Netflix Scores!

 I watched this last night at my brother's. Lately, when my brother and I hang out and watch TV, we've been going retro and reliving some aspect of our childhood, much to my S-I-L's chagrin. We all enjoyed it! That being said, it's astonishing that Netflix would show anything which vilified certain protected species and actually garnered sympathy for an officially hated species. And the means justify the ending. 

Election 2010 - It's Happening!

Hi there! This post is a placeholder for celebratory chatting on Election eve if Twitter goes fail whale.

If you're here for that - welcome!

IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY - - -

Not what you're thinking. Sgt. Pepper had long ago taught the band to play. No, it was twenty years ago today when my father passed away. He was 64 and that seemed "youngish" to me at age 38. Now that I'm 58, it seems positively early!

The photo is the 18 year old version at Great Lakes Naval base outside of Chicago. I'm assuming it is his "graduation" photo after completing boot camp.

Dan Fogelberg wrote a song for his father which I've always liked due to the theme. Fogelberg once said that, if he had only written one song in his life, this would have been it. So, in addition to prayers, I offer the song on this anniversary. I will also offer a toast later in the day. If you'd like to tip a glass to his memory, we'd both be appreciative. BTW, his favorite was Chivas Regal. :)

Foggy Bloggy Mountain Breakdown

I had a mental brainfart over on Theo Boehm's blog here.  We were talking about banjos and I mentioned a guy I'd seen playing recently.  The guy ID'd a song he played as "a chase scene from Bonnie and Clyde.  Heh
A little Internet research and I realized that it was Flatts and Scruggs playing Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Here's a video of Scruggs and some friends playing it:



Earl Scruggs. What a blessing he is to American music. He's getting up there in years now too.

On the Road

First stop, San Antonio.



We'll make Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone.



We made it to Amarillo by morning, had a coffee and slept.  Now it's time to move on. This time to Laredo.  For a funeral....



We need to head west; we need to get to Phoenix.  by the time we get to Phoenix, she'll be waiting.



We're in LA.  Los Angeles, the city that doesn't give a damn about you.  The hard city, the fast city. Adrenaline surges harsh the mellow  that Isaac Hayes just gave us.  I see your hair is burnin' / The hills are filled with fire



We finally made it, at least to the end of this leg of our trip.  Bakersfield!  And we can get our mellow cowboy groove back again, thanks to Buck and Dwight.

Sauce Hollandaise: Pour la Darcette

Darcy tweeted the other day that she was going to be cooking up some Julia Childs' recipes and thus also learning some French.
Here is a tried and true recipe for la sauce hollandaise, or as we call it chez moi, œuf sauce, or butter still: lardendaise sauce.  The recipe was taken from a book called Les Sauces, which is a compendium of nearly every sauce known to French cooking:

Ingredients:
1 & 1/3 stick butter
3 egg yolks (throw the whites away or feed them to your dog)
2 Tbls water or dry white wine
1/4 tsp white pepper
ca. 2 Tbl lemon juice

Directions:
Melt the butter in a pan then set aside (a microwave is fine too-just get it hot enough to melt).

Mix the egg yolks and the water or wine in a separate pan (I use a double boiler and this pan serves as a place to keep the sauce when finished). Whisk the yolks and the wine with one of those wire whips just until the yolks begin to thicken. This is why harsh direct heat should be avoided (they are worth having if you make lots of sauces). At this point, begin adding the melted butter little by little all while whisking. Add the lemon juice, pepper and a dash of salt according to taste.

If the sauce crashes (separates into oil and solids) remove from the heat immediately. It is sometimes possible to save the sauce by adding more white wine: the ethanol in the wine acts as an emulsifier, helping to mix the oil from the butter with the protein/water from the egg.

This recipe makes enough for 4 people on a diet. Scale accordingly.

bon appetit!

The Roots Of Grunge (part 1)

Authentic garage band. Lurve it!

And there's these guys: