I was reading Baloon Juice, and came across this salmon recipe. It sounded good. And since I made broiled salmon with grilled prosciutto-wrapped asparagus with lemon-caper dressing and shittake risotto, for two, last night, I thought I'd share what I did, too.

Took about 35 minutes. Here's how it went...

• Salmon - 0.75 lbs
• Dry dill - 1/4 tsp ?
• Arborio rice - 1/2 cup
• Chicken broth (low salt) - 1 can (14 oz)
• Shittake mushrooms - 4 small
• Asparagus - 8 thick stalks
• Prosciutto - one pre-sliced package from the deli case. Very thinly sliced.
• A lemon
• 1 Tbsp small capers (drained)
• A bottle of olive oil
• 1 tsp grated parmesan (optional)
• 1/4 tsp white pepper (optional)

Risotto
Risotto takes the longest (about 20 minutes). Put a tablespoon of oil in a medium-sized sautee pan (I think mine is 8"), add the rice and let it cook over medium low heat for a few minutes. While that's going, brush off the mushrooms (don't rinse!), take off and discard the stems, rough chop the caps, then add them to the rice. Stir it all up and let it cook on medium-low until the mushrooms begin to soften up and the rice turns just barely golden brown (not dark brown!). Then add just enough chicken broth to cover the rice, stir well. Add a good sprinkling of black pepper (1/2 tsp? - i like a lot of black pepper in this). Add white pepper. If you want, add a bit of dried parsley.

The trick to risotto is to add the broth a little bit at a time, then let it cook down before adding more. You don't want to let all the liquid cook off, and you don't want to boil it, either. You want to keep just enough liquid to just cover the rice, and you want it cooking at a simmer. I probably add more broth three or four times. It's done when the rice is just tender and there is just enough liquid left to make a thick sauce. It'll thicken up a little, just sitting in the pot, after you take it off the heat, too. Add the cheese at the very end - stir well. A Tbsp of butter at the end doesn't hurt, either - makes the sauce creamy. Add salt, to taste.

This particular risotto is my side-dish of choice with broiled salmon.

Salmon
Broiled salmon is easy: drizzle a little olive oil on top, rub it around. Sprinkle with dill, a little salt, a little pepper. Toss it in the oven, on a low broil. Takes less than ten minutes, so start it when your can of broth is a little less than half empty. Or, you can bake it, if you don't want to deal with the broiler. About 15-20 minutes on 400 deg, I think.

Asparagus
While the risotto simmers away, heat a grill pan (or a real grill!) for the asparagus. Snap off and discard the dry end of the stalks, lightly brush the rest with olive oil. Toss them on the grill pan and let them get some light grill marks all around - maybe five minutes ? The trick here is to get them very very close to cooked, but not quite there. Mine were pretty thick and were in danger of getting too black on the outside yet not cooked enough on the inside, so I threw a few tbsp of water on the pan, then loosely covered the pan with a piece of foil until the water had boiled off - this cooled the pan enough to stop the grill effect, and it steamed the asparagus a bit, at the same time. Magic. Then, remove the asparagus, wrap each stalk, in a spiral, with prosciutto, then return it to the grill pan for a minute or two. The prosciutto will fry just a tiny bit and the asparagus will finish cooking.

The lemon-caper dressing for the asparagus is easy: take 1/4-cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup olive oil, mix it up, add the capers. Just drizzle a little of this over the top of the asparagus, after it's on your plate.

I got the asparagus idea from Bobby Flay. He doesn't grill the asparagus once it's wrapped, and his recipe is a bit more complex, but I like it better my way. Prosciutto can be a little chewy, and that tiny bit of grilling firms it up and shrink-wraps it onto the asparagus nicely. You can also do the asparagus in the oven, but the grill flavor is worth it, if you have the technology.

I bought a bottle of pinot noir to go with this (our default wine for salmon), but the rich, salty prosciutto just killed that poor wine. Need something with a little more oomph, next time. Maybe a nice snappy white.

The cat wasn't excited about the salmon, but she loved the prosciutto. Mrs Cleek and I liked all of it.

...is a lying sack of shit.

Click that link to see him say, on national TV, that he's never been "Stay The Course" (his phrasing). What a fucking disgrace. What an embarassment. What a sad, pathetic, mendacious little twat. He's been saying "Stay the course", non-stop, for at least three years. Shameless.

Anyone here have a copy of the bootleg version of Fiona Apple's "Not About Love" ? (just that one song) My copy got damaged, somehow. I can't seem to find it anywhere on the net.

Q: What do you call someone who, for political reasons, wants the population to live in a state of fear ?

A: A Republican !

The problem here is that national security isn't the leading campaign issue. And saying it should be won't make it so. What's needed is an event--a big event--to crystallize the issue in a way that highlights Republican strength and Democratic weakness. It was two events--the foiled British terrorist plot and the need to comply with a Supreme Court decision on handling captured terrorists--that led to the Republican mini-rally in September.

Of course there's little time left for a major event to occur. The North Korean bomb test wasn't big enough to change the course of the campaign. So Republicans may have to rely on their two remaining assets: They have more money than the Democrats and a voter turnout operation second to none.

Yes, there are other answers. But they aren't as funny.

O'REILLY: But if the public doesn't know what torture is or is not, as defined by the Bush administration, how can the public make a decision on whether your policy is right or wrong?

BUSH: Well, one thing is that you can rest assured we're not going to talk about the techniques we use in a public forum. No matter how hard you try because I don't want the enemy to be able to adjust their tactics if we capture them on the battlefield.

Yeah, fuck democracy. The idea that people should be able to make an informed decision about how we think our country should conduct itself is for douchebags.

I can't believe I agree with Bill O'Reilly (assuming that was a serious question). Please, nobody tell my father-in-law.

via a somewhat popular blogger

Hilzoy, at Obsidian Wings, tells an epic tale of the plagues that will befall us all, should we choose to vote incorrectly, next month:

(2) And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may vote Republican.

And if they refuse to vote Republican, behold, I will smite all thy borders with the boytoys of Democrats:

And the river shall bring forth boytoys abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:

And the boytoys shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. And internet child predators shall walk among them at liberty, for none dare speak against them.

Reading is required, so sayeth ObWi. Ramen.

Here's a post from someone who discovered Warcraft was ruining his life. He describes what it was doing to him, and what it took for him to quit. He definitely makes it sound like WoW could be a life-wrecking addiction. And, after reading the comments, I see the author of the post got off easy:

There are a couple of issues here. As another recovering WoWer, there is an issue of self-control. I simply did not have the self-control necessary to play a game like this... I think there are plenty of people that do.

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Lost a girlfriend of 3 years because of WoW. Quit three months ago now and am trying to get my life back on track.

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I hear you loud and clear - I damn near lost my degree, and did lose the best girl that ever happened to me, as a result of an MMORPG.
I look back now and want to cry at the futility of it all - what the bloody hell was I doing?

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Almost lost my wife and three kids to wow... Amen you found way to "hearthstone" out of the game.

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...I did loose my best friend too games like WOW. I saw him right before I left for college and he was on a raid. here I was about to go half way across the country to the largest city I had ever been to and the guy I basically grew up with had more to say to his guild members than too me. I'm no tough guy, but I'm also not prone to being very emotional but this one damn near broke my heart.

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I'd rather spare the personal details as this is the internet but I can truly relate to this Blog all too well. I am just now struggling to quit this video game addiction.

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I started playing on release in Nov 2004 and have been playing ever since. I have even had times where all I did was play, work and sleep. I was in a long term relationship at the time and after a year of suffering my GF left me. I still didn't realise the error of my ways and I continued to play as constantly as my work schedule would allow.

Recently I have been trying to push down the hours and my exGF has given me a second chance. I even was happy to drop Fri-Sun playing for her knowing that I wouldn't play too much on Mon-Thu seeing as I had work the next day. A few days ago she told me that I can play whenever I want, and i've got to say that I felt like Christmas had come early. I played most of that weekend of course...

And then there are people like this, who get offended at the mere suggestion that there is anything addictive about these games:

The game doesn't ruin people. People like you ruin the game.

No one put a gun to your head saying you had to play 70+ hours a week. I've subscribed to mmo's and gone months without playing them.

Your argument is completely flawed its like saying you can't win alchohol. You're not supposed to win it your supposed to play it.

Alot of people tend to forget that Chess is a game that can't be won. Hence the term "Checkmate" You never take the king hence there never truly is a winner.

Though I'm not sure you should put too much stock in the analysis of someone who doesn't understand that "checkmate" is shorthand for "I win, because I will take your king on my next turn, no matter what you do," he's right about one thing: you don't "win" alcohol. But you can certainly become addicted, even if nobody put a gun to your head.

We saw Brandi Carlile and Shawn Colvin last Friday, at the cleverly-named Lincoln Theatre (big mural of Abe driving an old Lincoln on the side of the building). Brandi opened and was terrific: a great voice, great lyrics and terribly catchy songs. She'll be big someday. She should be big already. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about the chord changes she favors that reminds me of 70's power-pop bands.

Shawn Colvin was ... mm k. Neither Mrs Cleek nor I have really ever dug her stuff, and we only stayed to watch because the great Buddy Miller was playing guitar with her. But even he couldn't get me interested in her songs; it sounded like maybe he wasn't all that familiar with all the songs, and there's just not a lot of room in them for him to do anything but the occasional high-and-reverby lonesome-west accents anyway. He did one song of his own, which was good ... but then Shawn did a few more of her's.

Lesbian couples made up the bulk of the crowd. Nobody smoked, at all.

CNN.com:

Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.

...is a "Play This Next" option.

Say an album is playing, it's on the next to the last song and you know which album you want to hear next, but you don't want to stand there for five minutes until the current one ends to tell iTunes to start the next. No, you just select the album you want to hear next, choose "Play This Next", and walk away. No "Playlists", no "Party Shuffle", none of that list making stuff - just Play This Next.

It's crazy that iTunes doesn't have this.