her a box of 357SIG ammo with it), had one co-worker call me at home at 9:30PM to guide through an AR purchase, and just helped my boss and a coworker through the difference between a Colt 6920 and a Colt 6940 and decide which one to buy. 

 Plus, I have a 4 year old that has gone insane with loving Star Wars, with never seeing a movie.  So that is bringing out my inner geek as I deal with all the fun stuff, while not giving away too much of the movies.

Anyway, to bide the time, here are some random food and gun pics I had floating on the phone

Bought it for the name, and it wasn't half bad

Prime freaking rib. Damn straight it was tasty

bought this off dvor.com while IN the hunting blind, cursing the fact that I had no holster

Darth Vader in a row boat.  Your argument is invalid.

Pictures from the road

Had a business trip this week.  Spent 4 days on the road going through some beautiful countryside and some really depressing a sketchy areas of some big cities.  Here are some random images from the road (sorry for the crappy iPhone pics):

I laughed at this, then got sad at the poor group they made.

This was like 1 mile away from the deer crossing sign

Two things I need more of.

Need this for the hunting blind.

This was an unexpected gem.  The "Austin" from Cole and Parks

If you have to ask... yes- you probably are gone.

Now, just to find some redemption.

Not just any wings, but wings where they were invented

I see they invented that Canoe Magnet.

The Man-  The Greatest Geek That Ever Lived