meatloaf, yo

ingredients

bowl this
5 pounds ground round
1 pound ground pork
6 cups breadcrumbs

4 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano

2 Tablespoons fennel, ground

bowl this
2 carrots, chopped
3 medium onion, chopped
15 garlic cloves, minced

mix this
9 large eggs, beaten to blend
1.5 cup dry red wine
1/8 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup stone ground dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey mustard
3/4 cup barbecue sauce

a few sprigs of thyme
8 bay leaves

2.5 pounds bacon, cooked

no salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper after 20m in oven

preparation

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place the bacon in a medium sauté pan over medium-low heat. Sauté the bacon for about 5 minutes, or until it has begun to crisp and most of the fat has rendered out.

Combine first 8 ingredients in two bowls. Gently mix in the sauce, eggs, and wine.  Using your hands, gently work all of the ingredients into the meat until well combined. 

Place one-half of the croutons into a shallow baking dish at least 14 inches long. Place meat mixture on large rimmed baking sheet and shape into 16x4-inch loaf. Pierce the meatloaf with the bay leaves and thyme sprig. Bake meat loaf until cooked through and thermometer inserted into center registers between 160°F and 170°F, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

adapted from (3x size of recipe)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Sausage-Meat-Loaf-with-Mozzarella-230634
+ http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Not-So-Basic-Meatloaf-355903 

A duck walks into a bar

A duck walks into a bar and he says to the bartender, “Hey Bartender, you got any grapes?”

And the Bartender says, “No I don’t have any grapes, this is a bar!” 

And the duck says “Okay.”  So he leaves the bar, he walks around the block, he comes back and he says, “Bartender, you got any grapes?”

The Bartender says, “No. I don’t have any grapes.”

And the duck says “Okay.”  He leaves the bar, walks around the block again, “Hey Bartender, you got any grapes?”

The Bartender says, “Look, if you ask me that again, I’m going to nail you to the wall!”

The duck says “Okay,” leaves the bar, comes back, “Hey Bartender, you got any nails?”

The Bartender says, “No!”

The duck says “Ah… You got any grapes?”

-- jennifer egan, dinner party ice breaker 115

Anamika's Chilly Paneer

This is an awesome recipe from my friend Anamika, who runs the delicious Kasa restaurant. Back in 2004, I took her Indian cooking classes to shore up that need, but now that she's a famous chef and restaurateur, her schedule is tight. Every now and again, she offers a class, which I highly recommend.

Ingredients 

Paneer – 1 packet – sliced
Red Bell Pepper – 1 – sliced
Green Chillis, finely chopped – 4
Soy Sauce – 2 tbsp
Vinegar – 1 tbsp
Plain flour – 2 tbsps
Cornstarch – 3 tbsps
Black Pepper, freshly ground – 1 teaspoon
Green Onions, finely chopped – 2 bunches
Garlic, finely chopped – 2 tbsp
Ginger, finely chopped – 2 tbsp
Sugar – pinch
Oil to fry
Salt to taste

Instructions
1. Mix the paneer with the plain flour, 2 tbsp cornstarch, black pepper, ginger and soy sauce.
2. Fry the paneer pieces in hot oil and drain.
3. For the sauce, heat a little oil in a pan, add most of the spring onions, bell pepper and garlic pieces and fry until light brown. Make a paste with remaining cornstarch and a little water and keep aside.
4. Add about 2 cups to the pan. Once it starts boiling, add cornflour paste and stir to thicken.  At this point, add the vinegar, sugar and salt to taste.  Add the paneer and cook for a few minutes.
5.Garnish with the remaining green onions

Reading List for Survivalists

Recently I came across a blog post that had a list of (physical) books that would be important to have on hand just-in-case.  It reminded me of the beautiful work by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, Lucifer's Hammer, in which a comet slams into the earth and the ensuing struggle of survival is documented in gorgeous detail.  

The tone of life after "Hammerfall" is one where those who do not have valuable professions for a world without power or civilization are relegated to being manual laborers, regardless of their socioeconomic status or profession before the Fall.

One of the interesting things woven throughout the book is a subtle dropping of a list of books. I'll include that list in a follow-up post here, so watch this space.  For now, here is the aforementioned blog post, from codenameinsight:

The Survivalist's BookshelfWhen it comes to preparing for disaster, almost everything you need to do/know/learn can be found online.  There may be a time, however, when power is not available, the internet is not available, and all of the information that you have so careful stored away in the cloud is unreachable.  This is why, even though nearly all of my survival-related stuff is online, I still have a stack of useful books in storage for use in the event that TSHTF and I need valuable survival information at my fingertips.  Here's some books that should be in your library:

• The Encyclopedia of Country Living
 (I've had a copy of this super useful book since the first edition was available)

• Where There Is No Doctor
 (basic info but very good, I have used this book on many of my world travels)

• Where There Is No Dentist
 (ditto. I don't use this as much but for third world travel I have used this info to share with others) 

• Boston's Gun Bible
 (this is on my list of things to buy when I get back, comes highly recommended from a couple of friends)

• Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition
 (I've had my copy of this book since the first edition)

• Be Expert With Map and Compass
 (ditto, my copy of this book is ancient; this is the book that taught me how to use a map and compass)

• Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt To Plate (The Wild Food Adventure Series, Book 1)
 (good pictures, will come in useful when TSHTF)

• Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West
 (a guidebook more specific to my area)

• SAS Survival Handbook, Revised Edition: For Any Climate, in Any Situation
 (this is a classic)

• The SAS Guide to Tracking, New and Revised
 (this is on my list to get)

• Wilderness Medicine, 5th Edition
 (super expensive and super technical, probably more than most people need)

• Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine
 (possibly a better option than the book above)

• Medicine for the Outdoors: The Essential Guide to Emergency Medical Procedures and First Aid (Medicine for the Outdoors: The Essential Guide to First Aid &)
 (ditto)

• Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis
 (good basic info on food storage)

• New Fix-It-Yourself Manual: How to Repair, Clean, and Maintain Anything and Everything In and Around Your Home
 (back before the internet, this was my bible for fixing things)

• In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection
 (this is a classic)

• Putting Food By: Fifth Edition
 (another classic; excellent info on food storage)

• How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times
 (I've perused this book but don't own it. If you are new to survivalism this is the book for you as it hits all of the high points)

• Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game
 (if you have never butchered an animal before, this book will show you how)

• The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence
 (survival psychology...very good info)

• Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills: Naked into the Wilderness
 (when TSHTF, technology goes out the window and we will revert to primitive skills, this book will teach you those skills)

• Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills & Wilderness Survival
 (ditto)

• Essential Bushcraft
 (ditto)

That's a pretty long list but it hits all of the essential skills: how to find food, how to prepare food, how to preserve food, how to take care of medical emergencies, how to navigate, how to make shelter, and a multitude of other survival skills.

Shutdown Services Script for Sharepoint

Based on the blog post by Rafelo "Stopping and Restarting WSS 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 (MOSS)" I wrote a quick cmd script to automate the hunt-and-peck task of shutting each of these SharePoint services down one by one.

net stop w3svc
net stop iisadmin
net stop ssosrv
net stop DCLauncher
net stop DCLoadBalancer
net stop OSearch
net stop SPAdmin
net stop SPSearch
net stop SPTimerV3
net stop SPTrace
net stop SPWriter
iisreset /stop

Why ever would we do this? In my case, I'm refreshing the content in the pre-production environment with the production content - and using a database restore of the related content databases to do this. SQL Server requires exclusive access to the database in order to overwrite it from a backup, so this is a pretty good way to drop all connections from the SharePoint IIS webserver.
And here is the script to bring it all back up (in the opposite order)

iisreset /start
net start SPWriter
net start SPTrace
net start SPTimerV3
net start SPSearch
net start SPAdmin
net start OSearch
net start DCLoadBalancer
net start DCLauncher
net start ssosrv
net start iisadmin
net start w3svc

Making the mundane a trifle less mundane, one script at a time.