Tommy Joe > wrote:

>On May 16, 11:12*pm, (Steve Pope) wrote:

>> So, you will let a falsehood become a truth just because a famous
>> person said it?

>> How unprincipled.

> That kind of thing takes place in political "discussions" more than
>any other - quoting this person or that as the final word on the
>subject. It's hard sometimes not to discuss something without using
>examples. But it's dangerous. You're talking about one thing, then
>you bring in some famous person as an example, and before you know it
>the discussion is all about the famous person. I try not to use
>examples, but it's easy to slide into it sometimes.

It's called "appeal to authority" (closely related to "claim to
authority"), and it is has been shunned upon within usenet from
day one. Perhaps unfairly so, but there it is. You check your
credentials at the door, and put together all your arguments
from scratch.

But here, both notbob and I appealled to authorities -- different
ones. His was Paul Prudhomme; mine was Archer Daniels Midland.
So it comes down to, which of these authorities is more of
a heavyweight? :-)

>This reminds me
>of a scene from Marine bootcamp with one drill sargent standing over a
>grunt and ordering him to dig a ditch only to have another drill
>sargent demand to know what the dirt is doing on his hole. That's the
>way it is when Prudhomme tells me to do it one way and Lagasse tells
>me another. Who's the real authority here? Me, that's who. And you
>too. Cook the beans any damn way you want. I'm not sure there is a
>right way. There might be one big wrong way, but there's probably
>more than a few right ones.

I googled and didn't find an exact recipe of mine, just a procedure,
going generally like this:

Start by slicing and sauteeing the "trilogy" (or if you like, "trinity")
of onion, green bell pepper, and de-stringed celery until soft.
Season with Bay Seasoning (the commercial product) and some cayenne
and black pepper. Add in a decent amount of vegetable stock (but
don't make it into a soup...). Then add the already-cooked red beans.
Proceed with another round of all seasonings. Tangentially, "Bay
Seasoning" is pretty salty so there is no need for additional salt.
(Including when initially cooking the beans). It will now be a slush
or stew consistency.

Prepare some short-grained brown rice. There are now two ways to
serve it: (1) Stir in some file' powder into the bean mixture, then
serve immediately over rice. (2) Serve the bean mixture over rice,
then sprinkle file' on each serving, perhaps as per each diner's
request.

I might also add a few drops of "El Yucateno" habanero sauce, but that
is optional.


Steve