Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

I was promised a recession.

The revolution will be supervised.

Let there be snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Let’s finish the job.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Not all heroes wear capes.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Evening Open Thread (and Requested Recipe)

Friday Evening Open Thread (and Requested Recipe)

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Someone mentioned in a thread this week that they were trying to turn some open thread into a music thread, but it just wasn’t taking.  I liked that we used to have music threads at night sometimes – am I the only one who misses those?

Oh, and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest the other night in the wasabi slaw recipe that eclare talked about.

Wasabi Slaw
1 T wasabi powder
1 T water
4 t rice vinegar or cider vinegar
1 T brown sugar
1 T vegetable oil
¼ t ground ginger
¼ t salt
1 cup thinly sliced bok choy
1 cup thinly sliced Napa cabbage
1 small red bell pepper, cut into thin two inch strips (1 cup)
½ small unpeeled cucumber, quartered lengthwise, seeded and thinly sliced (1/2 cup)

Mix wasabi and water in medium bowl. Let stand ten minutes. Stir in vinegar, brown sugar, oil, ginger, and salt.

Mix bok choy, napa cabbage, bell pepper, and cucumber in large bowl.

Add dressing; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Share some food, share some music, share some news, share some gossip.

We’re here for all of it!

OPEN THREAD.

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    sab

    Hmm. I wonder if I can get bok choy in my Ohio not huge city. I haven’t noticed, but I may not have been paying attention.

  2. 2.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    I would love music threads. My taste is very eclectic but I’m sure some at least some of it would appeal to at least some of you. Like Maggie Rogers’ new album, which I am LOVING. Fave tracks at this point are Anywhere With You and Honey, but the whole thing is great.

  3. 3.

    James E Powell

    Thanks for this. I like variations on the theme of slaw. Especially in the summer when I usually just want a side to go with some kind of sandwich.

  4. 4.

    eclare

    @sab:   I get it at the Vietnamese market down the street from me.  Don’t know if they have those in your city.

  5. 5.

    Steeplejack

    @sab:

    Far East Oriental Market
    738 E. Archwood Ave.
    (330) 785-4020

    Sahai Chan Asian Market
    787 Brown St.
    (234) 312-9583

    Paing Family Asian Grocery
    986 Brown St.
    (330) 794-7708

  6. 6.

    Jay

    @sab:

    it’s pretty common here, better yet, it’s easy to grow. It’s usually by the bunches of spinach, not the cabbages.

  9. 9.

    Gravenstone

    Share some music, you say? So on a whim I decided to try the new music stream from Spotify for the first time today, and this song rolled through. Immediately caught my attention and a little digging later, I find it’s a newer project featuring Tarja Turunen (ex. Nightwish) and the featured guitarist is Marty Friedman (ex. Megadeth). Enjoy!

  10. 10.

    Miki

    Still trying to love my small air fryer. Blistered Green Beans and Air Fryer Chicken Thighs are both excellent. But that’s about it so far. Tomorrow I’m trying lamb chops,  which I anticipate will be pretty good marinated with olive oil, rosemary, and garlic.

    My oven’s broiler is worse than useless, so I’m always looking for a better way to cook roasted meat/veg. I had hoped an air fryer would do the trick, but so far nope.

    Sigh.

  11. 11.

    Scout211

    I have oodles of tomatoes right now and finally pushed myself to make a huge pot of red pasta sauce to freeze.  I filled 6 quart containers of sauce and am good to go.

    The recipe that I use is from Laurel’s Kitchen recipe book.  I always get compliments on the sauce but I have to thank Laurel for it.  This is the old version (1978) of her recipe book, the one that I use.  Laurel’s Kitchen: A Handbook of Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition

  13. 13.

    different-church-lady

    @Scout211: My local squirrels are determined to share not even one of my own tomatoes with me. Apparently my chicken wire skills are not up to snuff this year, so I must resort to bringing them in still half green, with hopefully minimal teeth marks. Tomorrow I try cooking up a home-brew critter spay out of mint, garlic, and cayenne.

    Should all this be successful I might yield a solid dozen on the year!

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @Miki: I have a nice Breville countertop oven that I probably use twice as often as my regular oven.  You’d never know it from how little countertop space it takes up, but it easily holds a 10×10 pan and a 12″ pizza pan.

    It’s has a convection feature so it browns nicely if you want it to, and it’s great for baking. It makes great toast and has a great little broiler, too.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @patrick II: If you mean literally, I am probably going to bed when Anne Laurie just gets going.  I go to bed 10ish and get up at 6 or 7ish.

    If you mean that less literally :-) I do juggle a lot of things

    edit: I stay up later and get up later in the cooler weather, but I like to water all my plants early before it gets too hot and humid.

  17. 17.

    schrodingers_cat

    India Trip update: I managed to squeeze in a 3 day beach vacation during the upcoming India trip amidst the the southern temple tour. My first on the east coast of India. The resort is minutes from the beach. This town was one of the two Danish settlements in India. The Danes sold their holding to the East India Company.

  20. 20.

    CarolPW

    @Miki: I never use the broiler for meat unless it is in the last 5 minutes. If you like lamb, mix up 2 Tbs dry mustard (I use Coleman’s), 2 Tbs olive oil, 1 Tbs lemon juice, 2 tsp minced fresh rosemary (I grow rosemary just for this recipe), 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Slather that on a rack of lamb and stick it into a 425 degree oven. Takes about 20 minutes, and is astonishingly good.

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    Jangle Ground Zero: the Byrds, “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

    I was kind of ambivalent about Joni Mitchell’s appearance at the Newport Folk Festival a couple of weeks ago. She is of course an icon, but the clips I saw— “Both Sides Now” and “The Circle Game”—were, uh, unsatisfying. I won’t say more.

    Anyway, here is a palate-cleansing track of Joni in her prime, “Song for Sharon.” The guitars are kind of jangly in a hypno-drone kind of way.

    Finally, someone earlier mentioned Leo Kottke. I don’t know whether I would pigeonhole him as jangly, but he is a master of the 12-string guitar, which is a jangly staple. “Busted Bicycle.”

  23. 23.

    schrodingers_cat

    @WaterGirl: SIL thought she needed to give me a complete tour cramming as much in as possible. I have managed to convince her that I’d rather just chill so we have taken a bunch of destinations off the itinerary.

  26. 26.

    Benno

    @schrodingers_cat: I love Tharangambadi…I’m assuming, since it’s amidst your southern temple tour. While I don’t love what Christian missions have done around the world, there is a lovely Lutheran church there.

  28. 28.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Benno: May be I will stop by for a visit. The ancestral temple of husband kitteh’s family is about 45 min away. So temple first and then we hit the beach

    What else do/did you like to do when you are/were there.

  29. 29.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Cataract surgery update: Saw the doc today for postop check. Left eye with replacement lens testing at 20/30, he sez that will improve, yay! No overpressure requiring medication. Two bottles of eyedrops, 4x daily; no lifting > 10 lbs or exercise jacking up pulse > 120 for the next week; driving OK if I feel up to it. ‘S’all good, man! Told him the light show was spectacular, only lacked heavy-metal soundtrack, he’ll see what he can derange for the remaining eye-yi-yi in 13 days.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    @Miki:

    A friend got an air fryer from her mother and, after some initial skepticism, likes it a lot, in part because of the ATK cookbook Air Fryer Perfection. I don’t think you have to be a member to buy it, but it’s probably also available at Amazon.

    Friend liked that one well enough to think about getting Healthy Air Fryer.

  32. 32.

    patrick II

    @WaterGirl:

    Not the literally — I meant the juggle a lot of things.  You have mentioned you have clients besides the effort you put in here.  It is very impressive.  I mean that part literally.

  33. 33.

    Omnes Omnibus

    So, on occasion, some commenters here have said that they just don’t get Billie Eilish.  Here she is a couple of days ago with the Count Basie Orchestra.

    Also, my 19 y/o niece is at Loolapalooza.  Yesterday, she texted me and said she had be come a fan of The Wombats.

    Okay, it’s someone else’s turn.

  34. 34.

    SpaceUnit

    @frosty:

    I think that song came out around 2007 or so.  It’s from her 2nd album Drastic Fantastic.  That video is one of my favs though.

    Glad you liked it.

  35. 35.

    cope

    @Steeplejack: I’ve been fortunate enough to see Kottke live at least half a dozen times.  Different as each show (and venue) was, they were all very entertaining combinations of song, story and virtuoso guitar picking. Your post reminds me to mine Apple Music for more of his songs for my playlist.

  36. 36.

    BeautifulPlumage

    I really depend on KEXP (kexp.org) for hearing new music. They stream their broadcast, but more importantly, they produce a lot of in studio performances of both local and national/international acts. They went to Mexico to capture bands that had a hard time travelling to the US. They’re going to Venezuela this year. They also participate in and share performances from an Iceland festival several years in a row and have broadcasts from other international festivals. They very much support smaller acts coming through Seattle as well ell as our local upstarts. Check out their website and YouTube channel.

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack

    @cope:

    His two big(gest) albums back in the day were Mudlark and 6- and 12-String Guitar. All available on YouTube, so you should be able to look them up on Apple Music.

    (Sorry if I’m pointing out the bleeding obvious.)

    ETA: Also Greenhouse.

  39. 39.

    Jackie

    Thanks for posting eclare’s recipe! It sounds delicious and I’ll definitely be making it!

  42. 42.

    thruppence

    Currently at Red Rocks Amphitheater, Los Lobos just finished a great set. Waiting for the Tedeschi Trucks Band, who I had never heard of a few months ago, stumbled across them on the npr tiny desk concert series. Check them out

  44. 44.

    Carlo Graziani

    @SpaceUnit: KT Tunstall opened for Squeeze at the Chicago Theatre in 2019, not long before we all headed for the bomb shelters. That was an amazing one-woman show.

  45. 45.

    Scout211

    @Uncle Cosmo:  Good wishes for happy healing.

    Note: I told my anesthesiologist before the second surgery that I was aware during the surgery and could see light and hear voices throughout most of the surgery. He looked like he didn’t believe me, but I think he upped my anesthesia for round two because I was not aware of anything at all during my second.

    So if you enjoyed the show, tell the anesthesiologist that it was all good and you’ll likely get the same dose and see lights again. LOL

  46. 46.

    citizen dave

    Wet Leg have produced a perfect old schoolish power pop album for this century.  And are having a blast going around playing it this year.

  47. 47.

    SpaceUnit

    @Carlo Graziani:

    That would have been an awesome show!  Love Squeeze, but didn’t realize they were back on tour.

    KT sometimes plays with a band, sometimes all by herself.  I actually love her solo performances where it’s just her on the stage with her looping pedals.

  51. 51.

    piratedan

    @James E Powell:I did have a chance to catch the B52’s and Pylon while they were gigging on the mid-atlantic college circuit just a couple of months before the B52’s made an appearance on SNL… but alas, no recording was being made at the time.

     

    ty for your links!

  52. 52.

    weasel

    @citizen dave: Loved this comment about Wet Leg from the YT vid I just posted.  Seems to sum them up rather well, “I love that we have gotten to the generation who locked themselves in the basement with their parents Pixies and Sonic Youth albums.”
    Pixies and SY are two of my all time faves, just so you know where I’m coming from musically :)

  53. 53.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Also, my 19 y/o niece is at Loolapalooza. Yesterday, she texted me and said she had be come a fan of The Wombats. 

    Gonna have to check them out.  My brother-in-law said Billy Strings was great last night.

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack

    @thruppence:

    I saw Susan Tedeschi way back when in Atlanta. Can’t remember if it was with Derek Trucks or not. Excellent show—must be over 20 years ago now.

  56. 56.

    Eric S.

    I’m prepping for a house warming party tomorrow. I’m making a pasta salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. It has loads of bell peppers artichoke hearts and black olives. I didn’t find heart of palm. :-( The recipe is from an ex-gf from long ago.

    I’m also making a pulled pork and carnitas in a slow cooker. I’ve use these recipes before and I’m pretty certain they came from TaMara.

  58. 58.

    weasel

    @James E Powell: Thanks for the tip on The No-Ones!  Always liked early REM but became an even bigger Buck fan when I found out he was involved in saving the 40 Watt club in Athens, GA.  Only saw one show there, but it was Nirvana on their first Nevermind tour.  Capacity was around 500 people!  Six months later, I was watching Nirvana play at the Donald Tucker Civic Center with some 10 thousand other fans :)

  62. 62.

    Carlo Graziani

    As to food: I recently learned a really wild pasta: Spaghetti all’ Assassina (“Assassin-Style Spaghetti”)

    It’s spaghetti cooked without water, directly in its spicy tomato sauce. The idea is that pasta generally doubles in weight as you boil it, because it absorbs the water. This principle is often exploited in seafood pastas that are partially boiled, then drained well before the al dente stage and finished in the cooking seafood juices, which penetrate the pasta itself, a technique called risottare (because it’s similar to how you cook a risotto). In spaghetti all’s Assassina, some Barese madman took this principle to the outer limits of culinary reason by starting dry spaghetti in a pan with some tomato sauce, then adding tomato “broth” until it’s done, deliberately allowing it to burn a little on the bottom to make a bit of fond.

    The result is like no other pasta that I’ve ever eaten. The spaghetti swells up and gets chewy, and is filled with a spicy/umami character that defies description. It takes a little practice to get the technique right, but even when it isn’t perfect it’s very good.

    ——

    1 lb spaghetti

    A 28oz can of peeled tomatoes, processed in the food processor

    1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed with the side of a chef knife or a meat pounder

    Crushed red pepper to season the tomato sauce, quantity in proportion to your spice tolerance, or alternatively a chopped serrano could be nice as well. I would not use a habanero here if you want to taste anything.

    A small can of tomato paste dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water to make a tomato broth

    Salt

    Olive oil

    In a 12-inch pan (wide enough to fit the dry spaghetti) heat the olive oil over medium heat. When shimmering, add the garlic, and swirl for 30 seconds or so. Add the processed tomatoes and the hot pepper and a sprinkle of salt, and stir with a wooden spoon. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes.

    Add the dry spaghetti, spreading it out as much as possible, and pouring as much of the tomato sauce from the pan on top using the wooden spoon (or a spatula) until it is covered. Turn the heat to medium-low. At this stage, try not to move the spaghetti too much, because it will break.

    Keep moving sauce onto the spaghetti. As the pan starts to dry, start adding tomato broth to the pan a bit at a time.

    After 5-6 minutes, you can start moving the spaghetti around in the pan a bit, to improve the “irrigation”. You’ll also want to start tasting it to check for doneness (it won’t be done at this stage, though). Keep adding tomato broth as needed.

    When you judge that the spaghetti is 3-4 minutes from being done, make a shallow mound of the spaghetti and turn the heat to medium-high, to brown some fond under it. You don’t want it to burn, exactly—the pan will be a pain in the ass to clean—but you want some good brown-black stuff on the bottom of the sauce.

    When it’s done, transfer to a bowl, mix it all up so that the fond gets distributed, and serve.

  63. 63.

    realbtl

    Re: Leo Kotke.  He ruined his right hand using finger picks on his early (jangly?) records.  His new stuff is just as good but more subdued.

  67. 67.

    James E Powell

    @weasel:

    Only saw one show there, but it was Nirvana on their first Nevermind tour.  Capacity was around 500 people!

    Damn! If I was at a show like that, I might get a tattoo to commemorate it. Present at the creation, or not too long after.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: Eyes are kinda parts of our brains.  But they don’t have much in the way of pain receptors.  So doing things like rubbing your eyes makes you “see stars” – the eye nerves are responding to stimuli (changes in pressure, etc.) by making visual things happen because that’s what they do.  I assume similar things are happening during eye surgery.

    Just a guess though!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  73. 73.

    PaulB

    @Miki:My oven’s broiler is worse than useless, so I’m always looking for a better way to cook roasted meat/veg. I had hoped an air fryer would do the trick, but so far nope.

    Have you looked at the Ninja Foodi Grill? It broils, roasts, air fries, and grills indoors. My oven broiler doesn’t work well, either, and this gadget makes up the difference.

    Amazon sells a “renewed” version of this for just $89.99. It might be worth a look for your needs.

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