answering etaine_pommier

[madbaker]

1. Have you ever used salt instead of sugar, or vice versa, in a recipe?
   Oh yes. The most embarrassing one was when I was a high school exchange student and I wanted to make our family "Russian Tea" recipe, which involves steeping citrus, tea, sugar, and a bunch of other things. Silly host family had metal crocks without labels. I dumped in 2 cups of coarse salt over everything.


2. What are three specific flavors you are inordinately fond of?
   Roasted garlic. Okay, any kind of garlic. Coffee/chocolate (as in coffee ice cream with chocolate fudge). A good stinky Camembert. (Tomorrow, the third might be different.)


3. You are put in charge of feeding two people at events for four months. How do you handle it?
   First I document their likes/dislikes/allergies. Then I spreadsheet the events and start brainstorming dishes and meals, trying to produce a variety of colors/flavors/textures (using temporally/geographically consistent documented period recipes, of course). Eventually I have a spreadsheet that I can print off by event showing what I am making by time of day and the ingredients I need to bring/make. Maybe with time estimates. Have I mentioned that I have a touch of OCD?


4. Name a quality/behavior that you expect from Royal Peers but not from Knights/Laurels/Pelicans.
   A positive one? [/silly snark] Seriously, a peer should behave in a peerlike fashion, regardless of flavor. I do think that Royal Peers tend to be more visible than many non-Royals simply because of the hat and a timespan of being the royal focus. I tried to really be aware of my own behavior when I was elevated and I expect Royal Peers to do the same.


5. Of all the virtues, which do you think you are strongest in?
   Humility! I am the #1 humble guy. I totally rock humility.
   But seriously, out of faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice: temperance I guess. "The virtue of temperance is the knowledge of the middle way between too much and too little, and the knowledge of one's own measure. The knight who is temperate in largess gives neither too much nor too little; he is neither a coward nor foolhardy; in eating and drinking he is neither a glutton nor so hungry that he is wretched; in speech he does not use too many words nor so few that he is not understood; also, in his clothing he is neither excessive or wretched. Temperance is the rule of all wisdom."
   There are worse ways to live your life...


6. (See what happens when you don't RTFM?) What's your most embarrassing "I should have read the directions first" moment?
   Getting lost on the way to Rancho Seco for an event and winding up in Sutter County? Wait, no - it was when I arrived bright and early as the best man for my best friend's wedding. And discovered that I was supposed to have picked up my tux the night before. I discovered that my station wagon could, indeed, drive 100 MPH from Morgan Hill to San Jose to the rental store. (I did make it back in time, but the bride has pictures of me [deservedly] groveling at her feet.)