Sophie B. Hawkins

Damn, I wish I Was Your Lover.

This is the banned on MTV version.

Taken From My Porch Just Now

Great Egret. These guys are elegant hunters. Fish, frogs, but also mice, lizards and other small game. They figure if it's smaller, slower, stupider than them, it's on the menu.

Fuck the stupid stuff Hillary just said. This is more interesting. I'm hosting several of my collegues from the college for a potluck get together to celebrate the end of the school term. I'm bringing the ice cream.

bbb

Friday Random Ten

Here's the soundtrack for today:

Aye, Aye, Mama - - - Clifton Chenier
Rock Boogie Shout - - - Buckwheat Zydeco
Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover - - - Sophie B. Hawkins
When She Moves - - - The Bears (Rock)
Boogie Chillun' - - - John Lee Hooker (live, acoustic)
Page 43 - - - Graham Nash & David Crosby
Foggy, Foggy Dew - - - Tommy Makem (live bootleg, me on harp)
Pissin' In The Wind - - - Jerry Jeff Walker
Hazy Shade of Winter - - - The Bangles (this drummer rocks, that is all)
Cauce Corto, Aeroplano Pesado - - - Los Tigres Del Norte (Short Runway, Heavy Plane)

Bonus Track:
Super Flumina Babylonis - - - Palestrina (recorded in San Xavier Del Bac Mission by Linda Ronstadt, me on harp again)

That's my playlist for the morning. Gotta go do some rat killing in town. Dog to the groomer and other stuff. Abbie loves being clean, and she's shedding at a high rate, even for a German Shepherd right now, but she hates getting a bath. I hire that shit out because I don't have the heart.

In Da "House!"

I was just kicking back, flipping through the TIVO'd finale of "House." Watching them go through the usual stuff. You know how House works. The Doctors earnestly in good faith fuck everything up until, at the last moment, in a flash of inspiration they get it right.

The right thing they got came in the 3rd act. 13, one of the doctors who works with House, is having an emotional meltdown moment. She takes refuge in the lady's room, sitting in a stall. Right over her left shoulder is a sticker that says "Vote For Change '08." Then they cut to her feet. House's sneaker comes under the stall divider and he says "Wide Stance."

That's beautiful and subversive stuff. During the conversation, taking place in a bathroom, where at least three republicans that I can think of off the top of my head met their downfalls. We are reminded which party has the bathroom lurkers. Everytime they cut to the gorgeous young actress playing 13, there it is, big as life and twice as lovely, "Vote For Change '08."

To top it off, they did this on Fox.

Sometimes I remember what it was that I loved about living and working in Hollywood.

They did this on Fox.

BBB

самиздат (Samizdat)

I have just finished reading Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values by Philippe Sands, an internationally acclaimed expert in International Law.

I was enraged. I was also heartbroken. Sands does an excellent job of making his case. He does so in excruciating lawerly detail. Part of the credibility he brings to this is that he was one of the lawyers who brought the case against Auguste Pinochet.

Step by step through the process of the degredation of principles of law and simple human decency he outlines the way American Law, the Law of Nations, and what the Apache and other native peoples would call Sacred Law, was first, weakened, then discarded entirely. He does so using the case of Detainee 063. He shows the escalation of tactics, from strictness, through bullying, and finally into plain and simple cruelty. All of which achieved nothing of any benefit to the stated goals of finding intelligence in the War on Terror.

He interviews the lawyers who drafted the memos, the cabinet officers who expanded them. He attacks the process that led us to this state of affairs.

He draws an undeniable parallel to a case at Nuremburg which was the basis for the film Judgement at Nuremburg. He goes so far as to conduct an interview with the son of one of the Nazi defendants. What made the case at Nuremburg applicable here is that the cited case was judges and lawyers who twisted legal arguments and made a case for the legality of the death camps, the slave labor system, and other Nazi war crimes. By providing the evil a cover of law, they helped to make it happen.

The name of what I'm about to do after reading this book was graciously provided by Jurassic Pork of "Welcome to Pottersville". Thanks JP!

Samizdat was the old system in the days of the iron curtain. Using typewriters with carbon paper, using duplicating and mimeograph machines, folks behid the curtain would copy works that were forbidden. They would also memorize entire books and recite them in underground salons.

What I will do next with this book is send my copy off to Melissa McEwan of Shakesville. I chose her because she is passionate and vocal in her quest for a better America. Hell, she had a brutal case of the flu and dragged her sick ass to the polls in order to vote in the last Indiana Primary. She was one of the main inspirations that got me to start my own blogging.

I am going to send her my copy of the book, with a short little inscription. She's going to read it, write about it, and pass it on to another. Just like the old Samizdat (literally: Self Publishing).

Unfortunately, the truth has become contraband in our country. That must change.

I'm looking forward to following this book's progress through Blogtopia. (Yes! Skippy coined that phrase!)

Big Brass Blog

Operation Rescue!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

If you're here because you were searching for ways to fuck with women who want to exercise their still barely legal rights to health care without interference from assholes like you; or, if you're here because you want to destroy labs and other venues of science because you care about animals more than you care about people or the advance of knowledge,

Gotcha!

This isn't about cute bunnies being tortured in the lab. This isn't about being self righteous bullying assholes to young women facing a crisis in their life, this is about Chocolatissimo Nutella Bomb Ice Cream!

You're still an asshole, but who knows? Maybe if you ate more ice cream you'd be more tolerable to be around.

When I went to take the custard out of the refrigerator for its final freeze, I discovered that it had set up to a consistency that was too thick for freezing. This happens with frozen custards and is not a cause for panic or despair. It is easily remedied by adding a little more liquid, in this case, a bit more Frangelico and a bit more whole milk while it is all stirring in the stand mixer.

I don't have measurements to give you because I was working purely by eye and feel. The only way to develop that eye and that feel is to make lots of ice cream. Tough assignment to be sure, but, I'm certain you have the will and the courage to achieve it.

Put it all back into the freezer container and go through the steps in the freeze just as before. Layers of ice and of rock salt. As the ice melts keep adding more and laying on the salt with a will.



An important thing I just noticed is that you can see the mark of the fill level on the container. Note where that line is, and where the top of the ice cream is. That growth in volume during freezing is why it is important not to exceed the fill line before you freeze. That is all. Carry on.

Remove the container from the freezer unit, it's helpful to give it a quick wipe down so you don't chance contamination from rock salt or ice brine. Remove the dasher and scrape off the accumulated ice cream into the final container. Don't be all fussy about getting it all, this is one of the best times to stick the dasher into a big bowl and give every kid in the house a spoon.



I'm using the standard, green rectangular Ziplock® plastic containers to lay up ice cream for the parties of the weekend. There's always about a solid quart of overflow for my own enjoyment. In this case it's an old cottage cheese container.


Put it back into the freezer for two or three hours to firm up the consistency, and serve.

This is an intensely rich, silky smooth ice cream. Using the 72% cocoa mass bittersweet chocolate give it an amazing chocolate presence which subtly gives way to the more delicate flavors of the Nutella and Frangelico. Dark, dangerous, intriguingly complex. This stuff is absolutely incredible.

As I gave April her serving, I watched as she took her first taste of it. I watched her eyes widen with delight. I figured why waste the moment so I said "Tell me I'm a genius and you love me."

As soon as the shivers of ecstasy passed she blurted without hesitation, "You're a genius and I love you."

Hey, I takes 'em where I gets 'em. It's always nice to hear.

big brass blog

Chocolatissimo Nutella Bomb Ice Cream

Originally, I intended to use the recipe, here. It's a fine recipe that includes a lot of basic techniques essential to the education of any cook.

Only thing was, that recipe is mainly a chocolate frozen custard with some nutella thrown in. I already have an incredible chocolate frozen custard recipe that I've done a bazillian (or is it brazillian?) times. Turning the one I already know backwards and forwards and have already made to great acclaim a bunch of times into a recipe that uses Nutella would not be hard at all.

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk
14 egg yolks (note the symmetry here with the angel food cake)
1/2 cup + 4 tbsp sugar
2 cups heavy cream
20 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/2 cup Frangelico
1/2 cup Nutella

To melt the chocolate, break it into reasonable chunks in a microwave safe bowl
Microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat. Stir. Until the chocolate is around 2/3s melted. Then reduce the microwaving time to 10 seconds until the chocolate is smooth and glossy. Any little chunks still remaining will melt while you do the rest of it. If the chocolate looks like this:

You're cool.

In a stand mixer put the egg yolks and sugar together and mix well on a medium speed.


Scald the milk


Use a ladle to put the scalded milk a little at a time (this is called tempering the eggs, remember?) into the egg and sugar mixture while the mixer is running on low.


Add 1/2 cup of Frangelico


Mix well and transfer to a large saucepan over a medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. There's no substitute for the wooden spoon here. Don't even fucking try. Just use a wooden spoon.


Cook until the custard thickens and begins to coat the back of your wooden spoon.


Pour this back into the mixer's bowl through a strainer.


Use a spatula to gently force some of the curdles through. Gently.


With the mixer at a medium stirring speed, add in the melted chocolate,


the cream,


and the Nutella.


Mix at medium until smooth and glossy.


Transfer this to the freezer container for your ice cream freezer, use heavy cream, or milk, or a combination of the two to bring the level up to the full mark.

Chill for at least six hours before freezing.

This one looks totally fucking epic. I'm certain it is going to taste monsterously good when frozen.

Get your drool bibs ready for the pictures of the freezing I put up tomorrow, or late tonight. Make that late tonight. There's no way in the blue-eyed world I will be able to wait until tomorrow to get this done.

3Beez

Friday Random Ten

I have ice cream on the brain. I found that recipe for chocolate nutella ice cream and have been obsessing about making it since.

The soundtrack for today features:

No Woman, No Cry - - - Sinead O'Connor (live bootleg from the Old Time Cafe me on the harp)
True To I Self - - - Ziggy Marley
The Wind That Shakes the Barley - - - Tommy Makem (live bootleg from O'Rourke's)
Lyric Pieces for Piano (7) Book 10 - - - Edvard Grieg
Rude Boy Ska - - - The Gladiators
Hard Headed Woman - - - Cat Stevens
Small Fry - - - Hoagy Carmicheal
You Came a Long Way From St. Louis - - - Peggy Lee (1962 Vegas Live performance, Da on bass)
Sugar Town - - - Nancy Sinatra
Bocetos: Coleccion de Obras Faciles - - - Enrique Granados


Bonus Track:

The Mary Ellen Carter - - - Stan Rogers



Expect ice cream, and pictures later on. What are ya'll listening too?

Angel Food Cake - With Pictures and Stuff

Since the recipe I found for Chocolate Nutella Ice Cream calls for several egg yolks I figured I'd use the whites on an Angel Food cake. If Blogger continues to be well behaved I have gotten some positive and grateful feedback on the pictures with the steps stuff. So, here goes. Right out of Annie Peaches Begay's (Great Grandmother) legendary recipe box:



Measure and sift together three times

1 cup (measured sifted) cake flourand 7/8 cup sugar (3/4 cup + 2 teaspoons)

In a large mixing bowl (I'm using the bowl from my stand mixer here because of the deep sides and the handle on the side) take 14 egg whites
Notice that when I'm separating my eggs I have a small bowl in the middle to catch the whites. This is so, if a yolk should break,
it will not contaminate the other egg whites.The bowl with the one egg can go for scrambled eggs, or an omlette later, ordown for the dog, who cleans up the egg,then, the floor, and retires back to her duty station,to patiently await the next spill or minor mishap.

I always whip my egg whites for angel food cake by hand. I have Grammy Anna's trick tool, which was one of her prized tools that was passed on to me because she said I was the one who would put it to the best use. When an angel food cake, or a souflée is whipped by hand, even without any scientific explanation for it, I can tell the difference. If anybody out there can give me a scientific explanation for that I would love to hear it. Otherwise I will have to go to my grave wondering if I've been hallucinating this for all these years.



To the egg whites add 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon almond extract (you'll notice that I am using my measuring spoons here, on a recipe like this exact measurements are the rule) and have 3/4 cup sugar off to the side. Whip the egg white mixture until it is foamy and has grown in volume by half.Then whip it some more, adding in the sugar you reserved a couple tablespoons at a time, past the soft peak stage, which looks like this:until you reach stiff peaks.


Next gently fold in the flour and sugar you sifted at the beginning. Take care here, be gentle, you worked hard to get all those lovely little air bubbles into the egg whites, don't be ham handed and break them down.

Be Gentle. But also, be relentless. You need a good smooth batter here.
This gets turned into an Angel Food Cake pan. Draw a knife through the batter, give it a few sharp raps on a folded towel on the counter to release any big air pockets
Place the cake on the middle rack of a cold oven
Bake at 300° for an hour.Invert the cake on a bottle and cool upside down.

When completely cooled use a regular table knife to loosen the edges of the cake
Pop out the center section of the pan, loosen around the center postand the bottom of the pan. Invert the cake onto a cutting board,and dig the fuck in.

That's angel food cake. If you want a little bit of sublime, slather a slice of angel food cake with Nutella, slap another slice of cake on that to make a sandwich.

Decadent, sweet, delicious. Just how I like things. If politics continue to stay this stupid everywhere else but California where a Republican State Supreme Court decided that fully equal marriage is the only acceptable equality for our gay citizens, expect me to be in the kitchen a lot from now until November.

Ice Cream is on deck.

BBB

Why I Gave Up Golf

My back hurt, oh, yeah, I also sucked.

Back pain is treatable, my persistent slice wasn't.

big brass blog

Peppermint Stick Ice Cream, Freezing and Serving

Normally I prefer my old throwback hand crank ice cream freezer. Like with the Anglefood cake I have not a shred of evidence, scientific or otherwise to back my assertion of superior texture when things like this are done by hand. But, Goddammit, I can tell the difference. Today that didn't get to happen though. I've been dealing all day with air conditioning technicians and getting the final grades ready for the intermediate strings class. The best part is getting to tell most of them that they are more than ready to move on to private classes and up to the college's main orchestra. Anyway, with all the distractions of the day, oh yeah, I took my german shepherd to the groomer today too, I just went with the electric freezer.

You alternate layers of ice, with layers of rock salt. The objective here is a fast and smooth freeze. Check your ice and salt levels often. You want the ice coming all the way up the freezer container. When you can't crank anymore, and the kids are worn out too is the signal for a hand crank. With the electric just listen for that annoying motor sound to stop.



Remove the container from the freezer, take out the dasher (which is a great job for a couple of kids with long spoons). At this point you can also mix in things like tiny chips of peppermint candy, or chocolate chips. I have fun using the stuff that gets left over when I trim the chocolate truffles. Mostly though, for an ice cream this superb, I go with no embellishments. I usually transfer it into plastic, freezer safe containers of about a half gallon size. This recipe made three containers like this:
which go into the freezer for at least two hours to really set the ice cream.

To serve, you can top with chocolate syrup, nuts, whipped cream or:nuthin' at all.

Just exquisite, rich, silky smooth, delicately flavored ice cream.

Bon appetite. I am building up a stock of ice creams in the freezer for a couple of parties on the horizon. Expect Ginger Ice Cream to come soon.

This is way more impressive than Hillary's winning the redneck vote.

BBB

Peppermint Stick Ice Cream, With Pictures and variations

I'm watching the news from West Virginia and thinking to myself Wow, Hillary Clinton has the racist, hillbilly, cousin marrying, mouth breathing, ignorant, redneck, motherfucker's vote sewed right up. Keep playing to your benighted southern cracker ass base of voters Hills. Why not go all the fucking way and name Huckabee or Trent Fucking Lott as your VP? Out west, I'm making ice cream. That's how much West Goddamned Virgina and Kentucky matter to me. Once a year when they wear silly hats, sing Stephen Foster songs and try to kill a few more young horses is the amount of time I'll spend on Kentucky.

For Peppermint Stick Ice Cream I use Great Grandmother Anna's recipe, although I'm trying some variations for this batch.



We first beat up a pound of peppermint candies. Notice the folded towels underneath the cutting board, this makes the noise of hammering the candy a bit muted. Napping critters will appreciate this little touch.



Melt the candy chunks in 2 cups 1/2 and 1/2 over a high flame, stirring constantly.



Turn off the heat and go to the stand mixer. Beat 4 large eggs until smooth and lemon yellow.



Add in 3/4 cup sugar (I'm using raw sugar that has been sitting with vanilla bean husks), and three tablespoons cake flour.



Yes, I have a fine set of measuring spoons. Sometimes I even use them. I've won money in kitchens by measuring out teaspoons, 1/2 teaspoons, and tablespoons into my cupped hand and then using the measure to prove that I had it right.



Instead of 3/4 cup Karo® syrup, I'm using a vanilla coffee syrup. It's about the same consistency, and I figure that the added flavoring will be better than just overpowering sweetness.



Instead of a can of Eagle Brand, sweetened condensed milk I'm going with a cup and a half of heavy cream.

This is all mixed until smooth. It will be a lovely pink color, although if you want a little more throw in some liquid red, or powdered food coloring.





This goes into the container for your ice cream freezer, use equal amounts heavy cream and 1/2&1/2 to bring the volume up to the full line on your container; and, with the dasher in place and capped, refrigerate until chilled and ready to freeze.

The freezing process post will happen after Hillary Clinton wins a landslide victory in West Fuckyercuzzin Virginia and I still won't fucking care who those idiot bastards want for President.

big brass Blog

Friday Random Ten (on the road edition)

Heading over to San Diego today. Visiting Po the tailor and taking the four students from intermediate strings. They've been given a blank check by a local businessman/farmer to get themselves really decked out in full Mariachi splendor.

Po is just the woman to do that. Then it's on to grab a bowl of the best Pho in the Barrio (Logan).

Here's the soundtrack:

Ballerina - - - Van Morrison
The Man With the Golden Gun - - - Lulu
Mercury - - - Steve Miller (live bootleg, me on snotty slide guitar)
Small Fry - - - Hoagie Charmichael
Viper Drag - - - Fats Waller
La Dona Mobile - - - Pavarotti
Friend of Jesus - - - John Stewart
Illegal Smile - - - John Prine
Guitar Town - - - Steve Earle
Duppy Conqueror - - - Peter Tosh


Bonus - - - Next song up


Watered Down Love - - - Bob Dylan


Toodles Ya'll!

Serving the Soup

The mystery of who dropped off the onions is solved. An old friend who is a farmer here has a beautiful little five year old girl. She is entranced by my harps and is always agitating to get some time to try and play them. He left the onions as a thank you. He also told me about another reason the only market for them is local. Because of the high sugar content they do not store well. You can't just get a bag of them and stick them in cold storage to wait for your sales.

We get to keep all these beauties ourselves.

To serve you take a thick crockery bowl. It has to be a bowl that will survive being under the broiler. Fill the bowls 3/4 full with hot soup, lay your croutons over the top, then lay on a layer of grated cheese. I use about a half and half mixture of grated swiss, I love the nutty flavor and the texture, mixed with an equal amount of freshly grated Parmesian Reggiano.

This goes under the broiler until it looks like this:



Exquisite.

A couple of hints. If your croutons are extremely dry they will soak up all the delicious broth. No problem, if you see that this has happened when you remove the bowls from the broiler just lay another ladle of soup over the top. Don't forget to warn your guests about the very hot bowls. A thoughtful host will always include a sharp knife to cut through the croutons if the spoon can't get through the crusts, and also for trimming the strings of cheese from the spoon.

Our performance was the hit of the night. More about that later. Right now, soup's on and stuff.

BBB

Potage d'Oignon Gratinée

When I got home from doing some shopping for supplies to make Peppermint Stick Ice Cream for the Cinco de Mayo celebration tonight, I came home to find this.


Friends and lovers of food porn, that is a box of Imperial Valley Sweets. These rare, because they don't ship well at all, gems of the farmer's art are simply the finest sweet onions in the world. You can have your Vidalias, they're good, hell, they're very good, but, one has to put up with folks from Georgia to get them. Fuck that sez I. The Walla Wallas have their own cult and their own press agents. They're good too. Mauis are wonderful.

These are better. They are more versatile. They do everything onions are supposed to do and more. These are also incredibly good for eating out of hand. Or, one of my favorites, a thick slice of onion between two slices of buttered and salt and peppered bread for an onion sandwich. Another great way for these is to put a pat of butter on top of a whole peeled onion, cover with plastic and microwave three to four minutes until the onion is hot and tender, sprinkle with Pico de Gallo or Tapatio and dig in.

Since my jaw is still hurting I will go with the classic Potage d'Oignion Gratinée. Or to the unwashed and monolingual, French Onion Soup. There are several cults involved with this classic dish. I chose the one that doesn't involve small animal sacrifice.

First, you need to cut your croutons. Simply slice up a loaf of French Bread into about half inch disks. The next choice is air dry or toast? To toast the croutons brush them liberally with olive oil and bake until they are dry and crunchy but not toasted brown. To air dry simple expose them to air. I prefer the sturdier texture of the air dry. I just so happened to have these babies up on top of the fridge.



Now, it's time for the onions. These sweets are what I'm using, but any good yellow or brown onion will be just fine. The onions need to be peeled, sliced and ringed.



Do enough to fill your stockpot nearly to the top.



I used eight onions for the start. These go into the stockpot, then drizzled with olive oil (you don't need any lahdeedah EVOO, use good old pedestrian olive oil here) and cooked on a high flame, covered, until they begin to soften and wilt. Stir occaisionally. What we are wanting is for carmelization to occur. Cook these babies down.

To this:

Add in half again as many onions as you used in the first cooking, sliced and ringed as before and cook them covered until they are tender and clear. This is called staging an ingredient, this is so that there will be two levels of onion flavor and texture in the finished soup. It makes a huge difference. Remember that box of onions? Now it looks like this:





Drain the onion slices of most of the olive oil. Deglaze the pot with a quarter inch of dry sherry. Add the onions back in. Salt and pepper. Pour in equal parts beef and chicken broth. Simmer, uncovered, until volume is reduced by a full third.

Voila!



You can add in a coloring or sauce strengthener like Kitchen Bouquet® if you so desire, but, if you were patient enough with carmelizing your onions it should not be something you need to do. If you want a deep brown broth in your finished soup, by all means, go right the fuck ahead.

The assembly and serving process will follow tonight when I do it after our Cinco de Mayo fiesta. My four Mariachas from Intermediate Strings class have been invited to play tonight. They are very excited and very honored. They have invited me to sit in with them on the harp. We are going to play "La Mujera de los Dos Pistoles" which is a famous corrida from this revolution. There was a celebrated Puta (whore) near Vera Cruz who when she saw a train carrying food, armaments and 2,000 French soldiers took a group of her girls down to the train at a coal and water stop. They did their business, collected their money, but La Mujera drugged the wine she was plying the train crew with and while they were passed out she drove the train 200 miles past its intended stop. She drove it, and the French soldiers, their horses, their food and all their equipment straight into the arms of Benito Juarez. He asked her how she learned to drive a locomotive. She said "In bed." She was famous throughout the next years of revolution for her brace of revolvers, her quick use of them when anybody referred to her previous occupation or disparaged the contribution of women to the cause, and her elegant and beautiful Palomino stallion which was a gift from a grateful Juarez. It's a great song and we will kick revolutionary ass with it tonight.

BBB