Friday, January 28, 2005

Dad bought the latest Emeril cookbook. I guess Publishers Clearing House promised that he'd win something if he bought it.

Anyway, it's called Emeril's Potluck. I was flipping through it today, and thought I would try the "Smothered Pork Chops" recipe.

'Kay. Once you got your mise en place, which means "shit together," you brown the chops in some oil. After that, you add flour to the oil to make a peanut butter colored roux. But let me warn you, that roux gets hot! I splashed a bit on my right index finger about twenty minutes ago, and it still tingles!

I still have an hour or so of cooking, so the tasting results will come later.

Update!

The smothered pork chops were excellent. For that recipe alone it was worth the book. The next time I cook it, though, I intend to cut the yeild in half. We had pork chops for days!

Monday, January 24, 2005

I have a credit card that uses an Indian firm to handle customer relations. Somebody who sounds like Apu but claims their name is "Sally" will call when I'm a bit late on a payment.

I see outsourcing as one of Dubya's greatest failures as president. While he claimed to create a lot of jobs, most of those jobs were in India as company after company sent up processing centers there. Back home, the people who manned the US processing centers either got retired or reassigned or laid off.

Lately, Dell Computers has been running an ad where some worried customer calls tech support to make sure they will be open every day. It's a funny commercial, but a little misleading. The tech guy at Dell isn't Indian. Dell was one of the first companies to outsource.

Now the tide is turning. One of the biggest outsourcing firms is cutting its India operation by about 50%. Rumors are swirling that it's because Americans can't understand the Indian accent, which the company denies. They say the centers aren't profitable. So they're moving to another asian country. I guess after the first round of raises from $1 an hour to $1.25 an hour the company is losing money. Now they'll find a nice country where the minimum wage is $.25 an hour.

Since I think outsourcing is bad for America, I won't do business with anyone who outsources. And as soon as I get my credit cards paid off that outsource, I'm leaving them. C'mon! Who'll join me?