Squid Mixes: Margaritas

Naturally, you are all avid followers of Hungry Enough to Eat Six, the outstanding food blog of my good friend and budding local celebrity, Nancy Mock.  As such, you already know about the food challenge gatherings she hosts.  Her latest, just last month, was the 2nd Annual Taco & Maragarita Off.  This was my second year bringing a margarita pitcher.  Last year, I took the easy way and bought a mix.  This time, I made it from scratch.  The only significant difference in terms of prep work is squeezing the limes myself.

I got my basic proportions from the recipe in The New York Bartender's Guide: 3 parts silver tequila, 1 part triple sec, 2 parts lime juice.  Drink recipes are no more standardized than any other food recipes.  Charles Schumann's American Bar sets the proportions at 2:1:1, calls specifically for Cointreau as the triple sec and uses lemon juice rather than lime.  The official IBA (International Bar Association) ratio is 7:4:3. 

At my wife's wise suggestion, I split the lime juice in halves between fresh squeezed and bottled.  Juicing can be hard work but I'd gotten into a bit of a groove by the time I reached my quota so it was tempting to keep going.  I stared back and forth between the limes in the bag and the lime juice in the bottle.  Laziness won out.

Cointreau is to triple sec as cognac is to brandy.  It's the same stuff, just higher quality at higher cost.  Cointreau is also a brand name.  As such, I'd rather use a lower-shelf triple sec if I can.  I had some of the higher grade on hand if I needed to supplement, thereby classing it up a touch, but didn't need it in the end.

This event was non-competitive but my pitcher went quickly so I think it passed the Basic Acceptability Test.  My wife is my most important critic.  She said it was good, though a bit strong.  I have found in general that The New York Bartender's Guide tends to make strong drinks but it's worth noting in this case that the recipe was actually lower in alcohol content than others I saw.  Next time, perhaps I would add more ice cubes to help dilute it.

The Clone Wars: The Rise of Clovis

Andrew Leon and I are watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Every Tuesday, we will be featuring an episode from the series which began in 2008.

Episode: "The Rise of Clovis"
Series: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Lost Missions (Season Six), Episode 6
Original Air Date: February 22, 2014

via Wookieepedia

The Clovis arc continues, part two of three.  The gang is back on Coruscant.  Clovis and Padmé have brought back proof of corruption within the Banking Clan.   Despite suspicions about his shady past, Clovis is put in charge of the clan and Padmé is assigned to help him in uncovering the mess.  Anakin is furious about his secret wife helping the interstellar playboy.  Let's just say the Jedi flies off the handle and makes a mess of his own marriage in the process.  While I appreciate the narrative purpose of Clovis, I think the story might work better if the man himself were not such an obvious slimeball.  It becomes too easy to side with Anakin when really, we should all be recognizing the monster he is gradually becoming.

via Wookieepedia

Among those opposed to elevating Clovis is Bail Organa, Senator of the Alderaan sector.  The character first appeared in Attack of the Clones.  Of course, we all know the part he has to play in the story to come as the adoptive father of Leia.  In the films, he is performed by Jimmy Smits (so handsome...) who was in just about every movie and TV show for a while.  In The Clone Wars, he is voiced by Phil LaMarr.

Next week: "Crisis at the Heart."

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: August 2017 Blog List

 

Greetings to all!  I hope you'll join us for the next installment of the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, an online gathering of bloggers who love books.  The next meeting is set for Friday, August 25th.  If you're interested, please sign on to the link list at the end of this post.

The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same.  In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers.  Please join us:

Cephalopod Coffeehouse: July 2017

Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the works they enjoyed most over the previous month.  Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun.  If you wish to add your own review to the conversation, please sign on to the link list at the end of my post.

Title: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High
Authors: Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

via Amazon

I think it's fair to say that the school district where I work is struggling at the moment.  Turnover has been high at both the administrative and faculty levels.  An atmosphere of mistrust - festering for decades - has reached near toxic levels.  Even summer hasn't given us much of a break from the troubles.  Yup, we're in rough shape.

Administration gave us a book to read over the summer.  It was not required.  It was suggested.  It's a book about improving your communication skills.  Just as there was a couple years ago when we were required to read Mindset (read here), there has been resistance in the ranks.

"How dare they give us this book to read.  They're the ones who can't communicate."  And so on.  You know how it goes.  I was always going to read it but even I went into it with a pessimistic attitude, thinking maybe it might provide ammunition in a difficult meeting one day.

The truth is, the book's actually quite good.  The authors are business consultants who have spent years watching successful people, dissecting what they do differently from everyone else.  Their thesis: everyone has crucial conversations in their lives, both personal and professional.  The people who stand out are the ones who handle those conversations effectively.

According to the authors, a crucial conversation is one in which opinions vary, stakes are high and emotions run strong.  In education, such conversations happen all the time: teacher-student, teacher-admin, teacher-colleague, teacher-parent, student-student, student-bus driver, etc.  The book offers several tactics they have found to be effective in these tense situations.  Each chapter focuses on a particular skill.  For example:

• Chapter 3: Start with Heart, How to Stay Focused on What You Really Want
• Chapter 5: Make It Safe, How to Make It Safe to Talk About Almost Anything
• Chapter 8: Explore Others' Paths, How to Listen When Others Blow Up or Clam Up

In the midst of reading the book, I attended a school board meeting and realized the deep levels of dysfunction we're currently experiencing.  The book's recommendations are good ones.  I am hopeful that at least a few of my colleagues will set their resentments aside and give it a go.  In all honesty, our communication difficulties predate our current troubles by decades, probably generations.  I am at a point in my own career where I'm starting to seriously ponder future leadership roles for myself and I expect the principles outlined in the book to be highly useful - both in considering if that's what I really want and in preparing myself to do the work.  It's a book I'll share with others and keep around for reference.  Relationships are everything in education - truly, in life.  How could one not want ideas about how to improve them?

Please join us and share your own review of your best read from the past month.  This month's link list is below.  I'll keep it open until the end of the day.  I'll post August's tomorrow.  Meetings are the last Friday of each month.  Next gathering is August 25th.

On the Coffee Table: James Sturm

Title: The Golem's Mighty Swing
Writer and Artist: James Sturm

via Amazon

The Golem's Mighty Swing is a fictional, graphic novel account of a barnstorming Jewish baseball team during the Great Depression.  Noah Strauss is the player-manager for the Stars of David.  The squad faces brutal treatment from fans and foes wherever they go.  In fact, the abuse seems to be part of the attraction.  They sport beards - some real, some not - to appease the stereotype.  Financial straits push them to try a more demeaning gimmick: dressing up their one African American player as a hulking golem, a "Medieval Jewish Monster."

The team name and the beards take their inspiration from the real-life House of David teams, though to classify that cultist operation as "Jewish" would be quite a stretch.  While I can find no historical equivalent to the team in the book, Jewish players banding together not to proselytize but simply to make a living because other teams wouldn't hire them, it's not difficult to imagine that one or two existed.  There were other barnstorming outfits bound by ethnicity: Native Americans, Italians, Irish and, of course, numerous African American teams.

The book was recommended to us by our comic shop clerk who studied under Sturm at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont.  It is the first of two baseball books for Sturm, who also wrote and drew Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow.  I'll definitely seek that one out, too.

The Clone Wars: An Old Friend

Andrew Leon and I are watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Every Tuesday, we will be featuring an episode from the series which began in 2008.

Episode: "An Old Friend"
Series: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Lost Missions (Season Six), Episode 5
Original Air Date: February 22, 2014

via Wookieepedia

Padmé is called to Scipio to fund a mercy mission.  Once there, she runs into her old flame Rush Clovis who enlists her help to uncover the corruption of the Banking Clan.  This is the first of a three-part arc.

It's been quite a while since we last had a Padmé-centered episode.  Of course, a Clovis story is really about Padmé's relationship with Anakin, who comes to town when his secret wife is arrested for espionage.  Overall, I think it's just as well that The Clone Wars doesn't devote so much time to the romantic side of the Anakin story but it is humanizing to see him reduced to petty, jealous husband.

via Wookieepedia

This episode is the second of four for Rush Clovis.  His existence helps to flesh out the character of Padmé, just as Duchess Satine does for Obi-Wan.  He is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes.

Next week: "The Rise of Clovis."

Squid Mixes: Old Pal Cocktail

The Old Pal Cocktail, according to The New York Bartender's Guide recipe I used, combines rye whiskey, Campari and sweet vermouth.  Apparently other versions use dry vermouth instead.  I have no idea who the "old pal" is but the drink first appeared ABC of Mixing Cocktails, a 1922 book written by Harry MacElhone.

To me, the flavor resembles that of a cranberry.  The Campari brings the bitter (and the color), the vermouth the sweet and the whiskey the warmth.  My wife enjoyed it so we may try this one again.  Maybe I'll try with dry vermouth next time.