That’s Righteous

Righteous Brothers:  You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’

Nina Simone

Mississippi Goddamn

Together

The Youngbloods:  Get Together

Although I would never describe myself as a gourmet cook, if you gave me a choice between spending all day in the kitchen and spending all day doing housework, the kitchen wins. I am picky about my pots,pans,knives and other cooking type attire.

One of my favorite ways to cook meat/poultry/pork and some kinds of fish, is the sear/roast method. I don’t know how well it translates to the vegans among us. Here is a good overview.

I use a cast iron or one of my French style steel fry pans. I heat until it sizzles enough to bounce water just a touch then take an evenly shaped cut of beef/pork/poultry/fish and cook it a few minutes each side. The kind of pan is critical because you won’t get a good browning with any kind of non stick pan. The it goes in the oven on a high temp between 400-500 depending on your oven. I generally make some kind of sauce and incorporate the brown bits from the searing. I like a wine/mushroom sauce for beef, a tomato olive concoction for chicken, a booze/fruit combo for pork ( don’t mix sweet fruit with sweet booze too overpowering) and so on… My rule with a sauce is use what you like. It is done quickly. I usually so a quick boil on green beans, give them a cold water shock, and then sauté them. People tend to think that cooking is too time consuming and all it takes is having some stock items that you use all the time.

A few other hints…

Experiment on hungry people, they are more appreciative…

Always have a few bottles of wine on hand in case things don’t go according to plan…

No kitchen is complete without a cast iron pan….

Gentlemen: Women LOVE a man who cooks for them… you are instantly transformed into Brad Pitt even if you don’t really resemble him.

Well, thanks for looking. Hang out and chit chat but don’t rec pony party. Please have a look at the great offerings on our recent and rec’d list. Participation equals democracy.

Do overs have never worked well for either my personal life or my film viewing life. The same crap that came up when I was young, immature, and rash resurfaced when I have tried do overs in romance and friendship later on in life. It was probably all my fault to begin with.

I can make an exception with music, not every cover I have ever heard was bad.

In my world, there is no disputing that the original Razor’s Edge was better than the Bill Murray version. In fact if I was single and dating and a fellow dared to challenge that notion, well that would be a deal breaker. Why oh why did Gus van Sant remake Psycho? Sure it was a daring enterprise and it took guts, but trench warfare took bravery and eventually they realized it was also stupid. Now, I must say the second Mutiny on the Bounty was great.

Nothing against Will Smith but messing with Omega Man is  just like inviting demonic trolls to a picnic. The Omega Man is one of two great Charlton Heston Sci Fi movies of the 1970’s, the other being Soylent Green and now I am fraught with worry some well meaning fool will try and a do over on that one. The Omega Man featured bad 1970’s special effects, an inter-racial romance with Rosalind Cash, zombies who hated technology with a charismatic leader ( sounds like the Christian right) and a weird ending in which Chuck gets a do over on being Christ.

Couldn’t they have waited until he was gone? I have a  real affection for post apocalyptic and apocalyptic movies, bad B and C grade mysteries from the 40’s and 50’s and 1970’s disaster movies. I have a  real affection for post apocalyptic and apocalyptic movies, bad B and C grade mysteries from the 40’s and 50’s and 1970’s disaster movies. I was born in 1964 so the 1970’s nostalgia isn’t that hard to figure out. Sorry Chuck. Wasn’t keen on most of your politics, and you looked good in a shirt when you were young and you made one of my top ten favorite movies of all time…Touch of Evil.

Music….

Thanks for checking in. One more pony party after this. Hang out and chit chat but don’t rec pony party, go have a look at the excellent offering on our recent and rec’d list.

A few words about unicorns. Apparently one of the reasons unicorns remain in the mythical realm is that Noah forgot to put them on the ark. I prefer to think they swam away during the great flood, did some body surfing and ended up in another world. They still visit occasionally don’t you know. If Jesus can show up as an image in a pancake in Florida, then I maintain that unicorns are still lurking around. Think of them as angels for the non-Christian set.

One legend about unicorns suggests that a beautiful woman named Elly with a wounded heart was healed by the tears of a unicorn.

There are purportedly biblical references in translation that refer to a unicorn like creature who possessed great strength and agility.

Somehow the unicorn also became associated with chaste love and faithful marriage. Ultimately, we like to invest great qualities in mystical creatures as perhaps a foreshadow of the reality that humans have so many failings and we like to think something out there somewhere does possess all of our good/noble qualities. I have no idea.

I have no idea what this next song really has to do with unicorns but it is funny….

Planet Unicorn….. Hey…..

If that tickled you… here is more about Planet Unicorn.

Thanks for peeking. Two more pony parties to come with more absolutely no deeper meaning at all! Please don’t rec pony party, hang out chit chat and then go have a look at the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

im showing my age…..

Thanks for looking. Please don’t rec pony party, hang out and chit chat, and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

Two straight days of a two anda half year old has quite worn me out! I’m off for a long nap. I thought I’d better quickly put something together before I go, just in case I sleep longer than planned…

A couple of my favorite tunes of the moment in no particular order….

celebrate!

who will buy:

roving eye:

holly days:

Thanks for looking. Please don’t rec pony party, hang out and chit chat, and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

Ally Bain, Jay Unger…Ashoken Farewell: (you might know this one!)

Natalie McMaster:

Slainte:

Ashley MacIsaac:

Merriam-Webster has chosen 2007’s ‘word of the year’….and the winner is…

w00t