Brent is an Agent of Destruction

Last night we grilled on the front porch (kinda trashy, but fun.) I whipped up a batch of green crack sauce* as a hoover doover and it vanished.

I started grilling (chorizo, corn and a mustard coated pork roast) and left WSE and Brent to make the second batch.

Never let amateurs in your kitchen.







* Green Crack Sauce
- 10 medium tomatillos (husk removed). The tomatillo is related to gooseberries
- 1 small onion
- 6 cloves of garlic, skin on
- 2-4 jalepenoes or serranos

- Roast these in a 450 oven for 25 minutes or so. Or grill them till roasty (this way is better.). Peel the garlic and add them to a blender along with:

- 1 avocado. Don't let WSE near the avocado, it will drive you nuts.
- Juice of 1 lime
- cilantro to taste (I use 1/4 bunch)
- salt

Blend until smooth. MAKE SURE THE BOTTOM OF THE BLENDER IS ATTACHED!

Deano Martino

Oh Boy

I know all the words to this song ,and I know all the episodes that the the clips were taken from.


I hate to admit that this made me laugh.

Oil Spills Everywhere

Sometimes words just aren't enough.

Source

WSE

The Garden Part 2

Here is the rest of the garden. Lots of weeds, yuck. I'm not going to label everything this time; there's zucchini, cucumbers, mixed greens, spinach, and leaf lettuce. The herbs plated are parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, dill, chives, basil, and marjoram. I have no idea what to do with marjoram, I may have to get the Larousse out later.

The Garden

In true hippy fashion, we have a huge garden. I've planted a few vegetables in my lifetime, but I was always more of a perennial man. However, desperate times call for desperate measures.

We discussed the garden for months. PeaceDonna (PD) had all these seed catalogs and we dreamed of artisinal tuscan variegated truncated fuschia beets. All of a sudden the weather got warm (damn the end of April was warm) and we had no seeds and we had nada, nothing, rien. We did have about 90 square feet of land ready for planting that WSE and PD had prepared in the fall (more on this later.) One day in early May I was actually ambitious and said to PD "We have to fucking plant something in the garden THIS WEEKEND!"

"I have 20 bucks to spend."

"Yeah I can spare 20 bucks."

"OK let's go."

I think it was a Sunday morning. PD called me from the Home Depot and said "Damn the plants are cheaper at Slap and Tickle." She ended up buying about $10 worth of seeds. Corn, Zuchinni (which are now courgettes because it is way cooler) 73 types of salad greens, green beans, cucumbers, beets (not tuscan variegated etc., just regular old beets.) I went to Slap and Tickle (the store is actually called Strack and Van Till but that name sucks) and bought two 6-packs of tomatoes, a 6-pack of cucumbers, a 6-pack of sweet peppers, and a 6-pack of broccoli. This was all for $10. I'm pretty sure we spent our "savings" on beer.

Anyway after all of this we have spent $20 dollars TOTAL. Now it's time for the planting. Like I said earlier WSE and PD had prepared some ground for planting last fall. Basically they put cardboard over some grass and weighed it down with rocks. I have to say I was skeptical but this worked really well. Really really well. I just wished thay had laid out more cardboard. I ended digging up a bunch of sod. Worst job in the world.

Sorry about that sod digression. Anyway all the plants and seeds are planted. There is a story in this story about my neighbor's sister but I'll wait for another time. Kids were planting plants etc. it was cool. Since then I've spent $7 more on plants (cauliflower, eggplant and thyme). My Mom brought us a bunch of herbs and some more hot peppers (thank you big Iris).

Here is what we have so far. A have a bitchin' Spanish style trellis in the works (roommates are skeptical, f^&% them.) The veg are organized by how I want to cook them.

a) elotes
b) hobak-jeon
c) dilly beans for Kim
d) bacon wrapped stuffed jalapeños
e) I want to make tomato juice from fresh tomatoes for Bloody Marys*. How would a bloody mary taste with fresh tomatoes? All the recipes I've found call for cooked tomatoes. We'll investigate this further and report back later.

f) Tzatziki

g) Hmmm broccoli. I'm not a fan of broccoli, it's probably my least favorite cruciferous vegetable. WSE's mom made a good midwestern-style potluck broccoli salad. Damn his mom is awesome.
h) Beet Rosti
i ) Roasted Cauliflower

j) Berenjenas en Escabeche

* My Bloody Mary recipe. For a pitcher. Always make a pitcher.
- 1/2 a 750ml bottle of vodka. Use cheap vodka. In fact you can use rum (yes I've tried it.) Tequila works too.
- 1 beer. A Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is good. Hoppy beers preferred, or Guinness.
- 8-10 dashes Worcestershire
- Heaping Tablespoon Horseradish
- 2 Tbs. Pickle Juice
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 Tablespoon Sriracha or other hot sauce. Feel free to add more if it is a Bloody Mary bong morning
- 1 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Deano Martino

Sunday Recap

Appetizer. James made the crackers. For those who don't know James, he brings us elegant desserts at 3 least times a week. I've been begging him to make crackers out of my Martha Stewart book. These were the bomb.

My favorite cracker. Meghan is my favorite too.

Butterflied pork roast stuffed with garlic, onions, sage, parsley and kielbasa.

James also made dessert. It was good.

Open Thread Guest post

Ok we have had sausage on crackers, up next is pork stuffed with sausage, and more sausage. I got the "wedding sausage" from the polish market because it was the only one I could pronounce (Wesleva?) The first home-grown salad of the season is also coming up WOOOO! - deano martino.

☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂

Sometimes, well before the dark, you understand that you've been drinking a bit. And there is nothing to worry about there, the strange smell of after rain and the yes indeed we are lighting the grill, voices I don't even know and the hope of lightning bugs. And that strange desire for everything to be ok, one time only. One time only where the air touches you in that strange breezy way and the voices around you are friendly and there is a bit of smoke and I just want a summer to mean something every once in a while but god damn if I do not quite know what I want to say, aside from that great summer feeling you get when you hear the grill com off and you smell the meat and you are so happy to pour another bit of wine into the glass and wait for the fireflies and a bit of night to come.

Meghan V. L.

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Wow Meghan pretty much said it all and way better than this poor correspondent could ever convey.

I will say that when you resort to stuffing meat with meat, you are approaching some sort of event horizon at an insane speed.

Tip o' the Hat to Deano Martino (slow roaster extraordinaire).

WSE

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Meghan and I with a cracker that looks like the lower peninsula of Michigan.




Where o where are the umbrellas?

Musical interlude:

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☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂

I am losing at euchre but w.s.e. and I are cooler than the people we're playing against. ~ Deano Martino.

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oh boy still up d.m. weird things happening.

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interlude 2:

That Damn Libural Media

What with X^10th barrels of light, sweet, crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico and BP execs at sixes and sevens about how to deal with it; what with a jobless recovery, sans census; what with two unprovoked, unnecessary wars tapping our wealth and treasure, you'd think that the dirty hippie run liberal media would have better things to focus on than whether or not Sarah Palin has been palin' around with silicon.

Problem is it wasn't us dirty hippies doing the obsessing.

WSE

Awesomesauce

-"I don't want to get into specifics of tree sex today."
-Burrito Night!

Tell me Sweet Little Lies

WSE loves election years. The political theater offered by those running for elected office provides near daily nuggets of levity: infusing the mundane lassitude of the daily grind with incredulous laughter, stunned disbelief and, all too often, a sincere desire to move to Australia or at least as far away from Sarah Palin as $1.30 and the lack of a passport can get me.

And, while it's all too easy to share in the brilliantly cynical perspective on democracy put forth by those such as Douglas Adams, we must also recall that it is our most noble and pressing of civic duties to elect the lizards leaders we will come to despise.

Certainly, every election cycle is good for its share of laughs, gaffes and scandals, but the election of 2010 is shaping up to be especially pernicious. The historic election of 2008, which elevated a black man to the highest office of the land, seems to have thrown an unrepresented majority of the nation into fits of paranoia, jingoism and tea-bagging lunacy.

(Note to the Tea Partier's: if you're going to adopt a name for your astro-turfed movement of white, old, racist, angry, rich people do some fucking research first, after all, Al Gore didn't bust his ass to give you the internet if you're just going to ignore it).

Be the quick, brown fox and jump over the lazy dog.

WSE's Post ☂ ☂

The volatile political climate present in the current cycle, fueled 24/7 by a Fourth Estate that has become more interested in entertainment than facts and a rabid Blog-O-Sphere hell bent on mega-biting dissenters to death, should place the average unconcerned American voter on notice. More than ever, in these days of hypocrisy and hyperbole, of hate and hype, of gab and glory, we, the unwashed masses, must be ware of the insipid invasion of revisionist mendacity into our political lexicon. As Orwell himself warned us:

And if all others accepted the lie which the [Candidate] imposed... then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the [Candidate] slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' George Orwell, 1984.

Saying that politicians lie is much like a Texan pointing out that Thomas Jefferson was of less import than Cotton Mather in establishing the principles of our nation. Any competent adult over the age of 26 knows that politicians lie. The problem is the politicians haven't yet to realize how easy it is for us to catch them these days.

Case in point: Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer (R - Crazysauce), recently bemoaned the pornographic nature of our political discourse in light of what her father fought and died for against the Germans in WWII.

The Nazi comments . . . they are awful, she said, her voice dropping. Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lost him when I was 11 because of that . . . and then to have them call me Hitler's daughter. It hurts. It's ugliness beyond anything I've ever experienced. The Arizona Republic 6.3.10.

Problem is Jan's dad didn't fighting the Germans. He died in California battling lung disease.

The ever intrepid Ms. Brewer immediately responded by claiming that:

...her statement should not be taken to mean that she was claiming her father was a soldier in Germany during the Nazi regime. Daily Kos 6.3.10.

Let me see if I have this straight. Stating, on record, that her father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany during WWII should in no way be construed to imply that her father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany during WWII.

War is peace. Tyranny is freedom. All that is not mandatory is compulsory.

The Newspeak of our times informs our perspective and like the daily doses of self-confessionalism, scripted "reality" and banal humor we are spoon fed by an over-induldged, over-centralized, corporate entertainment establishment, adds to our antipathy, our cynicism and our collective agnosticism toward our civic union and humanity.

Sure, this revisionist mendacity may have started on the side of the aisle that favors such radical ideas as social justice, equal opportunity, and {GASP!!!} marriage equality, but it down-right endemic on the side that kneels before their bed each night and prays to the one true god that this country return to 1954. It's getting so bad that in a move that demonstrates his maverick spirit, Arizona Senator and perpetual Presidential Candidate, John McCain (R - Grumpy Old Men), now claims never to have been a maverick.

We have come to expect so little from our leaders and maybe that's an outcome of our cultural obsession with the banal. At the very least, though, we should expect honest. We should demand it. My dad used to say that growing up he was so poor he couldn't afford to pay attention. These days lack of attention only places us in greater poverty.

WSE

I go to parties, sometimes until 4. It's hard to leave when you can't find the door.

LIVE BLOG TOMORROW

LIVE BLOG TOMORROW

LIVE BLOG TOMORROW

LIVE BLOG TOMORROW

everybody says "I'm cool,"

"He's cool"

Who said it?

Match the quote with with the person who said it:

a) "You always get me where I need to be."
b) "How do you spell _________?"
c) "HeeeHeeee it's in my room"
d) "Hey did you taste the cake/pie/cookies . . ."
e) "I saw so many yoga pants today!"

1) Peace Donna
2) Madalyn
3) Deano Maritino
4) James
5) WSE



1st correct answer in comments wins a jar of zuchinni pickles!

And yes, I did just ask if "quotee" is a word. :(

please, please don't go

Hey everyone, I know we suck at posting during the week, but we are working on it. They're are several projects we're working on here at WSE including:

- 1st of many garden blogs

- PeaceDonna's insult of the week. She has to insult Scott and I together, and we can not respond. It isn't a personal attack if she insults both of us?!

- A 5,000 word (within an order of magnitude) essay about census enumerating.

- Wrestling?

- Recipes? I don't know, maybe.

- Modesto League Junior Baseball

- Biking (yes he is holding a fixed gear)

- A detailed product review of the Martino machine.

- 4th of July party, including discussion of pinata full of fireworks.

I don't know, I'm making shit up here. Please click on our sponsor's ads. Good Night!