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In: Domestic discipline

We cooked our beef shoulder roast sous vide for ten hours overnight on Saturday. Mrs. Lion put it in the refrigerator until an hour before dinner on Sunday. I’m sorry to report that the meat was still very tough. We are going to return it to the sous vide today (Monday)  for several hours and try again. This time we’ll increase the temperature from 140o F to 145o F. The meat was pale pink at 140o.

We are still planning on sous vide turkey for Thanksgiving. The instructions for prepping the turkey seem complex but are really fairly simple. In past years, we roasted a turkey breast and then removed it whole from the bone before slicing. It’s easy surgery. The trick is to get the timing right. There are two approaches. The first is to put a probe thermometer in the meat and monitor the temperature. The second is to use a chart created by several sous vide experts. I haven’t decided which approach would be best for us. We may just put the turkey in (145o F yields the same texture as a perfectly roasted bird) for six or seven hours. That should be more than enough. That’s the good thing about sous vide; extra cook time won’t affect the food.

behavioral health coverage

My health insurance coverage open enrollment window is now open. I just got an email about my behavioral health coverage. That got me thinking. I already have in-house behavioral health coverage: Mrs. Lion’s program. As you probably know, her program is simple, inexpensive, and effective.

My policy offers comprehensive behavioral improvement benefits. I receive regular assessments during which behavioral standards are reviewed. Corrections are provided at no extra cost. Close personal attention is a feature of this coverage. One important feature is that this policy includes unlimited corrections at no extra cost.

Preexisting conditions are given attention at no extra cost. Mrs. Lion’s behavioral health policy is comprehensive with no options available. Subscribers are advised to take care when sitting after a correction.

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In: Cooking
polyscience csv700 sous vide circulating pump
This is one of our two sous vide circulating pumps. The bags with food go into the bath for cooking.

Mrs. Lion’s post yesterday (“More Home Cooking“) mentioned our weekend culinary plans. We will be trying the first of two fairly radical recipes. I’ve been doing sous vide cooking for a few years now. I’ve limited myself to steak. If you haven’t tried it, a sous vide steak is perfect temperature from top to bottom.

The sous vide process uses a circulating pump to keep a bath of water at a precise temperature (withing 0.1 deg. F). The water is set to the temperture the food needs to be when it is perfectly cooked. For example, a mid-rare steak is at 127 degrees. F. The steak is seasoned and sealed in a plastic bag. The bag goes into the water bath for about an hour. Time isn’t too important It can stay in the bath for two hours without degradation. When nearly time to eat, I take the steak out of the bag and sear it for a minute or so on each side. Voila! it’s ready and perfect.

We watched an old Alton Brown “Good Eats” show where he made a tender roast from a very tough, cheap cut of meat with sous vide. He used a rump roast. That’s a particularly tough cut of meat. He made a wet rub for it, sealed it in a bag, and put it in a sous vide bath for ten hours. That was enough time to break down the tough tissue in the meat. Since the bath was 140 degrees F, the meat came ou a perfect medium level of doneness. That’s what we’re going to cook overnight tonight (Saturday). Yum.

On Sunday, we will make a nice pot of beef mushroom-barley soup. We love it. It’s perfect on a cold, damp day. Our most radical experiment is reserved for Thanksgiving. Every year, we make a turkey breast. This year, instead of roasting it, we’re going to sous vide it. The technique is wild. We take off the skin and remove themeat from the bone. We then use butcher’s twine to put the two halves of the breast together to form a cylindar. That goes into a bag and into the sous vide bath for about five hours. What’s supposed to emerge is a perfectly cooked breast. We crisp the skin separately. Wild, huh?

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In: Mrs Lion Comments

We don’t normally go to a butcher shop. We get most of our meat from Costco. They have the best prices and it’s pretty much the only place you can find prime cuts of meat for sale to the public. Sometimes, there’s a cut of meat we need that isn’t readily available in Costco or a grocery store. Lion wants to make pot roast. I’d think any old roast would do. What do I know? (Nothing.) We needed rump roast. I’m pretty sure it’s not from the rump of the cow. Other than that, I have no idea what it is or what to do with it. He said our best bet was a butcher since grocery stores probably wouldn’t have it. I’ve never checked. I don’t know one roast from another and they may call it a different thing at the supermarket. Anyway, we went to the butcher and got rump roast and some beef shank for soup. Pot roast and beef mushroom barley soup are on the agenda for tomorrow. We’re still trying to lay in a good supply of comfort food for the winter. It would help if we didn’t keep eating it before winter gets here.

I’ve been curious about fried turkey. Some people swear by it. How do you manage to fry a whole turkey without some of it being too done and some of it being raw? I’ve never actually wanted fried turkey. It just intrigues me. Lion is fond of sous vide. That’s how we’re doing the pot roast. You put the ingredients in a plastic bag and basically boil them. Well, it’s not necessarily a boil. I say boil. Lion says simmer.[Lion — No I don’t! Sous vide is at much lower temperatures. The pot roast cooks at 140 F for 10 hours. That’s not a simmer.] The point is the water is hot. I wondered if you could use sous vide for turkey. If you can fry one, it stands to reason you could boil one. And it turns out you can. Now we’ll have sous vide turkey for Thanksgiving. Who knew?

I didn’t spank Lion last night. We were going to do a boner shot on Thursday night, but we were both hungry and decided to push it off until after dinner. Then we didn’t do it anyway. Last night, we finally did it. I didn’t play with him. I just jerked him off for a bit and then asked if he wanted a blow job. There are very few times he’s turned me down. I swear the fastest I ever see him move is when he’s getting into position for a blow job. It took a little bit of doing, and I almost gave up a few times, but he got there and gave me a very nice mouthful of cream filling. Next time, I’ll have to take a few minutes to play with him and see if that speeds things up. From previous conversations, he thinks it should. It gets him hornier, and, theoretically, he’ll be further along in the process. Of course, there’s no real way to tell. I can’t put two Lions side by side, play with one but not the other, and see who comes first. (Two Lions. Yikes! One is enough, thank you very much.)

Will I spank him tonight? I doubt it. I still have some stuff to do around here. Tomorrow is cooking day. Maybe I’ll have enough energy. Maybe not. We won’t be doing the football spanking game tomorrow. We haven’t figured out new rules. And the point of a spanking right now is to test out the new paddle. It doesn’t even have to be a real spanking. I guess I could give him a few swats to see what it feels like. I’m sure I have the energy for that.

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In: Domestic discipline, Spanking

Most of life is experienced in the past tense. I get aroused remembering things I’ve experienced, seen, or read. This is particularly true of spanking. Anticipating or remembering a spanking is a turn-on. Experiencing it isn’t. We seem to be programmed to be fueled by the past.

This makes sense. Survival can hinge on remembered experience. Living in the present can be extremely dangerous. For example, we avoid getting too close to the edge of a deep hole because we “know” (remember what we’ve seen or read) that falling would threaten our survival. Similarly, we (males, anyway) go to ridiculous extremes to get women to have sex with us.  Why? Because we remember how good it feels to fuck.

Obvious. Right? Well, not so much. When Mrs. Lion spanks me, she straps me to the spanking bench and spends at least ten minutes paddling my bottom. It hurts, and I want her to stop. Yet, when I remember being spanked, I get sexually aroused. I didn’t get aroused at all when she spanked me. I hated the experience. If I avoid getting too close to the edge of a cliff because I remember that it is a bad experience for people I’ve seen on TV or read about, why do I get turned on thinking about being hurt by Mrs. Lion’s paddles?

It’s even weirder than that. Even though thinking about being spanked turns me on, I avoid the behaviors that earned me the punishment. I actively avoid being punished. I want sex because remembering how it feels to get off is compelling.  Like most people, I’ve spent my life wanting sex. I get the same feeling of arousal thinking about being spanked, yet I work hard to avoid a spanking.

It doesn’t stop there. If Mrs. Lion lets me know that I’m going to be spanked, I get aroused. Wait! Haven’t I been trying to avoid a spanking? Anticipating a spanking turns me on. Being spanked is horrible.

Get out the straight jacket.

One explanation of this apparent contradiction is that while I hate being spanked, I like that Mrs. Lion can spank me whenever she wants. It’s a strong example of her control, and being submissive that way turns me on.

Could that be it? Is that why I get turned on at the memory or prospect of a painful spanking?

Makes sense. It fits with my general sexual outlook. Be careful. Wanting to be sexually submissive isn’t the same as being passive. I’m generally anything but passive. In most things, I’m a dominant personality. But sexually…

I’m not that unusual. In study after study, more than eighty percent of both men and women have spanking fantasies. Virtually all of them are about being spanked. They are sexual fantasies. The people who have these fantasies don’t identify themselves as sexually submissive. I don’t consider myself sexually submissive. I’m a switch. I’m happy being on the other side of the paddle too.

no wonder shrinks are crazy

We could dissect the desire to be spanked a little more. Exposing my bare bottom is obviously sexual. So is having a woman pay close attention to that naked part of me. She’s very close to my naughty bits. Couple that with childhood fantasies/experiences with bare-bottom spankings and throw in a little parental lust for good measure, and it s easy to see why so many people fantasize about being spanked.

Many people who want to be spanked don’t want to believe there is a sexual reason for their desire. They have other, perfectly good reasons why they want to be paddled or strapped. Domestic discipline, for example, rationalizes adult spanking around the concept that punishment spankings will cure behavioral problems.

As I’ve learned, spanking, when consistently applied, will change my behavior. The behavioral changes I’ve made are rather trivial. I don’t often get food on my shirt. When I do, I get spanked. I also usually remember to set up the coffee pot for the next morning. Same reason. I was very forgetful and messy before Mrs.Lion started punishing me.

From what I’ve read, domestic discipline isn’t very successful at curing more serious problems like drinking too much or gambling. If consistently applied, it will help with diet and exercise. Reports are mixed on its value in changing arrogance and rudeness.

There may be some benefits for the spanker in domestic discipline. Even if the behavior isn’t effectively extinguished, punishing the offense can produce a feeling of retribution. If I’m thoughtless and annoy Mrs. Lion, she can feel that she let me know how badly my behavior affected her. There’s value in that.

Some men can’t admit that there is a deep, sexual basis for their desire to be spanked. They get offended if it’s suggested that sex has any part in their desire to be spanked. However, they are very specific about how they are willing to be punished. They say they want their wives to discipline them to help correct behavioral problems. I believe that’s true. But, they specify how their wives can do it. You guessed it. Spanking.

They don’t want to be put to bed early or given writing assignments. They don’t want the car keys taken away. They want their bare bottoms roasted. More than punishment is behind their request for domestic discipline.

I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that. If a deep-seated sexual need makes us accept punishment, it’s helping the disciplinary process we want. I think that most of our wives understand the sexual connection we make with spanking. It may be why they agreed to spank us in the first place.

The bottom line is that we are complex creatures. We can have multiple conflicting motivations for what we do. Spanking, particularly disciplinary spanking, is a prime example of this.