Temptation

They'll come at you sideways.

It's how they think.
It's how they move.

Sidle up and smile.
Hit you where you're weak.

-Shepherd Book, from the movie Serenity

Entry posted by byscuits at 02:19 PM | Comments (1)

Stewardship and Generosity

I've been thinking about what it means to be generous and what it means to be a good steward. Both are clearly extolled as good qualities to have, yet they seem at odds with each other. When I think of someone who is generous with what they have, I don't normally think of someone that is a good steward. And vice-versa.

But is this true? Is it impossible to be both generous and frugal? Are we doomed to live by whichever one we are predisposed to show in our personality? Not at all!

I'll start off by saying that I'm someone predisposed to generosity and NOT to good stewardship. For the majority of my life, I have spent any money that I had in my hands. If someone else was around when I had excess, they would find some of it in their posession. That's just my natural tendency. I am blessed to naturally have a generous bent, but at the extreme it is wasteful.

Then there's good stewardship. When I think about it, the word "frugal" comes to mind. At the extreme, it's the person who checks every pay phone they pass, and generally the last person you would ever ask when you're in financial need.

For simplicity, these examples just apply to money. Good stewardship and generosity really permeate every aspect of our lives.

Can these coexist? I've been thinking lately about paradoxes and a relationship with Christ. The modern scientific side of my mind has a real problem with things that seem to be opposite. From the outside, it seems like it's impossible to be frugal and giving. It seems to be a paradox. But the more we learn about God and how that relationship works, we need to become more comfortable with seeming paradoxes. I believe true wisdom is quite comfortable with paradox.

I think it really just comes down to how you apply generosity and good stewardship. I think the question comes down to who is paying the cost and who is getting the benefit. Would you call someone who always buys themselves things a generous person? Certainly not necessarily. I believe a truly generous person is someone that gives freely to others. And where is the cost of frugality? I think it's a good thing for me to save money by bringing my own lunch to work. I think it's good for me to create a budget and really track what I spend. Both of those things cost me something. But if I refuse to give someone a ride in my car because it will cost me gas money or something equally riduculous, I'm nothing more than a miser.

Generosity and good stewardship can indeed exist side by side. But not by exerting my will over the situation to become generous and frugal. Both of these come as a by-product when I remember Hebrews 12:2 (NLT):

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven.

Jesus was the ultimate generous good steward. When we fix our eyes on him, we are changed.

Entry posted by byscuits at 11:57 AM | Comments (3)

Snakes on a Plane - Beauty in a Name

I was passed a little CNN news article just now. It's about Samuel L. Jackson's new movie "Snakes on a Plane", and here's an excerpt:

Jackson stars as an FBI agent who has to fight a planeload of snakes unleashed by an assassin bent on killing a witness in protective custody. Sight unseen, the movie has grown from something of a joke into a phenomenon slithering untamed throughout the Internet.

It just doesn't get much better than that. Snakes on a Plane. Tells you all you need to know, right in the title. It's about time we had some good camp-horror in the world again.

Entry posted by byscuits at 02:25 PM | Comments (6)

Flock of Bicycles

This morning on my way to work, there seemed to be more than an average number of people riding their bicyles around me. At one point, it felt very much like I was watching a pack of animals in nature. With their proper changing of lanes, hand signals, rocking back and forth when stopped to avoid putting their feet down, and non-verbal-inter-bicyle-communication, I realized I was surrounded by a Flock of Bicycles. And just as when seeing birds migrating in formation overhead, I was sad when our ways parted. I even waved goodbye. Seriously.

Got a thesis advisor yesterday. So that's really good news. Means I'll very likely walk in June.

Entry posted by byscuits at 09:30 AM | Comments (3)

My Chili Recipe

Over the past couple years, I've had several people ask for my chili recipe. I've always turned them down, mostly because I've never actually had a recipe. But after being asked enough times, I've decided to remedy the situation. This is one of two dishes I've worked hard to perfect, making it probably 50 times in the past couple of years. Maybe one day I'll write up my "baked sour cream smashed potatoes," as Michael calls them.

Ingredients

• 3/4 lbs 1" Cubed Stewing Steak or Lamb - Stewing steak works okay, but lamb is amazing.
• 3/4 lbs Ground Sirloin - Quality here really really makes a difference. Sometimes this is more expensive than the steak or lamb. You can also vary this up with an equal amount of sausage, your choice.
• 4 16 oz. Cans of Beans - I usually go with 2 dark red kidney, 1 black bean, and one cannelli (white beans). Really, this is mostly for color in the chili. So go with what looks good and what style you want it to be. Presentation is almost as important as how it tastes, cause if it's ugly you'll kill half your audience. Except for the folks that look for inner beauty. But how many of them are there, really? Besides, deep down even they wish your chili was pretty, too. Then they could treat it real nice and take it out for a night on the town.
• 1 Sweet Onion - Purple ones are pretty.
• 1 Bell Pepper - I like the orange ones for the color. And it's my hair color. But don't put any hair in the chili, cause that'd just be nasty.
• 1/2 lb Frozen Sweet Corn - This is one of the key ingredients. I can't stress it enough. Make sure you get the sweetest corn you can find. Green Giant makes something they call "gold and white" sweet corn or something like that. If you get the good stuff, it tastes like the corn we used to get from Grandpa's farm.
• 1 1/2 Sticks Butter - General rule in cooking, butter makes things better. Don't you dare use margarine. That stuff's nasty for most things. Butter is arguable more healthy, anyway.
• 1 tbsp Cocoa Powder - Okay, this is the key ingredient. An aphrodesiac, you know.
• 1 tbsp Chili Powder - This recipe can survive quite nicely without any chili powder if you're really not into that kind of thing. Of course, then it's not really chili, is it? :)
• 1 tbsp Crushed Red Pepper - You know, the stuff that goes on pizza. Again, if you're not into spicy, skip this. But if you are looking for spicy, then the Crushed Red Pepper is your man. You can go mild or insane spicy just by how much you add. But keep in mind your audience.
• 4-5 tbsp Soy Sauce - Another key ingredient. We talk of 4 types of taste in America, salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. In japan, they understand that there is a fifth, best translated as "savory". Soy sauce is one of the most common flavor additives in the savory category. Be liberal with it, and don't go without it. We like liberal up here in New England.
• 4-5 tbsp Dried Onion Flakes - We have real onion in the recipe already, but the dried flakes add a completely different flavor type. And it's good. Real good. Don't skip this one.
• 12 ounce can of V8 Tomato Juice - Looks like an aluminum soda can. If you can't find that, buy a larger quantity in a glass jar, cause stuff in glass tastes good. As a last resort buy it in the plastic bottle.
• 12 ounce can Diced Tomatoes - Don't get any of the flavored stuff with the fake herbs. Cause we won't need it. If you really want to do it right, dice a couple of your own tomatoes. I've never done that yet, I'll have to remember that one...

Directions

1. Chop your onion, leaving varied sizes of pieces. We don't want the flavor and texture totally sinking into the chili, so you can leave these fairly big. Dice the pepper, making the bits smaller than the onion. I like them that way, at any rate. But do what you like. Play with things. It's your food, after all, and if you can't play with your food, then what's the fun?
2. In a large skillet (I think mine's a deep 14-incher), melt 3/4 of a stick of butter under medium heat. Don't take it too high or you'll burn the butter. And that's just nasty. After the butter has melted, add the chopped onion and the diced pepper. Whenever you start frying onions in butter, everyone thinks you're a fantastic cook. I heard some self-help video back in the 50s recommended that housewives do this trick when their husbands got home from work. You know, just to make him think something good was coming for dinner. Also, when you fry up the pepper, It gets rid of the bitterness, and I hate bitterness in my food. And in my relationships, but that one's harder to control.
3. At the same time the onions and peppers are frying up, get a large pot (no, not that kind of pot, you brownie-head) that will contain the chili, something around at least a gallon or so. I think mine's 12" diameter and around 7" or 8" deep. Under medium heat, throw in the can of tomatoes, V8 tomato juice, 4 cans of beans, the frozen corn, crushed red pepper, the rest of the butter, and all of the dried onion flakes. It'll save time later if you heat it up now. Once it starts to boil, lower the heat down to a simmer.
4. Now that your onions are done, add both the cubed meat and the ground sirloin to the deep skillet. Sprinkle on some kosher or sea salt and grind some black pepper over it. You can use normal salt and pepper I guess, but you might want to think about getting some of the good stuff for your kitchen. After it starts to brown, add your soy sauce. Really, be liberal with it. If you don't add enough it'll turn out just like that talk show "Crossfire" - conservative, tasteless, lazy, and partisan (or at least Jon Stewart says so). And partisan food is no fun.
5. Now that your meat is sufficiently cooked, add your chili and cocoa powers. I mean powders. Mix that around, and add the whole thing into your chili pot. You can eat it right away if you want, but the chili gets really good when you let it simmer for at least an hour. Don't put the heat on too high, or it'll burn. And no one wants to throw out that much good chili.

Really, this is just a rough guide. I've never written the recipe down until now, because it is such a fluid thing. Try stuff out. Don't like some of the ingredients? Get rid of it and try your own stuff!

Above all, make sure you play with your food. And let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Entry posted by byscuits at 02:29 PM | Comments (1)