Beverages of Choice

Let's face it, the Old Man and his best friend (Alan who also passed away at the end of last year) were fantastically horrible influences as far as most professional bureaucrats and officials are concerned. Gordy did the single most dangerous thing that any educator could do: he taught his students to think for themselves. In that regard he was also interested in educating his students to have a great time while learning about different cultures overseas, realizing that humanity has far more in common with each other than differences.

With that said, the man was also a fan of a good stiff drink now and again, and his preferred adult beverage of choice was a good gin and tonic. This recipe was taught to me on my first trip to Egypt with both Gordy and Alan, and became a staple of success for every successful visit overseas.

Gin and Tonic (for the grown-ups in the crowd!)

Tools:
A liver to abuse.
A highball glass of choice.
An old school river cruise ship floating down the Nile.

Ingredients:
2 parts gin
3 parts tonic
1 ice cube per part gin.
A thick slice of lime.

As you can see the drink itself is highly malleable depending on the size of the glass you can get a hold of, but the basic principles remain the same. Add together, stir lightly with a finger, suck finger dry, and drink while floating down the Nile on a eighty year old cruise ship.

Bien Camino!

Fondest Memories

In the last ten days I have lost one of my fondest mentors, Dr Gordon Young, professor emeritus of history from Purdue University. Gordy began as my teacher back in my undergraduate days, but took on a more important role in my life as I grew as an academic: becoming both a mentor, but more importantly, one of my best friends. He dragged me to and from Egypt multiple times, and honored me on his last trip overseas by making me the Assistant Leader for that trip. I, and tens of thousands, of former students are saddened by the loss of this great man to brought us into his family.

Classic me!

Turkey. The food. The people. The culture. The fact I hadn't gotten my stomach of iron yet!

Seriously, I did have a lot of fun when I was in Turkey more than a decade ago, and I learned a lot from my first international travels. These are images of Roman castle's scaled while I was a budding archaeologist. You can even date the photos by the fact that they aren't digital and they have those silly dates added to the bottom of the photo. Oh, I dated myself. . .I need to drink a few more gallons of coffee to wash my sadness away. 

Really, no sleeves? <head-desk>

 

My mother would kill me if she saw the cliff behind me.

 Bien Camino! 

Holy crap I've jumped off the deep end!

Where has the month gone since I published the last ebook? (for those of you who don't know, I'll be a self promoting twat and hit the link for The Zombie's Diary here.) Alright, so I might be 83 pages into the new book. . .don't judge me! That and I did do a good four days near Chicago-land last week, and been banned from grilling due to excessive drought for the last month, so many of my wonderful summer foods are going to waste. Which is a damn shame since I have a lot of fantastic summer foods I wanted to try grilling this summer as I developed new ideas. 

But since I can't do a good summer meal, I'll do a four ingredient soup which will help keep you hydrated and full on these hot summer days.

Four Ingredient Soup (for the lazy man)

Tools:

Cutting Board

Pot with lid

Knife

Spoon for stirring

Ingredients:

1 quart of light chicken stock 

1 piece of ginger about the size of the end of your thumb

2 cups of frozen veggie soup mix (carrots, onion, celery, taters, etc.)

1/4 cup of lentils

Alright, this is one of my easier summer soups cooking in about 20-30 minutes (or all day if you decide to pop it into a crock pot, I'd just double the recipe). Pour the stock, veggies, and lentils into the pot and turn the heat to medium (don't cover yet). Take the ginger and you'll want to slice off the outer brown skin of the garlic. This is incredibly bitter/foul tasting, so it wouldn't be any good. Now slice the ginger as thin as possible, you don't want huge chunks of ginger floating in your soup, but you do want the flavor to mingle throughout. Add the sliced ginger to the pot, stir, cover the pot with the lid, and lower the heat to low. In about 20-30 minutes the lentils will be cooked through giving you an awesome source of protein and fiber. 

This is one of my favorite summer soups because it gives me the things I know I need for playing outside: liquid, salts, protein, and fiber, which really help your body cope with increased temperatures. This soup is paired nicely with some sliced bread or even better, day old crusty garlic bread. 

Anyways, stay cool my friends, and until later: Bien Camino!