Blogogenesis

Yeah, I know. I'm not there when you wake up in the morning, and you hate that! Actually, I'm under the bed. Just waiting for you to leave for work so I can do nasty things with your underwear drawer.

Now do you feel better?

Anyway, this happens to me every Spring Training. I just don't care about anything except baseball. Well, I still care about bourbon. And food. And The Walking Dead. Oh, and Gia...crap, almost forgot Gia. You see what baseball does to my brain?

Speaking of baseball, it brought a big ole' smile to my ruggedly handsome face to see some people actually care about February baseball games on Twitter the past few days. Sure, it's February. And if March baseball doesn't fucking matter, then I don't know what the hell we are supposed to do with February baseball. Me? I'm taking it out behind the junior high and gettin' it pregnant. That's how much I love me some February baseball.

Speaking of Gia, we've both been doing well with our diets. Well, we are trying hard not to call it a diet because we don't plan on it ever ending. It's more of a healthy life-style change. A Live-it, if you prefer. Ugh...I really don't prefer that. In fact, I fucking hate that term. Purge it from your mind, forget that I ever mentioned it. Here's what we are doing; controlling portions, limiting caloric intake, fresh ingredients, lotsa water, weekend splurging. Lather, rinse, repeat. It can be a little boring, but I'm trying to keep things interesting in both the bedroom (heyooo!!!) and the kitchen. That's how I roll.

Speaking of The Walking Dead, it's been fucking fantastic this year thus far. Haven't watched this past Sunday's episode yet, but I'm sure I'm gonna dig. Maybe they will finally do something interesting with that great big black hole of suck that is Andrea. Right now, I just want a spin-off where Carl roams the country just shooting fucking zombies in the fucking head.  That's it. That's all I want the show to be about. It's faint praise that annoying, little Carl has become my favorite character on the show. Everyone else needs to take a big step up...RIGHT NOW!

Speaking of food, Gia's sister is still rocking her food blog. Her latest installment detailed a Hobbit-themed party that she threw for her son's birthday. You gotta go check it out. I helped a bit with the preparation of the menu, but that's all. And since it happened in warm SC while we were stuck in cold NY, I'm more than a little jealous. Sigh.

Speaking of bourbon, I've got a new inexpensive favorite. Old Grand-Dad 100 Proof. I never gave it a try because...well, the bottle looked so cheap. Bad orange label. Bad orange plastic cap. It's around the same price as Jim Beam, maybe a couple of bucks cheaper. And I recently found out the Old Grand-Dad himself is Basil Hayden, a founding member of the bourbon expansion into Kentucky back in the 1700's.  There is another, more premium bourbon eponymously named after him as well. And the two share the same mash bill (oooh....getting me hot with all these fancy bourbon terms!). Just aged 6 years instead of 8. It's delicious! A bit more rye than your normal bourbon, which is something that really appeals to me over some of the wheated bourbons on the market.  Needs a bit of ice to mellow it, but that's how I drink bourbon anyway. So it works out perfectly. Don't judge the book by it's awful cover and give it a try.

And I'm spent. Bye!

In Spite of Ourselves

After all theses years (it will be 6 years next week!), Gia and I have finally found our song. Should I capitalize the OUR in that phrase? I dunno. We've had songs that we've connected with before. "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits. "Please Call Me Baby" by Tom Waits. Stuff like that. But those songs, awesome as they are, are about doomed/twisted relationships that don't really work out.  Not so with this one.

And what's really interesting is that we both found it separately within about three months of each other. I heard it first one day while working with Pandora playing in the background. Several times a day, I will lift my head from my laptop and spreadsheets and stop to listen to a song that might not be new but is new to me. "In Spite of Ourselves" by John Prine with Iris DeMent was one of those songs. I'll then jot the song and artist down on a e-stickynote I keep open in the background. Usually to either share with Gia, buy on iTunes or post on this here space sometime in the future.

Then Gia was watching this movie with Billy Bob Thornton called Daddy and Them. A labor of love for the man who wrote and directed the film. He got his friend John Prine to take a supporting role in the film. And he got him to write a song for the film as well. This one. Prine talks about that a bit at the beginning of the video below.

So she purchased the song on iTunes and one late afternoon while we were enjoying a Summer Ramble, it popped on. I immediately started singing along. She was a bit confused because she thought she was going to introduce me to my new favorite song. I was confused because I had thought I had introduced it to her months ago. I'm still not sure that I hadn't. Maybe I did, but she didn't really "hear" it until she watched that film. Hard to say. Doesn't really matter because we proceeded to listen to it 5 or 6 times in a row that evening. And we fell in love with it and each other all over again. Music can be incredibly powerful that way.

This song makes us ridiculously happy. Because it's a ridiculously happy song. And because we found it separately yet for each other at the same time. Or something like that.

Enjoy!

Not a Drag

Last Tuesday night was the 35th Annual Paper Bag. I've written about it the past few years, so you can read about it here or on the website. But basically, it's a large group of local musicians who get together once a year to put on a ridiculously fun show. My Gia has been a part of it for the past decade or so as one of the singers. This year she blew the doors off of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", jumped in at the last moment to handle the solo on Madonna's "Material Girl" (the theme for the Bag this year was The Money Bag) and did an impromptu rendition of Jimi Hendrix' "Purple Haze" toward the end of the evening. She's a fucking rock star!

The show goes from 10PM until 4AM, but we usually leave after her singing duties are over. Besides the occasional solo, she also sings back-up numerous times during the evening. When the singer of "Material Girl" had to duck out early, we checked the schedule and saw that she wouldn't be hitting the stage until around 3AM. At that point we said "fuck it!" and decided to stay until the bitter end. And we were so glad we did. The last scheduled song of the evening/morning was Zappa's "Dancing Fool", but afterward they spin the wheel for some random tunes to end the show. One of those was the aforementioned "Purple Haze". Lots of fun. 

Then for the very end of the show, the host and founder of the gig invites anyone still remaining up onto the stage for a sing-along. They do that every year, but this is the first time we have stayed until the end. Very, very cool.

We headed across the street for some much needed breakfast and found ourselves battling the morning sun on the way home. Wednesday was a completely lost day as we slept and ate and slept and slept some more. They do suggest you take the next day off, so I was only following orders.

This was my 6th Bag and my favorite one of all. I can't wait for next year!

Our Founder, Guido. You can't see 'em, but there are about 70 musicians on stage to his left.

Gia showering the crowd with love and stars during "Rolling in the Deep".

The Dude and The Stranger? "Got any sasparilla?"

A night for stars.

Date Night

Lately, Gia and I have been trying to do a date night at least once a week.  Maybe a movie, maybe dinner, whatever.  This past Friday, our date night landed us at our recent favorite haunt in town. Got to meet the new owners of the joint, and enjoyed some delicious pub food.  I had a fried pickle burger with swiss (as good as it sounds), and my woman had herself some short rib risotto.  It all rocked so very much.

Then we headed down to a little sports pub that we've been frequenting lately to watch some of the MLB playoffs. Sure, the Yankees are out of it.  But that just means I get to root for good baseball instead of my team. Lose some, win some.

As we were leaving, we heard what sounded like some live music coming from the restaurant that we ate at earlier.  So we went to investigate.  Sure enough, every Friday night they clear out one side of the joint around 11ish and a local band takes stage.  The band that night was a reggae/ska/soul group called The Bluebeats. They were...really good. At one point they took a break from the reggae/ska and did what sounded like a Motown number. And the lead singer, a dude by the name of Mike Drance, really pulled it off.

Then they did a great version of Elvis Costello's "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down".  Well, Sam & Dave originally released it back in 1967.  But I know it from Elvis, so that's that.

Anyway, I looked them up when we got home and I found out that Mike Drance was the co-frontman of my favorite ska band of all-time.  The Scofflaws.  I've written about them here before, a long time ago.  He left the band right around the time that I was getting into them and ska in the early 1990's.  But that's pretty freakin' cool.  Makes me wish I had seen more of them back when he was skankin' along with the rest of the criminals (not really) in that band.

But he's still jammin' out with The Bluebeats, and that's cool enough.

I dig date night.

Here's a little Elvis Costello for ya. Enjoy!

She's gonna kill me

Because we took a bunch of pics this particular day in Charleston.  And this isn't the one she wanted me to share. But fuck it...I'm doing it anyway.  Because this one makes me smile soooo much. Wearing my hat and shit. 

Tada!

my love

So...how have ya been?

Yeah, I know...it's been some time now.  Did you miss me? I missed you.

Maybe that's a good thing every once in a while.  It's been several weeks since I was posting regularly here on the ole Verdant Dude.  Lots of reasons for that.  Vacation was the reason for at the beginning, but then life intervened in ways that I don't really want to talk about here. Because that's not what I use this space for.  I did, once upon a time.  But I've since decided to keep this site mostly free of my personal life.

But I'm still kicking, don't you worry about me.

So what can I talk about here?  Let's see...BULLET STYLE!!!

• We've done three new episodes of Just Talking to the Cornfield since the last time I've regularly blogged.  The Colonel and I have discussed all kinds of fascinating baseball-related topics.  OK, fascinating to some people.  Pure Hell for others.  Different strokes and all.  Oh, we are on iTunes as well, so look for us there.
  
• There was that vacation I mentioned above. Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island (which isn't really an island at all). That was some fun shit right there. Mostly.  I heartily recommend that place to anyone who enjoys the island life...without having to go all the way to the Caribbean.  
• I've seen a bunch of new stuff on Netflix Instant. Namely French zombie movies.  That's right...French zombie movies.  That would be "zombi" en francais. The Horde was excellent.  Mutants a little less so, but still entertaining.  Oh, those French...
• Saw the new Captain America flick. Man, oh man that was a shitload of fun.  If you like well-done war movies or well-done superhero flicks, then you should check it out.  If you like both...well, run to the theater.  It's that good.  Seriously.
• I've discovered that the best possible use for Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine is to mix it with a splash of OJ and some seltzer.  A Catdaddy Orangina, if you will. It...is...sublime.
• I've read three more Jack Reacher books from Lee Childs.  I'm still having a hard time believing that Tom Cruise might wind up playing him in a feature film.  ::shivers::
• Speaking of Tom Cruise, before the Cap film we saw a trailer for the next Mission Impossible movie. I certainly have issues with Cruise (can he fly yet?), but I did love the first and third entries in the series.  And since JJ Abrams is involved again in this one, along with Jeremy Renner, I'm all in.  Entertainment!

Ugh...that's all I got. Seems I haven't been doing much of anything at all.  Well, anything I want to share with y'all here anyways.  A girl's gotta keep some secrets.  Shhhhhh.

My Juliet

Happy Birthday to the bestest woman in the world.  I love you, Gia!

Bonus: That video encompasses everything I love and hate about the 1980's. Solid!

Another year, another Bag

Paper Bag, that is.  If you don't feel like following that link, or if you don't remember my post from past years, I figure I would give you a quick rundown.

The Paper Bag is an annual local music event.  A revolving 70+ person band filled with local musicians of the professional and amateur type.  A lot of them, so it happens, are also teachers.  So the concert is always set for the last day of school here in New York. A kind of "hello Summer, goodbye urchins" deal, if you catch my drift.

They run through a practice session the night before, and then they get together for a few hours before the gig starts.  But that's it.  Well, some of the sub-groups get together to practice here and there.  And some of them play in bands with each other all year long. But actually practicing the songs that happen in the show with all those performers?  Yeah...it happens pretty quick.

Gia is a part of a cheesy backup singer girl-group, fittingly called the Cheese Calzones.  For the past four years, she's also been getting her own solo with the rest of the Calzones backing her up.  So much fun.  This year, she did a version of Pink's "U + Ur Hand" which was awesome.  I'm not crazy about the song itself, neither is she.  But she doesn't have a ton of input in choosing the setlist, so she just goes with the flow.

This year the flow meant ripped jeans, funky jacket and these long dreadlock things that she wrapped into her hair.  She looked awesome.  I would post a pic or the video of her performance here, but she doesn't want me to.  But trust me, she looked and sounded awesome.  And the crowd loved her.  Always does.

The one thing that I would have preferred is if she went on a bit earlier in the night.  The show goes from 10PM to 4AM, and in years past she has usually performed in the first 2 hours.  Last night she went on around 2ish in the AM.  There were actually some songs on the setlist after she went on that I really wanted to stick around for, but we decided to get going around 2:45.  We didn't get home until after 3:30, and the sun was threatening to come up before we actually fell asleep.

So Wednesday was a sleepy day, but a good kind of a sleepy day.  Ready for the rest of the Summer.

Reading assignments

First, read this article about misleading sabermetric statistics on the new Grantland website by Jonah Lehrer.

Finished?

Okay, now read this article on Fangraphs by Joe Pawlikowski as a response to that stupid argument.

That is all.

PS - Gia performed in the Paper Bag concert last night (or as you are reading this), so we are gonna be out late and sleeping in most of the morning on Wednesday. 

The Big Man

I never was a fan of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band prior to about 5 years ago.  That happily coincides with the time that I met my Gia.  She was and is a huge fan.  And through her, I've learned to appreciate the man and the band and the music.

So it was with a great deal of sadness that we heard about the stroke that Clarence Clemons suffered on Sunday.  Much more so for Gia, who had recently met the Big Man several times.  She's a bit shy about posting pics on the web, but we've got some real good ones of her and Clarence taken by a mutual friend of the two.

You see, she had recently come into contact with that mutual friend who is a musician.  He began working with Clarence on a semi-regular basis and he knew that he had to let Gia know, seeing as she was the biggest Bruce fan he knew.  We even got a call at home from Clarence himself one night.  That was hilarious.

So she has taken a couple of trips down to Florida to see Clarence and her old friend perform in the past few months.  And Clarence always took the time to spend some time with her.  And after she would leave, he would always ask about her.  Wanted to know how she was doing. Says as much about Clarence as it does about Gia.  He really seems to be a good guy.

He's undergone two surgeries so far after the stroke.  Reports have varied from him being in critical to serious condition to recovering.  Hard to tell at the moment. But all of our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family and his fans.

Hang tough, Big Man.

The Peperon-tini

Once again, I'm deviating from my planned Monday posts here. I'm supposed to be doing a beer review today, but I haven't really tried anything new beer-wise in the past few weeks. I guess I could just review a beer I've had in the past, but that doesn't feel fresh.

So instead, I'll review a new cocktail that I made for the first time recently.

The Peperon-tini

3 1/2 oz Absolut Citron (or any citron vodka)
1/2 oz peperoncini juice
3 dashes green Tabasco
Spicy pepperoni and peperoncini for garnish

This one is soooo simple to make. A twist on the classic dirty olive martini. Instead of adding a bit of juice from the olive jar, you add juice from the peperoncini jar. Easy, peasy...

Add the vodka, peperoncini juice and Tabasco to a shaker filled with ice. Shake yer giggles out. Pour into a chilled glass and garnish with a round of spicy pepperoni and a whole peperoncini. That's it. If you like, you can rim the glass with some sea salt, but it's not necessary.

Gia is more of a fan of spicy cocktails than I, but I really liked this one. The citrus from the vodka and the spice from the peperoncini and Tabasco went together really well. Dangerously well. I could see having 3 or 4 or these bad boys, if I found myself on a roll. Yeah...dangerous. Gia tried one with the salt on the rim first and loved it, then tried it without the salt and she loved it even more.

We found this one in a book of 60 spicy cocktails recipes that Gia picked up for me. She likes spicy cocktails and I like making them for her. Match made in...well, somewhere.

1 down, 59 to go. Huzzah!

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Can't wait to try the Wasabi-tini.

Moving Day

source

Not for Gia and I, but her folks are moving to SC on Wednesday. So I gotta be on my game for helping with the move and such. See y'all on the flip side.

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Oh, how I hate a moving day.

Making the dough

click for full effect

clicken to biggen

See that big handsome fella up there messing with the dough? That's Gia's father, during his time in the Army in 1965. The reason for the baseball glove is that he was signed with the NY Yankees at the time and some Army reporter was doing a piece on him and his stint at Fort Gordon. It may have just been the photo and a quick blurb.  You can read the blurb on the back of the photo over there on the right.

That was something that the Yankees did during the Vietnam War. They would arrange a safe assignment for their players who found themselves draft eligible so that they wouldn't get hurt fighting in the war. Gia's father wound up in the kitchen, a learning experience that helped him out later on in life when he and his family opened up a restaurant that they ran for 15 years or so. 

Unfortunately, he still got injured during his time in the Army.  Every day they had to exercise and train and during the drills one morning he tore something in his shoulder.  So at 22, his pitching career was basically over without ever making it to the big leagues.  But he had some great times with the Yankees in the minors and during Spring Training. Got to hang out and play ball with Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Whitey Ford.  Threw batting practice to Joe DiMaggio (I can't even imagine...).  Pitched an exhibition game at Yankee Stadium.  Went 24-11 with a 2.60 ERA while in the minors in places like Fort Lauderdale, FL, Idaho Falls, ID and Columbus, GA.  Was proud to call Roy White, Bobby Murcer, Mel Stottlemyre and a bunch of others friends.  Beat future Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins just about every time he faced him.  Good times.

Next week, he and Gia's mother are moving away to South Carolina.  We are gonna miss both of them.

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Seriously...Joe DiMaggio walked up to him after practice one day and said "Hey Bob, throw me a few".  I would have crapped myself.

Come Monday

I'm not normally a beach kinda guy. Pale skin and pudgy around the middle doesn't add up to a comfortable beach experience for this particular dude. But Gia loves the sun and I do what I can to keep up. That has led to some actual color on my skin this year. I've even made a few trips to the dreaded beach. And on Long Island, we have some extremely varied choices when it comes to beaches because of the geography of the island.

It's all a part of the unique North Shore/South Shore dichotomy (mentioned here) that exists here on our island.

You see, Long Island was formed during the two most recent Ice Ages around 21,000 years ago.  When the glaciers receded on two separate occasions, gravel and loose rock was left over in the form of two moraines that run along the North Shore and the middle of the island.  Everything south of that second moraine is an outwash plain.  That's just a bunch of technical hoo-ha to explain the fact that the beaches on the North Shore of the island are rocky, hard  and awful while the beaches on the South Shore are sandy, soft and beautiful.

I experienced both in the past two weekends.  Two Sundays ago, my sister and brother-in-law took us to Fire Island (the non-gay section) on their boat to watch the fireworks over the bay.  It's a barrier beach on the South Shore of the island, for those of you not in the know.  The fireworks were preceded by a day of play on the ocean.  And the beach was gorgeous.  Then yesterday, we opted for the closer option.  A North Shore beach* that is about a mile from our house.  The best thing I can say about it is that it's convenient.  Other than that...not much.

*Here's a picture of a typical North Shore beach. Try walking on that beach with your bare feet!

We packed a lunch, grabbed the NY Times and a beach blanket and we were off.  And I was cooked after about 2 hours even with a liberal dose of sunscreen.  But since it was so close to our home, I was able to run home for a while and pick Gia up a couple of hours later.  She can spend all day at the beach as long as the water is inviting.  Me?  Not so much.

It's 7PM on Sunday as I'm writing this and I'm watching the Jimmy Buffett Gulf Coast Benefit show streaming on CMT.com.  Seems to be a fitting end of the day for a dude with beach brain.

Hope y'all had a nice, sun-filled weekend!

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. "I got my hush puppies on, I guess I was never meant for glitter rock and roll."

Happy Birthday Gia!

Once again, it was a whole weekend of celebrating for Gia's birthday...which is actually today. Just in case you wanted to get it tattooed on your inner thigh or something. Just me? Ok...let's move on.

We did a mini-Ramble on Friday night in preparation for a larger, more proper Ramble on Saturday evening here at the homestead. Fun and booze was had by all. Except the expectant mother in attendance. We're not animals, people

On Saturday, I woke up to a text message from my sister wanting to know if we wanted to spend the day on the boat with them. Fuck and yes! So we packed a cooler with some drinkables and lunchables and headed out onto the Great South Bay. An afternoon of boating and beaching and beer..ing. 'Twas loads of fun. After much time in the ocean we trekked back over to the bay side and the boat to watch the awesome fireworks display from a barge that was anchored about 200 yard from where we were anchored. Very, very nice!

Then we headed back to my sister's house to jump in the pool for a midnight dip. Because family was involved, there was only a minimum of nakedness going down. We're not animals, people.

So it was heaps and heaps of fun. She had a blast and she deserved it.

Happy Birthday, baby!

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. How old are you now?

Paper Bag Redux

It's Paper Bag time again.

What's the Paper Bag? Why it's the world's only 70-piece rock band, silly.  A bunch of local musicians who get together once a year to kick off Summer in style with an all-night concert.  They don't all wind up on stage at the same time, of course.  It's a rotating thing.  And Gia is gonna be singing again with the Cheese Calzones.  That probably doesn't make any sense to you...I'm okay with that.  But she has her own solo again this year, and I'm psyched!

You can read all about the show on that link up there or go back to one of my old posts about it.  It's fun stuff.

For now, I'll leave you with one of our recent favorite tunes from Loudon Wainwright III.  This is a good one, kids!

Last Man on Earth

by Loudon Wainwright III

(click the title to play the album or song on Rhapsody)

In the year 2000

my age was 53

born in the first half

of the last century

I always was post-modern

but that's ancient history

Now I'm the last man on Earth

that's what the matter is with me

I guess I'm old fashioned

Retro to a degree

you could say I'm a throw-back

anachronistically

air conditioning is here to stay

and that makes me unhappy

cause I'm the last man on Earth

that's what the matter is with me

I don't have a portfolio

I gotta pleed guilty

the best things are the worthless now

that's just because they're free

and if your not a millionaire yet

boy, you better be

Now, I'm the last man on Earth

that's what the matter is with me

I should be optimistic

and go buy some bonds and stocks

They'll find a cure for Cancer soon

we may get trigger-locks

existence is no picnic

as statistics all have shown

we learn to live together

and then we die alone

everybody's got a website

but that's all Greek to me

I don't own a computer

I hate that letter "e"

I don't pack a cell phone

or drive an SUV

Yes, I'm the last man on Earth

that's what the matter is with me

I'm the last man standing

save the last dance for me

I've taken the last train to Clarksville

I'm the fifth monkey

nice guys always finish last

no one's nicer than me

Yeah, I'm the last man on Earth

That's what the matter is with me

Kid's used to say their prayers at night

before they went to bed

St. John told us that God is love

Nichiei said he was dead

this thing we call existence

who knows what it all means?

Time and Life and People

are just glossy magazines

I sat and watched those guys

debate each other on TV

politicians, wrestlers

they're all the same to me

hey, I don't give a damn

which idiot runs this country

Since I'm the last man on Earth

It don't matter to me

In the year 2000

my age was 53

I know that I'm grumpy

middle-aged crazy

but if you are a woman

you might have to sleep with me

Since I'm the last man on Earth

and I can guarantee

I'm the last man on Earth

and there ain't nothing wrong with me

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. No, I'm the fifth Monkee!

The Sunset Ramble

So Gia and I have a new favorite habit. Something to help us unwind on Friday evenings after a long week of dealing with humanity and each other. We make sure we are both done with our respective days by around 5:30PM  or so, and we retire to the patio out back for some cool tunes and even cooler brews. Gia sets up the iPod with an interesting playlist. I let her do it, because...well, she's a whole lot cooler than I could ever hope to be. Then we sit by the harbor and just...exist. It's pretty sweet.

We call it...the Sunset Ramble.

The foot is mine.  The Mini belongs to Gia.  The Lincoln to a neighbor.

Named in honor of one of Gia's hero, Levon Helm - who runs his own Midnight Ramble at his joint in Woodstock just about every Friday night - all that is needed for the Sunset Ramble is your own place and time, some good tunes and the cold beverage of your choice.  This past Friday, we went with a selection of The Band (naturally), Tom Waits (a current favorite), Amy Winehouse, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Loudon Wainwright III, Nina Simone, Steely Dan, The Andrew Sisters, Adele, Stevie Wonder, Marah, Kings of Leon and many, many, many others.  Our beverages of choice were a couple of canned beers named Hell or High Watermelon and Dale's Pale Ale.  Canned beer just seemed to naturally go along with the whole white-trash vibe we were going with.


So why don't you join us one of these Friday night?

Um, I don't mean that you should actually come over to our house and drink our beer.  That would be weird.  And a little rude.  No, I mean that you should set up your own Sunset Ramble with your own loved ones.  Play some of your own music...stuff that you are really into.  Serve some of your own beverages...alcoholic or otherwise.  Invite some friends, or just hang with your honey.  Or by yourself.  The Sunset Ramble has no rules or restrictions.

Except your own.  And feel free to break those at any time.  It's the Sunset Ramble, bitches!

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Gia rocks!

Jiggedy Jig

Sunset at the Wreck of the Richard and Charlene - photo by Gia

Back from our vacation in the South last night. Gia's sister and brother-in-law were fantastic hosts, naturally. And we had plenty of time to look around the area for the not-so-faraway future as we are thinking of re-locating. The low country region is right up our alley, lifestyle-wise. It'll just come down to when and how, I guess.  More on that as it becomes available.

But here is a brief list of things I did on my vacation. Because it's all about me.

• Had grits with just about every meal I ate.  I love me some grits.  I don't know why they aren't as readily available here in the Northeast, but I'm lookin' to change that. 
  
• I stayed sober...mostly.  Past vacations have generally been spent in bars until the wee hours.  But since we were exploring a great deal and eating a great deal something had to give.  And that something was alcohol.  Oh sure, I had a few beers while I was watching the Yankees games.  But always in moderation.  The bonus?  No vacation hangovers!  
• I read the "Shadow" series of books from Orson Scott Card.  Well, I re-read two of them and read the other two for the first time. More on Orson Scott Card later this week.
• Took a bunch of pictures, and you can see a handful of them here on this Flickr set.  But only if you are really bored, okay?  And try not to make fun of the fat old guy in the hammock.
  
• I finished a 5-year business plan for one of my clients.  Hey...it can't all be fun and games.
• Tried all kinds of funky food like fatback, Hoppin' John and boiled peanuts.  
  
• I slept an awful lot.  I'm talking 9-10 hours a night.  I don't know about you, but that's a lot for me.  I usually am at my best after around 6 hours of sleep.  Any more than that and I'm actually more tired during the day.  Weird.
• I got to spend just about every minute of every day with my best friend in the world.  And what could be better than that?
  

So what did you do on your last vacation?

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. I'm not kidding about grits.  I mean to make it my mission in the next few months.

The things you do for Love

Here's the dilemma. One of my favorite meals is homemade chili. And, not bragging here, I make a fucking fantastic chili. But Gia generally doesn't enjoy chili. She will eat the fuck out of mine, because she knows it's the best around (okay...that might be bragging a bit). But if she had her druthers, she would rather pass on chili all together.  A positions I am firmly against, by the way.

But I wanted to make chili this weekend, and I also wanted to make something that Gia was really gonna love. So...

GIA'S FAVORITE CHILI RECIPE

I did it. I concocted a chili that had Gia sobbing for more. Or she would have been sobbing had we not been so full. I'm not sure any of that makes sense. Let's move on.

I decided to go all green and white for this batch of chili.  No red whatsoever.  Tomatillos instead of tomatoes. Green sweet peppers, celery, limes, cilantro and green chilies. White onions, chicken meat and white beans.  Here's how you do it:

Ingredients

2 pounds ground chicken
1 pound chicken sausage - removed from casing
1 pound dried small white beans
1 large can (24 oz) tomatillos - drained and shredded
4 large sweet Italian peppers (light green, looks like a big chili)
4 green chili peppers
2 large white Spanish onions
8 celery stalks
6 limes
1 beer - lager
1 or 2 batches of cilantro - just the leaves...chopped
1.5 tbsp white pepper
1.5 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp kosher salt

You can use any kind of chicken meat you want in any combination.  I thought that shredded or pulled chicken would go nicely with this recipe.  Maybe next time.  But I chose ground chicken meat and some chicken sausage out of the casing for this batch.  Also you can use fresh tomatillos if you can find them.  I went to three specialty markets this morning looking for fresh tomatillos and I was shit out of luck.  So I went with the canned variety.  Worked fine.  Also, I love me some cilantro.  So I used an entire bunch in the chili and some more in the rice.  Because cilantro = big fucking win!

Preparation

1. Soak the beans either overnight in cold water or do a quick soak per the instructions on the bag.  Cook soaked beans in an appropriate amount of water for an hour and a half or until almost tender.
2. Dice the onions, celery and peppers and saute in a large stock pot with a little vegetable oil until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the tomatillos (I ripped them apart by hand.  Grrr!), spices, cilantro, the juice from four (4) of the limes and the beer and heat until a slow boil occurs.  Reduce heat and cover.
4. Brown the ground chicken and the sausage meat (removed from the casing), drain and add to stock pot with all the vegetables.
5. Simmer for about an hour and a half on low heat. 
   
6. Add the cooked beans to the stock pot and simmer for another half of an hour on low heat.

That's it.  I served it over basmati rice that I prepared with lime zest, salt, white pepper and more fresh cilantro.  Surrounded the bowl with white corn nacho chips and added a generous dollop of sour cream in the center.  Cut the remaining two limes into wedges if anyone wanted more tang.  The resulting dish was tangy, meaty and delicious!  Gia absolutely flipped for it.  So I assume I will be making it again at some point. 

Looking for a photo of it?   Keep waiting.  I'm still waiting for that mind-activated camera.  Sigh.  Here is a picture of a bunch of tomatillos instead.  Because you may have been wondering what the fuck a tomatillo is.

They look like little green tomatos!

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day.  Like walking in the rain and the snow, when there's no where to go and you're feeling like a part of you is dying!

You and me, babe...how 'bout it?

Three years with my love Gia.

It's the Dire Straits version that sealed the deal on our love. On our first date I mentioned how much I loved it and Gia was driving.  She pulled over and immediately played it on her iPod. "Gia, I'd do the stars with you anytime."  Our very first make-out session ensued.

But I kinda like this version almost as much.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. When we made love you used to cry.