Monday, April 05, 2010

where did she go? i don't know!

Here is one of my baby tomato plants! Getting bigger every day. Almost ready to leave the nest.
Here is one of my favorite things I've thrifted in awhile. I love the idea of eating popcorn out of this giant bucket. Because of my packrat ways I am not allowing smiller to throw away the box. There is a lot of text on the box about how it's made by a cooperage firm that opened in the 1800s. This popcorn bucket is solid-hand staved! No cheap Chinese popcorn buckets for me.
Spring has sprung in our yard.
These beautiful bulbs come up every year and we don't do a thing.
Every year there are more and more. This year a yellow crocus even snuck in.
Here's a kind of hard to read flier for a Mike C. production show tonight. Read about it on undietacos. The show last night in Oakland was beyond epic. It was more of an epoch. Splinters were cute punk young ladies. Mayyors were the odd band out on the poppy bill but a pit quickly started. They sounded really, really good and put on an entertaining show, complete with nipple tweaking, and a crowd surfer with no panties on! You know that I love the Rantouls, and that love was consumated for the first time in too long. Mike R. Mike didn't show up to play with the bananas but some guy with an afro wig stepped in and it was fine. The crowd went wild! I saw a girl with a big bananas tattoo on her sternum. No Bunny whipped the crowd into a real frenzy. He is a consumate showman. And what about that DJ? I want that soundtrack to be piped into my house. The Heats, FM Knives, and a million other bubblegum, glam, pop rock songs that I wished I knew the names of. After the show, I was the designated driver and the room sort of degenerated into absurdity. One person who I will not mention but that I will hereafter designate as "weed rage" was being sooooo funny. Not like "I'm laughing at you because you're drunk" but like "you are hilarious, sir!" or madam, as the case may be.
Now for some food talk. Much like the undercover caterer, I was inspired by the new Saveur's story on "Roman food" (as in the food of city of Rome). Instead of the bucatini alla amatricia that she made, I drooled over this oxtail stew.
On Saturday, I happened to be eating at the little lunch counter at Toledo's (which by the way, if my article with Rick Ele didn't persuade you to try that place I'm going to urge you once again to try the al pastor), when I noted that their spick n' span little meat department had oxtails (or "rabo" in Spanish). Easy!
Here's the holy triad to make the sofrito.
Here are the oxtails. Two pounds for around 9 bucks. One question-is that the spinal cord in the middle? OK, two questions-does this mean I'm going to get mad cow?
First you brown them in some oil for about ten minutes.
Then you take them out and saute the sofrito. My knife skills are bad so the ingredients are a long way from "mince".
After the saute, you add the tomato paste and cook for about 6 minutes. Then you add wine and evaporate it for 6 more. I used some nastay chardonnay so I really took care to evaporate it out. Then a whole can of San Marzano tomatoes, the oxtails, and some water. Simmer for almost three hours until the meat is sliding off the bone. You really need to skim some of the fat. Oxtails are really fatty.
Here's the finished product! The only bullshit part of the recipe was the whole stalks of celery. That prep just made them impossible to eat. The strings seemed to toughen up in the cooking.
This is a wall sculpture at The Graduate in Davis. Does anyone know anything about it? Is it Stan Bitters? No one there seems to know.

12 comments:

mt.st.mtn. said...

"weed rage" went girl-drink-drunk and couldn't keep his pants on. funny to see justin nobunny get all awkward around a dude with his ding-a-ling hangin' out. other favorite of the night was woodhaus violently throwing our amps into the back of the van yelling "IT'S JUST TETRIS! IT'S NOT THAT FUCKING HARD"! That and Mike R Mike dressed as Benny Kravitz.

Anonymous said...

Cathy of California (who is awesome) did a cool photo shoot of the Stan Bitters art at Duncan Enterprises in Fresno. There are medallions exactly like the one at the Graduate there.

http://cathyofcalifornia.typepad.com/cathy_of_california/2009/08/index.html

gbomb

beckler said...

I knew it was him! I have wanted to make a pilgrimage to Fresno to check out his stuff there. Maybe on my way to Mono this summer. I have a fantasy that the Graduate will sell me one of those for my backyard. But they have one on their tshirts so I know they value them. I recommend the Stan Bitters book "Environmental Ceramics". I checked it out from the UC Davis library.

HK said...

Hey! We have those red and yellow flowers too. They are so cool! Best part is that they require no maintenance.

Anonymous said...

If you strike out trying to dismantle Davis's Graduate, try Stockton's. Same Bitters pottery! It's on Country Club Blvd.

-ec

DJ Rick said...

I'm about 95% sure that the crowd-surfer gal had panties on, but they were extremely minimalist. In case my girlfriend reads this....I only noticed because it was about five inches away right in front of me at one point, and I was only concerned for her safety.

That show was great! The manic reaction to NoBunny was amazing, but the spot-on perfection of The Rantouls was the thing that impressed me the most. Gotta bring them back to Sacto soon!

beckler said...

are you telling me I hallucinated bush? i guess it was pretty dark in there.

rantouls are taking a break because the fevers are going to go on tour. but yeah, we should try to get them to sac. they love sac, so it won't be that hard.

Charles Albright said...

" I hallucinated bush".

Man that happened to me in '95. And it wasn't the GOOD kind of Bush.

Charles

DJ Rick said...

I'm hazarding a guess of a black-on-white lace floral thing going on.

mt.st.mtn. said...

are you sure rick? becky was pretty frazzled, like she got a dose of some serious demi moore in the 80's, silver-back, pube-pants mega bush. like you could lose your keys in it. i made a gross-face after she told me the story about it and she was about to rip into some "yeah, girls with pubic hair, totally gross mysoginist man" 90's evergreen state thing - then she went, "yeah it was pretty gnarly".

Anonymous said...

Something to watch...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQiCoDLgyBY&feature=player_embedded#

Anonymous said...

Sorry Mike C. -- I'm heading to Chico for that bitchin' Puddle of Mudd show.

-- Patrone