Escape Plan

broderic on October 31, 2013

Escape Plan featured Arnold and Stallone. It comes twenty years too late in either of their careers. They are no longer the action movie heroes. They are old guys in a really obvious movies. As soon as the caper is afoot, you’ll know who’s behind it all.

Stallone is jailbreak artist whose job is to find the holes in the security of seemingly un-breakable prisons. He signs up for testing a secret-secret CIA prison, but finds out that he’s been put away for forever. There he meets Arnold who’s been put away on false pretenses or so we are led to believe. Why are they there? Can they get out? What’s the deal with this prison?

It is senseless movie meant to fill a Saturday afternoon. Forget it already except when it shows up on USA network.

2 of 5 stars.

Bean Barley Soup

broderic on October 30, 2013

Right now on the stove is a concoction I threw together, Bean Barley soup. Hopefully, I’m making something that is tasty.

I made some chicken stock just for this. It consisted of chicken wings, onions, celery, carrots, and garlic boiled for 3 hours. Out of this came about 4 cups of stock. Some of it’s freezing in the fridge, but about 2 cups is the basis for the soup.

I threw this soup together because of all the left over vegetables I had. A bag of celery and a bag of carrots need to be used.

So how did I make? Three carrots, two celery stalks, and a half an onion fried together for a few minutes before a half a cup of white beans and a third of a cup of barley go into the pot. In goes 2 cups of the chicken stock followed by 4 more cups of water. It may not need that much. Bring it to a boil then turn down the heat to simmer for an hour. Throw in some parsley for good measure. After an hour add half a tablespoon of vinegar to make it brighter. Salt to taste. Fresh ground pepper to taste.

Let’s hope I’ll enjoy it. I’ve got a few cups to eat for the next few days.

Chili Alpha Version

broderic on October 19, 2013

Chili alpha version

So I had chili for lunch. Was it any good? Yes, it’s edible, but it’s not great chili by any means. It’s good and I like it, but there’s somethings missing.

First off, I realized that the tomato paste I used was the one with Italian seasoning. So it almost (almost) tastes like spaghetti meat sauce. Almost because of the spices. Except that there may not have been enough spices to give it that true chili flavor.

Cooking it in a slow cooker was no different than on a stove. I wanted to leave it over night but the slow cooker boiled it even on low. I woke up at 5 in the morning to see that the chili was reduced down. Maybe I should’ve thrown in the can of diced tomatoes. They may have put more liquid in the pot and the boiling would not have been reduced as much.

Back to the flavor. It doesn’t have the bite of chili that I favor. It’s not that it’s missing salt. It’s just that the heat isn’t there when eating it. The green chiles I added and the roasted jalapeño was not enough. There’s some heat (my head sweated) just not enough off it.

One thing about this chile it tasted well with tortilla chips. This one is good on nachos or even hot dogs.

If I had to tinker, I would put more liquid and hotter chiles to get more kick.

Chili

broderic on October 19, 2013

I haven’t cooked anything in a while. It seems like years, but it’s getting to be colder again and that makes me want to have something good. Soup? No this time chili!

My mom lent me her slow cooker so it will be my first time using it and my first time making chili.

But how hard can chili be? You need some meat, tomato sauce, chili spices, and some chilis. Throw it all in the slow cooker and wait for it to all come together tomorrow morning. I just did that so I’m writing this blog post to remind me how I did it, because when tastes terrible tomorrow, I’ll know what I did wrong.

Let’s start with the ingredients.

First comes ground beef. I chose the 80% lean so that the fat will give it some flavor. Brown the ground beef in a tablespoon of oil with 2 pinches of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Next (actually before browning the meat), I roast a jalapeño pepper on my stove top. I used my vegetable steamer over the bare flame as the roaster. I rub the pepper in some olive oil and blacken it all around. Place it in a container to steam so that the skin is easy to peel. It took about 5 minutes for it to steam. Let it take longer and the burnt skin should come off easy. Remove the seeds and chop it. Throw it into the browning beef.

One diced yellow onion and a handful of minced garlic cloves go in as well. Let that all cook together for a few minutes. I didn’t look at the time I just threw it all in the pan and watched the meat brown.

Then I added the spices. I have no idea how much to add so I measure out about a tablespoon each of ground cumin, paprika, and chili spices followed by half a tablespoon of ground black pepper. Throw it all into the pan and stir it good.

At this point, I plug in the slow cooker and start her up at high. For the liquid base, I throw in a can of beer. Yes beer because this Deadspin article says so. I’m apprehensive, but hope that it turns out well. Maybe using Sam Adams summer ale may not be the same as Corona.

I scrape the meat and vegetables into the slow cooker. Maybe I should’ve waited longer so that the spices mix up well. In also goes a small can of green chili and then comes the tomato paste. I also have some diced tomatoes but everything in the pot already looks good. I hold off on the diced potatoes. This could be my undoing.

I’m going to let it simmer on high for a couple hours then turn it down to low to cook overnight with fingers crossed.

Enough Said

broderic on October 17, 2013

Watching Enough Said and you start seeing Julia Louis-Dreyfus as her Elaine character from Seinfeld. As the movie continues, you start to see that it could almost be another episode of Seinfeld.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Eva a masseuse who gets involved with a new client’s ex-husband. She doesn’t tell her or him that she knows the other. It’s like a plot from Seinfeld.

It was a nice little film with a woman’s role that perfectly suited Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It also had one of James Gandolfini’s last roles. He’s wonderful in it. They dedicated it to his memory at the end. Sad to think that he’s dead. Life moves on not like a plot from a television show.

3 of 5 stars.

Quote of the Day [10.16.13]

broderic on October 16, 2013

"That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college!"

Homer Simpson, The Simpsons, “Homie The Clown” (2F12)

UPDATE:I’ve used this one already.

Gravity

broderic on October 12, 2013

What’s driving the hype behind Gravity? It’s a spectacle, but is it as good a film as advertised? Will you vote for it when it’s one of the few to get an Oscar nod?

Gravity is about an astronaut, Sandra Bullock, trying to make her way back home to Earth after space debris has destroyed all orbiting space vessels.

That’s it. That’s the plot.

Pacfic Rim was castigated because it was all action and no depth. What’s the difference in this case? Why is there such a rush to anoint Gravity a best film of the year? I still don’t understand.

It’s not that good, but it isn’t terrible. Just a film that makes most of what it is meant to portray: the harrowing hell of space. The end results is a fun ride with great spectacle.

The ISS? Didn’t Michael Bay blow that up real good in Armageddon? Plus I miss the real Russian space hero.

3 of 5 stars.