The first live broadcast was today between Arsenal and Manchester United, and let me tell you, my initial excitement quickly faded to being pretty pissed off.  After weeks of advertising the match, why on earth was it preempted by paid programming and then by a baptist church service in the Raleigh/Durham area?  And then, when it does come on an hour and a half later (when the match is already over), it’s not in hi-def?  You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, right?

Throughout the south it appears this was pretty much the norm (at least about the tape delay), based on comments I read over at SoccerbyIves.

For my part I e-mailed both my local Fox affiliate and Fox expressing my disappointment  about today’s broadcast and concern over future broadcasts (the next of which is between Chelsea and United on superbowl Sunday – yay, I can’t wait).  I’m also sending another e-mail to the local affiliate about how shitty it was to watch blurry figures moving across my tv because they couldn’t be bothered broadcasting in hi-def.

Anyway, thanks Fox for fucking it all up.  Would you please just broadcast these matches back on FoxSoccer now?  I’d greatly appreciate it, and I’m pretty sure there are a bunch of other people out there who feel the same.

Most of the albums I’ll post about will probably be older, stuff that came out in high school or college (or even before).  But there will be some newer stuff from the last 10 years as well, because there are a handful of these albums I still listen to pretty frequently.

I’m looking to have the first of these written up in the next couple of days and posted.  I’m looking for the stroll through the past in my brain, of the memories each of these evoke over the past 20 or so years.

Have fun losing your legs Paula!  We’ll catch up in hell together I’m sure.

Stuffed pork loin with Israeli couscous

The recipe for the pork loin comes from Tapas:  The Little Dishes of Spain by Penelope Casas and is roughly this:

Marinate a 3/4 pound pork loin overnight in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, some chopped garlic, about 1/2 tsp each of cumin and coriander.  Next, cut the loin so you can stuff it with some thin strips of chorizo, hardboiled egg, pimiento (I use piquillo peppers) and carrot.  Roll up and tie, then season with salt and pepper and sear all the way around in a hot pan.  Remove the meat from the pan and add sliced onion, then chopped garlic, deglaze with about a half a cup of white wine, then add 1/2 cup each of chicken stock and water.  Add the meat and add a bay leaf and 1 whole clove, bring to a simmer, cover and cook for an hour and a half.

While that’s cooking, get everything ready for the couscous (this recipe is all mine):  Cut an onion to small dice, clean a half bunch of swiss chard, zest 1 lemon, heat a couple cups of white stock, toast a few tablespoons of pine nuts, and slice a few piquillo peppers into thin strips.  Prepare the couscous risotto style by sweating the onions in a pan over medium heat, then add the chopped chard stems and cook for a few minutes before adding in about a cup of Israeli couscous.  Continue cooking for a minute or two.  Deglaze with a quarter cup or so of white wine, let it simmer until nearly absorbed, then add a ladle full of hot stock, stirring the couscous to distribute the liquid.  Once it’s nearly absorbed, add another ladle and continue thusly, until the couscous is cooked (takes 30-40 minutes), seasoning throughout.

Add the chard and heat until it wilts, then add the zest, pine nuts and peppers.  Season.

When the meat is done, remove it and increase the heat in order to reduce the remaining liquid into a sauce.  Once it’s to the right consistency, season and serve.  Slice the meat, serve with the couscous and a couple spoonfuls of sauce.

Merguez sausage with lentils, piquillo peppers and golden raisins

This is a recipe similar to one we used to do on occasion at the last restaurant I worked at.  I’m not sure where you get merguez without special ordering or on-line, so I just make my own.

Cook about a cup of lentils (sometimes called green, French or lentils du puy) by heating up some water or stock with a slice or two of bacon, half an onion, 1 carrot cut in half, 1 celery stalk cut in half, bay leaf and some thyme sprigs.  Season with salt and bring to a boil before lowering to a simmer.  Continue cooking until the lentils are tender but not splitting open, about half an hour.  Strain and spread on a sheet tray to cool.

Cook the sausage in a hot pan.  While that’s cooking, melt some butter in a pan and sweat a little chopped garlic, then add the lentils, some rehydrated golden raisins and some sliced piquillo peppers.  Add a little stock and heat, seasoning with salt & pepper.

To serve, spoon the lentil mixture into a small bowl with some of the liquid, then place some merguez links on top.

Merguez sausage hash with poached egg

While we were enjoying the merguez with lentils, Erin and I were already thinking ahead to the following morning, which is how this came about:

Bake a couple of potatoes the night before.  In the morning while the sausage is cooking, heat up some water to poach the eggs.  Dice the potatoes and cook in a hot pan with enough oil.  Add some julienned red onion and season.  Poach your egg.  When the sausages are done slice them and toss with the potatoes and onions.  Spoon this mix into a bowl, top with the egg.

While this was delicious, we both agreed a little dollop crème fraîche would be a nice addition.

And the magazine covers, for god’s sake, have you ever seen that stretched, horrible looking sex doll plastic face gazing back at you in the checkout line at the grocery store?  Simply put it’s pretty fucking disturbing.  I keep waiting for Nate to ask “What’s that?” instead of “Who’s that?”

And now comes this bit of news.  I’m not celebrating the fact that it’s rumoured that she has type II diabetes.  But to turn that into a money making enterprise via an endorsement for the company that makes the medicine she takes more than pisses me off.  Frankly I think it’s pretty disgusting, seeing as the disease she has is pretty preventable and she’s going to profit on that.  No doubt it’s more evidence of that shrewd businesswoman lurking underneath the fixed mask, but to me it’s more evidence that her soul is as disgusting as she’s made her body.

For New Years’ we’ve made it a tradition now (I think two years in a row with the expectation to continue doing so makes it a tradition) of making cassoulet.  Last year I bought the Toulouse sausage online but hated having to pay the overnight shipping charge, so this year I made my own from a recipe I already had and didn’t realize last year.  There’s nothing like cassoulet that you’ve fully prepared yourself, from curing and smoking the bacon, making the sausage to preparing the duck confit.  In addition to the cassoulet, we had chocolate fondue for dessert, something we’ve been doing since 2003 when we lived in Chicago and used to celebrate with a couple in Lake Forest.

For Christmas I made my dad some charcuterie items – the aforementioned Toulouse sausage, merguez, bratwurst and a small slab of bacon.  I will say that working with sheep casings for the merguez was a big pain in the ass, at least with the KitchenAid attachment.  I’m wondering if it’s easier with a different sausage stuffer?  I kept a little bit of each item for myself and have been enjoying the fruits of our labor from time to time.

I received Grant Achatz’s autobiography for Christmas and am looking forward to reading that once I’m done with the bio of Hitler that I’m currently working on.

One cookbook I picked up recently is Pintxos, and though I have yet to make anything from it, highly recommend it.  It’s nice to have a Basque tapas cookbook in the collection.

I have managed to get in nearly all of United’s fixtures over the past month, including all the really disappointing ones (like Basle, Crystal Palace, Blackburn and Newcastle), but it was great to see them knock City out of the FA Cup yesterday.  It’s kind of cool that Fox is showing the upcoming matches versus Arsenal and Chelsea (the Chelsea match being on the day of the superbowl).  Hopefully United don’t disappoint like they’ve been prone to doing this season.

Anyway, happy new year!

11.  Let England Shake by PJ Harvey:

10.  Gimme Some by Peter Bjorn and John:

9.  Metals by Feist:

8.  No Time for Dreaming by Charles Bradley:

7.  Kaputt by Destroyer:

6.  Slave Ambient by The War on Drugs:

5.  Idle Labor by Craft Spells:

4.  Zonoscope by Cut Copy:

3.  Only in Dreams by Dum Dum Girls:

2.  Within and Without by Washed Out:

1.  Civilian by Wye Oak:

May Seem Macabre by Peter, Bjorn and John:

Every Teardrop is a Waterfall by Coldplay:

We Were Wealth by Wye Oak:

Truth by Alexander:

Coming Down by Dum Dum Girls:

Endless Blue by The Horrors:

Bedroom Eyes by Dum Dum Girls:

Santa Fe by Beirut:

Comfort Me by Feist:

Intro by M83:

Mona Lisa by Atlas Sound:

Lately by Memoryhouse:

Days by Drums:

In Your Eyes by Edwyn Collins:

Baby Missiles by The War on Drugs:

Sister by The Black Keys:

The World (Is Going up in Flames) by Charles Bradley:

Baltimore by Tennis:

Need You Now by Cut Copy:

Secretary Song by The Go! Team:

Get Some by Lykki Li:

Holy Holy by Wye Oak:

The Last Living Rose by PJ Harvey:

Kaputt by Destroyer:

As Far as I Can See by Tim Booth:

Beauty Above All by Craft Spells:

Wise Enough by Lamb:

Open Arms by Elbow:

Soft by Washed Out:

Oh My God by Cults:

A Dedication by Washed Out: