popplers

The mind boggles.

I don't mean for popplers to turn into a food blog, but I have to make people aware of the existence of SPAM-tastic Sunnydogs: a "breakfast corn dog, made with chunks of SPAM that have been dipped in an apple-cinnamon pancake batter."

[…] outgoing and energetic [Cynthia] Coombs, a fifth-grader at Herriman Elementary, headed to the kitchen and found she really jammed with SPAM.

Her ultimate creation - a breakfast dish she dubbed "SPAM-tastic Sunnydogs" - recently earned her the title of SPAM's "National Kid Chef of the Year."

Coombs said in September, before winning the Utah State Fair contest that propelled her to the national competition, she spent an entire day experimenting in the kitchen with her father, Nathan - a longtime SPAM lover. […]

For posterity, here is Cynthia's prize-winning recipe. (If you actually make this, please take photos and email me.)

SPAM-tastic Sunnydogs

1 (12-ounce) can SPAM classic
1 1/2 cups complete buttermilk pancake mix (such as Bisquick)
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup water
Vegetable oil or light olive oil
18 short kabob sticks, Popsicle sticks or toothpicks
Honey, maple syrup and applesauce, for dipping

1. Cut SPAM width-wise into 6 (1/2-inch) pieces. Cut each section into thirds. In a bowl, combine pancake mix, eggs, applesauce, vanilla and cinnamon. Slowly add water and stir until combined. (The batter should be fairly thick.)
2. Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Using a fork, dip SPAM pieces into batter, coating evenly. Let any excess batter drip off before placing into skillet. Cook for several minutes on one side until golden brown. Turn and cook on second side until golden and batter is cooked through. Repeat with remaining pieces.
3. Remove from skillet and insert a kabob or Popsicle stick into one end. Serve with honey, maple syrup or applesauce as a dip. (Use any excess pancake batter to make small pancakes to serve alongside sunnydogs.)

Makes 18 pieces.

Lemony freshness

The kitchen smells lovely right now. I am making one of my favorite desserts, a lemon almond polenta torta. (This is just a fancy way of saying lemon cornmeal cake— I've sometimes completely forgotten to add the 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract, and the recipe still tastes delicious.) I found this recipe in the Boston Globe's weekly Food section back in October 2003. It was adapted from Deborah Krasner's The Flavors of Olive Oil: A Tasting Guide and Cookbook.

It's interesting because it doesn't contain butter or flour; olive oil, cornmeal, and ground almonds provide the flavor and structure. I haven't changed the recipe much, other than to double the amount of ricotta cream. I really love how easy this recipe is to prepare, and that everything gets done in the food processor. Minimal clean-up, and the dessert looks (and tastes) like you've spent a lot more time in the kitchen.

Lemon almond polenta torta

Ingredients

TORTA:

Olive oil (for the pan)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup cornmeal (I use Bob's Red Mill corn grits)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 cups blanched almonds
1 to 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 large lemon, washed well
1/2 cup fruity olive oil
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Confectioners' sugar (for dusting)

1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Rub the inside of a 9-inch round cake pan with oil, line it with parchment paper cut to fit, and oil the paper.
2. In a bowl, mix together the salt, cornmeal, and baking powder.
3. In a food processor, grind the almonds with 1 cup of the granulated sugar to make a slightly coarse mixture.
4. Cut the lemon into quarters and remove any seeds. Add the lemon pieces to the ground almond mixture. Pulse until the mixture forms a coarse puree. Taste for sweetness and add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, if necessary. (As far as I can tell, it's never necessary.)
5. Add the oil, milk, eggs, and almond extract. Process for 1 to 2 minutes or until just combined.
6. Add the cornmeal mixture and pulse just briefly to combine.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until golden brown and slightly moist in the center.
8. Transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool. Run a knife around the cake, invert it onto a cake plate, and dust with confectioners' sugar.

RICOTTA CREAM:

2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese
scant 1 cup granulated sugar, or to taste
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1. In a food processor, combine the ricotta, sugar, and vanilla. Work in on-off motions until the mixture is smooth.
2. Spoon the ricotta beside wedges of the cake and serve.

You oughta be in pictures

The Miss Albany Diner is going to appear in a movie! The Times-Union has more info on Grazing Miss Albany (which is not yet listed on IMDb).

[…] [Diner owner Cliff] Brown has agreed to close the diner for a few weeks for filming. [Film director Michael] Camoin has promised to pay him. They have not worked out the amount.

"You have to recognize it's a speculative endeavor," said the 78-year-old Brown between spoonfuls. "Recognizing that, you don't put demands on it right away, like 'I'll do it if you give me $1 million.'

That's about triple the movie budget of $350,000, which Camoin said he is almost done raising.

"I've always loved diners," Camoin said. "People feel safe in diners. There's a sense of community here you'll never find in a chain restaurant. You know, it's real." […]

They're going to close for a few weeks?! Where will people go for Georgian Eggs or Mad Irish Toast? (Speaking of which, I've gotta get out there… it's been too long. Anyone up for a road trip?)

And check out these diner pix, which are better resolution than the photos that are up on the missalbanydiner.com web site.

TANSTAAFL

I went out for a free lunch today. Just wondering: would you entrust your money to a financial advisor who leaves his wallet behind at the restaurant?

Dive, dive!

Giant Octopus vs. Submarine: Enteroctopus dofleini attacks remote-operated vehicle off British Columbia. This story caught my eye for two reasons: I have 1) a thing for cephalopods and 2) a friend who works on autonomous underwater vehicles. But this quote alone is worth the price of admission:

Jim Cosgrove, an octopus expert at the Royal BC museum, believes the octopus may have been senile.

"It could have been looking for a meal or looking for a girlfriend," Cosgrove said. "It's difficult to know what exactly it was doing or why it wanted to make contact with the ROV for whatever reason."

Do you know the Dumpling Man?

January 29 is the start of Chinese New Year, and (as usual) the Boston Globe has some nice coverage in the Food section. Happy Year of the Dog!

I liked reading about handmade noodles and fresh dumplings (complete with yummy recipes for Pork Dumplings and Mushroom Dumplings). I'm feeling a little lazy this year, so I may just go into Chinatown on Sunday and buy some instead. (And if I lived in New York, I could be even lazier— Dumpling Man delivers!)

Where can I get me some of those?

I was looking at the BBC News Day in Pictures feature, where I came across a picture of Prince Harry on an army exercise, all camo-ed up and looking very G.I. Joe (2nd photo in the series). According to the caption, he "announced he is to join the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry." Which got me thinking, how cool would it be to have a Household Cavalry? After you'd had an exceptionally fabulous dinner party with lots of guests, you could call in the Cavalry and they'd load the dishwasher, take out the trash, rinse out all the empties and put them in the bin, clean the red wine stains off the carpet, vacuum up the crumbs, and any other tedious post-soirée housework.

Or if you spent the whole day baking cookies for Christmas and the kitchen was a disaster and you didn't want to cook dinner— call in the Household Cavalry! I wonder if there is a waiting list (to be served by them, that is; I'm sure that there isn't a waiting list to join). It would be like having kitchen fairies, only much more butch.

And next the men of the Second Armoured Division regale us with their famous close order swanning about…

Now that's just cold.

Record-breaking temperatures in Europe: you know it's cold when you have to bring your penguins inside.

At the zoo in Dresden, Germany, 21 Humboldt penguins were moved from their -21 C (-6 F) outdoor environment and into a building where the temperature was a more comfortable zero C (32 F) to ensure their feet didn't freeze, zoo director Karl Ukena said.

More science quickies

• Scientists combine 100 images of virus to show 3-D structure of HIV.
• I knew that we shared 99% of the chimpanzee's genes, so I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that chimps seem to be more closely related to humans than to gorillas and orangutans.
• Did you see the recent news story that basically said men enjoy seeing cheaters suffer? Then don't miss James Gorman's amusing Side Effects column, This Is Your Brain on Schadenfreude.
• Finally, it's only tangentially science-related, but I really enjoyed Yiyun Li's Tang-flavored memoir, entitled Eat, Memory: Orange Crush.

I'd always suspected as much.

Syracuse University researchers investigate the evolutionary trade-off between intelligence and sexual prowess… in bats. Here comes the science:

For some male bats, sexual prowess comes with a price -- smaller brains. A research team led by Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick found that in bat species where the females are promiscuous, the males boasting the largest testicles also had the smallest brains. Conversely, where the females were faithful, the males had smaller testes and larger brains. […]

Swedish gnomes

Maybe they just needed some time to commune with nature.

Twelve garden gnomes kidnapped in western Sweden a month ago have been found in a snowy forest, standing in a ring beside a lighted bonfire and a small hut, Swedish news agency TT reported.

"It looked very cozy," Bo Larsson, a police officer in the town of Kil, near Karlstad, told TT on Friday.

The gnomes mysteriously vanished from their gardens just before Christmas. […]

p.s. This is the 500th post for the new (foamtotem era) popplers.

You can't take the sky from me

Build your own Firefly… out of Lego. (Also, don't miss the pix of the crew (see "Bag-O-Bricks #5 - The Shiny Set.")

[…] This is a bit of an unusual offering - I'm in the process of reworking my Mini-figure scale tribute to Serenity's Crew - so far I have everyone but Zoe and Book - and that's just due to LEGO's reluctance in releasing faces in the correct skin tones and expressions.

In the meantime, though, I wanted to offer the "Shiny Set" - all the parts to build a Stabilized Snack Size, a CD of the instructions, a display stand, and EIGHT MINIFIGURES (shown above)- almost everyone you need to recreate your favorite adventures. You even get the super-cheesy "Death of Wash Accessory Pack" (retail value: about a dollar) to get you started. […]

Posted by rv at 12:48 AM to sci fi | Comments (0)

Shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die

Walk the Line (IMDB:8.0|Rot:83%)

Friday night is movie night: Walk the Line at the Strand Theater. Good stuff, even if it did veer into classic VH1: Behind the Music territory (poor/ tragic beginnings, sudden success, descent into drugs and madness, redemption). In fairness, I have to admit that I have a soft spot for Reese Witherspoon. She was great in Pleasantville, and simply amazing in Election. (Hell, even Legally Blonde had its moments.) But her performance as June Carter was phenomenal, and it was nice to see her get to play a part with some depth and dimension to it. June is an extraordinarily sympathetic character, and she gets the lion's share of good lines. I liked her as much for her strength of character and low tolerance for bullshit as I did for her loyalty and dedication.

I was also really impressed by Joaquin Phoenix's Johnny Cash (apparently Johnny Cash picked him for the role). He and Reese both did all their own singing and guitar/ autoharp playing in the film, and spent a lot of time preparing for these roles. Even simplified into a 2-hour flick, Johnny Cash's life still makes for quite a story— definitely worth seeing.

I'm tired of being sick

I finally made it to the store. Bought DayQuil, NyQuil, Sudafed, and ingredients for soup. Chris made his variation on Marcella Hazan's pasta e fagioli. Italian soup is good eats.

Vegetarian Wedding Soup
Adapted from Marcella Hazan

Ingredients:

1/2 of a small onion
1/4 cup olive oil (we use extra virgin)
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
2/3 cup Italian tomatoes (preferably chopped, but purée or crushed will do in a pinch)
1 can (19 oz.) cannellini beans (Chris is a Progresso snob)
4 cups (1 package) Trader Joe's Organic Vegetable Broth
1 head of escarole, washed and torn into pieces
Trader Joe's Meatless Meatballs (4-6 per person)
8 oz. dry pasta (mini penne or ditalini)
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan or Romano Cheese

1. Sauté onion in olive oil until it is pale gold.
2. Add the carrot and celery and sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and their juice, turn the heat down to medium low, and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add the beans and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Add the vegetable broth and pepper (to taste), then bring to a boil.
6. Add the pasta and cook until very firm/chewy, about 6 minutes (depending on the pasta). Add the meatballs when the pasta is almost done.
7. Turn off the heat and stir in the escarole. Cover pot with lid and let stand for 10 minutes.

Note: if you cook the pasta too much in the second-to-last step, it will be overdone by the time the soup is finished.

Today's sick day is brought to you by the letter N and the number 2

I started feeling the beginnings of this cold on Friday morning, and I've been steadily declining since. One of the only good things about being home sick is getting to watch Bob Ross painting happy little trees this morning.

Unfortunately, I'm going to run out of NyQuil today. This means that I actually have to leave the house at some point. Denis Leary on NyQuil:

[…] I love NyQuil, man. Because NyQuil has never changed, man. It's never changed. All the other medicines are doing that inner-child thing. "we know that there's a small child inside of you, so now we have grape and cherry and orange flavor." Not NyQuil! They still have the original green death fucking flavor! You know why!? Because it doesn't matter what it tastes like! […] We have reached the point where the over the counter drugs are actually stronger than anything you can buy on the street. It says on the back of the NyQuil box, on the back of the box it says, "May cause drowsiness." It should say, "Don't make any fucking plans! Kiss your family and friends goodbye." […]

Posted by rv at 10:50 AM to home | Comments (2)

Weekend quickies

• Huge flocks of birds roosting in your town? Call this 83-year-old "crow whisperer" (but only if you live in Decatur or Bloomington).
• Alert reader Poz calls our attention to Boston-based tiki band Waitiki. Next local show: Friday, March 24th (venue TBA).
• For one more weekend only: Acme Theater's New Works Winter Festival. 18 short works by 18 different playwrights (including 4 of Acme's own!), performed over 2 days. After next week's performances, the audience choice favorite award, The Charlie, will be presented. We enjoyed Friday night's "Track A" so much that we went back on Saturday night for "Track B". I particularly liked Mark Harvey Levine's Surprise, a well-written and funny entry about a psychic who can only see 2 minutes into the future.
• Word origins: dog's breakfast and gaslight. For whatever reason, these two have both come up in (separate) conversations recently, and each time there was someone who had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

What's that all about?

This morning: I dreamt that we were renting a huge, beautiful house for one of our seasonal get-togethers. The house was right on the water, with lots of glass and gorgeous views. With inexplicable dream logic, Neil Gaiman was there too, giving a reading. His back was to the windows, so he didn't see the two huge tornadoes/ waterspouts that were heading toward us. After a moment of stunned silence (and some gawking at the weather phenomena), we all hurried to the basement for safety. I don't know what happened to Neil.

Then I woke up. Chris made waffles, and we watched Underdog. I'm happy to say that the rest of my day made more sense than my dream.

Mark of the Beast

I, for one, truly hope that Pat Robertson contracts some horrible, disfiguring disease within the next week so that I can blame it on God's wrath. My preference is for something truly outrageous, like sprouting horns or perhaps a particularly virulent strain of syphilis (but I would settle for uncontrollable bowel movements). Perhaps I should set up a poll, and people can vote for their "favorite" affliction. Necrotizing fasciitis, anyone?

Side note: Googling stupid pat robertson quotes results in 417,000 hits, including this page of The 10 Stupidest Things Pat Robertson Ever Said. I'm amazed that they could pare it down to only 10 (plus a few "bonus" quotes).

The taming of the shrew

In an effort to keep rodents from chewing on the S2000 while it's in storage, we've deployed a number of countermeasures: moth balls, D-Con mouse poison, an electronic ultrasonic doodad, and the good, old-fashioned snappy trap.

I went out to the garage to check the traps, and was surprised to find two critters that clearly were not field mice/ voles. A bit of Googling convinced me that the little guys were Blarina brevicauda: the short-tailed shrew. Venomous mammals— how cool is that?!

[…] Shrews are without a doubt one of the most ferocious mammalian predators--as one naturalist put it, "the tigers of the small animal world." But thankfully, due to their small size, their prey consists largely of earthworms, snails, slugs, insects, and other invertebrates. Occasionally they will resort to small amounts of plant material, but the real "beasts" are more likely to take on other small rodents, salamanders, and snakes. To further add to their charm, shrews are one of the few venomous mammals in the world. Their saliva contains a powerful toxin that can cause a painful reaction in some humans, but is more useful in immobilizing its prey. The immobilized prey can be cached alive to serve as a larder of food that will remain fresh for several days. […]

Posted by rv at 11:15 PM to home | Comments (5)

Very funny, but I still haven't forgiven you for what you did to Book

Joss Whedon on the Future of TV:

[…] Obviously, we'll see advances in technology. TiVo, iPods, streaming video — the way we watch TV is changing dramatically. It's on our phones, in our cars — even projected on specialized eyeglasses. But don't listen to the talk about having shows beamed directly into your brain. That's science-fiction nonsense. Shows will be stored in the pancreas and will enter the brain through the bloodstream after being downloaded into your iHole. […]

Posted by rv at 10:10 PM to tv | Comments (3)

Happy holidays in Paragon City

Last chance to get a jetpack for your hero (or villain, if you're into that sort of thing): log in before midnight to activate it for the next 30 days.

It looks a little silly (OK, it looks extremely silly), but it's a fun travel power for your lower level characters.