![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
assorted updates
Jan. 21st, 2018 07:26 pm1) I thought episode 2x09 of The Good Place was the season finale (it helped that I also thought it was numbered 2x10), but apparently there's more, yay! ( Spoilers for the actual 2x10 )
2) Season 4 of Grace & Frankie was released on Friday and I binge-watched over the weekend. It's good, very very funny, and much lighter and more sitcom-y than previous seasons. Usually I wouldn't like that, but these characters have been through so much, and I like them so much, that I'm glad to see them catch a break.
3) I've been trying to read the two-volume Building the American Republic, which its authors (Harry L. Watson--brother of the more famous John?--and Jane Dailey) and publisher (U of Chicago P) have made available for free as an e-book, citing an urgent current need for US-ians to understand their own history better. For a few years now I've felt I should correct my ignorance of American history, which I hated learning about as a kid because of the terrible, jingoistic, uncritical way it was taught. (I have vivid memories of a couple of days in 11th grade, when we were learning about the Constitution yet again, and the teacher showed us a film about the Constitutional Convention. And suddenly it was interesting--instead of some kind of sacred perfect object that fell from the sky, the Constitution was being shown as the product of clashing interests and hard bargains. It was a thing people made and it wasn't necessarily perfect. Alas, we then went back to reading from the textbook.) Anyway, I'm going to keep trying, but at the moment I'm bogged down very early, in some discussion of early modern English politics and culture that, well, aren't wrong exactly, but are so oversimplified that it hurts me. (The Elizabethan Settlement was not a tolerant religious compromise, as I would think the 200+ Catholics executed during Elizabeth's reign would demonstrate. Also the noncomformist Protestants who were suppressed and penalized in various ways.) I know some oversimplification is inevitable, but it does make me wonder what other important things are going to get that treatment.
4) Did a bit of cooking this weekend. On Saturday I made a stew of chickpeas, lamb, and roasted eggplant with pomegranate molasses, which turned out well. It was entirely improvised, because I found myself in possession of three! eggplants because they were on sale 3 for $1, and even though I'm not a huge eggplant fan I couldn't resist. ( Approximate recipe under the cut )
Today it was unexpectedly snowy and cold, but I went shopping in the morning anyway and bought a chicken, since it seemed like the perfect kind of day to roast one. Every time I roast a chicken I am reminded of why I don't do it very often--the cooking is as simple as can be, but the cleanup's a pain. Anyway, I'm now simmering up some chicken stock in the slow cooker, to become a soup tomorrow with some of the breast meat and some kale and other veggies. And my freezer will be overflowing with leftover chicken and leftover chickpea stew, which is a good thing. A full freezer = safety and happiness.
2) Season 4 of Grace & Frankie was released on Friday and I binge-watched over the weekend. It's good, very very funny, and much lighter and more sitcom-y than previous seasons. Usually I wouldn't like that, but these characters have been through so much, and I like them so much, that I'm glad to see them catch a break.
3) I've been trying to read the two-volume Building the American Republic, which its authors (Harry L. Watson--brother of the more famous John?--and Jane Dailey) and publisher (U of Chicago P) have made available for free as an e-book, citing an urgent current need for US-ians to understand their own history better. For a few years now I've felt I should correct my ignorance of American history, which I hated learning about as a kid because of the terrible, jingoistic, uncritical way it was taught. (I have vivid memories of a couple of days in 11th grade, when we were learning about the Constitution yet again, and the teacher showed us a film about the Constitutional Convention. And suddenly it was interesting--instead of some kind of sacred perfect object that fell from the sky, the Constitution was being shown as the product of clashing interests and hard bargains. It was a thing people made and it wasn't necessarily perfect. Alas, we then went back to reading from the textbook.) Anyway, I'm going to keep trying, but at the moment I'm bogged down very early, in some discussion of early modern English politics and culture that, well, aren't wrong exactly, but are so oversimplified that it hurts me. (The Elizabethan Settlement was not a tolerant religious compromise, as I would think the 200+ Catholics executed during Elizabeth's reign would demonstrate. Also the noncomformist Protestants who were suppressed and penalized in various ways.) I know some oversimplification is inevitable, but it does make me wonder what other important things are going to get that treatment.
4) Did a bit of cooking this weekend. On Saturday I made a stew of chickpeas, lamb, and roasted eggplant with pomegranate molasses, which turned out well. It was entirely improvised, because I found myself in possession of three! eggplants because they were on sale 3 for $1, and even though I'm not a huge eggplant fan I couldn't resist. ( Approximate recipe under the cut )
Today it was unexpectedly snowy and cold, but I went shopping in the morning anyway and bought a chicken, since it seemed like the perfect kind of day to roast one. Every time I roast a chicken I am reminded of why I don't do it very often--the cooking is as simple as can be, but the cleanup's a pain. Anyway, I'm now simmering up some chicken stock in the slow cooker, to become a soup tomorrow with some of the breast meat and some kale and other veggies. And my freezer will be overflowing with leftover chicken and leftover chickpea stew, which is a good thing. A full freezer = safety and happiness.
