In fact, only tangentially and/or marginally about politics.
And open to anyone who wants to participate, regardless of your age. We always are (note disclaimer below!) but tonight that may bear extra relevance.
When I assigned myself the 1/3 diary slot, I decided to keep it as far from candidates as possible. Mulling over potential topics (Social attitudes towards abortion? Cooking? Another diary about our pathetic generational finances?) I decided instead to eschew pithy content entirely and just put together a rag-tag bunch of stuff.
Feel free to talk about whatever the hell you want in the comments below. But if you do start arguing about your candidates, I have wiscmass’ recipe for lutefisk, and I am not afraid to use it. I truly believe that there are plenty of diaries on this blog on this day where you can talk your points until you are blue in the fingers.
::
I’ve become a resurgent fan of Saturday Night Live over the past two years, due in large part to the comedic stylings of Andy Samberg. This digital short of his cracked me up. I think I’ve watched it over 100 times since it first aired this past September.
I love it. It cracks me up. Why? Because he just stays so serious. He doesn’t mock or parody the genre, he sells it. And it’s his commitment to the material that just brings it home. But let’s be honest... It’s no Dick in a Box. I kind of want to assign "Dick in a Box" to my students for a shot-by-shot analysis, because it really is a spot-on, phenomenal parody of the late-80’s/early-90’s R&B sex video, as popularized by Jodeci and the like. It is magnificent. And it’s a really great way to talk about how the music video functions as a narrative device! However, my desire to assign this project is tempered by my greater desire not to get thrown out of grad school.
SNL-related story: the sister of a girl I went to grad school with the first time made out with Fred Armisen at a party. Her pick-up line was something about "I saw you in that skit last week where you dressed up like a giant bird."
::
Back when I thought about writing about cooking, I decided to post my recipe for individual spinach pies. Here it is anyways. They are easy to make, they are very tasty, and they tend to be a hit at parties. I made them on New Year’s Eve. Here’s a picture to prove it.
Individual Spinach Pie Hot Hors D’Ouvres
| Ingredients:
One package of frozen Phyllo Dough
Two boxes frozen chopped spinach
One small onion, diced
One lemon
One stick of butter, melted
One egg
One package Feta Cheese
Some Dill
Some Olive Oil
Tools of the Trade:
Muffin pan
Pastry Brush |
Thaw one roll of Phyllo dough in refrigerator. Unroll, cut into thirds so you have three square-ish rectangles, not three long skinny strips. Using your pastry brush, paint olive oil inside each muffin cup. Do not be stingy!
Saute onion in olive oil. Defrost spinach in microwave or on stove, heat until fairly warm. Squeeze out water (use a strainer or your hands). Add onion to warm spinach. Add salt and pepper, mix well. Add juice of one lemon. Add tablespoon of dill, if you have it. Beat one egg, add to mix, mix rapidly.
Take your muffin tin, and layer two third-sized sheets of Phyllo across each cup and push into bottom. Using your pastry brush, add butter to the bottom of each cup, on top of the Phyllo. Layer two more sheets going the opposite way. Add one spoonful of spinach mix to each cup. Cut the Feta into chunks, press one chunk on top of each scoop of spinach. (You can crumble the feta and mix it into the spinach mix, but I just do it this way. Makes the cheese more obvious in the finished product.) Fold each end of phyllo over the top, brushing liberally with butter in between layers. Put extra melted butter on top.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees or so. Add spinach pies, place on middle rack. Bake until nice and golden brown, or until you can smell them. Maybe 15, 20 minutes?
Enjoy!
::
When brainstorming up a topic for tonight, I asked inveterate Kossack Under 35 GoldnI for ideas. She replied, "Alcohol. A lot of us will be needing it by that point." After checking that dear GoldnI is indeed over 21, I solicited a local Tennessee drink recipe from her. Here it is:
Lynchburg Lemonade
4 parts Sprite
1 part Jack Daniels
1 part Triple Sec
1 part Sour mix
Serve on the rocks with a lemon wedge.
If you didn’t hear, GoldnI is Running to be a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention from her home state of Tennessee. Click on over to her diary for more. Go GoldnI!
::
Ok, that’s pretty much all I’ve got. What’s going on in your neck of the woods?
Kossacks Under 35 is a weekly diary series designed to create a community within DailyKos that focuses on young people. Our overall goals are to work on increasing young voters' Democratic majority, and to raise awareness about issues that particularly affect young people, with a potential eye to policy solutions. Kossacks of all ages are welcome to participate (and do!), but the overall framework of each diary will likely be on or from a younger person's perspective. If you would like more information or want to contribute a diary, please email kath25 at kossacksunder35 (at) gmail dot com