Friday, July 13, 2007

cookin' cat

from here. this is an old but funny as hell usenet post and flame war

How to make Tamales...
A recipie.


How long has it been, since you had a rich, steaming plate of tamales? Remember how delicious tamales are? NO ONE can resist a well-garnished plate of REAL tamales, after all.

Well, no longer will you have to wait around until you can afford to visit an expensive restraunt which serves such a delicasy. I'll share with you the easy recipie for making your own REAL TAMALES, right at home!

The first thing you need, is some real tamale meat. Some folks will tell you to use beef, or chicken - this is a mistake!

RULE ONE - you can't make a REAL tamale,
without catmeat. Cat; it's the
"other" red meat.



This is how to obtain fine tamale meats:

_._
.-'.\ `.
/` ./\__| "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..."
| ./\~()\()
\ \_ _) (\
\/ //\ //_
_/\ `-/\_ (\(((\
/ \ \ / / \ \___/
/ \/\/\/ \ / /
/ \ /_ \/ /
| | \/ \ / _.-"
| | ; |\___/ __..--' "Meow?"
| | : | __..--""
| |/ : \| /\/\ (
| | : | )oo )_____)
\__|____:___| ="= )
_/ \) | //>>-.//\
\\_ /\_ \ | (/ \) \)\)
(U[_| \ |
\||> | |
|| / |
|| / |
/ / |
/____/|___|
| : :\|: :\
\ ___\ ___| jro
`-.-'`---'

For cat hunting, I reccomend a Webley-Fosbury, naturally. Any common .22 or shotgun will do just swell, however. If you live in some Third World country which doesn't suffer it's population to own firearms, a basic club or rock will suffice...

__..\/
/\ \ \\
/_/\_.___\ "Now, if you are planning a feast,
/\\~()\()~/\ you might need a dozen of these
\_ _) _/ bastards. But they're common, and
\ //\\/ incredibly stupid! A simple call
_/\ __ /\_ will attract them right into your
/ \ \ / / \ killzone, where they can be easily
/ \/\/\/ \ dispatched by a bullet, or a
/ \ /_ \________ mere blow to the head."
| | \/ \ | \\
| | ; |\______|_/|/
| | : | ||
| |/ : \| ||
| | : | / \
\__|____:___| / \
_/ \) | //| |\\
\\_ /\_ | | "" | | ""
(U[_| | | //\/\\
\|| | | /| xx |\
||| | | ""=\_o/=""
||| | | U
| | |
|____|___|
|: :||: :\
\ ___\ ___| jro
`-.-'`---'




__..\/ "A lot of people ask me,
/\ \ \\ 'John, where do you find
/_/\_.___\ all those great cats for
/\\~()\()~/\ tamales?' Well..."
\_ _) _/
\ //\\/
/))) __/\ __ /\__ (((\
/ |/) / \ \ / / \ (\| \
\___/ / \/\/\/ \ \___/
\ \/ \ / \/ /
\ / \/ __\ /
\ /| ; \ /
\__/ | : |\___/
| : |
JRO


"Like most common pests, you can find them just about anywhere. The streets and alleys abound with the things. Sometimes, one may even walk into your own yard. In your neighborhood, there __..\/ may also be people who keep the
/\ \ \\ varmits, as "pets". The trick
/_/\_.___\ here, is to lure the creature
/\~()/()~//\ outside - where you can bag it.
\_ (_ _/ Don't feel bad about doing this;
\ //\\ / /) you will actually be
__/\ __ /\__ (\/((\ doing the "owner" a
/ \ \ / / \ \___/ favor! The beasts
/ \/\/\/ \ / / are known to shed
/ \ / \/ / DISEASES in their feces,
| | \/ __\ / / which small children can
| | ; \ / fall victim to. Since cat
| | : |\___/ owners never clean up a
| | : | cat's droppings, this is
| |/ : \| a serious health problem."
jro

"If you suspect that someone you know may be a cat
__..\/ owner, this can be easily verified.
/\ \ \\ Just visit their home. You may not
/_/\_.___\ SEE the cat, but you will certianly
/\\~()\()~/\ SMELL the cat's fecal material. Do
\_ _) _/ not be surprised if you find some
\ //\\/ of the cat's droppings visible on
__/\ __ /\__ the floor, furniture, beds, and in
/ \ \ / / \ a box which most owners keep in
/ \/\/\/ \ their kitchens, believing the cat
/ \ / \ should be encouraged to relieve
| | \/ __| | itself, there. If you have an
| | ; | | opportunity, take the cat and
| | : | | leave. If this is impractical,
| |/ : \| | keep watch on the owner's house,
jro because sooner or later they
will let it out for a time, and
you can then acquire it's meat."

A good-sized adult cat, when skinned out, should have enough meat on it's bones to make a six or eight tamales. Smaller cats and the immature kittens (often sought for their tenderness), won't yield quite as much meat, so adjust the number you will need, accordingly.
Maybe you have a commerical source of pre-packaged cat. Let me suggest, however, that you kill and butcher your own. Skinning cat isn't as much of an ordeal as you may think. First, lop off the head, and discard it. It contains no usable meat, and the brain of a cat is too small to bother with. Believe me, it would take many, many cats, just to make a small pan of brains and eggs!
(\(\
(\ /)///_
\\_//.-\ )____
|_ / .-'-----'
___ (_)_.-'
=/ o \=
( x_x )
\/ \/

The next thing you want to remove, is the tail. This should also be discarded...
_ __
( ( \
/ / |
/ / /
\ \ \
-./_/ \ _.---._
\ _.-'_.-'-._`-.
| \.-' `-'
______/


Get rid of the feet, next...

\ \
\.--.|
`---'
.---.
.`--'(_
`-.__;;;

You may then make a longitudal incision on the cat's abdomen. Reach into the body cavity, and remove all of the internal organs. Discard them; especially the liver, which is frequently toxic in domestic cats. In any event, it is quite inedible. There are no organ meats in cat.
The Swedish make a practice of eating cat genitalia, and although they may relish these portions, I would not suggest you try it. Mad Cat Disease has definately been linked to the eating of cat reproductive organs.

|____|
/ \
/ _ /
| / \)
\_)) )
( _))_) _ _
_ __ )) (( / / |
\ \ \ (_)-'_) / / /
\ \ \ (_( )) \ \ \
|_| |_ (_(( /_/ \
.' | \`.((_).' \
/ |
`.___________________/

At this point, you can now "skin" the meat. This is accomplished by grabbing the loose skin around where the head was removed, and pulling it back. Use a pair of pliers, if necessary, but try not to resort to using a knife in places where you have trouble. With a little practice, you should be able to peel the cat's skin back, and continue the process until you have rolled it completely off the body.

__..\/
/\ \ \\
/_/\_.___\ "Some gourmets will tell you to start
/\~()/()~//\ skinning from the open abdominal area.
\_ (_ _/ I advise against this; it is the cruder
\ //\\ / method, and you will definately have to
__/\ __ /\__ use your knife at some point to finish up.
/ \ \ / / \ There may be more than one way to skin a
/ \/\/\/ \ cat, but there is only one way to do it
/ \ / \ properly, and elegantly. After you've
| | \/ __| | skinned a few cats my way, I'm certain
| | ; | | you'll agree that it IS the best method.
| | : | |


Now that you have your cat skinned, gutted, and trimmed of extraneous limbs and the head, it's time to wash the meat. If you skinned the cat properly, there should be no hair remaining on the meat. Nevertheless, you should wash it carefully, to make sure there are no stray hairs.

For best results you should soak your cat in salt water, for at least an hour. If you have guests coming and are pressed for time, you can skip over this step. If you add a little extra seasoning to your cat in the cooking process, even a true connosiuer shouldn't be able to recognize that you skipped over the soaking process.


__________
( )
\ /
\ / "Okay, now that we've got that little
|______| chore out of the way, let's START
/_/\_.___\ COOKING!... First, we're going to
/\\~()\()~/\ flense the meat from the bones. We're
/| \_ _) _/ making tamales, remember! If this dish
/ / \ //\\/ was to be baked cat, you could just toss
_/_/ __/\ __ /\__ the beast in the oven at 350 degrees, and
(/.(\ / \__/ / \ sit back and wait for a couple of hours.
(o/_/ / o/ \ But what we need is bone-free cat strips,
\ \/ | \ to toss right into the frying pan..."
\ / | |
\ /| o| | |
\__/ | | | |
| | | |
JRO

_____
.-"" ""-.
.' _.-----._ `.
/ .'. `::,`:`. \_______________________
/ :: ::; `;:' .::' \ (_) \
| .::'.: `:::. :. |_____________________/
| ::. .::':: .:' /|
|\ .:: ::: .::' / | "Fill your frying pan up with the catmeat,
\ `. :;. ::. .' / to which you should add 1 cup of Mexican-
\ `.__________.' / style chili sauce, 2 cloves of garlic, and
`-. .-' 1 tablespoon of crushed cumin seeds. Add
`-.______.-' jro chile powder, and salt and pepper, to taste.
Fry at a medium-high temperature in a little
cooking oil, stirring occasionally. After ten or fifteen minutes, add 1 cup of water, reduce heat, and simmer."

"Meanwhile, place 3 cups of cornmeal in a mixing bowl. Add 1/4 cup of butter, 1/4 cup of lard, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. Mix well.

[A note about lard: Lard tastes much better than vegetable grease, but if you are a disgusting wide-body, you better just use Crisco, or a similar product.]

To this, add one and a half cups of chicken or cat broth. Beat until you have a light, soft dough."



__________
( )
\ / "Now take a small ball of your dough mixture,
\ / and spread it out on a corn husk. Remember
|______| to pre-soak your corn husks for an hour or
/_/\_.___\ two, so they will be soft and easy to roll.
/\\~()\()~/\ If you don't have any corn husks, you can use
\_ _) _/ _ aluminum foil, in 4x4 inch squares."
\ //\\/ _(_)
__/\ __ /\__ /\\\\
/ \__/ / \ |___/
/ o/ \ / /
/ | \/ /
| | | \ /
| | o| |\ /
| | | | `--'
| | | |
JRO

.-'"""""`-. "Spread at least a tablespoon
.-'.-' .-' .-' full of your filling down the
.-' .-' .-'.-' center of your dough. Then roll
.-'.-' .-' .-' the whole thing up, tucking in the
.-' .-'.-'.-' ends of the corn husk, so it stays
.-'.-' .-'.-' together. It should look about like
.-'.-' .-' .-' this."
`-._____.-'






) ( )
( ___ ( "When you have 12 to 18 tamales ready
) ( __(___)__ ( ( to cook, steam them over boiling
__..--"" ""--..__ ) water, for about two hours."
|_________________________| )
| |___________________
( | |__)________________)
)| | )
_\_______________________/_ (
| |
| |__________________
| |__________________)
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
`-._____________________.-'




__________
( ) "Garnish with a little lettuce,
\ / spread a little salsa over the
\ / top, and they're ready to serve!"
|______|
/_/\_.___\
/\\~()\()~/\
\_ _) _/
\ //\\/
__/\ __ /\__
/ \__/ / \
/ o/ \
/ | || \
\ \ |/ /
\ \_...---.../_
_.-"" __________""-.
.' .'.' / / / / / /\ `.`._
`. :: ()()()()()/ / :: `.
`.`. ()()()()()()/ .'.'_.'
`-.______________.-' jro




__..\/
/\ \ \\
/_/\_.___\
/\\~()\()~/\ "BON APPERTITE!"
\_ _) _/
\ //\\/
_/\ __ /\_
/ \ \ / / \
/ \/\/\/ \
/ \ /_ \________
| | \/ \ | \\
| | ; |\______|_/|/
| | : | ||
| |/ : \| ||
| | : | / \
\__|____:___| / \
_/ \) | //| |\\
\\_ /\_ | | "" | | ""
(U[_| | | //\/\\
\|| | | /| xx |\
||| | | ""=\_o/=""
||| | | U
| | |
|____|___| ((\ /\/\.----._
jro |: :||: :\ /)(\ /// ( xx ) `-.___
\ ___\ ___| \\//.-\ )\o_/ \\---\\'----'
`-.-'`---' _| \ .-'--U--' \) (/
`-\__.-'-----./\/\
=/ o\=\ )__\\( xx
( xx ) \\ ///`-U'
\/\/ (/(/|)


--
Jonathon R. Oglesbee
oglesbee@
mail.fullnet.net

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

tahoe fire sac bee article: it's a good'un

sacbee.com - The online division of The Sacramento Bee

This story is taken from Sacbee / News.
Keeping Tahoe safe
Harold Singer lost his home in the Angora fire. Now, the head of the water district dedicated to keeping Tahoe blue is taking a new look at his agency's rules.
By Chris Bowman - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, July 9, 2007

California's top water quality enforcer at Lake Tahoe, the sapphire of the Sierra, said the recent wildfire that ripped through hundreds of south shore homes should "re-open the book" on environmental rules that call for preserving the lake's clarity above all else.

For decades, "Keep Tahoe Blue" has defined the overarching mission for this region that Congress declared a "national treasure."

Sport-utility vehicles, hybrids and skateboards alike sport the motto on decals. Former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore embraced the goal at a lakeside summit that raised nearly $1 billion to halt urban runoff into the lake.

But the destruction from last month's Angora fire has the California official most directly responsible for guarding the holy waters rethinking that priority.

"The biggest tragedy of all of this will be if we don't learn from what happened," said Harold Singer, executive officer of the state Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board.

"I am willing to open up the book on this. If there is something that tells us there is a better way to protect water quality and still allow fire agencies to reduce the fire threat, we will work with them."

To that end, Singer has already opened discussions with federal and state land managers and the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which includes the devastated Upper Truckee subdivision at the south end of the lake.

Foremost on their minds are the regulations protecting the 64 "stream environment zones" around the lake. Many of these creeks are cluttered with deadwood and flanked with dense stands of white fir and lodge pole pines.

The stream zones, however, are off-limits to conventional logging operations that fire officials say are needed to efficiently reduce fire hazard throughout the heavily forested, 500-square-mile Tahoe basin.

Heavy disturbance could release large slugs of sediment that streams would funnel into the lake, clouding its clarity. Likewise, heavy equipment could compact the spongy wetlands that naturally absorb and filter stormwater runoff.

The lake already is losing about a foot of transparency a year, the result of development disturbing the fragile granite soil and the fallout of air pollutants from traffic ringing the urban playground.

Some fire analysts said Angora Creek became the primary path of the blaze because it is choked with deadwood and because stretches of the creek corridor run southwest to northeast, the predominant direction of the wind-driven fire.

"I know that with the very strong southwesterly winds that day (June 24) and with the alignment of the creek, all that dead material in there contributed to the intensity of the fire -- that and the fact that we had very low relative humidity the previous two days," said Dave Marlow, manager of vegetation, fire and fuels for the U.S. Forest Service's Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

"It's why we call the stream zones the wicks to the bigger fire," Marlow said. "The fire will tend to follow that untreated, decadent jackstraw pile of vegetation along streams, and then get up to the forest and cause problems. That's partially what happened in the case of the Angora fire."

Singer said the devastation has prompted him to investigate whether the streams could sustain more disturbance for the sake of better fire protection.

"I have called fire officials and they've said that (Angora) stream zone was the primary path of the fire. So it's a problem that we need to deal with. I want to learn from this and see if there is something I am doing that is hampering their fire prevention efforts."

If Singer sounds as though he is taking this personally, it's because he has been publicly blamed for the fire.

In the midst of the blaze, Tim Leslie, who represented the California side of the lake for more than 15 years in the Assembly and Senate, lambasted Singer as an unyielding obstacle to reducing the fire danger at Tahoe.

"Harold Singer ... is the bureaucrat of bureaucrats," Leslie said in a June 27 phone interview with KFBK radio talk show host Tom Sullivan.

"You should have him on the show, but when he comes on, he'll wow everybody, he'll convince everybody he did everything humanly possible, blah, blah, blah. But I tell you that's what it is -- blah, blah. He's the one who says, 'Oh, you can't walk on the ground, you can't cut out those dead trees.' "

Had Sullivan sought out Singer for response, he probably would have had a hard time reaching him. Singer said he was out all that day house hunting with his wife and two children. Their home of 19 years was one of the 254 destroyed in the fire.

They had about 20 minutes to pack and flee.

Singer, 58, dashed for the family documents and computer. His wife, Pam, grabbed the photo albums.

Their young daughter, Regan, 7, clung to "Uni," her stuffed unicorn, while their son, Garrett, ran for the Lionel train set he got for Christmas.

"It's a Santa Fe Chief," Singer said, tears welling. He said, 'Dad, get your Lionel train, too.' "

As Singer pulled a jam-packed Ford Expedition away from their home, Garrett said, "Dad, stop!" The 13-year-old ran back and hugged the house as far as his arms could stretch.

The fire left nothing but memories to embrace upon their return six days later.

Leslie said he didn't know Singer was homeless when he skewered him on air.

"I feel sorry for anyone who lost their home. But that has nothing to do with any of my opinions related to the fire danger around here," Leslie said Friday in an interview with The Bee.

Leslie called Singer's willingness to reconsider the streamside logging restrictions "a pleasant change of attitude" -- but too little, too late.

"He should have realized the danger a long time ago," Leslie said. "Instead of looking for ways to stop thinning, he should have been looking for ways to get around these bureaucratic obstacles."

But Singer and other environment officials in the Tahoe basin have been keen to the fire danger for years.

In 1994, the politically appointed members of the Lahontan water board -- whose region runs the length of the eastern side of the Sierra -- approved Singer's recommendation to allow greater use of controlled burns in stream zones and permit heavy logging in these areas under certain conditions. For example, big trucks and trackers can enter wetlands over the snow in meadows that already have roads.

The following year Singer won an exemption from the state forestry board that made it easier to remove dead and dying trees on the California side of the basin.

Two years ago, with the fire danger reaching the critical stage, the forestry board adopted an "emergency order" exclusively for Tahoe allowing live green trees to be removed along streams without the normally required environmental impact report -- again at Singer's urging.

And last year, the Lahontan water board secured $200,000 in state money with a 50 percent match from up to 80 property owners to pay for the removal of trees and underbrush within 30 feet of homes in the Lake Valley Fire Protection District.

Still, most of the fire clearing along Tahoe streams has been done on foot with chainsaws, with crews carrying out wood by hand, the Forest Service's Marlow said.

Singer said he is open to loggers entering sensitive areas with big rigs that cut costs and time so long as they can show the soil disturbance will be minimal.

The Forest Service is taking up Singer's offer in a fire-prone area threatening Lake Tahoe Community College, on the south shore.

"We are really hoping that we can really be able to do this work without any negative effect on the environment," Marlow said.

Go to: Sacbee / Back to story

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