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The B-52s’ lost recipe for sweet potato cornbread
05.26.2017
09:24 am
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Some principles are non-negotiable. I like talking to people whose views on religion, politics, food, the environment, hairdos and footwear differ from my own. But I stand firmly behind Dangerous Minds’ “zero tolerance” policy for anyone who doesn’t like the B-52s. Those jerks can wash down a plate of boiled shoe leather with a cold glass of splinters. The rest of us will be borne aloft on the angelic sounds of Ricky Wilson’s guitar and the subtle flavors of Cindy Wilson’s sweet potato cornbread.

This recipe ran in the B-52s’ fan club newsletter. I came across it on the blog Evenings with Peter, which also broke the story of Fred Schneider’s Italian-style Soba noodles.

CORN BREAD WITH SWEET POTATO IN IT

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
⅔ brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 medium size sweet potato (cooked and mashed)

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Sift dry ingredients together.
3. Beat egg, add wet ingredients, mix together.
4. Coat cast iron skillet with cooking oil. Put in oven to get hot. When hot, pour in batter.
5. Leave in oven about 20 minutes.

A regular baking pan can be used instead.

After the jump, the B-52s go in search of “Quiche Lorraine” in Passaic, NJ…

READ ON
Posted by Oliver Hall
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05.26.2017
09:24 am
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Sun Ra’s recipe for Moon Stew
05.19.2017
09:23 am
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Starting in the sixties, when Sun Ra and his Arkestra were living in a communal house in the East Village, the group sometimes subsisted on a home-cooked vegetarian meal named after their lunar complement. Like Gurdjieff’s salad, not all of its ingredients could be precisely measured, says Ra’s biographer John F. Szwed:

Sometimes when they were short of money for food [Sun Ra] took over the cooking, and his cooking was like the music, individualized, spiritually guided, mysteriously concocted. Moon Stew was his chief dish, a mix of green peppers, onion, garlic, potatoes, okra, tomatoes, and ears of corn. And when it was done right, he said you could taste each ingredient individually. Once when he was asked to share the recipe for a musicians’ cookbook, he warned the authors that there were no fixed proportions to it, and that it required the ingredients of sincerity and love, to say nothing of the ability to make the fire burn with psychic intensity:

“You can’t say, ‘One teaspoon of this, or one teaspoon of that.’ Like a musician, you improvise. It’s like being on a spirit plane; you put the proper things in without knowing why. It comes out wonderful when it’s done like that. If you plan it, it doesn’t work.”

The cookbook was Jazz Cooks: Portraits and Recipes of the Greats, which included recipes for Dave Brubeck’s burgers and Max Roach’s corn. One of the book’s editors told the LA Times Sun Ra made him work for the Moon Stew recipe:

“I sat with him for an hour and a half, and it was hard to keep him on planet Earth,” Young said. “He never did give exact amounts of his ingredients, or cooking time, but he really went on about what he ate as a child.”

The Arkestra’s current director, Marshall Allen, recently confirmed that no one makes Moon Stew like Sonny did:

I tried making the Moon Stew myself. I used all the same ingredients like him, but it didn’t taste like his.

 

 
As reported by the food blog A Slice of Earthly Delight, the unharmonized melody goes like this:

Moon Stew

Ingredients:
Green Peppers
Onions
Garlic
Okra
Tomatoes
Corn
Flour
Butter or Vegetable Oil
Broth (chicken or vegetable)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Sincerity
Love

1) Chop the vegetables.

2) Bring the broth to a simmer on the stove while making a rue. To make the rue, melt the butter or vegetable oil in a pan and add flour, stirring until it reaches the consistency of wet sand. Stir a little of the broth into the rue and then add the rue into the broth.

3) Add the vegetables, salt, pepper, sincerity, and love to the broth.

4) Cook for at least one hour and serve to family and friends!

At 44:09 in the interview below, Marshall Allen and Danny Thompson of the Sun Ra Arkestra (now on tour) describe life in the Sun Palace, the Arkestra’s former East Village digs.
 

Posted by Oliver Hall
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05.19.2017
09:23 am
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Troll Cakes: Give your favorite Internet troll a cake with their shitty comment on it
05.10.2017
11:11 am
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Troll Cakes is a website dedicated to baking and delivering cakes to Internet trolls with their smartass comments emblazened right on ‘em. I like this. I also like that the cake is as ugly and as dumb their comments.

Step 1: They take the offensive comment.


 
Step 2. They make it into a cake!


 
Step 3:  They box it up and mail it to whoever said it. The box includes a copy of their original comment.

That’s it. Apparently if you don’t have your troll’s address handy, Troll Cakes will do some detective work and find it for you.

Here are some more Troll Cakes examples below:


 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.10.2017
11:11 am
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‘Till Death Do Us Part’: Ghoulish bride & groom serve their ‘severed heads’ as cake at their wedding
05.04.2017
10:50 am
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Natalie and David Sideserf’s ‘severed head’ wedding cakes. Nice.
 
You know you have found your partner for life when you both agree that making cakes in the image of your own bloody, severed heads to serve guests at your wedding is the right thing to do. Not only do you serve the all-too-realistic cakes, but you make them together. Now that is love. And that is exactly what Natalie and David Sideserf did for their wedding in 2013.

According to Natalie, the creative force behind Sideserf Cake Studio in Austin, Texas, she and her husband are huge horror movie fans, inspiring the ahem, “no brainer” concept of making their wedding cakes in the design of two decapitated heads. The cakes, which took approximately 40 hours to complete, were served on a platter dripping with faux blood that read “Till Death Do Us Part.” Awww. Some gloriously NSFW images of the macabre cakes follow below. Also included are a few more of Sideserf’s hyperrealistic cakes, such as her remarkable Willie Nelson cake and other ghoulish/horror-themed designs that only the dark of heart could love and eat.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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05.04.2017
10:50 am
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Things full of beans that shouldn’t be full of beans
04.19.2017
08:28 am
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One can be forgiven for thinking that the Internet has run its course when you find tons of images titled “Things full of beans that shouldn’t be full of beans.” Still, I will admit that I did find these mildly funny.

There’s really not much to say about this except that it’s painfully obvious what it’s all about: Things full of beans that shouldn’t be full of beans. If you cannot get enough of “Things full of beans that shouldn’t be full of beans,” there’s an entire Facebook page dedicated to the subject. It already has 151,264 likes. Won’t you be one of them?


 

 

 
More beans after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.19.2017
08:28 am
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There’s a Hot Pockets sleeping bag and I don’t know why
04.18.2017
11:15 am
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This is one of those things that exists in the world and I simply do not know why and cannot imagine who would want such an item. (And no, “irony” doesn’t cut it as an excuse because there is none.) Here it is: A Hot Pockets® sleeping bag. According to the description, its “Custom MicroWaav™ insulation system ensures your extremities stay toasty.”

During your next camping trip or marathon gaming session, this Hot Pocket Sleeping Bag will keep you warm and cozy. After the initial 2 minute period to reach maximum internal temperature, the integrated crisping sleeve allows for maximum warmth retention. Our custom MicroWaav™ insulation system ensures your extremities are always toasty while your core stays nice and cool. It’s perfect for backpacking, camping, or couchsurfing.

This is just a guess, but I’d imagine the #1 use for this particular sleeping bag is most assuredly couchsurfing.

Since it’s getting warmer outside and folks are going on camping trips or to festivals, I thought I’d hip you to this bag. No, you won’t look like a total weirdo at all sleeping in this. No one will look twice or think poorly of you, dumbass.

The Hot Pockets® sleeping bag sells for $79.99 over at Think Geek.

Now I have that damned Hot Pockets jingle stuck in my head… 


 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.18.2017
11:15 am
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Strangely satisfying photos of food coordinated with monochromatic clothing
04.13.2017
07:27 am
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‘Licorice’ and ‘Zero Bar.’ Two of the photos from the series ‘Wardrobe Snacks’ by Kelsey McClellan and Michelle Maguire.
 
The photos in this post are the result of a joint venture by set and prop stylist Michelle Maguire and photog Kelsey McClellan who came up with the idea to coordinate various kinds of foodstuff and people wearing monochromatic outfits with a distinctly 70s vibe.

The series, Wardrobe Snacks, is oddly satisfying to look at and the pair are offering up prints of all twelve photos from the series for $145 a pop, here. Warning: the images in this post might make you both nostalgic and hungry at the same time. So maybe have a polyester pantsuit and some potato chips handy while you look at them.
 

‘Biscuit.’
 

‘Filet o’ Fish.’
 

‘Strawberry wafer.’
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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04.13.2017
07:27 am
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Robyn Hitchcock’s recipe for Food Pie
04.06.2017
08:03 am
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Robyn on the horn, via KEXP
 
Food isn’t just important for growing healthy teeth, bones, skin, and hair. Where would the Robyn Hitchcock songbook be without food? I’ll tell you where: in the slender-volume, shallow-shelved monograph store, filed under “S” for “short,” that’s where. Every Hitchcock record feeds on food. Whether Robyn’s singing about the demonic scrambled egg in “The Devils Coachman,” the cat hoist with her own petard in “Eaten by Her Own Dinner,” or the meat in “Meat,” you can be sure he’s fattened his farm-to-table verses and choruses on a steady diet of chow.

That is to say: Because Hitchcock knows from eats, readers who observe a strict food diet will want to try this, his all-purpose meal. Ten years ago, Hitchcock gave his recipe for Food Pie to Cooking with Rock Stars, most of whose other guests were too “indie”—in the newfangled genre sense, of course, not the old-fashioned means of production sense—for my taste. From my point of view, these were Emerils of the recording studio, who salted their soggy dishes with tears and larded them with feelings. By contrast, Robyn’s notes leapt off the platter, clean, fresh and flavorful as salade niçoise.

In the words of the Poet, “If food be the food of music, play on.” Do yourself a flavor and have a heaping helping of Food Pie.
 

 
The Food Pie recipe, after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Oliver Hall
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04.06.2017
08:03 am
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Leonard Cohen sings the Chiquita Banana song
04.05.2017
01:21 pm
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In 1991 Leonard Cohen was on a TV show and he sang a cute song about bananas that Chiquita featured in commercials that ran in movie theaters back in the 1940s. I have no idea how it came up or what inspired Cohen to break into the song, but he clearly wants a close pal of his, Canadian poet Irving Layton, to register how much of the song he knows by heart.

The original singer of the Chiquita Banana song was Monica Lewis, who many years later appeared in two of the Airport movies.
 

 
You probably know that on the cover of his 1988 album I’m Your Man, Cohen is depicted munching on a banana. Bananas were even used in the promotional items produced for the album, as seen at the top of this page.

This page would have you believe that Cohen is the second most banana-obsessed musical artist after, well, the Velvet Underground.

The original Chiquita Banana advertisement from 1947:

 
Cohen’s rendition:

 

Posted by Martin Schneider
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04.05.2017
01:21 pm
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Alien egg ceramic cookie jar with Facehugger lid
03.27.2017
02:43 pm
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Check out this fantastic-looking ceramic Alien cookie jar with a “facehugger” lid. If you’re a fan of the Alien franchise, this has got to be the perfect cookie jar for you. I do not own one (yet) but the ratings so far are all five stars.

Description from the listing:

  • Highly detailed Xenomorph egg design from the Alien film franchise
  • Facehugger lid to keep cookies fresh
  • Ceramic cookie jar and lid measure 9” by 5.5”
  • Not dishwasher safe, wash by hand only
  • In space no one can hear you take the last cookie!

Either you’re going to eat more cookies or fewer depending on how comfortable you are pulling a cookie out of an alien Xenomorph egg. The egg cookie jar sells for $29.95 here.


 

 

 
Thanks to Kevin K!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.27.2017
02:43 pm
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