The chicken, slaw, and beans were a hit, also cooked up a couple brats at the last moment as the party expanded, then got crazy and took a fresh pineapple I had and sliced it up, coated it in honey, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, and roasted it for 20 minutes. It was really kind of interesting- a salty sweet peppery treat. Lots of Rolling Stones tonight:
Actually playing Sticky Fingers atm, but I always liked that song and album.
hamletta
Sounds delicious!
Update on Fenway: He’s home, but not out of the woods yet.
Sorry for the downer.
TaMara (BHF)
Mmm, spicy grilled pineapple, yum. A friend showed me a great treat coating fresh pineapple with Pico de Gallo (spice, not salsa) and lime juice. Good stuff.
I’m nursing my wounds after a nasty spill on my bike tonight. Luckily nothing broken or bloodied, just aches and bruises…oh an my pride took a hit, but whatever, I got back on and finished my ride.
Martin
Kids love pineapple off the grill. I expect to cook one each weekend this summer. Haven’t used the rotisserie since Thanksgiving. Your mention of chicken makes me want to give a couple of chickens a spin tomorrow. I don’t know what causes it, but a rotisserie chicken tastes totally different than a grilled one off the same grill.
Oh, and John, don’t get a box of cornbread. That’s just wrong considering how easy decent cornbread is to make. Toss your cast iron skillet in the oven, get it good and hot, dump a bunch of butter in the bottom and quickly dump the cornbread mixture in and shove it back in. When it’s done, a bit of honey over the top. The bottom will come out with a nice crust to it, just enough to hold it together if you pick it up. Seriously, it takes 5 minutes from start to oven.
TaMara (BHF)
@Martin: I’ll tuck that recipe aside, but I have never had luck making my own cornbread and I can never put my finger on why. I have a buttermilk boxed mix I like and have settled for that most of the time. Nothing beats making it in a cast iron skillet, that’s for sure.
kdaug
I love how the German Shepherd pup will go on “patrol” mode, walking from room to room with an intense look on her face (psst: her vision ain’t worth a flip).
She’ll bring me her ball/toy de jour in “play” mode, goofy puppy style, then hear something and – BAM – it’s time to investigate.
Frakin’ awesome.
K+4
Martin
@TaMara (BHF): It comes out perfect every time for me (assuming that sweet cornbread is acceptable to you), and it’s pretty simple. I’ve always used cornmeal from the farmers market, though, rather than from a container. I think the hot cast iron with a good dose of butter is key – otherwise it might be a bit too crumbly to handle well.
One of our summer staples is two racks of smoked St Louis style pork ribs on the grill, grilled pineapple, homemade baked beans in the cast-iron dutch oven, cornbread, and some homemade ice cream with fresh fruit for dessert. That’ll give us leftovers for a week.
We save the brisket ribs for dwaeji bulgogi on the grill later in the week – have a nice marinade recipe for that.
hamletta
Aw, really? Cornbread has always been so easy for me. Didn’t even need butter.
Years ago, I ordered this funky pineapple dessert: thick ring of fresh pineapple (not grilled), scoop of good (Breyer’s) vanilla ice cream, maple sauce, and fresh cracked pepper.
It sounded so weird, I had to have it. It was really good.
CaseyL
Sticky Fingers is one of my fave Stones albums,and formed my personal soundtrack for a year in High School. I don’t think there’s a single track that isn’t compulsively danceable. Even today, considerably older and not nearly as slim or spry, I can’t help but dance when I hear it.
I was going to update y’all on Fenway, but hamletta beat me to it. Thank god for better news!
Joseph Nobles
My mom always used bacon drippings to bake cornbread. Heat it in the cast iron skillet, add a tablespoon or so to the batter, pour it in, mix it up, and bake that bad boy up.
Martin
Hey, progress. Looks like the CA legislature is going to pass a bill that will allow local governments more discretion with their tax rates. They would be able to raise taxes on income, sales, alcohol, cigarettes, medicinal marijuana and oil extraction. Because it’s not setting tax rates, it can pass with a simple majority. Republicans seem to think this is a fantastic development because they assume blue cities will raise taxes and drive out jobs. Yeah, good luck with that – the largest employers in the state are all in Democratic areas.
And the first draft of the redistricting map came out today. CA voted for a non-partisan commission to set the map, rather than the party in majority at the time of the census. Dems were worried about this, but the first draft suggests that if Dems hold the areas where they have registered voter advantages, they’ll have a 2/3+ majority in both chambers. Mainly, though, a LOT of districts get quite a bit more purple than they are now, and it won’t take losing many moderate republicans to lose a district for some of the radical GOPers.
elisabeth
Just got woken out of a sound sleep by a woman breaking into my living room window “looking for her friend.” I’ll be awake for awhile now.
Martin
@elisabeth: Oh dear. I hope everything is okay. I think staying awake a while might be a wise plan anyway.
Yutsano
@elisabeth: Uhh, yikes! I hope you called those ebil sociallist police type folks!
elisabeth
@Martin she had her purse on her wrist and a bag of popcorn. Just scared the shit out of me. As I told her, normal people knock on the door.
elisabeth
I came here looking for company. :)
John Cole
For all the people still browbeating me about the goddamned cornbread, I had no milk or eggs. I have corn meal.
I am drunk and going to bed, also, too.
John Cole
@elisabeth: I’d have offered to spoon about 20 mins ago, but now I just need to sleep.
Yutsano
@John Cole: Drunk spooning leads to forking. Just food for thought.
Martin
@John Cole: No milk or eggs? What are you, a communist?
elisabeth
@John Cole. Alas the story of my life. I shall treasure the thought, though.
Steeplejack
Was catching up on the threads and then got distracted by catching up on my crosswords, on which I am also woefully behind for the week. Now thinking I should pack it in and go to bed. The BJ crew seems to have everything in hand.
I have a three-day weekend! Rare Saturday off, followed by my usual “weekend” of Sunday and Monday. Sheer luxury.
kdaug
“Brow-beaten cornbread” = no milk, no eggs, just dump the damn corn meal in a pan and throw it in the oven.
Kinda got a ring to it… suspect you’ll be hearing it again, drunken Cole.
(I’ll await jefferyw’s input for culinary guidance – frankly sounds horrible).
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: My next short week is our nation’s birfday, which I am tempted to make a very short week by taking Tuesday off as well. I’m still mulling this option over. But I have a bit of time to decide yet.
Amir_Khalid
@elisabeth:
“Looking for her friend?” Is that what she told the cops? I wonder if she was sober at the time.
Saw X-Men: First Class and Super 8 on consecutive days. (Ah, the joy of being a medical retiree.) Was pleasantly surprised that I could follow the German dialogue in X-Men without looking at the subtitles. Both movies were good, but …
X-Men: if Charles Xavier is a telepath, how is he unaware that his new friend Eric Lensherr is a murderer? Or does he know, and not mind? The latter seems inconsistent with the Xavier character.
Super 8: It feels like JJ Abrams did a mashup of Spielberg movies: the kids from The Goonies, the main character and the girl he crushes on from E.T. The Extraterrestrial, the military types from CE3K, the destruction from War of the Worlds. Abrams even makes use of this Spielberg thing of a tight close-up on an odd detail (e.g. an inanimate object suddenly shaking all by itself) before pulling back.
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Go for it! When you die–hopefully a long, long time from now–you’re not going to be saying, “Gee, I wish I hadn’t taken that extended weekend off back in ought-11.” I don’t think.
I am coming up on a (short) string of three-day weekends. We got a new store manager this week, and I think he just cut and pasted the schedule for the next few weeks to give himself some breathing room. So I am off next Saturday and the following one as well. Three three-day weekends in a row! Yee-fucking-haw.
Amir_Khalid
@Steeplejack: But doesn’t that mean you’ll have to work a few six-day weeks to compensate?
Steeplejack
@Amir_Khalid:
No. The 40-hour week is a myth in the sweatshop that is modern retail. We are all interchangeable (and low-paid) cogs in the machine. The store has people (like me) that average 30-35 hours a week, but it also has people that average 25, 20, even 10 hours a week. If one of us drops down for a while, as long as someone else is available to pick up the slack, the Big Giant Head does not care a bit. It’s all about warm bodies, baby, not real people.
Suffern ACE
@Amir_Khalid: Telepathy is similar to Superman’s X-ray vision or cold breath. Its gotta be turned off around friends or you won’t have any. I was more confused by Beast. Would you take your experimental medicine the night before attempting to stop a thermonuclear war? What a putz. Although a handsome putz, a putz is a putz. The guy with the glasses and the white coat who has obviously mastered all sciences really should have a bit more discipline than that.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: There are reasons to refrain and reasons to go for it. I’m still in somewhat torn territory. But it doesn’t have to be decided right away either. Hell as long as the day is still open I could ask for it the Friday before if I wanted.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
My application to adopt Harry has been approved. I’ll meet him Sunday and see if it’s compatible. Based upon the description, I think that it’s unlikely that it won’t work. He has a sister and a brother. Hermione looks just like him, but Ron is a tabby.
Woo hoo!
Steeplejack
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Good luck with Harry! My last adopted cat was a tiny little black kitten that ended up staying with me for 18 years. Looked a lot like Harry when I found her by the side of the road near Emory University in Atlanta back in the day.
Yutsano
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): You must of course welcome your new
Galtian overlordkitteh properly. I hear tuna is traditional for the feast.R-Jud
@Martin: Martin, as someone who makes cornbread for every Sunday morning hike (our version of church), I would agree with you unreservedly, except that there’s vegetable oil in that recipe you posted. VEGETABLE OIL. This will not stand.
Turn on the oven to at least 450. Stick the pan in there. Make up your batter. Throw about 3-4 T of butter into the pan, let it melt, swirl to coat. Then pour excess butter into the batter, stir, dump into the pan. It should sizzle a little as it hits the metal. 20 minutes later, you’re all set.
Steeplejack
@R-Jud:
Amen, sister.
Yutsano
@R-Jud:
Cow fat or GTFO.
Martin
@R-Jud:
I know where you’re coming from, and when I make the beans I do on occasion use the bacon drippings instead, but I’m getting old and ribs+heavily baconed beans+bacon dripping cornbread is not only getting onto a bit too much pork even for me (blasphemy, I know) but I need to cut back where I can, and vegetable oil is not too much of a sacrifice.
Nate Dawg
The love of my life has left me for a mutual friend after five years together. I’m wondering why we as a society value mitigating physical pain as more important than mitigating emotional pain. Emotional pain can be far worse and less prone to treatment.
Yutsano
@Nate Dawg: I think it’s because physical pain is easier to ameliorate. You can always take some sort of drug or do some sort of treatment if you hurt physically. Emotional pain is much harder to really treat at least in a medical sense. Plus no two people react to emotions the same way, so what works for one won’t suffice for another.
Enough about that. The best thing you can do right now is take care of you.
Nate Dawg
@Yutsano:Thanks for that. You’re probably right. Still, we have a long way to come on mental illness. It’s just as pernicious as physical illness, and no one is to blame for it. We are all liable to get it one day. Not that I’m mentally ill, but short-term, situation-specific depression reminds me that some people live with this shit their whole lives because their wiring is off. That’s gotta be awful.
kdaug
@Nate Dawg: Hang in there, chief.
Maude
@Nate Dawg:
You deserve better. Be glad the love of your life is gone.
And the pain will ease. I used to scream in the car after something like that. It helped.
Calouste
@Martin:
Most likely it will turn the Republican areas into complete dumps because they are going to have to cut services. (I assume that this was done so that the state can send less money to the cities?)
Or maybe Republican controlled areas will just go bankrupt, like the OC did.
jurassicpork
For some of you tuning in late, the Mrs. and I really have our backs against the wall. Details are here but the abstracts are that last Monday the MA DOR took our rent money right out of the bank and had levyed my checking account so until it goes to arbitration, we’ll have absolutely no chance of paying our rent for June.
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
Go for it. When I worked in Counsel, I was always maxed out on credit hours, so every time there was a Monday holiday I took Friday and Tuesday off. Don’t get to do that in BigLaw World.
burnspbesq
This looks to me like a must-see movie.
http://thelastmountainmovie.com/
burnspbesq
@jurassicpork:
Three words, dude: Legal Aid Society. State tax authorities are pure evil. They routinely do shit that Yutsano couldn’t dream of doing in his wildest fantasies. Don’t fight those bastards by yourself.
If that doesn’t work, call the biggest law firm where you live and ask to speak to the pro bono coordinator.
Mark S.
He’s an idiot, but Rick Perry could be a dangerous opponent for Obama. He certainly would kick the crap out of the current GOP field.
JPL
@Mark S.: The election depends on the economy and the repubs in office seem absolutely giddy about tanking it. Perry is mini Bush and dangerous might be to kind a word.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@kdaug: Watch your German Shepherd’s ears, especially when she gets older and they stand up. She’ll rotate them like radar dishes when she hears something interesting. Sometimes parallel, sometimes not.
Bruce S
Tim Pawlenty is an idiot…
http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/06/tim-pawlenty-confuses-belief-in.html
Just saying.
kdaug
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
Already does (she’s a year old). Also does the 45-degree head-tilt like no one’s business.
Between her and the 100lb Golden, reckon I’ve got the tank and the spy. Which dog is the demolition expert, Cole? Keep thinking the initials “J.R.T”. Ain’t sure why.
J.W. Hamner
I thought this was a pretty good snap: http://flic.kr/p/9Sqh2o
Yutsano
@burnspbesq:
Curse you RRA 98. :) Of course at the same time believe it or not it makes compliance easier. I actually get more tools to work with than mere “pay up or else” Guido tactics. This of course gives the result that the Franchise Tax Board makes us look like cream puffs. I decided I’m okay with that.
@J.W. Hamner: Neat pic, the carnitas puerco is looking yummy too.
J.W. Hamner
@Yutsano:
I’m really happy with the depth of field on the sunflowers. I also thought it was very well lit shot. I need to figure out how to bring these characteristics to my food photos. Maybe Tim F. will come by and give me some tips.
Yutsano
@J.W. Hamner: Or jeffreyw. They both seem quite masterful at getting good shots of their subjects.
Max. Also. Too.
J.W. Hamner
@Yutsano:
Also. Too. Indeed.
I don’t know Max, but jeffeyw is fantastic at lighting his food shots. I’ve seen him say it’s “just a bounce flash”, but he sets it up so that a bounce flash makes everything look great. I’m not quite there yet.
jane from hell
I copied a few of the recipes from the earlier thread last night- called them “BruceJ’s Sleepy Hollow Cornbread”, “eastriver’s DAMN GOOD (curry) CHICKEN”, “Josie’s Easy Peasy Cornbread” and “Sukabi’s no-mix Cornbread”.
Martin, I *need* your dwaeji bulgogi recipe, STAT. Best ribs I ever had were made by my Korean friend on a July 4 impromptu cookout.
Fred
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed. The person responsible for the 1998 African Embassy bombings was killed. Why no apocalyptic blogging how this is more proof we need to get out of Afghanistan now John Galt Cole? It’s all too pointless. Isn’t that your meme? Funny how you ignore all the evidence to the contrary.
http://networkedblogs.com/j1OTr
Yutsano
@J.W. Hamner:
You must be made aware of all Balloon Juice traditions.
J.W. Hamner
@Yutsano:
Oh the dog’s name is Max. As I’ve already said I think Tim F. is twice the photographer I’ll ever be. His Max shots are awesome.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@Mark S.:
as much as people want to make fun of the gop assclowns, one of them is going to get a minimum of 40+ percent ardent support. its the tracking of that rise, and how the media loves to cover trajectory, as if it means something in and of itself, and is thus worth “understanding” that means someone is going to be dangerous, any of these relatively obscure gop candidates will be a rockstar, once the media is through explaining why they are winning, and not the others. with “because they have to pick someone”, not being offered as an explanation.
Linda Featheringill
Mojii, the orange poly-dactyl gentleman I was crying about last weekend:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5821413411/in/photostream
Okay, so he’s not 100% yet but he’s getting better. He is no longer leaking yucky fluids and he no longer has Stuff Sticking Out Of His Body [drains, etc.] He has been released from isolation and can now sit on my desk and bother me. :-)
Mojii is at least 15 years old. We’re not sure about the rest of it.
[Actually, he has a very old soul. Much, much more than a mere 15 years.]
Doug Harlan J
@Nate Dawg:
Hey, good luck. Keep on keeping on.
Cheryl from Maryland
@jane from hell: For a fancy cornbread, here is my favorite from James Beard on Bread –
Helen Evans Brown’s Corn Chili Bread
1 14.5 oz can unsalted corn, drained or kernels removed from 3 ears of fresh corn
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons double action backing power
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs, well beaten
1/4 lb. shredded monterey jack cheese
1 4 oz can peeled green chilis, drained
Combine all ingredients. Pour into a well buttered 9″ square baking dish. Bake in pre-heated 350 oven for about 1 hour.
Great with shrimp boil or poultry dishes.
jane from hell
@Cheryl from Maryland: cheryl- yum!
someofparts
I’m just about to finish Keith Richard’s autobiography and it has been a hoot.