Mark Bittman: Killer of Tomatoes

Either I failed Mark Bittman or he failed me with his lousy (LOUSY), did I mention? LOUSY recipe for Gazpacho. Everyone says East Coast tomatoes are totally different and that is my hope at why this recipe was so beyond bad. I love his "Joy of Cooking" sized tome, "How to Cook Everything", but trust me, it does not include how to cook - or assemble - Gazpacho. I bought almost a full grocery bag of vegetables; save one cucumber it was to the letter of what he proscribed. It made something that would not only didn't fit in my blender, but looked and smelled like barf. I am very acquainted with barf (morning sickness) and this was an excellent facsimile of what is in your stomach after lunch. When I was finished, it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I had taken a few pounds of beautiful tomatoes, a cucumber, lovely french bread, etc. and turned it into something that would only be served at a shellbacking event. To add insult to injury, in the day it took me to decide to just pour it down the sink, it made my fridge smell like said upchuck. I suppose I should just be thankful that I didn't clog my sink. /rant. Okay I feel a little better about this now, but I will not be making Gazpacho for a while.

When Drugs Meet the Holocaust

I was up really late studying for a midterm on drug policy last night. Even though I should have been focusing on my midterm, I had just started the sequel to an amazing book/comic book/memoir on the Holocaust, Maus by Art Spiegelman. I switched gears and read it even later despite my worries that it would keep me up, since the subject is pretty heavy. I slept fine, but had a dream that David Hasselhoff was sheepishly hiding out at a coffee house feeling guilty. Right in the middle of this two rival gangs start shooting and I don't know what happened to Hasselhoff, but I tried to hide inside and found myself with glass walls on either side. All I could figure out when I woke up was that I was thinking about bad things that happened in Germany and things that Germany should feel bad about which reminded me of David Hasselhoff's popularity in Germany (not that in my real mind do I equate the ridiculous notion of his celebrity there with something as serious as the Holocaust). This reminded me of Hasselhoff's recent drunk video which tied in with what I was studying re: alcohol consumption. Equally confusing was why gangs would clash in drug-related violence at a coffee shop since it was the antithesis of what I had been studying. (There is some gang activity and violence related to drugs, but lots of drug dealers aren't in gangs, lots of gang members don't deal drugs, yada yada yada or however you would spell that). To add to my confusion Hasselhoff has not made it to any dream dictionaries :-/.