My Sous Vide Supreme promo package arrived tonight. It’s all I have been talking about for days. If you’re unfamiliar with sous vide, it is basically cooking food in a vacuum-packed plastic bag in a bath of hot water at a specified temperature, generally for a longer period of time than it would take to prepare the same food on the grill. Meats come out juicy and full of flavor, and are cooked evenly throughout — no more chicked that is burned on the outside and pink on the inside. You throw the finished product on a hot grill or in a pan with hot oil to get a quick sear, and voila! the perfect meal.

I have been considering the purchase for months, ever since I met the inventors of the machine. The package came with the water oven, a vacuum sealer, a cookbook, and a starter set of 20 pouches — all for under $400. This is less than I expected to pay for the water oven alone, so I was pretty pleased.

I’m still unpacking everything and it’s too late to make a meal tonight, but I’m excited to try it out. I have a tri-tip that is probably getting the treatment this weekend. Has anyone else tried this, and if so, what do you think?

Remember Greg Hicks? He’s the guy who questioned Susan Rice’s dishonest talking points on Benghazi, and was retaliated against as a result. He has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal arguing that slain ambassador Chris Stevens is being unfairly blamed for the lack of proper security:

Last week the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued its report on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. The report concluded that the attack, which resulted in the murder of four Americans, was “preventable.” Some have been suggesting that the blame for this tragedy lies at least partly with Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack. This is untrue: The blame lies entirely with Washington.

. . . .

I was interviewed by the Select Committee and its staff, who were professional and thorough. I explained this sequence of events. For some reason, my explanation did not make it into the Senate report.

To sum up: Chris Stevens was not responsible for the reduction in security personnel. His requests for additional security were denied or ignored. Officials at the State and Defense Departments in Washington made the decisions that resulted in reduced security. Sen. Lindsey Graham stated on the Senate floor last week that Chris “was in Benghazi because that is where he was supposed to be doing what America wanted him to do: Try to hold Libya together.” He added, “Quit blaming the dead guy.”

Somebody get that guy another demotion!