Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Rosemary Thyme Pita Chips
Serves 8 (depending on the size of your pita)
2 pitas
unsalted butter
honey (preferably one that spreads easily and is not too runny)
sea salt
dried thyme
dried rosemary
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a cookie tray with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
2. Cut your pita rounds into eighths or quarters. Pull those pieces in half so that each piece consists of only one layer of pita. Place each pita piece on the cookie tray, rough side up.
3. Spread each piece of pita with a thin layer of butter. Do the same thing with the honey.
4. Sprinkle each piece with a pinch each of sea salt, thyme and rosemary (adjust according to taste).
5. Bake in the oven for 6 minutes. Rotate your pan and bake another 6 minutes, or until the chips are browned and crispy. Keep a close eye on the chips towards the end of their baking time as they can quickly go from brown to burned. Let the chips cool and then enjoy!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Chicken Cacciatore With Mushrooms, Tomatoes and Wine
This classic Italian dish must have hundreds of versions, all resulting in a rustic braise of chicken, aromatic vegetables and tomatoes. My version includes lots of mushrooms, both dried and fresh. You can add kale to the dish if you want to work in some leafy greens (see variation below).
1/2 ounce dried mushrooms, like porcini (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 to 8 skinless chicken legs and/or thighs (thighs can be boneless)
1 small onion, minced
1 small carrot, minced
1 rib celery, minced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh minced Italian parsley
1 heaped teaspoon minced fresh rosemary, or 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 pound mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
1/2 cup red wine
1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes in juice, pulsed in a food processor
1. Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl or heat-proof glass measuring cup and pour on 2 cups boiling water. Let sit 15 to 30 minutes, until mushrooms are softened. Drain through a strainer lined with cheesecloth or a paper towel and set over a bowl. Rinse the mushrooms in several changes of water, squeeze out excess water and chop coarsely. Set aside. Measure out 1 cup of the soaking liquid and set aside.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy nonstick skillet. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown, in batches, for 5 minutes on each side. Transfer the chicken pieces to a bowl as they are done. Pour the fat off from the pan and discard.
3. Turn the heat down to medium, add the remaining oil and the onion, carrot and celery, as well as a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, parsley, rosemary, red pepper flakes and salt to taste. Cover, turn the heat to low and cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes, until the mixture is soft and aromatic. Stir in the fresh and dried mushrooms, turn the heat back up to medium, and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are just tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the wine and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring, for a few minutes, until the wine has reduced by about half. Add the tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the tomatoes have cooked down a little and smell fragrant. Stir in the mushroom soaking liquid that you set aside.
4. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and stir so that they are well submerged in the tomato mixture. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender. Taste, adjust seasoning and serve with pasta or rice.
Russell contra Solipsism?
Russell-Example 1: If [a] cat exists whether I see it or not, we can understand from our own experience how it gets hungry between one meal and the next; but if it does not exist when I am not seeing it, it seems odd that appetite should grow during non-existence as fast as during existence.
Russell-Example 2: When human beings speak -- that is, when we hear certain noises which we associate with ideas, and simultaneously see certain motions of lips and expressions of face -- it is very difficult to suppose that what we hear is not the expression of thought, as we know it would be if we emitted the same sounds.
Thus, he concludes, "every principle of simplicity urges us to adopt the natural view, that there really are objects other than ourselves"
Seriously! This is the best we can do with all of the mental horsepower of Philosophy at our fingertips
Possible replies from the Solipists:
First, why can't it simply be a law of my experience that such-and-such tactile and proprioceptive experiences will tend to co-occur with such-and-such visual experiences? Surely there's a theoretically discoverable structure to such co-occurrences -- a structure not so different, perhaps, and probably simpler, than that employed in the realist's account of tactile and visual perception and motor control and its relation to external objects. After all, realists' psychological theories, if they're really going to explain the relation among the experiences, require complicated overlapping and competing brain mechanisms for determining, among other things, visual shape and orientation from optical input.
And second, if simplicity really favors the theory with fewer unexplained coincidences, won't solipsism win hands down, even if it leaves a few things unexplained that the realist can explain? The small world of the solipsist will have vastly fewer such coincidences in total, and vastly fewer free parameters, than the enormously large, fine-textured, and richly populated world of the realist.
Labels:
Bertrand Russell,
Hungry cats,
philosophy,
Solipsism
Friday, February 3, 2012
Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche - Section 193 - Quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit
Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche - Section 193
The content of our waking life influences our dreams and the opposite is true: what we dream about influences how we live our lives. For instance, a man who could experience the freedom and exhilaration of flying in dreams would carry some of that attitude into his real life.
Nietzsche’s point here is connected to his comments in the previous section, and it concerns the importance of the way in which the irrational aspects of ourpersonalities infl uence our outlook on life.
Luke 12:3 - What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
Quidquid luce fuit, tenebris agit {“What happened in the light goes on in the dark.”}: but vice versa too. What we experience in dreams, as long as we experience it often enough, ends up belonging to the total economy of our soul just as much as anything we have “really” experienced.
Such experiences make us richer or poorer, we have one need more or less, and finally, in the bright light of day and even in the clearest moments when minds are wide awake, we are coddled a little by the habits of our dreams. Suppose someone frequently dreams that he is flying, and as soon as he starts dreaming he becomes aware of the art and ability of flight as his privilege as well as his most particular, most enviable happiness – someone like this, who thinks he can negotiate every type of curve and corner with the slightest impulse, who knows the feeling of an assured, divine ease, an “upwards” without tension or force, a “downwards” without condescension or abasement – without heaviness! – how could someone with dream experiences and dream habits like these not see that the word “happiness” is colored and determined differently in his waking day too! how could his demands for happiness not be different?
Compared to this “flying,” the “soaring upwards” that the poets describe will have to be too terrestrial, muscular, violent, even too “heavy” for him.
Labels:
Aphorism 193,
Beyond Good and Evil,
Dreams,
Luke 12,
nietzsche
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Girl Walk - Dance You Fool!
Official Trailer: Girl Walk // All Day from Girl Walk // All Day on Vimeo.
Simply Brilliant
B Girl Ballet Dancers & Girl Talk
What could be better - Watch in Awe
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