Month: June 2007

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RANT: “Replacement Music” on TV Shows on DVD

This week’s rant may sound silly, but bear with me while I try to justify my anger. You see, the people that produce television shows are required to obtain a license for most of the “pop music” you hear on a TV show’s soundtrack. I’m not talking about the instrumental “classical-type” music you hear in the background; that music was probably created specifically for the show or is part of the studio’s ‘stock library’ that it can use in any production. No, I’m talking about the sort of music you’d hear on the radio. Many shows that appeal to younger audiences like The OC, Veronica Mars and Popular – shows that often have the “this show featured music by…” ad just before the end credits start rolling – use this type of music. The problem – and this rant – comes when the shows get transferred to DVD. Many times it’s simply too expensive for the studio to license the music that appeared on the original show. Other times it’s just too confusing; for example, if a song has three songwriters, each might have his or her own publisher for the song’s rights. So instead of dealing with one company, the studio in this example has to deal with three – not to mention the actual songwriters and\or their estates. Needless to say, it can get quite confusing.

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RANT: TLC’s “Command Decisions” Show

Have you guys seen the show Command Decisions on The Learning Channel? It’s a show with a cool premise: take a historical battle and give the viewer three options per point-in-time about how he or she would do it. The only problem with the show is that it takes the decision the commander made and makes it the right one. Sometimes this makes sense – lots of times the questions relate to technical issues. For example, the question might be “how should George Washington begin the attack?” and the “official” answer would be “because it’s raining, muskets won’t fire reliably. Sneak up on the British from behind and use bayonets”. OK, that makes sense. The last thing I’d want to hear while staring down thousands of British troops would be seven thousand “clicks” from the wet gunpowder in my troops’ muskets. But at other times, the questions and answers are far more ambiguous. Like: “George Washington gets to the end of a road. Both roads lead to the same town, are equally straight, have an equal incline and equal cover. The British are equidistant from both roads and face the same terrain no matter which way they pursue you. Which way do you turn?” Of course, the official answer is “left – because that’s the way George Washington did it!”

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News and Updates for 06/21/2007

First of all, allow me to introduce my newest website: http://www.belmontpc.info. If you’re in the Charlotte area and are having computer problems, give us a call at 704-800-1573 and we’ll get you fixed up!

So – what’s going on in the world? A five acre lake in Chile has simply disappeared! Park rangers at the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park found no problem with the lake in March, but by late May the lake had disappeared entirely, leaving only a few large chunks of ice that used to float on the water. Scientists are puzzled – the obvious cause for something like this would be cracks opening up on the lake floor, which would cause the water to drain into the ground below. However, no cracks have been found yet and no seismographic activity was recorded in the area between the last known spotting of the lake and the draining. Weird!

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Krispy Kreme Sundae!

This recipe is here just to give you the idea of making it. Honestly, there’s not much to it but you may never have thought about making this. Try it sometime, it’s heavenly!

Ingredients:

Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnuts (1 per sundae)
Your favorite ice cream
Magic Shell (or similar topping)
Cookies (optional, for garnish)

Hardware:

1 microwave
1 ice cream scoop
Plates to serve sundaes

Before you begin putting this delicious treat together you need to think about a couple of things. First of all, what flavor of ice cream will you use? While I’m partial to Ben and Jerry’s, you might not want to use a really complex flavor with this sundae. “Cookie Dough” ice cream might taste great by itself, but once you add the sweetness of the doughnut to the mix, it’s just too much. Try plain chocolate or vanilla or both, but not something with lots of flavors and “stuff” (cookie dough bits, brownie bits, nuts, etc.) in it. Also, consider how many sundaes you’re making. If making 2 or more sundaes, you might want to “pre-scoop” the ice cream and put it back in the freezer for a couple of minutes. Speed is of the essence with this dessert and you don’t want the doughnuts to cool off while you scoop the ice cream!

1) Scoop the ice cream and put it back in the freezer for a minute or two.  If you’re only making one sundae, you don’t have to “pre-scoop” the ice cream, but you will need to move quickly.

2) Place a Krispy Kreme on a plate and heat in microwave for 5-8 seconds or until hot.

3) Place scoop of ice cream on top of doughnut.

4) Add cookie or other garnish (if desired) then cover the ice cream with Magic Shell.  The Magic Shell won’t harden to the doughnut, so just aim for the ice cream!

5) Eat!

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Apple Crumble!

This classic British dessert is a perfect “comfort food”. Although a couple of the ingredients might be difficult to locate in some places, trust me – your efforts will be rewarded! I always get this dessert with the prix fixe menu at The Stockpot restaurant in London and have never been disappointed! Although the “crumble” part of this dish seems suspiciously like Grandma’s apple cobbler, it’s the custard that makes this dessert so sublime!

Crumble Ingredients:

2 apples (Bramley apples are preferred but Granny Smith apples will do)
½ cup self-rising flour
2 + 1 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 + 1 tablespoons demerara sugar (substitute brown or Turbinado sugar if necessary)
4 tablespoons butter
1 lemon (optional, but a good idea)

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Easy Hello Dolly Squares!

One of my favorite memories from childhood was coming home from school to find that my mom had whipped up some tasty treats for me and my sister. Sometimes she’d be busy and only have time to whip up some Mrs. GoodCookie cookies or some brownies from a mix. Sometimes we’d get lucky and she’d make some cookies or a cake from scratch. But if we were really lucky, she’d make Hello Dolly Squares.

She got the recipe from a Betty Crocker “Cookbook for Girls” she had as a little kid. It was one of her favorite cookbooks, and Hello Dolly Squares were her favorite recipe from the book. Years passed, and I found the cookbook one day at my grandmother’s house. I liked to cook when I was a kid, so I eagerly took the cookbook home and made all kinds of tasty treats… but none left the impression on me that the Hello Dolly Squares did. It’s a recipe that automatically makes me think of Mom and home!

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Cracker Barrel’s Hash Brown Casserole!

Lisa and I both just love Cracker Barrel’s hash brown casserole. Yesterday I was surfing the ‘Net and stumbled across one of those “copycat recipe” sites. Some of the recipes seemed kind of pointless – why spend $8 making a faux Big Mac at home when you can buy a real one 24 hours a day for $2? But the copycat recipe for the hash brown casserole intrigued me. It’s as simple as can be. It’s cheap to make. And it’s oh so goooood!

The following recipe has been slightly adapted from the one I found online. Lisa doesn’t like mushrooms, so I changed the soup from cream of mushroom to cream of chicken. I also decided to add a “broiler cycle” at the end to make the top of the casserole extra-crunchy. According to the website I snagged the original recipe from, if you want your casserole to be as close to Cracker Barrel’s as possible you’ll need to use Colby cheese and a 50-50 mixture of cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup. As it turns out, my use of cream of chicken soup and a Colby\Jack cheese mix came incredibly close anyway.

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Fish In Foil!

I first had this wonderful dish at the Red Lion Pub in Bimini, Bahamas. It’s amazingly easy to make, dirties no pots or pans and simply tastes heavenly! Cooking the fish in a foil pouch makes for fast cooking times; cooking it with wine in the pouch creates a moist environment that makes it difficult to end up with dry, overcooked fish, too.

Although the Bahamian version uses fresh fish – and by “fresh” I mean “that grouper was swimming in the ocean two hours ago” – this recipe works wonders with the more affordable frozen fillets. Just be sure to use a white fish with this – tuna or salmon made in this method would taste… not so good!

Ingredients:

Fillets of a whitefish (tilapia, grouper, mahi mahi, etc.)
Sliced onion (enough to add one or two slices per fillet)
1 “pat” of butter per fillet
Around 1/4 cup white wine per fillet
Salt
Pepper
Capers (optional)

Hardware:

Aluminum foil
1 small knife
1 cookie sheet (optional)

1) Preheat your oven to 375F.

2) Tear off a large piece of aluminum foil. The piece should be big enough to fit the fillets comfortably and seal at the top. For best results, use a very large sheet folded in half.

3) Put the fish fillet in the center of the foil.

4) Salt and pepper the fish to your liking. Add a few onion rings (slices) to the fish, as well as the butter and capers (if desired).

5) Tightly close the foil up around the fish; leave a small gap to pour the wine into before sealing the pouch completely.

6) Repeat for any additional fillets.

7) Place pouches directly on the middle rack of your oven (or place them on a cookie sheet – this is better in my opinion as any leaks won’t make a mess of the oven).

8) Cook at 375F until done. The amount of time necessary to cook the fish depends on the size and thickness of the fillets. Consider 12 minutes to be a minimum cooking time, although in practice it usually takes around 16 minutes for the average fillet in my oven.

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Mom’s Tuna Casserole!

One of my favorite memories of childhood was coming home from school and hearing that tonight was “tuna casserole night”! Sure, my mom’s recipe was nothing fancy – in fact, I’m sure you can find quite similar recipes in any United Methodist Women’s cookbook – but still… nothing makes me feel more like “home” than eating this. I make this at home today and end up missing my mom!

I’ve also included some variations at the end of the recipe, in case you don’t care for any of the main ingredients.

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Guinness Stew!

When I was close to graduating from college, it occurred to me that I still had hundreds of copies left on my library copy card. I suppose many students had gotten scammed in the past because none of the kids at GSU would buy my “used” copy card. So what to do?

Well, I took some time that I should have been in anthropology and instead went to the library and found the cookbooks section. And what glorious books I found there – Greek, Thai, Indian, Italian… But one book in particular stood out – an Irish cookbook of all things. Not because of delicious Irish cuisine, but because the book had recipes for just about every basic sauce and dish from the European continent as well as good descriptions of the techniques any aspiring chef would need to master. I didn’t bother copying the copyright page but it would have been interesting if I had: most of the larger measures were in metric (2kg of beef), yet most of the smaller measures were still given in Imperial units (2 oz. of butter). Must have been an interesting time to be a chef in Ireland, what with all the conversion charts all over the kitchen and everything! Anyway, I got the gist of one recipe and present it to you now in good God-fearing Imperial measures!

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