Endorsements - Comedy

Okay, okay, so I didn't get around to doing the endorsements weekly (I know, you're shocked).  This week's theme is Comedy, or at least what I think is funny.

Book: My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster  This is Lancaster's 5th book and she's still hitting them out of the park.  Jen is from Huntington, IN and went to Purdue before moving to Chicago.  After losing her job in the post-911 DotCom crash, she kept her sanity through 2 years of unemployment by blogging.  Her sarcastic rants got such a following that she was offered a book deal to write about the ordeal (Bitter is the New Black).  He subsequent books chronicle how life in the big city isn't like they show it on TV (Bright Lights, Big Ass), her weight loss struggle (Such a Pretty Fat) and how fashion has been the one constant in her life (Pretty in Plaid).  All of the books are available in hardcover, and the old ones are in paperback and Kindle edition as well.

Podcast: The Nerdist  Hosted by Chris Hardwick and based on his website. Chris is a stand-up comedian and hosts several shows on the nerdy-science-tecnology-video gaming network G4. Each week on the free podcast, Chris (along with his side-kicks Matt Mira and Jonah Ray) interviews a comedian about the craft of comedy, how technology is changing media, and other such topics with lots of nerdy tomfoolery thrown in. Most of the hour-long podcasts are fairly explicit (think HBO comedy special, not Comedy Central). Guest have included Joel McHale, Drew Carey, Jim Gaffigan, and Tom Lennon.  Speaking of Tom Lennon...

TV: Reno 911! Comedy Central's hit about the Reno, NV sheriff's department (Cops! meets The Office). The show is written by three of the cast members (Tom Lennon, Kerri Kenney, and Robert Ben Garant) but has a lot of ad-libing. Re-runs are on Comedy Central and Logo all the time, but get the DVD's (all 6 seasons available on Netflix) for all the hilarious out-takes. For me the bet part is seeing all the actors play recurring suspects (always with their faces blurred out)

Music: Fountains of Wayne Welcome Interstate Managers   While not technically a comedy album, all of the songs are quirky and catchy, and most of them have ingeniously funny lyrics. Once you get past the overplayed "Stacy's Mom", the rest of the album is a great mix of upbeat pop (Bright Future in Sales, Little Red Light), classic country (Hung Up on You), folk (Valley Winter Song, Yours and Mine) and psychedelic (Peace and Love, Supercollider)

Endorsements Week of 4/26/10

Inspired by Slate's culture and political Gabfests, I'm starting a weekly endorsements section. This week's theme is "Around the World (if only in my mind)"

Book: Behaving Like Adults by Anna Maxted. Maxted is a 30-something British writer in the same vein as Marian Keyes and Helen Fielding. Her books are the height of chick-lit, funny and emotional with a not completely predictable happy ending. The best part is they only get better with re-reading. This book revolves around Holly, her dating agency Boy Meets Girl, and her struggle to grow up while still maintaining her child-like heart. Available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle edition from Amazon.

Podcast: A History of the World in 100 Objects. Neil MacGregor, curator of the British Museum, takes you through the entire history of humanity through objects in the museum's collection. The daily episodes focus on one object and are about 15 minutes long and each week is grouped into a theme. The first 1/3 is available on iTunes with new episodes coming in a few months. I suggest listening to a week's worth at a time (they were great during my car trip this weekend from Highland to Peoria to Kokomo and back home). Available from iTunes and the BBC 4 website.

TV: Corner Gas. This Canadian sit-com centers around the gas station/diner in the small town of Dog River, Saskatchewan (think middle-of-nowhere Kansas). Seinfeld meets Andy Griffith, this show is pure comedy with none of the seasons-long interpersonal dramas that so often bog down American sit-coms (like the Friends Ross-and-Rachel saga). It's not surprising that my Dad's favorite character is Oscar Leroy, the retired former gas station owner who's hobbies include referring to everyone as "jackass", putting his carpentry skills to use by (poorly) building his own coffin, and harassing the local police into guarding his freshly poured sidewalk from would-be name writers. The series ended last fall, but all 6 seasons are available on DVD and the first 4 are on Netflix.

Music: Jamie Cullum. American standards with a modern rock/pop twist. Cullum, 30 years old, grew up in the tiny village of Hullavington, about 2 hours west of London. His records have steadily moved away from his jazz/show-tune base into more of his original work, but they've consistently maintained his high-energy, free-ranging piano and wailing vocals. My favorites are "It Ain't Necessarily So" from Pointless Nostalgic, "Lover, You Should've Com Over" from Twentysomething, and "Photograph" from Catching Tales. Ben and I saw him live in Durham a few years ago and it was hands down the best concert I've ever been to. He performed a whole song (lead and back-up vocals, bass, melody and percussion) with just a piano, a mic, and a sampler. Amazing!

Food: Jamie Olliver's "Jamie at Home". Another young Brit, Oliver's style is simple classics with an Italian flair. This newest Food Network series and companion cookbook is set on Jamie's country farmhouse in Essex. Each episode focuses on one classic English ingredient (potatoes, onions, salad, carrots and beets, etc.) and shows it from dirt to table. He has the same exuberant experimental attitude of Jamie Cullum.

Sushi Success

Since we left Cary we've been on an unsuccessful hunt for a new favorite sushi place that can rival Sushi Thai and isn't an hour away in The City. You'll all recall our first attempt at at-home sushi ended in tears and recriminations when 1) the sticky rice wouldn't stick to anything and 2) my knife kept smashing the rolls instead of cutting them. Well fear not my friends, a recent trip to Meijer revealed a new miracle product: Annie Chun's Rice Bowls!

This model comes with a microwaveable bowl of white rice (also available in brown), 12 nori strips and a wee packet of soy sauce. Per Ben's usual caution, I did a dry run with plain cucumber rolls and learned that 1) the rice is indeed sticky, although it's a little bland and 2) the nori strips are meant for rolling individual pieces, so not very efficient.

The success of this test prompted a full-out sushi-making craving which could only be satisfied by a trip to the Whole Foods South Loop (possibly the most glorious, albeit overpriced, grocery store ever). For 3 sets of rolls, here was my shopping list:

• 2 rice bowls (this time I switched to the ones with only rice)
• a rolling mat
• a package of pre-toasted nori sheets
• sriracha sauce (the smooth type is best, but the kind with the pepper seeds will work, too)
• gari (pickled ginger garnish)
• 2 oz smoked salmon
• 8 oz king crab legs
• 4 large sea scallops
• 1 brick cream cheese
• 1 avocado
• 1 cucumber (the small, extra-crunchy Kirby type work best)
• green onions
• 3 meyer lemons (a cross between a regular lemon and a tangerine)
  

I rounded this out with some supplies from my pantry:

• rice wine vinegar
• sugar
• kosher salt
• panko breadcrumbs
  

First step: make the rice. I microwaved both bowls for 1 minute, then gently folded in a mixture of 2 T rice wine vinegar, 2 tsp sugar and 2 tsp salt (adjust as needed for your taste). All of the rolls have the same basic assembly. Lay a sheet of nori on the mat rough-side up. Get your hands wet, then spread 1/3 of the rice evenly on the nori, going all the way to the side edges but leaving a strip of nori about 1/4 inch from the top and bottom. Lay the vegetable (or cream cheese) in an inch-wide strip about 1/3 of the way from the bottom. Top with meat then sprinkle on garnish. Roll firmly . Wet your slicing knife and cut through the roll with a sawing motion. (See Good Eats episode "Wake up Little Sushi" for a demo). I used a full sheet of nori for each roll and cut it into 8 pieces that were skinny but had a large diameter.

Spicy Crab roll: take all of the meat out of the crab and mix with mayo (1 tsp) and sriracha (a few squirts) until the mixture stays together and is to your taste spice-wise. Peel and seed the cucumber then cut into long strips. Assemble as instructed, using panko (3-4 Tbsp) as the garnish.

Japanese Bagel roll: leave the cream cheese in the foil packet and make 1/2 oz slices (you'll need 3-4 per roll). Cut the smoked salmon (~2oz per roll) into strips. Slice the green onion thinly (I used the greens only from 1 large stalk)

Scallop roll (my own creation): pat the scallops dry and sear in a mix of butter and olive oil for 90 seconds on each side. Rest for a couple minutes then slice cross-ways to get 8 circles (you'll only need about 7 for the roll, so you can enjoy the last one as-is). Cut 1/4 of a avocado into 4 thin slices. Zest the meyer lemons, reserving 1 tsp for the sushi and the rest for the granita.

The full spread.

Spicy crab and Japanese Bagel

Scallop roll.

To use the left-over meyer lemons, I tried to replicate the fruit gelato/sorbet at Henry's. Here's what I came up with. Dissolve 1+1/8 cup sugar in 3/4 cup water over medium heat. Add the lemon zest and simmer for 5 minutes to extract all the lemony goodness. Strain out the zest, then stir in the juice of the 3 lemons. (If you don't have meyer lemons, use 2 tangerines and 1 regular lemon). Transfer the mixture to a metal pan (9x13 works best) and put in the freezer. Stir every 15-20 minutes, will set to the consistency of gelato in about 3 hours.

For all of you NC-expats, I hope this will help you re-create the Sushi Thai/Henry's Gelato experience. For all of you still living near Cary, PLEASE try these places because they're awesome and family-owned (if you don't like sushi, they also have a full menu of Thai noodles, stir fries and soups, so you're bound to find something you like!)

No, we did didn't fall off the face of the earth...

I know I said I wasn't going to be one of those people who started a blog and ceased writing after a few posts, but things have been a little crazy in the Ruf house the past 2 months. Here's a quick run-down of where we're at.

We moved to Highland, IN at the start of August. Dad and Stan flew down to help us pack the truck and get both cars up here, which was a HUGE help. Not helpful, however, was my dad getting rear-ended in my brand new car only about 10 blocks from the new apartment. Thankfully Pammie's looking great with a new bumper and paint job. Our place is really starting to look like a home, thanks in large part to a weekend of decorating with my mom. Pictures coming soon. We're slowly adjusting to life in "The Region". Biggest plus: the weather. Biggest minus: lack of fancy grocery stores/ good non-chain restaurants.

Ben started at the Northern District of Indiana court shortly after the move. It's the same district as Ft. Wayne, so he already knows most of the people. He does something with the network, but so far he really hasn't had anything do to, so I'm sure he'd love it if you g-chat or call him. There's only so much time you can waste at TWoP and BestBuy.com before you go slowly insane.

Guess what, I got a job! I'm a research tech in a lab at the University of Chicago. We study antibiotic-resistant Staph (MRSA, VISA, etc.). I'm supposed to be studying the mechanisms of the VraS/R system, but since the lab moved to a brand new building 2 weeks after I started, I've been mainly unpacking, organizing, and dealing with the movers (right up my alley, I know). My lab-mates are great, but my bosses are a husband and wife team who are polar opposites when it comes to everything, so I spend most days wanting to poke someone with a sharp stick, but it's getting better. Since I'm taking the train into the city each day, stay tuned for my ever-expanding list of things I hate about public transportation.

So, now you know what we're doing. More detailed posts to follow (I promise they'll be more frequent than every 2 months, really)

Comment testing

As Tim so helpfully pointed out, the comments form wasn't appearing. I think I've fixed the settings, so let's find out.

Things overheard...

I finally understand exactly what Lewis Black was talking about in his "if it wasn't for my horse" shtick. I'm walking through the Target in Cary (for those of you not from the NC, it's a fancy-pants suburb of Raleigh, kinda like Carmel is to Indy) and I overhear a mom and daughter in the back-to-school section. The little girl (about 8 or 9 by the looks of her), is clutching a cute white backpack with pink swirls saying "THIS is the one I want!" Mom pulls a face, and I'm expecting the next words out of her mouth to be along the lines of "a white backpack isn't practical, it'll be filthy by the end of the week", "you don't need a new one, last year's is perfectly fine", "you know in my day we didn't even HAVE backpacks. We had to tie our books together with a belt, then walk to school, uphill, both ways!" etc. But instead she looks the girl straight in the face and says, "You know, Land's End makes one that looks just like this. Wouldn't you like that one instead?"

As I continue my shopping in another section, I can't help but stew over this. What mother in her right mind tries to convince her kid to get the one that's 3 times as expensive?!? I try to find a way to justify it. Maybe she knows someone who can get her a sweet discount. Maybe she thinks the expensive one will be more durable. Who knows.

5 or 10 minutes go by and I find myself walking by the back-to-school section again. They're still there, fighting over the same backpack! It's then that I realize that Mom has no good reason other than she wants to rub it in the other mom's faces that they can afford the good stuff. I am SO glad we're getting out of this crazy town and back to the Midwest where people act sensibly!

Vacation pictures (a.k.a. I finally figure out how to work the camera)

I've finally figured out 1) how to use the camera and 2) how to incorporate pictures into the blog. Look at me, being all tech-savvy. (This is the part where Ben rolls his eyes and says "if you'd just asked me for help, you could have know all this stuff 2 years ago when we got the stupid thing!). So, for your viewing pleasure, some of the vacation highlights.

4th of July - Clear Lake

From our beach, watching the fireworks being lauched from the island

The last remnants of sunset

I finally figured out how to work the "continuous photo" feature. Behold the fruits of my labor:

It's Up

It's Beautiful

It's Over

(At this point I would normally make some sort of crude joke about the above captions, but this is a family show after all)

Very artistic shot of the lights across the lake

(or me swinging the camera around too fast, take your pick)

Sean and Sarah's Wedding

Sean and Ben, once they realized I was taking pictures

(Ben was the "Stunt Best Man" because Roy was driving in from Wisconsin)

Off to the ceremony.

I can't believed we actually managed to not blink, have real smiles, and not look like we were being tortured (this is a rare event, as evidenced by the pics that Chris and Jill took later on)

More fun with the stop animation feature. I think it's a little unfair that everyone only takes pictures of the bride walking down the isle and forgets that this is a big moment for the groom

Sean sees Sarah for the first time

Starting to loose it

And he makes a heroic recovery!

There's the grin we know and love

Shannon doing her thing

Ben and Chris rocking it out

Hopefully I'll have more pics once Suzanne gets the formal ones finished.