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.

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 94: Indigenous Persons at Gardy’s Guys

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According to the Yahoo preview, the Twins have now attained "surging" status, having won 12 of 16 to threaten to be a factor in the AL Central race.

This game matches up a guy who has a mug shot, but has yet to appear in a Major League game this year, vs. a guy who has no mugshot but has been the darling of the local media for being Not Kevin Slowey.

Huff has thrown 100 1/3 innings in 17 starts at AAA in 2011, with underimpressive peripherals (63:28 K:BB) but impressive outcomes (3.86 ERA, 4.01 FIP). He's a big-ish (6'2", 215 lbs) lefty with a mediocre fastball and a mix of other pitches. In 2009-10 with the Indians, he went 13-19 over 208 innings, with a 5.84 ERA, 5.12 FIP and 5.19 xFIP. Chosen in the supplemental round in 2006 out of UCLA, he doesn't quite qualify as a Jeremy, but he's close.

Stompsnake has bounced back and forth between the big club and Rochester this year, putting up good results despite missing few bats (19:11 K:BB in 40 innings with the Twins, 25:7 in 32 1/3 in Rochester). Hopefully he brought his smoke and his mirrors in his suitcase from upstate New York. In his last appearance for the Twins, on July 10, he held the White Sox to one run on four hits and two walks over six innings, striking out five.

It's a great day to play two, but it would be really nice if Songsack managed to go the distance in this one. How 'bout we get him some runs, boys?

Fun fact: Cleveland is 7-2 against the Royals, 6-10 against the rest of the division, including 1-4 against the Twins.

Keeping Track

Minor Details: Games of 7/17

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Buffalo 13, Rochester 4 in Rochester.  The Red Wings scored two in the first, but Buffalo came back with six in the third and the game was never close again.  Rene Rivera had two hits.  Jeff Bailey homered, his seventh.  Denard Span was 0-for-3.  Jason Kubel was 1-for-4 with a double.  Kyle Gibson surrendered nine runs (seven earned) on eight hits in four innings.  He walked none and struck out four.  Jake Stevens struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.

New Britain 9, Portland 7 in Portland.  The Rock Cats held leads of 5-0 and 7-1, but needed two in the ninth to break a 7-7 tie.  Nate Hanson had two singles and a triple.  Jair Fernandez had two singles and a double.  Brian Dozier singled and hit a three-run homer.  Bobby Lanigan lasted five innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and a walk.  Andrew Albers worked three shutout innings, giving up just one hit, to get the win.

Ft. Myers 4, Dunedin 3 in Dunedin.  A three-run fourth gave the Miracle a lead it never relinquished.  Josmil Pinto was 4-for-4 with a home run. Kane Holbrooks got the win with six strong innings, giving up a run on six hits and a walk.  Alex Wimmers pitched a scoreless inning, walking one.  Bruce Pugh allowed two runs on three hits and a walk in two innings but was still credited with a save, his eleventh.

Beloit 3, West Michigan 2 in Beloit.  The Snappers trailed 2-0 after an inning and a half, but scored single runs in the second, fifth, and seventh.  Wang-wei Lin had two hits.  A. J. Achter got the win with seven solid innings, giving up two runs on six hits and a walk.  Jose Gonzalez worked two shutout innings of relief to get his ninth save, allowing no hits and no walks.

Elizabethton 8, Greeneville 5 in Greeneville.  The Twins trailed 5-1 after three, but a five-run seventh propelled them to victory.  The Twins had only six hits, but received seven walks and were aided by three Astros errors.  Rory Rhodes hit a home run.  Starter Todd Van Steensel allowed five runs on six hits and two walks in 4.2 innings.  Derek Christensen struck out three in 2.1 innings, allowing just a walk to get the win.  Steven Evans and Matthew Summers each worked a perfect inning and each struck out two, with Summers working the ninth to get the save.

GCL Twins.  No game scheduled.

DSL Twins.  No game scheduled.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.