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January 23, 2007
Roasted Cauliflower Soup and Sauteed Shrimp
Roasted cauliflower apparently made the rounds in the food blogosphere awhile ago, but I have never claimed to not be behind the times.
Preheat oven to 400 F. Take a head of cauliflower, break or cut it into small bite-size pieces, a bit smaller than you might usually. Toss it with a few Tbsp of olive oil, 2-4 cloves garlic minced, kosher salt and a sprinkling of fresh lemon juice. Spread it on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Take out of oven and grate Parmesan cheese over it.
Meanwhile, heat a few Tbps. of olive oil in a saute pan, add another few minced up garlic cloves. In a minute add half a pound of peeled shrimp (ideally fresh wild-caught Maine shrimp, button-cute and tender). Saute till they whiten.
Serve together with a green salad, Chardonnay. Good.
01:10 Posted in Recipes | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
January 09, 2007
Issues in Sports
My brother-in-law once removed (my brother’s wife’s brother) wrote an op-ed that was published in the Gainesville Sun recently. He makes the interesting observation that we often suspend the criminal code inside the confines of an athletic competition, and maybe that's not good. In short, if hotheads (or dimwits) brawl on the basketball court, perhaps they should be charged with assault and battery and treated like you or I would if we did such a thing on the street, and not just given a six-week vacation in which to work on their abs and celebrity endorsements. Maybe that would set an example that would make them chill. Not a bad point. I suppose some of the tolerance for the violence comes out of western sports’ gladiatorial past. There is some unspoken suspension of real world for the special rules of the ring. But, indeed, there are children watching, and what they’re learning isn’t, “It’s all right to punch someone who bumps into you,” but, “It’s all right to punch someone if you’re a valuable celebrity.” I’m glad Bobby wrote the piece; it’s easy for bad sportsmanship to become ho-hum, and it shouldn’t. He didn’t say in the article, and maybe it goes without saying, but he’s a lawyer himself.
On a different but not-too-different topic, I heard an intriguing piece on Marketplace this evening on my way to basketball practice. It was about big money sports and so-called student athletes. Everyone decries scholarship athletes getting wined and dined and otherwise materially spoiled by boosters or whoever it is that gets cars for them or apartments for their mothers or whatever all it is. (Again, here’s a state of things that’s probably bad, but not as bad as global warming, the war in Iraq, or the absence of a walk button at the crosswalk between my two work buildings, so if we have to triage the things we get up in arms about, this one doesn’t occupy my mind all that often. But still…) This commentator, Dwayne Ballen, took a different tack: If sports is such monstrously big business that head coaches of, well, just say, college football teams playing in a “national championship” (quotes to acknowledge BCS critics) make more than $2 million per annum, shouldn’t the players who do the real work get a little something out of it? He suggests setting up trusts for them that they can’t access till they graduate. Or if they don’t graduate, until they’re 30 years old (aaaancient to a college kid). And they can get more if they get good grades. I think it’s a very good idea. Not everyone goes on to huge salaries in professional sports, though they alter their lives to pursue it. If they’re the revenue producers for these big schools, yeah, why not give them a tiny slice of the pie?
Meanwhile, climate change continues apace. Temps in the 70s in Massachusetts this past weekend. Which was January 6 and 7, if you weren't paying attention. Now, while balmy air on a jacketless day feels undeniably pleasant to one’s body, if you think about it at all, it’s quite disturbing to the mind. It makes me sad how little anyone thinks about it at all. The reliably idiotic local news was all delirious about it in a giggly way, interviewing people dining out on the street in downtown Boston. Hello? Think about the polar bears, could you? If you like this so well, move to Georgia or something. Some of us want to ski! And keep the slate-colored juncos coming back. And to quit plucking ticks off the dogs in the midst of the freaking winter.
00:30 Posted in Basketball , Coaching , Community of Athletes , Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this