happy hollandaise

some quick thinking on em's part last night ensured that we were fully stocked up, ready and able to make eggs benedict this morning. holla!

jimmy wasn't able to be part of this process unfortunately as we took him downtown so he could catch his bus to the airport. while we were down there, dave and i popped into zeitgeist for a shot in the dark and a lemon bar. Zeitgeist has the best lemon bars around. A++ recommended, would eat again.

popped back up to the house, threw some kahlua in my coffee and got down to business with this as the end result:



best eggs benedict we've ever made. poached egg credit goes to emily because i always fuck that part up.

we actually did not have a lemon or lemon juice to make the hollandaise the traditional way, which really bummed me out. i love a really bright, lemony hollandaise, but this wasn't an option today so i had to improvise. improvisation in the kitchen usually works out pretty well for me but since this is definitely a high point in my hollandaise game i want to record this for posterity/share it with y'alls.

ingredients:
3 jumbo egg yolks
1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup salted butter
~4 tbsp white wine

method:
melt the butter in a pan over mediumish heat. purified butter is a pain in the ass and isn't really neccessary, so don't worry about straining out the milk solids. keep it warm until you're ready to use it, at which point it helps to transfer it to a measuring cup or some sort of poury receptacle.
briskly whisk the yolks and vinegar in a metal mixing bowl over heat (double boiler or direct heat, your call) until they start to thicken. if you see steam rising from the yolks, remove them from the heat, or you'll end up with scrambled eggs. continue to whisk while adding melted butter a few drops at a time, making sure that butter is fully integrated before adding more.
once butter is fully integrated into the sauce, whisk in the white wine. taste frequently. i found that about 4 tablespoons worked out pretty well.

if you're making the sauce as part of eggs benedict (as i obviously did), you should already have toasted your english muffins, griddled your ham, poached your eggs, and been ready to serve the sauce immediately. if not you can keep it somewhat warm by intermittently whisking over heat until your other components are ready.

breaking the hollandaise is a typical rookie mistake. you'll know the sauce is broken when it looks something like curdled milk mixed with movie theater popcorn butter. you can usually rescue it by separating another egg yolk, whisking it up in your mixing bowl, and then and very slowly whisking your broken sauce back in over low heat.

if you find your sauce is delicious enough to drink, congratulations, you did it right.

hollandaise is a great way to eat an entire stick of butter in one sitting and is excellent as part of the widely known breakfast powerhouse known as eggs benedict. it also goes great over broccoli, asparagus, or salmon, so it's versatile enough to span several meal classes.

being snowed in is a really nice opportunity to make a hot classy breakfast for yourself and your friends, as we were happy to rediscover this morning. if you find yourself in the same situation, you'd be doing yourself a favor by doing the same.

"we won't starve to death; we've got fat on our bones."
-emily

oh thanks

oh god.

thanksgiving was ridiculous--it was a 2 day food overload. some highlights:

i went over to tom's this year, where plans were in place to host 2 days of thanksgiving celebration. day 1 was for katie's dad's side of the family. because i fell asleep earlier in the day for about an hour between loads of laundry and then had to take the bus from the Beac to West Seattle after waiting for it to finish, I arrived and walked in the door late (while everyone was actually eating at the table). no one cared, because katie's family is awesome. bonus points: 1

tom made this ridiculous gravy with the turkey brine, peaches and brown sugar. oh, sounds gross? wrong. "ew, fruit in your gravy?" yeah, that's right, baby. i'm one of those people that automatically awards a combo multiplier to the king of all flavor interminglings, the sweet/savory one-two punch, and this one was an instant-kill finishing move. bonus points: 3, including the hat-tip to the fact that there were 2 kinds of meat to smother in this delicious ambrosia disguised as what mortals know as "gravy."

since the whole deal went down at a Wils' brother's house and both Wils bros happened to be in attendance--as well as a large group of people, natch--round 1 culminated in a session of rock band 2. bonus points: 2.

after the festivities ended i resumed the game of Fable 2 i had started the week prior. bonus points: 6, one for every hour of Fable i played before falling asleep on the couch. total points for day 1: 10.

day 2 was planned out for katie's mom's side of the family, and katie's brother's in-laws (tom was friends with katie's brother ben before he began dating her, which is why this was all going down at tom's). i began my preparations for this stressful day by waking up at 8 am and resuming my game of Fable right where i left off and played until family members started showing up; about 2 o' clock. since fable is only very slightly less fun to watch than it is to actually play, katie hung out on the couch with me the whole time and gave me tips from the strategy guide.

once the fam started showing up i migrated to the kitchen to help tom out with food prep (i have mad knife skills; i bet you didn't know). tom had been figuratively pulling his hair out about being able to replicate the gravy from the night prior but was ultimately able to pull it off. two kinds of stuffing were prepared as the vessel to facilitate the transfer from plate to mouth.

there was dinner (oof), there was pie (ouch). and then there was Scrabble, with 20 bucks on the line for the winner. i was pretty confident in my ability to trounce all oncomers as i'm pretty good at scrabble but tonight it was not to be. STORING right out of the gate (double word score and a 50 point bingo bonus) and J_BILAN[T] (J on a double letter plus a double word score plus a 50 point bingo bonus) were both kickass plays that were both, unfortunately, not made by me. I came in third place.

night 2 was capped off with wii bowling and wii golf, and after all family members went home, I watched katie play fable for 4 hours before falling asleep on the couch again.

i woke up at 8 again on day 3 (which turned out to be a leftover extravaganza of sorts) to play more Fable 2. katie and I played in shifts with tom supervising until about 10pm at which point we switched to Fred Claus (highly recommended). Then I went home.

probably the best thanksgiving i can remember having in years and years. there was that one family thanksgiving we had in a condo in carlsbad, california, but this topped that even though we had a deep-fried turkey that year.

many happy returns, master wayne.

ping

whats up.

i'm not dead.

see you in a minute.

sarah palin on foreign policy

i personally don't consider youtube video to be actual content for my blog, but this is so ludicrous i had to post it here.



Charl​es Gibso​n:​ "Do you agree with the Bush Doctr​ine?​"​
Sarah​ Palin​:​ *feigns boredom* "​.​.​.​In what respe​ct,​ Charl​ie?​"​
Gibson: "..."

at 15 seconds into this clip, she's like a deer caught in headlights. i think this is when she realizes she's completely lost and in way over her head.

seems kind of obvious that gibson lobbed her what he thought was a pretty simple question and she bobbled it...he seems completely baffled at her initial response.

Gibso​n:​ "I got lost in a blizz​ard of words​ there​.​ Is that a '​yes?​'​"​

this is just an excerpt; check​ out the full inter​view here:​
part 1
part 2

just now at work

names have been changed to protect the innocent

Allie Bron‎‎ [1:53 PM]:
what is the login and password?
Mant Jerkson [1:54 PM]:
DOMAIN\user.name
[your domain password]
Allie Bron‎‎ [2:02 PM]:
and for the client?
Mant Jerkson [2:02 PM]:
external user will get an email with instructions on creating a password
once they create the password they can access the site
one of the two links i sent you will work for them, if not both
Allie Bron‎‎ [2:03 PM]:
who sends them the message?
Mant Jerkson‎‎ [2:03 PM]:
its autogenerated upon the creation of their customer profile.
‎Allie Bron‎‎ [2:04 PM]:
got it
Mant Jerkson‎‎ [2:05 PM]:
this information will cost you one baconator and a small frosty.

true story.
she even asked if i wanted to biggie-size to a large frosty.

want it from behind while you play super mario brothers?

i mean, the question is legit. i guess.
dude just needs a girl that is looking to get pwned hard.

buggyrollin.

this is maybe the coolest thing i've seen all day (after the resident evil 5 trailer). i know, i know, video doesn't equal blog content but guess how many fucks i give about that?


this totally reminds me of the flying scenes in iron man. also, the size of the balls required to bomb the alps in this thing should negate the possibility of being able to ride in the prone position at all, so bonus points to mr. blondeau for figuring out a way to make that work.

regarding david lynch; chickens

i have a number of friends who are huge fans of twin peaks/david lynch, so i felt compelled to throw this up here:

From Blue Velvet to Inland Empire: The 10 Best David Lynch Moments

i'm not gonna front like i've seen more than one episode of twin peaks or have an intimate knowledge of most of the moments in the list, so friends? this is 100% for you.

lately i'm housesitting at my brother's neighbors' house. they don't have the internet or tv, so i'm not doing much of either (including blogging), but i am getting lots of GTA4 time in at tom's house (awesome). also, i am becoming fast friends with some chickens, as one of the responsibilities i was tasked with while housesitting is watching willie's hens--feeding them, putting them to bed, supervising their playtime in the yard, etc. fact: chickens adore cheese. no joke. inky (the black hen) stole a huge chunk of cheese right out of my hand. also, i've been eating a ridiculous amount of eggs, as they lay about 4-6 eggs a day.

i was out at atlantic crossing the other day with rich and andy and it turns out that andy had a ticket to radiohead on ebay for 100 bucks. i managed to talk him into selling it to me for 80 bucks and he agreed, so it looks like i'll be heading down to white river amphitheater on wednesday to see one of the greatest bands on the planet. i'd kill a man for a press pass. dammit.

goodbye

goodbye
Originally uploaded by _mant

i'll miss you, dogg.

flogs of the world

today's submission comes to us all the way from australia.

i came across this livejournal entry just now while doin what i do. this is one of the better "FLOG"-style posts i have seen. it's like the perfect mix of a foodie review of pub eats and a poopreport.com story. witness:

The burning mouth, the crying, the ringing ears I can handle. But now with less than a third of the burger to go my stomach seizes up and refuses to let me put anything into it. I take a deep breath and look for my can of "harden the f * ck up" when I notice that my mate Thommo has stopped eating his burger just beyond the halfway point and is wandering aimlessly up and down the street.

He has honestly lost the plot and is walking around in circles.

i love hot, and i love burgers. if i ever go to brisbane i can't say i wouldn't be sorely tempted to attempt to burn a hole through my body with one of these.

original:
The World's hottest burger - and it's in Brisbane

whirlwind tour

fuck it. i know stef and daniel already summed up the most anticipated event of the weekend pretty well (peep daniel's video of the events here if you have the privilege of david's friendship yet were unable to make it to his going away party), but i'm going to go ahead and ignore that.

i present unto thee: a photo essay of the past 3 days. first stop is linda's tavern for jennie's going away party.

linda's tavern prefunk at smith w/nick, jimmy, david

en route.
nick: "it definitely smells like poop." it was

jimmy no-wallet gets carded, can't come in; stef is glad dave and i come anyway

jennie is so excited she basically just screamed the entire time

i got drunk; chilled with hipster, mail carrier,
crazy russian guy(not pictured)--i don't know these guys

turpin & warmouth

cant really say how far into the night it was but at some point paul ordered a "MACncheese" from our waitress. I ordered one too, "and a beam, neat" cause i was thirsty. then i thought aloud

"man it would suck if they served macaroni and cheese here and they brought me some, ha ha"

and everyone was like "wtf?"

turns out that paul actually read the menu and then ordered macaroni noodles in cheese sauce when i thought (due to his inflection) that he was making some sort of joke about Mac and Jacks beer--which i, and everyone else i know, pronounces MACnjacks. i had to go to the waitress and politely explain that i accidentally ordered noodles to chase my bourbon with because i'm a big dummy.

made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to bellingham with dave, nick, and jimmy. which means i didn't go home first and get my battery charger. which means my camera battery died while looking at pics on the ride up because i spent a good chunk of the evening drunkenly taking pics of people i dont know. which means it stayed dead until the next day when emily drove up to bellingham and brought my charger with her. which MEANS i didnt have a camera with which to take production stills of the jenni potts video shoot on saturday morning. which was too bad.

it also means i didnt have a functional camera with which to shoot pics of the david drori going away round robin whiffleball classic 2008. which is fine because although Party Saturday played our asses off and gave the Cheese Zombies a sound drubbing, we still lost against the Stinktown Warriors in the third round. gay.

whatever whatever, fast forward to david's poarty

man of the hour, david drori

basically it was rad. a hell of a rad party for a hell of a rad dude.

sometime later on karl took his clothes off and forced david to look at his spine.

dump

this weekend was the shit.

i'm way too tired to make a real post right now but lots to come





stay tuned.

FLOG: homeflog/burger luv edition

burger luv iii.

on monday it was announced by lynsey (another FLOG crew member) that there would be no restaurant excursion this week and that we were going to be cooking at teebah's house. i was tapped to do burgers, which i was pretty stoked about--a of all because i really like grilling, and b of all because it's been a while since my previous burger luv attempt and over a year since the original burger luv. only 3 burgers done in what, 15 months? i was feeling a bit behind the game, so i saw it as an opportunity to get the ball rolling again.

the premise of burger luv is a basic one: regarding ingredients, the burger itself can be complicated or simple. you can make one burger or several, but flame grilling is absolutely required. it cannot be fried, broiled, baked, or rotisseried (in the case of many burgers at once). in other words, it has to be cooked on a grill directly above fire (you can't make burger luv with a george foreman lean mean fat-reducing grilling machine, sorry). then you assemble it, arrange it on a plate, take a picture of it, and then make a blog entry about it. easy peasy.

this particular burger was a ground sirloin patty stuffed with chopped thick-cut applewood bacon and shredded habanero cheddar. i assembled it on a kaiser roll with mayo and dijon mustard, carmelized onions, roasted red pepper, and arugula. i had purchased reggiano to shave onto the burger itself but, like a big dummy, i forgot to add it.

anyways. roll the pics

prep

kevin whipped up some cukes, i highly recommend

the onions. sauteed in a retarded amt of butter (as is proper)

floggers

more prep

the spread (or part of it)

om nom nom nom. burger, beer, mac and cheese--you can be jealous now

since this was the first time we homeflogged i can only comment on how the evening went as a whole. if this kind of thing were going to happen again, i would prep as many ingredients as possible at home and assemble prior to eating. as it were, i was prepping for about 2 hours before i even started cooking which is kind of silly. there were also 3 people trying to cook in one kitchen. on the other hand, i dont usually cook burgers for 8 people. i'd also not eat 10 deviled eggs prior to sitting down to a half pound(uncooked weight) of hamburger and various fixins like i did last night. hurt me. homeflog isnt really about "new, amazing food" as much as it is about putting yourself into a food coma while hanging with a solid crew, so in that regard i'd say it was a success.

see you next week, floggers.

burger luv,
mant

DROG: twilight exit

goddamn, wednesday. what are we gonna do with you?

parking validation, hood style. it has to be at least 40 oz of beer.

you don't quite know how to party like thirsty thursday and you sure as hell aren't anywhere near as cool as friday, but you definitely aren't as big of a downer as monday and you aren't a boring nobody like tuesday.

classy bar is classy

i bet girls would like you better if we gave you a little bit of an edge. you know? your self esteem would probably shoot through the roof if you had a weekly regimen.

there are only a few rules. i can get behind a rule that requires me to have at least one drink.

just hear me out. how about this: a strict routine. once a week, you and i spend a little time at a new, shitty bar--someplace we've never been before. think about it! it could be fun, yeah?

"ambiance"

you could call it drog night. DROG, dude. drunkblog. you could be a pioneer. picture it. you could drunkenly stumble the path less traveled by and regale the masses with tales of what's up on the bleeding edge of the seattle dive-bar scene.

all you really need to see anyway is the screen. and maybe where you put your beer.

i mean, you don't have to. if you feel like you might be stepping on thursday's toes because of his whole "flog night" deal then that's cool, too. maybe we could just get you on "what not to wear" instead? maybe a cut and color and some makeup will make you feel like you got a little more sass?? you pansy.

bartender saw us shooting pics and asked if we were going to eat a pickled egg. i told her caitlin told me she'd eat one if i could convince the bartender to eat one first. apparently our bartender is a pussy. no eggs were eaten.

what? that was a JOKE. no, you're right. i mean, i get it--thursday did it first. but you don't have to take a back seat to that! you can do your own thing AND have plenty of time to help thursday figure out what's gonna go down for flog. where's your spirit of independence? baby steps, man. am i right??

you can say that again.
NO BAG LIMIT, NO GAME WARDEN, OPEN SEASON 24/7 BABY YEAHHH

no, it's not like that. it's not a big deal. i just see you getting down on yourself and i hate to see you like that, you know? and i get it. of course i do. you feel like no one pays attention to you; typical middle-child syndrome. i can SEE that. look, i'm just trying to help you. you have a lot of potential, you know? we just need to figure out how to tap that potential to make it work for you instead of you just sitting around thinking the whole "hump day" thing is still cool.

i wanted these needlepoint coons. i still do.

you know what? screw it. if you're gonna be a pouty baby then fine. i went to the twilight exit tonight without you anway.

cheap as hell + happy hour til 8 = winner

this place is right up there with moon temple. moon temple serves general tso chicken though which is kinda hard to trump. on the other hand twilight exit has golden tee, tetris, big buck hunter, AND it's not located way the fuck out in wallingford. plus, $3.50 for a shot of beam and a PBR back?? and that's EVERY DAY, til 8pm. i really can't think of a better deal in town off the top of my head. i mean, metropolitain is cheap, but that $1.50 PBR pint thing they do only happens once a week, and even then, i'm pretty sure the twilight has cheaper wells.

i'm not sure why i haven't been to this place until just today.

twilight exit, i salute you.

hyped.

i was playing rock band on sunday at tom's house and i went to the music store just to see if they had any new tracks. as it turns out pixies' entire doolittle album is available as a download, which is fucking awesome. my favorite pixies song is on that album so you know i copped that shit right away. natch.

ever since i first got rock band i was always kind of bummed that "here comes your man" was the pixies song harmonix decided to include in the game--there are so many better pixies songs that they could have included but finally my dreams have come true. the song is not super complicated, even on expert--obviously, if you watched the video--but it doesn't really need to be for it to be fun in-game (see "say it ain't so"; "creep"). hopefully The Internet can perform this on their farewell tour. i wanna try this bitch on vocals.

i bought 2 tickets to black kids this morning. they're coming to neumo's october 10. that's it. some dj on kexp played one of their songs and i liked it, so i bought tickets.
does this count as blog hype, idolator? tards. i promise if i like their performance i won't talk about it anywhere.