Pan Roasted Garlic

broderic on November 5, 2011

One of things about cooking once in awhile is that you accumulate plenty of ingredients which you may or may not use again. In my root cellar I had a potato which I threw into my Mushroom Soup. I still have some garlic and an onion in there as well. I thought about making some eggs this morning but found my sink with the frying pan I would use. So in lieu of making an omelette, I decided to roast the remnants of the head of garlic and try to make some type of garlic butter spread.

I first boiled the garlic as per this recipe. Then when they were tender. I pan fried/roasted them in a tablespoon of oil. I actually used some salt, thyme ,and red pepper flakes as they cooked in the frying pan. When golden brown, I threw the cloves in a container with a tablespoon of butter and mashed them together. The butter melted, but I’m hoping that storing in the fridge will resolidify it.

What should I use this garlic spread for?

In Time

broderic on November 4, 2011

In the middle of watching the morning showing of In Time at the local cinerama, the bulb on the projector went out. We sat and waited for them to replace the bulb. It took 15 minutes. That and the two hours of the movie I won’t get back. It brings me closer to death.

The story is about a future world wherein you don’t age after you are 25, but you only have 1 year of life left. You gain more time by working. There are the rich in time who have years and decades and there are the 99% who live day to day, hour to hour, and minute to minute. Justin Timberlake lives moment to moment. His mom is the hot Olivia Wilde. Because of her, he becomes the Time Robin Hood. He gives time from the rich to the poor. Amanda Seyfried was a bored rich girl who fell in with Justin. They become Bonnie and Clyde of the Seconds. They’ll give you the time of day.

Does that sound exciting? It does to a bit, but after a while it got boring. The idea of the time clock was intriguing the time heists not so much. They should’ve stuck with the time idea. What do you do to gain another second of life? The difference between time poor and time rich? Explore these ideas. Don’t fall back into the cliché of good bad. It feels fake.

I wish I could get back that 2 hours and 15 minutes.

2 of 5 stars.

Dia De Los Muertos En Musica

broderic on November 2, 2011

Listen to the WTMD this morning for some good music. They are celebrating the day of the dead with music from dead musicians. There’s all kinds of good music on and lots of fun too. That band in heaven is probably the greatest band ever.

Is The Sucks

broderic on November 1, 2011

Google changed up Reader and I am unhappy.I've been using Reader for a long time now. It is the only Google app I use. The only Google app I think is fine. They went and changed it so that it fits into their Google+ strategy and it has become a chore to use.At work on IE, it keeps wanting to have me switch to Chrome. On IE, it looks like crap. At home on Camino, it doesn't get any better. It still looks like crap. On Safari, it still looks like crap. At least its mobile interface hasn't changed.I make do with what I've got as an RSS reader app, but I'm gonna have to change out if it gets any worse.

Music Interlude

broderic on October 31, 2011

Erik Satie’s Gnossienne 1. I thought it highly nice to hear on All Hallow’s Eve. Sounds as if someone’s trailing you as you walk the neighborhood in search of candy.

Chotto!

broderic on October 31, 2011

Nendoroid Melissa Seraphy

Queen Melissa wishes you a safe and happy Halloween!

Another Mushroom Soup

broderic on October 29, 2011

Mushroom Soup

Once more, this morning I made some soup. It’s gonna a be good because soup’s good food whenever a nor’easter rolls through.

Today’s soup is called a Hearty Mushroom Soup. It’s main ingredients is mushrooms. The recipe calls for porcini and shiitake mushrooms. The porcini had to be steeped in the broth to rehydrate. After twenty minutes the broth took on a nice delicious brown color. The original recipe called for celery, but I didn’t want to have several stalks sitting in my fridge so I abandoned that for some potato. Along with that I sautéed onions, orange bell pepper, and garlic in butter. Then I dumped in the mushrooms before adding the broth and 1/4 cup of barley. Boy, do I love barley.

As you know I’m looking out for my salt intake, although I wanted this soup to taste better. So I cut the salt down by half to 1/8 teaspoon after adding soy sauce and a dash of tabasco. The soup is also creamy. The recipe called for half and half plus some thickening agent in 2 tablespoons of flour.

After simmering for about 10 minutes, it’s done. Garnish with some scallions.

Looks good. Tastes good.

I still need to learn how to chop things better. I left the potatoes and bell pepper pieces too big. I should’ve cut down more on the salt for my health and not for the taste especially I should’ve used less soy sauce. Now I need to make more soup stock. This time perhaps beef broth.

Adventures From My Netflx Queue: L’illusionniste

broderic on October 28, 2011

Last year’s Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film went to Toy Story 3. In the Annual BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool, most everyone picked it for the winner and the other one for How To Train Your Dragon was most likely a fat finger vote. I think we all need to change our minds. I have just watched the forgotten choice, Sylvain Chomet’s L’illusionniste and couldn’t be more impressed with it. Toy Story 3 can’t compare to L’illusionniste.

The story tells the tale of a magician in 1959 whose fortunes are running out in Paris. He gets a billing in remote Scotland at a small pub wherein he meets a young lady. Impressed with his magical prowess, she follows him to Edinburgh, Scotland. The magician treats her like his daughter buying clothes and gifts for her while trying to keep up his illusionist trade. Yet, the era of magic as entertainment is dwindling and his ill fortune follows him so that it is impossible to make a living doing sleight of hand.

The film reminds me of the joie de vivre first 10 minutes of Pixar’s Up and the silent melancholia of the early part of Wall●E. It is mainly a silent movie as the film makes do with gestures to convey the emotions of the story. What little dialog there is and what little speeches there are end up sounding like Esperanto. Chomet’s animators make it all work though. The emotion of every scene is clearly conveyed in the hand drawn animation. The lack of words do not hinder such a sweet tale. It makes it all the more poignant. There is still a place for hand drawn animation.

In last year’s Oscar Pool, I rooted for L’illusionniste to pull off an upset. It didn’t but most likely because no one saw this movie. When you do, you’ll change your mind. Toy Story 3 will just be a slight cream puff of a movie while L’illusionniste will be a full banquet of delight.

5 of 5 stars

Link of the Day [10.28.11]

broderic on October 28, 2011

Android shoots itself in the foot.

One of the things that I wonder for all those Android fanbois is if they consider OS fragmentation a good thing for non-fanbois. I mean your all elite and shit, but what about your mom. Is the many versions of Android OS worth it for you average person? They don’t care right until they buy an app (or download a free one) that doesn’t work on their phone because it only works for a particular version.

And developers, can they really write apps that take advantage of things if you don’t know what the hardware is going to be?

We were discussing flashlight apps in work today and a co-worker showed us one on his phone. Someone asked if it supported flashing, strobing, or signaling. He said yeah and proceeded to show us. While it was flashing out an SOS, it also was beeping. Another co-worker asked why do you need it to beep. He then tried to turn it off, but the app was unresponsive. He made an excuse for it. I didn’t say anything, but I wondered how can you live like that.

Eventually, Google will understand. They’ll figure it out the they have to be more than an ad salesman in the tech world.

http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support