A Potted Andrew? Never, Well, Maybe Occasionally

"And I was not 'potted'! I assume that's the way you young people say 'inebriated' these days, though the OED suggests it could mean worse."
- Mr. Cusack, February 17, 2006

Alas, there is not a OED in the Peperium library to check out Mr. Cusack's complaint but our 1936 Webster's Twentieth Century Dictionary does contain the following for pot;

pot, v.t.;potted, pt., pp.; potting. ppr. 1. To preserve and season in pots; as potted fowl and fish.
2. To place or cover in pots of earth ; as potted plants.
3. To put in casks for draining, as for raw sugar, by taking it from the cooler and placing it in hogshead with perforated heads from which the molasses percolates.
4. In billards, to pocket.
5. To procure by hunting or as if by hunting: to bag; as, to pot a bird; to pot a millionaire. [Slang]
pot, v.i. 1. To tipple. [Prov. English]
2. To aim to kill, especially if one has any advantage of position, etc.
pot, n. [A.S. pott; Ir. pota; W. pot, perhaps originally a drinking vessel; compare L, potare, to drink]
1. A vessel more deep than broad, made of earthenware or metal, for culinary and other domestic purposes; as an iron pot for boiling meat or vegetables; a pot for holding liquors; an earthen pot for plants.
2. A cup; a mug.
3. The quantity contained in a pot; as, a pot of ale usually about a quart.
4. A size of writing paper.
5. A crucible.
6. In card-playing, the pool; the stakes played for.
7. A cask for refining sugar.
8. A large amount of money; as, he made his pot. [Slang]
9. Same as chimney-pot.
10. A vessel for baby pee [edited because the typing the real word is beyong my capabilities].
11. A vessel, usually of wicker, for catching fish.
12. A name applied in contempt to a plain piece of defensive headgear and hence to any helmet.
To go to pot; to go to ruin; to become useless.

Here are the photos that caused The Card's Wife to remark that Mr. Cusack looked potted. Now, knowing that The Card's Wife has only the highest esteem for Mr. Cusack we can easily say she did not mean to say he looked as if he has gone to ruin or that he had been procured by anyone at the wedding. There are photos of billards being played but there is no photographic evidence that any of the locals stuffed Mr. Cusack into one of the pockets nor is there any evidence someone, perhaps a lady?, won Mr. Cusack in a game of cards. Also, The Card's Wife is aware that Mr. Cusack is not a geranium or some other plant so she certainly did not mean to say he looked like he had been placed in potting soil in in an clay vessel. She must have meant potted as in soused, plastered, smashed, looped, stewed, etc... Though if indeed Mr. Cusack was tippled, he is the most composed dipsomaniac we've seen in a long time.

Today, Christopher Hitchens has called a quiet gathering for supporters of Denmark to congregate in front of the Danish embassy at noon (across from Hillary's house so your bring George Allen '08 signs too) on Embassy Row in D.C. The Freepers will be there in full force and so will The Misspent One. Maybe, if he's lucky, he'll even get a date. When Mr. Peperium was going through his Bingo Little stage during his college years, he would attend all the campus protests and poetry readings he could, to find spirited young prunes to date. According to him, they usually wore black berets, black nailpolish, and were real "lulus". From a quick perusal of The Misspent One's blog these days, one can determine that he is ripe for running headlong into a real lulu.

Anyway, the desire to support Denmark in her hour of need against lying Imams and all their little wizards has many people contemplating purchasing Lurpak butter. I say contemplate because unless you're a rich Arab or a high-powered Upper West Side lawyer, Lurpak butter is out of reach financially for everyday use. But it ought to be because it Lurpak is a special occassion butter. It is best used for baking delicate butter cakes and cookies, potting meats and fish, butter sauces for poached seafood and of course the Peperium favorite, buttering homemade toasted English muffins in front of the fireplace. Here are a few recipes to help you support Denmark and protest lying Imams at the same time and have a very nice time doing so, which is the truly civilized way to protest anything. Plus, since your protest is conducted within the confines of your own home, the chances of running into a lulu is slight, unless of course you had the grave misfortune of choosing a lulu to feed out of the same crib for life :

English Muffins
[Attention unmarried ladies, men LOVE these. Learn the recipe well and spring it upon someone worth springing yourself upon. The banns will be read soon after.]

3 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp salt
3/4 water mixed with 3/4 whole milk
2 tpsns pure olive oil
2 tspns active dry yeast
1 tspn sugar
rice flour or sifted all-purpose flour for dusting

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, then cover and place in a very low oven. Gently warm the water and milk and olive oil (until tepid). Cream the yeast and sugar with a few spoonfuls of this liquid. If using dried yeast, stir the yeast into all the lquid and leave in a warm place until frothy. Make a well in the middle of the warmed flour and pour in the yeast followed by the rest of the liquid, if any. Stir, then knead. The dough should be very slack and soft, but not sticky. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm room for about an hour. until the dough has grown to twice its size. Divide it in half, then in quarters, and finally into eight pieces. Mould each piece into a globe, and flatten slightly with the heel of your palm. Dust all over with the rice flour or the sifted all-purpose. Put them on a well-floured board and cover with a cloth for forty minutes so that they swell again. Heat a lightly greased griddle or skillet and transfer the muffins as carefully as if they were rare birds' eggs, using a fish slice or a pancake turner. Cook them gently [lowish heat] for eight minutes on each side. They will look floury, pale gold-brown, white-waisted, and should be anything up to 5cm (2 inches) thick. Toast them, butter them, and take them to the table hot, if possible in an old-fashioned covered muffin-dish with a hot-water compartment. [Because you toast the muffins, they are good for 2-3 days stored in your bread box or a plastic bag, otherwise freeze the leftovers.]- The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea

I've leant my recipe book to a friend that has my potted salmon recipe but this one from Jane Grigson looks good and a bit different;

Prince Radziwill's Potted Salmon

"A recipe given by Lady Shaftesbury in Paris, by Prince Radziwill- but which one? Perhaps by the father of Proust's friend, Leon (p.233).
It is unecessary to buy top quality sliced smoked salmon for this kind of dish. Some shops sell smoked salmon that fall from the sides as they are sliced; others may be able to supply you with the skin which has very good picking, so rich that you should start with a smaller quantity of butter and see how it tastes before adding the rest. The sardines may seem a peculiar addition, but they work well (the original recipe mentions an alternative of salt herring, bone included, but this is too much for the quantity of salmon I find) Don't stint the peppers."

4 oz smoked salmon
4 oz unsalted Lurpak butter or unsalted Normandy butter
2 medium sardines
black and Cayenne peppers (check for salt though the salmon might contain enough)

Cut the salmon and butter into rough pieces, and reduce to a puree in electric food processor, with the sardines. Add peppers to taste. Turn into a pot, cover with cling film and chill. Serve with toast, or baked bread, or wholemeal bread. - Jane Grigson, Food With The Famous.

A Danish Bloody Mary

1 qt tomato juice
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbspns prepared horseradish
freshly ground pepper, to taste
several hefty dashes of Worcestershire sauce
several hefty dashes of Tabasco, to taste
1 1/2 cups chilled (preferably) Aquavit
dilly beans or some chopped fresh dill for garnish
1. Combine all ingredients except Aquavit, dilly beans, or fresh dill in a large saucepan. Heat to simmering for 5 or 6 minutes. Let cool.
2. Pour a shot of Aquavit into a ice-filled wine goblet or tall thin glass. Add Bloody Mary mixture and top with dilly bean swizzle stick or sprinkle with fresh dill.

Take that you lying Imams! And remember, it was C.S. who used to remind us that Mohammedism is the teetotaling religion.

Comments

[Anonymous (as in alcoholics)]

Who was potted last night, Mrs P?

[Steeped In Lurpak]

The Archbishop of York.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-2056210,00.html

[Fiendish]

First, this portion of the v.t. list made me think of Dick Cheney for some reason: "5. To procure by hunting or as if by hunting: to bag; as, to pot a bird; to pot a millionaire. [Slang]"

Second, notwithstanding your modest disclaimer in item 10 of the noun list, Mrs. P, few who visit these parts would imagine that anything is truly beyong your capabilities.

[Steeped in Tupak]

Did u hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete

[Quicquid]

Indeed, no manner of thing is beyong her whatsoever.

[Andrew Cusack]

This entire post, and comment thread, is beyong the pale.

[Andrew Cusack]

Outrage! How dare someone assume my identity! Outrage! I'm calling the Home Secretary...

[Fiendish]

Sorry. Sorry. Please convey my apology to the Home Secretary.

[Havarti Hugger]

Christopher Hitchens, William Kristol, Tony Blankley, Andrew Sullivan, some random black berets and somewhere The Misspent:
http://vitalperspective.typepad.com/vital_perspective_clarity/2006/02/a_rally_for_fre.html

[Fiendish]

I will drink only Carlsberg tonight, unless otherwise instructed by the Cards. This is my version of going above and beyong.

[Card's wife]

Fiend, what could be better than a Grey Goose extra dry vodka martini up with a hand stuffed blue cheese olive or two? Got to get it all in before lent, you know.

That will be my choice of beverage to accompany the oysters at Mitchells with the P's. (We can only hope Mr P will not spoil the aesthetics of the evening by ordering a Jim Beam with Diet Coke.)

BTW, Mrs. P you left your Cowboy Troy CD here last night.

[Havarti Hugger]

If you're going to have cheese -ugh- in your drink (I'm glad I keep kosher) then just order your usual and have the barman stick a Danish flag in it with a thick wedge of harvarti.

[Fiendish]

Card's wife: Everything at their web site: http://www.greygoosevodka.com/
indicates Gery Goose is French. Admittedly, the "Imported" Carlsberg avaiable at my club is imported from Canada--but it is at least under license from Denmark. Isn't tonight the night to go all Danish their...
Oh, and if Mrs. P has a favotite track from Loco Motive, inquiring minds want to know.

[Card's wife]

The blue cheese in the olives is Danish.

You can keep the Grey Goose if you change your shoes to Clogs. Clogs, Danish flag and saga blue cheese olives. Hubba hubba!

But why just go pro-Dane when you can go anti-Muslim. I suggest stirring your drink with a bacon swizzle stick.

[Fiendish]

No answer on Mrs. P's favorite track? I'm guessing "Whoop Whoop."

[Card's wife]

Wrong. "I'm playing chicken."

[Havarti Hugger]

Bacon swizzle stick? You do have the most American of tastes. Instead of clogs, he'll need trotters.

[Mrs. Peperium]

It's "I Play Chicken."

[Havarti Hugger]

Great. Just great. You drew out Big Bertha and scared him off. I wanted to know what he was going to drink. Blue cheese and vodka or havarti and beer? Inquiring minds do want to know.

[Quicquid]

So do we turn on our phones tonight, or not?

[Card to Fiendish]

So what's a good Danish vodka? There must be plenty of 'em. Every north European country has some vodka they peddle. And if bacon doesn't work for you, stir it with some Danish sausage. Com'on folks, let's use our imaginations and get drinking in a pro-active, pro-Dane sort of way.

[Card to Quicky]

Yeah, turn your phone on. After enough vodka I intend to be speaking Danish. Cheers! Or whatever the Danes say. Skol? I'll have to consult with our resident Scando scholar, Misspent.

BTW, Quicky, did you see Canada beat the hell out of Finland today for the gold in curling? Oh Canada!!! They were great.

USA took bronze over Britain, too.

[Quicquid]

No, I missed all the curling excitement as I have a day job. Perhaps they'll run it again at 3AM like they did last week.

[Fiendish]

Deeply shaken. For you wanabee fans of what Cowboy Troy calls Hick-Hop Muzik, the full title is "I Play Chicken With the Train." Hot lyrics such as "All the hicks and chicks feel the flow." I am clinging to the hope that the Ps and Cs paid off the manager at Dick O'D, and have inside scoop that Hick-Hop will be a category in their next trivia contest. Hear the whole song here: http://www.cowboytroy.com/
Too shaken at this point to cope with either consuming blue cheese or hugging havarti.

[Quicquid]

I always knew Mrs. P had a trashy side.