All posts by meat

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 104 Recap: Twins Win, Twins Win!

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Twins 7, Rangers 2
WP: The Dunce LP: C. Lewis
Twins record 49-55, 6 games out of first
Fangraphs should really be named fungraphs
MLB

Yesterday, Joe Mauer arrived at Ranger's Ballpark well before he needed to. He unpacked his duffel bag in the clubhouse before the game, and glanced around to ensure that no one was looking. He quickly slid his man muscles out of the bag, slipped them on, and suited up for the game acting like nothing was out of the ordinary and patiently waited for the game to start. The Ump called out, "Play Ball" and Ben Revere stepped into the box. He took a couple of pitches, but eventually hit a ground ball to make the first out. 'Lexi wasted no time, and popped out to the second baseman for the second out. Joe walked up to the dish, tugging on his uni a bit hoping that no one could see the bulge of his man muscles beneath. He took the first pitch for a strike and then deposited the second pitch into the right field bleachers. Joe Mauer trotted around the bases and thought about kissing his bicep, but decided that that would be a douchy thing to do. Not wanting to be outdone, Cuddy jacked a donger of his own in the 4th inning, and from that point on the Twins never looked back. After the game, the boys cheered for the return of the man muscles shouting hip-hip-hooray.

Get some culture inebriation at Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge. The burgers are great, the patio is splendid, and who can argue with 3 dollar surly during happy hour?

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 97 Recap: Indians at Twins

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Twins 7, Indian 5
WP: Matt Capps (wait, what?) LP: Sipp
SAVE! Joe "that's right bitches" Nathan
Fangraphs is confused about Capps winning, too.
MLB recap, spoiler ---> the local nine win this one.

Ah, everyone's favorite feature comes roaring back to life with a Joe Nathan save on a Wednesday. Let's look at the progress of the king of the savers race, shall we? Craig Kimbrel and The Beard are tied for the lead with 29 saves. The Beard gets extra credit for style and blowing up fewer games. The ninth guy on the list plays in the AL, for De-toilet to boot, and has 25 saves on the season. There's a lot of baseball to be played, and a lot of saves to be racked up. Stay tuned saves fans!

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. The last two games have been some of the most exciting baseball that I've watched all season. How awesome was it to bloop and dink our way to walk off on Tuesday night, and then to double down on Wednesday and split the series with the Tribe to stay alive in the central. Blackie pitched a hell of a ballgame getting tagged with only 1 earned run, but the defense behind (and in front) of him allowed 3 unearned runs to score. Joe Mauer flashed the leather a couple of times because he's the best evah. The bullpen made things very interesting, but pulled through to keep the score knotted at 4. Laddie led off the eighth with a ground rule double, Mauer pussied a single, Cuddy looked vintage, and Thome drew a walk. If Orlando Ballgame had been just a little bit taller, if had had been a baller, he would have robbed Danny V of the go ahead single, but he wasn't and he didn't. Del was Del. Nishi cracked the game open with a two run single. Drew was Drew. Joe Nathan allowed the obligatory closer's donger (thankfully it was of the solo kind), and the Twins win. I don't care if the Twins come back to make the postseason this year, but I love the way they drag me back in just when I think I'm out.

The Nation Has An Appetite

I love pork. You should 4.

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ChorizoA day late and a dollar short. Spanish chorizo, or any chorizo for that matter, is a gift from the gods. This extremely versatile sausage can be used in so many applications from burritos to pizza topping and everything in between. You can remove the casing, crumble, and fry the sausage in a pan adding peppers, onion, corn tortilla strips, and once the tortilla strips are firm scramble couple of eggs in the pan. Viola, breakfast. You can substitute chorizo for any other sausage in almost any recipe to kick it up a notch, but for today's installment we'll be focusing on one simple little side dish that highlights the salty, fatty goodness of chorizo complimented by the acidity of red wine. Very simple, and very delicious.

You'll need:

cured chorizo (the better quality / more expensive = better final product. Yes, really, purchase the good stuff)
cheap red wine
a clove or two of garlic minced

Method:

Cut sausage into 1/2 inch thick rounds and toss into a shallow pan with the garlic. Hit the works with a couple of grinds of black pepper and heat the pan med/high. When the sausage begins to sizzle a little add the cheap red wine until the sausage rounds are about half way submerged (a little more won't hurt anything). Bring the wine to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook on one side 5-6 minutes, turn sausage over and cook until the wine has reduced about half. You're looking for the pan juice to be thick, but not burnt. Serve with some fresh bread and sharp cheddar cheese, or just eat them by the handful.

The Nation Has An Appetite

I love pork. You should <3

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Braised Short Rib with Panang at Lotus of Siam RestaurantToday's installment of pork = awesome features hoisin braised country style ribs. Country style ribs aren't really ribs at all, rather these delicious morsels are cut from the rib end of the shoulder and usually contain a bone or two. Slow cooking country style ribs breaks down the fat and connective tissue which creates a tender, juicy, and delicious final product. You'll need the following:

3lbs bone in country style ribs
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated ginger (you can substitute 1 tsp powder ginger)
2 cloves garlic smashed

Method: Put ribs into your crock pot. Cover with onion slices. Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over ribs / onions.

Cover and cook on low for 8ish hours (you're looking for the ribs to be tender, the bone will probably fall out and the meat will be falling apart). Really, that's it. A few minutes in the morning and by the time you're home from work dinner is waiting.

Remove ribs from the crock pot and keep them warm. De-fat the pan juice and pour over the ribs, garnish with chopped cilantro.

I add some sliced peppers to the mix, jalapeno, poblano, anaheim, whatever I have around to Bam! it up a notch. I've accidentally omitted the rice vinegar from this dish and haven't noticed a marked decrease in deliciousness. A couple teaspoons of sesame oil will also add a bit of je ne sais quoi to this dish.

 

 

2011 Twins Game Logs

Game 89: Twins @ Pale Hose

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Hi Everybody! I don't see a game log slated for today so here is an emergency post.

A. Sleetstack (1-2) 3.71 ERA, 108 ERA+
V.
J. Peavy (4-2) 4.83 ERA, 84 ERA+

Lineups:

Twins
1. Revere CF
2. Casilla 2B
3. Mauer DH
4. Cuddyer 1B
5. Valencia 3B
6. Tosoni LF
7. Nishioka SS
8. Butera C
9. Repko RF

Sux

1. Juan Pierre LF
2. Alexei Ramirez SS
3. Paul Konerko 1B
4. Adam Dunn DH
5. Carlos Quentin RF
6. Alex Rios CF
7. A.J. Pierzynski C
8. Gordon Beckham 2B
9. Mark Teahen 3B

Go Twins!

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 85 Recap: Spoiler! Twins Lose.

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Oh, the spoiler feature doesn't work in the headline.
Twins 5, Rays 12 (The 7 runs they scored in the 8 + 9th innings were enough to win without the other 5 they scored)
LP: A. Burnett WP: The other team.
Twins record 38-47, 8.0 games out of first (3 games ahead of the Royals(!)/small victories/)
Save? not.

Oy. I'm glad that I watched this game while I was in the studio because at least I accomplished something of value on my own. Frankie wasn't sharp, but the offense picked him up. Sinkingship was called on to relieve F-bomb, and pitched quite well surrendering just one hit and one walk while striking out 3 in two innings pitched. After Mijares stuck out the dude who he was asked to strike out gardy decided it would be a good idea to bring in Burnett. Previously, I had been under the impression that the only time it was a good idea to bring in Burnett was when the other team had already won the game, but I guess I was wrong about that. Alex's line for the day reads like the script for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he gave up 4 hits, a walk, and 4 earned runs over one and a third innings pitched. Awesome. Dumatrait came on for the ninth and expanded the suck by securing two fast outs and then letting some dude named Long"donger'oria jack a three run shot. Boo.

Cuddy had an allstar day at the dish, and TK thinks that Joe Mauer shouldn't be a catcher. That about sums up this stinker.

I was all set to link to the Mill City Museum, but they're closed because the man is holding them down. Boo.

The Nation Has An Appetite

I love pork. You should two.

18 Comments

Best Breakfast in New MexicoCarne Adovada, pork marinated in red chili, is one of my all time favorite dishes. You can eat it topped with a fried egg for breakfast (or dinner for that matter), in a burrito, on corn tortillas, smothered in cheese with a side of sour cream, or, my personal favorite, stuffed into a sopapilla and drowning in red chili sauce. If you ever find yourself in Albuquerque I would recommend stopping by the Frontier restaurant for breakfast (order the number one with carne adovada) and then have dinner at el Patio (get yourself a stuffed sopa with red). This is not a dish for the faint of heart, but it doesn't have to burn you on both ends either. There are a ton of variations on making adovada that range from mostly canned to the totally-labor-intensive-but absolutely-worth-the-work version. After the jump I'll spell out a couple of fairly easy ways to make this delicious dinner or breakfast if that's what sets your hair on fire.

Continue reading I love pork. You should two. →

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 79 Recap: How about them dodgers?

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Twins 1, Dodgers ZERO
WP: Light Rail
LP: De La Rosa
SAVE! Matt "I'll Busta" Capps (13)
Twins record: 34-45, 8.5 games out of first NOT LAST IN THE AL CENTRAL!!ONEOENEOENEOQN!O!NIW

Fangraphs knows scottie baker wasn't looking at the bullpen.

Well, well, well, a save on a wednesday? My goodness gracious, let's take a look at the king of the savers race. The Beard is racking up saves like nobody's business. He currently owns the top spot with 24 saves. We would have to drop six spots on the leader board to find someone in the league that counts but I really don't care that much.

Player A .281 / .304 / .303 / .607 ops+69
Player B .296 / .320 / .336 / .655 ops+79

Just looking at their rookie seasons I'd think these dudes are brothers from another mother. In other news, Scott Baker tossed an absolute gem today. So did De La Rosa for that matter. If you tuned into this one late you missed the scoring action. Sweet Ben hit a lead off triple and was driven in by Nishioka's swinging bunt. That was it. I never doubted the Twins for a second on this one, matt capps excepted. When the camera flashed on Joe Nathan during the ninth I found myself longing for the good old days, and wondering if we'll see Joe back in the closer role before the end of the season.

Go see some art on paper at the walker. 50/50, up 'til July 17, half curated by the unwashed masses, half by experts:

Featuring some 200 works hung salon-style, 50/50 is at once an experiment in crowd curation and an exploration of the Walker’s collection, with each of the two sections filling half the gallery space. This shared exchange sparks a range of questions about the dynamics between “audience” and “expert,” or between curatorial practice and so-called “mass taste.” It also touches on a broader contrast between the act of making aesthetic judgments in an online context and the experience of looking at and thinking about art up close, without time constraints.

The Nation Has An Appetite

I love pork. You should too. Sesame Pork Roast

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Pork and Cider Sauce

This sesame pork roast is a family favorite at Casa de Carne for the left overs more than for the actual meal. I've made this so many times that I have lost the original recipe, but here is the most recent version:

Ingredients for the marinade

2 1 cups soy sauce (I use low sodium, I've found over the years that using low sodium soy sauce for marinades helps cut down on the salty bite, leaving all the other flavors to do their work_
3/4 to 1 tbsp dark sesame oil (or the hot pepper version if spice is your thing) (this is also a to taste kind of ingredient, more can sometimes equal too much of a good thing)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root grated finely (ginger powder in a pinch, to taste)
dash of red chili powder
dash of red chili flakes
splash of lime or lemon juice
pinch of brown sugar (up to 2 tsp if you're using full strength soy sauce, helps cut down on the bite)

Combine all ingredients in a gallon zip lock bag and slosh them around to mix

I usually go for a center cut of pork tenderloin, but any meaty tenderloin cut will do here. Trim most the fat from the meat, but leave a little on for self basting purposes. Toss the meat into the marinade and let it soak overnight.

While the oven is heating remove the meat from the marinade and discard the liquid. Pat the roast dry with a couple paper towels and toss it into the oven. I keep a digital meat thermometer in the roast, and when the temperature hits about 135 I take the roast out of the oven and glaze it with a mixture of equal parts honey and brown sugar. I've found that coating the whole roast in sesame seeds after glazing helps keep the honey stuck to the outside of the meat, and not burning to the bottom of your roasting pan. Throw the whole works back into the oven 'til the thermometer reads 160 (or your preferred doneness level), remove the roast and let rest under a foil tent for at least 5 minutes, 10 if you can be patient, and then carve it up in thin slices. The preparation method is almost fool proof, but be warned, the glaze can burn pretty quickly and can be a bear to clean off your pan. As an alternate cooking method, I've had great success with this roast on the grill (with some apple wood chips added, the smoke marries perfectly with the salty and spicy marinade.... stoopid burn ban).

After eating this meal I dream about the roast pork sandwiches, spicy goat cheese and pork pizza with grilled onions and roasted poblano, and stir fry with a hoisin / chili sauce that will be made the next day or so.

 

2011 Twins Game Recaps

Game 72 Recap: Twins 1, Giants 5

LP: Nick BlacKburn. WP: Voglesong
Save? Nope, but a closer did pitch in the game !ONE!O!N!O!N!O!N!Nnnnn

MLB Video
Fangraphs

Over the last one game the Twins are 0-1. While that may be upsetting to some, if we back up a bit you'll see that over our last two games we're 1-1. That's right fellas, the Twins have been playing .500 baseball for 2 days. Awesome.

We all knew that the Twins win streak would have to come to a close sometime. Unfortunately, that time was wednesday night. Blackburn didn't pitch awfully, allowing 4 hits over 6 innings, but he did walk 3 and the hits he allowed were loud. 3/4 of our infield committed an error last night, so, yeah, the defense was sloppy to say the least. The offense was worse, mustering only 4 hits off Voglesong. But, don't let this get you down. The local nine have played exceptional baseball of the last month. I haven't had this much fun watching baseball since the race down the stretch in '06. So, for today, I'm going to stay positive.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyMal2onfuM

Art: I love hanging out in San Francisco, there are a ton of galleries and museums showing excellent work. The SFMOMA holds a world class collection of modern and contemporary art. Just across the street from the SFMOMA lies the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts where they focus on big ideas, long contemplative conversations, and community interaction through art. I love the YBCA. Down in Golden Gate Park you have the de Young Museum which was recently renovated, and has a stunning observatory. If you happen to be in the bay area before July 17th, I would recommend you stop by the de Young and view Rupert Garcia: The Magnolia Editions Projects 1991–2011. Magnolia Editions, a fine art printmaking workshop, has been around a long time producing extremely good art that is extraordinarily well crafted. Speaking of printmaking, Crown Point Press is also located in San Francisco. Almost single handedly, they raised the bar for fine art etching and intaglio in America. Considered the leader in the etching revival, they published early print works by Chuck Close, Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud, and later threw their support behind the conceptual artists of the late 1970s. After stopping by these printshops you find yourself with a hankering to pull a few prints of your own you can stop by Griffin Press Co. in Oaktown and pick up one of the more beautiful and indestructible presses ever built. Oh, yeah, they're really, really heavy. And after you've made your first print you'll want to have a beer, why not stop in to the Magnolia Pub? Yeah, it's in the haight, you'll never get the smell of patchouli out of your clothes, but the beer is definitely worth the risk.