Kit Carson, frontiersman and mountain man, allegedly gasped out the words "I wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili" before succumbing to an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Considering he lived his final years in the great state of Colorado, one can infer that Kit wasn't just talking about any chili. He probably was referring to the green kind. Green chili you say? Yes, green chili. It wasn't a dish I had dined on until my visit to Denver. Here I dined on it four different times. It was served with Breakfast Burritos. It was served [...]
Yes that is a Vegan Taco. It is also a Vegan Taco shirt. The only problem? The taco came from one business, the shirt from another. J-Fur was famished after a day of grocery shopping. I had always wanted to try a hole in the wall taco place just past the farmer's market so I pulled in without a thought to the attire I was wearing. Only in line did I realize what was happening. I went back to the car to grab my phone and search for a backup shirt. I had none. I wasn't about to step foot [...]
Poet Pablo Neruda masterfully blends love, fruit and slaughtering butterflies in his poem What Spring Does with the Cherry Trees . The poem's essence can be summed up best by its closing line "I want to do with you what the spring does with the cherry trees." In most of the word spring isn't yet here. In Florida, I don't think it ever left. Still, it would be premature to base this mix solely on the seasons. Instead I base it on the theme. Love. Fruit. Dark chocolate. February is all of these things (for [...]
I've got a huge aloe plant on my porch that seems to keep multiplying (aw man, I just looked out the window and it increased in size again). Every time I look, there's more. Because I am so meticulous and fluid in the kitchen, I don't burn myself enough to use more than a stalk of aloe a year. What do I do with the rest of it? Drink it. I've held off on aloe drinks for the longest time. How could that gel that soothes burns be something that tastes worthwhile? But, a few weekends ago at [...]
Lady Gaga once compared jet lag to a bad batch of shrooms. To that I laugh and say "Gee, it must be nice to suffer from jet lag." I mean some of us here in the middle class can't afford to fly our wives, dogs, skis, guns, golf clubs and luggage north for the holidays. So we make a sixteen hour drive instead. Give me jet lag any day over that. This version of the trip was especially harrowing because I drove for 13 hours straight, losing my MP3 player halfway thru, and I only had a five song EP [...]
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end." -Semisonic I try to instill, in the young writers that I teach, that what Semisonic professed in their song "Closing Time" was that a beginning is nothing without an end. And an end is nothing without a beginning. Younger me was just like most of those writers. He petered out at the end or spun his tires in the beginning and could never seem to write a story that was perfect in all facets (save for that Jeffrey Dahmer "stream of consciousness" piece that was modeled after William [...]
George Ade once suggested that "one man's poison ivy is another man's spinach." I think back to the time my grandmother built a fire out of poison ivy while us kids were out sledding well into the cold Pennsylvania night. All that smoke hitting me square in the face would, in less than 48 hours, cause me to swell up. My right eye was half closed, my right ear looked like a cauliflower protruding from my head. If only it had been spinach she burnt that night. I'd have had a healthy dinner and could've been spared the ridicule I [...]
Madonna once breathlessly sang "You've got to make him express how he feels." At the opposite side of the spectrum, NWA proclaimed "I'm expressin' with my full capabilities, and now I'm livin' in correctional facilities." People, people, we've got to find that balance. You don't want diarrhea of the mouth, I'm talking the kind that starts hindering your ability to get car insurance (right AC?). But it isn't any better to suffer from cement tongue, waiting around for the text to come when you already know what it will say. That's what this playlist is all ab...wait? Espresso? My bad....this [...]
For months the apple butter I bought was tucked somewhere in the vast void that is our refrigerator. It came up for air about a week ago and I grabbed it to make sure it didn't get away again. I planned some apple butter barbecue sauce, some ribs and maybe a dessert. Although I went in reverse order, dessert first. I chose Community Cucina's Apple Butter Oat Bars. This recipe called for 2/3 a cup of apple butter. That would pretty much take care of the jar. I dumped out the spread and...only managed half that. I cut the [...]
For many many centuries the bean, the powerful purveyor of vegetarian protein, has been regarded as the epitome of worthlessness. In the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk , Jack's mom was pissed that he came home with beans instead of something more valuable so she tossed them out the window. I echoed her frustration in high school when I had to read The Bean Trees instead of something meat based ( The Jungle ?). I tossed my book out the window (although I wasn't lucky enough to have anything sprout from it). This summer I realized the [...]
Victor Hakansson is no stranger to music. He has been making it since he was a five year old tambourine wielding show kid for a traveling theatrical company. As he grew up and faced the wraith of greasers and neo-nazis, living a life of solitude, fighting and fear, Victor eventually came to the point where he realized if he wanted to survive everything had to go. The only thing that he kept around was his music as this was the safest, most socially acceptable form of self-expression. Fast forwarding to the present day Victor, who heads Swedish music collective, The [...]
First there was this . Last night it sounded something like this . Next? Perhaps this . I've been Chicken Frying everything lately. There is something about that glorious mixture of flour and spices that really gets my feet treading water in the deep end. That's what this playlist is all about. It is a tribute to the world of chicken frying. Who better to do that than the bands that sound best chicken fried? Pull on your baffling breaded meat slippers and enjoy. Tender Branson-Chicken Fried Mix [...]
As my family digs out from a Northeast snow dump I want to use the beginning of this post to assure them that I am doing just fine down here. My half marathon went off without a hitch with nary a flurry anywhere. I did have to dodge some kid dressed as a monkey hurling sand balls but his aim was only slightly better than this guys so I survived. One of the meals that I shoved down my throat during those final precious carb party hours was the Autumn Vegetable Roast with Orzo from October's [...]
I was presented with a gift from my co-worker Renee today. It was a bag of these baby chili peppers from her garden. They stared at me throughout our morning meeting and about halfway through I decided to have me a sample. I wanted to check the Scoville Heat Unit on them. The heat was a little too much for my water bottle to handle so I grabbed the only other thing that was in my reach, a mini Hershey's Dark Bar. That's when it came to me. Hot peppers, chocolate and some....peanut butter? Why not? [...]
Thursday night I had the opportunity to attend a sold out event at Roosevelt 2.0 . The event included a showing of the documentary Farmegeddon , a discussion with the director and sampling of local foods and products provided by restaurants, farmers and foodies. WMNF , the local community radio station, played a large role in putting this event together. Farmegeddon, as with most documentaries, had some flaws but overall I enjoyed learning through human impact stories that were presented by the film. These were stories of farmers who were [...]
A few weeks back I did a tasting at Burger 21 ( here ) in West Chase. While I devoured veggie burgers and shakes the meat eaters were treated to sliders and hot dogs. The first thing I noticed when they brought out the hot dogs was the bread. They weren't your typical hot dog buns. These dogs were wrapped in what Burger 21 dubbed "Lobster Rolls." Laymen might call it "Texas Toast." Naturally my curiosity got the best of me and I had to replicate it at home. I chose the restaurant's Chili Cheese Dog as my [...]
I find these awesome recipes for rubs in pretty random places (I'm talking sports magazines, library books even pizza boxes). I hurry home, take out my block of tofu, clean and gut it gently, throw away all the unnecessary parts (tofu stomach is pretty disgusting if you ask me) and set to work rubbing that block with the utmost love. When it looks good I pop it in the oven and tap the minutes away until it is ready. I slide a piece in my mouth expecting bliss and what I get instead is...horror. This tastes awful! I just [...]
A Hollywood insider mentioned to me recently that they are planning a sequel to 2010's Get Him to the Greek . In this story Russell Brand's character, Aldous Snow, must help Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) escape the mundane flavors of processed food America. Snow has only three days to get Green to Greece, find him some gyros, hummus, falafel, salad, saganaki, dolmadas or spanikopita. Failure to do so will result in...well the insider didn't want to give away the ending. I've offered this soundtrack as it is entirely about the desire to seek out Greek food. [...]
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MP3: Daft Punk – “Horizons” (RAM Japanese Bonus Track)
Listen to Daft Punk’s “Horizon”, the Japanese bonus track for Random Access Memories
Diplo Clarifies His Thoughts On Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ Via Lengthy Facebook Letter
Daft Punk – “Horizon” (Japan-Only Bonus Track)
