I just re-activated all the Christmas songs on my ITunes jukebox.
Perhaps my favorite of all Christmas albums is Phil Spector’s “A Christmas Gift for You.” Yes, Spector is actually Jewish, but unlike Neil Diamond & Babs Streisand, he manages to pull it off. It doesn’t hurt to have a killer house band and the angelic voices of Darlene Love & Ronnie Spector.
Enjoy — and let me be the first to wish you a very Merry Christmas!
MAKES ABOUT 16 SERVINGS
Hot buttered rum is part of an American colonial tradition in which flavorful ingredients, such as molasses, were added to soften the harsher rum available in years past. This is an adaptation of a recipe that appears in Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide (Doubleday, 1972). www.tradervics.com
3⁄4 lb. softened butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1⁄4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1⁄4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1⁄4 tsp. ground cloves
Salt
24 oz. aged rum (rhum vieux)
1. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and a pinch of salt and beat again to combine. Chill buttered rum base until ready to use, up to 2 weeks.
2. To make 1 hot buttered rum, put 2 heaping tbsp. of the buttered rum base and 1 1⁄2 oz. of the rum into an 8-oz. mug and fill with boiling water. Stir to melt and mix; serve at once.
Stone Crabs are awesome. If you’ve ever visited Joe’s in Miami, you’ll know that they are most often served with a mustard based dipping sauce. The key is to enjoy the crabs while they are fresh. The spoil rather quickly and turn into a mushy, mealy mess. I must say that I have typically been disappointed with stone crabs that have been frozen, so get ’em while they’re fresh!
Here’s a recipe from our friends at Saveur magazine.
| SERVES 4
Stone crab claws are sold pre-cooked. They’re usually served chilled, which allows the meat to slip free of the shell easily, and also gives it a finer, clearer flavor. 1 cup mayonnaise 1. Make the mustard sauce by mixing together mayonnaise, mustard, horseradish, hot sauce, and lemon juice in a bowl. 2. Crack shells of crab claws with a hammer or dull side of a cleaver. Serve with mustard sauce & lemon wedges. |
| This recipe was first published in Saveur in Issue #57 |
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Bleach has been killing germs for more than 200 years but U.S. scientists have just figured out how the cleaner does its dirty work.
It seems that hypochlorous acid, the active ingredient in bleach, attacks proteins in bacteria, causing them to clump up much like an egg that has been boiled, a team at the University of Michigan reported in the journal Cell on Thursday.
The discovery, which may better explain how humans fight off infections, came quite by accident.
“As so often happens in science, we did not set out to address this question,” Ursula Jakob, who led the team, said in a statement.
The researchers had been studying a bacterial protein called heat shock protein 33, which is a kind of molecular chaperon that becomes active when cells are in distress, for example from the high temperature of a fever.
In this case, the source of the distress was hypochlorous acid or hypochlorite.
Jakob’s team figured out that bleach and high temperatures have very similar effects on proteins.
FLAMIN’ GROOVIES – This Band is Red Hot 1969-1979 is the first ever definitive, single CD, multi-label collection of one of the greatest cult bands of all time. Featuring 24 tracks of passionate, street-smart, freewheeling, rambunctious rock ‘n’ roll, this is the very essence of manic garage rock and ‘60s-inspired power pop. With superb quality audio, deluxe booklet and detailed liner notes.
Culled from seven era-defining albums recorded for Epic, Kama Sutra, United Artists and Sire (including Supersnazz, Flamingo, Teenage Head, Shake Some Action and Jumpin’ in the Night) all the band’s greatest tracks are present and correct: ‘Love Have Mercy’, ‘Second Cousin’, ‘Teenage Head’, High Flyin’ Baby’, ‘Slow Death’, ‘Shake Some Action’, ‘You Tore Me Down’, ‘Jumpin’ in the Night. “Flamin’ Groovies are one of America’s greatest, most influential and legendary cult bands” – All Music Guide.
TRACK LISTING
1. LOVE HAVE MERCY
2. THE FIRST ONE’S FREE
3. APART FROM THAT
4. COMIN’ AFTER ME
5. SECOND COUSIN
6. CHILDHOOD’S END
7. HEADIN’ FOR THE TEXAS BORDER
8. TEENAGE HEAD
9. HIGH FLYIN’ BABY
10. 32-20
11. HAVE YOU SEEN MY BABY?
12. DOCTOR BOOGIE
13. YESTERDAY’S NUMBERS
14. SLOW DEATH
15. MARRIED WOMAN
16. GET A SHOT OF RHYTHM AND BLUES
17. SHAKE SOME ACTION
18. YOU TORE ME DOWN
19. YES IT’S TRUE
20. I SAW HER
21. GOOD LAUGH MUN
22. YES I AM
23. FIRST PLANE HOME
24. JUMPIN’ IN THE NIGHT
Bobby and Peter Farrelly are to revive comedy act The Three Stooges in a feature film for studio MGM.
The Farrellys, whose credits include Dumb And Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, have been working on a modern Stooges incarnation since the ’90s. They will direct from their own script, with a release scheduled for November 20, 2009.
Peter Farrelly said: “We love The Stooges! They have been sending the world into hysterics for more than 80 years. Movie-goers today deserve their own Stooges and we look forward to introducing them to a new generation of knuckleheads.”
Beginning as a vaudeville act in 1925, The Three Stooges – Larry, Moe and Curly – have appeared in numerous TV specials, shorts and on home video. Go to www.threestooges.com for more on this famed comic trio.
Here, for your enjoyment, is the original video release of “The Curly Shuffle.”
Watch Seal perform James Brown’s powerful “It’s a Mans, Mans, Mans World.”
It’s included on Seal’s collection of soul classics – released 11/11.
Here’s a video synopsis of the critically acclaimed “Soul” CD …
"MAY THE PORK BE WITH YOU!"
