Sunday, November 30, 2008

Superman's Song



It's only technically a video, but it never changes, so hit "Play" and then read on.  The band's actual music video is stupid, so I spare you.

Superman's Song

I haven't heard this song in years, but recently it's been on the radio again.

My friend Jim used to play it for us when we'd all get together on Saturday nights.  I didn't really appreciate the song until recently.  It seemed too much like a novelty song, back then.  But after years of mortgages and fatherhood, I've felt the pressure to keep going and going even when I'd rather escape for a while.

This song is so melodramatic and tongue in cheek, yet it does a pretty good job of illustrating two sides of a man's personality. It's just good to acknowledge that most of us want (or need) both sides. Men and women both, I think.  Personally, I could do with less changing in phone booths and more "I Tarzan, you Jane."

Here's the lyrics for the more curious of you.


Superman's Song


Tarzan wasn't a ladies' man
He'd just come along and scoop 'em up under his arm like that
quick as a cat in the jungle
But Clark Kent now there was a real gent
He would not be caught sittin' around in no junglescape
dumb as an ape doing nothing


Supermen never made any money
Saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him


Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job
Even though he could have smashed through any bank in the United States
he had the strength, but he would not
Folks said his family were all dead
Their planet crumbled but Superman, he forced himself to carry on,
forget Krypton, and keep going


Supermen never made any money
Saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him


Tarzan was king of the jungle and Lord over all the apes
But he could hardly string together four words: "I Tarzan, You Jane. "


Sometimes when Supe was stopping crimes
I'll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back on man,
join Tarzan in the forest
But he stayed in the city
And kept on changing clothes in dirty old phone booths till his work was through
And nothing to do but go on home


Supermen never made any money
Saving the world from Solomon Grundy
And sometimes I despair the world will never see
Another man like him

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

Random list of things I'm thankful for...

My kids (the randomness starts below)

Google.   and transversely, for people who don't google, who make me seem so much smarter

Coffee

Prepositions at the end of sentences

Fresh ginger

...and my disdain for the rule that says not to begin sentences with "and" or "or"

Flat Stanley

Cheesecake

6'1"

The mortar and pestle

The internet

...

The Little Prince

Cast iron pans

Skype

Perfume

Say Anything

Turkey

Christmas

That's enough. 
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 

Monday, November 24, 2008

Cardamom Ice Cream

I'm in love with cardamom.  It's just amazing stuff.  I don't know that I'd even had it before a year ago, but now I go through it like most people do pepper.

The great thing is that most people can't identify it.  It's a secret ingredient in several of my recipes, and I usually get a great reaction from it.  Here, it takes plain ol' vanilla ice cream and makes it amazing.

Cardamom Ice Cream

Recipe is per person

2 scoops vanilla ice cream, plus a 1/2 scoop, melted
4 cardamom pods

Split the cardamom pods open and put the seeds in a mortar and pestle, spice grinder, or ultra clean coffee grinder.  I have a dedicated grinder just for spices, but if you don't, and want to use your coffee grinder, grind up some dry rice until the coffee grounds and coffee smell is gone, then do it one more time.  Brush it clean, then grind the spice.

Melt, or allow to melt, the 1/2 scoop of ice cream per person.  Stir the ground cardamom into the melted ice cream.

Scoop the ice cream into individual bowls, and evenly divide the melted ice cream amongst the bowls, pouring it over the scoops.

Garnish with a spoon.  Serve.  Eat.

Nutrition:  Whatever it says on the label of your ice cream.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Caramelized Apples & Yogurt

Caramelized Apples & Yogurt

Per person

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 cardamom pod, seeds only, crushed
1 tsp butter
dash cinnamon
1 apple  (I used a red one!)
1 small cookie (optional)

Stir cardamom into the yogurt.  Set aside.

Slice apple, peel and all, into thin slices and pieces.

Heat butter in non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add cinnamon and apples, stirring to coat.  Cook apples over medium heat until browned and tender to bite.

Stir the hot apples into the yogurt and serve in a bowl.  I had it with an oatmeal cookie, but I almost wish it was a ginger snap.

Note to self:  Roland, remember to use the camera before you eat the food.  It looked good, too.

Green Beans with Honeyed Cranberries

Skip that green bean and almond casserole this year and embrace some fresh green beans!

Hopefully, this is a fresh take on them for you. It's certainly easy and delicious.

For Thanksgiving, this is distinctly American, as green beans originated down in Mexico and moved on up to the United States over time, ready for those European Colonists to eat 200 plus years ago.  Cranberries are also native to the USA, and so are pine nuts.  If you don't like pine nuts, try pecans or black walnuts.  Black walnuts are hard to find; those big walnuts in your Thanksgiving nut bowl are English.

Enjoy...

Green Beans with Honeyed Cranberries

Serves 6 ( 6 at a regular meal, more people at Thanksgiving, since people tend to have soooo many choices.  But, you decide, based on the recipe and the people attending.)

2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans, strings removed
2 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp honey
salt to taste

If doubling the recipe, it's probably easier to cook all the cranberries, then cook the beans in batches of 1 1/2 lbs.  Toss the nuts, cranberries, and honey in the big bowl at the end of all the cooking.

In a large covered skillet or pot, melt the butter over medium high heat.  Add the cranberries, cooking until they are broken down and fully "one with the butter."  It will look like cranberry sauce, and it tastes extremely sour, so don't even try it.  Scrape the sauce into a large bowl.  Stir in the honey.

Return the pot to medium high heat and add the green beans.  Add 1/4 cup of water, and cover the pot.  Cook until they are crisp and still crunchy, not limp.  Mine just took about 4 minutes.  Check after 3 and go from there.  Add water if it dries up, too.

Add the beans and the pine nuts to the bowl, salt them, then toss gently to fully coat.  Salt to taste.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Per serving (1/6th):  Calories 131, Fat 6, Carb 20, Fiber 5, Protein 2

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Protected

It's a beautiful Saturday out here.  Windy and warm with the Santa Ana winds blowing.

I'm in a wonderfully melancholy mood today.  Across California, there are fires burning because of these dry winds, so it seems wrong to enjoy this, but I am. 

I'm watching the leaves blow from the trees and push up against the walls and bushes in the distance, making piles.  After a while, the winds shift and the piles leave, too. On my deck, I'm protected from the winds; the walls and buildings are aligned perfectly.




I'll man myself up later.  Promise.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Pears with Cardamom and Sour Cream

I used to be anti-fruit.  Not that I thought it was bad, but just that it was not satisfying.  It was like eating nothing, or worse, made me hungrier.  No more.  Something changed in the last year and I'm liking fruit every day.  It's still the worst thing for me to have when I'm hungry, since it still does nothing to fill me up, but I love it and can deal with it just fine.

This recipe is pretty simple, but good.

Recipe is per person.

1 pear (room temperature)
1 cardamom pod
2 tbsp sour cream, divided

Break open the cardamom pod to get to the seeds.  Discard the husk.  Grind the seeds.  Hopefully you have a mortar and pestle, but if not, you can use a cutting board and the bottom of a heavy glass, mug, or pan to grind them.  They are pretty small to begin with, so it's not hard.

Cut the pear into bite size pieces and place into a small bowl.  Toss the pear with the cardamom, then 1 tablespoon of the sour cream, stirring to mix and coat.

Put it in a pretty bowl or cup and plop another tablespoon of sour cream on top.  Let it sit for a few minutes before serving.  Temperature is important.  Cold kills flavor.

I'm going to try poaching a pear next time, but since I like crisp pears a lot, I wonder when I'll get around to it...

Nutrition (using a large pear): Calories 182, Fat 6, Carbs 34, Fiber 6, Protein 2

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Fashion Fiascos

I did a lot of walking today, because the weather was so nice.  70-75 and partly cloudy.  But, California is an odd place; here people sometimes wish it was colder, so they pretend.


I don't carry a camera around to take pictures of strangers anymore, so I found one on the interweb.  This picture is actually from Estonia (wherever that is), but today this guy would've fit right in around here.  Notice the scarf?  Brrrr.

Today I saw these combinations of ludicrous:

Shorts, scarf, canvas work jacket, sandals
Shorts, knit beanie, ski vest, thermal shirt, work boots
Shorts, ski cap (with ball), parka with furry hood, Converse high tops

There were more like those, too.

I also saw a guy with jeans, scarf, HUGE coat, and gloves.  He must have been dying in there.  I had shorts, a t-shirt, and athletic shoes.  I was carrying a long sleeve t-shirt, just in case.  I was fine.

He didn't look nice, either.  It wasn't like he had this awesome new outfit that he needed to show off.  He was an idiot.

Speaking of idiots...  I was talking on the phone this morning and apparently I said "The world is full of idiots."  I don't remember why I said it, but Allie repeated it to several people today, and used me as a reference.  Nice.  I told her that what I meant to say was "The world is full of people, and most of them are idiots."  Better.

Again, speaking of idiots...  I saw several women who were dressed nicely, while the male next to them was not.  That's simply irresponsible.  There's simply no excuse for it.  You have a responsibility to make sure that you are complimentarily complementarily* dressed if you're going to go out together.  If the girl is wearing something nice and put together, the guy needs to come close at least.  How hard is that?  So, please, stop slacking off, step up, and accept the responsibility that comes with dating a man.  Tell him to get the fuck back inside and put on some real clothes.  If you don't you're an idiot.

* just give this word to me, okay?

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Will It Blend?

This is not some metaphor for my life or anything, simply a fun post. I will not be deep. On Halloween, I stayed up late with Tony, watching things blend on youtube.



The guy blends a ton of fun things. Check it out.  Do it.

It started with talk of an iPhone, the expense of an iPhone, then a link to the death of an iPhone on youtube.  Here's the link to one iPhone's beautiful demise.

Tony and I loved watching the death of the iPhone, but we had to turn off the computer to catch an episode of "Time Warp" before bed.  But, imagine this, "Will It Blend?" was being featured on this episode of "Time Warp" in ultra slow mo!  What a coincidence!  So, 30 minutes later, we were back on youtube again for a ton more blending.

After all of the blending, Tony and I had a slumber party in the living room. We stayed up even later, talking in the dark. I fell asleep too early. He wanted to talk, and I couldn't keep my eyes open. I'll have to remember to do it again, but start earlier for the extended father/son chat time.

The boy and I are two totally different people.  We don't often get each other, but you know what?  We get blending shit.

See?  It's not deep.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween Night

I took the boy out trick or treating.

 
Tony and friends

 Tone's friends


My daughter and her friends did a haunted house and a slumber party at a friend's house, but we did go by to check it out.

 
Allie Dead and Alive 
  
The Witches' Haunted House 
 
The haul 
 
A clone can dream, can't he?



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