Quinois with Potatoes

For the last few years, my simple, warped view of cooking gave me the idea that if I cooked some frozen veggies and threw that in with some grain and protein, I was cooking. One pretty simple recipe from Mark Bittman has disabused me of that notion. I've cooked Trader Joe's Potato Medley with Quinois before, but I always boiled the quinois into a mushy mess that was alright, but never actually good.

Bittman recommends roasting the quinios, and it makes a huge difference. It's a little bit crunchy and far more flavorful. Admittedly, I didn't follow the recipe exactly since I already had the TJ's Potato Medley bag around, I figured I might as well use it. Although this is one of the first times I've freelanced away from the recipe, it turned out pretty good. Here's the what I actually did (let me know if you want the actual recipe):

• Grease an 8 X 10 or 8 X 8 pan with olive oil.
• Put 3-4 peeled cloves of garlic along with Potato Medley into a pot with water and bring it to a boil. I added some salt, but probably didn't it any since there's probably already plenty in the bag.
• Pre-heat oven to 400.
  
• After the water's boiling, add 3/4 cup of quinois and turn the heat down a bit, but keep it rolling for 5 minutes.
  
• Drain enough so excess water is gone and pour into pan.
• Add another tablespoon or so of oil, ground pepper, salt if you want and toss.
  
• Bake for 15 minutes.
  
• Remove and scrape around the edges and toss again.
• Bake for 10 minutes.
• Add some chile powder and cheese of your choice. I used what I had around, some cheddar cheese slices I tore up and some grated parm.
  
• Bake another 5 minutes.

This turned out pretty darn good. The cheese helped of course and the crunchy, nuttiness of the quinois definitely made me appreciate the grain more than I ever have before. I don't know if the Potato Medley is a healthy choice or not, but it doesn't seem too bad.

My personal take away, is that roasted quinois is way better than boiled.

Wax Tailor - In the Mood for Life

Hip-hop may have started off as a distinctly American style of music, but some of its most innovative practitioners are coming out of Europe. Witness the French DJ Wax Tailor's latest album, In the Mood for Life, a classic hip-hop album chock full of excellent tracks from beginning to end. It has all the elements of the best of hip-hop: skits, obscure jazz and funk samples, expert cutting and scratching, tricky MC flows, sultry female vocals, and most importantly, dope beats.

Wax Tailor has put out some good tracks before, but with no qualifications, I can recommend this entire album. If you like Cut Chemist, RJD2, DJ Shadow or the Herbaliser, this album is not one to miss.

In The Mood For Life - Wax Tai...

Dragon Chasers is an eerie slow jam featuring vocalist Charlotte Savary. B-Boy on Wax is an old-school track featuring MC Speech Defect, who channels Fatlip and The Pharcyde. No Pity evokes Play-era Moby, with what sounds like a gospel vocal track, masterfully mixed with a slamming beat, strings, horns and subtle cuts and scratches. Until Heaven Stops the Rain is composed of the classic story-telling lyrics set over evocative strings. This track in particular reminds me of Soul Position, RJD2's project with the rapper Blueprint. Wax Tailor showcases his amazing range on Leave It, essentially a neo-soul track a la Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, interlacing Dionne Charles funky vocals with a honking baritone sax. This Train features MC Ali Harter, who reminds me of the rapper Jean Grae, and I think it includes an uncredited Beth Orton singing vocals in the background. On Sit & Listen, Wax Tailor shows off his DJ chops with an instrumental track overflowing with samples and beats that compete comfortably with Cut Chemist's best. Near the end of the album, I Own You takes the whole album to another level, serving as a sort of Wax Tailor anthem. It's a soaring soul track with vocals by Charlie Winston.

Rarely does an artist produce a great album in these days of the disposable single, but Wax Tailor comes pretty darn close. Check it out.

From the Vault: Morphine - Cure for Pain

From time to time, I'll take a break from highlighting new music to unearth a hidden gem many people may not be familiar with. In particular, I'll try to find albums or artists that stand up to the test of time.

Morphine was a Boston-based minimalist Jazz/Blues/Rock outfit. They featured just drums, bass and sax. Their sound is unique and unlike any other band that I've heard before or since. The music on Cure for Pain, their 1993 masterpiece, is deep and lush; Dana Colley's baritone sax is lower than you're used to and Mark Sandman's voice and two-string slide bass playing both thrum on subdued frequencies. Just as the Allman Brothers are known for their signature dual guitar licks, Colley and Sandman would often duck and dive around each other, roughly following the same melody. On several songs, Morphine thickened the sound with Colley playing double sax or Sandman adding an organ, piano, tritar (three-string guitar), dobro, or found sounds of various sorts.

Every single song on this album is strong. Each one has a fat groove and, like the Violent Femmes, after a few listens, you can sing along word for word. Lastly, I'm not a lyrics guy, as most people who've heard me talk about music know, but Morphine had great lyrics.

Unfortunately, the whole album isn't on Lala, and I do strongly recommend this album over their other material. So check out the tracks on iTunes or Amazon or Last or Pandora or YouTube or something, but listen to this album. You won't be sorry.

Cat Empire Live in NYC!!!

Loving a band that hails from Australia ain't easy. On the plus side, they can rhyme Karma with Armor, which an American band can't get away with. After being a huge fan of these guys for a couple years now, I finally had the opportunity to see them on this North American Tour, but NYC was the closest they came to DC, so I made the trip up. I convinced Alex and Jon to go with me. The venue is right in Times Square, which is pretty amazing on a Saturday night. It's not much bigger than 9:30 in terms of the floor, but then they have a huge back area with seats. I'm not good at estimating seats, but I'd guess a couple thousand were packed in there. It was sold out. Oddly, they ran out of room in the coat checks, which just seems like bad planning for a venue in Northeast after all.

The show took a little while to get going, but around the fourth or fifth song, they did a Middle Eastern flavored song called The Darkness, where they just killed it for what seemed like ten minutes. After that, each song was better than the last, and the sweaty intensity of the show just went through the roof. Even though they don't have a guitarist, they make up for it in terms of rhythm with a DJ scratching around and one of their lead vocalists plays percussion. As for solos, the keyboardist is pretty damn good, but their trumpet players are outta sight. The lead trumpet also sings lead vocals and he blazed on both.

In terms of comparisons, they most reminded my of Ozomatli in terms of their sound and their live show experience. There was a lot of jumping up and down, hand waving, clapping and singing along. The energy was fantastic and no one wanted the show to end. It was good times.

If you're into latin jazzy, reggae, hip-hop influenced, high energy jam band-ish music, definitely check out the Cat Empire. Two Shoes is the albums to start with.

Best of the Rest of October

I have not been the most dependable blogger. I'll try to catch up by listing some of my favorite tracks from September and October with a few brief comments.

In alphabetical by Artist:

Anuhea - Barista - pop jem from Hawaii.

As Tall As Lions - Circles, Sixes and Sevens - Soaring guitar-pop. A little like Death Cab (when they rock out) or Helio Sequence. They sound like they must be from the Northwest.

David Guetta - When Love Takes Over, Sound of Letting Go - Hit the dance floor with these techno thumping anthems.

Jack Peñate - Be The One, Tonight's Today - - really good worldy/folky/dancy/tracks. Reminds me of Vampire Weekend a little bit.

KRS-One and Buckshot - The Way I Live, Clean Up Crew - dope rhymes and old-school beats. KRS-One is one of the all-time great MCs.

Mika - Blue Eyes, Good Gone Girl, Touches You, We Are Golden - If you like Scissor Scistors or similar throwback disco-pop, you'd like this guy.

Miss Li - Bourgeois Shangri-La, Dancing the Whole Way Home - Now that's some good English girl-pop right there. Or at least she sounds English to me. Lily Allen would be proud.

Nickodemus - Sun Children, 2 Sips & Magic - Great trip-hop, jazz, acid-jazz, latin-y stuff.

Phish - Joy - A solid album if you're a Phish fan. If you're not a fan, don't worry about it.

Slavic Soul Party! - Taketron, Baltika, Get It How You Live, Canaan Land - Best Slavic/Mexican/Latin Jazz/New Orleans style-brass band ever! Nothing like it anywhere.



Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (James Iha Remix) - Rockin'.

Yo La Tengo - Here To Fall - Guitar goodness.

Remember that you can listen to most of these tracks all the way through at least once on Lala.com. It's worth getting an account.

Janelle Monáe - Crazy Robot Lady

Janelle Monáe's music is a combination of throwback sensibilities with modern production values, and the result is outstanding. Her EP, Metropolis: The Chase Suite is based on the Fritz Lang movie from the early 20th Century of the same name. I've never seen the movie, but I know it involves robots and stuff.

Monáe's voice is reminiscent of Shirley Bassey. In fact, when I played one of her songs for a couple of the kids on my XC team, they said it sounded like a James Bond theme, which makes sense since Bassey sang at least three that I know of.

*** Bonus points for anyone who can name which Bond themes Shirley Bassey sang without looking them up on the Interwebs.

Sincerely, Jane is by far the standout track. It combines a full orchestra with amazing vocals and DJ breaks. It's just not often you hear horns that.... brassy.

Sincerely, Jane - Janelle Mona...

I also recommend Many Moons and Violet Stars Happy Hunting.

At some point, Monáe made her way to Atlanta, and not surprisingly, she's been involved in projects with Big Boi of Outkast. When I listen to her music, I can definitely hear the musical connection. She appears on Big Boi's Got Purp? Vol II with an incredible dance track called Lettin' Go. It sounds like she's channeling Rock With You era Michael Jackson, and she's almost as good as MJ here.

Lettin' Go - Janelle Monae

Beer Bread. Mmmm.

I didn't really cook anything this week, but I did make beer bread from a mix which is almost cooking. And Bob K brought me a bit of a stew he made for me to take home, so at least I ate home cooking one night, which is still a positive. It was good, by the by.

The bread is from a Trader Joe's mix and I used the Anchor Winter Ale. Beer bread is great. It tastes great fresh with chili, later with PB & J and toasted with butter and honey too. It's just nice to have the baked bread smell in my place for a few days also.

I know it's easy to make from scratch, so maybe I'll try that next time. Baby steps.

Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer, Big Black Bird

Even though the alliteration of the band name and their logo totally smack of 80s metal band, Blitzen Trapper is a folk-rock band from Portland, Oregon. On their latest EP, Black River Killer, these two jumped out at me.

Black River Killer is the first track, and it starts with a short, smooth acoustic guitar intro and then goes right into the vocals. A synthesizer comes in to lend the song an eerie, modern feel as the song rambles along. The singing immediately made me think of Jerry Garcia. Even the lyrics, which seem to tell the story of a man damned to kill again and again, are reminiscent of some of the Dead's more morbid tracks. In particular, the song reminds me of Stagger Lee and Mexicali Blues.

Black River Killer - Blitzen T...

Big Black Bird opens with a muscular electric guitar lick and a harmonica. This song reminds me of Neil Young or the Band, but I guess (for my younger readers) the modern equivalents would be Wilco or My Morning Jacket. The chorus is upbeat and catchy, and Blitzen Trapper use harmonizing vocals to great effect.

Big Black Bird - Blitzen Trapp...

Yacht - Psychic City

It's been over a week since I posted about some music, so I'm resolved to post more frequently. To that end, the posts might be shorter. Also, I'm going to be embedding links to the songs in Lala (if they're available), so you should sign up for a free account or use your Facebook account to login to hear the songs.



Every time I hear this song, I'm happy.

Psychic City (Voodoo City) - Y...

It's sexy and groovy and simple and catchy. Vocalist Claire Evans employs a Leonard Cohen-esque, half-talking delivery, and in this song, rather than sounding flat and lacking affect, it comes off as effortlessly seductive. The spare, synthesized beats follow her lead, gilded with found sounds like a water droplet and (I'm pretty sure) a slinky.

I can't get this song out of my head. Maybe it's when Evans sings, "Where you been darlin' darlin'? We been holding this moment for you," but this song makes me want to cuddle (I know some people are going to read this and have trouble with the image of me cuddling, but I'm confident enough to admit that I like a good cuddle now and then).

On a side note, there are several versions of this song, and I actually really like at least two other versions almost as much as this one. I also like the Classix Remix; it's a little more groovy and fluid than the original. The Rory Phillips Remix has a fatter, more beat-heavy flavor, reminding me of 90s techno groups like Orbital.

Good Soup! Thanks, Harmony.

Harmony Fabrizio, ex-Burke teacher and XC Coach, sent me this recipe:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/roasted_pear_butternut_soup_with_crumbled_stilton.html

I made it on Saturday to bring to Dan's pre-marathon pot-luck. Everyone who tried it liked it.

I pretty much followed the recipe except I used cilantro (leftover from the bad soup and it's better than chives anyway).

I learned a few things from this experience:

• Apparently there are pans in a nifty little drawer underneath my oven. How'd they get there?
• When Giant prices something by the bunch and you just buy one, you get charged for the whole bunch anyway.
  
• Maureen told me that leeks grow in sand. Who knew?
• Peeling butternut squash is quite difficult because the skin is really thick and the angles are odd.
• Putting those peels in the disposal will clog your drain.

So the soup was a hit, but now I have to call a plumber. One step forward, another step back...

Bad Soup

I just made a shitload of bad soup, like a feed-a-small-country shitload. I guess it's not really bad. It's just not good.

Some things I learned:

- If the recipe doesn't look good, it might not taste good.
- If the recipe doesn't call for a pound of lentils and you just like lentils, do NOT put in a pound of lentils.
- If you have no clue what spices do what when, don't just throw more in because you think you have to make up for the pound of lentils you added to the recipe.
- If the recipe calls for a whole onion, dammit, get a whole onion.
- If all else fails, more salt and more pepper will make any soup better, not good, but better.

I won't bother posting the recipe because it's not one I'll repeat, but I did learn from this experience. I might have even learned a positive thing or two, but right now I'm not sure what that would be.

I'll be eating this epically mediocre soup for days. Anyone want some?

J Crew Plays the Good Tunes - Spearhead and The Lions

Mindless consumer that I am, I buy most of my clothes in one or two shopping frenzies each year at the outlet stores in Manchester, VT near my parent's house.

This summer, while in the midst of my lust to be liked by virtue of buying the right clothes, I was in the J Crew store and heard two great tunes playing in the store. I used my handy-dandy Midomi iPhone app to figure out what they were and later bought the songs. In my mind they're linked by J Crew, but they happen to be similar musically as well, so that's why I'm giving you a twofer here.

Michael Franti and Spearhead have a new album out called All Rebel Rockers, and this one is heavier on the reggae than their previous albums by far. The J Crew track on the album is Say Hey (I Love You) featuring Cherine Anderson. Anderson's island accent serves as a call-and-response partner to Franti's growling, earnest rap-singing. They trade turns at the mic over a reggaefied version of the Not Fade Away beat. As with the best Spearhead songs, the chorus is a catchy sing-a-long that sticks with you.

The second track is Think (About It) by The Lions, another reggae soul outfit, who hail from LA. Once again, the song features a female vocalist. In this case she's a neo-soul singer named Noelle Scaggs whose voice is a dead ringer for Beyoncé's. I kept wondering why Beyoncé would be singing on this small band's album with no credit. Finally I did some actual research and figured out that Mrs. Jay-Z was not slumming. I was pretty clueless about the origins of the song as well until a friend heard it and started singing along even though she'd never heard of it. You'd think when Scaggs sings, "It takes two to make a thing go right," something would have clicked in my head. As it turns out, it's a cover of a James Brown produced song performed by Lyn Collins in 1972. The original is one of the most sampled songs of all time, most famously in the dance-floor staple, "It Takes Two", by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. The "woo! yeah! da-na-na!" is instantly recognizable.

The Lions' version is looser and jazzier, featuring the horns more prominently, and adds some reggae flavor while Scaggs belts out the classic soul diva's lament about the no-goodnik men she's forced to deal with. The original is tighter than tight as you'd expect from James Brown, and Collins' vocals sound subdued and prim compared to Scaggs' full-on attack.

PS - Jungle Struttin', the title track, is also a funk flex-fest that's worth a spin.

Quantic and his Group of Barbarians!

I don't know exactly what Will "Quantic" Holland does. I don't know if he writes, plays, produces or all three. All I know is that anything with the Quantic name is going to be interesting. A few years ago, he moved to Cali, Colombia and began soaking up the local sounds. This summer he released his latest project, Quantic and his Combo Barbaro's Tradition in Transition. It's a melange of latin jazz, soul and funk. All 13 tracks are worth a listen, but my favorites are:

The Dreaming Mind, Part I
Mas Pan
Linda Morena
Un Canto a Mi Tierra
I Just Fell in Love Again

The Dreaming Mind, Part 1 has an amazing string section and harp backing up a slow, breezy tune inspired by beaches and sunsets. It reminds me somewhat of Cinematic Orchestra.

Mas Pan is a Latin jazz jam. The expert horns blast a contrapuntal melody over a basic Latin jazz rhythm.

Linda Moreno is the centerpiece of the album. It's an eight minute epic of Afro-Cuban rhythms and traditional story-telling lyrics.

Un Canto a Mi Tierra is the "single". It's short and punchy. The female vocalist croons smoothly in Spanish backed by a salsa rhythm.

I Just Fell in Love Again shows Quantic's soul side. It sounds like a Sam and Dave song, complete with hot organs, plaintive soul vocals, doo-wop girls and those funky horns.

Triple Berry Crisp

When you go to a friend's house, you're supposed to show up with a six pack or chips or something. Over the years, I would say I have not consistently followed this social norm. So I felt like after all this time, I needed to show up with something good. Thus I was inspired to make some Apple Crisp, but then I looked up some recipes and found this one, which was with berries, but looked good. I was also looking for recipes that weren't too fatty and too sugary, so this one fit that bill.

Does anyone have any thoughts on sugar and sweeteners in general in terms of health pros/cons? I mean I'm sure they cook differently, but that's a different question.

The recipe called for fewer berries than were in the packages than I bought, so I just estimated when I poured.

I put in the amount of granola in the recipe and the granola looked lonely, so I probably doubled it, which I think turned out to be a good idea.

I took the concoction to the Sunday poker game and everyone liked it, so I guess it worked even without a ton of sugar and butter.

Here's the original recipe. It was easy, fast and tasty.

Important Cooking Tips for the Newbie

My friend Jeff sent me this after he read the blog. I already know some folks won't agree with all of it, but let's all be friends here. No flaming on my blog. Feel free to add to it for my benefit.

• don't burn the garlic
• don't burn the butter
• fresh homegrown tomatoes + mayo + toast = heaven
• one glass of wine for the pot, one for the cook
• never wash cast iron with soap
• rice is 2:1; water:rice
• risotto is 7:1
• brown rice is good but takes 3x as long
  

(these are starting to get focused on the vegetarian reader)

• homemade hummus is just as good
• double the garlic (unless it's served raw)
• ingredients are important.
• chocolate is good.
• a little cream fixes many mediocre sauces
• if you like soup, get a hand blender
• everything's better with cheese (except seafood - delicate flavors can be overpowered)
• know your audience - watch the spice
• add salt to onions and mushrooms to sweat them in a saute
• never walk away from heating milk or sugar on the stov, unless you want to clean the stove
  
• don't skip the salt in baking
  
• kids like choc chip pancakes
• goat cheese is good in an omelet
• julia child's original PBS show with the omelet should be required viewing
• serve a nice drink while you're cooking to distract your guests
• chili loves beer
• frozen peas are better than canned ones
• many soups are better the second day
• canned broth is better than a bouillon cube
• keep your knife sharp - it's easier and safer than a dull one
• never put a good knife in the dishwasher
• every cook needs 2 good knives: a small paring knife and a 6" chef's knife.

Michael McDonald vs. Grizzly Bear

Practically before Ray LaMontagne or John Mayer were born, Michael McDonald was belting out white-boy soul with the Doobie Brothers. Actually, this was probably before the guys in Grizzly Bear were born also. The guy's older than dirt. In fact, if you had told me he was under the dirt, I would have believed you.

So it came as quite a surprise when I heard this rockin', soulful track and thought to myself, "Is that Michael McDonald? I didn't even know he was still alive." When I heard it was a duet with Grizzly Bear I was not as surprised. The guy has a history of duets and covers. He also has one of those signature voices. Whether you ever liked the Doobies or his cheesy 80s stuff, the man can sing.

The song starts with a guitar chord that sounds like a warning. It's edgy. Then McDonald's silky smooth voice rolls in on rails. As the music patiently builds behind him, the track sounds almost like a Jimi Hendrix track that's been plied with sedatives. During the first chorus, Grizzly Bear members play the roll of doo-wop girls, adding another layer of crooning vocals. The dynamics on this track are amazing. After building up, there's an extended a cappella jam that builds it back up to a wild crazy crescendo as McDonald's belts out, "And what was left!!!" again and again.

Check it out.

Listen to Scarlett Johannson?

Scarlett Johannson is widely regarded as a bombshell. Some also regard her as lacking the skills to act her way out of a bag. I'm more in the former group and less able to care about the latter.

She put out an album a little while back of Tom Waits covers. That mad scientist's abortion, I am definitely not recommending.

I am recommending that you check out two of the songs she does on an album she recorded with Pete Yorn in 2006, but that was released this year : Relator and Blackie's Dead.

They're getting tons of radio play on KCRW. Also, they were on live today, so you can probably hear/see that performance on KCRW's site in the Morning Becomes Eclectic archives.

The tracks are fun, poppy, alt-country-ish and sing-a-long-able. They'll stick in your head. As for your opinion of ScarJo, I'm not sure what this will do one way or the other.

Broccoli Soup, also known as Polyjuice Potion

I somehow have accumulated some cookbooks even though I don't cook. Given my recent decision to cook once in a while with ingredients and not bags or boxes of food, I recently looked over what I had. I settled on Meatless Meals for Working People: Quick and Easy Vegetarian Recipes as my starting point. This seems pretty much perfect for me since I lack skill and usually complain about the time commitment of cooking.

Alex helped me choose Cream of Broccoli Soup as my first recipe and even went shopping with me at Giant. Maureen saved the day when she told me I didn't need to own a steamer to steam vegetables. Already the secrets of the world open up to me.

Then I get home to cook and called Maureen to ask her about whether I should chop the vegetables before steaming them. Then I actually read the ingredients: 1 pound broccoli, chopped. Ah ha. RTFM indeed.

Chopping was pretty easy. By the way, chopping broccoli is really messy.

For some reason this recipe called for using soy milk instead of normal milk. On the one hand this is fine since I don't have milk in the house. On the other hand, it's a Vegetarian cookbook, not a vegan one, so what gives?

Maureen's steaming trick worked like a charm. I even used a Pyrex glass I did not know I owned. Blending in the Oster was awesome. Cooking was pretty straightforward. I had to season with pepper, salt and tarragon twice before it tasted right.

My last question was answered by Rachel when she told me to sprinkle the cheese on as I served rather than while the soup was cooking.

I thought it would be odd because of the funny smell of hot soy milk, but it was pretty damn good.

Notes for future: I didn't use the big stalky parts and this seemed fine. I had four normal bowls and there's a small bowl left. The cheese was Cheshire Farmstead Imported English cheese. It was like cheddar, organge, crumbly, sharp and good.