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September 29, 2005
Ceci est mon blog
Today I was over at Sarah's blog, All About Q, and wanted to make a comment on one of her hilarious posts, and found that, for some reason, I had to register with Blogger to do it. That's no problem.
What was wierd was that, while signing up for what I thought was going to be a simple allowance to post to Sarah's blog, in addition, I also ended up with a free blogspot on Blogger. "Whaaa haaapeeen?"
Fear not, oh, Cake Clubbers (as I like to call you, my loyal fanbase). Thanks to Harold, this space will remain my on-line home.
Speaking of which... remember when everyone had "home pages?" Wasn't that quaint?
Posted by kyle at 4:03 PM | Comments (1)
September 27, 2005
Great Moments in the History of White Trash: Part Deux
Almost Heaven...
Cuffed Man Jumps in River, Then Swims BackTuesday, September 27, 2005
(09-27) 12:52 PDT Charleston, W.Va. (AP) --
A man arrested for allegedly breaking into a Cross Lanes store broke free from deputies and jumped into the Kanawha River, only to come back when he apparently realized he would not get far because his hands were handcuffed behind his back.
Deputies waited for him on the riverbank and took him into custody again, according to a criminal complaint filed by Kanawha County Sheriff's Deputy J.R. Powell.
David Douglas Griffy II, 23, of Cross Lanes was arrested around midnight Sunday. Police believe he smashed the Dollar General store window with a tire tool so another man could steal cold medicine used to make methamphetamine.
He was charged with breaking and entering and fleeing deputies, both felonies. He was being held in the South Central Regional Jail on Tuesday on a $45,000 bond.
Posted by kyle at 1:53 PM
September 26, 2005
Brunch with Zuzu
Our dear ol' pals Christine and Gary were back in town this week with the almost-two-year-old Zuzu in tow. She's still cute, still bald, and so are Christine and Gary, respectively.
Click here to see the pictures we took at two consecutive Sunday afternoon munchfests, first at Radhi's place in Noe Valley, and then at ours just yesterday. Looking at the photos, you might think we do nothing but eat and sit around, and you'd be right.
And speaking of eating, C'pher and I bussed out Brunch for Le Gang, and it was a pretty good one. On the menu was:
· Crumb Coffeecake
· Leonard's Dish
· Kicky Corn Muffins
· Mini-BLTs with Oven Bacon
· Tomato Pie
· Fruit Salad
· Green Salad
· Creme Brulee French Toast
· Sparkling Cherry-LIme Punch
· Coffee/Tea/OJ/Mimosas/Champers
We had more than enough for the assembled crowd, which seems sickeningly ideal to me. Elsewhere on this blog, you can find the dirt on the ever-popular Creme Brulee French Toast (which came out at the end, like dessert), but keep reading to find out more about the other dishes, and see their recipes.
CRUMB COFFEECAKE
This recipe is from one of my favorite gifts from the past year The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. This was the first thing anyone at the party cut into and it was a 100% hit. I made it in my favorite, the tube pan, and for the last few minutes of bake time, I added some slivered almonds. Even before I added a little dusting of Confectioners' sugar, this thing looked like it came from a professional bakery. The crumb was tasty with just a touch of almond flavor, but the cake was fucking incredible. I'm going to make the same batter again, and maybe make Dirt Bombs out of it... you know those little French cinnamon donut-esque cupcakes that are slathered in melted butter and then rolled in cinnamon and sugar? Yeah. Those.
This recipe will make two 8-inch round coffeecakes, or fill a 9x13-inch pan, or a 9- or 10-inch tube pan.
Crumb
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose (AP) flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
Cake
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
2 cups unbleached AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salk
1 teaspoon baking powder
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Pre heat the oven to 350° F. Grease the preferred pan(s).
To make the crumb: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, wisk together the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Melt the butter in the microwave or small saucepan and add the extracts to it. Pour the butter into the flour mixture and mix until all the butter is absorbed and you ahve a uniformly moistened crumb mixture. Set aside while you make the cake batter.
To make the batter: In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat between additions. Scrape down the mixing bowl, then beat in the vanilla and sour cream. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder together. Add to the butter/sour cream mixture, mixing until evenly combined. Pour the batter into the greased baking pan(s). Crumble the crumb mixture over the top, until the batter is completely covered. Bake for 20-25 minutes for 8-inch rounds, 30-35 minutes for a 9x13-inch pan, or 35-40 minutes for a 9- or 10-inch tube pan. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and cool on a rack; dust the top Confectioners' sugar, if desired.
LEONARD'S DISH aka 'The Recipe'
This is your typical egg-and-sausage-and-bread dish that every family has their own version of. This one happens to belong to Chirstopher's dad, Leonard, aka Boobie. We love dishes like this since you do all of the work the night before and just pop the sucker into the oven the next morning and voila.
We made ours with Chorizo instead of Italian sausage, added some cumin and fresh ground pepper in addition to the dry mustard, and served it with some diced raw white onion and cilantro on the side; the recipe lends itself well to adaptation. We also used mostly egg beaters, which work fine in this dish. Doubling this recipe works very well in a 9x13 pan. The chorizo, once out of its casing, really cooked up to a mush, so that was less than ideal, but the resulting taste was still pretty good. This stuff is GREAT re-heated the next day, so save your leftovers. Yum!
1 pound browned bulk sausage, drained
2 slices sandwich bread, pulled apart
6 eggs beaten
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Have ungreased medium-sized baking dish ready.
Brown the sausage in a skillet and drain away excess fat. Set aside to cool. Tear bread into bite-sized irregular bits and scatter in the bottom of the baking dish. Beat eggs with milk, salt, and dry mustard. Scatter sausage evenly over the bottom of the dish. Top with 1 1/2 cups of the cheese. Pour egg mixture over the whole thing and top with the remaining cheese.
Cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight. When ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 350° F. Bake for 45 minutes until bubbly. Serve immediately.
KICKY CORN MUFFINS
Another gem from The Baker's Companion (where they are known as Corn Muffins with a Kick), I made these as a likely companion to Leonard's Dish, but I think I may have overmixed them, because they came out a little tough. I hardly ever have luck with muffins, though, so I need some practice. These have a nice piquant bite thanks to the jalapenos and cayenne, so if they were mixed right, they might not be so bad. I like savory corn muffins, so I haven't given up yet -- the cookbook recommends these as a side for chili.
1 cup milk
1 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup minced scallions
3 Tablespoons jalapeno peppers, minced
1 cup shredded pepperjack cheese
Preheat the oven to 425° F and heavily grease 12 muffin cups.
In a small bowl, pour the milk over the cornmeal and set the mixture aside to soak while you assemble the dry ingredients.
In a medium-sized bowl, wisk together the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Beat the eggs and add them to the cornmeal mixture with the oil. Add the cornmeal and milk to the dry ingredients, stirring until just blended; don't beat this batter or your muffins will be tough. Fold in the scallions, jalapeno peppers, and 3/4 cup of the grated pepperjack cheese. Spoon the batter into the pan, filling each muffin cup 3/4 full. Sprinkle the remaining cheese atop the muffins, and bake them for 18-22 minutes, until they're golden brown.
OVEN BACON
This an idea I originally saw in Everyday Food, one of the best cooking magazines around. With some advice from my pal Jason from work, who is a food stylist and great cook himself, I doctored it up with fresh Thyme, which turns out to be an amazing addition to Bacon, whether it's regular or Lemon Thyme. We have some growing in the herb garden in our building's courtyard. Hurrah, fresh herbs!
We had some good lettuce, tomatoes, bread and mayo out so our guests could make their own BLTs. It was a hit, and very tasty. A brunch without bacon is like a day without sunshine!
1 1/4 pounds thick-sliced bacon
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1-2 Tablespoons fresh thyme
1 Tablespoon fresh ground pepper
Preheat oven to 425° F. Lay bacon out in a single layer on a cooling rack set over a rimmed baking sheet lined in foil. Sprinkle liberally with thyme, pepper, and brown sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, and carefully drain off fat drippings if you can, then bake for an additional 6-7 minutes, until bacon is crisp. If using more than one pan, be sure to rotate the pans halfway through the baking time.
TOMATO PIE
I first made Tomato Pie for a gathering with all our new neighbors, and it was easy and delicious. The hardest part is getting the pie baked, but protecting the pie-crust edges from getting too overdone. There is nothing worse than burnt pastry. I think those pie crust edge protector thingies that I've seen would really help, but I don't have one myself... yet.
The recipe says you can serve this hot or at room temp, but I'd let it sit. The hot version is too runny and falls apart. I actually also altered some of the cooking times in this recipe from its original form as found on the Food Network's website, and the new times seem to make much more sense. No offense to Sara Moulton, but pre-baking a crust for 20 minutes, even on the lowest rack of the oven, is just asking for trouble.
1 (9-inch) frozen pie shell, thawed
3 large tomatoes, about 1 1/2 pounds, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
Kosher salt, for sprinkling
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 cup coarsely grated Gruyere
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Additional kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Line the shell with foil and fill with pie weights, dried beans, or rice. Bake in the lower third of the oven for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the weights and foil. Return to the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes more or until light golden. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.
Turn up the oven to 400 degrees F.
Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and drain in a colander for 10 to 15 minutes. Spread the mustard over the bottom of the shell and sprinkle the cheese over it. Arrange the tomatoes over the cheese in one overlapping layer. Bake until the pastry is golden brown and the tomatoes are very soft, 35 to 40 minutes.
In a small bowl, stir together the parsley, thyme, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste to blend. Sprinkle the pie with this mixture while hot and spread out gently with the back of a spoon. Serve the pie hot or at room temperature.
SPARKLING CHERRY-LIME PUNCH
Christine is pregnant again... this time with twin boys (whom she and Gary have naturally pledged to name Chrisopher and Kyle), so we wanted to have something special and non-alcoholic. Thanks to Ms. Julie, we also have a gorgeous customized punchbowl, and so I sought out a good punch recipe.
I was fixated on cherry, and experimented with a few ingredients without much success. A word to the wise: using cherry gelatin as the base for punch just makes the punch taste like cheap red pop. I finally hit upon the idea of Cherry 7-Up, which had exactly the taste I was hoping for. Light, sweet without being artificial tasting, and most importantly, cherry. I decided I couldn't just fill up the punchbowl with 7-Up, so I made an ice-ring with an addative that would lend more flavor, and added some limeade for an underlying citrus punch. Pardon the pun.
This stuff was DELICOUS, especially when cold because of the ice ring, and refreshing. C'pher said it made a great mimosa with champagne, too, so feel free to booze it up as long as your'e not pregnant with my namesake. I'm thinking chambord wouldn't be a bad additive.
Ice Ring
1 medium bottle unsweetened 100% cherry juice
about 30 or so frozen or fresh pitted cherries
Punch
1 2-liter bottle Cherry 7-Up, chilled
1/2 cup frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
1 lime for garnish
Place several cherries in an ice-ring mold and fill part-way with cherry juice, freeze. Once cherries are held in place, top with more cherry juice until ring is full. Ring may be removed from the mold and saved in a plastic bag in the freezer until it is needed. Take frozen limeade can, and store it in the fridge to thaw.
Assemble the punch: place ice ring in punch bowl, and pour Cherry 7-Up over it. Pour in thawed limeade concentrate and stir. Taste, and add more limeade if necessary. Garnish with thin slices of lime.
Posted by kyle at 4:52 PM | Comments (1)
September 23, 2005
Regular
So I've finally become a regular. You know when you visit an establishment so often that they recognize your face and/or name and greet you and say "welcome back," and give you special deals? That kind of regular.
This is something that a small town boy like me usually only dreams about. For someone at the nieghborhood newsstand or comics shop, or convenience store or bar or restaurant to know you... that's just the coolest.
So when the manager of Quizno's on Golden Gate (whom I actually made fun of in an earlier post) gave me a free drink and said "You're in here all the time" today, I thought "Wow! I'm a regular!"
And then I thought, "At Quizno's." Hm.
The moral of today's story: Be careful what you wish for.
Posted by kyle at 2:22 PM
September 21, 2005
Great Moments in the History of White Trash
I suppose I could think of a worse place to be born out of wedlock than Fresno, but....
Wrong man paying Scott Peterson's mistress child supportWednesday, September 21, 2005
09-21) 12:55 PDT Fresno, Calif. (AP) --
The mistress of convicted murderer Scott Peterson is back in the spotlight after a DNA test showed that her first child was not fathered by the man who has been paying child support.
Fresno hairstylist Anthony Flores, 29, has been paying Frey $175 a month for nearly four years, his attorney, Glenn Wilson, said Wednesday.
The father of the 4-year-old girl is actually Fresno restaurant owner Christopher Funch, Wilson said.
No one answered the telephone at Porky's Rib House on Wednesday, and Funch did not have a listed home number.
"You'd think that Amber Frey's notoriety would have died down," Wilson said. "Unfortunately, she's like a bad penny, she keeps coming back."
Wilson said Flores was preparing to file a court motion seeking visitation rights, which he has been denied, when the man received word last week that he was not the child's father.
"Amber always asserted to him that he was the only guy she was sleeping with during that time period so Anthony's never had any reason to question it," Wilson said. "Anthony's big thing is that his reputation has been harmed. This poor guy can't go anywhere without people pointing at him."
Flores said he feels duped.
"She was very convincing when she told me I was the only person who could be the father," he said. "I want an apology."
Frey, a massage therapist from Fresno, was Peterson's mistress when he killed his pregnant wife, Laci, in December 2003. Her testimony helped prosecutors convict the fertilizer salesman, who was sentenced to death.
Frey's attorney, Gloria Allred, said Wednesday that her client never intended to deceive Flores.
"Amber, in good faith, always believed that Mr. Flores was her child's father," Allred said.
Frey also has another child by a different man.
Posted by kyle at 2:47 PM
September 20, 2005
1,904...
Seeing this article...
Military: Troop Deaths Hit 1,904 in IraqBy STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
The U.S. military said Tuesday that four U.S. soldiers died in two roadside bombings near the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi and a fifth died in a blast north of Baghdad, pushing the toll of American forces killed in Iraq past 1,900.
Reminded me sadly of this post from the Jo-Tel:
1001...Americans dead in Iraq. I don't even know what to say...
Just don't forget to vote on November 2nd, because you know, fuck this.
Posted by PETE 9/7/04 2:56pm
I wish more people had read that post. In Ohio.
Posted by kyle at 4:37 PM
September 16, 2005
Man and He-Man
Tip for identifying bad comics: If they have to tell you it's awesome, it probably isn't.
Another one of my amazingly insightful yet precociously biting bad comics reviews for Queer Eye on Comics is going to be posted this Sunday on the ever-popular Prism Comics website. You, however, can sneak a pre-performance peek at this gem by clicking here.
I promise that I read good comics, too. I should really write about those once and a while. Wish I had some kind of easily updatable, on-line vehicle to which I could post my comics reviews and musings. Too bad all I've got is this pointless blog. Oh well.
Posted by kyle at 1:33 PM
September 15, 2005
Am I Blue?
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has invented one of those clever "what exactly am I" quizzes that, back in the day when websites were fun to surf to, made The Spark* the place to kill an hour or four finding out what gender you were. Those crazy mid-late '90s!
Anycrap, I took the Pew's "Beyond Red and Blue" Political Typology quiz and... suprise! I'm a Liberal. I'm so blue, I'm ultraviolet. Now what I need is a primer on how to turn my now Social Conservative mother back onto the right track. Er, Left track. You know what I mean.
Click here to take the test yourself. It's interesting, but won't tell you how datable you are. Sorry.
*The Spark was fun for their quizzes, but what my pal James and I liked them for was the desk-cams they had trained on the staff, including a hottie named Dan Ring (I still have screenshots of him saved somewhere), and a lanky cute boy named Christian Rudder who I recently saw in the hilariously real film "Funny Ha Ha." The whole time, I was saying, "I know that guy. I know that guy." Then it hit me, and C'pher and Kay had no idea what I was talking about. Don't you hate when that happens?
Posted by kyle at 4:18 PM
September 14, 2005
Go Ahead
Type the word failure into your Google search window.
...
Zing!
Posted by kyle at 4:14 PM
September 13, 2005
Not now, I'm playing.
What you see above is one of the worlds best babies. Ever. Ever. I swear.
C'pher and I returned Sunday from our week-long Babyfest back in Ohio and West Virginia. We took 313 pictures. To paraphrase Rebecca, I hope you look forward to seeing... some of them.
But later. For now, check out baby Max, my godson, in his natural state. He just learned to clap.
Babies are fucking awesome.
Posted by kyle at 2:42 PM | Comments (1)
Photoshoppers: Ready, Set...
... aaaaaaaaand Go.
45 bodies found inside New Orleans hospital / President tours devastated city with mayor, governor Vice Adm. Thad Allen and an unidentified man (left to right) reach to lift a downed power line as Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, President Bush, Lt. Gen. Russ Honore and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin duck under it during Bush's first up-close look at the damage. Associated Press photo by Susan Walsh
Posted by kyle at 3:17 AM