Mise en Place

Big day tomorrow, happy birthday U.S.A.!

I haven't put much time into planning tomorrow's party. Whatever, I have some meat, my friends are coming over, it's going to be hot, everything will work out. It helps that I have my own errand boy who will go get whatever we need tomorrow.

So far today I've:
-Made jello shots. I wa planning on making red, white, and blue layered ones but the jello selection at Target is poor.
-Biked to Kurowski for sausage and Chicago Meat for pork butts. At Chicago Meat they butcher whole hog and you can get a butt with the skin on and spine still atttached. They're a bargain at $1.49/lb.
-Cleaned off the back porch with WSE, and moved the grills and furniture to the back yard.
-Made a pineapple/vodka infusion*
-Wrote(?) a blog post

More later ...

OK it's later and I actually have more. Gyros for dinner and I watered the garden. Happy Independence Day!




*Pineapple Vodka Infusion
-1 overipe pineapple cut into 1/4 dice
-750ml vodka
-juice of 1 lime

Hmmm it's good after 5 hours. A couple weeks would probably be ideal, but I doubt it will last that long.

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

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. :(

It was a good day

Well, I did have some hog for breakfast, and the dog is barking, but there is no smog and I made a giant jug of Bloody Marys.

The most awesome thing happened last night. As everyone knows I am constantly spilling ice. An average of 1.83 out of 12 cubes (14.72%, please don't check the math) ends up on the floor. In fact, this blog should probably be called ice spills everywhere but ice doesn't stain. For the 1st (last?) time in my life the spilled ice cube popped up in the air and in a perfect parabola sailed into my glass. I have conquered life, at least for a few hours.

Why are Bry's shoes on my porch? Did she walk home barefoot? Will I be doing vodka shots out of a straw later?

I definitely need to listen to more Peter Frampton.

That's all for now. Please enjoy your holiday weekend.

On ostentatious whores and Sunday morning Bloody Marys

This whole Neil Young thing was a bad idea.

James unreliably informs us (via a note) that he is (at least as of 22 days ago at one a.m.):

"Not dead at all. When did you come up with thisn? Now all you need is a table and some blow."

We have no idea what that means, but it's good to have neighbors who keep in touch and bring cake.

Other than a completely depressing lack of Vodka, this is shaping up to be a fine Sunday.

Call your mother for God's sake!

WSE