The famous “Doc Bill”, retired chemist and programmer, commenter on this site, lover of noms, and the staff of Kink the Cat, invited me over to dinner at his place in Houston last night, along with Kevin McCarthy, writer of the Skeptic Ink site Smilodon’s Retreat. The co-host was his wife Helen, a retired geologist.
It was a lovely evening with lots of conversation about Intelligent Design (Doc and Kevin have spent a lot of time following and criticizing the Discovery Institute), and, of course, good food. Below is Doc grilling one of the noms: bacon-wrapped tenderloin. He’d also smoked some ribs in his new smoker, which smokes and cooks them at a very low temperature.
A lovely plate: rare tenderloin, asparagus, roasted potato slices, corn/black/bean/pepper salad, and smoked ribs, accompanied by a California Pinot Noir. Dessert was a homemade raspberry/apple cobbler with ice cream.
I got to have Kink sit next to me on the table during dinner. He’s a lovely cat but with lots of chutzpah:
“Kink” was given his name by the shelter where Doc and Helen got him, for his tail had a pronounced kink in it. You can see that below. This makes him unable to wrap his tail around his body (as many cats do), when lying down.
Doc Bill, Kink, and I (photo by Helen).
Great looking cat and great food. What else is there?
A labrador. I would ask for a labrador. In Heaven there are labradors, although there are no beers – that’s why we drink them here.
If no beer, I’m not going. I wasn’t planning on the trip anyway, thanks.
Great-looking hoomans too!
“A lovely plate: rare tenderloin, asparagus, roasted potato slices, corn/black/bean/pepper salad, and smoked ribs, accompanied by a California Pinot Noir. Dessert was a homemade raspberry/apple cobbler with ice cream.”
I am admittedly a hopeless non-foodie, that is, I haven’t spent much time cultivating a truly educated palate, but imo the above meal is perfection. (Provided the ice cream was not New York vanilla. I prefer the whiter stuff.)
There’s only one kind of ice cream in Texas. Blue Bell. It was the original vanilla, not the old-fashioned vanilla (which is almost yellow to me).
Jerry (or anyone else at the talk), I would like to have a copy of Don’s pamphlet he handed out. If anyone got one and can scan it, I’d be most appreciative.
BTW: Orge = Smilodon’s Retreat = km
That’s what we had, as you know!
Sadly, I left the pamphlet at the meeting, though I read it before I did.
Why do you always post this stuff when I’m hungry??
Or worse, when I am not, then I become hungry.
That, too.
So, Don McLeroy showed up at my blog today…
http://www.skepticink.com/smilodonsretreat/2016/04/10/bags-of-molecules/#comment-2617028322
Looks like a lovely dinner and when I have to eat steak, I like it rare like that!
My! Someone forces you to eat steak – what a butcher.
I have a hard time digesting red meat for some reason but I find if it is rare it is easier. Maybe it’s the Neanderthal in me.
Jerry said, “That looks done.” and I took it off the grill.
The Master. What could I do? He was right, of course, and ten minutes of resting was perfectly served. Kink approved.
OMG, it was a fantastic an evening as you could imagine. Yeah.
I guess this is a bit of a strange question, but do people eat ribs with their hands or a knife and fork? I couldn’t really get much of the meat without picking them up.
Is using your hands a bit of a faux pas?
Don’t you mean faux paw? 😛
And you eat them with your hands. They’re messy!
I use my fingers…. 🙂
Fingers with a roll of paper towels handy!
That depends on food culture.
In Sweden you have to eat with utensils as much as possible. Exceptions being when the food is wrapped by aluminum foil for eating with hand, and some green food that must be picked apart by hand. Similarly you never drink directly out of a bottle.
Those are old signals that you are people of sufficient means, and not too poor to own utensils.
[I get this from our great Etiquette Oracle Magdalena Ribbing’s ‘Large Book on Etiquette’, she being raised around and a frequent visitor at the swedish court.]
re “using your hands?”
My answer is simple: for ribs, meathooks are completely not only necessary and wise but utterly and wholly of etiquette !
To wit: the individual and packaged wipe with which ALL of us here (in the Midwest at the least) are always and initially served up — — at the very bringing – on of the so – awaited hot platter !
That fork ? Only included there for the perfect slaw and bbqed beans — which sides come with !
With that trencher of yours, Mr Duncan, P A U S E, paz and, most correctly, … … P A W S !
Blue
That depends on the nation (see my comment above), roughly as tradition (with signals of social standing) vs practicality.
At a guess, practicality is slowly winning out globally.
I hope Kink hasn’t suffered any long-term effects of the injured tail. My cat might have had nerve damage due to a similar injury and ended up with constipation and megacolon. Doc Billie, I hope you serve Kink lots of watery pate and less dry kibble, just in case. Massages are great too.
http://www.petplace.com/article/cats/diseases-conditions-of-cats/emergency-trauma-urgent-care/tail-trauma-in-cats
Nope, Kink is perfectly adjusted and has trained me well.
Good to know that, Doc. 🙂
I only mentioned this as broken tails can be a source of certain issues like inability to push during voiding. My cat’s megacolon wasn’t diagnosed until in her old age, as she seemed normal, and by then it was very painful for her. We thought she was just getting portly, but she was actually recurrently constipated.
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