Monthly Archives: April 2020

The Nation Has An Appetite

The Nation Has An Appetite: Garlic Shrimp in Coconut Milk

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A few weeks ago, when I was planning for a long-term quarantine, I decided that at some point I'd make a red curry. But when I opened my fridge this past week I discovered that I didn't have enough curry paste and I needed to come up with a different plan. Glancing around the internet I found a few recipes that seemed like I could try for, but none for which I really had all the ingredients. And I wasn't going out for more. So here's what I came up with:

INGREDIENTS
Lots of jumbo shrimp. The bigger the better.
Olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 small onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, grated
Salt
Crushed red pepper flakes
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can coconut milk
Juice of 1 lime
Basil (I used dried, since it was available)

Fry the garlic and ginger in hot oil, about 1 minute.
Slice the peppers and onion, add to the garlic, cook until soft - about 5 minutes.
Add the can of coconut milk* and tomatoes, salt, basil, 1/2 of lime juice, red pepper flakes, bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
*I've seen it suggested that coconut milk should not be stirred up before adding it to the pan, and should be melted down and slowly mixed in as it cooks. That's what I did here and it worked really well, so it seems like that is true?
Add the shrimp, keep over heat until just cooked through.
Add the rest of the lime juice, and more red pepper flakes to taste.

I served over rice noodles and with a slice of toast (good toasted bread is perfect with this for soaking up the milk).

This definitely seemed like it could use some fresh herbs - One of the inspiring recipes called for cilantro. Maybe something with a little more crunch sprinkled over the top too, though I'm not sure what. Also, if anyone has suggestions for cooking process that would help improve this, I'd be happy to take those. I definitely plan on making this again - the shrimp came out perfect, the left-overs heated really well (no leftover shrimp... that should probably go without saying, right?), it came together really fast and easy, etc. So any improvements are appreciated!

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 1999, Game Twenty-two

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BOSTON 9, MINNESOTA 4 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Wednesday, April 28.

Batting stars:  Javier Valentin was 3-for-4 with a double.  Ron Coomer was 3-for-5 with a double.  Todd Walker was 2-for-5 with two doubles.  Corey Koskie was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.

Pitching star:  Dan Perkins pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Pat Rapp pitched six innings, giving up one run on six hits and two walks and striking out one.  Brian Daubach was 2-for-3 with a double.  Darren Lewis was 2-for-4.  Nomar Garciaparra was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.  Trot Nixon was 1-for-1 with a home run (his second), three walks, and four runs.

The game:  Lewis led off the third with a single and Nixon walked.  A wild pitch moved the runners up and a pair of productive outs gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.  Daubach led off the fourth with a double and went to third on a wild pitch.  He was retired trying to score on a grounder to first, however, and when the next batter was retired it looked like the Twins might get out of the inning.  But Nixon walked and Jose Offerman hit a two-run triple to put Boston up 4-0.

The Twins got on the board in the sixth on singles by Torii Hunter, Coomer, and Koskie.  The Red Sox put the game out of reach in the seventh.  Nixon walked, John Valentin singled, and Reggie Jefferson walked to fill the bases.  Garciaparra had a two-run single and, following a walk to Mike Stanley, Jason Varitek hit a two-run single, giving Boston an 8-1 lead.  Nixon homered leading off the eighth to make it 9-1.

The Twins scored a few late runs to make the final score look better.  In the eighth Coomer doubled and scored on Koskie's single.  Later in the inning singles by Chad Allen and Valentin scored Koskie.  In the ninth Walker doubled and scored on a pair of productive outs.

WP:  Rapp (1-1).  LP:  Mike Lincoln (0-4).  S:  None.

Notes:  This was Coomer's all-star season.  One of the many odd things about that is that if you look at the 1999 Twins on b-r.com, he is not listed as a regular.  He played 71 games at first, 57 games at third, and 7 games as the DH.  Doug Mientkiewicz is listed as the regular first baseman and Koskie is the regular third baseman.

In this game, however, Coomer was at first and Brent Gates at third, with Koskie as the DH.  Marty Cordova was the regular DH, as injuries limited him to 29 games in the outfield.  Javier Valentin was the catcher, with Terry Steinbach given the day off.

Koskie was the leading batter in the young season, at .333.  He would finish at .310.  Coomer was batting .328.  In the first part of May he went on a hot streak that would carry him all the way to .366, which is why he was named to the all-star team.  Well, that and the fact that someone from the Twins had to go.  He ended the season at .263.  Matt Lawton was batting .301.  He would finish at .259.

Despite his batting average, Koskie would play just 117 games and had just 392 plate appearances.  Twenty-five of his games were in right field, with just seventy-nine at third base.  Part of the reason for that is that Tom Kelly absolutely loved Brent Gates.  We talk about how Ron Gardenhire loved futility infielders, but Kelly had his flings with them, too.  In two seasons with the Twins, Gates played in 217 games and had 723 plate appearances, with a batting line of .252/.326/.330.  Yes, the Twins weren't very good then, but players like Koskie, Mientkiewicz, and David Ortiz either sat the bench or were left in AAA while Kelly wasted all those at-bats on Gates.

Starter Mike Lincoln pitched four innings, allowing four runs on six hits and three walks and striking out none.  Lincoln would not have a very good career, but he did have a couple of good years pitching out of the Pittsburgh bullpen.  Apparently on the strength of that, he pitched in the majors for parts of nine seasons, putting up a line of 17-30, 5.33, 1.51 WHIP.  His last three seasons were with Cincinnati, who put him into 102 major league games while he was going 4-6, 5.73, 1.53 WHIP.  Yet another player who got chance after chance long after he'd established that he was not a good major league pitcher.

Record:  The Twins were 9-13, in fourth place in the American League Central, seven games behind Cleveland.  They would finish 63-97, in fifth (last) place, thirty-three games behind Cleveland.

The Red Sox were 11-10, in third place in the American League East, three games behind New York.  They would finish 94-68, in second place, four games behind New York, but winning the wild card.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–April 19

Bucky Walters (1909)
Hector Maestri (1935)
Rick Miller (1948)
Ed Hodge (1958)
R. J. Reynolds (1959)
Frank Viola (1960)
Spike Owen (1961)
Scott Kamieniecki (1964)
Brent Mayne (1968)
Jose Cruz (1974)
Joe Beimel (1977)
Dennys Reyes (1977)
George Sherrill (1977)
Alberto Callaspo (1983)
Zach Duke (1983)
Joe Mauer (1983)

Right-hander Hector Maestri was with the Washington franchise in 1960, making one appearance in the majors.  Before the 1961 season started, however, he was selected in the expansion draft by the new Washington franchise, for whom he made one more appearance in 1961.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 19 →

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–April 18

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Frank Navin (1871)
Sam Crawford (1880)
Duffy Lewis (1888)
Jack Scott (1892)
Steve Blass (1942)
Mike Paul (1945)
Doug Flynn (1951)
Bobby Castillo (1955)
Rich Bordi (1959)
Jim Eisenreich (1959)
Dennis Rasmussen (1959)
Rico Brogna (1970)
Steve Dunn (1970)
Brian Buscher (1981)
Miguel Cabrera (1983)
Billy Butler (1986)

Frank Navin was the owner of the Detroit Tigers from 1908-1935.

Rich Bordi was drafted by Minnesota in the fifth round in 1977, but did not sign.

We would also like to wish a happy birthday to Mrs. CarterHayes.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–April 18 →

Keeping Track

Random Rewind: 2000, Game Forty

SEATTLE 9, MINNESOTA 5 IN SEATTLE

Date:  Tuesday, May 16.

Batting stars:  Ron Coomer was 3-for-4 with a home run (his seventh) and two RBIs.  Jacque Jones was 2-for-5 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Travis Miller struck out two in 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up a hit and a walk.  Bob Wells pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a walk.  Hector Carrasco pitched a perfect inning, striking out one.  Eddie Guardado pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two walks and striking out one.

Opposition stars:  Gil Meche struck out eight in 6.2 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and two walks.  Edgar Martinez was 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs.  Alex Rodriguez was 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs.  David Bell was 2-for-5 with a double, two runs, and two RBIs.  Jay Buhner was 1-for-3 with a two-run homer (his eighth) and a walk.

The game:  The Twins put two on with two out in the first, but nothing came of it.  Twins starter Sean Bergman retired the first two Mariners, but then Rodriguez singled, John Olerud walked, Martinez hit a two-run double, and Buhner hit a two-run homer, putting Seattle up 4-0 after one inning.

The Twins got on the board in the third, but missed a chance for a big inning.  Cristian Guzman walked and Jay Canizaro doubled, putting men on second and third with none out.  Matt Lawton hit a sacrifice fly, but that was all the Twins could do, and it was 4-1.  The Mariners immediately got the run back in the bottom of the third when Bell singled, Olerud walked, and Martinez had an RBI single.

Seattle put it away in the fourth.  Raul Ibanez walked and for some reason was bunted to second.  Mike Cameron singled, putting men on the corners, and Mark McLemore walked to load the bases.  Bell then hit a two-run double and Rodriguez a two-run single.  It was 9-1 Mariners.

The Twins did get a few runs to make the final score look better.  In the seventh Butch Huskey and Jones led off with back-to-back doubles.  Denny Hocking singled to bring home another run.  Coomer homered in the eighth to make it 9-4 and his RBI single in the ninth brought us to the final total of 9-5.

WP:  Meche (1-4).  LP:  Bergman (2-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  The Twins had soured on Todd Walker at this point, so Canizaro was the regular second baseman.  They really didn't have a regular catcher.  Matthew LeCroy and Jensen each caught 49 games, Chad Moeller 48, a young A. J. Pierzynski 32, and Danny Ardoin 15.  Huskey started the season as the DH, but didn't hit much and was eventually replaced by David Ortiz.

Bergman allowed nine runs on eight hits and five walks in 3.1 innings.  This was his last year in the majors.  He's another guy who stayed around a long time without doing much.  He really only had one good year, 1998, when he was 12-9, 3.72, 1.31 WHIP with Houston.  He was adequate in San Diego in 1996, going 6-8, 4.37, 1.34 WHIP.  In his six other major league seasons, his lowest ERA was 5.12 and his lowest WHIP was 1.56.  Yet, he pitched 750.1 innings, made 117 starts, and appeared in 196 games.  After this game he was allowed to make five more starts, four of which were awful, and one awful relief appearance before the Twins finally released him.  He was picked up by Florida, Tampa Bay, Colorado, Florida again, and Baltimore before his playing career ended in 2004.  He also spent a couple of seasons in Japan, where he wasn't particularly impressive, either.  I assume he's a pretty nice guy.

Lawton was the leading batter at .349.  He would finish at .305 and would make his only all-star appearance that season.  Jones was batting .339.  He would finish at .285.  Midre Cummings, who was used as a pinch-hitter, was batting .326.  He would finish at .277.  He would also finish in Boston, traded there at the August deadline for Hector De Los Santos.

This team was a strange mix of young players rushed to the majors, a couple of veterans, and guys who would never be anything.  The weren't awful on offense, although they had little power.  Jones led the team with 19 homers, Coomer had 16, Lawton 13, and Ortiz 10.  The best starter they had was Brad Radke, who led the league in losses (12-16, 4.45, 1.38 WHIP.  The only other somewhat competent starters were Eric Milton, 13-10, 4.86, 1.25 WHIP, and Mark Redman, 12-9, 4.76, 1.41 WHIP.  No one else had an ERA below 5.50.

It seems like random.org is giving us a lot of games against the Mariners.

Record:  The Twins were 17-23, in fourth place in the American League Central, six games behind Chicago.  They would finish 69-93, in fifth (last) place, twenty-six games behind Chicago.

The Mariners were 20-17, in first place in the American League West, a half game ahead of Oakland.  They would finish 91-71, in second place, a half-game behind Oakland, but would win the wild card by a game over Cleveland.

Friday Music Day

FMD 4/17/2020: Pick Me Up

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This quarantine thing got you down? Self isolation giving you the blues? Have you thought "hey, now's the time to try growing facial hair?" only to realize it looks pretty awful?

Don't worry. Be Happy!

There's always music to pick you up!

List or share your best pick-me-up songs, random 10's, musical thoughts, complaints about your hideous new goatee, or whatever!