Posts Tagged With: solar system

Ketchup

Posted on May 31, 2025 by pauldelancey

American Appetizer

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KETCHUP

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INGREDIENTS
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3 garlic cloves
1 small onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 teaspoons tomato paste
1 28 ounce-can peeled tomatoes, whole or diced
5 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons white vinegar
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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food processor or electric blender
4-cup Mason jar
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Makes 3 cups. Takes 30 minutes
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PREPARATION
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Mince garlic and onion. Add onion and olive oil to large pot or Dutch oven. Sauté for 5 minutes at medium-high heat. Stir frequently. Add garlic. Sauté for 2 minutes at medium-high heat. Stir frequently. Add tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes at medium heat or until it turns to burnt orange.
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Add remaining ingredients. Cook at medium-high heat until it starts to boil. Stir frequently enough to prevent burning. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 40 minutes it thickens.. Stir enough to prevent burning.
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Transfer liquid from pot to food processor or electric blender. Puree liquid until it reaches your desired thickness. Let cool to room temperature. Add ketchup to Mason jar. Should keep in refrigerator for up to 1 month.
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TIDBITS
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1) According to Quite Possibly True Almanac, 2019:
The largest outdoor skating rink made from frozen ketchup is in Pois, Quebec.
Michaelangelo used ketchup instead of red pigment when painting his masterpieces.
The largest ketchup lake formed in Pumice, Kentucky when a tidal wave of hot ketchup from a bottling factory filled an abandoned strip mine.
­In 2013, NASA quietly sent out a cylinder filled with 21,200 tons of ketchup as a goodwill gesture to any civilizations existing outside our Solar System, because who doesn’t like ketchup?
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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, history, observations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What I Did Today

Posted on January 7, 2025 by pauldelancey

Augustus the Angry Avocado, leader of the pack

Got my french-fry cutter in the mail.

Went to exercise class. Felt like a Greek god who had let himself go a while back. Gosh, the arthritis in my shoulders hurts. Sometimes I have to move my arms in slow motion.

Swam to the island of Hawaii. Had a SPAM sandwich. SPAM is so, so big there. Drank a root beer in a glass that had a tiny umbrella in it.

Swam back home. How did I not get cramps? Whew.

Shopped at a supermarket. It did not have duck fat. Life is hard.

Herded some angy avocadoes back into the barn.

I  played Number Two Son in a game of Strat-O-Matic Football. He had last years Chiefs and I had last years Packers. He won 30-6.

I’m supposed to have physical therapy tomorrow morning and craft class at 1 pm. I don’t know if high winds tomorrow will cancel everything.

I’m going to check the planetary orbits of our Solar System. I’ll water some Horrible Histories and Death Valley Days after that.

Take care and have fun.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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: about me, what I did | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What I Did Today

Posted on December 29, 2024 by pauldelancey

I woke up feeling extremely fatigued. This has been the rule for years. I wake up wanting to go to sleep again.

Perhaps I was boxing the Klingon heavyweight champion. If so, I think I triumphed as there’s no bruises on me. Perhaps I leading a years-long march on Mars to resupply the mother base with food and water. I do hope I get there soon. I imagine they’re eagerly awaiting my arrival.

I’ve so exhausted from the word go, that I’ve let go today’s patrol at the edge of the Solar System. If our galactic enemies notice my absence; I do apologize.

I do so crave solid sleep.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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: about me, my life, what I did | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Persimmon Bread

Posted on December 5, 2024 by pauldelancey

American Entree

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PERSIMMON BREAD

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INGREDIENTS
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3 Hachiya persimmons
½ cup butter, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1⅓ cups sugar
3 eggs
1¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
½ cup chopped walnuts
no-stick baking spray
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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food processor
electric beater
9″ * 5 ” loaf pan
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Makes 1 loaf. Takes 1 hour 55 minutes.
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PREPARATION
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut tops off of persimmons. Scoop out pulp. Add pulp to food processor. Puree pulp. Add butter and vanilla extract to large mixing bowl. Use high setting on electric beater until butter becomes creamy. Add sugar. Use high setting until butter and sugar become thoroughly blended Add eggs. Use medium setting on electric beater until well blended.
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Add baking soda, flour, and salt to medium mixing bowl. Mix with whisk or fork until well blended. Gradually add flour mix to the butter/sugar mix while blending with electric beater set on medium. Add persimmon pulp. Mix completely with electric beater set on medium. Fold in walnuts with spatula. This is the batter.
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Spray loaf pan with no-stick baking spray. Pour batter into loaf pan. Smooth surface with spatula. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes. Run knife or small spatula around loaf’s edge. Remove bread from loaf pan and place cupcakes on wire rack for 30 minutes or until cooled completely.
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TIDBITS
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1) Persimmon bread tastes great  It makes you so happy that you burst with get up and go. NASA’s scientist Carl La Fong theorized that the energy  in persimmon bread would make NASA rockets get up and go easily out of Earth’s gravitational field. But the persimmon-bread powered rocket got up and went out of the Solar System in just one week. Now no one knows where the rocket might be.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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, science | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When I Saved the Universe

Posted on December 2, 2022 by pauldelancey

Let’s face it, the affairs of people remain remain fraught with chaos and tinged with unpleasantness. We need something in our lives that stays constant, orderly, and clean. Astronomy fulfills that role all the time. Or does it?

Halley’s (pronounced Halley’s) Comet takes a long elliptical orbit around our planet, returning to Earth every 76 years. That comet visited us in 1910. But take a look around your room. Do you see any evidence–posters perhaps?–that Comet Halley passed by us in 1986? No, I didn’t think so.

Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! The clocklike movements of our Solar System are falling apart. Maybe the entire universe is returning to singularity in a Big Collapse. We’re all going to die! We’re all going to die! Damn the calories, I’m eating an entire chocolate cake.

But fear not. We need no longer end our sentences in exclamation marks. The period, our workhorse, will suffice.

For I have found my Official Halley’s Comet Observer’s Certificate. I saw Halley’s Comet back in 1986. I humbly share my proof below. Now relax and breathe slowly, the universe is still working fine. You will live. You will thrive. There will still be love and tacos in your future.

 

Note, I was so excited in 1986 about spotting Halley’s Comet and thus saving us all that I started to write in the date in the spot reserved for my signature. But can you blame me?

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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: Secrets of the Universe | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Smoked Beef Brisket

Posted on June 5, 2022 by pauldelancey

American Entree

SMOKED BEEF BRISKET

INGREDIENTS

1½ tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder
¼ cup garlic salt
½ tablespoon paprika
9 pounds beef brisket
½ cup beef broth
1 12-ounce can beer

SPECIAL UTENSILS

wood chips (apple or oak)
smoker
electric thermometer
baking pan
tin foil
sonic obliterator

Serves 10. Takes at least 10 hours, perhaps up to many more. Smokers vary, the marbling of the fat in the brisket varies. Perhaps the Incan monkey god is angry with you. In this case, your brisket will take a long time. Perhaps eleventy hours is the most accurate. I strongly suggest putting that brisket in the smoker at the crack of dawn. If you’re up to it, start it at midnight and monitor periodically through the night. Will this make you lose sleep? Yes. Also, a small brisket will take less time.

PREPARATION

Get up at dawn, 6 a.m., or even earlier. Add wood chips to smoker. Preheat smoker to 235 degrees. Start cooking after getting up in the morning. Add brown sugar, chili powder, garlic salt, and paprika to mixing bowl. Mix with whisk or fork until well blended. Rub mixture all over brisket.

When temperature of smoker reaches 235 degrees, place brisket on grill with the fatty side closest to the heating coil. Put thermometer in the thickest part of the meat. Smoke until brisket’s internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. This should take about 6 hours, varying greatly depending on your smoker and whether or not you have led a virtuous life. I hope you have. ☺

Pause and reflect, pause and reflect until the temperature of the brisket reaches 165 degrees. Using cooking gloves carefully remove the brisket and put it in the baking pan. (Close door quickly as possible to minimize loss of heat and smoke. Pour beef broth and beer evenly over brisket. Cover brisket with tin foil. Put covered brisket back in smoker. Put thermometer back in the thickest part of the brisket. Cook until internal temperature reaches 205 degrees.

Remove brisket and let sit for 40 minutes. Cut meat across the grain to ¼” thick slices. This is large and lengthy meal. Use sonic obliterator on any guest making even the slightest complaint.

TIDBITS

1) Our spaceships have visited every planet and all the big asteroids in the Solar System.

2) We’ve even sent our spacecraft past the Oort Cloud and into outer space.

3) It seems as if our spaceships have nothing left to explore.

4) This page has a lot of space left. Let’s explore the rest of this page.

 

 

 

 

 

Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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, things to see and do | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Why There Is Life On Earth and Nowhere Else

Posted on May 12, 2022 by pauldelancey

 

 

Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Colombian Meatball Soup (Sopa de Albóndigas)

Posted on January 19, 2022 by pauldelancey

Colombian Soup

MEATBALL SOUP
(Sopa de Albóndigas)

INGREDIENTS

2 garlic cloves
1 green onion
¼ cup minced yellow onion
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¾ pound ground beef
⅓ pound ground pork
½ cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
½ teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
6½ cups beef broth
¼ cup fresh cilantro.

Serves 4. Takes 45 minutes.

PREPARATION

Mince garlic cloves, green onion, and yellow onion. Add yellow onion and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil to pan. Sauté at medium heat for 5 minutes or until yellow onion softens. Add sautéed yellow onion and all other ingredients except beef broth and cilantro to mixing bowl. Use hands to make 16 meatballs. Add beef broth and meatballs to large pot. Bring to boil at medium-high heat. Stir occasionally. Lower heat to medium. Simmer for 20 minutes or until meatballs float and are no longer pink inside. Dice cilantro. Garnish soup with cilantro. Goes well with rice.

TIDBITS

1) The four meatballs in the above photo are actual planets and asteroids. The planets are Neptune and Pluto, and X3B-17A way beyond the Solar System. Wasn’t Neptune rather big to fit into a soup bowl? Yes, it was. However, it was gaseous giant, that was condensed into a bowl-sized solid planet. Aren’t these celestial orbs rather heavy? Yes, they are. However, hunger and this soup’s wonderful aroma makes us strong. Life’s been rather unkind to Pluto, hasn’t it? Yes, it has. But it’s been rather sad since it lost its full planetary status and has done nothing but orbit morosely around the Sun ever since. We’re really doing it a kindness by eating it.

2) Won’t people miss seeing all heavenly bodies? No for the asteroids, there are too many to notice. X3B-17A is too far away to see. Certainly, people will notice the disappearance of Neptune, but it takes 4 hours for us light to reach us. That’s plenty of time to make this soup and dispose of the evidence, by eating it, before anyone notices. These meatballs are made mostly out of beef and pork. Does this give credence that the universe is made primarily of beef and pork? Yes, it does.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kulfi Ice Cream

Posted on August 22, 2021 by pauldelancey

Indian Dessert

KULFI ICE CREAM

INGREDIENTS

10 saffron threads
1 tablespoon hot water
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk, chilled
½ cup ground cardamom
⅔ cup chopped pistachios
⅓ cup chopped or slivered almonds

SPECIAL UTENSILS

electric beater.
ramekins, small bowls, or popsicle molds

Serves 8. Takes 25 minutes plus at least 6 hours for freezing..

PREPARATION

Add saffron and hot water to cup. Add heavy whipping cream to large mixing bowl. Whip with electric beater until just get whipped cream or soft peaks start to form. (Do not overdo it or you’ll get butter.) Use spatula to gradually fold condensed milk into whipped cream. Use spatula to gradually fold in saffron with its water, cardamom, pistachios, and almonds. Gently pour into ramekins. Cover ramekins with plastic wrap or lids. Freeze for at least 6 hours on until it sets and becomes ice cream.

TIDBITS

1) Clark KentTM and SupermanTM are never in the same place at the same time. Why? Because they are the same person. Kulfi Ice Cream and the planet Mars are never in the same place at the same time. Why? Because they are one and the same. They certainly look alike. See the photos below.

 

2) But, I hear you say, Mars is millions of miles away in space and my kulfi is right in front of me. How is this possible? Magic. When you eat kulfi, Mars is in your ramekin. When you look at the night sky, Mars will be there. Mars, however, won’t be in the sky if you take your kulfi outside with you. So be careful. You don’t want to mess with the workings of the Solar System.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

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, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Where and Why There is Life in the Solar System

Posted on June 6, 2021 by pauldelancey

Planet: Mercury

Does it have tacos? No.

Does it have life? No.

Weight of two hypothetical tacos:  0.38 pound

 

 

Planet: Venus

Does it have tacos? No. Looks like an overcooked egg yolk. That doesn’t count.

Does it have life: No.

Weight of two hypothetical tacos: 0.91 pound

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planet: Earth

Does it have tacos? Yes. Billions and billions

Does it have life? Yes. Billions and billions of people. Lots of other living thingies.

Weight of two tacos: 1.00 pound

 

 

 

 

 

Planet: Mars

Do it have tacos? No. It does have Mars Bars(tm), but those are not tacos.

Does it have life? No.

Weight of two hypothetical tacos: 0.38 pound

 

 

 

 

Planet: Jupiter

Does it have tacos? No.

Does it have life? No.

Weight of two hypothetical tacos: 2.36 pounds (This is gaseous planet. Your tacos would fall all the way to the planet’s center.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planet: Saturn

Does it have tacos? No.

Does it have life? No.

Weight of two hypothetical tacos: 1.06 pounds (This is gaseous planet. Your tacos would fall all the way to the planet’s center.)

 

Planet: Uranus

Does it have tacos? No.

Does it have life?: No.

Was it once named George?: Yes

Weight of two hypothetical tacos:  .89 pound (This is gaseous planet. Your tacos would fall all the way to the planet’s center.)

 

 

Planet: Neptune

Does it have tacos? No.

Does it have life? No.

Weight of two hypothetical tacos: 1.13 pounds (This is gaseous planet. Your tacos would fall all the way to the planet’s center.)

 

 

 

 

Planet*: Pluto

Does it have tacos?: No.

Does it have life?: No.

Weight of two hypothetical tacos: 0.08 pound

Did this plucky celestial orbiter have its planetary status callously stripped in 2006 and only given reluctantly given back the wienie status of dwarf planet soon afterward because of widespread outcry?: Yes.

 

 

MAJOR CONCLUSIONS

1) Life only exists on planets with tacos.

2) Don’t drop your tacos on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune. They will continue to fall until they reach the planet’s center.

 

Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D., and astronomer

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: food, humor, observations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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