Holy crap! I’m actually starting one of these before the Fooding. That’s not my usual workflow. Even though I want to plan ahead, almost everything I do for the site ends up being an afterthought. Why? Because social media has to come first. So annoying. There’s a reason Social Media and Sado-Masochism have the same initials. Just saying.

I should mention—I’m pissed off this morning. The day started with the dog crapping on the floor. She doesn’t do this often, and usually there’s a reason. I’m almost always that reason. If I’m sleeping particularly hard and she can’t wake me, well… shit happens. It’s not really a big deal; our floors are tile, and she almost always goes in the same spot. Still, it’s poop, and it needs to be cleaned up right away. That means it’s usually the first thing I have to do when I get up—crawling around on the hard tile floor in my recently acquired corpulence, wiping, spraying, scrubbing, and wiping some more. Not fun.

On top of that, I’m really pissed off about this election. I’ve never been a fan of Donald Trump. In fact, I’m a pretty radical libertarian (small “l”; fuck the Libertarian party). But the way he’s being portrayed in the media feels excessive. His words are damning enough on their own—let people decide if they’re terrifying without all the interpretation.

Harris, on the other hand, strikes me as an empty suit who believes the Constitution exists solely to perpetuate the State. Not necessarily the U.S. government, but the State as a kind of parental authority. Before Biden’s debate meltdown, she was considered unelectable by many of the people now campaigning for her.

What scares me most about these two knuckleheads is their running mates. Vance is a right-wing extremist nut job, and Walz is a radical progressive ideologue. Both are looking to impose their vision of society on everyone else, with a dose of retribution for those who don’t fall in line.

Whenever I mention I’m a libertarian, I get the same predictable responses: “Oh, so you don’t like roads, huh?” or “Oh, so we should elect that guy with the shoe on his head?” Let me be clear: if you support the leading candidate of either major party and actually know anything about them, you have no moral high ground to criticize my candidate. Not that it was ever Vermin Supreme.

And just to clarify: libertarianism is never going to be a viable political philosophy. For it to work, everyone would have to follow the non-aggression principle, and that’s just not going to happen. Libertarianism is a personal philosophy; by definition, it can’t be imposed on others.

We don’t believe in initiating the use of force, nor do we support those who do. It’s honestly difficult for many of us to even vote, because, ultimately, elections are just another form of force. The U.S. Constitution was supposed to prevent that, but it didn’t last long. So now, even though we can vote for this yahoo or that, the loser is still forced to live with the outcome. Ideally, elections shouldn’t matter so much, but that’s another discussion.

Speaking of things that don’t matter—I got my monthly email informing me that my credit score is 848, and it annoyed me. First, I don’t care. I didn’t ask to know, but there it is. Second, now I’m aware it’s not a “perfect” 850, which bugs me. And third, I’m irritated that I feel compelled to get an 850 when it’s something I genuinely don’t care about. It’s hard to extricate yourself from the system because it preys on the innate human need to belong. I think the desire to be approved of, to be “worthy” in the eyes of some arbitrary group or system, is a vestigial part of our animal nature that humanity needs to evolve beyond. Collectivism was essential for our ancestors’ survival, but reason allows us to live beyond the collective.

Maybe I’m still talking about the election. But what I really want to talk about is shrimp.

I need to remember not to eat at restaurants where I can cook the same food better and cheaper at home. It’s not fair to the restaurant, and it defeats the purpose of eating out. Unless you’re just “feeding,” the whole point of going out to eat is to have an experience you can’t recreate at home. Take tamales, for example.

I can make tamales. I know how. I’ve done it. But I can’t make tamales for just one meal for one person. That’s why I go out to eat—to get something that would be resource-prohibitive to make at home.

Anyway, the wife and I went to our usual spot to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary, and the place has really gone downhill. Lots of Sysco, pre-breaded seafood. I usually go out for fried food because it’s just messy at home. Luckily, the big bowl of rum they served me kicked in, and I just rolled with it. The next day, however, I felt like I needed to make amends. My wife loves fried shrimp, and that’s not what she got.

My son was also coming over, so I decided: fried shrimp, homemade cheddar biscuits (yeah, like the ones at Led Robster), some sautéed vegetables, and parmesan smashed potatoes. Basically, a whole lot of golden brown going on. What? Fall colors.

Fried shrimp is super simple. I got three pounds of 16 to 25s and started peeling and deveining, keeping them cold the whole time. I usually buy pre-peeled and deveined, but these were a great deal at $4.95 per pound, and my God, were they fresh. Once peeled, I tossed them into seasoned buttermilk (16 oz buttermilk, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 tablespoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon white pepper, 2 teaspoons dried thyme), and we were off to the races. For breading, I just use equal parts AP flour and cornmeal—simple and effective.

For the potatoes, it’s nothing fancy. I used small yellow potatoes, four to five per person depending on size. Wash and boil them, skins on. Lay them out on a buttered sheet pan and smash them to about 3/8” thick, brush with clarified butter, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with a bit of parmesan. Pop them in a 450°F oven until the parm browns nicely, and they’re done.

The cheddar biscuits were a copycat recipe from The Cozy Cook (Solid recipe. Will use again.), and they turned out well, though I made them way too big. They were practically cheddar-bay hamburger buns.

The veggies were simple: yellow squash, zucchini, red bell pepper, garlic, and salt. Sear them, then simmer until soft in clarified butter.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad food day. Everything was good, not stellar. What makes a meal special is in the making and the serving, especially to my wife and son—and from that perspective, it was excellent.

We were planning to play Trivial Pursuit: Star Trek Edition after dinner but got sidetracked watching cheesy Hammer films, as we do.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I’ll miss my son until Thanksgiving. Pretty sure I’ll be smoking a turkey and helping Mrs. Otherdamncook with her mise en place.

Until next time, happy fooding.