Late With Daniel

I'm not sure if I went on the record here about my tastes in late night talk show programming (there will be another post discussing programs vs. shows).

I used to catch Conan every wohniclee (sorry but that is once in a while) when he was on at 11:30. He had the hipper musical guests and there were often super funny moments during his guest interviews. I never enjoyed Jay Leno, so I watched Letterman if I was watching a show, but normally it depended on who the guests were, musical and otherwise. I usually like Craig Ferguson, but don't watch him. I like his email segment and the "What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?" at the end.

This brings us to the big shift when Leno was bumped for Conan. I have the new Tonight Show on season pass since the beginning. Conan's monologue usually isn't that great, but he understands this and isn't below mocking it to get laughs. He still has fun moments with his guests, but probably not as outlandish as before.

When I first saw Jimmy Fallon's show, I was not impressed. He still can't keep a straight face, and his interviews are either sycophantic, or with his cast mates from SNL and very buddy buddy. I do appreciate a couple things about his show though. The Roots are a really great house band. And from the little I've seen from The Steve Allen Show, mostly from PBS documentaries on the Pioneers of Television, Fallon has a lot of similar games and fun with his guests like Allen did. I admire this. I think if Fallon is given the freedom to explore this goofy side he might be more comfortable, and you'll get a better overall show.

olid gold.

I watch Top Chef, and a couple of the "cheftestants" are brothers well-versed in "molecular gastronomy" (the Voltaggio brothers). This basically means they use technologically advanced techniques to change the texture and temperature of food to challenge how eaters approach food. Wylie Dufresne is a popular chef of this school (his restaurant is wd~50). Another chef and restaurant of this ilk is Grant Achatz and Alinea. I see his recipes on the blog Alinea at Home, and it seems they always start with pureeing, straining, and turning a food into a gel with agar agar or some other thickening agent.

In addition to gels, there are also foams and airs. Sometimes a spice smoke is trapped over a dish with plastic wrap and then you cut the plastic with a knife to release the air (and the experience). This got me to thinking about the essence of things, and which is the purest form.

Gas, Liquid, Solid, Plasma?

Is the soul of popcorn the corn saturated steam? Is an herbal infusion distilled to an extract the best way to capture a spice? Is a diamond the purest expression of carbon?

In the movie Cold Souls, they extract the soul and store it in glass containers not dissimilar in shape and size to the vacuum tubes at a bank drive thru. Paul Giamatti's soul is the size, shape, and color of a chickpea.
*drop cap by Jessica Hische

Medical Beer

Jeff Evan's A Beer a Day entry for the day talks about a time of Medical Beer:

But there was another branch of American society that was also hindering the country from staying dry – declared temperance campaigners – and that was the nation’s medical fraternity.

A loophole in the 18th Amendment to the US constitution, which introduced Prohibition to America in 1920, allowed doctors to prescribe alcohol as they would any other medication.

In a country where strong spirits were traditionally considered effective methods of seeing off colds and other ailments, this should not be surprising. Even today, the benefits of alcohol – when taken in moderation – are recognised by physicians, as ways of easing stress or reducing heart disease, for instance.

The anti-alcohol brigade didn’t see things the same way. Their hard-won victory for enforced abstinence looked set to be eradicated by doctors liberally handing out prescriptions for booze.

According to a feature in The Smithsonian magazine, it was even suggested that drug stores should be able to supply beer over the counter, alongside the soft drinks they sold to kids. The erstwhile triumphant temperance lobby hit the roof, forcing the Government to back track and reconsider the doctors’ exemption.

Consequently, on 23 November 1921, prescriptions of wine and liquor were made subject to new limitations and it became illegal for doctors to prescribe beer.

Other news I got today is that cherimoya.com now has cherimoya available in season again. For 34.95 including shipping you get five pounds, usually six, of cherimoya. And if available they use fresh lemons as part of the packing material. I find that a half of a large cherimoya serves one nicely, so though they're about 6 bucks each, it's only 3 per serving, and what a tasty serving at that. I very highly recommend them (I've already placed my order). They also have small cherimoya available for free samples if you're pensive.

I realized today that Clint Eastwood will be working with Morgan Freeman for at least the third time. I can think of Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby previously, and now we have Invictus, with Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as captain of South Africa's rugby team.

Pivot by Lipton with Swank and Apatow

The Key: 1. favorite word, 2. least favorite word, 3. What turns you on?, 4. What turns you off?, 5. What is your favorite sound?, 6. Least favorite sound?, 7. favorite curse word, 8. profession other than your own you'd most like to try, 9. profession you'd never like to attempt, 10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

Hilary Swank

1. infinity
2. crotch
3. passion
4. I'll say inequality right now
5. baby's laughter
6. kinda cliché but things scratching on other chalkboardy things
7. ass
8. photography
9. hair styling
10. "Good effort."

Judd Apatow (By the way, I love that his movies get the adjective Apatovian.)
1. hilarious
2. prick
3. men, I mean Mann, Leslie Mann
4. I guess cruelty, unless it's done right, then it turns me on.
5. the sound of guffaws
6. Silence, 'cause then I have to hear the voices in my head.
7. Fuck-off Mr. Lipton.
8. A monk, like a Buddhist monk, so I could conquer the quiet.
9. Secretary of Defense
10. "Hey, we let in Jews too."

Football

Tonight my sister and I are going to Nebraska's last home football game of the year. If they win, they win their division and get to play in the conference championship, which if they win that game, they'll get to play in the Bowl Championship Series, which means millions more dollars in revenue for the school and conference.

All that said, the game is even more important for Kansas State. It is KSU's last game of their season, if they lose. If they win, they become bowl eligible and win the division and play for the conference championship. So a lot hinges on their play tonight, a game in which they're 16.5 point underdogs.

The Pie

The grains of paradise work. There's this kinda pepper tang at the back of the mouth that lets the apple do its thing on the rest of the tongue. I used a tablespoon of the spice, which might be too much, especially when I looked up Alton Brown's recipe again (on my saved dvr list) and he only used a quarter teaspoon with a combo of salt and maybe one other spice. Another suggestion he had on that show was to use caraway, which according to him is the common spice pairing for apples in Scandinavia.

Music for the Holidays/Gift-Wish List

ne of my default gifts for my mother on Christmas is music. In the past I've given her Chris Rice, Sara Groves, and Breaking Sand from Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. Last year, if I remember right, was a cd of Willie Nelson's Red-Headed Stranger (one they already had on cassette).

Hoping to stick with what works again this year, there are some new candidates:

Crosby, Stills, and Nash Christmas

And while we're talking about Christmas albums, how about Bob Dylan's Christmas? But my mother was more of a Willie Nelson hippie than a Dylan hippie. One of my many friends on Facebook commented that Bob Dylan is perfect for mondegreens. Which takes me to this post from The Pioneer Woman.

Next up (and including a Dylan Song), Roseanne Cash's The List.

Last Saturday I went to a concert in Omaha, for the opening group Elizabeth & the Catapult (the headliner was Justin Nozuka). I normally try to be on time for concerts, but it seems that often the venue does not. So I thought I had some leeway in arriving at the concert. However, ten minutes late was ten minutes late and I missed half of Elizabeth and company's set. I did catch their music video single and title track, Taller Children, and their cover of Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows, so it wasn't a complete loss. I also got a cd, which I'm enjoying a lot, signed.

And for me, I think I've mentioned before that I really like Mel Tormé's recording of The Christmas Song. What I didn't know until I was looking for a link is that he was one of the writers. One of the things I like about the song is the end:

Love and Joy come to you and to all your loved ones too, and God bless you and send you a happy new year.

*my drop cap came from Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische

The Perfect Burger Condiment and a Tablespoon of Paradise

Tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, he had a NY chef who won a burger cookoff. The chef felt that his key ingredient was a caramelized onion and bacon jam. Then, not twenty minutes of television later, on Last Call with Carson Daly, Carson was at a Culver City bar called Father's Office, with 72 taps and what is considered one of the best burgers in LA. The burger is a special blend of meat with Maytag blue cheese, Gruyere, arugula, and a caramelized onion and applewood bacon compôte. So from NY to LA the way to a great burger is a bacon and caramelized onion jam/compôte. All that is left is for me to find out how to make it.

In more important food news, my grains of paradise apple pie is less than ten minutes from coming out of the oven. If the aroma of the sugar, cornstarch, spice mixture is an indicator, I'm pretty optimistic that it will taste good. Verdict to come.

I have an opportunity for my readers. I make pies quite a bit which requires that put slits in the top of the pie to let steam escape. Because I do this a lot, I thought it would be nice to have a signature pattern. I understand it might be hard to explain, but I would appreciate any suggestions to get me in the right direction.

Catching Up

This morning's Big Band Show: When Melody Was King featured the songs of Dorothy Fields, the other half of The Way You Look Tonight from Jerome Kern. She was also part of the team that wrote the songs for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The song from that show that was played on the radio was I'll Buy You A Star ("and not just a star, but the best one" kinda puts the name a star for $50 gift to shame). Another line in that song I liked was "I'll get you a silver chain made from the rain of a Summer afternoon."

Another thing I'm catching up on is that pie. I went home for lunch today just to make the crust, so I could bake the pie tonight. In other food related stuff, that Nicaraguan (that is a tricky word to type) dry-process coffee was very good, and I even kinda miss it, now that I'm grinding another Ethiopian Sidamo dry-process.