The Food Network

Words cannot describe how much I enjoy watching the Food Network.  While it is a little emasculating for me to admit this, I cannot help but bask in the greatness that is the Food Network on a daily basis.

Since I was a young boy, back in the glory days of elementary school and middle school, I knew that I always had a penchant for cooking.  In fact, I remember the moment when I took my interest in the culinary arts to the next level.  Let's go back in time for a minute, specifically let's go back about fourteen years ago when I was in the fifth grade.  In the fifth grade, my class was given an assignment  to create a presentation about our favorite activity or hobby.  Looking back, this was a challenging assignment.  I mean seriously, what fifth grader knows what their #1 favorite hobby is.  I mean, I knew I liked to play in my pee-wee soccer league, and I knew I enjoyed my weekly tennis lessons, but I can't imagine how challenging it must have been for me to pin-point what I liked the MOST at the delicate age of 11.

I managed to persevere, and I determined that cooking was my favorite hobby.  Yes, cooking - little old me, all 4 feet and 7 inches liked to cook.  And for my project, I was to pull off my masterpiece, my Mona Lisa of dishes at the time - the four-egg omelet.  I had my mom buy all of the ingredients and I booked my father to direct this presentation via camcorder.  Now without going into too much detail, this video consisted of me wearing a chef's hat, a long apron, cooking an omelet with several ingredients (what exactly these ingredients were, I do not remember), with my father holding a 12 lb video camera in the background.  The point of this little stroll through memory lane is to establish that my interest in cooking is deeply rooted.

Now, let's fast-forward to the present day, where I am no longer 4 feet and 7 inches and I hope my ability to cook has improved substantially.  Cooking has remained one of my favorite hobbies and I can safely say that if I hadn't pursued my career in law, I would have most definitely considered pursuing a career as a chef.  I have read dozens of cookbooks, visited AllRecipes.com several hundred times, and I have filled my families and friend's mouths with delish meals on countless occasions.  But my number one resource for developing my cooking skills is hands-down the Food Network...

Now, Bobby Flay is by far my favorite, and, in my opinion, the most skilled chef working on the Food Network today.  If Emeril Legasse was still a regular personality on the Food Network I would cite him as being one of my favorites as well, but unfortunately Emeril has left the good graces of the Food Network.  But Bobby Flay is my main man.  His approach to cooking is so fun and natural that it makes it easy to pick up his cooking style.  And it doesn't hurt that his specialty cuisine is BBQ, my favorite cuisine as well.  I have ripped off so many of the dishes he has made on "THROWDOWN! with Bobby Flay" and have written down countless recipes he has created on "Grill It! with Bobby Flay."  And how can you not love his enthusiasm with all of those exclamation marks in the titles of his shows?  I mean, this guy has some serious pizazz and showbiz flair.

 (Even Obama loves him.  That's some serious clout.)

Of course, I have some other honorable mentions on the Food Network's lineup, including "Dinner: Impossible" (although Robert Irvine can be a winy pain in the ass sometimes), "Iron Chef America," "The Best Thing I Ever Ate," and quite possibly my favorite show on the Food Network, "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives."  Triple-D has some of the most delicious looking food I have ever seen, and it makes me want to buy a plain ticket to some of the most obscure locations in the United States just so I can taste some of the food Guy Fieri has had the pleasure of consuming.

(And look at the smile.  What a charming dude.)

While watching one particular Triple-D episode I was introduced to an awesome recipe for a meatloaf sandwich.  I love meatloaf sandwiches, and this one was one of the best looking meatloaf sandwiches I have ever seen.  It comes from the restaurant "The Brick" in Kansas City, Missouri.

Ingredients

Meatloaf:

• 2 pounds ground chuck
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup marinara
• 3/4 cup finely diced parsley leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/3 cups bread crumbs
• Wheat bread, 24 slices
• 12 slices pepper jack cheese

Chipotle Ketchup:

• 2 (16-ounce) cans tomato puree
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 chipotle pepper, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chipotle sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon lime juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, eggs, marinara, parsley, salt, pepper and bread crumbs. Mix thoroughly and put on a baking dish. Shape the meat into a loaf and cover the baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 to 90 minutes. Uncover the last 15 minutes of bake time. Remove the meat from the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes before slicing. Slice and keep warm.
Puree the tomatoes until smooth in a blender. Cook onions in heavy pan, over medium heat until softened. Add the pureed tomatoes to the onions add all the remaining ingredients, except the lime juice. Simmer uncovered, stirring frequently, until thick, about 1 hour.
Remove from heat and let the mixture cool down a little before adding it to a blender. Add the lime juice and puree again.
Put 1 piece of sliced meatloaf on half of the wheat bread slices, add a slice of pepper jack cheese and top with chipotle ketchup. Cover with remaining bread slices and serve.

I would like to end this blog post with one piece of advice to my readers.  If you don't know how to cook or you are trying to become a better cook, I guarantee that if you start watching the Food Network for at least 30 minutes a day you will become a better chef by the end of the year.  You will learn tricks and tips on how prepare certain types of foods, what types of drinks and fruits go best with certain dishes, and you will even learn which spices compliment the food you are working with the best.  And think about how much you can impress your significant other or in-laws by putting together a gourmet dinner.  Nothing says sexy like a man (woman) who knows what they are doing in the kitchen...

Fino a domani.

Prepstarr

Strange Tunes

I always considered myself to be a pretty mainstream type of guy.  I watched a lot of mainstream movies and I listened to a lot of mainstream music. I accepted that I was mainstream and I was adamant about accepting anything that wasn’t mainstream. 

Main · Stream: noun (the mainstream) - the ideas, attitudes, or activities that are regarded as normal or conventional; the dominant trend in opinion, fashion or the arts.

Then, something happened to me.  After I graduated from college, I started to see things a little differently.  I am not quite sure what happened, but something did in fact happen.  I had three years of law school on the horizon and I started to feel my attitude towards popular culture descend to the depths of disapproval.  No longer was it acceptable to play 50 Cent or Eminem on my iPod.  No longer was it okay for Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle or Armageddon to grace the precious real estate on my television screen.  No longer would I tolerate these “dominant trends” - I decided to BACKLASH!

One evening, during the first month of my first year of law school, I decided to peruse through IMDB’s (Internet Movie Database) top 250 movies.  As I made my way through the list, I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the films that made the top 20 on this list: The Shawshank Redemption, The Terminator, The Matrix, etc., films that I previously held so close to my heart.  However, in the corner of my eye, I saw a film that I did not recognize that was placed within the top 10 on this list.  The film was directed by a man named Akira Kurosawa and was entitled “Seven Samurai.”  I quickly typed the title into Wikipedia, a website that I knew would not fail me, and I was amazed to find that this movie was praised and loved by almost every critic and film director ever.  I immediately went to Amazon.com and purchased the film.  A week later it arrived at my house.

I distinctly remember the night I first watched “Seven Samurai.”  I was at my girlfriend’s house (who later become my fiancé and then my beautiful wife) and we (more like I) decided to watch “Seven Samurai” in her family’s television room, which in retrospect was a huge mistake.  For anyone who is not familiar with this film, it is Japanese, it was filmed in black and white, it is over three hours long, and it is entirely in subtitles.  I soon found myself not being admired for my sophisticated taste in films, but being made fun of for my “strange” and “weird” choice in movies.  Comments such as “What the hell are you watching,” and “What is this crap,” and “Can we put on something normal, please,” were flying wildly throughout the room by everyone around me.  I stood my ground, watched the entire film and went home that night, proud that I made one of my first forays into Japanese cinema, but completely embarrassed for being “that guy” who thinks he is freaking awesome for watching something first year film students watch the second day of class.

This  series of events has continued ever since, especially since my movie and musical tastes have become more and more strange and experimental as I have gotten older.  While I have discovered so many terrific directors, movies, musicians and songs, I have had to withstand criticism by 97% of the people who come my way, asking me “How can you possibly like this stuff?”

Over the past month, I have more-or-less abandoned my movie watching routine, and have become completely infatuated with music, specifically discovering new bands and songs.  Several individuals in my life, whose names will be withheld for confidentiality purposes, were primarily responsible for introducing me to the independent music industry.  Thanks to these people I have been exposed to the likes of Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Camera Obscura, LCD Soundsystem, The National, PJ Harvey, among others.  Simply put, I was hooked and spent hours of my day downloading and listening to music.  I was determined to leave no stone unturned and to become “that guy” who knows every song by every band ever formed.  I swore to keep an open-mind to all genres and to not be overly critical if I didn’t like a song or an album the first time I heard it.

One evening I was introduced to the band Animal Collective.  I had never heard of this band, nor did I ever hear of the genre they were classified into, affectionately titled “Hippie Rock.”  Genuinely curios, I once again looked to the always-reliable Wikipedia.com where I found that not only was this band critically lauded, but had produced albums that were voted Album of the Year by publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine and Pitchfork.  I was intrigued.

I went to iTunes and began to listen to Animal Collective’s most recent and most critically praised album to date, “Merriweather Post Pavilion.”  Upon pressing the “play” button, I could not prepare myself for the music I was about to hear.  If I had to describe in words what “Merriweather Post Pavilion” sound like, I would describe it as being a cross between an air horn and the sound a person probably hears when they are experiencing a brain aneurysm.  And in the background behind all of these noises was the faint sound of a person singing in the same vein as Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.  I was perplexed.  I thought to myself, “How can anyone possibly listen to this with a smile on their face?”  I thought, “Is this what my fiancé’s (now wife) family thought when I was watching “Seven Samurai?”” I decided, to turn off this “music” and go to bed.  Maybe I would feel differently about it in the morning.

Oh, how wrong I was.  Not only did “Merriweather” seem louder and more irritating to me in the morning, but also I thought that I soon would suffer from a brain aneurysm if I continued listening to it.

I still have “Merriweather Post Pavilion” in my iTunes library in addition to three other Animal Collective albums and a solo album by one of the musician’s in Animal Collective.  I have absolutely no reason or justification as to why I still have these albums on my computer besides the sheer hope that one day something will click for me and I will understand how Rolling Stone and other music publications thought these albums were worthy of critical praise.

And just to make sure that I am not crazy for thinking this music is awful, moments ago I played the single off of “Merriweather” entitled “Brother Sport” (a song title that grammatically and logically makes no sense) for my wife.  For the record, this song is comprised of a siren going off for 85% of the song.  As I played about 20 seconds of it, my wife looked at me with a face of sheer confusion, disgust and hilarity and asked me what I was playing for her.  I responded, “It’s Animal Collective’s most recent album, hunny…Rolling Stone voted it Album of the Year.”  With the same look she gave me when she initially heard the sounds of “Brother Sport” she remained silent and turned away.  I assume she was trying to get her ears from stop ringing.  I honestly don’t blame her…

Until tomorrow, my friends.

Prepstarr

VICTORY - See you in October

Regular Season Predictions:
Yankees win the American League East
CC wins the Cy Young Award
Robinson Cano wins MVP

Maximum, not minimum, Balloon

I love when this happens...

So last night, while getting ready for my wife to come home from work and getting ready to watch the Yankee game, I decided to listen to some TV on the Radio.  TV on the Radio is a band I initially detested upon first listen.  I had read so many reviews about their most recent album "Dear Science" being the "best" album of 2009.  I had checked it out and didn't really understand what the big deal was.  The songs seemed to be overproduced and the lead singer (Tunde Adebimpe) sounded like he was trying to merge (force) the styles of David Byrne and Prince.  I thought the music was grating and unpleasant, and I swore to myself to never listen to TVOTR again.  I admit, this was a rather strong response, but nonetheless, a response I thought was justified at the time.

However, about a month later, I decided to scope out the reviews for the "Albums of the Decade" in several music magazines.  To my surprise, I found another TVOTR album making it to the top of every list ("Return to Cookie Mountain"), being cited as one of the best album of not the week, not the month, not even the year, but the freaking DECADE!  I thought to myself, there must be something wrong with me or there must be something wrong with every music editor in every major music magazine in the world.  Being the rational person that I am, I realized it must be me, so I decided to download "Return to Cookie Mountain, stick it on my iPod and listen to the entire album in full before bed one night.  As you can all probably guess, the album soon rose to the top of my greatest albums EVER list, and the rest is history.

So going back to the main focus of this post (yes, there is a focus to it), I had been following the production and progress of David Sitek's solo album since mid-April 2010.  David Sitek is a brilliant brilliant man - he is the guitarist and producer of TVOTR and produced all of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's albums, including one of my favorite albums, "Fever to Tell."  At the time, I was in my third-year of law school and in the throes of some heavy duty wedding planning with my wife.  But classes gave me the opportunity to procrastinate, surf the web, and continue my following of Mr. Sitek's upcoming album.  However, my life soon became miserable and overwhelming during my preparation for the New York State bar examination.  Then immediately following the bar exam, more wedding planning ensued, coupled with my rampant search to find a nice apartment for my soon-to-be wife and I in New York City.  Then came the wedding (which was unbelievable by the way), soon to be followed by a  honeymoon (once again, unbelievable - Sheraton Los Cabos).  In between all of these activities I was looking for a job and attempting to maintain my other hobbies.  Thus, I lost site of Mr. Sitek's album.

Then last night, while listening to TVOTR, I thought, "Wait a mother-f'ing freaking second...is it possible that David Sitek's album was released?!"  I thought, "It must have been released, the release date was for the middle of September!"  With an out-of-control madness I rushed to the computer, accessed iTunes, looked up the album title "Maximum Balloon," and HOLY COW, there it was, the album I had been anticipating for almost five months now.  In a moment of sheer ecstasy I downloaded the album, plugged my headphones into my computer, and let the heavenly sounds flow into my eardrums.

 
Ultimately, the album is sheer genius, and I will not go through the trouble of reviewing every song.  However, several standout tracks are "Young Love," "Absence of Light" and "The Lesson."  For TVOTR fans, the album is more similar to "Dear Science" then "Return to Cookie Mountain," but nonetheless it is an album EVERYONE should check out.  And if you are anything like me, listen to it at least two times - one time so you can hate it, and a second time so you can fall in love with it. 

Here is the music video for "Tiger" - Maximum Balloon - Tiger


Another point of enthusiasm for me is the New York Yankee's potential playoff clinching game this evening.  I think it would be an understatement for me to say that the Yankee's performance in September has been sub-par.  Mo has a career high 4 blown saves, A.J. is sucking, and even CC's last outing was disappointing.  Additionally, the race in the AL East is close, which makes it all the more frustrating that the Tampa Bay Rays are playing three of the worst teams in baseball for their last three series, and the Yankee's have two series against the Sox and one series against the Blue Jays, a team that has surprised most people with their batting this season.  I am optimistic that CC will dominate on the mound tonight, and my fears of the Yankee's blowing their playoff shot, which is nearly impossible at this point, will finally disappear. 

That is all for today.  Jusqu'à demain.



Prepstarr.

Rainy Day

Hello All,

The weather today in New York is pretty terrible - cold and rainy.  However, the rain and the cold is no match for Time Warner Cable's ability to make my day even worse by providing me with problems with not just my television service, but (GASP!) my internet service!  These people should know that messing with my internet is probably the most catastrophic cardinal sin they could ever commit on my watch.  Now, instead of being able to enjoy the spaciousness (insert sarcasm) of my apartment via my wireless internet, I have a cable wire connecting from my modem to my mac, thus confining me to my kitchen table.  Quite devastating, I know, but us New Yorkers must persevere.

However, I am planning to combat the weather and Time Warner's incompetence with Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain," an album that could warm the heart of even the most miserable person.  This album almost seems to be meant for a rainy day when the usual playlist won't do the trick.  So for all of those people who need a pick me up, I repeat, listen to "Sketches of Spain."

However, if Mr. Davis isn't enough for some of you, I might have an even better remedy to the rainy day blues.  I am known in my circle of friends and family to be a really wonderful cook, and I feel completely justified to toot my own horn by saying that I am pretty damn good.  Like all cooks, I have my signature dishes which always seem to satisfy even the most critical people in my life.  However, if I had to pin point my most successful dish, the dish that always seems to rise to the occasion, the dish that always makes MY mouth salivate, the dish that my wife requests at least two to three times a month, it would have to be my world-famous macaroni and cheese.  I have never revealed the recipe to my macaroni and cheese in fear that the likes of Bobby Flay or Emeril Lagasse might get their hands on it and make a fortune off of it, but being that today is such a gloomy and awful day I feel obligated to share this delicious dish with my readers.

(Disclaimer: This is not a picture of my mac and cheese.  Mine looks so much better.)

Spicy Garlic Macs and Cheese

 Ingredients:

• 1 pound of elbow pasta
• 1 package of Cabot Sharp Yellow Cheddar Cheese
• 1 package of Cabot Jalapeno Monterrey Jack Cheese
• 5 cloves of Garlic (approximately)
• 1 small/medium Spanish yellow onion
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups of milk (1%, 2% or whole)
  
• Butter (optional)
• 1 cup unflavored bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Put a tablespoon of olive and a pinch of salt into the water.  Once water is brought to a roaring boil, put pasta into the pot.  Leave pasta in pot until al dente (approximately 7 minutes).  Once finished, run the pasta through a strainer.  Once all extra water is discarded, put the paste back into the original pot, put one tablespoon of olive oil on the pasta to prevent pasta from sticking, stir the pasta, and cover the pot.  DO NOT turn the burner on while the pasta is in the pot at this point.
2. While water is boiling shred both packages of cheese using either a manual cheese grater or a food processor using the grating tool.  Once grated, put cheese into a large bowl and place in the refrigerator. (Tip: For best grating results, Put cheese in the freezer before grating - the harder the cheese is at the time of grating, the easier it is to grate).
3. Next, perform a rough chop on the onion and the garlic.  The chunks of garlic should be no smaller then the size of a dime in thickness, and the onion strips should be no less than half an inch long.  Put the onion and garlic in a small sauce pan with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.  You can add a little butter for flavor.  Put the burner on a medium heat and cover for approximately 10 minutes or until the onion and garlic are golden brown.  Stir frequently (every 1-2 minutes) for the ten minutes.
4. Once the onions and garlic are browned, combine the onions and garlic with the pasta and stir so the onions and garlic are evenly distributed in the pasta.  At this point, put the burners on a low heart and let the pasta get warm.  Cover the pot.
5. Once the pasta is warm (approximately 5-6 minutes) take the cheese out of the refrigerator.  Add 1/3 of the cheese to the pasta, onions and garlic.  Stir so that the cheese is evenly distributed.  Cover the pot and let the cheese melt.  After the cheese has melted (4-5 minutes) add another 1/3 of the cheese to the pot and cover.  Let sit for a another 3-4 minutes with the pot covered.  Make sure to keep stirring the pasta and cheese to prevent the cheese from sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning. 
6. At this point, there should be a fair amount of cheese in the pasta.  To create a creamy texture, add 1/2 cup of milk to the cheese, pasta, garlic and onions.  Stir so the milk and the cheese combine to create a creamy cheese sauce.  Cover the pot and let sit for 2-3 minutes.
7. Add the remaining cheese to the pot and stir.  Cover the pot and let sit until remaining cheese has melted.  Add another 1/2 - 1 cup of milk and stir until milk and cheese combine.  
8. The milk can be added to taste.  If you want the cheese to be tighter add less milk.  If you want the cheese to be more saucy add more milk.  The key is do not add too much milk.  So try not to use more than 2 cups of milk.  
9. Once all the cheese has been added and has melted, stir the macaroni and cheese to make sure it has a smooth texture.  Once doing this, slowly add 1 cup of breadcrumbs to the macaroni and cheese.  FOLD the macaroni and cheese and bread crumbs so to make layers of breadcrumbs within the macs and cheese.  Do not stir the bread crumbs in.  The idea is to create a crunch to the mac and cheese, and the folding process allows the bread crumbs to stay dry and crunchy.
10. Serve macaroni and cheese to guests in LARGE quantities.  
11. Provide your guests with Tums or Pepto if the spice and garlic gets to them!

And there you have it - the world's greatest macaroni and cheese.  While there appears to be a lot of steps, I promise that it is very easy to make.  I can't say that I will be making this lovely dish tonight, as I am still recovering from Montezuma's revenge from my recent trip to Mexico.  However, there is no doubt in my mind that this dish will brighten up your day in no time!

In an effort to brighten up my day/evening, I will be watching Jean Renoir's "Grand Illusion" this evening.  It's a great film, and for anyone who cares it was one of Orson Welles' (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil) favorite films.  I would recommend it to anyone who can tolerate the French, films from the 1930s, and subtitles, which is about 1% of my friends.

It seems the rain has stopped so I will be taking advantage of the clear skies by doing some last minute errands.  

Hasta manana!

Prepstarr

The Beginning...

WARNING:  The title of this blog is under inclusive.

While music, movies, marriage and food are a large part of my life, and will be very frequently discussed on this blog, this blog is not solely dedicated to these topics.  I am in my mid-20's, living in Manhattan, New York, and recently married.  My life is complicated, dramatic, interesting, and oftentimes wonderful.

Quite frankly, the idea of a blog has been something I always detested.  Someone, usually writing anonymously, usually about a controversial topic where they voice a very strong and very opinionated stance on an issue, usually politics, usually using profanity, usually on a message board or one of these blogs is not something I admired nor wanted to emulate.  I know this point has been suggested by many others before me, but the internet has turned our world into a world of COWARDS.  In fact, the Dead Weather's latest album entitled "Sea of Cowards" (an awesome album by the way) got this title from this exact notion - people blog, IM, post on discussion boards making inappropriate remarks or unnecessary statements and yet have ZERO accountability for what they say.  Thus, I find myself not only surprised, but baffled by the idea that I have created a blog and have become one of these cowards I so obviously detest.

I apologize to my readers (if I have any) for this short tirade, but I promise there is a point to it.  The point is that I will be dedicating the substance of my blog to subjects that will not stir the emotions of others the wrong way.  Nor will I make remarks that are inappropriate or obnoxious, unless completely necessary ;).

For my first post, I would like to leave my readers with a short music video.  I am sad that the summer is over and more specifically that the beautiful summer weather is leaving us.  New York is slowly becoming colder and with it people seem to be a bit more cranky.  I found a music video for the song "Young Blood" by the band The Naked and Famous.  The video epitomizes teenage youth and, for me, the joy that comes with the summer months.  It is an awesome song, and think most people will enjoy it.

The Naked and Famous - Teenage Dream

Fair well and until tomorrow.

Prepstarr