international

Like Moths to a Flame

Take my beautiful, adoring women. Please!moth

According to the advertisements I get on line, there are literally dozens of beautiful women eager to have me invest in foreign currencies. Of course, this is all understandable as I know the purchasing-power parity condition, e.g.,

Price of Big Mac (denominated in dollars) = ($/Euro) * Price of Big Mac (denominated in euros)

However, I already have a wife who would love me even if I didn’t understand foreign exchange. So, I don’t need these beauties and their euros and yen. I’m sure my wife would feel the same as well.

So, visit me on Facebook and claim one of my admirers. It would be nice, if at the same time, you purchased one of my novels. I mean, fair is fair.

I could have had a really cool photo of a 5 lempira note from Honduras but I’m having problems with my scanner. Sorry.

– Paul R. De Lancey,  Dreamer

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

 

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South African Custard Pie (Melktert)

South African Dessert

CUSTARD PIE
(melktert)

INGREDIENTS – PASTRYMelkTert-

2 cups flour (1 teaspoon plus 3 tablespoons more later)
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt (¼ teaspoon more later)
½ cup chilled butter (1½ tablespoons more later)
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon flour

INGREDIENTS – FILLING

4 eggs
4 cups milk
1½ tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar (½ cup plus 1/4 cup plus ½ teaspoon more later)
1 cinnamon stick
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons flour
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon sugar

SPECIAL UTENSILS

2 9″ pie tins
rolling pin
electric mixer or beater
sonic obliterator

Makes 2 pies. Takes 2 hours 40 minutes. Well, it should take that long, unless of course, while in the midst of preparation someone drank some of the milk you needed for this recipe, so you rushed to the store to buy milk and just before you got to the checkout stand four people rushed their carts in front of you, and then you got home only to find you had to take your child to sword-swallowing lessons. In this case, preparation will take longer.

PREPARATION – CRUSTS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add 2 cups flour, baking powder, an¼ teaspoon salt to large mixing bowl. Mix with whisk. Grate ½ cup butter or cut into small pieces. Add grated butter. Use hands to blend grated butter with flour mix. Add water. Use hands to smoosh, a new culinary term, water into butter/flour mix. Form mix into dough ball using hands.(Add additional water as necessary to keep dough ball together.)

Dust rolling pin and surface with 1 teaspoon flour. Split dough ball into two. Roll out each dough ball into circles into a 10″ circle. Place a dough circle into each pie tin. Poke pie crusts a few times with a fork. (This releases excess air.) Bake crusts for 6-to-10 minutes or until they start to turn golden brown. Keep oven at 400 degrees while you prepare filling. (Depending on the number of mixing bowls you have, you might want to clean them as you get the chance.)

PREPARATION – FILLING

Separate eggs. Add egg whites to small bowl. Beat egg whites with electric mixer set on beat until they stiffen. Add egg yolks to another small bowl. Beat yolks with fork.

Add milk to pot. Bring milk to slow boil using medium-high heat. Stir constantly. Add 1½ tablespoons butter, ½ cup sugar, cinnamon stick, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir as frequently as you can.

Add cornflour, cornstarch, 3 tablespoons flour, and ¼ cup sugar to new mixing bowl. Mix with whisk until well blended. Add about ¼ of the hot-milk mixture (about 1 cup to this bowl. Mix with whisk until well blended. Add egg yolks. Mix again with whisk. Add vanilla and entire corn flour/flour/sugar/hot-milk contents to simmering pot. Keep pot simmering using low heat for 10 minutes or until mixture thickens. Stir as frequently as you can. Remove from heat and let cool for 15 minutes.

Lower temperature of oven to 375 degrees.. Add egg whites and ¼ cup sugar to pot. Mix with whisk. Pour filling into pie crusts. Bake for 15-to-25 minutes or until filling sets. (A toothpick inserted into the middle should come out clean)

Remove pies from oven. Add ground cinnamon and ½ teaspoon sugar to small bowl. Mix with fork. Sprinkle pie with ground cinnamon/sugar mixture. Let cool for 15 minutes and then chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. (Note: some people favor serving this dessert warm. A fierce debate rages.)

Congratulations! You’ve done a lot to make this wonderful dessert for your guests. Relax with a nice, cold root beer or even something stronger. If your guests do not appreciate your heroic efforts, zap them with your sonic obliterator. You don’t need that negativity in your life. ☺

TIDBITS

1) Hippos can get sunburned!

2) No wonder hippos kill people crossing rivers. Sunburns make them cranky. I got a bad sunburn recently. Made me cranky, I can tell you. But I didn’t kill anyone. Yay for me.

4) Hippos need sunscreen. Who would apply the sunscreen to these creatures? Someone brave.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Madagascan Coconut Milk Chicken

Madagascan Entree

COCONUT MILK CHICKEN

INGREDIENTSCoconutMilkChicken-

4 chicken breasts
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt

2 medium onions
2 Roma or small tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter
½ tablespoon ginger
13½ ounce-can coconut milk
3 cups cooked rice

SPECIAL UTENSIL

Dutch oven

PREPARATION

Cut chicken breasts into 1″ cubes. Add chicken, lemon juice, lemon zest, cayenne pepper, pepper, and salt to mixing bowl. Marinate chicken cubes in lemon juice/spice mix for 45 minutes.

While chicken marinates, dice onion and tomatoes. Mince garlic. Add onion, garlic, and coconut oil to Dutch oven. Sauté on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion softens. Stir frequently. Add marinated chicken. Cook on medium heat for 12 minutes or until chicken is only slightly pink inside. Stir occasionally.

Add tomato and ginger. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add coconut milk. Simmer on warm heat for 30 minutes or until sauce starts to thicken and chicken is no longer pink inside. Stir occasionally. Serve over rice.

TIDBITS

1) Madagascar produces more vanilla than any other country.

2) However, Madagascar’s vanilla shacks invariably seem to be on the other side of the stream.

3) But Madagascar’s streams often have crocodiles in them.

4) Crocodiles have been known to eat people. In all fairness though, people often eat crocodiles.

5) However, this is not to say you want to be eaten, far from it.

6) But you still want that vanilla on the other side and a vanilla substitute won’t do.

7) Hence the Madagascan proverb, “If you cross the stream in a crowd, the crocodile won’t eat you.”

8) At least not the people in the middle of the crowd.

9) The previous two tidbits explain why it is considered bad manners to ask people to cross rivers with you.

10) So there you have it. You can’t cross a Madagascan river to get vanilla, but you can’t ask someone to cross with you.

11) Bummer.

12) Now, however, AmazonTM is apparently considered producing drones to fly products from one spot to another.

13) Critics pooh pooh this idea, saying America’s skies are too crowded for the safe use of commercial drones.

14) However drones would be ideal in Madagascar for shipping bottles of vanilla from the wrong side of the crocodile-infested river to you.

15) This development would be great for Madagascans who want to live. Bad though for the country’s crocs who wish to dine out.

16) So where would Madagascar’s hungry crocodiles go to eat?

17) Tennessee. Tennessee has lots of rivers and not only that the locals there know nothing about even the most basic anti-crocodile measures. Lots of people would be eaten.

18) Being eaten while crossing a river would be a great excuse for not turning in homework.

19) But you could only use this excuse once.

20) The state of Tennessee does not consider breast feeding to be nudity. Crocodiles don’t have breasts. They are reptiles. Only Mammals have breasts.

21) So an undressed crocodile would be arrested by Tennessee’s law enforcement.

22) Let’s hope crocodiles never develop a sense of modesty.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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The Chicago Cubs, The Greatest Threat to World Peace

The greatest threat to world peace is the Chicago Cubs. They last won a world series in 1908. Since then America has fought two world wars,  and other wars while not as big as these two, still replete with distressing levels of violence.

Since the last Cubs’ last World Series win our boys have fought in: France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,  Russia, South Korea, North Korea, China, Philippines, Micronesia, Romania, New Guinea, Indonesia, Burma, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Grenada, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, USA (against the Japanese), Japan, Somalia, Vietnam, and Panama.

This doesn’t even count all the countries where our Air Force has fought nor all of our special ops. My apologies to veterans who fought in a country that escapes my feeble memory.

But the unassailable fact remains; America has been doing a heck of lot of fighting since the Chicago Cubs last won the big one. The conclusion is obvious. Because of the Cubs steadfast avoidancel of excellence, violence stalks the globe.  If ever there were a time for a global-prayer day, it is now. Pray for world peace. Pray for a Cubs Series win. It is the only way it will ever happen.

And did you know that the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 is closer to the Cubs’ last world championship than it is to present?

– Paul the Historian

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

 

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Greek Lemon Chicken

Greek Entree

LEMON CHICKEN

INGREDIENTSLemonChicken-

4 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon rosemary
½ teaspoon thyme
1½ pounds boneless chicken

SPECIAL UTENSIL

9″ casserole dish

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mince garlic. Add garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, oregano, rosemary, and thyme to large mixing bowl. Blend ingredients together with whisk or fork. Add chicken.

Add chicken pieces and lemon juice mix. to casserole dish. Thoroughly coat chicken pieces with lemon juice mix. Bake for 50 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink inside. Ladle juice over chicken. Goes well with red potatoes, bell peppers, and rice.

TIDBITS

1) Santa Claus is Greek. His life resembles that of St Nicholas, a rich Greek philanthropist.

2) The ancient Greek gods lived on Mount Olympus. Mount Olympus is in Greece. Greece was the home of Saint Nicholaus. He was rich and gave generously to all the poor he met. So does Santa.

3) Santa Claus has a condo in Greece. He travels around the world on Christmas Eve giving presents to all the good boys and girls. He spends many of the remaining 364 days working on his tan at his condo’s beach, sipping ice-cold root beers, and munching on the highly caloric dessert, baklava, which explains his weight problem.

4) Santa’s Greek gift giving expanded when he hired all of Finland’s flying reindeer while moving to the North Pole. Sad to say, global warming now threatens his polar toy factory.

5) So the jolly man might have to move back full time to Greece where he’d be tempted even more by beautiful bikinied beach babes. And how long before the alluring babes held him and whispered to him in a husky voice for diamond rings and all them things? Sooner or later Santa would weaken and once started would he stop dallying? He might forget about his gift-giving sleigh ride altogether. And it would be all due to global warming. Which is why I drive a low-emission Prius.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Completo, the Chilean Hot Dog

Chilean Entree

COMPLETO
(hot dog)

INGREDIENTSCompleto-

4 Roma tomatoes
4 medium avocados
½ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 submarine rolls – 8″ long
4 quarter-pound hot dogs – 8″
½ to 1 cup mayonnaise (1 cup means you’re fearless about spilling on your shirt or floor)
1 cup fresh sauerkraut

SPECIAL UTENSILS

metallic rack to cover pot
lots of napkins

PREPARATION

Dice tomatoes. Peel avocados, cut in half, and remove pits. Add avocado halves to mixing bowl. Mash avocado with potato masher or fork until smooth. Add salt and oil. Stir until avocado mixture (palta) becomes creamy. Boil hot dogs in large pot on high heat for five minutes. Steam rolls on rack atop pot. Add hot dogs to buns, then top in the following order with sauerkraut, tomato, a thick layer of creamy avocado (palta), and mayonnaise. The layers of creamy avocado and mayonnaise should be thick and wide, until it barely stays on the roll. Eat with the cut of the bun facing up.

Is this a messy hot dog? Yes it is! This is why you see it sold more often in Chile from street vendors than in restaurants.

TIDBITS

1) Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage.

2) The Mongols under Genghis Khan slaughtered thousands upon thousands of people while conquering darn near every place from Mongolia to western Europe. Which was bad. But who doesn’t have a bad side? I, for example, constantly misplace my glasses.

3) But I have done good deeds as well. And so did Mr. Khan, who brought the idea of fermenting vegetables to the western world. Without fermented cabbage, sauerkraut, the completo would not have been possible. I think Genghis would have been pleased to have known about his role in this recipe, unless, of course, he was more modest and unassuming than previously suspected.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Greenland, Humanity’s Future Home

IceCubes-

If Greenland, that way-up north country, had the same population density as Bangladesh, it would be home to 23,096,149,702 people. That’s more than three times the population of the entire world. How would that be possible?

1) Let’s face it, there’s not enough fish around Arctic Greenland to feed over 23 billion people and precious little farmland exists there. We will need to eat ice, lots of ice, and like it. Ice is low in vitamins, so we will have to spray Greenland’s entire ice with liquid vitamins. The company that wins that contract will do well indeed.

2) Greenland currently has only has housing for about two million people. Does the land have lumber enough to build homes for another 23 billion people?

No.  We will all have to become adept at making igloos.

3) How will get another 23 billion people?

You’re own on your own with this one. It’s a do-it-yourself project.

4) Why would we all want to move to Greenland?

Easy access to ice so we can all have ice-cold root beers.

 

I hope this helps settle your worries about the future.

– Cool Paul the Seer

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

 

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Botswanan Shredded Beef (Seswaa)

Botswanan Entree

SESWAA
(Stewed Beef)

INGREDIENTSSeswaa-

1 onion
1¾ pounds brisket or slow-cooking beef
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt

SPECIAL UTENSILS

large, oven-safe pot
kitchen mallet

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 310 degrees. Dice onion. Add onion, brisket and vegetable oil to oven-safe pot.) If needed, cut brisket into pieces so that it will fit.) Sauté on medium-high heat for 10 minutes or until meat is brown and onion is soft.

Add bay leaves, pepper, salt, and enough water to cover ingredients. Increase heat to high, cover, and bring to boil. Place pot in oven. Bake in oven at 310 degrees for 2-to-3 hours or until brisket is quite tender. Remove brisket and place on chopping board or hard surface. Pound the brisket with mallet until meat is flaky and flattened. (This is a really good time to take out your frustrations. Remember when your Five-Layer Chicken Florentine lost to lutefisk at the state fair? Pound! Pound! Pound! Or … prepare in the presence of your no-good significant other. It sends a salutary message.)

Ahem. Return flaky, flattened brisket to pot. Reduce heat to low-medium and simmer for 1 hour 15 minutes or until liquid cooks off. Remove from oven. Remove brisket from pot. Serve with vegetables, polenta, or corn-meal porridge.) And my gosh, leftover Seswaa goes great with melted mozzarella and hamburger buns.

TIDBITS

1) The people of Bostwana are called Batswana, but an individual from there is called a Mostwana. Sometimes people are called by their first names. The most popular name for a boy in Botswana is Sammy. The most popular name for a girl there is a tie between Precious and Lesego. Botswana’s currency has the most exciting name in the world., the pula which means rain. While Botswana has thriving diamond and tourist industries, it also has high unemployment.

3) Such are the most exciting facts I found for Botswana. Clearly, the country needs to loosen up. It should use its diamond revenues to employ 200,000 stand-up comics. This would make Botswana the world’s humor capital. Let’s bring this about. Together, we shall make the world laugh.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Belgian Apple Fritters

Belgian Dessert

APPLE FRITTERS

INGREDIENTSAppleFritters-

2⅓ cups flour
16 ounces beer
5 large apples
4 cups vegetable oil (or enough to cover apple slices)
½ cup confectionery sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

SPECIAL UTENSIL

electric beater
electric skillet

makes 30 apple fritters

PREPARATION

Add flour and beer to large mixing bowl. Use electric beater on medium setting until there are no lumps and the mixture thickens in batter. If mixture is liquidy after lumps have disappeared, put mixture into refrigerator for 5 minutes. Peel and core apples. Cut into 6 rings each. Coat apple slices into flour/beer mixture.

Add oil to skillet. Heat electric skillet to 375 degrees. Add coated apple slices to skillet. The oil should cover the slices. Fry apple slices for about 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove fried slices, or fritters, and place on paper towels. Repeat until done. Sprinkle fritters with lemon juice and dust with confectionery sugar.

TIDBITS

1) Belgians believe eating cabbage on Shrove Tuesday will prevent Belgium’s cabbages from being devoured by caterpillars and flies. Works for me.

2) Shrove Tuesday occurs on Tuesday. Further research shows Shrove Tuesday occurring before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Shrove Tuesday is also known as Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. Traditionally, people would eats lots of high caloric foods on this day before giving up their tasty temptations for Lent.

4) Indeed, Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Day in protestant Britain, New Zealand, and Canada and in catholic Ireland as inhabitants on those happy countries would traditionally eat pancakes and engage in run-on sentences on that day. It’s gratifying to know that food, pancakes in this case, brings amity, peace, and contentment to nations with histories of political and religious differences. All we are saying is give pancakes a chance.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dutch Apple Pie

Dutch Dessert

APPLE PIE

INGREDIENTS – CRUSTApplePie-

¾ cup butter (another 6 tablespoons later)
1½ cups flour (another 1 cup later)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (another ¼ cup later)
¼ teaspoon salt

INGREDIENTS – FILLING

5 Granny Smith or green apples
3 tablespoons cornstarch
⅓ cup sugar (another ¼ cup later)
½ cup water
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup heavy cream

INGREDIENTS – TOPPING

1 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter

SPECIAL UTENSIL

9″ pie plate

PREPARATION – CRUST

Melt ¾ cup butter. Add 1½ cups flour, brown sugar, ¾ cup melted butter, and salt to large mixing bowl. Mix with hands until well blended and mixture becomes a big ball. Press mixture into pie plate.

PREPARATION – FILLING

Peel and dice apples. Add cornstarch, ⅓ cup sugar, water, cinnamon, and nutmeg to mixing bowl. Stir with whisk until smooth. Add mixture to saucepan. Bring to boil using medium-high heat. Cook for 2 minutes or until mixture thickens. Stir constantly. Remove mixture from heat. Add apples and vanilla extract. Stir with whisk. Pour filling into crust. Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
PREPARATION – TOPPING

Add 1 cup flour, ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup brown sugar, and 6 tablespoons butter to mixing bowl. Mix with whisk until well blended. Crumble topping mixture over filling. Bake at 360 degrees for 40-to-50 minutes or until topping turns golden brown.

TIDBITS

1) The Spanish Inquisition sentenced the entire Dutch population to death in 1568. Tough love, you bet.

2) Or maybe the Spanish Inquisition was just really, really tough on scofflaws.

3) The Dutch give free heroin three time a day to addicts.

4) Contrast the Dutch government’s attitude to heroin addicts versus that of the Spanish Inquisition to the entire Dutch population. The Dutch policy actually resulted in lower rates of heroin addiction while the Spanish policy resulted in a bloody 80-year war with the Dutch

5) If life gives you heroin, make …

6) No, that slogan doesn’t work.

7) If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

8) If life gives you rotten lemons, make rotten lemonade.

9) If life gives you lemons, keep them, well, because they’re free.

10) If life gives your proctologist lemons, reschedule your appointment.

11) If life is dyslexic, it will give you melons.

12) If life gives you lemons, 4 chicken breasts, 1 teaspoon salt, 1¼ cups plain yogurt, ½ onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon cayenne, ½ teaspoon coriander, 1 teaspoon paprika, and 1 small tomato, make Chicken Tandoori.

13) If life give you Le Mans, go to the race there.

14) If life give you Lenin, emigrate.

15) If life gives you Lennon, “Let It Be.”

16) Bees like lemon blossoms.

17) So life gives us all critters lemons. It’s not just a humano, new word, centric thing.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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