2/28

Posted by latinformouse on February 28, 2012

National kazoo day. It’s a thing. You’re welcome.

“Poverty Macs”

Posted by latinformouse on February 27, 2012

My mother had a dish she used to make when I was quite a bit younger. It’s since become one of my brother’s favorite things to make. Basically, it’s macaroni, coated in butter and grated parmesan cheese. It was always referred to as “poverty macs” growing up, and the name sticks. It’s never really been my favorite (actually, I really don’t like it at all) but I do love the concept.

I think poverty is the greatest driver of delicious recipes. When you’re forced to make straight-up pasta delicious for several nights straight, it’s almost impossible not to get creative. Also, no monies means working with what you have on hand. Consider:

1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup spinach, shredded
1/8 Lb. any ol’ random pasta (I prefer angel hair or thin spagetti)
1/2 Tbsp. butter
3-4 Tbsp. olive oil

Bring water for pasta to a boil; add pasta and cook according to package.
Heat butter and half the olive oil in a frying pan.
Once butter is melted, add garlic, and perhaps a dash of any fresh (or dried) herbs you have laying around. Sauté garlic for about a minute, or until nearly turning brown. (On a side note: I’d like to say that there is no better fragrance in the entire culinary world than that of sauteing garlic in olive oil. Absolutely terrific.)
Add spinach. Turn frequently, tossing all the spinach in the oil and garlic. Don’t cook for too long; a minute or two is really all it takes to reduce the spinach down. If pasta is still not finished at this point, remove the frying pan with spinach from the heat until the pasta is finished boiling.
Once pasta is finished, remove from water using your favorite macaroni-stay-water-go method (I prefer to just use large tongs to pull the pasta straight out of the water, although a colander works just fine, too) and toss in the pan with the spinach. Add remaining olive oil as needed to give the pasta an even coating of oily, spinachy goodness!

Mind you, I totally intended to take a picture, but I forgot to grab my camera before starting to cook and the pasta was too damn delicious to let sit for any length of time. Use your imagination.

So, cost. Yes, cost is the biggie here.

1/2 lb. thin spagetti: $0.79, meal total: $0.40
10 oz. “ready-to-eat” spinach: $2.49, I used roughly 1/5 of the bag for this dish, so, say: $0.50
51 oz. Olive Oil, $15.29. Don’t get too excited about that price. You see, I’ve been working on this same bottle of olive oil for months and I still have over a third of it left. I use olive oil for just about everything, too. I never measure, so the 3-4 Tbsp. quoted in the “recipe” above may not be accurate, but for the sake of science, we’ll assume it is. 3 Tbsp. = 1.5 oz. At roughly 30 cents an ounce, this comes out to about $0.45
1 head of garlic, $0.50. The average head of garlic has roughly 7 cloves, so say: $0.07
1 lb. butter, $3.39. There are roughly 32 tablespoons of butter per pound, so: $0.05

Grande total: $1.47.

Uh, yeah. Cool, huh? It’s meals like this that epitomize what I want when I eat food: simple, authentic, delicious. Oh and also cheap as hell…

astrangelyisolatedsunday: collectedspace 1

Posted by latinformouse on February 26, 2012

Bleeps and boops and a steady “bum bum, bum bum BUM…” Yes, that’s what this game is all about.

Collectedspace I: Roots

Here’s a mix that explores some of the tracks that form the foundation of my electronic “identity.” Some are atmospheric and ambient, others bring a thumping beat. It’s a mix, after all!

Continue reading →

2/25

Posted by latinformouse on February 25, 2012

Talk is cheap. Shit or get off the pot, please.

Gems From The Spam Filter

Posted by latinformouse on February 25, 2012

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2/21

Posted by latinformouse on February 21, 2012

Oh man oh man. Life is good.

Djentle Monday

Posted by latinformouse on February 20, 2012

After working all the damn day, Natty Greene and After the Burial suggested I unwind a bit. And by unwind I mean: bang my head around violently to myself. Seems the trend these days.

‘Kay, so. This has never been one of my favorite ATB songs, but damn if it didn’t kick my ass a moment ago… For my readers (lol) that don’t jive with le screams, skip to 2:46 at least.

I cannot seem to stop listening to this song. It’s made two of my “el mixo” playlists already.

And finally. I cannot wait for this album. And not just because Skyharbor hails from New Delhi (Props to anything, really, from India…). Okay so it may sound like a complete Tesseract ripoff, but I give no shits. I love this song.

Oh well shit. Since I mentioned Tesseract…

(You’re in denial.)

A Few For The (Isolated) Road…

Posted by latinformouse on February 19, 2012

Alrighty fine. I left a song or two out from my post this morning. And by that I mean I decided, minutes ago, that these songs needed to be included. Something about the wintery precipitation, maybe.

Ohh H.U.V.A Network… 2009′s Ephemeris is spot on what I look for in an electronic album. It surprised me little, then, when I discovered that the ‘Net’s comprised of Ultimae composers Aes Dana (Vincent Villius) and my old pal, Solar Fields (Magnus Bigersson). I recall one spicy evening, roughly 1 year ago. Lying on my back in my room at my mother’s house, not very coherent, not very… aware. Anyway, about half way through Ephemeris, I remember thinking something along the lines of, “I’ll be dammed if this doesn’t sound like some Solar Fields!” ‘Sho ’nuff!

This track is not on Ephemeris, although my highly spiced one-year-ago self (and my bland (?) current self, too) highly recommends the listen. No no, we’re going back fairly far for this track. I’m a newcomer to the world of electronic music, which means even a 2004 release, like H.U.V.A Net’s 2004 album Distances, is still very new, although I can hear a distinct amount of growth between the two albums. Either way, I’m a sucker for the upright bass in this tune:

H.U.V.A. Network- “Access To The Long Fields”

I can’t really come up with some clever way to link this next track to the previous. Regardless, here’s some “pirate dub” for your listening pleasure.

Bluetech- “7th Phase Dub”