The Tractor and some lentils

I recently went with some friends to see the movie "Strange Powers", a documentary about The Magnetic Fields, and I happened to be in the area earlier than expected. Well it turned out to be serendipitous as they were just getting ready to go eat at The Kingfish Cafe. So I joined them.




I had never even heard of this place, but sure am glad I found out about it. The space itself is a tiny, cozy and split in two; one side has the bar and seating, the other an open kitchen and additional seating. The cuisine is southern, and they serve it up in large portions. Not only are the portions large, but all the dishes I sampled that night were pretty damn amazing. I mean all the dishes we had were just incredible. The collard greens were especially impressive, drenched in a vinegar sauce that was slightly sweet. It literally was the best tasting thing on the table that night. And addicting. I could have eaten three sides of that by myself for a meal and been totally content. But, we had other things as well. The red beans and rice was great and both were cooked perfectly. The mac and cheese was all sorts of goodness, although, because dairy and I don't really get along, I only had one bite. So, if you're in the mood for some great comfort food, grab a friend and head to The Kingfish Cafe.

Stretch your dough (ha, get it, dough and it's about home made bread?)

Baking bread seems like an economical thing to do, so while I was shopping the other day I bought the things I needed in order to do so. The main issue was I have not baked in, like, two years or so. I mean bread type things. I have baked cookies, but that is really a whole different ball game.

I also did not have a bread recipe in my collection. When I used to bake/cook it was mostly dessert breads or quick breads (and to be honest, I always thought the quick breads I made back in the day could have been better). The only thing I used yeast in was the pizza crust dough.

So I hunted and pecked around online and ended up using this recipe for the occasion. But, alas dear reader, as you may have noticed by now that I can't leave well enough alone a plain old recipe. No! I must tinker and toy with it to no end! So I ended up adding: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/4 sunflower seeds, and 1/4 cup wheat germ. I also used honey instead of sugar.

It turned out surprisingly well, even though, like most men, I failed to read all the instructions and only let it rise for half the amount of time, called it good, and threw it in the loaf pan to bake.

I will say this, it was a little sweet. I was really in the mood for just some fresh bread, more a carrying device for the butter I slather on it. The honey added a little too much sweetness for my liking, that will be corrected in the next go around. But to be sure, all the bread was consumed.


Music!

King of the Beach

Expectations

A Mayan Holiday

The Choir of Young Believers pretty much rock as well. Listen for yourself. In fact their label, Ghostly International, has a few bands that I really enjoy.

Sharon Von Etten is great as well. Here is a song (video is not hers, fyi...) and she was on NPR also. If you have not heard, NPR is a great place to discover new really good music.

Okay, so the snow day I am on today is great, and Cheryl at KEXP playing great songs non-stop, so here is Dan Deacon if you have not heard about him.

Clap your hands.

Links!
http://dailylit.com/
http://www.bartleby.com/
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://scholar.google.com/

The Tractor Tavern

I found myself in Ballard on a Tuesday night in search of a beer and some live music. Good thing I went Ballard, they have plenty of both.

Playing at the Tractor that night was : Smile Brigade, Julia Massey and the Five Finger Discount, and Airport Way.

I missed a little of Smile Brigade as I was down the street enjoying a beer, but I caught the last half of their act and they were pretty damn good. They also clearly really enjoy their craft, so that made it all the more enjoyable. I can't really say what they reminded me of, but I did enjoy their rambunctious tunes they were laying down.

Julia Massey and her group were really talented, especially their bass player. He was killing it all night long. The drummer reminded me very much of Chris Daly from Texas is the Reason and Jets to Brazil, very nice. Julia herself sounded like Joanna Newsome, but without all of her unique inflections and harp sound. They had some pretty good songs, but a few weaker songs. It's almost as if they are still getting used to each other, sorting it all out, and not really trusting themselves to be in this band. The bass player was super nice, between songs he ran into the crowd and shook peoples hands to thank them and hugged the obvious couples in the crowd. And then, zoom, back to the stage in just the nick of time to play again. Awesome.

Airport Way I had heard of before, probably on KEXP, so I was interested to hear them because of this. I was a little confused, I only had time to listed to three songs before I had to leave to catch the bus home, but each song was different. I mean, they are talented people, but please, settle on a sound. Unless of course, not having a sound is your sound. The first song was folk-ish until the end then it rocked out. The second song was a equal parts 311 and Sublime, and the third song was clearly inspired by the Chili Peppers. Oh well, I was off the bus anyway.

So I started a sourdough starter, from scratch, pretty cool. I just hope I can keep it alive and use it. I also started a kefir with coconut milk. I think that is going to be great. Can you tell I am into cultured and fermented foods?

I also made some really good lentil soup.
Want to know how? Okay...

Well, the real trick is to start with some left over soup as the base. I cooked one cup of green lentils with two cloves of chopped garlic, added a Tbs of turmeric, a dash of cayenne powder, salt, and a spoonful each of: powdered cat's claw and Health Force Earth (google it). After it all cooked for about 20 mins, I added two stalks of chopped celery, 1/4 of a diced red onion, a Tbs of sesame seeds, 1/2 cup chopped red cabbage, and two talks of kale chopped. Cook for another 10 mins or so. Test the lentils to make sure they are soft, and serve. I topped mine off with a sprinkle of hemp seeds and some salsa. It was much better than I had hoped it would be, and I am pretty sure it is because I started with the old soup base. It was the previous batch of lentil and diced tomato soup.

The truth of the universe.

Some things I found in the dryer...

You must not know who I am.

*Warning* This link is a video that has band language in it.

Well guess what, I have all these old half done blog posts laying around and I ran across this one from towards the beginning of this year about some corn bread that as I recall was awesome! That and I have been crazy busy, like one million thoughts per minute crazy "quick, write that idea down before I forget it".

So at campus, I feel like the youtube ambasador of funny clips. Well, at least of the ones I think are funny. It amazes me that somewhere in the world, even right now, someone is being deprived of seeing old GI Joe PSA's being dubbed over. *warning, see above*.

I was going to go see The Head and the Heart play with Avi Buffalo, but when I got to Neumos I found out the show was sold out. But the evening was not lost as we then went to The Elysian on Capitol Hill for a beverage. Surprisingly we ran into a table full of fellow Cascadia College Students who just happened to go there after a tour of McKinstry. There was also two others there, sitting at a different table, that I know from the now defunct Sunday Brunches. At first I did not recognize them and thought they were waving to someone behind me, but when I got closer I recognized them. Clearly, there must have been some sort of planetary alignment going on for such a rare moment to occur.



It is also the season for skipping Thanksgiving and going right to Christmas! Not really, in fact, thank you all. Never the less, here are a few of my favorite things: Brazilian Girls, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto 1 - B Flat Minor,


As you may have guessed, I have been slammed with school work and on campus club meetings. One of my professors is teaching us with a 400 level text book written by this guy which has no teachers edition and the pre req for the class was only Math 107. Needless to say, it is challenging. But fun in an odd self torturing sort of way.


One of the new clubs on campus that I am involved with is a new online school news paper. In the first meeting we threw around some ideas about possible names for the paper (my original idea was to call it The Kodiak Times as the Kodiak bear is the school mascot) and I happened to be flipping through the most recent edition of, oh I can't recall, it was either The Stranger or The Seattle Weekly and reading my horoscope which I do for pure entertainment purpose. That particular week the word Skookum appeared in my prognostication, and it was described in the passage as being in harmony and perfect for the job. I suggested skookum as a possible name, and to my surprise and horror, it was voted in as the name for the school newspaper. It is a regional Chinook Indian word so it does hold some relevance that way. Not sure if I should be proud of that or not, but as the typical dry and humorless saying goes "it is what it is", but isn't it always? I will be a contributing writer, possibly with a pen name, doing my best to write articles like this guy. Lord save us all.




- the Seattle Weekly horoscope had this to say about my people:

Aquarius(Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Aquarians are likely to travel very far before they realize they took a wrong turn. Perhaps you’ll be 90 percent of the way toward being a doctor before you figure out that you really don’t want to practice medicine. Of course, such a revelation or admission could be almost traumatic (for you and whoever paid for your years of schooling), but don’t get too worked up about it. Your first impulse will naturally be to change course immediately—however, that wouldn’t be the wisest decision. Although you should begin to consider alternatives, see this choice through to its next immediate conclusion (graduating from medical school, for instance) before you figure out what’s next. You’ve come this far, after all.

(Oh how I can relate to feeling like I have gone way too far down the wrong path in many areas of my life. Surprisingly, I do become more than a little self doubting when I reflect on my life and where I think I am at in it. I have been doing some life reflecting these last few weeks, and I am not overly happy about the conclusion I have come to. I was inspired to hear a key note speech by Nancy Rawles at the 2010 WCCHA Conference and she shared a story about a conversation she had with a retired therapist who told her of course most people are depressed, that you had to be smart in order to be depressed other wise you would not know what you are missing and not be depressed. I wonder what this guy has to say about that? Actually, probably something like this.)


- The Stranger Free Will Astrology had this to say:


Numerologists say the number 10 signifies completion, wholeness, totality. It could rightly serve as your lucky number in the coming weeks -- a symbol of your power to draw long-term processes to a climax on your own terms. But you might also want to consider using 11 as your emblem of good mojo. That number denotes the drive to surpass the success you've earned before -- to transcend easy triumphs and conventional wisdom so as to reach for a more challenging conquest. Either way, Aquarius, I think you'll be flying high for the foreseeable future, so there's no need to worry about which way you should go. If you do choose 11, the risks will be somewhat greater and the rewards more interesting.

...and then the other day at the Symphony, on the say out, I found $0.11 on the floor! What does it mean?

- "Yours Truly" is once again taking submissions, so if you know any artists of any sorts, point them in that direction if they are looking to submit pieces for possible publication. This is the 10th edition of the magazine and are going to be putting out a mega great book (well, they always do, but more so this being the big 10 and all).

And now some notes on cooking and other kitchen related stuff....




This just in! Salt and chocolate products that are awesome. More chocolate. More salt!


Date line: November 12th, downtown Seattle pre-symphony...



The Brooklyn before the concert was amazing. Crowded, yes, but man you can't beat $1 oysters on the half shell and $4 pints. Even though it was crowded, it was surprisingly not filled with all swanky dressed people. There was common folk there as well. Oh sure there was a few well dressed people, such as myself, but there was also an average couple sitting at a table playing cards (didn't get close enough to tell which game it was) while they waited for their food and drinks. All in all it was a swell crowd. Apparently, when it is this crowded (which is most of the time I guess), you get to sit at the bar and get to know your neighbors real well as the drinks and food flow.


And in closing, I ran across this corn bread recipe that I used way back in the beginning of the year at a dinner party with pulled pork sandwiches. I am not sure if I have already shared this recipe, and really even if I have, it is worth sharing again. This, was, amazing...oh wait. I get it now, I think I used a terrible pun about it being a-maiz-ing or something like that. Oh well. Read this, make it, enjoy it!


I used a regular corn bread recipe with some tweaks: I added some cheese, used keifer & sour cream, whole corn (which was pulsed in a food processor with the cheese, keifer and sour cream). I baked it in a cast iron pan that was coated with the grease from 5 thick cut strips of bacon that I cooked in it earlier. I also added some diced jalapeno's in the pan with the bacon fat to really infuse the whole thing with a nice jalapeno flavor.

It was dynamite!

Boom!
Also, some serious cole slaw. There were two versions at that the party; one was jalapeno and cilantro infused and the other was regular but delicious as well. I only have the recipe for the second one (maybe if the maker of the jalapeno cilantro one reads this entry they could put the recipe in the comments box?):

1/2 head of green cabbage
1/4 head of red cabbage
(this ratio can be changed based to what you like)
1/2 red onion (aren't they really purple?)

Dressing (or as the cook called it "sauce"):
8 Tbs Mayo (your choice, you could also make your own)
2-3 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar
Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper

I found it great slapped on top of my pulled pork sandwich, man it was awesome!

(Shout out to the host, thanks for having me over. I had such a great time) I had never been to this location for a dinner party before and it was great, mostly because it reminded me of the house I grew up in. The wood trim around each door was the same, and the 45degree angle/slant in the upper part of the last foot of the wall before it became the ceiling was also the same as in the house I grew up in. Of course the company and the food played the most part in the overall enjoyment of the evening, but the feelings of nostalgia the abode brought upon me was gentle and soothing in the evening as well.

Good night everyone, thanks for reading.
- Joshua