Seized!

Ugh!  I don't know how it happened, but when I tried to make ganache last night, the chocolate seized!  Horrid!  So I had to look for an alternate use for it, as I was not about to waste that much chocolate.  I found a recipe for shortbread, so I decided to adjust it:

3/4 c.	butter, softened
1/2 c.	sugar
1 1/2 c.	flour
1/2 c.	bittersweet chocolate, melted (see remainder of entry below for adjustment)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°. Line 8x10" pan with foil, overlapping at edges.

Cream butter, melted chocolate, and sugar together.

Add flour and mix til texture is like wet sand.

Press batter into lined pan.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes.

Cut into squares or bars while warm.

Leave in pan to cool thoroughly. (Shortbread will not be crisp until cool.)

It smells good in the kitchen just now, with the shortbread in the oven (I'm writing this while I wait for them to come out).

In the meantime, I've been watching my hits, and something that kind of surprised me, though Peter said that it's a not unpopular subject, is that of nudity, and the differences there still are in our present society between female nudity and male nudity.  

Nude females are seen as harmless sexual objects, whereas a nude male body is read as aggressive.  Why is this?  As Betty White has famously said, a penis is a weak and sensitive thing, whereas a vagina is something that, I think she said, can really take a beating, so to speak.

Male sexual organs, at least among more commonly-known, domesticated mammals, are often exposed, risking injury, whereas vaginas are hidden, contained within the body, so that they're protected, secure places.  Is that why the nature of (male) aggression, metaphorically, is to penetrate? Sounds like the most common metaphor for (male) aggression is just that.  Acts of war and invasion (which, in itself, implies forced entry into an unwilling/unwitting/unaware victim) are often couched in "male" terms.  Is warfare an inherently male action?  Hmmm...

The shortbread is out of the oven and cut into bars.  I've tasted one, and it's sweet and dry, just as shortbread ought to be, but not terribly chocolaty, so I think next time, I might go ahead and use a full cup of chocolate.  These taste pretty good, though, so I'll keep them around, at least so that Kat can try them after the football game tonight.