My favorite part of the article is the last lines about how Fred Trump's only loss was the money he invested in Donald.

Jesse ftw -- good luck with everything, Tom!

retroactive teaching~ma Noise

Yay -t!

Meara, big encouraging cheers for you. That must have been hard but it sounds like for the best.

O god I just ran my first faculty meeting I think. ... ... whispers: what am I even doing. This is the part where i turn into a portal demon, right?

Cooking question: what is the difference between regular tomato sauce and vodka tomato sauce? Does the vodka cut the acidity? The last time I drank vodka it was sneaked into a glass of orange juice I was drinking back in college, so I don't know what it tastes like.

Yo, Miracleman. Long time, no zombies.

Cooking question: what is the difference between regular tomato sauce and vodka tomato sauce? Does the vodka cut the acidity? The last time I drank vodka it was sneaked into a glass of orange juice I was drinking back in college, so I don't know what it tastes like.

That is an interesting question because my instinctive answer is that Vodka sauce is more "orange" and less "red."

Wikipedia says: "Vodka sauce is an American cuisine sauce made from a smooth tomato sauce, vodka, typical Italian herbs and heavy cream, which gives the sauce its distinctive orange coloration. It is a key ingredient in penne alla vodka.

The vodka's function is, ostensibly, to release flavors in the tomato that are normally inaccessible; using alcoholic beverages for this purpose is common in Italian cooking, although usually accomplished with wine. It is also an emulsifier, serving to keep the sauce stable, when normally the oil of the cream sauce would react with the acidic tomato sauce to separate from the water in both."

So - it allows you to put cream into your tomato sauce without it separating. (Hence the orange.)

Also, vodka is a neutral spirit so it just tastes like (somewhat diluted) alcohol.

Thank you! I don't normally cook with tomato-based sauces because I don't like the acidity.

If you want to cut the acidity in tomato based sauces start with a couple of carrots chopped finely in a food processor, but the cream in a vodka sauce will also help. My vodka sauce recipe is mostly cream with just a couple tablespoons of tomato paste.

I read "vodka sauce" and think "cream sauce with a bit of tomato." It's definitely way less acidic than a traditional tomato sauce, but also way more creamy which is not really my personal bag.

Cream of tomato soup doesn't call for vodka, does it?