2-17-2010 Show: Westward Bound

In the late fall and early winter our lives got turned upside down. The owner of the house we were renting passed away and the trustees decided to sell it. Of course they tried to keep it from us as long as they could before telling us this information so we wouldn't move right away and they would keep getting rent money. Well when we finally found out we weren't too happy and scrambled to find a new house. We lucked out and found one pretty quickly but ended up having to move during the holidays which is definitely not a good time. This is when I started this show and now, a couple of months later, I'm finally digging out and publishing this.

It's actually good timing because last night I took K to see Visqueen for the first time and she loved them. She loved them so much she kept asking me why I had waited so long to bring her to one of their shows. My response was that when we first started dating Visqueen was too loud for her, but now she can handle it. :) If you aren't familiar with them I highly recommend you check them out. They were actually one of the first bands I saw in Seattle when I moved out here 11 years ago and they're still one of my favorites.

Westward Bound

Forgive Me - Visqueen
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb - Spoon
Crumble - Dinosaur Jr.
The Ruminant Band - Fruit Bats
Genesis 3:23 - The Mountain Goats
The Aviator - Stars of Track and Field
I Belong to You/Mon Coeur S'Ouvre a Ta Voix - Muse
Pearl's Dream - Bat for Lashes
Luna - Fanfarlo
Hen of the Woods - The Cave Singers
Silver Amongst the Gold - The Grand Archives
To Kingdom Come - Passion Pit
Dragon Queen - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The High Road - Broken Bells
40 Day Dream - Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros
The Horizon is a Beltway - The Low Anthem
Nomenclature - Andrew Bird
Strange Overtones - David Byrne & Brian Eno
When We Were Alive - The Thermals
T.V. Lieyes - The Cops
Darling - Sons and Daughters

You can find an archive of my old shows at the DJ PegLeg Podcasts on Libsyn.

10-24-2009 Show: Grey Skies and Rain

It's been almost five months since the last show I put up. I had every intention of doing one every couple of weeks over the course of the summer but then life got in the way. Before I knew it summer was over, it started getting dark earlier, and the grey skies and rain moved in.

I started this show back in late August/early September and it was originally called "Last Days of Summer". Well as things dragged on summer quickly came to an end and by the time I finished it we were deeply entrenched in fall.

Grey Skies and Rain

Hold the Morning - Hey Marseilles
She Called Up - Crowded House
Apartment Story - The National
Take Me to the Riot - Stars
Blacking Out the Friction - Death Cab for Cutie
23 Minutes in Brussels - Luna
Just Stand Back - Low
Une Annee Sans Lumiere - Arcade Fire
See the World - Gomez
Subject Drop - The Pernice Brothers
Spellbound - Doves
Undisclosed Desires - Muse
Folds in Your Hands - Passion Pit
Say Aha - Santigold
Be the One - The Ting Tings
Hysteric - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Oslo Novelist - The Grand Archives
Magpie to the Morning - Neko Case
California Rose - Laura Cantrell
Drunken Hiccups - The Tallboys

Since it's been so long since my last shows you can check out an archive to listen to the older ones. You can find them at the DJ PegLeg Podcasts on Libsyn.

The Summer Bounty

Lunch

A burger made from Skagit River Ranch beef topped with onions that were caramelized with some diced homemade maple bacon all topped with some of the leftover tomato barbecue sauce from our 4th of July BBQ. The only thing missing was some cheese, which I realized we were out of after I had already started cooking the onions and bacon. Next time. I bet a fried egg would taste pretty good on that too, but it might also kill me.

4th of July BBQ - the Shoulder Series

For the 4th of July we got a whole bone in pork shoulder from Sea Breeze Farm over on Vashon Island. The plan was to smoke it and make it into pulled pork for sandwiches at our barbecue.




Of course once we got it home we realized there was no way it was all going to fit on the Weber grill I use for smoking. I know a lot of people have smokers and this might have fit on one of those but my Weber does a more than adequate job at about a third to a fourth the price. You do have to be a bit more attentive to keep an eye on the heat but after a couple of times you get the hang of it and it's not that difficult.




After removing what was probably the shoulder blade I then attempted to determine how to break the shoulder down into a couple of smaller pieces. I consulted my CIA text to figure out where the picnic and boston butt were and to see if I could figure out where the joint was.




I was close, but sadly I missed the joint by about three inches. So I had to do a little surgery to make my way up the bone to find the joint and once I found it I was able to pop it and make a pretty easy cut through the shoulder. The boston butt end was totally intact while the picnic end bore the brunt of the surgery. So instead of sewing it up I broke that down into a few pieces. Two large ones for smoking and a smaller piece to make rillettes.




After applying a homemade rub I went about smoking it over some applewood, which I usually use for smoking bacon as well. The two pieces of the picnic were smoked together for about 8 hours and the larger butt piece was smoked for over twelve. The first time I smoked pork shoulder I was excited just to get a smoke ring but now I'm more excited when the smoke ring goes deeper.




We then shredded the still very warm pork and dressed it with a tomato barbecue sauce that we got out of the Gourmet Cookbook. The pork was kept warm in a slow cooker and after guests arrived we loaded it onto a bun with the coleslaw from the great book Screen Doors and Sweet Tea. It was served with potato salad, molasses baked beans, Santa Maria style beans, and a quinoa pesto salad.

4th of July BBQ - Part 2

4th of July BBQ

Pizza!

Winter overstayed its welcome...so much so that Spring never stopped by and we went straight to summer. When we got back from Taiwan, where it was in the 90s, we were met with rain and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. But all that has changed, we've been entrenched in 70 degree weather for the past few weeks with a period of time where we were consistently in the 80s for a few days. We're even on the verge of breaking the record for the most consecutive days without rain. The record is 29 and I believe we're at 27 or 28 now.



Now trust me, I'm not complaining because for the longest time I didn't think we'd be getting any produce this year until July because of how cold it was. Thankfully the sunshine in the heat kicked things into gear and spring vegetables started showing up quickly followed by strawberries and then cherries. What's next? Hopefully peaches, plums, nectarines, and tomatoes.



Another great thing about spring and summer is the food starts tasting fresh and alive again. As much as I love kale and chard, I'm done with them come May and want spinach and arugula. The raw milk I get from Sea Breeze Farm will taste like the clover the cows are now munching on and the fresh halibut and salmon are starting to be caught by our friends at Wilson Fish again.



But not only am I excited by all the new stuff that shows up at the Farmers Markets, but so are the farmers. They'll happily, and proudly, tell you all about their snap peas, how their strawberries just took off after the first day of hot weather, their fresh ricotta, stories of how they only caught a couple of fish on one of their trips out, and much more.



Of course seeing all that great food at the market inspires me to start making more than just braises. Pan roasted marble salmon with sauteed spinach one night, burgers using beef from Skagit River Ranch the next. And then I heard Sea Breeze Farm was making their own mozzarella and I knew I needed to make a pizza.



But not just any pizza, a pizza that tasted like the new season we're in. Something fresh and bright and utilizes something I could find at the market. So it was decided, arugula pesto pizza. My favorite pizza dough recipe is from The Cheese Board: Collective Works: Bread, Pastry, Cheese, Pizza. Anyone that has spent any time in Berkeley is probably well acquainted with the Cheese Board and most likely their pizzas as well.



So I started out making the dough and while it rose I...went out and got a burger. But when I got back, I whipped up the arugula pesto with some toasted walnuts, garlic, parmigiano reggiano, and of course olive oil. The recipe for the pizza dough yields three 10 inch pizzas so I went about dividing and shaping the doughs. Let me just tell you I can't make a round pizza to save my life. They each took their turn in a 550 degree oven on a pizza stone and each came out a little different. The first had a nice puffy crust but was a little light in color. The second was a little darker because I brushed some olive oil on the edges, but not as airy. The third was much much darker because I used a little heavier hand with the olive oil and almost as puffy as the first, most likely due to the fact that I actually let the oven get back to temperature. Ah, the fickle nature of cooking. Regardless of their differences, they were each a wonderful amoeba shaped taste of spring.

6-6-2009 Podcast: I Don't Dance

So why a new show so soon after the last one? To be honest, it's because I didn't particularly enjoy my last show. I mean, it was fine but not great. I put the last show during breaks from putting the yard back in order after having been gone so this time I focused and did it all in one sitting.

So, as the name of this show states, I don't dance. Don't even try to get me to dance because I won't. I made an exception at my wedding and there's photographic evidence of it, but that's it. No more, I'm done.

I Don't Dance

1. Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. Little Secrets - Passion Pit
3. Iceage Babeland - Natalie Portman's Shaved Head
4. Time to Pretend - MGMT
5. Night on Fire - VHS or Beta
6. Filthy Gorgeous - Scissor Sisters
7. We R the Handclaps - Junior Senior
8. Keep Your Head - The Ting Tings
9. Your Kisses are Wasted on Me - The Pipettes
10. Patches - The Saturday Knights
11. Southside Revival - Blue Scholars
12. None Shall Pass - Aesop Rock
13. So Human - Lady Sovereign
14. Take a Chance - The Magic Numbers
15. Giddy Stratopheres - The Long Blondes
16. Corner Store Girls - Tea Cozies
17. Flourescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys
18. Sick Muse - Metric
19. The Royal We - Silversun Pickups
20. Don't Save Us from the Flames - M83