tumbling with tricerapops...

The Cork Wars (Taken with instagram)

Aaliyah in “Romeo Must Die”

in all moments of movie magic, “Romeo Must Die” in its entirety, has to be one of the best examples. i mean, c’mon - JET LI AND AALIYAH SPARKIN’ THAT ROMANCE? It would take LucasArts and Industrial Light and Magic 100 years to CGI this type of fiction!!! not going to lie, Jet Li gave me hope.  I seriously stared at this .gif for what had to be several hours. 

(via thatmodelgirl)

An ode to sherry.

Recently.

2010 - Luneau Papin, Dom. Pierre De La Grange VV. delicious. fruit in the front, rocks in the back and was without an acidic slap in the face that the 2010 Clos De Briords offered (which wasn’t off-putting, mind you)

2009 - Ferrando Canavese (La Torrazza). approachable, and not as tannic as i was expecting.  Delicious with sunday sauce over orecchiette and lardo.

speaking for pork fat - I did a quick dry cure of pork fat, and cubed it for a carbonara.  results were encouraging, certainly helped by the fact that I added one more egg than i likely needed (whenever in doubt…..)

We’re heading into the holiday party season - so here is a little music to help you break up the monotony of the Chipmunk Song and “12 Days of Christmas” as sung by the Muppets (both classics, don’t get it twisted). I secured a mix from the guys over at Daptone records (now unavailable on the net, from what I can tell) - a soulful compilation of holiday treats that will surely help that spiked egg nog go down easier this year. You’ll note that the tempo can swing from upbeat to moody soulful, so ideal settings would be amongst other grown-ups over drinks, during the wind down.

Here’s the playlist (the Otis Redding track is off the CHARTS!) -

1. Jing Jing A Ling ~ Honey and the Bees (Chess)

2. Merry Christmas, Baby ~ Otis Redding (Atco)

3. This Christmas ~ Donny Hathaway (Atco)

4. Stevie Wonder Drop (Motown)

5. Snowflakes ~ Betty Lloyd (Thomas)

6. What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas? ~ The Emotions (Volt)

7. The Gift of Giving ~ Bill Withers (Sussex)

8. Eddie Kendricks drop (Motown)

9. Soul Santa ~ Funk Machine (Creative Funk)

10. Silent Night Chant ~ Rotary Connection (Cadet Concept)

11. Christmas in Vietnam ~ Private Charles Bowen (Rojac)

12. Let’s Make This Christmas mean Something This Year ~ James Brown (King)

13. Without The One You Love ~ The O’Jays (Neptune)

14. Gwendolyn Berry (The Sisters Love) Drop

15. Let’s Get It Together This Christmas ~ Harvey Averne Band (Fania)

16. Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas ~ Carla Thomas (Atlantic)

17. Back Door Santa ~ Clarence Carter (Atlantic)

18. I Wanna Spend Christmas With You ~ Lowell Fulsom (Kent)

19. Mr. Santa Claus (Bring Me My Baby) ~ Nathaniel Mayer (Munster)

20. It’s That Time of the Year ~ The Manhattans (Starfire)

21. Santa’s Got A Bag of Soul ~ The Soul Saints Orch. (Jazzman)

22. Pull My Sled ~ Raindeer Runners (Soul Fire)

23. Merry Christmas Baby ~ Charles Brown & Johnny Moore’s 3 Blazers (Hollywood)

24. Smokey Robinson Drop

theclearlydope:

LIVESTRONG

[via bunnyfood + sofapizza + flyingscotsman (via)]

(via philk)

spaghetti, anchovies, capers, roasted cauliflower, bread crumbs. 

great meld of flavors, and will try this dish again.  i was heavy handed with the bread crumbs, which ended up soaking up the fat from the noodles a bit - resulting in a dry dish.  next time, I will garnish with crumbs instead of throwing them in with the noodles into the pan. also overestimated the saltiness from the anchovies and capers - still need to season the cauliflower.  all workable for the next go round. easy overall, however.

I CAN’T FUCKING WAIT!!!!!!!!

sqirl:

Sqirl’s kitchen is now up and running in Silverlake (Los Angeles, California).   While we’ve been preserving Quince + Rose Water, Fuyu Persimmons + Spice, (etc) we also have become a bit of a lacto fermenting machine. Sqirl’s pickle emporium if you will.

Why….?

Soon.

(photo courtesy of Zinzi! 

I came across some dried flageolet beans in the pantry, so decided to prep some over a weekend, and keep them in the fridge as a go to for weekday dinner sides.  Chef DJ Olsen over at Lou clued me in on his technique that does not require soaking the beans overnight.  Basically I boiled water and then dumped the beans in the pot, covered it and turned off the heat (helping to release the gas from the beans that, well - give one gas). After 15-20 minutes I drained and washed the beans and threw them back in salted water along with some aromatics (parsley, thyme, bay leaf) and veggies (cut carrots, onions, fennel) under a simmer for 40 minutes or so.  Flageolets are sturdy, and quite forgiving to low and long cooking times (see: cassoulets) so I wasn’t too concerned.  I then removed the aromatics and veggies and transferred beans, broth and all to a container and into the fridge.

As a side, I render some cut bacon, throw in some diced onions, several scoops of the beans, and sautee for a few minutes.  Cream and thyme to finish, breadcrumbs to dress it if I’m in the mood.  Simple side that’s versatile with any protein (chicken and steak above).