bloggedyblogblog

Public figures eating dick-shaped foods

2012-02-13T10:41:00.001-08:00

A classic of the genre. It's the eyes that get me every time.

Hey ho! Hubby joins the party! Oh, don't pretend you don't love it, Mary.

Damn! Cowboy Rick is going cold Brokeback on that wiener!

Sideways. Perfect. Can't this schmuck do anything right?

Whoa! Germany has the weirdest boner right now.

See, Mitt's no fool. He keeps that thing chastely away from his face while the cameras are snapping.

Ha! Gotcha!

Aw jeez, Barack, you too? Man, Michelle looks pissed.

Serrano ham and manchego croquetas

2012-01-06T15:55:00.002-08:00

For the dinner party

Fig and blue cheese savories

2012-01-06T15:55:00.001-08:00

For the dinner party

Fired checkins

2011-11-29T20:55:00.001-08:00

Spicy Ginger Stuffing

2011-11-25T20:20:00.001-08:00

Sounds good. Maybe for the goose at Christmas

Sage and sausage stuffing

2011-11-16T16:27:00.000-08:00

I think we have a winner

serves 10 to 14, active time 45 minutes, total time 2 1/2 hours

2 1/2 pounds (about 2 loaves) high quality sandwich bread or soft Italian or French bread, cut into 3/4-inch dice, about 5 quarts
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1 1/2 pounds sage sausage, removed from casing
1 large onion, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
4 large stalks celery, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated on microplane
1/4 cup minced fresh sage leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried sage leaves)
32 ounces (4 cups) low-sodium chicken or turkey broth, preferably homemade
3 whole eggs
1/2 cup minced parsley leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

PROCEDURES

1
Adjust oven racks to lower middle and upper middle position. Preheat oven to 275°F. Spread bread evenly over two rimmed baking sheets. Stagger trays on oven racks and bake until completely dried, about 50 minutes total, rotating trays and stirring bread cubes several times during baking. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Increase oven heat to 350°F
2
In large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium high heat until foaming subsides (don't allow butter to brown), about 2 minutes. Add sausage and mash with stiff whisk or potato masher to break up into fine pieces (largest pieces should be no greater than 1/4-inch). Cook, stirring frequently until only a few bits of pink remain, about 8 minutes. Add onions, celery, garlic, and sage and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add half of chicken stock.
3
Whisk remaining chicken stock, eggs, and 3 tablespoons parsley in medium bowl until homogeneous. Stirring constantly with wooden spoon, slowly pour egg mixture into sausage mixture. Add bread cubes and fold gently until evenly mixed.
4
Use part of stuffing to stuff bird if desired. To cook remaining stuffing, transfer to buttered 9 by 13 rectangular baking dish (or 10 by 14 oval dish), cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake until instant read thermometer reads 150°F when inserted into center of dish, about 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until golden brown and crisp on top.

Duck carnitas recipe

2011-11-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

Oh fuck me.

Duck Carnitas

Carnitas de Pato

Makes 3 generous cups of coarsely shredded carnitas

Recipe from Season 7 of Mexico - One Plate at a Time

INGREDIENTS

6 large duck legs (you need 2 1/2 to 3 pounds total)
4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
6 cups fresh, rich-tasting pork lard
8 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
Crunchy Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa

DIRECTIONS

1. Marinate the duck. Lay the duck legs in a 13 x 9-inch non-aluminum baking dish. Sprinkle with half the salt and oregano, then drizzle with half the lime juice. Flip them over and sprinkle with the remaining salt and oregano; drizzle with the remaining lime. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning a couple of times.

2. Cook the duck. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large (4-quart) saucepan, melt the lard. Remove the duck from the baking dish and pat dry on paper towels. Rinse and dry the baking dish. Fit in the duck legs. Pour the lard over the duck, making sure the legs are completely submerged. Scatter the garlic cloves over the duck legs and nestle them into the lard. Slide into the oven (you may want to do this on a rimmed baking sheet to avoid spills), and bake for about 2 hours until the duck is very tender. Cool to lukewarm.

3. Serve the duck carnitas. Remove the duck from the lard. Pull off the skin and set aside. Pull the meat from the bone into large pieces. Discard the bones. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the lard into a very large (12-inch) skillet (preferably nonstick) and set over medium-high. When hot, lay in the skin and cook, turning frequently, until very crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove to a drain on paper towels. Add the meat and cook, turning regularly, until browned and crisping in spots, about 7 or 8 minutes Scoop into a serving platter. Coarsely crumble the duck skin over the top and serve with the Tomatillo-Avocado Salsaand warm tortillas.

Sweet potatoes with Thai red curry paste

2011-11-16T10:39:00.001-08:00

November 11, 2009
RECIPE
Fiery Sweet Potatoes

Time: About 2 hours

5 pounds sweet potatoes

1 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon salt.

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake potatoes on a baking sheet until very soft, about 1 hour. When cool enough to handle, peel and mash.

2. In a small saucepan, heat coconut milk with curry paste over low heat. Mix coconut milk mixture, half the sugar, half the butter, and salt into potatoes. Keep warm until ready to serve, or cover and refrigerate up to two days.

3. At least 30 minutes before serving, heat oven to 425 degrees. Put potatoes in a baking dish, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover potatoes, dot with remaining butter and sugar and broil until brown and crusty on top, checking often to prevent scorching.

Yield: 10 to 12 servings.

Source

Brussels sprouts

2011-11-14T09:53:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving

Baked Greek shrimp

2011-11-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

Gonna eat this.

Ingredients

1 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
½ tsp oregano
1/4th tsp salt
pinch of red pepper flakes
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.
Heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet and add the garlic. Saute for about one minute until fragrant then add the can of tomatoes and the spices. Simmer for another three minutes.
Place raw shrimp in an oven-proof dish and pour sauce on top. Crumble feta over the sauce and bake for 15-20 minutes until shrimp are done.
Serve with pasta or, my favorite, chewy sourdough bread.

roasted brussels sprouts and shallots with balsamic vinegar

2011-11-02T15:27:00.001-07:00

For Thanksgiving

Jamaican pumpkin soup

2011-11-01T11:17:00.001-07:00

Yum. Christmas?

Pueblo corn pie

2011-11-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Meatless recipe - sounds awesome

Pear cranberry and ginger-snap crumble

2011-11-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

Maybe Christmas dessert recipe

Apple tart

2011-11-01T11:13:00.002-07:00

Good dessert recipe

Minestrone

2011-11-01T11:13:00.001-07:00

Good recipe

Haunted Air

2011-11-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

A book I wanna get.

Pulled pork

2011-02-04T14:28:00.000-08:00

Pulled Pork

You will need:

Pork (durr) - A five- or six-pound boneless butt should do ya

Salt – a cup for the brine, plus a little more for the rub

Sugar – a half cup for the brine, plus a little more for the rub

Liquid Smoke – three tablespoons for the brine, plus a few drops for the rub

Mustard – about ¼ cup. I have tried fancy mustards, but yellow’s best

Pepper

Smoked Paprika

Cayenne Pepper

Onions – two or 3 medium-sized brown ones

Garlic – as many cloves as you like, each sliced in half

The Usual Suspects – Worcestershire, Tabasco, molasses, to taste

Here’s what you do:

Slice the pork butt in half horizontally – this gives you more surface area to develop that crunchy bark. Dissolve a cup of the salt, half cup of the sugar and three tablespoons of Liquid Smoke in a few cups of hot water. Add it to 3 or 4 quarts of very cold water and stir until everything is cool. Then sink the pork in the brine and fridge it for two hours

While that’s chilling out, mix the mustard and 1 or 2 teaspoons of Liquid Smoke in a bowl. Set that aside and combine two tablespoons each of sugar, black pepper and smoked paprika with a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and 1 or two teaspoons of salt in another bowl. Set that aside and just hang for a while

When the two hours are up, preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Take the pork out of the brine and pat it dry on all sides. Throw away the brine. Stab the pork here and there with a thin knife, and slip a piece of garlic into each hole. Rub the pork all over with the mustard mixture, and then with the dry spice mixture.

Cut the ends off your onions, slice them in half and peel them. Set a rack inside a roasting pan and place the pork on the rack. Toss in the onions and cover the pan with parchment and aluminum foil – tightly, to trap the steam. Roast for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, remove the foil. Pour off the liquid from the bottom of the pan and stick it in the fridge to let the fat separate. Roast the pork uncovered for another hour and a half, until it’s dark brown. Let the pork rest under a loose cover of aluminum foil for about a half hour

While the pork is resting, take your pan drippings out of the fridge, skim off the cooled fat, and make a bbq sauce. I kinda freestyled it, adding molasses, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and tamarind paste to the drippings and a tomato puree. You know what you’re doing. Just taste as you go, a little salt and pepper here and there, boom.

Shred the pork with forks, toss it with some of the sauce. Hold a little sauce back, warm it up with the roasted onions, and serve it with the pork.

Pommes de terre

2011-01-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

Nothing to see here. Just a potato recipe I like

YOU WILL NEED

1 small onion

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

a pound or so of potatoes – I like Yukon Golds or anything waxy like that. Starchy spuds can fall apart

2 or 3 cups of stock – chicken or veggie is best.

Fresh herbage – thyme is beautiful, so is rosemary or sage, or dried herbes de provence

Oil – olive oil is nice, but don’t waste the really good stuff on this dish

Salt and pepper

WHAT TO DO

Preheat the oven to 400

Chop up whatever herbs you’re using, finely dice the onion, and mince (or microplane) the garlic. Set them aside, separately.

If you have a mandoline, great. But if not, just slice the potatoes about 1/8^th inch thick.

Start a nice heavy pot over medium heat with a little oil, and add your onion. Stir it around while it sweats and becomes translucent. A pinch of salt will help the onion release some of its water. Add the garlic next, and keep it moving. Pour in just a quick glug of the room-tem stock, enough to get everything wet.

Now drop the slices in a pot, sprinkling the herbage in as you go

Pour in some more of the stock, just to cover the spuds by about an inch at first. Add another pinch of salt and a few cracks of pepper. Bring it to a boil and let it go for about 5 minutes. The potatoes will begin to release some starch and thicken the liquid

Once they’ve softened a bit, pour the contents of the pot – spuds, stock and all – into a baking dish. Try to make the surface as even as possible. Give the liquid a quick taste and add more salt and pepper if you want to

Bake it for about 40 minutes, until the top gets kinda brown and crispy looking

You can add more stock midway through cooking if you really really think you need to. But this dish tastes better a little too dry than a little too wet.

Rrrrrawrrrr!

2010-12-20T16:46:00.001-08:00

Pot roast

2010-12-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

You can do this with pretty much any meat - pork, venison, drifter - but for purposes of this discussion we're talking about a beef chuck, rump or bottom round roast in the 4 - 5 pound range.

Peel and slice some garlic cloves - as many as you feel like using - lengthwise in half. Pierce the meat on all sides with a thin-bladed knife, and stick half a clove in each cut. Shove them sumbitches in deep.

Rub the meat all over with oil - any neutral-tasting oil like canola or veg will do. Now! Kosher salt and black pepper all over, and it's INTO THE PAN!

That's right, a pan. A nice, heavy-bottmed one. You're going to sear the meat first. (Avoid cast iron if you're going to cook onions in the pan - the acid can react with the iron and taste pooh.) Put the pan over a medium-high flame and let it get nice and hot. When you can't comfortably hold your hand a couple inches from the surface for more than a second or two, you're ready.

Drop the meat in - did it sizzle when it hit the pan? It should sizzle - and sear it on all sides. People used to think this "locked in" the juices. It's been demonstrated to be a bunch of hooey, but I still hear people say it all the time. What it - technically the process is known as the Maillard reaction, athankyouverymuch- does is caramelize the proteins and sugars on the surface of the meat. This results in a tasty brown crust on the meat and - more important - some tasty brown bits in your pan.

Don't sear it too long - this isn't about cooking, it's about a quick caramelization.

Remove the meat from the pan. And for the love of god use tongs. None of this savagery with forks, PLEASE. Okay, lower the heat a bit and throw in a handful or two of onions. White, brown, Spanish, doesn't matter. Sliced, diced, however you like them. They'll release a little of their water and help loosen up the yummy brown crusty things in the pan. Use a wooden spoon to nudge the onions around. Again, you don't need the onions too brown - remember, they'll be cooking a long time in the crock pot. Just start them off. Okay now, drop a couple glugs of wine - red or white, doesn't matter, whatever you happen to be drinking at the moment - into the pan and scrape around the bottom with that wooden spoon.

All right! Kill the burner and turn your attention to the crock pot. Dump a diced rib of celery along with some peeled, roughly chopped carrots, parsnips, and maybe a rutabaga or two into the bottom. Place your browned and baronial cut of beef on top of the root veg with a couple sprigs of thyme, some rosemary, and a couple bay leaves. You like tomatoes? Fine - crush a few plum or Roma tomatoes in your hands and throw them in. Pour the wine and onion mixture from the pan on top. Add more liquid - more wine, or some beef stock, or a mixture of both - until all but the top third or quarter of the roast is submerged.

Are you excited? You should be. 'Cause now it's time to put the lid in place and start the slow cooker. Go HIGH for three to four hours, or (what I recommend) LOW for eight to nine hours. If you opted for less liquid, i.e., more of the meat above the liquid line - you really should go low and slow. And no peeking!

Walk away, take a bath, compose a sonnet, drink, go cop some herb.

When the specified interval has elapsed, turn off the slow cooker and carefully remove the roast to a nice big, deep platter. Tent it with foil and give it about 20 minutes to relax. When you're ready to serve, spread some of the cooked veggies around the roast and spoon some cooking liquid over the top. You can carve, but it should be so tender you can just pull it apart with forks. Mashed potatoes or Yorkshire pudding are great with this. Or just a nice crusty loaf of bread.

You can make a nice thick gravy by straining the cooking liquid and adding it to a roux, like you did for the turkey gravy. But I just like to eat it as is. Whatever you decide, you'll be tucking into the tenderest, most flavorful cheap cut of beef you've ever known.

And maybe use the leftover cooking liquid to make a nice big bowl of egg noodle soup a day or so later.

Macaroni and cheese

2010-12-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here’s the current iteration of my mac ‘n’ cheese. I tend to fuck with it periodically.

YOU WILL NEED

Macaroni – (durr) I like Barila elbows, because they have a little more texture
Cheese – (hurrdurr) about four cups of grated cheddar - or three cups cheddar and a cup of Gruyere - plus maybe some pecorino or parmesan. Go crazy! UPDATE: About three cups should do it. Maybe three and a half.
Milk – a little less than four cups. Whole milk – skim will curdle when you try to simmer it. If you’re feeling really slutty you could use half and half. I use milk. I’m a health nut. UPDATE: I think two-and-a-half to three cups is a better amount.
Flour – three, maybe three and a half tablespoons
Butter – about the same amount. I like to cook with unsalted butter and then season as I go
Mustard powder – a tablespoon or so
Garlic – four or five cloves, just smashed. Don’t bother peeling them. Just make sure they’re open
Thyme – five or six sprigs
Italian parsley – optional, but I like it. Just tear up a few handfuls and stir it in.
Nutmeg - about a teaspoon. Some nerds insist it has to be grated Fresh. Whatever. UPDATE: Quit fucking around. Grate it fresh
Optional - Saute anything you think would taste good and throw it in as you build the sauce. Leeks, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes (soak 'em and slice real thin)
Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce – a few dashes of each, to taste

WHAT TO DO

Preheat the oven to 400

Boil the macaroni in lots of salted water until it’s just barely done. It’ll cook again in the baking so you don’t want it too mushy. Drain it and rinse it under cold water. This will stop the pasta from cooking any further, which is good. And it will remove the free starch from the outside of the noodles - starch can make your finished sauce kinda grainy.

Warm the milk in a pot, and add the thyme and garlic. Give it a stir and let it simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Melt the butter in a big deep skillet and wait for the foam to bubble away. Then stir in the flour and mustard powder a little at a time, stirring or whisking to avoid lumps. About five minutes should do it. Sprinkle the nutmeg on top. Now’s the time to stir in your Worcestershire and hot sauce.

Now strain the simmered milk into the skillet with the roux and stir until it’s all mixed, then melt the cheese(s) in a handful at a time. Give it a taste, and add salt and pepper if you think it needs it.

Scoop the macaroni a bit at a time into the cheese sauce until everything is combined. Add the parsley or any other mix-ins now too.

Pour the whole hot mess into a baking dish. Grate some of the pecorino/parmesan on top to make a nice crispy crust. OR – if you’re feeling really frisky, melt some butter in a small pan, and toss some panko bread crumbs in. Pour this butter/breadcrumb mixture over the noodles and then top it with some pecorino.

Let it bake until the top is brown and bubbly. Half an hour tops.

Paul M. Fugate

2009-08-09T10:14:00.001-07:00

2009-03-19T16:17:00.001-07:00

2009-03-14T12:34:00.001-07:00

Gareth L. Powell

2009-01-13T21:42:00.000-08:00

I have a new literary hero. He's a science-fiction author in the UK named Gareth L. Powell. I had never heard of him until this evening, when I stumbled across a series of guest blog posts here, here and here. The reader - this presumes an audience of bloggers and amateur SF authors - is invited to benefit from Mr. Powell's years of experience in direct marketing.

My question is this: Have I been hoodwinked by some viral marketing persona? I mean, his copy is just too pitch-perfect to be an accident. Ex: 'If you’re buying Christmas presents, our book reviews will help you to separate the turkeys from the crackers.' - I mean come ON!

This guy is awesome

2008-12-28T10:12:00.001-08:00

Le ballet de Céladon from Alexis on Vimeo.

2008-12-20T16:31:00.001-08:00

I shit you not

2008-11-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

Right now on the Sci-Fi Channel: Flu Bird Horror

This from the network that gave us one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking series on basic cable.

Holy shit, I am such a nerd.