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Cilantro Lime Roasted Chicken

I've been cooking, just not posting about it.  It's a combination of laziness/self loathing that prevents me from documenting my cooking.  Well, I finally got over myself and decided to make a roasted whole chicken and document it.  The reasons are three-fold: 1. Whole chickens are usually cheaper than buying chicken all cut-up.  2.  The presentation of a whole roasted chicken is more impressive than chicken cut-up.  3.  I've never made a whole roasted chicken.

First I started off with making the marinade:


The marinade consisted of:

2 finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1-1/2 tablespoon of oregano
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of lime juice
2 tablespoons of lime zest (two limes)   

Whisk it all around and refrigerate for 10-20 minutes.

Then I took the chicken out of the package and began rinsing and scrubbing it under a cold tap.  I removed the gizzards and neck piece that was placed in the cavity and set it aside (the gizzards can be made into a pate').  While cleaning the chicken, I had a feeling of some cosmic gratitude come over me; this once live bird was killed, decapitated, and packaged for my consumption.  And here I was washing it's lifeless body, preparing it for cooking so that I can eat; what a certain privilege this was.     


Cleaned whole chicken squatting in the marinade bowl. 


Whole chicken covered in marinade.

One thing I made sure to do was separate the skin from the body.  This can be easily done by sticking your fingers through where the skin meets the body and separating the fats with your fingers; it's like filling out a glove.  When you've done this on both ends and sides of the bird, you've basically created spaces where you can insert some of the delicious marinade.  In the cavity, I put in the remaining marinade mix.

All you then have to do is put the whole marinated chicken on the baking rack on a baking pan put it in a pre-heated 350 degree oven.  In three hours or so, it should be done.  Every 30 minutes, you have the option of basting as well.  It's your call.


Pre-cooked state


Done.
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Way to Fuck Up a Song, Timbaland

First off, what a dumb name.  Anyhow, I started listening to this female rapper called M.I.A per the recommendation of my dear friend Nei.  M.I.A. is Sri Lankan and her sound is really quite different from what is out there.  What is also unique about her is that her music is very socially conscious and she doesn't slut up her image just to get record sales.  All that being said, she could totally do that, but she chooses not to. 

Then she does a collaboration with Timbaland.  I've seen in an interview somewhere that she was looking forward to working with him.  Below is the song. 

It Bleeds Into The Next...

He can't think of what is pleasurable to him anymore, that is, except the basest of things.  He doesn't feel like having the sun shine on his face.  He doesn't want to leave the house unless he has at least three things he has to do.  Anything less, he stays put and puts it all off.  There's not much he wants to watch on television any more.  All he has is the public radio airwaves, which spews mostly bad news.  The BBC correspondent reports on another series of American casualties in the Middle East that adds to the unfathomable death toll.  The news of which almost means nothing to him now.  They have no names.  He has almost no existence.  He could be dead and it would probably mean nothing, except an maybe an estate tax bill.

He stands in front of the mirror and the sight of himself disgusts him.  He thinks he's been eating too much.  He must cut back on the eating, and exercise more often.  Some sit-ups would put some definition on his belly.  Sit-ups...yeah right.  He wants vanilla ice cream blended with fresh peaches.  He decides he won't look in the mirror any more.

The self loathing still eats at him.  The world keeps going as he stands still.  Barely breathing.  Barely living.  The one red blood cell stuck at a turn while all the other red blood cells are flowing by keep the being alive.  He neither aids nor hinders.

Wasn't this what he always wanted?  When he was younger, he imagined an existence where he would have the means to be on his own and not depend on anyone else, much less be bothered by anyone else.  Now he's a man of means, albeit decreasing means, but means, nonetheless.  No one bothers him.  He he gets phone calls, but he frequently rebuffs them.  He doesn't want to see familiars till he feels better, looks better. 

The only person he sees frequently is the mailman.  He comes by usually by noon, and he almost always has packages for him.  When he hears the noise of a package or letters fall through the mail slot, he says "Thanks", and the mailman replies "You're welcome".  Some days, that's the totality of his spoken word. 

The packages have been piling up.  He doesn't even bother opening them up any more.  He knows what's in them.  He thinks he'll open it all one day, but that was yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that.  Now he's just oddly amused that he's got such a high stack of boxes going.  

The phone rings.  He disconnects the phone from the charger.  "Hello," he says.  It's his landlord and he's inquiring about this month's payment.  "I've got your payment right here...I just haven't been able to step out...I've been a bit busy...," he says unaffected, "Can you come pick it up?"  He smiles as he listens to the voice on the other end; his landlord will be by later on today.  "And one more thing?  Can you pick me up some vanilla ice cream?  I'll pay ya back."
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It's Becoming Stranger Than Fiction

SOURCE

Q. Why doesn't Denver Water have rebates for rain barrels so we could catch our rain and put it on our plants?

A. Colorado Water Law requires that precipitation fall to the ground, run off and into the river of the watershed where it fell. Because rights to water are legally allocated in this state, an individual may not capture and use water to which he/she does not have a right. We must remember also that rain barrels don't help much in a drought because a drought by its very nature supplies little in the way of snow or rain. The reuse of household water (gray water) is regulated by the Colorado State Board of Health Guidelines On Individual Sewage Disposal Systems (PDF). Local health agencies are responsible for implementation and enforcement of the Guidelines.

So, you're saying the state of Colorado owns the rain?
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State of Affairs

With the 4th of July coming up, I don't know whether to be happy or trepidatious.  In the past week and a half, it has all be a leisurely sort of life.  I was up north (San Francisco/San Jose) hanging out with my ex-UCLA friends/roomates and it's been one long drawn out party/booze schmoozing.  All well and good mind you, but I can't help but think that I've died a little as a result of it. 

When I came back from up north, my ex-roomate decided to come down and the partying continued.  We spent a couple of days with my other UCLA friends having a time of it and at some point, the thought that we might run out of things to talk about crossed my mind.  Before that happened, we all ended up at a charity event in Hollywood, specifically the Knitting Factory.

It was an event to raise money for some inner city youth outreach program.  The event was headlined by a socially conscious rap group called Karmacy.  I only know them through my friend C, because she's related to one of the rappers.  They are quite good, and they're all Indian (dot).  The whole place was filled with dot Indians, which was fine.  I enjoyed myself. 

Two things though, Indian people seem to be quite rude.  There were two spoken word artists on stage and they asked nicely for people in the crowd to not speak so loudly, but the request was on deaf ears.  Not only did a lot of them not stop talking, but they were talking over the spoken word artists.  So it was a virtual tumult.  And I scanned the room in horror as a lot of people pretty much ignored the artists and talked over them with their backs turned.  I thought a little bit more respect was called for, but whatever.  Secondly, a part of the show had some teenaged dancers dancing on stage--because you know, dance is the new craze now.  And dancing is not a bad thing at all; I dance badly frequently.  The issue I had with this dance crew (three guys and three girls) was that the girls in the group were scantily clad, so it just seemed a bit inappropriate.  One girl wore a bikini top and she looked not much older than 16, and another girl wore really short shorts and even though it was a clever juxtaposition to the girl in the bikini top, it just seemed MAD WRONG, but oh well.  The cherry on top was when their dance routine ended; the girls basically ended up on their knees crotch high in front of the guys.  To make it much more obvious that this was an allusion to oral sex, each guy had their hand on top of each girl's head and with the other hand, they did some suggest finger twirling. 

Well, I hope the kids who benefit from this benefit have the money spent wisely.  
  
Next week, the 4th and up north again.  It's great to be alive.  It could always be worse.

This Is Unbelievable

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So Indicative of the Current State of Affairs In Politics

Kucinich Forces Vote On Bush's Impeachment

 By Ben Pershing

washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 11, 2008; Page A02

Having failed in efforts to impeach Vice President Cheney, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) escalated his battle against the administration this week by introducing 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush, using a parliamentary maneuver that will probably force a vote today.

Kucinich's impeachment measure accuses Bush of taking the country to war in Iraq under false pretenses; he introduced it as a "privileged resolution," which requires the House to take it up within two legislative days. Any lawmaker may offer a privileged resolution, but it is usually done only by party leaders.

Kucinich, upon introducing his articles of impeachment Monday evening, insisted on reading the resolution into the Congressional Record, a process that took nearly five hours. He finished reading it late yesterday after the close of legislative business.

(Continued HERE)

Here's where it gets me riled.  So Kucinich spends all that time enumerating the crimes committed by George W. Bush and his underlings in pursuing the war in Iraq, and what happens?  His constituents vote it down.  Our government is filled with deviants and cowards.

I hate political shit.