as if i don’t have enough on my plate-andrew introduced me to another time wasting game on facebook and i can’t stop. but i did get 99,500 points!!!!!!!whew hoo.my other passion-squeezzling-brought me to this week’s menu. scott porter,venerable host of our pub trivia has a birthday today. because i love him so, (and in hopes of gathering some favor for the team )i offered to cook his favorite meal. its chicago style hot dogs and peanut butter pie. easy you say? try finding sport peppers and poppyseed hot dog buns in my beloved kroger. i went to kroger,sacknsave,piggly wiggly,albertsons and berkshires.denied.i am making do. so don’t be shocked-of course i thought of making my own dogs but i also couldn’t find pig lips and chicken butts. i guess had i gone to the vietnamese store i could have found those but my mind was on other things,like bejeweled. so there it is chicago style dogs with all the fixins-s ahem “sport peppers” bright green relish, yellow mustard,quartered tomatoes,dill pickle slices and steamed weiners. roasted potato salad and peanut butter pie.

KASSAGI (PICKPOCKET)

La piste aux étoiles, 1962 (11 min.)

Live television footage of master pickpocket Henri Kassagi entertaining (and playfully stealing) from an audience in the round from the French circus television program “Star Spangled Track” in 1962. Kassagi was a professional thief who later used the skills he developed in the underworld of Tunisia to become a magician. Kassagi was also a crime consultant for films (including Robert Bresson’s 1959 film Pickpocket).

WHIRR

Timo Katz, 2006 (2 min 23 sec.)

German experimental filmmaker Timo Katz uses still photos of the facades of a row house community to illustrate how the inhabitants of these homes create variation and difference through exterior décor, while the architecture of the structures are an endless disturbing repetition of the same basic design. With music by Japanese duo Fonica.

URGH! A MUSIC WAR

Derek Burbidge and Miles Copeland, 1981 (124 min.)

Produced by IRS Records founder Miles Copeland, Urgh! A Music War is an ambitious live music documentary focusing on British and American punk rock, New Wave, and post-punk acts in the early 1980s.

Featuring 35 acts including: Wall of Voodoo, Klaus Nomi, John Cooper Clarke, OMD, Oingo Boingo, Gang of Four, Echo and the Bunnymen, XTC, The Go-Gos, Dead Kennedys, Gary Numan, The Cramps, X, Devo, Pere Ubu, and more.

i always try and get a shout out to my mom early because i am afflicted with postophobia,which is inherited. its symptoms include,but are not limited to:forgetting postage,putting 1/2 her new address and 1/2  of the old, even though they have lived in the same house for 10 years,not realizing that some of the new stoopid cards have”must include additional postage” written in invisible ink and giving mail to dan to send off. fortunately, it is inherited so she forgives me and will have to continue to because i just found her card on the porch-real dirty and soggy-it must have blown off the mailbox. i love you ,mom.
tonight

• corn and sweet potato chowder
  
• mushroom brown rice burgers on homemade ciabatta
  
• mango lavender ice cream(yes it is churned and it worked,i’ve learned my lesson)

• spiced cauliflower soup
• garbonzo beans in a spicy tomato sauce with basmati rice and good stuff
• spiced chocolate brulee

yes, the key word tonight is spice. spice because it’s indian food and there are spices aplenty. daisy and i finally tracked down the elusive black onion seed and now neither one of us can remember what it was needed for. i think that we had been looking for it for almost 5 years. we can also not remember where it is that we went on a black onion seed safari. it was in a warehouse district in dallas somewhere and we were the only non-indian people there,it was very exciting. there was hacked up goat and lamb in a part of that grocery store that i am here to tell you, would never pass the denton health inspection. but it was intriguing. and they did not have the black onion seed. anyway, i have had a hankering for indian food and the hole, dan and i went to richardson to appease the yen. yay it was good and i am trying to duplicate what we had and also incorporate the b.o. seed. wish me luck

that is what i found in my junk mail today. needless to say, it was nothing close to what i had imagined. oh well. that really had nothing to do with what i have brought you here for today. my real thought was to tell you about 3 new places that my honey and i checked out this week. as you may know, dan and i are rather compulsive-obssessive about food and the last 2 weeks are no exception because the crawfish are running. between the 2 of us, we have probably eaten more crawfish than one mark butler which could be upwards of 100 pounds. so friday night we drove up to downtown sanger(?!?) to eat cajun food from a couple of katrina refugees. the oysters were terrific and there is potential for the rest.. yesterday we had a 2-fold mission. when dan picked up the crawfish last week in lewisville, he spyed a crawfish-stuffed deboned chicken. after consuming an oyster poboy he decided he couldn’t live without trying one. so we drove down,stopping at el rancho mexican market on fox.it was pretty stunning.there is a large fruiteria right when you walk in the front door.5 gallon vats filled with everything from mango,watermelon, canteloupe,and lemonade to rice and tamarind drinks. the perfect thing to cool off your mouth from the multitude of prepared tacos and roasted chicken is the fruit cocktail. then we drove to bayou seafood on 121 and got dan’s chicken-it also had potential. i almost tried a poboy but the 3 tacos al pastor threatened to revolt and i reconsidered. THEN, as we walked out i saw an african market. in lewisville. he didn’t have a lot but he seemed lonely and told us about a true african restaurant in garland that we will be visiting when the hole gets back. that was 4 places.
tonight
crawfish chowder
the bestest mac’n'cheese i have ever made
little french fudge cakes
my pal,lisa, who lives in california wanted my beeto de gallo recipe and i thought “hell, while i’m typing…”. her husband worked for me at the old bar as a prep guy and once figured that it took 436 cuts to make one batch of pico de gallo.
BEETO DE GALLO
6 ROASTED BEETS,DICED 1/4 INCH 
5  JALAPENOS DICED 
1 RED ONION DICED 1/4 INCH 
1 BUNCH CILANTRO,ROUGH CHOP
 2 T. GARLIC 
LIME JUICE,SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE       
MIX ALL TOGETHER GENTLY.ADD MORE JALAPENOS IF NEEDED.

my dog-sister went to the comfy couch in the sky this week. lucy was my folks’ rottweiller and she was probably a better daughter than me (although i have yet to kill any one of my species). she had a great big old heart to go with her great big old body. the first time we met, i brought the evil tokio with me. it took her about 15 seconds to put him in his place and i don’t think he has ever gotten over it. i can honestly say that tokio has had his ass kicked by the finest. lucy had many talents but the biggest one was that she made my mom and dad happy. her sweetness will be missed. 
keep in mind that the aspca is having their easter pet pictures at calloways this saturday.one of my favorite pictures ever is tokio with a very flustered santa. i will be making baked goods and my friend rhonda takes great pictures!
tonight
green chile gumbo
cajun shepherd’s pie
somebody’s jam cake(found the recipe in an old joy)

 

today is the perfect example of why i hate to do a menu ahead of time. yesterday-s’posed to rain,doesn’t. today s’posed to rain but sure didn’t look like it after i got outta kroger. so i left empty-handed thinking i might grill outside. that thought rapidly dissipated about 3. oh well-on to more important deep thoughts. my hero, alice waters, was influential in getting obama to plant an organic garden on the white house lawn. in celebration, i pulled out all of her cookbooks and glommed over them for the last few days. now, dan and i just went out to our spot by lake ray roberts and picked a bunch of wild garlic-what is the recipe that the first book falls open to? green garlic soup.mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm made it. then, asparagus is cheaper than i have seen it in a while and it is gorgeous. this is still simmering in my head right now but i think it will include proscuitto and eggs. and of course, my other hero,mom, was talking bout some dessert she made with angel food cake and i thought-i have never made an angelfood cake! so i  did. it is not the most perfect but rain tends to do that to egg whites. curses. i won’t complain. the rain is good for our garden and worms. bad for my big ideas 
tonight

• wild garlic soup
  
• roasted asparagus something
  
• chocolate angelfood cake with fresh fruit to cover up its downfall

here is a recipe for my mom that i promised like 2 months ago
these can be frozen for quite some time
 
 
chocolate souffles
5 T. butter-1 T. softened-the rest cut into chunks
1/3 c sugar plus some to coat insides 
8 oz. bittersweet choclate
pinch of salt
1 t. vanilla
1 T. your favorite liqueur
6 large egg yolks
8 large egg whites
1/4 t. cream of tartar
2 T. powdered sugar
coat 8 1-cup ramekins with the softened butter and then coat the inside of each with sugar.
melt chocolate and remaining butter in medium bowl over simmering water and then add salt vanilla and liqueur.remove from heat.
simmer 1/3 c. of sugar with 2 T. water until the sugar dissolves. start whipping the egg yolks and with the mixer running, slowly add the sugar syrup. whip about 3 minutes-or until tripled in volume.
clean the mixer and beaters.beat egg whites til frothy,add tartar and continue to beat to stiff peaks.take about 1/4 of the whites and manfully beat it into the chocolate. then lady-like-fold in the remaining mixture.
fill each ramekin almost to the rim .cover and freeze until firm-about 3 hours.
prheat oven to 400. put your ramekins on a sheetpan and bake at least 15 minutes without peeking. then check every 2-3 minutes-i should be risen above the top. sprinkle with powdered sugar and prepare to totally freak your friends out with deliciousness.

Y’all,

Showing a couple of things this Sunday (03/22/09).

Starts at 10:30PM.

It’s free.

I will be doing my normal three-video-thing again next Sunday (03/29/09) at Dan’s as well.

Come out and say hello.

Martin

ILÉ AIYÉ (The House of Life)
David Byrne, 1989 (51 min.)
ILÉ AIYÉ is David Byrne’s breathtaking 1989 documentary on Candomblé,
the African-influenced spirit cult of the Bahia region of Brazil.
ILÉ AIYÉ explores the ways in which Candomblé has influenced the daily
life and culture of the people of Brazil in music, art, religion,
theater, food, dance, poetry and more. ILÉ AIYÉ uses experimental film
techniques, music, and cultural observation to express the life and
rituals of Candomblé and the symbolic manifestation of the Orishás, the
deities which represent the wide range of natural and spiritual forces.
The rhythms of the sacred drums and bells, a dance of spiritual
ecstasy, offerings and sacrifices, divination and the visitation of the
Orishás through trance are all part of the color and life of Candomblé.
Complemented by the original score from David Byrne recorded with
Bahian musicians, the music in ILÉ AIYÉ includes ritual music recorded
during ceremonies as well as popular Brazilian songs influenced by
Candomblé.

THE BEDAZZLED VIDEO HOUR (and a half) 2005
Compiled by Spike Priigen (90 min.)

Spike Priggen’s compilation of rare music video and film clips for the 2005 WFMU Record Fair.
Includes the only known footage of The Beach Boys performing a song written by Charles Manson.

1. Cheap Trick Japanese TV Commercial
2. Cheap Trick “Hello There” Live At Budokan
3. Box Tops “Turn On A Dream” + “Soul Deep” (on The Mike Douglas Show)
4. Flaming Ember “Westbound #9″on “Upbeat!”
5. The Honey Cone “Want Ads” on “Soul Train”
6. Os Mutantes “Panis Et Circenses” + “Fuga #2″
7. The Clash “Clash City Rockers” (on Something Else)
8. Wire “Practice Makes Perfect” (on Musikladen)
9. The Move “Flowers In The Rain” Promo Film
10. Mick Jagger “Memo From Turner” From “Performance”
11. “The Judge” TV Commercial with Paul Revere & The Raiders
12. Bee Gees “NY Mining Disaster 1941″ + “To Love Somebody” Melbourne 1971
13. Scott Walker “Man From Reno” Video
14. Roy Wood “Forever” on “Top Of The Pops”
15. “Shapes Of Things To Come” Max Frost & The Troopers (from “Wild In The Streets”)
16. “Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!” Trailer
17. Ohio Express “1-2-3 Red Light” on Upbeat!
18. Harry Nilsson “Coconut” + “1941″ BBC 1971
19. The Cowsills “Where Is Love” + “II x II” (on Playboy After Dark)
20. Dwight Twilley Band “Twilley Don’t Mind” (on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert)
21. Beach Boys “Never Learn Not To Love” (on The Mike Douglas Show)

sometimes it seems as if denton is another country. my plumber lives about 10 blocks away and doesn’t know that i drive by his house every morning to go to the gym. he claims he’s “really busy” but when you don’t start your day until 10, i guess you stay “busy”. although i claimed that i lost nothing during the nx35, i did. i lost my glasses in a mosh pit or somewhere and yesterday morning, i found them in a lard box with a sleeping mask and no note. but i know who has the lard boxes so now i owe him at least 10 tomato plants which you can pick up this weekend, howard. and that brings me to nx35. my friends pulled off one of the biggest feats that i have gotten to witness. over a hundred bands played at several clubs over a 4 day period. we walked to 5 or six venues a night and heard some incredible music. it was done with the help of many hard-working volunteers who were amazing. it was cool. oh, and i have a picture of harvey pekar sitting in my favorite chair. its a big sweet life.
 
tonight, we are visiting another country-france. i have always thought of french food as heavy and complicated but i just prepared one of the easiest,tastiest meals i have done in a while.

• smoked garlic vichysoisse
  
• coq au vin(chicken in red whine) or mushrooms in red wine
  
• grapefruit meringue pie

sorry folks but i am too sick to do dinner tonight. stomach virus got me down. will reale you with details next week