I am too lazy to sort
Nogizaka46 doing a cover one of their official rivals biggest hits, “Heavy Rotation.” It’s almost all of the fukujin from the 17th Single. It’s missing my oshi, Ikuta. She’s off doing some musicals, being an actress, and getting closer to reaching her goal: musical actress.
Today is also Hoshino Minami’s birthday! I wish her a happy 19th. We need more bagels, please!
Last week, I downloaded the soundtrack to 20th Century Women. It is a mix of big band, punk, New Wave, and a film score. The punk/New Wave stuff occurred in the late 70s/early 80s just as I was a kid. The film’s sound track made me remember my youth.
20th Century Woman is about a young precocious kid who lives with his carefree mom and her tenants in Santa Barbara of the late 70s. The kid lives his life amongst three women: his mom, a slightly older neighbor girl, and one the punky tenants who has survived ovarian cancer. His mom is in her forties but grew up during the war period. His neighbor is a flibbertigibbet, sleeps around, but always ends up sleeping in the kids bed. The punky tenant is living a life she wants to live. That’s how he becomes such a punk himself. The film is autobiographical take on the director’s life.
I really liked this film. I would’ve given this 5 stars, but I can’t because that rating is for films that are truly awesome. This one isn’t that awesome, but I do think it is one of the best films I’ve seen in several years. Assume that it has a 3/4 stars extra.
4 of 5 stars.
I bought a 3 lb. bag of onions a couple weeks ago for my chicken stock. I only used a couple, then I was left with a sack of onions that may be going bad in my root cellar AKA the bottom drawer of my kitchen cabinet. So I needed to use all the onions fast. The only recipe I could think of was French Onion Soup.
I’ve never made it but if its a soup its got to be easy: onions, broth, bread, and cheese. Now how to you put it all together? I took my inspiration from the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for French Onion Soup, Serious Eats’ recipe for the Best French Onion Soup, and Good Dinner Mom’s French Onion Soup.
Caramelizing the onions is the key to this soup. I followed the Pioneer Woman’s suggestion and roasted it in my dutch oven in the oven. Serious Eats is correct when they say that enameled cast iron doesn’t brown the onions. I was lucky that the sack onions was yellow onions as Good Dinner Mom recommends. So I started the onions on the stove top with a mixture of EVOO and butter.
I sliced them in my hand mandolin, threw them in the pot with some pinches of salt, and let cook for about 30 minutes. I wanted them to start going translucent while I heated the oven to 400F.
Once at that temperature I put the whole pot into the oven for a cooking time of about an hour. Half-way through I stirred the onions because they were starting to get burnt in spots.
At the end of the hour, I finished it off on the stove. I would spend another 10 minutes getting the onions to be brown. I turned off the stove and added a cup of cooking sherry to deglaze the bits and pieces stuck on the bottom of the pot. I would reduce this mixture and I added 3 gloves of minced garlic and some fresh ground black pepper. This would take another 10 minutes to reduce.
Actually, while all this was going I was heating up whatever chicken stock I had in my house. There was stock I had made a few weeks ago and I had some other in the cupboard. It was only 5 cups, so I finished it off with three extra cups of water to make it 8 cups or 2 quarts of broth. As I heated it up I added some ground pepper.
When the onions looked ready, I added the broth into the pot. I used it to deglaze the pot again so that all the good bits and pieces were in the pot. I added a few twigs of fresh thyme and a bay leaf and let it simmer for 30 minutes. I also added the secret ingredient of few dashes of fish sauce.
Grated gruyere and well toasted sourdough bread finished off the soup.
I must say the time it takes to make this soup — about 3 hours — is worth it. Hopefully, it tastes good at lunch tomorrow.
Ice cream on a cold winter day courtesy of Poulet.
I’ve been reading today’s link through Google Translate. It’s a website dedicated to sakamichi series and Nogizaka46 more. It’s because they have some serious articles about my favorite idol group. Really serious articles. Enough that I wish I could read kanji enough to understand what is being said.
I am a-religious at the moment, but I still adhere to some tenets of faith which I grew up in, Catholicism. I believe the current GOP practices religion in a way which goes against the preachings of Christ. They say they are Christians, but their actions mark them as not. Their blather about their religiosity is nothing but bogus talk. I don't think they understand what it means to be a follower of Christ. The current occupier of the White House even more so, because he doesn't believe in anything but himself.
http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/01/28/i-was-stranger-and-you-did-not-welcome-me
Here’s the post wherein I look back at the first month of my New Year’s resolutions.
It’s happening. I’m really going forward with it, and while some of them don’t seem to come, others are going along just fine.
Health
Exercise
The Apple Watch has been helpful in tracking and keeping me motivated to workout.
Professional Life
Need to figure out a nickname for this tard. Fuck that guy.
Sadly, the sticker has been removed most likely by one of his tarded supporters. Fuck those guys, too.
The Fox God has smiled on me today. I found the Funko pop for Su-Metal at my local bookstore. She now joins Moa-Metal and Yui-Metal on my mantle. I’ve had the other 2 since the end of 2015, and I have been on the lookout for the lead singer of BabyMetal since then. It’s taken me a year but she finally popped up. Unsurprisingly, I there were more Moa-Metal and Yui-Metal figures there. I was almost gonna give up, but checked around the store once more and found her, staring me in the face. The Fox God is good.
On another note, Su-Metal is Nakamoto Suzuka. Her sister, Nakamoto Himeka (Himetan), is an idol in my favorite thing, Nogizaka46, and it was just announced that she will go on hiatus because of unspecified health reasons for the latest 17th single. I am more of a fan of Himetan because I am more of a fan of Nogizaka46. It will not be the same without her lovely and energetic Himetan Beam. The 5th Year Birthday Live is going to be a tad bit sadder. I am hoping she has a speedy recovery so that she can continue to deliver her Himetan Beam.
Su-Metal by Funko
