new music!

Super Furry Animals were my favorite band in high school. They're an "innovative, weird and endlessly enjoyable" Welsh group, and their latest album is my favorite of theirs since the late 90s. Here is a write-up about some recent reissues that hits the high points of one of the best pop groups of the past 15 years. One of their most famous songs is "The Man Don't Give a Fuck," which samples Steely Dan's "Show Biz Kids" and was their concert closer for ages. In 2004 they released a vinyl-only 20 minute live version from a show they played at the Hammerstein Ballroom, featuring a massive house breakdown in the middle of the song, c/o their amazing keyboardist Cian Ciarán (who's also 1/2 of Acid Casuals). I digitized it for easy access and posted it below.

Download "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" Live @ the Hammerstein Ballroom

Clark came out with a new album this week called Turning Dragon -- way more aggressive than his previous stuff but from my first impressions it sounds great.


Bochum Welt recently came out with a vinyl sampler for his upcoming album, "Robotic Operating Buddy," and I've really been enjoying the main track (Interlude (Mix 2)). You can hear a sample of this "lilting mid-90's padded breakbeat track" on boomkat or just download the whole thing here.

Two more things: next time you make hot chocolate at home, be sure to add some Cointreau. And in case you needed your faith in the internet restored, just watch this.

Cooking backlog

By request, I made some cashew butter cardamom cupcakes this week -- not being a huge nut butter fan these weren't my favorites, and opening up each cardamom pod individually was a pain, but they turned out really aromatic and interesting. The frosting was way ugly because apparently you have to chop up powdered soymilk in the food processor first, or you get little pellets in the frosting (this was stressful).

Next, I made my favorite cookies for like the sixth time and was reminded to undercook them.

Double Chocolate Espresso Cashew Cookies

• 2 sticks softened butter
  
• 1 c sugar
  
• 3/4 c brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
  
• 2 tsp instant espresso powder (instant coffee works too)
  
• 2 c AP flour (280 g)
  
• 2/3 c cocoa (65 g) (not Dutch-process)
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 3/4 c unsalted cashews, toasted and chopped
  
• 3/4 c semisweet chocolate chips (I like the 60% Ghirardelli stuff)

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter and sugars, add eggs and vanilla and espresso powder slowly. Sift together dry ingredients, mix into creamed butter/sugar, and stir in cashews and chocolate chips. Scoop the dough onto a jelly roll pan (I use a spring-loaded ice cream scoop, leveling it off before unloading it onto the pan for uniformity), bake for 19 or 20 minutes, and let cool on a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes. By the way, this was stolen from The Great Book of Chocolate.

The real event was finally getting to make panettone french toast, which is as good as it sounds. The recipe for the wash is pretty involved -- in my mind, the more ingredients the better the flavor -- but the technique is straight Alton Brown: stale the panettone slices for at least 24 hours ahead of time, just barely dredge the slices in the wash, cook on a griddle, and hold in the oven until ready to serve. Panettone is way harder to work with than stale challah, but the flavor is pretty amazing (especially with maple syrup and mascarpone cheese). And yes, that is sriracha all over my eggs.

2008

Just dust yourself off
The promise of a new year
Singing north charleston

photo: Jenn, haiku: Andy

Red Velvet Cake

Made a red velvet cake for my friend's birthday (doubling the food coloring and cocoa powder, skipping the berries) and it turned out beautifully:


His name's actually Money, hence the dollar sign. Like all red velvet cakes, this was a delivery device for cream cheese icing (ingredients: cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar). Nutrition!