The Hangover Part 2 Trailer

You know that they have to top the craziness from the first movie. Watch the trailer for your preview of The Hangover Part 2. The Wofpack is back. Scheduled for a late May release in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Look! A Monkey!

The Hangover Part 2

The Lagina Clock is Ticking

Facebook strikes again. Some anonymous complaint to the heroes that run Facebook has forced a Montreal band to take down their group page. Lagina, a progressive math-punk band has been playing and performing around Montreal since 2003. Where Facebook fails, Myspace continues to support great music talent.

Find more artists like Lagina at Myspace Music

I was immediately concerned over what could possibly have offended anyone to the point where the page was deemed offensive. I'm a fan of the band and have seem them perform three or four times. I started my search on the intergoogle. Urbandictionary.com (it is written so it must be true) has a definition of Lagina (with a small L) as follows: "The crevice, or fleshy divot, resulting from the tension of unduly tight clothing on a man's genitalia. It specifically refers to the testicular area, and the ridge that becomes visible between the testes. Often referred to as camel-toe when such clothing is worn by and pressed against a woman's genitalia."
I seem to remember clicking on the Like button on the Lagina Facebook page. Therefore, at some point, on my profile it said, 'Shawn likes Lagina'. In effect it stated that Shawn likes "the crevice or fleshy divot, resulting from the tension of unduly tight clothing..." Maybe it's a good thing the page was deleted. Go visit Lagina, the band, on their myspace page.

Lagina

The Great Chili Cook Off

Red Kidney & Pinto Beans

We organize a pot luck at work every couple of months. It starts with breakfast and ends with lunch. With 15-20 participants, there is a lot of grub. The lazy people pick up bagels, muffins, or coffee. The others actually prepare food. The first time out a made a huge garden salad. Huge. Another time I brought chocolate danish. Yeah, I was lazy. But it tasted great and was a huge hit. With a few days until the next pot luck I had to make a decision. What should I make for the pot luck?  I was planning on making chili this weekend so the timing was perfect. I will make a  batch of chili. I will bring in enough to feed 20 people. All would feast. All would love Shawn. If only I knew how to make chili.

Vegetables and Meat Ingredients

I like eating chili. The best chilis have plenty of ground beef and just enough spice to feel it but not so much that it hurts. I just do not know how to make Chili. I also have never used dried bagged beans before. Who would have thought that one little bag of beans would absorb so much water that it would grow to 20 times its original size? That was the first lesson I learned. The second lesson was to find out that after soaking the beans, you should bowl them for 90 minutes to soften them. And then I went to look for a recipe for the best chili ever.

Instead I found this recipe. Basic, and something I could work with.
The recipe called for:

1 and a ½ pounds ground beef

½ pound pork sausages

1 cup chopped onions

2  15 and a ½-ounce cans red kidney beans

1 28-ounce can of tomatoes, cut up

1 cut chopped green pepper

1 cup thinly sliced celery

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons chili powder

Alexander Keith's IPA

I know how to cook, and I like to experiment. Perhaps with more beans than brains I made several substitutions.

I replaced the pork sausages with spicy Toulouse sausages.
I doubled the kidney beans and added a share of pinto beans
Rather than chili powder I used chili pepper
I added a tablespoon of Tobasco sauce
I don't like cooking with tomato paste, so I added in fresh tomatoes. And a second can of the same.
I also added a whole red pepper.
And beer. Mostly for drinking but I am going to pour some in just because its beer. I think red wine would go better. But I am out of red wine.

Oven Roasted Chili

The instructions were to place the beef, sausage and onions in a Dutch oven. So I grabbed the ingredients and put them in my bed. Get it? No? Look it up kids. Seriously though, I know that a Dutch oven is a pot. I also know that I do not own one. I looked it up on the googlenet and discovered that, they look to be a cast iron pot. I decided to use what I had. I took a closed pot for stove top cooking and a roasting pan for the oven. I had enough ingredients for both and wanted to see which would work better to cook the chili.

Stove Top Chili

Place the beef, sausage and onions in your pot and cook it until the meat browns. Then add in the rest of the ingredients. Keep it on simmer for an hour and a half, stirring occasionally.

My recommendations? I was surprised that the oven cooking made a tastier chili. Stick with the stove top cooking if you want to go for a more traditional recipe or if you prefer a faster preparation. The oven cooking requires an extra 45 minutes at 300 degrees. Overall it makes for a good chili recipe and a relatively healthy meal to boot. The pinto beans adds the extra touch. And as far as I am concerned chili just isn't chili without hot sauce. Chili is a great idea for lunch or supper.

Pinetop Perkins

Joseph Williams "Pinetop" Perkins, the man who became the oldest Grammy award winner died today in his Texas home. He was 97. Pinetop Perkins was born in Mississippi in 1913 and started his career in the late 1920s. His 2010 work called, Joined at the Hip won him a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues CD.
Original known as a sideman, Perkins spent years playing in the Muddy Waters Band and with Sonny Boy Williamson before going solo. Perkins was also nominated in 2005 for a Grammy and recognized with a lifetime achievement award for his 80 year career.