All posts by Philosofer

The Nation Has An Appetite

The Nation Has An Appetite: What To Do With Too Much Zucchini

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The other day I posted a couple of links to baked zucchini recipes (Bread and Blueberry Lemon Cake (my recommendation on the cake is to find a slightly less/more lemony sweet buttercream recipe, and also to add some lemon into the batter if you like lemon)). You should make those if you have lots of zucchini, and I understand the bread freezes fairly well too.

Today I wanted to share another favorite, and I thought I'd turn it into content here, given our recent conversations about generating more and maybe some new Citizens. Anyway, I made it last night, and it turned out perfect. It's quick, easy, and satisfying. Can't beat that.

Ingredients
2 medium zucchini, chopped into 1/2" - 1" pieces
1 medium onion, chopped in 1" pieces
Pepperoni slices
Mozzarella or similar cheese
Your favorite marinara sauce
Basil leaves
Good hot dog/brat buns
Salt, Pepper, Oregano
2 tablespoons butter (or less)

Directions
1. Heat zucchini and onion in butter until cooked through, seasoning with salt, pepper, and oregano.

2. Layer a row of pepperoni and another of basil into the buns.

3. Spoon in the cooked zucchini and top with marina and cheese.

4. Broil until cheese is melted/browning.

It's that easy. So much yum.

Friday Music Day

FMD: July 7, 2017 – Ken Griffey’s Grotesquely Swollen Jaw

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I'll be heading up to the Twins game tonight. For some reason that put into my head the classic Simpsons' tune "We're Talkin' Softball." Which made me think of other original songs from the Simpsons. Which made me smile a whole lot. ("Can I play the piano any more?" "Of course you can!" "Well I couldn't before.")

I also thought of some of the great original songs from other TV properties (Bob's Burgers comes immediately to mind), and how that overlap of original music and TV can really carry a joke through, often beyond the show. It might really be a comedic thing for the most part?

Anyway, let's talk about the use of original music in TV shows or something like that. And shave our sideburns.

Friday Music Day

FMD 5/19/17 – Score A Baseball Game

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Watching the game last night, I heard Target Field play "Let It Be" during the challenge review. "Pretty clever," I thought, before realizing that that's surely happened at football and hockey games too, and long before baseball.

Still... it generated this idea. Go ahead and select the musical score for a baseball game. Here's the standard categories, and add your own as you see fit (or steal from others that others see fit). Heck, suggest a category for others too - no need to have an answer before you ask the question!

Single
Double
Triple
Home Run
Walk
Intentional Walk
Strikeout (swinging? looking?)
Stolen Base
Caught Stealing
Double Play
Great fielding play
Umpire Review (overturn, uphold)
Injury time out
Pitching change
Second pitching change in an inning
Starter gets pulled after a great outing
Rain delay (just one song)
Delay because of streaker/animal on the field/other unusual
Walkoff win

Friday Music Day

FMD 5/12/17 – Fire

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I live on a farm site. There is a large grove. In that grove are a few piles of... stuff. Yesterday afternoon one of those piles spontaneously combusted, so a lot of time was spent hauling water out there and moving sprinklers around and just standing around looking at the flames and/or embers.

Anyway, give us your best "fire" song, and be as creative as you feel inspired to be.

Friday Music Day

FMD 5/5/17: Oldies

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When in the car I've been listening to a lot of Oldies radio lately. Oldies as in "songs that were considered oldies when I was a kid" not "songs that were popular when I was a kid." So basically 50's and 60's. Growing up, when I wasn't listening to children's music, I was usually listening to this class of oldies. It had been a good while since I'd found a station to scratch this itch, so now that I have one, I tend to listen to it pretty much every time I'm in the car and the Twins aren't on. Admittedly a large part of that is the dearth of good radio stations out my way.

I've been thinking about trying to expose my children to some of the era. They get a fair amount of Beatles and Elivs in their musical diet already, but not too much else. We've got a road trip coming up this summer, which might be a good time to work on the musical education of my kids. So the question I'll pose today: if you were making a 50's and 60's mix without any Beatles or Elvis, what would be a necessary add?

Friday Music Day

FMD: 4/28/17 – Leaning into it

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A few months ago we talked about "Shake it off" songs, that help you get over the rough patches. Today, I want to go the opposite direction. Sometimes a person craves the songs that hit a deeper chord and help fully open up the emotional expression. I once put together a mix of these songs - not quite sad, more melancholic - but it was lost so long ago that I'm not sure I could list more than two or three of my selections.

If you were putting together such a list, what would it look like? Would you pick songs that are sad in terms of lyrics, or sad in a more sonic fashion? I know that personally the music makes a bigger impact than the lyrics when it comes to this kind of mood music. Indeed, I'd often pick songs that aren't so much "sad"

To kick it off, here's a couple of nominations:

Death Cab For Cutie's "Transatlanticism"
Cloud Cult's "There's So Much Energy In Us"
Chumbawumba's cover of "New York Mining Disaster 1941"
Joseph Arthur's "In The Sun"
"Into the West"
Willie Nelson's cover of "The Scientist"
Neko Case's "I Wish I Was The Moon"

So... what's good for melancholy?

Friday Music Day

FMD: 4/14/17 – Old Albums

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I've been listening to a lot of my old albums lately. Meaning the things I listened to in high school and college. My physical collection is largely packed up and put away right now, so as I'm inspired to pick an old album I just pull it up on youtube. That's handy.

Anyway, lots of them have not held up as well as I thought they might (The Love Below was disappointing. Still kind of a fun concept album, but the execution is just far too inconsistent.) Others were even better than I remembered (Chumbawumba's WYSIWYG is fan-freaking-tastic.). Lots were nicely familiar (BNL's albums), and well worth the time.

Anyway, for this week maybe we can talk old albums. What's something you haven't dusted off in ages that you used to listen to regularly?