Ploafmaster General

In what's ultimately a very expensive commercial for some Cava, Martin Scorcese pays fine homage to Hitchcock with this short film:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zCD1R19bJs&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

(via Coudal, by way of Gruber, but this was just too good not to post on my own site)

Oh my gentle gentrification...The first direct-to-DVD Futurama movie is out: Bender's Big Score.

Now I have to see exactly what's meant by "Very Long Wait" from Netflix...

I found this excellent photo set taken with a vintage Pentacon 6 Tl Medium Format Camera by the Flickr user Edward Olive.

This is one of my favorites...I think because of it's sense of place, as it were:

As Christmas approaches and the weather turns chilly, I'm reminded that it's Eggnog Time. And I LOVE eggnog.

Or, at least, I love the stuff you buy in the carton. I've never actually had homemade eggnog, alcoholic or otherwise. I'm hoping, however, that this changes tonight when I attempt to follow Alton Brown's recipe that I found on NPR's website (though didn't he do this on Good Eats as well?) while searching for the history of the beverage.

You can check out the interview with Alton on NPR's Weekend Edition from last year in '06, along with the reprinted recipes for both the Nog and the frozen version.

UPDATE: Holy CRAP, it's amazing. What a difference the freshness makes - and it's not even chilled yet. I think I'll break it back out of the fridge when Scrubs comes on tonight.

Two Medieval Physicians Debate Universal Health Care on McSweeney's.

Finally, something to make my day feel a little brighter.

Tonight I finished reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Let me start by reiterating that I generally have trouble reading non-fiction. Consequently I have stayed mainly in the realm of the imaginary, save for the occasional essay. If this book, then, has accomplished one thing, it has shown me that non-fiction narrative writing can hold my attention from start to finish.

Pollan spends his 400+ pages unfolding what I can only describe as an exposé of eating. Sure, the subtitle claims the book is "A Natural History of Four Meals," but I feel the balance tips more in favor of process than past leading up to the food we eat. This serves my nerdy side quite well, feeding me (ha ha) plenty of both trivial and significant tidbits about the food industry, agriculture, and harvesting. The author's story-telling style grabbed me from the first chapter, captivating me with tales of corn harvests and mycophelia - topics I'd scarce considered on my own even as a burgeoning foodie. Over the past week I've found myself reading in bed just to finish one more chapter about grass farming, wild pigs, or feed lots.

For all the enjoyable reading Omnivore provides, however, what strikes me most about this book is how it's affected me. Other than the Bible, I've never read a book that so made me want to change how I live my life as Mr. Pollan's Opus (...look, I'm entitled to a really crappy joke every now and again). Having read about the effects of industrialized agriculture on the health of our nation's people, farms, environment, and economy, and the health and taste benefits of more naturally raised livestock and produce, I earnestly plan to seek out food co-ops, pastured meat producers, and local food purveyors than I presently patronize. Sure it'll cost more in dollars, but I believe in the long run my cooking will benefit, and so will my health. This book is a potential instigator of change in my life, and that's more valuable (or at least more intriguing) than simple entertainment.

I've held back on posts related to my reading of this book - partly because it was published last year and I'm (as usual) late to the party - but also because I didn't want to give away what I was in the middle of reading. The Eatwild.com entry was a hint, and I'm likely to post more related links and such about natural food and the industrial food system we have in the US. Don't worry, this won't become some crazy soap box where I rail against the American Culinary-Industrial Complex. I will, however, whole-heartedly recommend to everybody reading my website to find this book and give it a perusal.

In the meantime, I anxiously await his follow-up, In Defense of Food, to be released in January.

Holy CRAP, Madballs are back!



(via Uncrate)

YouTube find of the day (so far):

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5H-wi8wmQA&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

While David Lebovitz is perhaps best known for his pastry, books, and work at Chez Panisse, but he also takes some fantastic photographs of food (and a few other things) - much of which he's concocted himself. The picture of Pistachio Gelato below makes my mouth water.

It's unsettling when you stop to evacuate on your way to the kitchen to grab lunch, and the office restroom smells disconcertingly like the yeasty aroma characteristic of a Dunkin' Donuts.

That is all.

Some time next week I expect to take delivery of this fine article:



Now, in addition to the shirt Valerie gave me on our anniversary, I can show my pride for the New York Giants (who miserably lost to the Vikings on Sunday) and pretend I played for them all at the same time. w00t!!!

I found this excellent picture on Flickr today from user Jake Fouts, apparently punching himself in the face:



He has a few other cool photos, too. I'm a fan of "Not Enough Time," "Big Food," and "Live Room".

I first read about the difference in taste between corn-fed and grass-fed beef in a Slate article last year, and I was interested. Now, for reasons I'll elaborate on in a week or so, I'm looking to get the meat I cook from naturally-raised sources. This means grass fed cows, so I'm trying to find places in and around Richmond where I can procure the product I seek, and Eatwild.com seems to be an excellent starting point with a thorough by-state directory of pasture-based farms for chicken, cows, pigs, et al.

Nobody does Thanksgiving quite like McSweeney's.

Today is the day after Thanksgiving, and in my eyes, the REAL start of the Christmas Season.

I love Thanksgiving so much that I can't really pay attention to Christmas until after the November holiday passes. This means no Christmas music, no Christmas shopping, and no Christmas recipes until the fourth Friday of the month. It helps, I feel, that Advent doesn't begin until after Thanksgiving (is that always the case?).

Of course now that Thanksgiving has indeed passed for this year, I've got my Christmas play list ready on the computer and iPod, and I'm looking forward to the hymns we'll be singing in Church starting next Sunday. Perhaps I'll even work on some traditional Italian desserts for this time of year...

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Posting will be light over the next few days while I'm in Northern VA (and DE on Saturday!), but then I expect reading will be light here as well while everybody does what I'm doing, spending time with family and friends.

Have a blast, watch some NFL Football, eat too much food, and relax all night.

I hope he never stops, because this is at least as amazing as The Show.

http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fzefrank%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss&file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F498373&brandlink=http%3A%2F%2Fzefrank%2Ecom%2F&brandname=zefrank&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf

I don't have much to say other than I thought this was pretty freaking sweet.

Okay, so today seems to have been YouTube day on my site, but I have yet MORE clips before the day is done...

I know that advertising isn't typically the most original creative media, but I've noticed a more obvious pattern lately. First this one from Aflac using some classic characters in an all animated commercial:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJbX0oPWyxQ&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Then I caught this attempt from Alltel (whose ads I already despise) using ersatz renditions of the 60's stop-motion Santa:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwxJq6jWq9A&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

And just this evening I discovered that even Big Lots has joined the retro Christmas Special party with this (one of two!) mixed-media number:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73w4xysn6Sw&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Come on, guys. Either the same bird whispered in the ear of all three firms, or they got the same sneaky ad agency. Either way it feels like the perfect storm of ad-theme overload to me.

I'm unabashedly a huge fan of Alton Brown, chef and hero to nerdy would-be cooks the world over. I watch Good Eats almost any time its on, and I feel that as Thanksgiving approaches, it's worth mentioning his episode about deep-fried turkey. He put together detailed instructions and a blueprint that you can download from his website (it's a PDF, just so you know), but I've also included a clip below that shows the Turkey Derrick in action:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9mq29BaLLk&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

My excellent wife pointed me to a series of commercials for some North Carolina car dealerships. The entire collection features a throaty, anthropomorphized badger who sells cars, and some of them are pretty funny. This one, however, is my clear favorite:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMrtokRku20&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

This video for a song by Noah and the Whale makes me think of Wes Anderson making a music video using a Super 8 camera. Maybe it's the use of all that Futura lettering? Anyway, it was actually directed by one James Copeman who seems to have made a few other delightful films.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRX5kH6IrkY&rel=1&w=425&h=355]
(via swissmiss)

My older brother just called to let me know that he and his wife are expecting a girl!

This is significant since she will be the first female born on either side of my family since my late cousin Amy (God rest her soul) twenty years ago.

Otherwise, the concentration of males in my family is quite high - my dad is one of five and has three brothers, one sister. My mom is one of three and has two brothers. Each of my aunts and uncles that have had children have boys except for my Uncle Brian who fathered my cousins Tara (Mugs' age) and Amy.

Now there will be a little girl by late March to be doted on and spoiled by a large family of semi-old-fashioned guys. Heaven help the grandparents :-)

Tonight my Bible study group met for dinner with the hosting couple making the main dish and everybody else contributing another meal component. There were beverages, bread, a cheese plate, and appetizers.

I volunteered to make dessert, and that dessert was a chocolate tart using a recipe from Tyler Florence via the Food Network website.

Let me provide a little back story before I continue. Since Friday was Valerie's birthday, I decided I wanted to surprise her by baking a cake. Her favorite cake is strawberry with strawberry frosting (I believe), and I didn't want to use a boxed mix or canned icing. Everything seemed to be going well until the layers started baking - and failed to rise. I think the baking powder had lost its leavening ability. You see, while I cook all the time I haven't done much baking - particularly with food that rises in the oven.

This made me a bit nervous about making pastry, and understandably - this was no simple recipe.

There are essentially two key components to the tart - the pastry crust and the filling. Each presented challenges of their own. The crust, for example, was easy to mix. It was complex to cook, however. After mixing it was chilled, rolled, pressed into the tart pan, trimmed, chilled again, blind baked (!!!), egg-washed, and baked a little more. The filling seemed to be a cross between a ganache and custard - bittersweet chocolate melting into hot cream and milk with the addition of some salt, sugar, and two eggs. Those eggs were the interesting part as I had to temper them before adding them to the rest of the hot liquid. You see, you don't want to add raw eggs to hot liquid or you get chocolate egg-drop soup. So I first had to add small portions of the chocolate mixture to the eggs while whisking until the eggs warmed up - and THEN I could pour it all into the whole.

Thankfully, the result was AMAZING. I garnished every slice with a fresh blackberry, and the dessert was a hit with everybody. Most importantly (to me), I enjoyed the pastry. The crust was butterific, the filling was seriously rich and delicious, and the last bite with the blackberry was exquisite.

I believe I'll be baking quite a bit more in the future :-)