Click (Food): Shark Bait, Adam Lambert Foils Vegans, Google Embraces Vegan Shrimp and Buffalo Quinoa Balls

Happenings:

• Pip's Original Doughnuts put out a help wanted ad for a new barista this week. The ad included that statement that “No non-medical, non-religious dietary restrictions that would stop you from tasting, accurately representing our food and maintaining quality control to maintain the highest standards of food safety and excellence. We serve products with meat (including bacon) nuts, dairy and our doughnuts contain wheat gluten.” It then continued with Portland doesn't need another "moody hipster providing lame service." So as long as your doctor or religion prescribes you a vegan diet, you are good to apply? If you are doing it for any other reason, look elsewhere? Here's my doctor's note.

• Former NFL player Warren Sapp got bit by a shark while fishing for lobster. PETA rewarded him with a letter explaining the terror humans inflict on other species and a meal of vegan lobster. I'm wondering if he didn't get bit because he told the shark to "stop talking and oral me?" and the shark misunderstood what he meant.

• The new mayor of Turin, Italy has decided to make a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle a priority for her city. Calls of "meat terrorism" commencing in three, two, one...

• If you are looking to travel and need a place to stay that supports your vegan/vegatarian lifestyle? Check out vegvisits.

• Adam Lambert used to be most famous for...something, something singing? Now he can add sneaking meat into vegan customer's foods and bragging about it on Instagram to his resume. *What's that? Hold on. Leaves to receive a call from his agent. Damn, I've just been informed by my agent that these are actually two different people with the same name. Let me go on record as saying that both of their resumes suffer because of this.

• PETA is sending vegan lobsters. Google is switching to vegan shrimp on their campus. Weird because I thought fish were already vegan?

• Ikea's food truck, as part of their #Togetherweeat campaign will be visiting some fine festivals across this country and handing out a free vegan stack (made with their vegan meatballs, pickled ginger, avocado, wasabi and eggless mayo). Question is, do you trust that those meatballs are actually vegan?

Recipes:

Chickpea and Vegetable Picnic Hand Pies by Tinned Tomatoes

These cute little hand pies were crafted completely by ingredients from Iceland. Don't you worry, there isn't anything super exotic that you won't be able to find in your local grocer. Well, except for the pönnukökur (kidding). 

Buffalo Quinoa Balls with Vegan Ranch Dipping Sauce by V Nutrition

Mary Ellen, of V Nutrition, and I have something in common. We both are in the habit of carrying a small hot sauce around in our purses wherever we go. You can judge me all you want about carrying a purse but I used to stick bottles of hot sauce in my pockets and they alway seemed to break and...um...get on stuff they shouldn't. I quickly learned carrying a purse beats burning genitalia any day of the week.

Vegan Mega Burger with Seitan from Sandra Vungi Vegan

Pan-fried seitan steaks, carrot cheese sauce, grilled vegetables all on a burger bun? This mega burger appears to offer a lot more variety than the other mega burger I cam across this week.

Mini Key Lime and White Chocolate Cheesecakes from PeacemealXO

These mini cheesecakes are the sole reason that I went out today, bought a bunch of key lime trees and planted them in my backyard. Big mistake. I read, post planting, that they are a pain in the ass to grow and maintain. Nothing's ever easy in the world of vegan cheesecakes.

Cook: Feisty Stuffed Peppers

I know what you're thinking. You made Tender Branson's feisty stuffed peppers once when you were drunk. In a toaster oven. With ketchup and sliced (vegan) cheese. Also, no Worcestershire sauce or onion powder or garlic powder. They were amazing. You're still drunk. And they're still amazing. Rock on.

Does that sound about right? No. Am I close? No. Hmm...then maybe you are thinking something along the lines of why would Tender waste his time on a stuffed pepper recipe. Every culture has them. They are so plain and boring and not impressive in the least.

While I agree with every single point you made in that second section of text, I have to pose one deeply philosophical question to you. Take your time, don't rush into an answer. A good philosopher let's things savor. What the f*** else was I supposed to do when J-Fur came home with a big ol' bag of peppers and a buy one, get one bag of Beyond Meat Feisty Crumbles? It was like the whole universe joined forces to create this gigantic funnel that led right to a neon sign that said make stuffed peppers and I was covered in a greasy olive oil body wrap and tossed right into that funnel. As that one sports anchor said on his morning show "Resistance is futile."

This is me, being a salmon, and reversing directions.

Feisty Stuffed Peppers
(printable version)

-1 pound Beyond Meat Feisty Crumbles
-1 cup brown rice, cooked
-6 bell peppers
-16 ounces of your favorite tomato sauce
-1 Tbs. vegan Worcestershire Sauce
-1/4 tsp. garlic salt
-1/4 tsp. onion powder
-1 tsp. Italian seasoning
-salt and pepper (to taste)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Remove the top, seeds and membranes from the peppers. Slice them in half from top to bottom. Arrange peppers with hollowed side facing up in a slightly oiled, glass baking dish.

3. In a skillet, warm the Beyond Meat Feisty Crumbles up. Then mix the crumbles with the rice, twelve ounces of the tomato sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, garlic salt, onion powder and Italian seasoning.

4. Spoon the mixture into the pepper halves. Spread it out so it evenly covers the entire inside of the pepper. Drizzle some tomato sauce overtop of each pepper. Bake for an hour, removing the peppers halfway through to drizzle with a bit more tomato sauce. Toss the finished peppers in front of someone you aren't trying to impress and tell them to "eat from the altar of your simplistic food vision."

Cook: Farro Sausage Pizza with Sautéed Vegetables and Sunflower Parmesan

The year is 2009. I'm sitting with my wife and a number of her anthropological friends  in some vegetarian friendly Philadelphia bar. I am ecstatic beyond belief because this bar is well stocked with a vegetarian staple that I just don't get to experience too often, seitan, a vegetarian meat made from vital wheat gluten. I order a Philly Cheesesteak that is made from seitan. I eat the entire sub, along with some fries, in one sitting. After some hours of conversation my wife and I begin the short walk back to our hotel. At some point during that walk I began to feel really sick. My stomach hurt, my head was pounding and I thought I was going to vomit with each step. I eventually made it up to the room and passed out on the bed. By the next morning, I felt fine.

I'm not sure what caused my body to react in such a way. I have long attributed that night to an overabundance of gluten. The roll that the sub was served on and the seitan were both made from gluten so I was basically eating a pile of gluten on top of a pile of gluten. Since that night, I have become much more strategic when it comes to seitan. I'm not so quick to embrace it and I rarely pair it with bread.

So when I got a hankering for some nostalgia laden sausage pizza the other night, I had a bit of a quandary on my hands. Most commercial sausages are made from vital wheat gluten. Most of the homemade versions I've crafted are made from the same thing. A pile of gluten on top of a pile of gluten did not seem like a good idea. So I started researching and realized that Farro, one of the oldest grains known to man, has a very low gluten level, is rich in vitamin B, fiber and protein and is chewy as hell. Farro would make the perfect sausage! It was at that moment that my version of Farro sausage was born. Here's how it went down:

Farro Sausage Pizza with Sautéed Vegetables and Sunflower Parmesan

(printable version)

For the Farro sausage:
-1 pound of Farro, cooked according to directions
-1 1/2 tsp. of salt
-3 1/2 tsp. of smoked paprika
-2/3 tsp. of garlic powder
-1/3 tsp. of fennel seed
-1 tsp. of ground black pepper
-1/4 tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes

For the veggies:
-olive oil
-1/2 a green pepper, small dice
-1/2 an orange pepper, small dice
-1/2 a red pepper, small dice
-1/2 an onion, small dice
-handful of button mushrooms, small dice
-handful of spinach

For the Sunflower Parmesan:
-1 cup of sunflower seeds
-1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
-1 tsp. of sea salt

For the pizza:
-your favorite dough recipe
-your favorite tomato sauce recipe

1. Mix all of the spices for the Farro sausage together. Dump them into a spice grinder (or coffee bean grinder) and grind until the fennel has been turned into a powder. Add the spices to the cooked, still slightly wet Farro. Stir until the spices have been spread throughout the Farro. Set aside.

2. Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Place the peppers and onions in the skillet and saute them until they are soft. Add the mushrooms and spinach. Continue sautéing until the spinach has withered and the mushrooms have released their juices. Add as much Farro to the veggies as you like (I used about half of it on each pie I made). Cook together, stirring every so often, for a few minutes.

3. Meanwhile place the sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast and salt in a food processor. Process until the mixture is powdery and can be sprinkled.

4. Construct your pizza by layering the dough with tomato sauce and the veggie and sausage mixture. Sprinkle the sunflower parmesan overtop. Bake for however long your dough calls for (I did a thick crust that required 23 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit). Eat it!

This pizza makes noise like this.

Artist's Cookbook: What's Cooking with Meresha?

"i saw you before i met you you were always picking flowers (vegan food from my garbage) you said you could see the world through a magnifying glass"
-"My Love Has Come" by Meresha (creepy garbage digging update by Tender Branson)

Little known fact about me: I didn't become a vegan to help save the animals that were being eaten and abused by the meat industry. I also didn't become a vegan for environmental or health reasons. I became a vegan because I was perusing through some garbage cans looking for free meals and I came across the one belonging to Florida (via Poland, Boston, and the rest of the World) musician Meresha. I tasted some of what she had discarded and I thought hmmm..... if it tastes that good after stagnating and discoloring for days, I can't even imagine how sweet it must be fresh from the oven. So I made the switch to an all vegan diet.

Here we are, years later, and I'm still going strong (as a vegan, not as a dumpster diver in Meresha's garbage). So is Meresha. She is prepping for the official release of her new single "My Love Has Come," a follow up to her highly successful "New Revolution" which charted and spent some time hanging out with the likes of Adele and Bieber. What makes Meresha's new release such a fantastic track is the way she delivers it. "My Love Has Come" is presented as a low key, one-sided conversation between the artist and a memory of her former fancy. The lyrics call on images of light and dreams, growing and burning all those who come too close. Simultaneously they are able to evoke feelings of love, sadness and a faint bit of optimism and wonder. To craft a comparison that a third grader might connect with, the lyrics are like the tiny flicker of a distant star in an otherwise pitch-black night. Meresha pumps and pushes her vocals front and center. She props them up with a bed of tropically influenced storm pop. When lyrics and music and production mold together as one, they seem to inspire images of colors, like a low burning neon sign, with crisp outlines around the edge. In short, "My Love Has Come" is a lonely walk through the darkened streets of the city with only your thoughts and a distant solitary star to keep you company.

What does one cook up with a track such as this? Meresha suggests a double dose: one to represent the songs dark side and one to connect with its low burning neon heat. First, bring the dark with her chocolatey vegan brownies. When you are through with them, bring the neon heat with her vegan fruit and veggie curry. You could always reverse course as well, but eating dessert first keeps the slow burn in focus for a much longer period of time.

What's Cooking With Shallows?

While the calendar says November, it feels like anything but around these parts. I'm talking weeks upon weeks where the thermometer has climbed above 80 and partied all day long. That's not supposed to be happening, not at this time of year. I shouldn't be carrying around a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from my face on Halloween night, yet there I was doing just that.

While in the grand scheme of things weather isn't that big of a deal, just something for old guys to safely discuss, it is relevant to this post. Because of the weather (and the consuming nature of my job) I, Tender Branson, protector of all food and its sacredness, watched some food slowly wither and die. It was worse than the black pumpkin that is sitting on my counter as we speak.

It started when Shallows, a trio from Winchester, Britain, was kind enough to invite me into their musiculination (a term I just coined). First, they sent me some of their tranced up electro-pop. I immediately fell for "Enso" because of its seamless blending of an 80's guitar rock vibe with hypnotic synths and echoing vocals. I fired back at Shallows asking what kind of meal they might enjoy with "Enso." Their response was a dish that combined carrots, parsnips, pine nuts, couscous and Halloumi cheese. That response hit my inbox nearly a month ago. Since then, I've scrolled past that dish nearly every day. Yet I couldn't bring myself to eat it. Something always got in the way. One night it was the haunted house. Another time I had to write a rubric (and another and another). There was a night of planning, a night of pumpkin lattes and a night of aviation simulations. With each and every delay, the carrots molded, the Halloumi cheese hardened and the pine nuts did whatever old pine nuts do. The couscous? They just incessantly talked about the weather. So here I am, November 5th, and I'm finally diving into the dish and bringing it to all of you. My fears? The blue stuff will kill me. That both Shallows and my gastrointestinal system will hold it against me. For the rest of the month, my shadows will continue turning to dust. And the f***ing couscous will never shut up about the weather.

But, fears were meant to be faced. It's time to do just that.



The pine nut, Halloumi cheese, carrot and parsnip dish that was recommended by Shallows to pair with this track can be found here.

Cook: Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto with Homemade "Sour Cream"

When J-Fur visited her fortune teller last weekend and was informed that a world of rice and beans was in our future, I have to admit that the news was not well received. Rice and beans are good for an occasional foray but on a weekly basis? Hmph. I can think of a number of other dishes that I would rather repeat.

Not completely buying the fortune teller's story, I called in my own expert, the spotted rooster on my neighbor's balcony. Old Florida tradition says that if you attach a tourniquet consisting entirely of Spanish moss and Sabal palmetto to the foot of a spotted rooster, your future will immediately be clear. I did just that. The only response I got from the spotted rooster was what I thought was a hollow gesture towards himself. But when I got home and started doing research, I realized that the rooster had been trying to tell me that it was in total agreement with the fortune teller. Seems that there was a Nicaraguan (and Costa Rican) dish called Gallo Pinto which is Spanish for "spotted rooster."

So I did the spotted rooster dance. It consists of rice and beans, caramelized onions and a vegan sour cream. The sour cream was supposed to be all cashews but I didn't have enough, so I did half cashews, half walnuts. I never understood why walnuts couldn't play the role of cashew in creamy white vegan dishes. It become clear when my sour cream came out brown. No worries, the dish is full of brown rice so no one even noticed. Here's how it all went down:

Nicaraguan Gallo Pinto with Homemade "Sour Cream"
(printable version)

For the Gallo Pinto:
-2 cups cooked brown rice
-1 cup small red beans
-1/2 of an onion, finely diced
-olive oil
-salt to taste

For the "Sour Cream":
-1/2 cup of cashews soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes
-1/2 cup of walnuts soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes
-1/4 cup of water
-1 Tbs. lemon juice
-splash of apple cider vinegar
-salt to taste

1. To make the sour cream, drain the nuts and place them in a food processor with the other ingredients. Blend until smooth, adding more water if necessary.

2. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion. Saute over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion has caramelized (about 15-20 minutes).

3. Add the beans and cook for a minute or two. Stir in the rice and heat for about two minutes. Stir in the salt and sour cream. Serve on a tourniquet of Spanish moss and Sabal palmetto.

This recipe sounds like a trio of original numbers.

Click (Food): Ariana Grande Eats a Donut, Arkansas Capitol Gets Wonky, Vegan Truck Driver Loses 65 Pounds and Tofu Bibimbap Sandwiches

This week in the world of vegan food I met a vegan trucker who has lost 65 pounds since making the switch. I also came across an internet controversy that was started by a donut, Madison Square Garden and their lying ways, carrots invading queso and Shakshuka. Take it away, Morrissey:

Happenings:

• Here's something you don't see every day. Trucker Bobby Anderson has gone vegan (and lost 65 pounds doing so). Instead of convenience store food he powers his meals with his on truck waffle maker, pressure cooker, hot plate, toaster and Nutribullet. 


• Scott Jurek, vegan ultra marathoner, just became the fastest person to complete a supported-thru hike on the Appalachian Trail. He did the 2,189 mile journey in a little over 46 days, 8 hours and 7 minutes.


• Ariana Grande ate a f***ing donut. 


• A vegan cooking show flavored by Daisy Dukes? Yep, Pamela Anderson gets "sensual" with some "vegan" food. 


• Could the Arkansas Capitol grounds someday hold statues to celebrate veganism, satanism and Hinduism? One can only hope...


• Madison Square Garden didn't go cruelty free during Morrissey's concert like they promised. 

Recipes:

Korean Tofu Bibimbap Sandwiches from Connoisseurus Veg

Alissa over at Connoisseurus Veg starts her blog post about this sandwich by writing:

Garlicky veggies, kimchi, fresh spinach and pan-fried tofu drenched in spicy Korean red pepper sauce are stuffed into crusty rolls with vegan mayo to make these umami-packed bibimbap sandwiches.

I had to look up three-fourths of those words just to understand what she was saying. For those of you who are in the same boat as I was, fear not, I'll translate. (Google Translate): This sandwich looks and tastes amazing. It's Korean inspired and vegan. Now, go make it and call it whatever you want.

Vegan Chipotle Carrot Queso by Cookie and Kate

Carrots are like the undercover ninjas of the vegetable world. You'll catch them acting like hot dogs, disguising as hot sauce and hiding in cake. *Runs to the pantry and locks self in with a bag of tortilla chips and a plate of something creamy* But there is at least one world where carrots have yet to infiltrate, the queso...did you hear a knock? A knock at the door of my pantry? No? Still, let me just peek out to make sure there is nothing there. *Opens door* No. NO. NOOOOOO!

Don't try to run. Carrots will find you anywhere. 

Rosemary Strawberry Shortcakes from Boards & Knives

I'm a big fan of rosemary and strawberry. I'm an even bigger fan of strawberry and shortcake. This recipe sounds like a total win all the way around. 

Matcha Green Granola Bars from My New Roots

Yo, matcha. I tolerated you in my ice cream. But you kept coming over and bugging me. I enjoyed you in my limeade. You still wouldn't leave me alone. I fell pretty hard for you when you snuck into my cupcakes. That wasn't good enough for you. So you show up in my granola bars. You have me matcha, you have all of me. Keep pushing and this will turn into one of those codependent situations where I don't have a life outside of you. Do you really want me lying in bed next to you singing "The Freshman" by Verve Pipe? On repeat? Does that sound like something you'd enjoy?

Vegan Shakshuka with Sweet Potato and Tofu from Vegan Richa

I can count on one finger the number of dishes I have experienced from the North Africa-Tunisia region. This week I plan on raising another finger. Love that the egginess of the dish is replaced by sweet potatoes. 

Where We Eat: Local Public House & Provisions

The voice on my GPS was yelling, in its mechanical British accent, that I needed to turn north. That is, it insisted, the only logical way to get to my dinner destination, Local Public House & Provisions (The Local House) in San Antonio, FL. But I couldn't make the turn. I was frozen with fear. Normally at this intersection I turn south. South takes me towards the back entrance to Flatwoods, the University of South Florida, Ybor City, Highway 75, Bearrs Groves, all places that I frequent on a regular basis. I know what to expect when I make that turn. North? North was a whole other ballgame. Everything I'd heard about Morris Bridge north scared the sh** out of me. For instance, there was a guy at my auto shop who told me that Morris Bridge north takes you passed the lair of a metal carving dragon. That ghastly creature custom fits all who pass with a chastity belt. He also makes them do situps, in said chastity belt, until they perish. Ms. Crickens, a really skinny lady that lives in my apartment complex, told me that a ruthless fairy blocks Morris Bridge north. This fairy has the tendency to turn people into a termite infested mangrove tree. The guy who works next to me, Chad, tells me that on Morris Bridge north, about four miles beyond Cross Creek, the horizon turns white and cars have been known to fall off the face of the earth.

It took me 53 1/2 "What Would Christopher Columbus do's" before I made that turn.

What the hell is so fabulous about The Local House that someone would be willing to fight mythical creatures and risk a fall off the face of the Earth? Well, The Local House is "a grown up pub with great burgers, po-boys, salads and snacks made with all local ingredients." What's more is that The Local House is willing to serve this locally sourced food without the attitude. They cater to vegetarians and vegans and they aren't against substitutions. This is in stark contrast to some of the "local ingredient" restaurants on the south side (Tampa).

The Local House's menu is pretty sparse. It only offers about twenty food items. Yeah, I'm counting appetizers, salads, main courses and desserts when I say that. While that might turn off some, I'm okay with that. Give me a place that does less things better over one that does a million things mediocre any day. Of those twenty or so food items, we sampled six of them during our recent visit. Our list included the rice and beans, sweet potato chips, chips and salsa, french fries, the Underground Salad and the Fried Green Tomato BLT (minus the bacon). We took the BLT with a side salad and kumquat vinaigrette.

           The Chips and Salsa

The chips and salsa and sweet potato chips were the first two items that arrived at our table. The chips were served on a board alongside The Local House's freshly made kumquat salsa and beer cheese fondue. I loved the chips. They were dark in color (they looked more like pita chips than tortilla chips) and were not greasy at all. The chips were thick, twice the size of your typical Mexican restaurant, crispy and firm. This helped them hold up nicely to the pressures of my vigorous dipping. I was disappointed with the kumquat salsa. I was really hoping to be wowed, that the salsa would stand out versus some of my favorite store-bought salsas and I'd have no choice but to beg them for a container to take home. But I didn't get that. I felt fine leaving the half eaten salsa remnants on the table and not packing it up to take home. The beer cheese fondue was a hit amongst the cheese eaters at our table, especially Z-Bot. After the chips were gone, most people moved on to other things...not Z-Bot. She took out a spoon and started eating the cheese with it. She couldn't get enough.

             The Sweet Potato Chips

My favorite appetizer of the evening was the sweet potato chips. For an extra fee, these chips can be upgraded to be covered with gorgonzola and balsamic. We upgraded, although we got the cheese on the side. I loved that the chips were super thinly sliced and crisped to perfection. Like the chips and salsa, these guys were not super oily. But what made the dish was the balsamic drizzle. That added a nice little tang to the appetizer. With the cheese and balsamic added in, these chips come out to be about nine dollars and fifty cents. The Local House is definitely not cheap but when you are eating at a restaurant that uses only local ingredients, that is to be expected. These restaurants aren't privy to the cheaper wholesale prices that are offered by corporate companies that ship national meat, cheese, fruits and vegetables.

The Fried Green Tomato BLT (no bacon)

Hello my friend. Where have you been hiding all these years? This was a very popular sandwich at our table (five of them were ordered) for good reason. It was awesome. It all starts with the bread. The sandwich is served on a roll that comes from the Jamison B Breadhouse Bakes (in Ybor). The bread was crispy on the outside and soft and pillowy on the inside. It fell somewhere in the middle of the dense/light spectrum. Airy but not Wonder Bread, dense but not the sourdough I baked last summer.  The green tomato, courtesy of Green Acre Aquaponics , was nicely breaded and held up during the eating process. There is nothing worse than a breading that slides off mid-chew. The sandwich was a bit dry because it is served with no condiments (the horror?!). I counteracted that by dipping it into the kumquat vinaigrette that came along with my side salad. The dressing mixed with the tomato and bread made this a memorable sandwich. One of the best I've had in the Tampa region? It's too early to tell. Guess I'll have to go back a couple more times.  

                 Side Salad 

I left the restaurant patting myself on the back saying good call on the salad (sandwiches can also be served with a side of coleslaw, fries, fruit or sweet potato chips). Not only was the salad dressing a nice dipping accompaniment to the FGT-BLT but the vegetables themselves were absolutely divine. Crispy, juicy, crunchy, fresh. These were the adjectives that kept playing through my head as I savored each bite. You could just feel the difference between The Local House's salad and one that you get at a restaurant that doesn't source locally. Hell, you could feel the difference between The Local House's salad and the one I make in my kitchen.  

J-Fur ordered the Underground Salad which combined seasonal fruit, greens and goat cheese. Despite the fact that it was loaded with fruit, she felt that the salad needed to be just a bit sweeter. For our daughter, we got an order of rice and beans. She played with it more than she ate. The following day I ate the leftovers for lunch. Good, but not really special either. They were your typical rice and beans. 

Now that I know there aren't any dragons or fairies standing in my way and that I won't fall completely off the edge of the world, I will be paying San Antonio a few more visits. And when I do visit, you can be sure that Local Public House & Provisions will be my go to place for food.

There is an intimacy to your meal at Local Public House & Provisions. You can't get any closer at a restaurant than a customer being two steps removed from the food producer. The fact that the vendor's name is printed right on the menu makes it feel even closer. There is no where for these local vendors to hide. The same intimacy exists in "Why Let It Go" by Telegraph Canyon. "Why Let it Go" is the first single from Telegraph Canyon's intensely personal new album You From Before. Singer/Songwriter Chris Johnson has put together a collection of songs about people and relationships he's been through. Not all are romantic, some only stuck around for a day or two, but the common theme is that most of these people are no longer in his life and they've all affected him in a huge way. The album is, at times, uncomfortable in its intimacy. The same intimacy exists between farmer and restaurant, food and customer when you eat a meal at Local Public House & Provisions.

Cook: Tempeh Brisket Fried Rice

Last night I was awakened from my sleep by a rustling sound. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times to remove the sleep from them. Eventually things cleared up enough for me to see what made the noise and it wasn't what I expected. I figured my dog, my cat or possibly my sleep walking daughter. I did not expect to see a gigantic bottle of soy sauce with wings flittering around the room.

"About time you woke up," the flying soy sauce bottle announced when it noticed me sitting up in bed. "I'm not going to mess around here, I'm the ghost of fried rice past and I'm here to take you on a journey." With that we were whisked back fifteen years. There I was living in Addison Park in Chicago. My kitchen was in disarray, dishes everywhere, half empty cereal boxes and whole foods desserts littered the counter space. I was in the process of making fried rice. I watched myself grab a minute rice package, cook it, combine it with some soy sauce and then saute it in a pan for a few moments. I then threw in some frozen veggies, poured more soy sauce on top and served it in the only clean bowl left in the kitchen. The giant soy sauce bottle looked at me and said "See what you did there?" I replied with a cringe.

Next we were whisked forward to 2005. I was living in Gainesville. The kitchen wasn't nearly the mess it had been in Chicago. Every once in a while you would see a roach skitter out and in the finger of of pot holder glove. Aw, the joys of living in Florida. This time my fried rice is brown, it has just spent forty minutes cooking on the stove. I take it, all fresh like, and dump it into a pan that has some tofu browning. I stir the rice and protein around a bit, toss in some frozen veggies, add a sauce and let it simmer out. "See what you did there?" the soy sauce bottle mockingly asked. I nodded.

Suddenly I was back in my room, present day, and the soy sauce ghost was flittering around again. "There is an art to cooking fried rice, young, well...middle aged grasshopper. Please follow that art or don't bother trying." With that he was gone. Today, I made sure to heed his advice.

Tempeh Brisket Fried Rice (adapted from an Adam Richman Recipe)
(printable version)

For the brisket:
-1 pound of tempeh
-1/4 cup of coffee
-9 ounces of ginger ale
-3 ounces of coke (not drugs, soda)
-1/4 cup of soy sauce
-1/4 onion, diced
-3/4 tsp. garlic powder
-salt and pepper (to taste)

1. Mix all the ingredients for the brisket in a large ziplock bag. Crumble the tempeh block and put it in the bag. Seal it and place it in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the brisket in a large roasting pan along with the marinade. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Roast the tempeh for 3 hours. Remove the aluminum foil and cook for another 30 minutes. Take the tempeh out of the oven and let it sit in the marinade for  another 30 minutes.

For the fried rice:
-1 pound of tempeh
-2 ears of corn
-1/4 cup vegetable oil
-four garlic cloves, sliced thin
-3 cups of day old brown rice
-2 Tbs. soy sauce
-1 Tbs. sesame oil
-1 bag of frozen carrots, peppers and asparagus, thawed
-1/2 bag of frozen peas, thawed

1. Roast the corn until it is cooked. Allow it to cool. Cut the kernels from the cob.

2. Place the oil in a large wok. Spread it around to cover the entire wok. Warm it over medium high heat until the oil is glistening (do not let it smoke). If it starts smoking, turn the heat down. Once the oil is at the right temperature, place the thawed veggies and corn into the wok. Heat them for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until warm. Remove them from the wok and set aside.

3. Using the same wok, pour in the tempeh brisket. Heat it in the wok until it begins to caramelize and brown. Add the tempeh to the veggies that you previously set aside.

4. Using the same wok, pour in the rice. Stir until the rice has been coated in oil. Smooth the rice out to cover as much surface area of the wok as possible. Allow it to cook for two minutes. Stir it and repeat. Keep doing this until the rice has the texture you want. Pour the soy sauce and sesame oil around the outside of the wok. Stir until the sauces have been combined. Add the veggies and tempeh brisket. Continue stirring for a minute or two, just enough to get the rice uniform. Dole out servings on plates and give a nice big smile. A certain soy sauce dude might just be bringing you back to this moment at some date in the future. If that happens, you want to be looking your finest.

Food Pairing 101: What Goes With an Artichoke Sunflower Burger?

This Memorial Day I learned exactly how one of those corporate meat packing plants must feel when they see some random body part on the ground and decide to use it in their product (waste not, want not). As I planned out my veggie burger of the day, I went to my pantry and just started grabbing ingredients. Rice? Sure, let's give it a try. Artichokes? Why the hell not! Sunflowers? Uh...a little weird...but, okay, let's do it. By the time these little burgers were solidfying in the freezer, I had gone through the same sort of thought process with no less than five ingredients. When it was all said and done I had crafted a burger that held together pretty well and tasted of artichokes, sunflowers and a slight wallop of vinegar (it looked like this with creole mustard instead of Dijon, no parsley brief stint in the polar region of my freezer) . Oddly addictive. Like I couldn't eat just one. 

What does one pair a burger like this with? Might I suggest the Happy Hollows's "Astrid." Like the burger, it is made up of a number of different parts that when ground together in the meat grinder of your ear serve to make a fabulous, oddly addictive, product. Perhaps no part of the song represents this better than the chorus.This is where you've got a batch of lovely "whohoos" coming to the forefront while Sarah Negahdari's vinegary rumblings swirl through the background. All the while Matt Fry's guitar and Charlie Mahoney's bass and synths bind and propel, making sure that this isn't the part where it all falls apart.

What's Cooking With Guards! Guards!?

Around these parts, Sunday night is sacred. That’s the night that me and my semiprofessional karaoke crew make their rounds. This Sunday we paid a visit to one of the most popular local stages and caught something truly amazing happening. Behind the microphone, in front of dozens of Tampanians, was none other than Rihanna. Her song of choice? Daft Punk’s “Pentatonix”.

I left the karaoke club later that evening thinking nothing could ever top the Rihanna experience I had just witnessed. On my drive home I popped “That Spring” by Guards! Guards! into my stereo and, wouldn’t you know it, Monster Bobby (The Pipettes, A Little Orchestra) and Lisa Bouvier (the Flatmates, the Proctors, Satan & Megastar) were dead ringers for Rihanna singing Daft Punk. While it might not have topped what happened at the karaoke bar, it certainly enhanced it.

One of the themes in “That Spring” that becomes apparent after repeated listens is the idea of making things happen. That seems like appropriate material for Guards! Guards! as their entire existence is all about making it happen. I say this because Bobby and Lisa face the unique challenge of making music while living in two completely different countries. Lisa hangs out in Sweden, Monster Bobby makes his living in London. How do they make it work? Skype. Lots and lots of Skype. In fact, their video for “Last Spring” was created completely by the band using shots of their Skype conversations and Quicktime.

Check out the recorded version:


The Skyped Video:



So now that we know what is musically cooking with Guards! Guards!, let’s find out what is being
whipped up in Bobby and Lisa’s kitchen:

Part One: Lisa Bouvier’s Recipe for Swedish Rårakor (as told by Lisa Bouvier)

The thing I missed most about Sweden when I lived in the UK – apart from Marabou milk chocolate–was actually lingonberry jam. Which is interesting, because since I moved back to Sweden last year, I haven’t eaten it at all! But fear not all you non-Swedes out there, you can buy it in any IKEA worldwide. This is one of my favourite dishes involving lingonberry jam and it’s called rårakor (Swedish for beginners: raw-rachore). The traditional way of doing it is just grated potato and some salt, but I decided to make it a bit more exciting than that.

Rårakor
-6 grated potatoes
-1 grated onion
-1-2 grated carrots
-2 eggs
-salt, black pepper and other exciting things you can find in your cupboard. How about some grated
cheese as well? Cheese is tasty. Put it in everything. Anyway, grate everything as fine as you can be bothered, stir together in a mixing bowl. Shape rakor, they can be round or at least round-ish, and about 8-10 cm in diameter, maybe 2 cm thick or as big as you’d like. Fry them on mid heat until they’re golden. They might look a bit like this when they’re done. Serve with crispy fried bacon and lingonberry jam.

No salad. There is carrots in the rårakor, right?

Part Two: Monster Bobby’s Chicken Curry

To complement Lisa’s homegrown potato pancakes, I decided I should make something very typically English – and what could be more typically English than curry? I spent much of my childhood in Indian restaurants, always ordering the hottest thing on the menu out of some perverse infant machismo and wolfing it down, eyes streaming. To this day, nothing really tops a good curry for me and I have been gradually perfecting my own recipe over many years.

Curry
-2 large onions
-4 cloves of garlic
-1 large chunk of ginger
-1 tin of tomatoes
-Turmeric (plenty)
-Paprika (plentier)
-Chicken breasts or thigh fillets
-tandoori masala
-1 sweet pepper
-2 or 3 green chillies
-Ground cumin (shit loads)
-Ground coriander (plenty of that too)
-Methi / Fenugreek leaves
-Basmati rice
-2 whole cloves
-1 stick of cinnamon
-5 or 6 green cardamons
-Butter
-Cream (one dollop)
-1 tomato
-Fresh coriander

Chop up a couple of big onions and chuck them in a saucepan with plenty of oil. Fry until they start to soften, then add a fairly large quantity of ginger and garlic (say four cloves of the former and about
the same volume of the latter?).

Once that’s all good and fried, chuck in a little bit of water, a good dash of turmeric, a hefty splash of paprika, and a tin of tomatoes. Keep that bubbling for a bit – what? maybe half an hour? – then liquidise it with a handheld blender.

Next: Heat some oil in a big frying pan, chop yr chicken into bitesize chunks and put them in the pan with some tandoori masala spice mix and a big spoonful of the whizzed-up onion and tomato mix.

Once that’s cooked on the outside, add some sweet pepper and a couple of roughly chopped green chillies, then throw in the rest of the sauce with some ground cumin, ground coriander, and some fenugreek leaves (I tend to favour the frozen packets of Methi you find in Indian supermarkets). Let that cook away for a good half hour. Meanwhile, get the rice on. Wash a teacup full of rice in boiling water and put a cup and a half of water in a saucepan with a bit of salt. Once the water starts to boil, put the rice in, with two whole cloves, a stick of cinnamon, the seeds from inside maybe five or six green cardamons, and a bit of butter about as big as your thumb. After about two minutes of that all boiling together, put a tight lid on the pan with a sheet of silver foil under the lid and whack it in the oven on gas mark one. After 15 minutes turn the heat off,2 but leave it for another ten.

Just before you serve the curry, put a dollop of cream on top, a big dash of garam masala, and some chopped fresh tomato and coriander leaf. Maybe one or two more chillies if you’re hardcore. Some chopped up mango or julienned fresh ginger can also be a pleasant addition at this stage. Mix. Eat. Serve with beer.

There you have it. Lisa is embracing her inner Swede in her kitchen and Bobby is paying homage to the English. That’s called making things happen.

Where We Eat: Ciccio Cali in New Tampa

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day I finished writing Act IV of my new American tragedy theatrical piece dubbed Ciccio Cali. Act IV, like the previous three acts, was set in the beautiful outdoor seating area of a restaurant, Ciccio Cali, in Tampa Palms. The weather was perfect, just the right amount of Florida sunshine and shady trees and seventy-degree temperatures floating in the air. The table was covered with food. At one place setting was a wrap. As usual, this wrap looked and tasted amazing. At another place setting was a bowl filled with farro, veggies and a peanut sauce. Act IV saw this bowl fall just a step below the top notch performance we had come to expect from the earlier acts (not quite enough sauce). But slightly below top notch at Ciccio Cali is beyond the reach of what most restaurants can do even during their finest hours. To truly grasp the power of Act IV, we need to return to Act I.

Ciccio Cali exists in a place that used to be reserved solely for beer drinking. It was never high on my list of places to visit in the Tampa area despite the fact that it consistently popped up on recommendations and isn’t far from our apartment. Why did I avoid this place? Because my wife and mother-in-law dined there and enjoyed the food immensely but every time they talked about how good it was, my mother-in-law always brought up that it seemed expensive. That was a major turn off. So anytime my wife suggested Ciccio Cali, it was immediately shot down. “You’ll love it,” she would say. “Yeah and I’d also have to pay for it,” was my typical response. Eventually, due to reasons that at this time have been forgotten, I gave into her pleas for a lunch date at Ciccio Cali. I promised myself that I would hate it. But, despite all the willing and wishing, I was not able to hate the place. In fact, I damn near loved it.

The wrap that Ciccio Cali made for me was a Buffalo wrap (sans the blue cheese). Instead of filling it with blackened chicken, I asked for the veggie and broccoli mix. The veggies were combined with some rice (for slightly more you can combine your veggies with farro or spaghetti squash) and then mixed with a slightly spicy buffalo sauce. The tortilla was pressed in a way that simultaneously crisped the outside and clamped it shut. It was the type of tortilla job that immediately makes me question my own cooking skills. Why can’t I ever seem to replicate this snuggly, fried tortilla blanket at home? Along with the wrap came a dip of my choice. I went with their mustard which has a sweet, tangy taste. While mustard and buffalo sauce may sound like a weird pairing, it actually worked. In fact, it worked so well that it conjured visions of some of the American duos that have made this country great. It was sort of like eating the condiment version of Sonny and Cher, Laurel and Hardy or Ike and Tina.

                           My Veggie Wrap

J-Fur’s meal of choice has been (and always will be) the Peanut Stir Fry with farro. This meal is piled high with veggies, farro and peanuts and then covered with a delicious peanut sauce. The sauce isn’t spicy or super sweet and it doesn’t overload you with peanut flavor. It flows nicely with the veggies and farro.

                            J-Fur’s Stir-Fry

About the only thing we didn’t like on this initial visit is that we ordered a side of farro and pesto for our daughter. The pesto was cream based (mayonnaise?) which wasn’t something we expected. The baby didn't like it and neither did we.

Are there any downsides to Ciccio Cali? There are a few. Namely their dinner prices and brunch menu. I am okay with paying the lunch time prices. The plates of food are pretty big so I don’t leave feeling hungry. At ten dollars, the wrap is right at the edge of where I feel that I am getting value for the amount of money I pay. Dinner ups the prices a dollar and, while it isn’t much, it pushes the meal past that point. So I only dine at Ciccio Cali during the lunch hours. No problem, I have weekends off. I’ll just show up then for some wrap love. Not so fast butterfly. Ciccio Cali has a special brunch menu on weekends and the wrap I love isn’t part of it. Neither is J-Fur’s Peanut dish. That means we can’t dine at Ciccio on weekends either. So no nights or weekends at the restaurant and a job that doesn’t allow me to slip away for lunch. Basically, we are limited for when we can visit this place. But I’m okay with that. Ciccio Cali’s becomes another reason to look forward to those days off work.



The perfect song for Act I at Ciccio Cali is the St. Tropez’s “I Don’t Wanna Fall in Love”. I really
didn’t, and tried not to, but the restaurant had other ideas.

Cook: Barley Legal Chick(peas)

As I was typing out a menu this week, I found out just how easy it is to transpose the letters in barley to make it say barely. That got me thinking, what happens when I google search barley in place of barely in a pornorific term like barely legal? I had to find out.

For the most part, barley legal brings up a million links to beer making groups and beer drinking clubs across the country. Ha, ha, I get it, barley legal and beer. Nice. I kept clicking through search results and somewhere around page three or four, I came across a pretty awesome surprise. Beautiful barley legal escorts in Houston, TX.

Now, I have no desire for barely legal escorts but a barley legal one, that’s a bit different. I can only imagine what happens when you order one of those girls (or guys?). They probably sneak in all discreet like filling the room with the scent of their cheap perfume. Their face is nothing but a mask, overloaded with enough makeup to make a clown blush (although you can’t see it beneath their face paint, clowns do blush). Their high heeled shoes rat, tat, tat, across the wooden floor of the high class motel you rented just for this occasion. They carry a bag, filled to the brim, with everything you are going to need to make this rendezvous a memorable one. As you stare ravenously at her (or him?), they reach into their bag and pull out…a huge tupperware container of some extremely tasty barley dish. They set it on the table and then whip out a crystal glass and the finest china that money can buy. The table gets set, the lights go down and candles get lit, and then you eat, while she (or he?) stares on. You invite them to join but they decline. That would be too much like a relationship. This is a job for them, not an emotional attachment. You continue to slowly eat the barley, savoring every bite, until the buzzer sounds singling the end of her (or his?) visit. As quickly as it was unpacked, everything is collected and put back into the bag. She (or he?) then let’s herself out and heads off to fulfill some other person’s barley packed fantasies.

This is what J-Fur has been fantasizing about this week (no joke, I’ve made it three times by request):

Barley Legal Chick(peas)
(printable version)

-2 cups pearled barley, cooked
-2 cups garbanzo beans
-1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
-2 Tbs. olive oil
-juice of 1 lemon
-3 bay leaves, broken into pieces
-1 tsp. Tumeric
-1 tsp. smoked paprika
-1 tsp. salt

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix the barley and garbanzo beans in a 9 x 13 rectangular baking dish. Add the onions and mix. Add the rest of the ingredients one-by-one mixing after each.

3. Bake the mixture for 20 minutes. Stir it. Bake for another five to ten minutes. Remove the bay
leaves. Serve in your favorite barley legal manner.

Some Days Are > Others (Part II)

Two for one Kill Rock Stars records (Marnie Stern and New Bloods) along with Pink of Perfection Quinoa, Zucchini, Garbanzos and Cumin....blackened!

Marnie Stern-For Ash via Pitchfork

Millet, Potato and Corn Risotto Expanded by Emma Louise and O'Death

This painter guy I used to see on public television once said "we don't make mistakes here, we just have happy accidents." This millet risotto was exactly that. I started with the intention of making quinoa corn chowder (similar to this one). I had no quinoa, only an unmarked grain in the back of the pantry that looked sort of like quinoa. I threw it in the stew, it expanded all crazy like, and I knew it wasn't quinoa. But what was it? It wasn't until walking through the grocery store late last night that I realized it was millet. Otherwise this recipe would've been called "unknown cereal grain with potato and corn risotto." Remember, happy accidents.

Millet, Potato and Corn Risotto
(printable version)

-2 cloves of garlic
-olive oil
-5 potatoes, cubed
-2 cans Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
-2 1/2 cups veggie stock
-2 cups millet
-water
-2 cups frozen corn
-1 onion diced
-salt, pepper and celery seeds (to taste)
-soy milk

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, stirring continuously.

2. In a large pot bring the veggie stock to a boil. Add the potato cubes, onion and garlic making sure there is enough liquid to cover them completely (add water or more veggie stock if necessary). Cover and cook for 15 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft).

3. Measure out the millet and place it in the pot. Cook, uncovered, for fifteen minutes adding water (or stock) when necessary. Stir frequently to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan.

4. Add the corn, beans and spices (I didn't measure them just added to the taste I liked) to the mixture. Pour in enough soy milk to cover the entire batch of risotto. Continue heating and stirring until the soy milk has been absorbed. Serve three little bears style.

Emma Louise proves that Aayliah knew exactly what she was talking about when she named her debut album Age Ain't Nothing But a Number. In human years, Emma is only 19. In music terms, she is well beyond that. Listening to "Jungle" one expects to find a life-long artist on the other side of the speakers. Nope, just her. Emma's new EP, Full Hearts and Empty Rooms comes out this week.

Emma Louise-Jungle

O'Death is also very risotto worthy. These guys hail from the giant Metropolis that is Brooklyn, New York but make music that feels like it should be from some commune in the middle of Appalachia. Folky and raucous in the most controlled of manners "Bugs" is the first track off the bands new album Outside which hits stores on April 19th.

O'Death-Bugs (via Pitchfork)

Failure to Launch: Quinoa, Mango and Cashew Breakfast Bowl with Dangerous Ponies and MAKE OUT

Tired of the typical imitation Cheerios with blueberries and Captain Crunch I tried to marry three of my most recent worlds for breakfast the other day. I combined the black and red quinoa of Peru with mangoes and agave nectar from Mexico and the shredded coconut of South Florida. I also threw in some cashews from Brazil but I have no connection to that place (aside from the bikini I won in a recent gift swap). I hoped for a tropical breakfast with a variety of flavors. Instead, when I ate my first mouthful, it took all I had not to scream like Salome when she saw the giant iguana climbing the mango tree in The Lacuna. Where was the taste? The pleasure? The whisking away to some far off island? In the end it was the mango that I purchased at a grocery store in the good ol' USA that let me down. It lacked juice and taste, was grainy and grimy instead of soft and squishy. Next time I make this it will be with only the freshest of mangoes.

At least what I listened to as I made the meal was decent. I rolled through "I Only Wear My Favorite Clothes at Home" by the Dangerous Ponies and "I Don't Want Anybody That Wants Me" by MAKE OUT. One is a seven piece Philadelphia act that incorporates glittery glam into a dance grooving 70's sound (Dangerous Ponies). The other is a drawn out, rrrrriot grrrrl anthem that speaks of independence and refusing to embrace those who hope to hold you (MAKE OUT).

Faux Meat Ropa Vieja stewed with La Mujer Blandenga, discoRUIDO! and Weston

Last week, after a ridiculously tough run, I asked J-Fur if she had a book I could read in the bathtub. Being the nerd she is, albeit a lovely nerd, she launched into a synopsis of ten different books and why I should read them. I chose Drown by Junot Diaz (even though it "isn't his best work"). Drown is broken into ten different fictional pieces about characters that are struggling with family issues, drugs, divorce, infidelity, poverty and handicaps. In the final chapter of the book, about a man who has left behind his family and found someone else, the son of the man speaks about his ability to make a mean ropa vieja. It was at that moment that inspiration struck...what about a mean vegan version of this normally meat filled dish?

Faux Meat Ropa Vieja (adapted from tasteofcuba.com)
(printable version)

-1 block of tofu, sliced thin

-1 batch of seitan, sliced thin

-olive oil

-1 red pepper, diced

-1 yellow pepper, diced

-2 yellow onions, diced

-3 Tbs. roasted garlic

-1 Tbs. cumin

-1 Tbs. oregano

-1/2 tsp. cayenne

-dash turmeric

-dash cinnamon

-1 1/2 cups sherry

-1/2 cup water

-28 ounces of crushed tomatoes

-15 ounces of diced tomatoes

-4 bay leaves

1. Make the seitan according to this recipe. Soak the tofu in the broth with the seitan overnight.

2. In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and peppers and cook until they are starting to brown (about twelve minutes). Add garlic, cumin, oregano, cayenne, turmeric, and cinnamon. Stir in the pot until the spices are well combined.

3. Put the tofu, seitan, tomatoes, wine, water and bay leaves into the pot. Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for an hour. Serve over rice.

The first one hundred times I heard "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon I enjoyed myself even though it was much more produced and polished than the band's previous albums. But even during this songs heyday in my head, I couldn't help but feel that something was amiss. Would I really get this song if I spoke Spanish and loved music that is more fizzy than fuzzy? Spain's La Mujer Blandenga has made this concern dissipate faster than fired up sex.

If you've ever hit up the dance club and tired quickly of the seemingly endless supply of bad, beat driven tunes then you are dancing at the wrong disco. Next time try discoRUIDO!

discoRUIDO!-Amorfos

While I cooked the Ropa Vieja I questioned society, girls and facebook along with Swedish indie popster Weston. "So Sorry" is from his debut EP.

What's Cooking with Still Blue Still Turning?

Some bands exist only to make music (see Stockholm). There is nothing wrong with that, they know what they want and that is all that they want to do. Still Blue Still Turning (originally included as part of my Caper Crusader Mix) is not one of those bands. Ray Duer and Ryan Brady, the creative geniuses behind Still Blue Still Turning, balance a number of things outside of music. These include, but are not limited to, student life, psychoanalysis and architecture projects. Recently I got hold of the band and asked them to introduce themselves and share some things that they've been cooking up.

What's is the story behind Still Blue Still Turning? Here's how Ray and Ryan describe themselves:

Still Blue Still Turning is a collision of minds—Ray Duer and Ryan Brady, each a different artist in his way. Ray is a senior at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass, while Ryan is a junior at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. We share copies of Lacan’s books and trade Eno albums, but we come from different places in life, bringing different manners of seeing, hearing, and thinking. Still Blue Still Turning is about symmetry and difference, the natural and the evocative, the emotional and the instinctual, the mind-churning and peace-considering.

The idea of symmetry despite differences is intriguing, sort of like a Newton's Law of Motion for the Musically immersed. Each note is connected and counteracted by the next. Still Blue Still Turning has an EP and full length to their name (both can be downloaded for free at their bandcamp page). What's next for these two?

Musically, we've taken a different course lately than we may have anticipated. We found our beginnings with Simone, an album that was driven by a merging of sounds and genres. However, we've been working for the past several months on an album featuring a reduced sound palette and minimalist qualities. This album, American Artist, features tracks currently available online such as "The Task of Creation and Nothingness" and "Leaving the Old House," and the full album should be available before the end of 2010. American Artist will also include a companion release, Song for Stacking, a work written for Ryan's latest sculpture, Stacked Structure (pictured at the top).

Still Blue is also thinking past American Artist toward a quicker, stronger, more rhythm-driven album. To get a taste, we've posted one of these tracks, "Threshing Floor (For Kevin Shields)" on our myspace and we will be featuring more of these tracks live this fall and winter at Home Sweet Home and elsewhere.

After talking music, one works up an appetite. So what is Still Blue Still Turning cooking in their kitchen?

We like to cook with and eat foods like kale, pine nuts, farfalle pasta, mangoes, granola, milk with ice, olive oil, garlic, red wine and big steaks. Fresh, simple, substantial-at least when we can afford it.

In honor of the band, I cooked up a quick appetizer using pine nuts, Parmesan, baguette, quinoa and pesto. For the quinoa crostini recipe, click here.

The premiere:

Still Blue Still Turning-Unstacked

Movie Food: Roasted Tofu and Couscous Pine Nuts fluffed with Dr. Dog and Donnis

You know what really curdles my milk (aside from those people that are always standing outside of grocery stores on Saturdays and Sundays trying to get me to buy their stupid cookies or landfill fattening discount cards)? Movie makers that create entertaining films that peter out in the last five minutes. Even my third graders know not to pull that stuff. I've witnessed two such films recently. One suffers because the two lovers repair their relationship only to have him die in the crumbling twin towers. The other stays too long with a belly dancer and a much too old protagonist chasing thieves who stole his scooter bringing about his death(?). At least the latter inspired a recipe. Bismillah!

Roasted Tofu Served over Couscous with Pine Nuts

(printable version-coming when google quits being slow)

for the tofu:

-2 Tbs. olive oil

-1 onion

-3 cloves garlic, minced

-4 roma tomatoes

-1 tsp. saffron threads

-1/2 tsp. black pepper

-1/2 cup dry white wine

-1 block of tofu, sliced into rectangles

-2 Tbs. chopped parsley

for the couscous:

-2 Tbs. unsalted butter

-3/4 cup chopped shallots

-pepper

-1 1/2 cups couscous

-1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

-2 Tbs. chopped parsley

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a frying pan, heat the onion in the olive oil until onion is translucent. Add the garlic cloves and cook for another minute.

2. Add the tomatoes, saffron, pepper and white wine to the onions and garlic. Simmer over medium heat for five minutes.

3. Lay the tofu in a 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the tomato sauce over the tofu and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley.

4. While the tofu is baking, melt butter in a large saucepan. Add the shallots and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, until translucent. Add the vegetable stock and pepper (to taste) and bring to a boil. Remove the saucepan from heat and add the couscous. Cover the pan and set aside for 10 minutes. Stir in pine nuts and fluff with a fork.

5. Place healthy scoops of couscous on plates and top with two or three slices of tofu. If so inclined, say Bismillah!

About the time I was finishing my second poorly ended movie and plotting out this couscous dish, Philadelphia's Dr. Dog released a new track "Nobody Knows Who You Are." I can't say I am a big fan of these guys (even though I do love all things Philadelphia) but this tracks catchy chorus and music that would make bobblehead proud make it hard for me to ignore (and believe me I tried). The harmonica was like icing on the cake (or tofu on the couscous).

Dr. Dog-Nobody Knows Who You Are

Unlike those movie makers, Donnis knows how to end things with a bang. I caught just the last few songs of his set last night at the Matt and Kim show in St. Pete (missed most of the show standing in line waiting for the State Theater to let me in) and he certainly had arms in the venue bouncing. "Tonight" was one of the last songs he performed. Couscous, take note!