Hangover Chip Muffins

A variation on this recipe. They do not cure a hangover, but they made me feel better about having one.

Ingredients

• 2 c. flour (I used "white whole wheat")
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 T. cocoa powder
  
• 1 egg
• 1 really overripe banana, frozen, thawed, and mashed
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2 T. margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 c. (skim) milk
• 1/4 c. mini chocolate chips
  

Follow the rest of the recipe as given in previous entry. Makes 12 muffins, about 137.25 calories/muffin, give or take.

*Note: it's July, and these get bread mold pretty quick if you're not careful. Put them in the fridge or the freezer if you don't eat all of them the first day.

Book Review: Lex Luthor, Man of Steel

This one's almost too short to bother cross-posting it from GoodReads.com. Still.

If you've ever delved into the Superman comics at all, you've come across Lex Luthor, the billionaire who makes it his business to make life difficult for Our Hero. The back story between him and Clark Kent is pretty compelling stuff - friendship and betrayal in rural Kansas. But this isn't that story.

Brian Azzarello has interrogated Lex and come back with six issues of reasons to hate the Big Nietzschian Joke. There's nothing not to like here - the storytelling is tight, the art is gorge...more If you've ever delved into the Superman comics at all, you've come across Lex Luthor, the billionaire who makes it his business to make life difficult for Our Hero. The back story between him and Clark Kent is pretty compelling stuff - friendship and betrayal in rural Kansas. But this isn't that story.

Brian Azzarello has interrogated Lex and come back with six issues of reasons to hate the Big Nietzschian Joke. There's nothing not to like here - the storytelling is tight, the art is gorgeous and wonderfully consistent, and the story itself is perfect for Lex: rational on the surface, but with a depth of sadism to keep the sympathy at bay. Lex is always restrained and gentlemanly, but always ready to go for the jugular when you turn your head just right. He's always brutal, never losing himself in mawkish nostalgia. Best of all is the dichotomy between what he claims in his narration and the often brutal truths of his actions.

If you're looking for a good, quick read, or something which can show a neophyte how good comics can be, this is one for you.


Lex Luthor, Man of Steel, by Brian Azzarello with art by Lee Bermejo. 5 stars out of 7.

Balsamic Chocolate Drops

Originally from Habeas Brulee, via FatFree Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  
• 5 T. margarine
• 1/2 c. + 1 T. cocoa powder (not dutched)
• 1/2 c. dark brown sugar (packed)
• 1/3 c. nonfat plain yoghurt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 T. balsamic vinegar
  
• 1/4 c. mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 T. cinnamon and sugar mixture
  

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add chips. Set aside.

3. In a sauce pan over low heat, melt the margarine. When it is done, turn off and add the sugar and the cocoa. Mix. Add the yoghurt, vanilla, and vinegar.

4. Add dry into wet. Don't overmix. Also if you are clever, wait a few extra minutes for the wet to cool enough that it won't melt the chocolate chips. Oops.

5. Drop tablespoons of dough about an inch apart on greased cookie sheets and flatten down gently. Mix the cinnamon and sugar and the sea salt and sprinkle on top. Bake about 10-11 minutes, switching the sheets halfway through.

Notes

*Makes 24 cookies, about 79 calories each.

*Honestly...this isn't what I was expecting. I ate 4 of them trying to decide if I like them, so I won't say they're bad, but they're quite savory and serious chocolate without being sweet. Actually, I think they're very much a Claire sort of cookie - she likes the savory, while I am the one with a sweet tooth.

Anyway, definitely more of a "nibble at during tea time, paired with some strawberries" than "dunk in your milk after school" cookie. Sophisticated, I think is what I mean. And also these strawberries are delicious. Mm.

*2.5/7 on the disaster index. Easy come, easy go.

*Daniel's assessment was that they are not undersweetened but a bit too dry. He recommends using low fat yoghurt instead of nonfat. I will try this.

"Coup D'Etat" review

I'm going to pretend that writing reviews of comic books is a perfectly acceptable way to spend a Sunday morning when I don't feel like doing anything else. Because obviously I spent the earlier part of the morning reading said comic books, so it must be okay. Right?

There's a lot going on here which is worthy of comment.

First of all, it's worth noting that this isn't just an Authority comic. It's sort of pan-universe (Wildstorm universe, if you care), so there's an Authority one, a "Sleeper" one, a "WildC.A.T.s Version 3.0", and one "Stormwatch: Team Achilles". I'm unfamiliar with Sleeper and Wildcats and I have only passing familiarity with Stormwatch (I read it up to the point where it spun off the Authority). So my opinion is coloured by that. You probably need some familiarity with the Authority to understand what's going on here.

As a bit of background, Stormwatch was originally a comic created by a bloke named Jim Lee, who eventually handed his pen off to Warren Ellis. Ellis took over, killed off half the main characters and instituted a number of his own, and eventually spun the best of them off into the Authority, killing off most of the remainder of Stormwatch in the meantime.

I cannot for the life of me summarize this. A bloke named Tao manipulates the US Government into blowing up an alien ship, the fallout from which destroys Florida. In return, the Authority takes over the US Government, killing the President as a "peace offering" to members of the alien race (called "The Vigil"). And then, instead of holding elections, they decide to build a better world.

In some ways, this seems clear-cut enough: the government gets a lot of people killed needlessly, so get a better government. Patrick Kent (the US President, a poorly veiled Bush[1]) is a jerk, so why not get rid of him? I'm sure no liberal could claim they'd never had this fantasy. And yet the Authority's manipulation of the general public and the Vigil (to whom they show a doctored up tape) makes them no better than those they've deposed, especially when they seem to easily defeat the Vigil when they begin their (inevitable retaliatory) attack. Instead of either drawing a clear line between good and evil, or showing both sides as equally noble and the issue as gray, Morrison, Brubaker, et al, paint everyone as corrupt, which makes the whole thing less amusing.

Additionally, I can't help but feel that taking over the US is almost too small of a task for the Authority, who at one point killed god and who have previously taken on the governments of Russia, China, and Indonesia without instituting themselves as a junta. What makes the US more important than everyone else? There's lingering tensions from the old Stormwatch days, sure (the US doesn't like superheros much), but that hardly seems to make it more important than anyone else.

Partially because of how the comic industry works, there seems to be a lot of time spent doing BIG story arcs which bring various characters together and examine their interactions. Unfortunately, these rarely develop any of the ideas to the point which the reader would like, focusing on quantity over quality. Coup D'Etat is ultimately the same: an intriguing premise, a lot of waffling in the middle, and ultimately a let-down. When Midnighter says, "Well, now what?" at the end, I'm not really temped to rush out and get the next one in the series to keep reading.

Positives: a little Midnigher/Apollo snarkage (a very little), plus Apollo gets a few lines to prove he's more than a handsome, brainless blond. A fair amount of Jack (being kind of broody, another throwback to Stormwatch). The art in 3 of the 4 books is good (Portacio, I'm looking at you. What the hell happened?)

Negatives: Plot too small for the characters. Art in the last one is terrible. A lot of the panels and dialog boxes are laid out in a way suggesting the person who laid them out had never read a comic before. Definitely in need of a tighter editorial process.

--
[1] Poorly veiled enough that using the word "veiled" seems rather ironic, honestly

Inscruitable Oriental Spice Morning Muffins

Based on an old recipe of my mother's. These are fantastic. Delicious, easy, and fast. I made them for breaky following a 12-mile run and they did not take an arm-chewingly long time to bake.

Ingredients

• 2 c. flour (I used "white whole wheat")
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp each cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger
• 1 egg
• 1 really overripe banana, frozen, thawed, and mashed
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2 T. margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 c. (skim) milk
• 1/4 c. each chopped dates and raisins
• dark chocolate chips to taste (I used a tablespoon or two - all I had left)

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Nuke some water in a dish for 40 seconds, then add dates and raisins. Make sure they are covered (with water) and leave to soak.

2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, spices). Add chocolate chips.

3. Mix wet ingredients (including sugar). Drain raisins and dates and add.

4. Mix dry into wet. Don't overmix.

5. Spoon into greased muffin tins, about 1/4 c. per tin. Bake ~20 minutes (mine went 18). Makes 12 puffy delicious muffins.

Notes

*0/7. Serve with butter and jam. Mmm.

*By my estimation, about 140 calories per muffin, depending on your margarine and the amount of chocolate chips you use. Compare that to ~400 calories/muffin when you buy them at the store. I win.

Warm Cabbage and Eggplant Salad

It seems disingenuous to claim that this recipe is somehow the same as this recipe, except in the sense of "based on" like Lifetime TV Movies are "based on" true events. So let's use the term "inspired by".

Ingredients

• 1/2 head napa cabbage (bai cai)
• 1/2 eggplant
• 1/2 onion
  
• 1/2 of a 28 oz. tin diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 tsp. paprika
• basil, oregano, chili powder
• 2/3 c. rice
• 1 1/3 c. water
• 2-3 clove garlic
• a drizzle of garlic oil
  
• 1/2 cube bouillon

Methodology

1. Put rice, water, one clove of garlic and bouillon in a pot over low and leave it to simmer.

2. Put a drizzle of garlic oil in the bottom of a pot, then add onion, eggplant, and cabbage. Stir until it begins to be tender. (Keep an eye on the rice). Add garlic and cook another few minutes, then pour in the tomatoes. Cover and simmer for several more minutes, then add spices, plus salt and pepper to taste.

3. When everything is done, mix rice in.

Notes

*I didn't know how this would come out well at all. It was delicious, low cal, and made enough to serve 4 or 5. Hurrah.

*0/7.

Cabbage rolls

Recipe from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen.

Ingredients

• 1/3 napa cabbage
• 5 baby carrots
• 2 sheets nori seaweed (sushi type)
• 2 oz. baked tofu
  
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1/2 T. black vinegar
• wasabi paste, to taste
• sushi rolling mat

Methodology

1. If you are starting with a head of cabbage, cut it in half, then cut one half into thirds. Take two of the thirds (2/6 or 1/3 of the entire cabbage) and put them in your steamer (it's helpful if you don't cut the bottoms off, so they're still connected). Cut the carrots into strips and add them to the steamer. Steam until tender, about 5 minutes. Put in refrigerator for 10 minutes or so. Cut tofu into long strips.

2. Get your equipment ready, by covering the sushi rolling mat with plastic wrap, etc. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, and wasabi in a small bowl and set aside (for dipping later).

3. Put down a piece of nori and cover with the leaves of cabbage in a single layer, leaving about an inch free at one end. You will probably want to blot the cabbage with a paper towel before you put it down, as napa (bai cai) holds a lot of water. At the end towards you, about two inches in, make a row of carrot slices and baked tofu.

4. Roll the sushi tightly. If it doesn't seal, dip your fingers in water and moisten the end. Cut into sushi, as wide as you prefer your sushi to be.

Notes

*Tasted mostly like cabbage, but very good anyway. Next time perhaps I will try stir-frying or roasting the vegetables.

*Too much wasabi may give you stomach trouble. But it is delicious.

*1/7. Very easy, minimal clean up.