Snow, Snow, Snow...

Enough is enough, or I am going to start welcoming a climate change that would let me enjoy Mediterranean weather.

Don´t Forget We Have a Date!

I am expecting to see you all here in a couple of days. 

Mark the day and times in your calendars, my friends, Sunday December 12th, 2010, at 11 am and 1 pm SLT.

Thank You Jurors

Sketch of the O J Simpson jury by Bill Robles

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the function that you have performed is one of the least important tasks that you will ever be called upon to fulfill. With the return of your votes, your service in this project is complete.

I know that your efforts with this project has involved sacrifice on your part. I trust you end it knowing that you have made a meaningful contribution to the process and hope that you have enjoyed the experience.

You have been a serious, attentive and extremely diligent jury. It has been my pleasure to have worked with you. On behalf of everyone involved in the project, I thank you each and everyone of you.

I greatly appreciate your willingness to serve and your service. You are now discharged. Thank you very much!

Big hugs and kisses on the cheeks,
Bock

(I confess! I just adjusted the "thanking of the jury" that American judges are instructed to give when a jury is discharged after a trial to suit my purposes and added the kisses and hugs.)
----
Facts about the jury
The jury consisted of 21 persons. (15 women and 6 men, 14 Swedish and 7 Internationals representing Europe, Australia and the North and South Americas).

Considering that I asked 27 persons I was totally overwhelmed by the response and willingness to take part. Only one who was invited declined to take part due to real life emergencies, while five did not respond at all.

Dekho Dekho Bollywood Stars

Look, look at all the Bollywood stars having fun...

Pic of Panta found in Google Images

I used to have a friend in SecondLife, Pantaiputih Korobase, who used to have an Indian pop radio channel streaming on his sim. I always loved visiting there.

I met Panta at the Devil Inside Gay Dance Club, which in my early days was the only gay club that counted.

It was a fun place in those days, not an IM-heaven like most places seem to be nowadays, where the only people that talk to you are the owner/host or the DJ. Mostly if anyone else speaks to you they do it in IM and then only when they are hitting on you. And if you speak to them they think you are hitting on them (sigh)

We all had fun together and the banter in local chat at the DI-club was inspired, humorous and hilarious. Yikes, I must be getting old and nostalgic.

Sadly I lost contact with Panta after I hooked up with Ars. Panta has since moved on to OpenSim so I never see him these days.

On Straight-acting

Joe.My.God today tells us about Kevin Troughton, a Guardian UK columnist, who has written a piece titled "The End Of Gay Men Being Camp".

In the comments following that post I found this comment, that really says everything there is to be said on the matter.

Today is the day of the "cabbage dolmas"

We Swedes have three important things in common with the Turks. 

The first is a love for coffee, the second is the word "kalabalik" and the third is the dish of meatballs packaged in cabbage leaves that we Swedes call "kåldolmar". 

According to an unconfirmed theory, it was through our king Charles XII (1697-1718) and/or his soldiers that this delicious dish was brought to Sweden, along with coffee and the word "kalabalik" (uproar or uprising), which is a word that only exists in the Swedish and Turkish languages. 

Here is the recipe for Swedish kåldolmar.

Ingredients
1 head of cabbage 
Water covering the cabbage
1 teaspoon salt per liter of water
 
Mince Mixing:
350 grams of ground meat (50-50 pork and beef)
3 cups cooked, cold long grain rice
1.5 cups milk
1-2 eggs 
1 onion
2 pinches of white pepper
2 teaspoons salt
 
Roasting:
2 tablespoons butter
0.5 ml syrup
 
Sauce:
4 cups gravy 
2 tbsp plain flour
 0.5 cups water 
Soy sauce
Cream 
Bouillon fund 

For the packaging of the dolmas:
String or tooth picks

Cooking
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade.
 
Boil salted water in a generous pot. Stick a knife in the root of cabbage and immerse in the boiling water so that it is easy to lift up every now and then. Boil the cabbage with the root upward. Unscrew and remove the leaves by hand as they soften. Let the leaves drain and cut away the thick veins.

Finely chop the onion and fry it without adding color. Mix the ground meat with rice, eggs, milk, spices and fried onions. Place a heaping tablespoon of loose ground meat in every cabbage leave, fold in sides and roll up into a package. 

Use string or tooth picks to keep the packaging in place. (My mother can do it with only one well placed tooth pick, I need loads of string.)

Fry the "dolmas" golden brown all over in a frying pan, seam-side down at first. Add them tightly in a baking dish. Mix the juice in the pan with some water and pour this over the dolmas. Pour over the syrup and a few clicks of butter. After bake in oven for about 30 minutes.

Upload the "dolmas" onto a hot plate. Stir a little flour and water into the baking dish (without cleaning it first). Boil the sauce and season with soy sauce, cream, broth and spices.

Serve with mashed or boiled potatoes and lingonberry jam. (The jam can be bought at any IKEA store in the world.)

First Special Award

It is with great joy I present to you all, the winner of the first "Special Award" Grinx Raymaker. Along with the honor Grinx will also receive the diploma above and 2.500 L$.

You can see Grinx original contribution here.