scipio202

I stumbled across a really fascinating article drawing parallels between the three sons in the Godfather and the three dominant foreign policies in the us. Some excerpts:

"The aging Vito Corleone, emblematic of cold-war American power, is struck down suddenly and violently by forces he did not expect and does not understand, much as America was on September 11. Even more intriguingly, each of his three “heirs” embraces a very different vision of how the family should move forward following this wrenching moment. Tom Hagen, Sonny and Michael approximate the three American foreign-policy schools of thought—liberal institutionalism, neoconservatism and realism—vying for control in today’s disarranged world order."

Tom/Liberal Institutionalism

"Throughout the movie, Tom’s motto is “we oughta talk to ‘em”—a slogan which, especially since the publication of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, is the line promoted by the lawmakers and presidential hopefuls of the Democratic Party, who now say that immediate, unconditional talks with America’s latest “Sollozzo” (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) are the only option still open to Washington for coping with the Iranian nuclear crisis."

"For in order to be successful, the consigliere’s diplomacy must be conducted from a position of unparalleled strength, which the family no longer possesses. Tom no longer has the luxury of always being the man at the table with the most leverage. The era of easy Corleone dominance is over. Power on the streets has already begun to shift into the hands of the Tataglias and Barzinis—the mafia equivalent of today’s BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Like the current international system, the situation that confronts the Corleone family is one of increasing multipolarity—a reality that is lost on Tom, who thinks he is still the emissary of the dominant superpower (a delusion that many Democrats apparently share)."

Sonny/Neoconservative

"Where Tom sees Sollozzo as a reasonable if aggressive businessman whose concerns, like those of previous challengers, can be accommodated through compromise and conciliation, Sonny sees an existential threat—a clear and present danger that must be swiftly cauterized, no matter what the cost. Sonny wants to “stop being weak” and doesn’t want to “waste time”; showing any opposition to using force confirms for him that “I knew you didn’t have the guts to do this.” (One can imagine that Sonny’s shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later approach would meet with the firm approval of arch-neoconservatives such as Norman Podhoretz and Michael Ledeen, given their stance on how to deal with Iran.)

So, by starting a gangland free-for-all in the wake of the hit on his father, Sonny unwittingly severs long-standing family alliances and unites much of the rest of the mafia world against the Corleones. The resulting war is one of choice rather than strategic necessity. Sonny’s rash instinct to use military power to solve his structural problems merely hastens the family’s decline."

Michael/Realism

"Michael relinquishes the mechanistic, one-trick-pony policy approaches of his brothers in favor of a “toolbox,” in which soft and hard power are used in flexible combinations and as circumstances dictate. While at various times he sides with Tom (favoring negotiation) or Sonny (favoring force), Michael sees their positions as about tactics and not about ultimate strategy, which for him is solely to ensure the survival and prosperity of the family. Thus, he is able to use Sonny’s “button men” to knock out those competitors he cannot co-opt, while negotiating with the rest as Tom would like. This blending of sticks and carrots ensures that Michael is ultimately a more effective diplomat than Tom and a more successful warrior than Sonny: when he enters negotiations, it is always in the wake of a fresh battlefield victory and therefore from a position of strength; when he embarks on a new military campaign, it is always in pursuit of a specific goal that can be consolidated afterwards diplomatically. Can any of the Iran policies currently being advocated by the leading candidates of both parties be said to proceed from these assumptions?"

So, flush with success from last weekend's bread-making I attempted to make biscuits. I have a wife from the south who adores biscuits, and am personally obsessed with biscuits and sausage gravy, so this is a skill it behooves me to develop. Plus, I know had real biscuit cutters my mother-in-law brought up from Georgia at Thanksgiving, rather than the flimsy cookie cutters they tried to sell me up here in the North.

The first attempt was a recipe from Alton Brown, which looked interesting because it was butter-based and included both buttermilk and yoghurt.

So, the result was tasty, though not particularly flaky. However, the process of making them was a giant fiasco. The recipe was designed to have a wet dough, using was paper to fold it rather than roll it out. However, it was super sticky, and I had to ditch half of it as it stuck to the rapidly tearing was paper. Plus, it wouldn't hold its shape when I tried to cut it with the biscuit cutters. I had to add a ton of extra flour just to make it semi-workable.

Frustrated by my first attempt, I decided to make another batch today with a different recipe from Tyler Florence.

These were much better to work, rolling easily and making nice little cylinders when cut. They also pulled apart in nice flaky layers. However, the flavor was a bit off. One, I think they were just more bland because this recipe was shortening based. I think in the future I'll try to mix shortening and butter. The other is that there was a chemically aftertaste - I think either the baking soda or the salt was off. I think for my next attempt I'll try to take the best aspects of each recipe.

Jen has some additional photos and comments on her blog.

This weekend I made a couple of tasty dishes.

First, I made another batch of carnitas (a mexican braised pork dish) that I had made for Jen's chaplaincy. Here is the recipe I used. It's quite simple, though I might try to tweak it, since the end product is a little greasy. Maybe try to skim off some of the oil before cooking the shredded pork in the juices. The final product:



Second, a week or two ago I saw a recipe in the NYT for bread that you don't knead. The recipe was supposed to be really easy, and since I don't (yet) bake much I wanted to give it a shot. The article also has a video with it that helped a lot. I started the dough on Saturday, and baked it off this morning. It rises for 18 hours to develop gluten and better flavor. Here's the final product:



I think it turned out really well, though I need to work a bit on the shape. It's not a nicely rounded as some I've seen on the food blogs. Jen liked it too, though she didn't like the cornmeal dusting of the crust (an option in the recipe). I'm going to take the leftover half loaf into work tomorrow, we'll see what they think.

UPDATE: Jen's takes on the carnitas and bread.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Jen and I had our first dinner party last night - since before we didn't have enough dishes for more than four people :-) As part of EDS's orientation they have something called "Dinners in Homes" - faculty and returning students host new students for dinner to help welcome them. They provided salad and vegetarian lasagna, so it was pretty easy. We added cheese and crackers as an appetizer (including our favorite Comte from the cheese shop down the road), got some wine (a nice little Soave from Italy, also from the cheese shop) and made desert. I got a recipe for a Fig Clafouti from one of my favorite food blogs. A clafouti is a french baked dessert (traditionally with cherries) thats something like a cross between a pancake and a custard. Its made from a batter, but the texture is very light. I think it turned out very well:



Our guests certainly ate it with gusto. I served it with powdered sugar over the top and with vanilla frozen yogurt on the side.

So, I got married on last Saturday in Cleveland. I think things went really well - we had a quite small and simple wedding (~50 people), mostly family with a few friends and a few colleagues. The ceremony was quite nice, and we had the reception in the church's hall/art gallery. There were a few familial hiccups, but mostly everything went smoothly. Everyone said they really enjoyed it. Jen and I liked that keeping things simple meant we could actually talk to all of our guests. The next morning we had a picnic at The Farm for our families so that our aunts and uncles could get a chance to mingle more casually - which went really well.

Then we drove to the White Mountains region in New Hampshire for four days for a small honeymoon. We stayed at two very nice inns in Jackson. The first (The Wentworth) had a hot tub on an enclosed balcony with a nice view of the mountains. The second (The Inn at Thorn Hill) had a spa, and outdoor dining with a simply amazing view of the whole mountain range. Both came with breakfast and a three (or five) course dinner. The food at both inns was quite good. On Wednesday we drove up to the summit of Mt. Washington (over 6000 feet) - the highest peak in the Northeast. On the way up the cloud level was at about 3000 feet, so at the summit we could really see much. But on the way down we found a turnoff at around 5000 feet where the cloud-cover broke and the views were just fantastic. One thing we couldn't do, because it was only open on weekends, was ride this mile-long slide that a ski resort had set up for the off-season. It was so beautiful up there, and only 2.5 hours away from Boston! I think we'll definitely be going back for vacations in the future.

Now we're back in Boston trying to get settled back into life, work and school.

I made frozen chocolate-covered banana bites (from this recipe) and brought them into work today. I think I actually like them best half-thawed rather than fully frozen. They're just too hard and too hard to eat when frozen. The chocolate dipping worked well, though the melted chocolate seized up a bit at times. I might try an Alton Brown trick to put some oil in the chocolate.

Had friends over tonight for dinner. Made two dishes that I've wanted to do for a long time, but have seemed very daunting: fried chicken, and baking a pie. Pie has been a big stumbling block for a while, both because its supposed to be so easy to screw up and because I just don't have the baking instinct. My parents cooked savory food a lot, so I feel really comfortable looking over an unfamiliar recipe and saying "yeah, I can do that" - the belief that on the fly I know enough in general to wing it. But nobody in my family baked very much, so it all seems to be strange vodoo. Really complicated stuff that only Other People do. And making the pie certainly was nerve-wracking and adrenaline filled (most notably trying to keep the butter in the dough from melting when the ambient temperature was over 95). However, I think it turned out really well. Will definitely try it again.

The complete menu was:

Fried chicken
Provencal potato salad (French potato salad with salad nicoise ingredients added)
Jicama and Watercress salad with Lime-Chili dressing
Peach Pie

plus copious amounts of alcohol, including cava - a Catalan version of champagne my friend Pablo brought over.

Happy Easter, everyone!!

Jen preached tonight at the Harvard Episcopal Chaplaincy (where she is a fellow this year). The sermon was quite good.

I cooked dinner for the chaplaincy, which turned out to be about 24 people.

The Menu:

Lamb two ways
- Wine-braised leg of lamb
- Cumin-Lemon roasted leg of lamb

Oven-roasted potatoes
Mashed Cauliflower
Creamed Spinach
Chilled Asparagus with Citrus Vinaigrette
Parmesan Zucchini

Marscapone-cream Berry Trifle (w/ Grand Marnier)

Quite tasty, I think.

Any of you computer people have any thoughts about why my computer burned out two power supplies within six months?