Burgers Happening

This weekend we grilled up some burgers. Usually I would be really annoying and insist that we grind our own meat, especially since my fancy new food processor (and no, I didn’t pay full price!) came. But after sitting in the hot sun for too long, I decided buying bougie free range ground meat was acceptable enough. We got a pound of Five Dot Ranch ground sirloin for $5.99. I made sure to buy buns for $.99 to make up for it though. Some tomatoes, onions, whatever other garnishes you like, and you’re all set. Oh, and an egg. But you probably have all that.

Directions:
1. Buy fancy meat.
2. Mince a quarter to half a cup of white onion. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and pepper. Cut up the remainder of the onion into rings for grilling or adding raw to the finished product.
3. Gently mix the onion, salt & pepper mix into the meat. Try to handle it as little as possible. I added a little of the mixture at a time, folding it in and then flipping the meat over in the bowl to add a little more.
4. Beat an egg, then slowly add it to the meat mix. You  might only need half of your egg. I dumped a whole one in and it was pretty slimy. Now form little patties– we got five out of our pound of meat. The egg will just help you follow my #1 life rule: KEEP IT TOGETHER.

Now heat up the grill. Or a skillet, if you don’t want your neighbors peeping out at your amazing meal. MEANWHILE take this time to cut up some cheese, tomatoes, get your lettuce/pickles/whatever.

Put the patties on the grill, and let them cook for 4-6 minutes. Then flip. Successful flipping = a swift hand. Then put a piece of cheese on the top and let the burger cook while the cheese melts. Throw your buns on the grill now too. At this point you probably won’t mess anything up so you can go get a beer… Or anything to keep yourself away any urges to peek at the patty. Once you start prodding, it starts collapsing. Hopefully 4-6 minutes has passed and you haven’t messed with it. And voila!

Now cover that thing with ketchup. Then put on Beat Happening’s You Turn Me On and give yourself a pat on the back for the great tastes, and great taste, HA!

See you in four more months!

Let’s talk polenta

I had cornmeal, milk, and cheese sitting in my kitchen already. So I thought to myself, it’s easy, it’s cheap, go out and do it. But maybe I should have read the whole recipe first. Although I kind of blame Bittman for not including 2 cups of water in the ingredients list. So I went along stirring this weird milk and cornmeal grainy mush.

Finally, I decided water had to be added– something was wrong. It was sticking too much and a nice creamy mixture was the last thing I expected from this particular simmering saucepan.

But, Pete really doesn’t like diverging from recipes, and he was standing there over the pot with me, insisting that I not add too much water. Oh, if only he knew.

So I kept adding warm water, but probably only a cup or so.

All things considered, it wasn’t that bad. I even served it to company. But it was grainy. So, up next, a correctly made polenta, with greens, topped with an egg. And maybe some prosciutto.

Lesson learned. Pete was right.

Veggie Pot Pie with a Chicken Adaptation

I make a lot of vegetarian food. We don’t actually have a table to eat said food at, (I know, I know, it’s at the top of my list for my next apartment) so it’s usually best to make things that can be served in bowls. Thus began the hunt for a good veggie pot pie recipe. I found all kinds of savory veggie pies, but they were all missing the chicken-pot-pie-minus-chicken style I was looking for. So I decided to go it alone, and came up with pretty awesome results. Then I made it again for a meat and veggie crowd. So, I present you with a veggie pot pie, with a chicken adaptation. The awesome thing about the chicken adaptation is it allows you to make one veggie pie and one chicken one. Everybody wins!

I can’t believe there’s no chicken pot pie
Chicken adaptation in italics
Makes 2 pies

Crust:

Makes 1 batch

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour (more for dusting)
• 1/2  teaspoons salt
• 8 tablespoons butter, cut into 1 tablespoon pieces
• 2-5 tablespoons of water

Put flour and salt in food processor. Pulse for 30 seconds. Add pieces of butter gradually through tube, and pulse until it looks like corn meal. Gradually add water, one tablespoon at time while pulsing until the dough forms a ball. Hand knead for a minute, wrap in saran wrap, freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for 30.
3 batches should give you enough for tops and bottoms of 2 pies. 2 batches if you just want to make tops for the pies. I recommend pre-baking the bottoms: heat oven to 425, roll out dough and place in dish, cover with buttered tin foil tightly, put some beans or pie weights on top, make for 15-20 minutes. Then take off the beans and tin foil, make for 10 minutes with it off. Remove from oven, let ‘em cool! Honestly this dough isn’t anything fancy so if you have something better, use it and send it to me!

Filling:

• 12 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups minced shallots
• 1 fennel bulb, chopped
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 1/2 cups veggie stock (chicken stock if you’re making only chicken pies)
• 3 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups potatoes, cubed
• 1 1/2 cups broccoli, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups carrots cut into coins
• Half a bag of frozen peas
• A few sprigs of thyme
• A few sprigs of rosemary
• one egg, beat, for egg wash
  
• 2 pieces boneless, skinless, chicken breasts/thighs, combo or use one kind… Subtract 1/2 cup of each kind of veggie if making 2 chicken pies, 1/4 cup if making one one veggie pie & one chicken pie

1. Preheat oven to 375. Heat dutch oven or large pot. Add butter. Once it melts, add the shallots & fennel and saute for 5-10 minutes, until lightly browned. Add flour, whisk until combined. Add stock. Bring to a boil.
2. Add broccoli, carrots, potatoes. Reduce heat to a simmer, let vegetables cook 10-12 minutes. Stir in milk, herbs. Add cubed raw chicken here, if making 2 chicken pie. Stir the chicken in, it should cook in 2-5 minutes. Salt and Pepper to taste. Ladle filling into pre-baked crusts, or dish. If making only one chicken pie, ladle half the veggie mix into one pie, and then add chicken to the remainder per instructions above.
3. Roll out top dough, cover the filling with dough and and brush egg wash (one beat egg) on crust. Then poke a few holes in the crust. Nothing too fancy. I use this as my chance to differentiate the meat and and veggie pies. Even though once you cut into them it’s pretty obvious…. ANYWAY Stick them in the oven, bake for 30-40 minutes until the top is browned and the filling is bubbling. Let it cool, then devour.
Here are two pictures of part one and two of step two. I swear I’ll start remembering to take pictures of completed food.

Just when you start a blog…

You get too busy to update it.

Coming up…
-Chicken pot pie with a veggie adaptation
-44 Garlic clove soup
-How I learned to stop worrying and love the bread
-Essential rules for making polenta: 1. actually read the whole recipe
-KitchenAid: ATTACHMENT FEVER

pete’s top films of the 2000′s

ok ok first off, ive been totally blogging here like it was called snaxnslax cause ive been slacking. i truly believe i needed to explain that “joke.”

second, my bosom message-board ILX has compiled their list of nominees for the top 75 films of the 2000′s. here are the nominees. you vote for 40 of them, with 40pts going to #1, down to 1pt going to #40. i honestly feel a little embarrassed that my choices tell a story about my high ambition, but somewhat-low execution in seeing movies. rest assured, i intended to see all of these. even the ones i have never heard of. oh yeah BEAUFORT? that was #41, yeah. i remember when that came out. it was… um… 2007. and i was probably 25 years old.  probably.

okay, enough caveats. im proud of my list.

1.There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007, USA)
2.Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001, USA)
3.In the Bedroom (Todd Field, 2001)
4.Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005)
5.Head-On (Fatih Akin, 2004)
6.Brand Upon The Brain (Guy Maddin, 2006)
7.Kill Bill vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003, USA)
8.Royal Tenenbaums, The (Wes Anderson, 2001, USA)
9.Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005)
10.Best In Show (Christopher Guest, 2000)

11.Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
12.Man Who Wasn’t There, The (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2001, USA)
13.Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog, 2009)
14.Bring It On (Peyton Reed, 2000)
15.Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2006)
16.Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green, 2008, USA)
17.Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005, USA)
18.School of Rock, The (Richard Linklater, 2003)
19.Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige, 2000)
20.No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007, USA)

21.Bend It Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha, 2002)
22.Dude, Where’s My Car? (Danny Leiner, 2000)
23.Fantastic Mr. Fox, The (Wes Anderson, 2009)
24.Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007)
25.Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen, 2008)
26.Virgin Suicides, The (Sofia Coppola, 2000)
27.Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001)
28.Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004, USA)
29.Squid and the Whale, The (Noah Baumbach, 2005)
30.Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller, 2008)

31.Lilya 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysson, 2002, Sweden)
32.Bourne Identity, The (Doug Liman, 2002)
33.Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002, USA)
34.24-Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom, 2002)
35.Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004)
36.City of God (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, 2002)
37.Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000, USA)
38.Napoleon Dynamite (Jared Hess, 2004, USA)
39.Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
40.Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001)

stay tuned next week for my discussion of the records i bought over the holidays, and maybe some talk about some other things. like how good it was to see friends on the east coast. and how fun my birthday was. and about how much i like the SCRABBLE page-a-day calendar in my office’s kitchen, and how, although i like the etymology page-a-day calendar my brother and his family got me for christmas, i wish so hard everyday that i gotten the SCRABBLE one, so i didnt have to share it with my whole office.

An Ugly Death

OK OK, I know posting about this is a cliche. But it’s really been on my mind and in my tabs. And since I know a place to write about it, let’s do it.

My reality: I’m not that well versed in all things reatarded. So, this mostly just considers Jay-solo. Pete and I picked out our top 5 favorite solo songs last night. The trouble with doing this is a. bad memory and b. whatever song is playing is my favorite. But I’ll give it a shot here. And this is not ranked within the 5. Too nervous. Plz post your faves here too! Mine are:

-No time
-Such a Shame (or maybe My Family)
-Hammer I miss you (or maybe Trapped Here)
-Watching you (Singles 08 version – the cut on watch me fall suxx)
-Turning Blue (Blood Demos version)

Honorable mentions to.. well all the rest.

I think part of why it feels so weird and sad that he’s gone is that he was at the center of this community we all got behind. I remember driving around in Zack’s krate blasting Blood Visions, getting crazed at work for the Matador singles pre-sale, going to the show with all you n00bs on my 22nd birthday, gagging about his twitter, complaining about the Shattered Records club, watching the ridiculous greed, money, useless children on ebay scrambling for that vinyl.. Then doing it all over again the next go round.

When we were still (much more) new in SF, we went to see Jay’s show with the Oh Sees. We got there right at doors, along with a bunch of other record nerds, to get the much coveted tour single. And there we felt some sort of solidarity with this new place. We who wait at merch tables. We who brought a box to keep the 7″ safe. We who shared that box with a record-acquaintance, because we all want to keep that OOP single NM.

There are so many other bands in the same scene who had a killer song, then a disappointing LP, or after many more listens felt stale and left us feeling blank again. Or just disappeared altogether, eventually ending up in an ebay pile.

But that never really happened with Jay. Somehow he always managed to sate us. We were always wanting more, and he gave it to us. Now only the former is true.

I’ve been really fascinated with the news stories and updates on his death. I guess it’s the only way to keep him in the center, trapped here with us, before he goes fading all away.

Oh, it’s such a shame.

Happy n00b year!

We’re back from our east coast trip, but I have been in a serious cooking rut. I made broiled beef with aji sauce and guacamole since coming back which was very underwhelming, I think in part because my broiler sucks. It’s one of those bottom-of-the -oven cubby types, which doesn’t allow for rack adjusting.

So the meat doesn’t cook very evenly. I took out what looked like a done tri-tip, let it rest for 10 minutes and sliced it open. Oh look, red!

We ended up throwing it on the skillet to finish the cooking.  Well, Pete threw it in the skillet, and I threw up my hands and took to the couch. The aji sauce was tasty, but the couldn’t really save the tough meat.

And that’s all I’ve cooked. Tomorrow night I’m planning to make a veggie pot pie and this weekend is taco night, but beyond that I find myself trolling the same food blogs, boards, books and coming up empty. So what are you eating in 2010?

The breakfast I wish I had today

On the weekdays, I have a crappy cup of coffee that usually gets cold well before I finish it, and a yogurt from Safeway. The weekends, though, are another story. Ok, well, sometimes. In truth, a lot of weekend mornings Pete gets us bagels and coffees. But in an ideal world, one where I wake up and want to cook right away, we have wonderful homemade spicy egg breakfasts.

Gringo Huevos

Gringo Huevos “Rancheros”

So many things make this a totally inauthentic version of huevos rancheros. But really, who has time to make ranchero sauce when they wake up hungry? So, step one is to make your salsa:

Salsa

• 2-3 roma tomatoes
• cilantro
• 1/4-1/2 of a white onion (red is okay, only use yellow in a pinch)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• half-1 jalapeno
• juice from one lime

Dice tomatoes and onion, mince everything else. Stir together to taste. Or, dump all in food processor. Pulse until you get  desired consistency.

The rest

• eggs
• 4-6 oz. cheese (I used sharp cheddar, so gringo)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• corn torillas
• black beans (I used canned, no time)
• salsa

1. Heat a skillet on pretty low heat for a couple of minutes. Add a tablespoon of butter, let it melt. If your butter is brown, turn your heat down. Put a corn torilla in, brown one side a little longer than the other. Put the browned side face up.Sprinkle some cheese on the tortilla and let it melt a little bit.

2. Break an egg (or 2, depending on the size of your tortilla) in a ramekin. Dump in the center of the tortilla. The white is gonna try to get all over the pan. That’s okay. But you know, do your best to encourage the egg to stay on the tortilla. Meanwhile, heat your beans. Let the egg cook until the white looks a little firm, flip the whole thing.*

3. Give it a minute to cook. Then, flip it over onto your plate, egg side up. Add salsa and beans.

Enjoy!

*This is what’s so great about this recipe. Normally you have this egg and it seems like just one big mess and you have no idea how you’re going to flip it even though you’ve watched videos on youtube for days in anticipation, and you’re hungry. And cranky. But here, you just get to flip the tortilla with the egg on it, which is so so much easier.

GOLDMINE QUESTIONS

a records-friend posted the following on a message board:

got an e-mail from music writer Martin Popoff, he of the many many awesome rock and metal books/guides. he is now in charge of all the Goldmine record price guides. he is writing a long article on collecting for the newest price guide. he put together some questions and he’ll be quoting people so if you answer these you may be immortalized in a price guide. anyone interested can e-mail me and i’ll give you martin’s e-mail. i don’t want to post it here. (though it’s probably on his website.):

Hey guys,

Not sure how many of you know this, but I’ve taken over all the Goldmine record price guides.

In the next one, the huge 1400 page Standard Catalogue, I have to write a piece on record collecting habits. Please answer only if you have a fair bit of any of these three things: VINYL, ROCK MEMORABILIA or loads of stuff from A SPECIFIC BAND (OR MANY).

So… I wanted to see if some of you might venture some answers to these 11 questions? A) the more detail the better and B) the more of them you can answer the better!

Put as much work into it as you want without getting ticked off at me! If that’s “none” that’s fine too.

Looking forward to some cool collecting stories and philosophical thoughts. : ) Thanks! Martin

PS – Oh yeah, and if you have a buddy who has a killer collection and cool stories behind it, please pass on this email.

martin’s questions are in bold.

1 – Describe your collection, the nature of it, quantity etc. What do you collect and why… that?
I have about 1,200 LP’s and a few hundred 7″s. In college, I bought a few records to listen to in my dorm-room, but mainly bought CD’s. With the rise of vinyl-only albums in genres-of-interest, the new ease of digital transfer (and accompanied personal devaluing of CD’s as aesthetic objects), and the deepening and broadening of my tastes past the retrospective reach of CD/digital reissue, I just casually started buying more records. Casually became actively.

2 – Tell me a cool story of a great deal you got, or a major purchase, or just a crazy, awesome shopping trip or purchase?
On Record Store Day this year, my girlfriend and I borrowed our friend’s car, and went to a few stores in Oakland, CA. We arrived as our favorite local punk store, 1-2-3-4-GO! Records, was opening. The owner hadn’t put out the new Live Pavement record, and I asked him if he’d gotten them in. He scrambled to the back and grabbed the stack, giving me the top copy. My girlfriend got one too. When I got home, I noticed that I had gotten one of only 95 copies on red vinyl. Maybe it’s less of a “cool story” this way, but I sold the red copy on eBay, along with a few other things I’d decided to sell, and my girlfriend gave me a little money for our anniversary, and I put it all towards a record I had wanted for a while: Michael (Mike) Hurley’s first record for Folkways, FIRST SONGS. The next week, I bought another (black) copy of the Live Pavement LP.

3 – Tell me a cool story about obtaining autographs?
Schmautographs.

4 – How and where to you shelve or store your collection? Any interesting ways you have things displayed?
I have a 5×5 Ikea Expedit. The LP’s are arranged in artist piles, then basically chronologically, all in rough genres. No real display-aesthetic here.

5 – One day you will stare death in the face? How – and when – do you plan to dispose of your collection? Where is it going to “go” and why?
Music-collecting is changing a lot. Who knows what the world of record-buying will look like when I die?? My first instinct would be to pass my records along to any family-members who are nascent music/record-freaks. I guess I’d like to imagine my kids being interested, like me, in the discovery of new sounds and music. After family, I’d give records to interested friends. After that, I guess I’d aim to sell the collection (whole) to an independent record store, to be sold in the physical store. After that, I’d just be interested in liquidating and leaving the proceeds to my family.

6 – What are a few of the very coolest things you have? Perhaps tell me how you obtained them?
I love my Mike Hurley LP, my other Michael Hurley LP’s, my collection of African folk/pop/traditional music, on the Ocora and Original Music (RIP JSR) labels, my 21 (and counting) Don Cherry records, my ten or eleven gamelan records, John Fahey’s Hitomi, and both versions of the Catatonic Youth HoZac single. I really enjoyed the fervor of collecting Jay Reatard’s 2008 Matador singles, and the records are great, too. I’m still a very NEW record-collector, though, and I imagine that the vast majority of my scores/finds to be in the long life of collecting I plan to have.

7 – What do you think your collection is worth, and how did you arrive at that number? (optional).
When we moved from DC to SF in late-February, we shipped about 1,000 records in 12 or 13 big boxes, and insured each box for $1,000. So according to the USPS, as of 2/09, my collection was worth about $12,000-13,000.

8 – What was the first record you ever bought and what is the story behind obtaining it?
I have no idea what the first record I ever bought was, but I know I intentionally bought Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea in college, though I already owned the CD, because I felt it was nice to have a larger, aesthetically-nicer version of a record I liked so much. Although I don’t really wanna listen to that album any more, that spirit is still in my decision-process. I remember that my choice to buy Jay Reatard’s Blood Visions was a big turning-point for me in the decision to buy things on vinyl where possible.

9 – Can you tell me a story about one or two of your favorite (or weirdest) stores to shop in, past or present, and your emotions upon opening your wallet in that place?
Upon moving to the West Coast, I caught Amoeba Fever. It’s a SUPERMARKET of records! I know that Amoeba takes business away from smaller Bay-Area stores, but they also stock tons of independent records and regularly under-price records, so it’s still a fun thing to go there every so often. My FAVORITE stores in the world, however, are the Academy Records Annex in Brooklyn, NY, and Red Onion Records and Books in Washington, DC. I’ve made close friends with the staffs of both stores, and extracting my personal feelings about the stores from my records-feelings is a little tricky. I used to visit Red Onion 3-4 times a week on my walks home from work in DC, and the stock changed over so regularly, it was always a pleasure to go there. The prices aren’t the lowest, but they reflect the high resale you can get on records there [Note: Red Devil Records in San Rafael, CA, has a similar business model, and also has a nice owner]. Academy is staffed by friends of mine, and when I visit NY, it’s generally a special occasion, so I basically scour their excellent stock for hours, finally clear out the pile of records I’ve asked friends to hold there for me, and devote a certain budget to my trips. I’ve never been disappointed, and I’m going there this coming weekend!

10 – What is your very fondest memory of wanting something so bad, and then finding it, buying it, getting it as a present etc.?
Mike Hurley, again!

11 – And finally, and I’m really not sure what I’m getting at here…do you ever get bored of it, grow out of collecting, reflect on mortality or the concept of “ownership” being only temporary… I guess also, did you ever do all this and then get rid of your collection for that reason or any other? Explain!
I think about this all the time, but I think worrying about the decadence and bloat of things I enjoy is just something I am disposed towards worrying-about. These feelings have never compelled me to sell EVERYTHING, but they have compelled me to pare down, concentrate my collection, and, as is my goal for 2010 collecting, become more financially efficient in my personal collection by buying-and-reselling records online and at record fairs. This goal may eventually lead to opening my own brick-and-mortar store, but it’s unclear as yet.

12 – Wait, really finally, let me know if you would RATHER have your responses anonymous, or you don’t mind, or actually prefer, to have your name used.
No, it’s cool.

When it’s cold, we stew.

Mind you, cold in San Francisco means 38 to 45 degrees. But, that usually means that our apartment is anywhere from 61 to 65 degrees, which is too cold. So, we eat stew.

Beef Stew

It’s pretty easy to make, and you can swap out what I used with what you have. My dad used to make this stew when I was growing up (except he used Crisco where I used veggie oil). Every batch turns out differently because it just depends on what you’ve got.

Beef Stew

3 pounds of stewing beef, cubed

3 or 4 potatoes, whatever kind, cubed into large-ish pieces

2 to 4 cups of carrots, cut into 1/2 thick slices

2 large white onions, chopped, reserving 1/3 cup or whatever you feel like

4 to 6 cloves of garlic, smashed and roughly chopped

1 bag of frozen peas, 8 ounces

3 to 6 tbs. flour

beef bouillon cube

2 bay leaves

V8

1 to 3 tbs. Worcester sauce

1/3 cup vegetable oil or a spoonful of crisco

salt n pepper

1. Pat the beef cubes with paper towels to dry. Mix the flour in a paper bag with salt and pepper. Toss the beef cubes in the bag to coat. Really coat them.
2. Turn heat to medium and heat oil in large pot or a dutchie, then add onions and garlic. Stir occasionally while they brown, about 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil.
3. Add the beef cubes and the remainder of the flour mixture. Stir to prevent sticking. Brown the beef for 5-8 minutes. Add boiling water to pot to cover by 3/4 inch. Add beef bouillon cube and bay leaves. Put a lid on it and leave for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
3. Add the potatoes and V8 to cover. Throw in some Worcester sauce, salt and pepper. You can also do part V8 and part boiling water. Stir and cover.
4. 10 minutes later, add carrots. Cover with V8 or boiling water. Add more salt and pepper. After 10 minutes, add frozen peas.
5 more minutes, EAT!