Monday, June 29, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Galaxy is at Peace...
Kerrie thinks I'm obsessed. And yeah, she's probably right.
All things considered, no other video game franchise has captured my attention so completely. Further more, no other video game franchise has entertained me so completely. I'm speaking, of course, of Metroid.
Metroid, released almost 22 years ago, was one of the few games for the original NES that I was truly fascinated with. It was expansive, exploratory game play and I loved the story: Space Bounty Hunter out to destroy a big creepy brain and her life-sucking pets.
Many years later, while on the clock at Cosmo's, I devoted a shload of time to defeating Metroid: Fusion. Then came Metroid: Zero Mission. Then I backtracked a little. I got a nifty emulator and worked on Super Metroid. I've even been trying to crack the Prime series, though not with much luck.
So yeah, you can imagine the geek-orgasm I had when I saw the previews for next year's Metroid: Other M. Being the geek I am, the only logical thing to do was bake cupcakes.
 | Stemage - Metroid Metal - The Theme |  |
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 | Found at bee mp3 search engine |  |
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Guinness Stout Mustard...
Recently, I decided to make my own mustard.
It sounds like one of those things that normally I rail against, my thinking being that I shouldn't be making it because I can BUY a jar of mustard dirt cheap.
I felt like taking a chance on a recipe I saw in Plate magazine. Mustard is mustard, but Mustard made with Guinness? That sounded intriguing...
Making your own mustard is a small project. Not a lot of involvement, rather an investment of time. It takes 9 days; 2 days to soak the mustard seeds in the Guinness and 7 days for the finished product to develop.
I took some to work for the Commodore, and it was enjoyed by many people along with some delicious Calamari and Onion Straws. Of course, the big test for me was at home enjoying this mustard on grilled Metts. With Porter. Lots of Porter...
Credit where credit is due, this recipe was printed in Plate magazine and comes from EC Jamie Lauren of Absinthe in San Fransisco.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
When I was in high school, 17 years ago, I was a drummer. Or something like that anyways... I used to hit things with sticks to make rhythm. That was me...
Back then one of my favorite places to go was the Toledo Music Instrument Exchange, which has long since closed I think. It was a big warehouse-like place with all sorts of new and used gear stacked up ALL over the place. One of my favorite memories of TMIE was to dig through buckets of drum sticks, looking for mix-n-match deals. Sometimes you could get away with top-name stuff for dirt cheap. Sometimes not so much...
For drummers, Vic Firth is a big name. Kinda. Like anyone in the biz I'm sure there are as many haters as there are lovers. I was a lover, as the guy knows rhythm. But time passed and drumming became no priority whatsoever. And then one day I realized I was some sort of cook. WTF?!?
Friday night, however, things sort of came full circle. While preparing for this weekends Wedding Cake Test, Kerrie spotted a wooden rolling pin at Jungle Jims. That rolling pin? A Vic Firth. No, I am not kidding. Not only does the guy put his name on some quality sticks, but he's ventured into the culinary world.
So skipping forward to today, everything was in place. I had made my two layers of Chocolate Stout cake, and gathered all the appropriate ingredients and tools. I spread my crumb coating onto the cake, and with my Vic Firth I began rolling out the Fondant. The end result was impressive and easy. While I need a little more practice, this is definitely doable. There were a few small "first time" issues that came up, but the overall process came together very easily...
I know the cake is good, as I've made it before. All I really need to work on is my smoothing technique for the fondant, and keeping a steady hand when I put on any royal icing. And here we... go!
The New F***ing Citibank - watch more funny videos
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Smithers... Give him THE PLAGUE!
A lot happened this week, making life a little bit frantic. Nonetheless, Kerrie and I moved further ahead in our planning the wedding and got some serious work done.
I helped with two very large caterings this week, which kept me at work later than normal. I also found out that the "people" I wanted to bake the wedding cake are unavailable for our October date. This lead to various schemes, which resulted in a big ole "fuck it!" and the declaration that I will take care of the cake myself.
Let's face it folks. I've said that I would rather not be catering my own reception, but I know that the only way it will get done right is if I'm the one doing it.
The rest of the week disappeared in a blur of work and running and shopping for detail items and finally just coming home to relax. For all the chaos, the weekend produced some excellent results. In all actuality, some things just turned out better than our original ideas. Sometimes things work out better when "the plan" just goes all to hell.
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Friday, after work, Kerrie and I went to BJ's Brewhouse for dinner. I enjoyed a PM Porter and Kerrie had the Nutty Brunette, a brown ale. One thing I noticed was the amazing aroma of Butter and Milk Chocolate coming from my porter. I was thoroughly impressed with life from that point on, seeing as my pallet is finally coming around to the wonders of Stouts and Porters...
Kerrie's parents were in a few weeks ago, and of course I wanted to do something special for dinner and dessert. One dish I love to make is Balsamic Glazed Chicken. You generally can not go wrong with a dish that rich. The dessert, however, was well received but not quite right in my estimation.
I made Chocolate Bouchons. After finding the right kind of pan to make these little angels, I searched online for Thomas Keller's fabled recipe. The recipe is well published, but if you look a little closer you'll see that there is some force working against these things in some form or another. Some people complain of them being too salty, while I found them to be too buttery. Actually, I found them to be greasy. There are various forums providing answers to the salt/sugar issue (a misprinted recipe?) but I felt that the texture issue was a wholly unique one to my own baking. Of course, I've never been to Napa either. Maybe Keller's pastry chef makes them exactly like this, so who knows? I think a second try may be in order will a few minor adjustments. We'll see...
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Which Horrible Affliction are you?
A Rum and Monkey disease.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
Light in your head and dead on your feet...
Last week was not awful, it really wasn't.
I just get aggravated easily. It's my thing, I'm good at it.
After the whole ER visit drama Friday night, and the breadmaker dieing in the middle of me making dough for cinnamon rolls, I found myself in a less than stellar mood.
But then again, a good cookie can totally change my overall mood. A good cookie can do a lot for me, so much so that I can count the "good" cookies I love on one hand. Yeah, I take it that seriously.
Plus a good cookie helps me think. Case in point: Tonight, while munching on a perfect Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookie, I had a "moment". You see, when it comes to the music of Gerry Rafferty I realized that Baker Street is superior in technical form to Stuck in the middle with you, but Stuck in the middle with you was used in the film Reservoir Dogs and Baker Street was in Police Academy 2. So you can see the quandary...
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 Cup Flour
3 oz. Cocoa Powder
1/2 t Baking Soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup Corn Syrup
1 Egg White
1 t Vanilla
1/3 cup Sugar (Plus extra for coating)
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
6 oz melted Butter
4 oz. Mini Chocolate Chips
---
Start by sifting Flour, Cocoa, Baking Soda and Salt together. Set aside.
In a second bowl, whisk Corn Syrup, Egg White, and Vanilla.
In a third larger bowl, using a hand mixer, mix together Sugar, Brown Sugar, and melted Butter until fluffy. Add Corn Syrup mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
Using a wooden spoon, mix in Flour mixture and Chocolate Chips and stir until dough comes together. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Portion dough into desired size, roll into balls, and coat lightly with extra Sugar.
Bake at 375F for 11 minutes.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009
$10 Cooking Challenge
The last several weeks have gone by in a blur. Between Work, traveling for Easter, and now being in full gear working on the wedding, time just keeps slipping by faster and faster.
Thankfully, There is always something good to eat in this whole crazy mess. Not only is there always something good to make, but recently Troy (of Crowz Nest fame) proposed the $10 Cooking Challenge.
The premise was simple, cook an entire meal for $10 or less.
After a lot of thinking and planning, I came to the simple conclusion that $10 for one meal is pretty easy. I started thinking less about the monetary value I had to work with and started thinking more along the lines of "why?"...
I finally settled on making Pizza. I know there are people out there who don't like pizza, but I've certainly never met them. And the simple fact is that a LOT of people DO like pizza. As I was thinking about the shear volume of pizzas sold in this country (somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 Billion a year) I started thinking about what the average household must spend on Pizza every year. To order a pizza, most likely for two to four people, it will run you anywhere from $8.00 to $20.00 depending on what type of eaters you're dealing with. Many people order pizza often too.
I've always found pizza to be the perfect comfort food. And for a long time, especially when I was single, it was my fallback. Was it late? Was I tired? WasI just too lazy to make my own dinner? Order a pizza!
Looking back, I've probably spent more than I'd like to admit on pizza, especially from places that are probably a little embarrassing to admit.
Thankfully, there came a point where I was determined to make my own pizzas. From scratch, with no bitching or whining. I wanted a simplified process that could work in my dinky-assed kitchen in my craptacular electric oven with GOOD results. With a little time and experimenting, I eventually conquered that beast. To be honest, I really took it for granted. It's become so easy to make my own pizza that I just do it... When I'm feeling tired or lazy, I just make pizza.
So when Troy proposed to $10 Challenge, this struck me as a great topic. Not just because of the financial restraint of only using $10, but because of the overall idea of how much money I probably save every year.
It breaks down like this:
Cheese $1.66
LaRosas Sauce $1.69
Yeast $1.99
Pepperoni $1.25
One major flaw in this whole challenge is that I already had flour and sugar on hand. Most people do too, but to buy a 5# bag of each will probably run you around $5.00. Still, The average bag of flour has about 17-19 cups, enough to make at least 5pizzas at home bringing the per-meal cost down significantly.
The same goes with the cheese and sauce. I only used half of the 8oz bag of cheese and maybe a 1/3 cup of the sauce, thus stretching those items out further. Same with the yeast. Yeast, generally, comes in a strip-pack with three pouches, of witch you use less than one per pizza.
To go with the pizza, I made a fresh salad of organic greens with a lemon pepper vinaigrette. That broke down like this:
Lemon $0.33
Organic Spring Mix 3oz @ $3.99lb - $0.75
Fresh vegetables are at almost criminally low prices sometimes. Plus, making the vinaigrette that was delectably reminiscent of Stino's in Cleveland was a huge plus.
In the end, I spent $7.69 to make two 8" Foccacia Pizzas and two generous salad portions with one of my favorite dressings evar!
Robot Chicken - "He-Man's Murder" (S02E05) - watch more funny videos
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Friday, April 03, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Rick's Tavern
When Kerrie and I first moved to Cincinasty, we went to this dumpy shithole called Bargo's. Bargo's was a serious defeat for me, as I was looking for a dive bar to call "home" and this place was just awful.
The food was bad and the people in there just put off some bad vibes. I wasn't necessarily looking for a new Howard's H, but I had an idea of what I wanted and this place was a serious letdown.
Jumping ahead, 4 years later...
Kerrie and I found Rick's Tavern, only because we like going to Acapulco. Every time we would eat at Acapulco, we inevitably would discuss trying Rick's. We, of course, always managed to procrastinate and put it off or just plain forget it existed. But then it happened. We managed to get our act together enough to go in and have dinner, which, admittedly, I wasn't all that into. But Kerrie liked it so we went back. And just because I was looking for something simple, I ordered a burger.
And this is where I start to gush...
Rick's has one of the best burgers I have ever tasted. It may just be better than the Friendly Stop or Sonic. Their burgers, so they say, are fresh/not frozen. I believe it too. Maybe I've been in this business too long, but I recognize frozen vs fresh - especially after my stint at the Corner Grill. Another thing I find impressive is their french fries. Although they serve (ahem) Crinkle Cut Fries, they are really good. They're crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. It's a sad state of affairs when I'm impressed by the fact that some guy working a fryer can actually do his job properly.
Okay, I'm going all over the place here, so to summarize:
Rick's Tavern.
One of the 5 best burgers I have ever eaten.
Awesome fries, even though they are crinkle cut.
Very nice atmosphere, very good feeling place to eat.
I think what's most gratifying is that Kerrie and I finally found a place we can go to regularly. It's our place...
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