popplers

Go Team Venture!

Woot! The Venture Bros. DVD is (finally) out today! Our copy should be arriving at our doorstep later this week. In the meantime, go check out Mike Russell's review of The Venture Bros.: Season One over at The DVD Journal.

Imagine if Hanna-Barbera made "Jonny Quest: The Next Generation" — only it starred Jonny as a bitter, pill-popping, fortysomething single dad who lived in the shadow of his dead superscientist father. Imagine if Jonny had two idiot teenage sons (one of them looking suspiciously like Race Bannon) whom he dragged around the world on hilariously pale imitations of his father's exploits. The names have all been changed, but that sort of begins to sum up the Cartoon Network's brilliant Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros. — a relentlessly inventive, laugh-out-loud funny sendup of Hanna-Barbera's "exotica" adventure cartoons of the 1960s and '70s. […]

Thursday quickies!

• I'm only mildly curious about Hoffa, but I have to make zombie cupcakes for Hallowe'en. Brilliant!
• Jane and Michael Stern hit the road in search of a Connecticut "road food" specialty: steamed cheeseburgers. (And here I thought that it was a White Castle thing.) For more goodies, check out roadfood.com.
• Via Warren Ellis: for an anniversary date that you'll always remember, tie the knot on 6/6/06. "In the UK, some expectant mothers whose babies are due on June 6 are so concerned about giving birth on the date marked by the satanic number that they have scheduled caesareans and inductions beforehand."
• Gnome ban. Gnome ban. Gnome ban. "Mr Rumball objected to the ban, claiming it was sheer snobbery that kept gnomes out. He pointed out that garden gnomes were the pride of 19th-century aristocratic gardens before they fell from grace […]"
• Very funny Lore Sjöberg (of Brunching Shuttlecocks fame) on the joy of rental cars.

New tunes

Went to see the Falcon Ridge Preview Tour at Fox Run over the weekend, and picked up four great new CDs. I've had Jim's Big Ego (Lucky) stuck in my head for days. And we won two free tix to FRFF for answering trivia questions!

Jim's Big Ego They're Everywhere!	Kym Tuvim On the Mend	Chris Pureka Driving North	Jason Spooner Lost Houses

For the record, these were the 2 questions. (Links go to answers.)

1. Name a monotreme.
   
2. Which fictional character became unstuck in time?

Übercake

Our variation on the Globe's so-called Luxury lemon cake: lemon zest, lime zest, far too much butter, and a killer glaze. We made it on Saturday night, and brought half to a house concert on Sunday evening. Judging from the tiny sliver that remained on the plate when the show was over, I'd say it met with approval. It also made the kitchen smell wonderful.

Makes one 10-inch cake.

CAKE:

Nonstick spray (for the pan)
Flour (for the pan)
zest of 2 lemons
zest of 1 1/2 limes
2 teaspoons Fiori di Sicilia
3 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cups superfine vanilla sugar
5 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

1. Set the oven at 325 degrees. Grease a plain 10-inch tube pan, line the bottom of the pan with a circle of baking parchment cut to fit it, and grease the paper. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess; set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the zest and Fiori di Sicilia.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt onto a flexible cutting sheet.
4. In an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed for 3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar in three additions, beating for 1 minute after each one. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds after each one. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to keep the batter even textured.
5. Blend in the lemon/ lime mixture. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula.
7. Bake the cake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake is clean when withdrawn and the cake pulls away slightly from the sides of the pan.

GLAZE:

2/3 cup granulated sugar
juice of 2 lemons and 2 limes (about 1/2 cup total)

1. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and lemon and lime juice. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes, or until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a rapid boil, then remove the pan from the heat.
2. When the cake is done, cool it in the pan on a rack for 10 to 12 minutes. Carefully invert onto another cooling rack, peel away the waxed paper, then set right-side up on another rack. Brush the top and sides of the warm cake with glaze.
3. Leave the cake to cool completely.

Submitted for your approval…

We watched the 1962 Twilight Zone episode Little Girl Lost. As the scene begins, Chris and Ruth Miller are awakened by their daughter calling to them. Chris enters her bedroom, only to find that she has seemingly disappeared. They can still hear her cries for help, and quickly seek their friend Bill's advice. Written by Richard Matheson, it features some of the best "science will save us" dialogue that I've heard in ages.

Chris: Bill's coming over, honey.
Ruth: Bill?
Chris: Well, he's a physicist. Maybe he can help us out. I don't know— I couldn't think of anything else.

Homemade gnocchi

One of the things that I love about this area is the great produce. There are several local farms, and Indian Head Farm (Berlin) and Applefield Farm (Stow) are two of our favorites. Pretty much the only thing available right now is asparagus, but it's sooo good. I picked some up on my way home on Friday, and we tried out a recipe that recently appeared in the Boston Globe: Ricotta gnocchi with brown butter and asparagus.

It was my first time making gnocchi, and I thought that this dish would be really amazing. It only took about an hour to make the gnocchi. (Chris made the dough in the food processor, instead of messing around with blunt knives.) Pix of the dough, homemade gnocchi, and the finished dish are available starting here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/popplers/150915201/in/photostream/.

Our overall impression was that the dish was good, but that it needed something. Chris thought that it needed a bright note, maybe some lemon juice or lemon zest. (White wine?) I was wondering if some herbs in the butter might do it— sage or chives. I also thought that the gnocchi would be more tender, melt-in-your-mouth. I don't know if they were tougher than I expected because we over-worked the dough, or if that is just the way they are. I guess we'll just have to experiment and make them again.

This is the recipe as it appeared on boston.com:

Ricotta gnocchi with brown butter and asparagus

Serves 4 as a first course

Drain the ricotta (see spinach and ricotta gnudi recipe) before you use it.

Ingredients

1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
16 ounces fresh whole milk ricotta
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Extra flour (for sprinkling)
8 ounces fresh asparagus, tough ends snapped off and spears thinly sliced on the diagonal
Olive oil (for sprinkling)
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. In a small bowl, beat together the egg and the egg yolk.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, ricotta, salt, and pepper. Use 2 blunt knives to cut the cheese into the mixture until the dough forms lima bean-sized crumbs. Make a well in the center of the dough and pour in the eggs. Using a fork, slowly combine the egg mixture with the flour mixture just until it comes together.
4. Shape the dough into a ball and place it on lightly floured surface. Cut the ball into 4 pieces and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
5. Working with one piece of dough at a time, halve the piece and roll each into a 1/2-inch-thick rope. Cut the ropes into 1-inch-long pieces, and sprinkle them with flour. Using your thumb roll each lump of dough over the back of the tines of a fork, leaving an indentation from your thumb on one side and the fork marks on the other. Set the pieces aside on a lightly floured baking sheet. Continue until all the pieces are cut.
6. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Drop in the asparagus pieces and cook for 1 minute or until they are bright green but still crisp. Rinse with cold water and set aside.
7. Cook the gnocchi in the large pot of boiling water. After they float to the surface, cook for 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a baking sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil and toss gently.
8. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. When it is just beginning to brown, add the gnocchi and toss to coat it all over. Stir in the asparagus. Arrange the gnocchi in shallow bowls, drizzle with the browned butter from cooking, and garnish with the asparagus and a dusting of grated cheese.

Adapted from Duck Fat restaurant

Makin' mud pies

Inspired by Poz and Deb, I went to Applefield Farm and bought flowers and herbs and vegetables. They did not have any Felicia Daisy Blues (I asked), or I would have bought them too. We got some nifty new annuals for the two concrete planters out front, and I planted them in the rain.

We also picked up lots of herbs (parsley, rosemary, basil) and two different kinds of tomatoes. And I got a free composter (yay, Craigslist!). Planted everything except for the tomatoes, and then went inside because it was really starting to pour. And it was time for dinner, but that's another post.

Inside Man

Inside Man (IMDb:7.4|Rot:89%)

Saw Inside Man about a week ago at the Strand, based solely on its good rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I knew nothing about the plot, other than that a bank heist was involved. (I don't think that I'd even seen a trailer for it.) The cast is excellent: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Jodie Foster, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Willem Dafoe…

I've only seen Chiwetel Ejiofor in Serenity, so I was looking forward to his performance here. Unfortunately, they didn't give him much to do— this is totally Denzel's film. But that was only a small disappointment in an otherwise great movie.

I liked the way the story unfolded and rewound, and I never felt like I had it all figured out. Good stuff. Go see it.

Gnome news is good news

Alert reader Elke points us to the Secret History of the Garden Gnome. I had no idea that gnomes had such a seedy side to them:

[…] But the common garden gnome has fallen on hard times in recent years, his reputation tarnished by campaigns led by mean-spirited elitist intellectuals and even perverts. To intellectuals and other touchy types, he's despised as the embodiment of kitsch and petit-bourgeois parochialism. Some outsiders have even sought to savage the image of the gnome by plunging him into a world of decadence, violence, and sex. There are pornographic gnomes, one-eared Van Gogh gnomes and "Scream" versions à la Edvard Munch. […]

Bonus gnome news:

• Happy ending: gnome-napped Shamus returned to his Milford home by police escort.
  
• Gnome on a stick?

Star Trek trifecta

• Parents name their son James Tiberius Kirk. (I wonder if they've already started a therapy fund.)
• Christie's will be holding a mega-auction in New York City: memorabilia, costumes, props, and more from the original series, Next Generation, and a bunch of the movies. Mark your calendars: October 5-7. More info available here: christies.com/startrek/.
• Patrick Stewart on Star Trek XI: "I just got a call from L.A. a few weeks ago saying, 'You're not going to believe this but the people at Paramount, the new people, are very interested in reviving the franchise.'"

Scrabble night

Via fark.com: David Mach's Myslexia, an 8-foot tall sculpture of a nude woman made from 4,200 Scrabble tiles - worth more than 76,000 (not possible) 7,600 points (pix here).

Friday quickies (angry political version)

My anger and disgust with this administration is apparently unbounded, as it increases every day, with every news story I read or listen to. I feel that there is nothing that I can do to influence the outcome of anything that happens in government, and every day I read something else that makes me want to scream and scream and scream. Why aren't there 218 Representatives and 66 Senators who are willing and eager to impeach W? Barring that, why couldn't Congress reauthorize and reinstate the Office of the Independent Counsel? Paging Mr. Starr: there are some allegations of misconduct that we'd like you to look into. Currently making my head spin:

• Halliburton received a contract to build centers with "temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." I can't wait to see what "new programs" get cooked up for us over the next 907 days.
  
• Historian Sean Wilentz ponders the Dubya legacy: Worst. President. Ever. "Instead of emphasizing any political, diplomatic or humanitarian aspects of a war on Iraq -- an appeal that would have sounded too "sensitive," as Cheney once sneered -- the administration built a "Bush Doctrine" of unprovoked, preventive warfare, based on speculative threats and embracing principles previously abjured by every previous generation of U.S. foreign policy-makers, even at the height of the Cold War. The president did so with premises founded, in the case of Iraq, on wishful thinking."
  
• Checks and balances, my ass. More bizarro logic: Bush will "faithfully execute the law in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution," but he can ignore any statute passed by Congress that conflicts with his Constitutional interpretation, including "military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research."

Friday quickies (sweetness and light version)

We are back from (a rather extended) vacation: tan, rested, and ready. We left behind the sun and sand, and have returned to a dreary New England springtime. Everything is in bloom, but the skies are gray, the lawn is knee-high, and the rain just keeps on coming. I expect that this weekend will be quite busy, as we take care of dirty laundry, neglected yard work, and elementary ark-building.

Without further ado, assorted flotsam that caught my eye:

• Evolutionary news: snakes with hips and finches with flair!
• More gnome-napping: a 300-pound cement gnome was stolen from Milford, MA.
• Lileks on TiVo training: "[It's] like training a puppy: We'll do better this time! No scraps from the table. I made the mistake of giving it a thumbs-up on Judge Judy, because it promptly recorded every single court show on the air, including the entire program day of the Zoning Hearing Board Channel."
• CulturePulp gave a shout-out to Chris Baldwin's Little Dee, a well-drawn and whimsical comic featuring a little girl, a bear, a dog, and … a vulture? I love the art, and the stories are extraordinarily sweet, and not-at-all cloying. When the book is back in print, I'm buying several copies for gifts— good stuff.
• I love Mimi Smartypants: Nora discovers skateboarding.
  Nora: Can I do the skateboard?
  Me: Maybe when you're bigger. Hey, let's go on the swings.
  Nora [ignoring me]: What is he doing now?
  Me: Looks like an ollie kickflip.
  Nora [whispering reverently]: Ollie...kick...flip...
  Me: Oh good lord.