Ladytron @ House of Blues, 4/8/09

Wednesday night I went to the Ladytron concert at the House of Blues. They were double-billed with The Faint.

The show was great! Ladytron opened with "Black Cat," which was a strong choice. On some songs, such as "High Rise," the vocals were overpowered by the instruments. Other than that, the band sounded great. The light show was fabulous, although an epileptic's nightmare (lots of flashing and strobe). I ended up liking "Soft Power" and "Seventeen" better live than recorded.

The last song, of course, was "Destroy Everything You Touch." Once again, the vocals were too low, but unlike "High Rise," they weren't completely drowned out and seemed to get stronger. Maybe one of the sound crew adjusted the volume. Also, at the end, a bubble machine in the ceiling turned on! It was a little strange, but when the strobe lights kicked in it was a cool effect.

Speaking of odd touches, right before Ladytron came on ELO's "Livin Thing" was playing over the sound system. I don't know if the band picked what songs to play during the set up or if House of Blues picked songs, but it seemed a little weird....

Happy "I'm Still Employed Day"

To celebrate surviving the first quarter without being laid off I went out and made a few purchase I've been putting off. I trekked to Marty's Liquors in Newton and bought some Hendrick's gin, Vya extra dry vermouth, and a bottle of Ararat Akhtamar 10 year brandy.

Now I can have fun playing around with the Hendrick's and seeing how it differs from the Plymouth in cocktails. I'm also going to look into cucumber cocktails, just in time for the spring and summer :)

Eating healthy, eating less?

After spending too much money on Restaurant Week, and eating foie gras two nights in a row last week, I decided this week I should brown bag my lunch, as well as eat healthier food. Since work is still keeping me busy, I knew I'd be more likely to succeed if I made putting together lunch easy. So I went to Sevan Bakery in Watertown and bought some sauteed chickpeas and Armenian potato salad. I also stopped by Arax Market, also in Watertown, and bought some nivik*, made with chickpeas and swiss chard (a quick search on the internet suggests nivik is usually made with spinach). I then picked up a head of Boston lettuce at Stop & Shop for sandwiches.

I was planning on some really nutritious, high fiber lunches.

Yesterday for lunch I had a peanut butter sandwich made with wheat bread, Welch's grape jelly, and organic peanut butter. In addition, I had a cup each of the nivik and Armenian potato salad. Today I went with a cheese sandwich (provolone, Boston lettuce, and mayo), one cup of the nivik, and some dates for dessert.

What I've noticed both days is that I am NOT feeling hungry by 3 or 4 in the afternoon like I usually do. Thus, I didn't go to the vending machine or the little convenience store in our building to buy a bag of chips. Today, I did start to feel hungry around 5, so I gave in and got some chips. However, my point is that by eating these healthier foods I may be feeling full longer, which is a good thing. In fact, tonight when I got home around 7 I didn't feel the urge to immediately eat something. In fact, I just had a small bowl of the sauteed chickpeas, and that's all I needed, at least for now.

So I guess those nutrition experts who say that eating healthier will make you feel fuller and help eliminate those late afternoon food cravings are right...

*I normally avoid cooked spinach, kale, swiss chard, or any cooked leafy greens like the plague. I hate the bitter taste and the wilty, slimy texture. However, I'd had nivik a few months ago at a friend's place and noticed that because of the other ingredients in the appetizer I didn't taste the spinach. So I looked specifically for this knowing it was a good way to get myself to eat one of those ever healthy cooked leafy greens.

Good-bye, Lorne.

Andy Hallett, the actor who played Lorne on Angel has died:

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b106789_angel_star_andy_hallett_dies_of_heart.html

Stop & Shop's salmon pinwheels

Stop & Shop sells salmon pinwheels - salmon fillets rolled up with a bread and (fake) crabmeat stuffing. They come packaged in pairs. I've been buying them every other week or so. To prepare, I just sprinkle some garlic powder and pepper, place a pat of butter on top, then bake in the toaster oven according to the instructions (I think it's 16-18 minutes at 375 degrees). The butter melts and makes the bottom nice and crispy. And the fact that it's salmon means the meal is mostly healthy. I'm sure there there are perservatives and whatnot in the stuffing.

Orzo and Armenian sauteed chickpeas

I've been busier than usual at work, and I haven't been able to get home at a normal hour. The result is that I'm hungry and want something quick. Fortunately, I've been doing some of my food shopping at Sevan Bakery in Watertown. In addition to lahmajoun, Sevan has sauteed chickpeas that are totally KILLER! It's (obviously) chickpeas with tomatoes, onions, garlic, sesame seeds, and either olives of very strongly flavored olive oil, and a heavenly blend of spices. I could eat it all day. To stretch out my weekly supply of this scrumptious dish, I hit upon the idea of mixing the chickpeas with orzo. I cook a half cup of orzo (I use Barilla) and mix it with a helping of the chickpeas. I think half and half works - erring on the side of more chickpeas is a good thing, especially since that is the only item flavoring the dish. It makes a quick, healthy, and tasty dinner.

Now if I could only figure out how they make those chickpeas... They soooooo freaking good!!!!!!

Metal ice cube trays

I have three metal ice cube trays from my grandparents. Because they're retro I thought they were cool and wanted to keep them. I've been using the trays even though I have an ice maker in my freezer. It can take a while for the ice maker to fill the bin since it makes 6 cubes at a time, so I just use the trays to fill the bin faster.

One thing I noticed is you don't want to fill the trays all the way up. The ice will freeze over the dividers making it harder to release the cubes. And you'll want to use a towel or pot holder when handling the tray - the metal gets COLD! (This also means that metal trays make cubes faster because the metal transfer the heat from the water more quickly than plastic or silicone.)

I've never seen metal ice cube trays in stores, but since you can find just about everything and anything on the internet I did a Google search and found these sites where you can buy them:

http://berktree.com/aluminumicecubetray.aspx
http://www.thekitchenstore.com/alicecutr.html
http://www.homebrands.com/079-040054.html
http://www.ikitchen.com/079-409163.html?CS_003=740477&CS_010=079-409163
http://www.shop.com/Aluminum_Ice_Cube_Tray-8908519-p!.shtml
http://www.thetickletrunk.com/products.php?id=204&name=Ice_cube_trays [Coming Soon]

The prices vary from around $7 to $16.

Yankee Bibimbap

For lack of a better name, I call this dish Yankee Bibimbap. I figure I'm the American who created it, the food is based on a Korean recipe, and it's a rice dish in a bowl, so that's the best name I came up with. I'm sure Korean food purists would quibble, especially since the egg is optional. In fact, I've made this only once with the egg. I'm not sure why I don't put the egg in. Maybe it's because I didn't notice enough of a flavor change, or maybe it's because there's already a lot of food in the pot that I don't see the need to add more.

The Korean recipe that inspired this dish is Hobakseon, or Stuffed Zucchini, from Korean Home Cooking by Soon Young Chung. The first and last time I made hobakseon I learned that it's very difficult to stuff hot zucchinis. But I liked the way the beef tasted, so I took that part and combined it with an older dish I made up years earlier - beef sauteed with onions, garlic, kidney beans, corn, rice, and jerk sauce. Only I left out the jerk sauce, replaced the kidney beans with black beans, and added yangnyum gochujang - seasoned chili paste.

Aside from the high sodium, this dish is pretty healthy, especially if you use lean ground beef.

Beef/Veggie/Rice mix:

0.25 lb ground beef
some chopped mushrooms, approx. 4-7
1 can black beans
1 can corn (I like to use shoepeg or white corn as it's sweeter)
1 chopped green pepper (or red or yellow)
1 slice zucchini (optional)
1 egg (optional)
4 tsp finely chopped onions (I use shallots)
2 tsp crushed garlic (approximately 4-6 cloves)
2 tsp toasted ground sesame seeds
2 Tbl light soy sauce
1 Tbl sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
ground black pepper to taste
1-2 Tbl cooking oil (canola, olive, sunflower, whatever you use to saute)
2-3 C cooked rice (approximate - I just cook the smallest set of rice according to the package)

Combine beef, mushrooms, onions, garlic, sesame seeds, sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a bowl. Mix well, cover and let marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat cooking oil in a deep frying pan. Add chopped pepper and zucchinis. Saute until lightly cooked. Add beef mixture. Cook until beef is just done. Add black beans and corn. Stir until beans and corn are cooked. Add rice and mix together. If you want, add egg and stir it in so it scrambles and cooks in the mix.

Serve in a bowl with chili paste on the side.

***
Yangnyum Gochujang - Seasoned Chili Paste:

This recipe is from Eating Korean by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee and makes 1/2 cup, although I always seem to end up with a whole cup.

4 Tbl Korean chili paste (gochujang, or gojujang)
2 minced garlic cloves
2 Tbl sesame oil
1 Tbl soy sauce (I like to use Tamari soy sauce - it's saltier but has more depth than regular soy sauce)
2 tsp sugar or Korean malt syrup (mool yut)
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
1 chopped green onion (optional - I use a shallot instead)

Combine all ingredients until they are well mixed. Stored in a covered container in the refrigerator. It will last for over a week.

***
To eat the Yankee Bibimbap, mix in the chili paste to taste. If you are unaccustomed to Korean food, or spicy food in general, you should go light and add more as you wish. A friend of mine who had eaten Korean food before added too much chili paste the first time she ate this. She "misjudged the heat."

The dish has a salty-sweet taste because of the soy sauce and sugar, which sets off the sweetness in the corn. The chili paste gives it a smoky heat that I think goes well with the beans. As you might guess, you can substitute any of the ingredients for something else. Don't like black beans? Try kidney beans. Don't like green peppers? Use something else. The last time I made this I went vegetarian. Instead of beef I just used a whole package of mushrooms.

The recipe makes a good bit of food. I haven't figured out how many servings come out of it, but it will usually give me half week of lunches and dinners. And this is one of those dishes that tastes better the next day.

My new favorite kick ass song

I thought my new favorite kick ass song was Franz Ferdinand's cover of Blondie's "Call Me" on the War Child compilation CD. It has been displaced by "Cherry Lips" by the Archie Bronson Outfit. Seriously, this song just burns it up.

(I got "Cherry Lips" off iTunes, which had playlists from Battlestar Galactica stars. The song was on Jamie Bamber's playlist.)

Tour Filter - A tool for the clueless music lover

I love music, and I like going to concerts, but I am cursed with a seeming inability to know who's giving a concert. Thus, I have missed out shows by Morrissey, Peter Gabriel, Pet Shop Boys, etc. I am reliant on others to clue me in. The last concert I went to was Feist, and only because a friend asked if I wanted to go. Otherwise, I would have been utterly clueless she was playing at the Bank of America Pavillion, never mind that she was even on tour.

Luckily, a friend told me about Tour Filter, which lets you know when your favorite artists are playing in your town. I just set up my account, and already I see that Morrissey is playing in Boston on the 29th. I was unaware of that. So maybe now I'll actually catch some shows instead of hearing about them lat minute when it's too late to get tickets or make plans to go.

The Class

Last night I saw The Class at Coolidge Corner. The film follows a year in the life of a Paris high school French class. The students are a mix of native Parisiens and immigrants, some of whom are bright while others struggle. It becomes clear early on that the students in this school are not from the privileged part of Paris.

Watching the film was exhausting, but in a good way. I felt immersed in the class's daily lessons during which the students bombarded their teacher, Mr. Marin, with questions, wisecracks, and the usual adolescent insolence, apathy, and high spirits. The challenges were non-stop. The students were at times moody, angry, and generous. While most of the film was focused on the students in the classroom, there were scenes depicting the teachers discussing each student's progress or lack of and how much or how little discipline to impose.

Overall, it was a very good film, and showed the challenges an urban high school faces educating students who are not from wealthy or comfortably middle class families, and who may be immigrants struggling to fit in a country whose culture doesn't reflect their lives.

Sweet vermouth

For the past month or so I've been trying to make myself the perfect Manhattan. This means that I've been working with sweet vermouth. The first one I bought, Noilly Prat, was far to heavy for me, and had a strange taste to it. Plus, the smell reminds me of a mushroom sauce. I like mushrooms, but I don't want to drink them.

The second is the old standby, Martini & Rossi. It's lighter than the Noilly, and I like it better, but it still had a slightly overpowering taste that I didn't like. But I would definitely use it over the Noilly Prat.

Today I treated myself and bought a bottle of Vya sweet vermouth from Brix. I'd heard it was very good, if expensive. I bought a 750 ml bottle for $25. When I got home I sampled it. Oh. My. Goodness. It is heavenly. It's light, but flavorful, and not too sweet. I tried it in a Manhattan, and it turned out well. Unlike the Manhattans with the othe two vermouths, I thought this one had a touch too much rye. Because the Vya is so good, you can use more of it in a Manhattan than the others.

I think the Noilly Prat will be relegated to a cooking vermouth, the Martini & Rossi to an every day vermouth, and the Vya will be the sweet vermouth of choice.

If I start experimenting with dry martnis I will just go straight for the Vya dry vermouth. I doubt I'll even bother with Noilly Prat or Martini & Rossi.

Crackberry withdrawal - day 7

My replacement battery arrived today. Excited, I opened the package and placed the battery in my phone, hoping some magic would occur and the Pearl would spring to life. It did not. I plugged the phone in to the charger and.... nothing.

My Blackberry Pearl is dead Dead DEAD!

I find this extremely annoying. The phone is less than one year old! And now it is a paper weight. I know the warranty will cover it, but I am annoyed that it should have died this quickly. I'm also annoyed at the fact I will probably have to wait for a replacement phone. I'm assuming the warranty will require my servicer to ship the phone off for repair. Ideally it'd be nice if I could walk in tomorrow, give them the dead phone, and they just hand me a new one as a replacement. But, somehow I doubt that will happen. Instead, I will probably spend another week living life as I did before I had a smartphone, which means no one's e-mail or snail mail addresses at my finger tips, no ability to look things up on the web when I'm out, and no ability to snap a quick picture of something. At least I have my sim card, so I can still call people on their cell phones. Still, not quite the same. Oh, and not only does the loaner phone lack a calendar function, there's no calculator. So I'm back to figuring out tax and tip in my head, which means I am likely to over tip since I'm not good at math in my head.

*sigh*

I hate to admit it, but maybe I should have gotten an iPhone and eaten the more expensive AT&T plan, as well as put up with a larger, heavier phone.

A French 28 Derivation

Last night I made a new cocktail derived from the French 28, a champagne cocktail from the restaurant 28 Degrees. Lacking champagne, I cut that out of the mix. I also wasn't in the mood for Chambord, so I used grenadine instead. And, since I didn't have any lemons I used lime juice.

2 oz Bombay Sapphire gin
1 oz Cointreau
0.5 oz grenadine
0.5 oz lime juice

The cocktail had a mellow flavor, maybe because I used Bombay Sapphire instead of Plymouth. Using the grenadine instead of the Chambord cuts down the alcohol content but maintains the sweetness. While the cocktail had a sweet and sour tartness, it was slightly more sweet, but that might be because I used a touch more grenadine than 0.5 oz.

I did a quick search for cocktails made with these ingredients and I didn't find any, so maybe I have another cocktail to name. How about a Pink Sapphire? (But I guess that only works if it's always made with Bombay Sapphire.)

Brandy Plum Pie

A few months ago, when you could still find plums, I made a brandy plum pie using the recipe from Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book (11th edition). It turned out very well, and you could taste the brandy, but it didn't overpower the pie.

Ingredients:

Crumb topping:
1/2 Cup flour
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
3 Tbl butter

Using a fork or knife mix the ingredients by cutting the butter into the flour and sugar. Mix until the butter is blended and the the texture is, well, crumbly.

Filling:
3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
1/4 Cup flour
1/4 Cup brandy
1/8 tsp nutmeg
4 Cups sliced and pitted plums (1.75 pounds)

Extra topping:
1/3 Cup chopped almonds or pecans

Mix the filling ingredients together in a bowl, cover, and let sit while you make the pie dough. This will give the ingredients time to blend together, especially the brandy!

Make enough pie dough for a single crust pie. (I used the recipe from the Fanny Farmer Cook Book.) Line the pie pan with the rolled out dough.

Pour the filling into the pie shell. Sprinkle the crumb topping on top. Sprinkle the chopped nuts on the pie.

Cover the edge of the crust with aluminum foil to prevent the crust from burning. Do NOT cover the entire pie - just the edge. Place the pie in an oven pre-heated to 375 and bake for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove the foil and bake the pie for another 20-25 minutes until the top is golden.


My guess is the extra baking time to is to allow the alcohol to cook out. When I made the pie I did two things differently than in the recipe. I mixed the filling first (as indicated here) to allow the brandy to soak in, and I made an error and use 1/3 cup of brandy instead of 1/4 cup. I don't think it caused any harm.