Inspired by the semi-dried cherry tomato topping at Di Fara, I did a trial run of semi-dried grape tomatoes (my market didn’t have the former in stock). Lesson learned here? Shoot before-and-after photos under the same lighting conditions. Duh. The top photo is shot under our range’s built-in fluorescent cooktop light, while the photo just above was shot under the incandescent oven bulb. I’ll make these again, at which point I’ll normalize the lighting in both shots.
I know Christmas is over, and New Year’s is already a thing of the past, but I liked this Christmas scene in the lobby of the Citibank building in Long Island City. Very corporate.
Impromptu pizza night tonight. Just two pies. This is one of them. (Didn’t bother shooting the other; it sucked.) Made with the fennel sausage recipe I posted today on Slice.
It’s like this … I found some Italian type “00″ pizza flour last week at Rosario’s Deli in Astoria. Made dough with it Sunday night and fridged it off for a cold-ferment/retarded rise. It was pretty much use it or lose it tonight. I really wanted to see how the “00″ stuff would work. First pizza sucked. Again, it was “creepy bagel.” This one was better. Think because I stretched it thinner. Might start making the dough balls a little small. These were all between 230 and 240g. Might go for 200g and see where that takes us.
Figured it was time to push down the Christmas-music posts. Heard this at dinner on the 23rd. Love this song. Oh, Minnie Ripperton. That squeal … very Mariah.
On Wednesday night I gave you my Top 5 Non-Traditional Christmas Songs. Last night it was my Top 5 Worst-Ever Christmas Ditties. Tonight, Christmas Eve, it’s time for my top 5 traditional numbers. Here, it’s more about the song and words themselves and less the artist — although I can’t say that strong performances by various artists over the years haven’t influenced my choices here. Anyway, let’s roll …
5. ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’
I like how, as a song, “We Three Kings of Orient Are” starts out all SERIOUS and then pops into the peppy “star of wonder” part. This Beach Boys version is pretty damn good, IMO. As a bonus, here’s a cool version of them doing a snippet of it on a TV show:
And now let’s shift to this:
I wanted bring you THE BEST versions these songs. But that would have pretty much meant a post filled entirely with Mariah or Beach Boys videos. So I did some googling for alternate versions. And the people out there recommended this one of “We Three Kings.” It’s from Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration, which I have never seen, but I was surprised at its quality. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday I gave unto thee my Top 5 Non-Traditional Christmas Songs. Today, I’m going in a different direction, because I’ve been driven absolutely mad by some of the following songs, which are on seemingly endless repeat in every bodega, deli, grocery store, and pizzeria I’ve been in lately. Yes, today I’m being a Scrooge, because it’s the last day I can do it — no hatin’ on Christmas Eve or Day…
5. ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over),’ John and Yoko, The Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir
I know I’m going to take some flak for this, but I do not like this song. It pretty much falls into my definition of “hippie music,” and I do not like “hippie music,” all of which depresses me in a mild and indescribable way. Like most hippie music (almost anything played at Woodstock, if you need examples), it expresses sentiments that, in my heart, I completely agree with but that are so naive as to be eyeroll-inducing. I think it depresses me exactly because it delivers its message effectively — most “hippie music” (as I define it) presents either an ideal world or laments the world as it is, sometimes both at once. On top of that, “hippie music” is nakedly earnest. There’s no wink-wink back door of irony to slip out of. It’s the disconnect between reality and idealism that depresses me, because I feel like “hippie music” is always urging me to do something I feel powerless to do anything about. Why can’t it just let me be blissfully ignorant?!?
“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” elicits this feeling in me — it’s also completely overplayed (see next two songs for that rant).
I also think that Lennon is just so damn smug in his delivery: “Oh, another year over, huh? And what have you done? … Play Angry Birds for hours on end?” I guess if I’m going to be preached to in a Christmas song, I’d prefer the old-fashioned carols, thankyouverymuch. (Note: Check back tomorrow for my Top 5 Traditional Christmas Song list.)
I love all forms of Christmas music — traditional/religious carols and poppy secular songs alike. It was too difficult to make a Top 5 list that drew from the entire Christmas songbook, so here are the poppy ones first.
5. ‘The Little Drummer Boy’/'Peace on Earth,’ Bing Crosby and David Bowie
OK, so this one is pretty much traditional as most people would define it, but I think the fact that it’s a David Bowie and Bing Crosby duet, complete with cheesy banter at the beginning, puts it into post-modern pop territory. For a while, you think Crosby is going to overpower Bowie, but then the Thin White Duke pipes up, and … wow, that’s some beautiful harmonizing there.
From as early as I can remember, “The Little Drummer Boy” has always gotten to me. There’s something I’ve always found moving about stories like the drummer boy’s — people of modest means offering up all they have. Blah blah blah.
I don’t know why, but the theme song to The Nanny has been stuck in my head intermittently over the past week. I tried to dislodge it by watching the whole thing on YouTube:
But then I found there were foreign versions:
There’s also Моя прекрасная няня, the Russian version, but it’s not embeddable.
Also, Fran Drescher has had a heck of a personal life.
On Wednesday night I gave you my 
Yesterday I gave unto thee my 
