Ultranormal

Category: entertainment

  • Chili To Make You Smile

    As bad as the first batch of chili was, the second was much better. We were all out of veggies, so I couldn’t put my usual green peppers in the new batch. I ended up making very traditional ground beef/kidney bean chili with healthy portions of ground green and red chili my friend brought back from her trip to New Mexico. Instead of green peppers, I added a small can of diced green chilis. It was the best idea ever, I swear. The chili ended up having a nice but not over-powering kick to it and the ground green chili gave it a lovely earthy flavor that gave it a lot of body.

    My best idea though is Jen’s fault. If you remember, I took Jen to the Eiffel Tower Cafe for Valentine’s Day. We had the French Onion soup. If you don’t know (and who knows, you might not), the theory behind French Onion soup is you have this big oven-safe bowl, fill it with soup, put a piece of bread on the top, cover the bread in cheese and then bake the bowl until the cheese is nice and toasted. I thought to myself, hey, this could work with chili!! Take a piece of Texas Toast, toast it, drop it on a bowl of chili, cover it in cheddar and jack and pop it in the oven. Heaven, right? Exactly. We had the fam over last night for the grand experiment and it went over like gangbuster. The weak-lipped commented on the spices, but overall enjoyed the experience immensely. It was a lot of fun, and made the chili something other than just plain old chili.

  • Ewww, What IS That?

    I am so embarrassed. I had this great idea for chili – flash fry tiny cubes of steak and pork, then put them in chili. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, I tried it today. I spent three hours standing at the counter, chopping, frying, stirring, mixing and simmering. I just tried it. I think it’s the first chili in the world that can be labeled as biological warfare. Three spoonfuls and my stomach is roiling. It doesn’t taste too bad. It’s a little too spicy. The aftertaste tips it off… there’s something seriously wrong with that stuff. I have no idea what turned it. Maybe I didn’t cook the meat long enough. Maybe one of the veggies was bad. Maybe using those three tablespoons of chili oil in the wok I used to fry up the meat.

    Whatever it is, it’s awful. Since my family is coming over tomorrow, I should make a “normal” batch of chili with ground beef tomato sauce, kidney beans etc. I don’t know if I can get over the disappointent.

  • Beats To Make You Move Your Seat

    Ok, this Samba version of Hit The Road, Jack in Portugese (I think) on Jazzmusique, has me dancing my fat ass off. It’s rockin’ in a way I just can’t explain. My feet are tappin’, my head is a-boppin, my butt is a-shimmyin’, and thanks to Amazon, the album has been added to my wishlist, and just in time for my birthday.

    If you have a speedy connection, you should get on over to Netmusique right now and listen in. Jazzmusique is my favorite. For example, right before Hit The Road, Jack, they played a live version of Massive Attack’s Safe From Harm, which is one of my all-time favorites (now, if it had been live Teardrop I would have exploded from pure music joy). It’s great happy workin’ music without too many distractions. There are 5 second bumpers every hour or so, but no ads and no end to the ger-oovy music.

    They play some rap every once in a while, and to my shock, I actually like it. It’s always downtempo jazzy stuff with interesting lyrics and sweet beats. Most of the time, it’s downtempo happy beats, frequently of an ethnic flavor (pick one, it’ll happen during the day).

    I apologize for the goofiness of this post. It’s set to music you’re not hearing and a beat you can’t follow.

  • Molto Kevino

    I am a cooking machine. Thanks to Molto Mario, I’ve been experimenting the past couple nights with new and crazy non-recipe based dishes. For example, last night I made pounded chicken breasts rolled with fresh mozarella and fresh basil in a diced tomato sauce over vermicelli. Man, was it good. I flattened the chicken breasts by repeatedly walloping them with a rolling pin. Then, I put a fresh mozzarella ball, ripped in half, and one basil leaf on each breast, and then rolled them up. I fastened the end down with two toothpicks. I then heated up a quarter cup of olive oil (whatever covers the bottom of the pan) under meadium-high heat. Once the oil was hot (it dimples a little on the surface when it’s ready). I used tongs to drop the chicken rolls in. I browned them on all sides, then turned the heat down to medium to simmer the rolls for another fifteen minutes. After I thought they were almost done, I took them out of the pan and set them aside. I then threw in one diced onion (it was small, you might want to use half of a large one), and two sliced garlic cloves. Once the onions were brown at the edges and translucent, I poured in a can of diced tomatoes. I let that cook down for a little while, then put the chicken rolls back in. I let this melange simmer for ten minutes until the pasta was done. I again removed the rolls from the sauce, drained the pasta and then threw the pasta into the pan with the sauce and tossed it with a couple ripped up fresh basil leaves. Voila, yummy yummy.

    Tonight, I wasn’t in the mood for reheated chicken stew, so I grabbed some boneless pork chops from the freezer, defrosted and then (again) pounded the hell out of of them with the rolling pin. I think they were still slightly frozen, so they didn’t get as flat as I wanted, but hey, that’s OK. I then cracked two eggs into a bowl, whipped them up and set them aside. I then poured half a cup of flour into another bowl and mixed in the following: bunches of cayenne pepper, green chili powder (you could substitute curry and cumin), black pepper and some salt.

    I dragged the pork chops through the eggs and then through the flour – both sides – lightly covering it. Then, I dropped them into the same amount of heated olive oil I used on the chicken. I let it sit on one side for about ten minutes to get it nice and brown, then flipped them and let them sit for ten minutes on the raw side. I flipped it again, letting it sit on each side for seven more minutes. The chops were just perfect. They were crunchy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside and yum-tastic.

    This Saturday, they’re having a chili cook-off at church. I’m planning on making sirloin chili. I can’t wait to get started. I’ll let you know how it goes.

  • Another Conspiracy Update

    The Secret Rulers of The World is going to be replayed on Trio all next week at nine pm. I highly recommend it (as if you didn’t know that already).

  • Daredevil In A Blue Dress

    I’m a little better. My eyes are a lighter shade of pink and I don’t feel like death warmed over. I feel a little more like death over ice. I saw the band sausages idea over at A Small Victory, and remembered that my friends and I used to do this at lunch in high school. Our rules were a little lenient. We could do bands and song titles, and sometimes threw in movies. I don’t remember any of the ones we came up with (because it was almost ten years ago). But, I came up with a couple new ones:

    • Blind Faith No More

    • The Grateful Dead Kennedys

    • The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band On The Run

    • Fatboy Slim Pickins (see, I cheat)

    • Pearl Jam Machine

    • Land of The Lost Boys

    • Daredevil In A Blue Dress (see, movies are easier)

    • X-Men At Work (even easier to mix bands and movies)

    • Attack Of The Killer Fried Green Tomatoes (and if you cheat cheat)

    • Hunt For The Red October Sky

    Completely changing the topic, I’ve been watching this show on Trio called Secret Rulers of the World. This funny British documentary filmmaker tracks down conspiracy theories, the proponents and detractors and presents what he sees as the facts. The first two episodes have been engaging and honestly, extremely shocking. Not so much that the conspiracies might be true, but the people he finds and the things they believe just blow my mind. There are fringes in this country who believe pretty much everything. The depth and breadth of craziness is just unreal. I would love to see the guy who does the show track how people go from normal to wacko – how long it takes, who introduced them, was it their parents, etc.

    And last night’s Penn & Teller was just hilarious. The whole alien abduction thing makes me giggle.

  • So, Football’s Over, Eh?

    You can ask Jen. I told her the Buc’s would win yesterday morning when all the pundits were still calling for the Raiders. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

    My cold is back. I swear this is my fifth cold of the season, and I’m sick and tired of them. Winter, go away, please. I’m done with you. I’m done with it being twelve degrees when I leave the house in the morning, and it taking a good half hour once I get to work for my fingers to warm up.

    And to keep up with the snappy transitions of the last two thoughts – we watched movies this weekend. I rented The Good Girl and Windtalkers for us to watch Friday night. All I can say is one out of two ain’t all that bad.

    • The Good Girl: This was a good film. It’s not great, but it’s very good. Jennifer Aniston gives a very well-done performance as Justine, the trapped at the crappy makeup counter, in a marriage to a pothead slacker, dead-end life, lady. She longs for something more, and grabs at the first person who stirs feelings for escape. Unfortunately, she picks Holden. Jake Gyllenhaal does a good job playing Holden, but he goes a little over the top in a few scenes, that I think give the end away. It’s hard to tell if that was his choice or the director’s. John C. Reilly and Tim Blake Nelson were great, although we see way more of Tim Blake Nelson than I was prepared for. If you haven’t seen this movie, go rent it. It’s definitely worth seeing.

    • Windtalkers: This movie sucked. Ok, wait… no… it sucked. Nicholas Cage phoned this one in. He was a cutout of himself in this film and was just awful. The first scene looked like something out of Pensacola: Wings of Gold or something with Lorenzo Lamas in it, not a big-budget, supposedly heartfelt and full of meaning, Hollywood Film. The movie got a little better, but not much. I think I’m more upset with the fact that this movie could have been so good. The story of the Navajo Codetalkers is amazing, and deserved to be told in an amazing film. Not a cheap excuse to blow stuff up. Unless you need to see Nicholas Cage do his best Rambo impression, skip this gigantic pile of crap.

    And speaking of Jake, if you haven’t seen Donnie Darko yet, go rent it. Why do I like this movie so much? I’m not exactly sure why, but I do. It holds up under repeated viewings as well, which to me is a sign of a great film. The movie has its flaws, but it does other things so well as to make up for anything blemishes it might have.

  • Mmmm, TV and Chinese Food

    This is my middle-of-January-don’t-wanna-talk-about-a-war Entertainment Review. I think this will end up being my favorite TV Shows of the past year or so (since I have an awful time-based memory, Silver Spoons might show up along side Buck Rogers). You may also accidentally get a restaurant review sprinkled in. Here they are in the order I think of them:

    1. The Wire: This has got to be my favorite show of the last year or so. It felt like the first couple seasons of my all-time-favorite cop show, Homicide. Each episode was tight and gripping, and the characters were just the best. I hope it makes a come-back next season, although I would understand if it didn’t.

    2. Boomtown: I hope this show survives. It’s my favorite, and I think the best drama on network television right now. Again, the characters drive the show, and they’re all perfectly played. Donnie Wahlberg has been a big surprise and done a great job playing the honest but tempted husband. The last show where he told Fearless about his wife’s attempted suicide was just heartbreaking. And Neal McDonough (I know I butchered that… sorry) is on fire as McNorris. He was great in Band of Brothers but he’s done a great job of making me forget him in that role and embracing the drunken jackass he plays on the show.

    3. Cheng’s: Accidental restaurant review ahead. We went out to Cheng’s, our local upscale Chinese restaurant last night with a couple from church. We decided to be oh-so Iron Chef and try something new. We started with chicken in lettuce rolls, which were extremely tasty. The chicken was chopped very fine and mixed with a light soy-based sauce, pine nuts, a few pieces of green and red pepper and then rolled in lettuce with scallions. Yum-may. Then, we got four entrees to share: Filet Mignon with Spicy Black Pepper And Macadamia Nuts, Crispy Duck with Ginger Plum Sauce, General Tsao’s Chicken and Beef With Broccoli. Can you tell which ones Jen and I ordered? First, the Filet Mignon was awesome. I expected the traditional little filet with the other stuff around it. Nope, it came out in bite-sized chunks mixed with macadamia nuts, green peppers, onions and scallops in a really tangy pepper sauce. It was awesome. The pepper kick stuck around for a few seconds after each bite, but wasn’t unpleasant, and the meat was extremely tender and cooked to medium on the inside. It was definitely the hit of the night. The crispy duck came in a cube, with what looked a little like (you guessed it) duck sauce around it. There were small pieces of breaded duck at the bottom, then topped with fried duck skin, some melon slices and thin strips of red pepper. The skin was perfectly crispy. It wasn’t tough or chewy at all and was a great complement to the rich and tender duck. Great dish. Their General Tsao’s Chicken isn’t as spicy as some of the other local choices, but it was very good. I think I’ll still go to Oriental Express for my General Tsao’s.

    4. Firefly: Even though Fox short-sightedly cancelled this brilliant show, I’m holding out hope it’ll get picked up somewhere else. By the Buffy guy, it’s a great combination of sci-fi, western and witty dialogue that kept me coming back every Friday night. It had all the humor that Buffy had in its first couple seasons and some spot-on storytelling.

    5. Andy Richter Controls The Universe: Like The Family Guy, this brilliant sitcom just hasn’t found the audience it deserves on Fox. The Zoomanism episode alone was worth renewing the show for. I think it really just needed to chance for people to find it. Unfortunately, I think it’s gone as soon as Fox can find a replacement for it.

    6. The Sopranos: I don’t know what everyone was complaining about. I loved this season. They got away from some of the violence and let the characters move around a bit. The last four episodes where some of the best of the entire series.

    7. Chapelle’s Show: Ok, this one’s new, and I’m not sure they can keep it up, but the first episode was one of the funniest half hours I have ever seen. The black white supremacist sketch was one of the ballsiest things I have ever seen on TV. I almost wet myself laughing. Definitely try to catch the show next week (and knowing Comedy Central, you can probably catch the first episode a couple hundred times between now and next Wednesday).

    8. Smallville: The show is a liii-iiittle on the cheesy side, but it has such a wealth of things to work with, that it’s worth watching every week just to see how they’re going to develop Clark’s character. What’s great is I think the show could continue almost forever. Unlike other teen series that die after High School ends, there’s enough in the Superman story to keep the show going with new supporting characters into college and even the Daily Planet afterwards. Jen got me hooked on this one.

    9. Full Metal Challenge: Max’s faaa-aaaavorite show. He’ll watch each episode over and over again and then go recreate all the games. I love it just to see how these homemade cars do it every week, and to cheer on the little Chilean car. I’m sad the season’s over, but I’m sure next season will be even better.

    Whew… that was fun. Next time, movies?

  • My 7.5 Days Of Music…

    are now useless!! I found FlareSOUND yesterday in iTunes and am in love. They stole my whole music library and put it up on their jazzybeats channel. They threw in stuff I’ve never heard before and then proceeded to beat me silly with it. Great downtempo chillout coding music for the musically adventurous.

    And yes, my iTunes library is currently 7 days, 14 hours, 15 minutes and 10 seconds and takes up 13.2gb of hard drive. And it’s 95% music I own (or someone in my immediate family owns) and 5% samples I downloaded for free. I should be the poster boy for the fight against the RIAA. I’m not a music stealer. I’m a perfectly legal fair-use consumer of music that I’ve legally purchased through retail outlets. I love being able to listen to several hundred CDs on shuffle without having to bring the CDs to work every day, or leave them here. It’s a perfectly reasonable use of the CDs I’ve overpaid for over the years, and any attempt to take it away will be met with untold amounts of hacking and debauchery to get it back.

    I didn’t mean to turn this into a rant about the RIAA, it just kind of happened. Why? Because I’m in a good mood today. 2.6 pounds to go and I can say I no longer weigh 300 pounds. How cool is that? I’m down to 302.5 (that’s a pound and half gone from yesterday alone and a pound the day before). Needless to say, the diet’s working and Jen could even tell the difference this morning. She says I’m lookin’ gooooood, and that’s all the matters.

  • Schillinger Goes to Maggiano’s

    If you’re thinking about going to Maggiano’s, don’t, unless you like being crammed into a postage stamp-sized table two feet away from people crammed around other postage stamp-sized tables. You’re more likely to hear the four tables around you than the person sitting right next to you. The food was good, but the service was pretty crappy. If you want good service, amazing food and a bill in the same ballpark, go to Zeffirelli in Herndon.

    In something completely unrelated, I’ve been thinking about Oz. I love the show, and I’m almost embarrassed to admit it. Why do I like it? Why do I love it? It’s completely alien to me. It’s a world where there are immediate consequences for your actions and mercy doesn’t exist. There are no heroes, just lesser villains. It’s absolutely brutal and without remorse. See, so unlike my world. The acting is always top-notch and the story are as original as they come. Seasons one and two are out on DVD now if you haven’t seen it. Just make sure the kids aren’t around. Also, be sure to take it in small doses. It’s sometime (ok, often) hard to take. Ok, that was the worst review of anything ever. But go get the DVD and come back and tell me what you think.