Automotive Acne Productions

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Talking Heads :: Stardust Ballroom – Los Angeles, Sept. 28, 1979

1. Artists Only
2. Stay Hungry
3. Cities
4. Paper
5. Mind
6. Heaven
7. Electric Guitar
8. Air
9. New Feeling
10. Buildings On Fire
11. Found A Job
12. Psycho Killer
13. Life During Wartime
14. Take Me To The River

Friday, January 4, 2013

Clean Plate: Coffee Crusted Chicken

By Casey Ann Francis (The Fishtown Spirit Newspaper - Philadelphia)

Like a good percentage of most average Americans, coffee plays a very important role in my daily life. It’s practically ritualistic and routine, but never taken for granted. While there is an aspect of my morning tradition that does prevent caffeine withdrawal, I mostly drink a huge cup first thing because I enjoy the flavor.

Other than water, it is the one thing I consume constantly so I invest in the good stuff. My coffee of choice is the Reading blend from Old City Coffee in the Reading Terminal Market. It is the perfect combination of a French blend and their namesake Old City Blend, producing a deep, smooth, toasty mix. I prefer it black, as to not dilute the delicious notes with cream or sugar.

While there are practically a million ways to take your morning beverage, most wouldn’t realize the grounds could serve as the perfect ingredient in a rub for most meats. This savory recipe appealed to my appreciation for coffee and opened my eyes to other ways I can get it in my system.

Coffee Crusted Chicken

5 tablespoons finely ground coffee beans
6 tablespoons butter, softened
5 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 (6 – 7 lb.) whole chicken

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir together coffee, butter, sugar, garlic powder, pepper and salt.

Arrange chicken, breast side up, in a shallow roasting pan and spread rub all over to coat completely. Pull skin from meat and rub mixture between the two.

Roast chicken, basting every 20 minutes or so with pan juices, until skin is deep golden brown and crisp and meat is cooked through, about 2 hours.

Set aside to rest 10 minutes then transfer to a cutting board, carve and serve hot.

We’re big fans of whole chickens, whether it’s a recipe we make on our own or a pre-cooked rotisserie from the grocery store. If on the smaller side, two of us can eat one for dinner with a veggie side but, if it’s larger as in this recipe, we can continue with leftovers for lunch. There’s also something about a chicken in its entirety that correlates to home-style meals, and with dark and white meat there is something for everyone. The same can be said for the coffee rub; while the brown sugar adds sweetness and aids the mixture in crusting as it cooks, the garlic powder and black pepper add the savory properties and invite the coffee to do the same. The grounds become a deep, rich highlight and while one would think they would be gritty, they practically dissolve with the rest of the spices in your mouth. The hint of cinnamon rounds out the rub and connects the dish as a seasonably appropriate recipe. While the coffee is the most interesting aspect, the butter works magic keeping the meat moist.

Not only was this a great opportunity to experiment with one of my favorite flavors, it made me happy to see non-coffee drinkers appreciate and enjoy the dish. I was so excited that I could barely sleep after eating it. Or perhaps I had just exceeded my coffee limit for the day.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Culture: Prometheus In The Desert

The Verge: From Atom Bombs to Radio Astronomy, New Mexico's Scientific Legacy

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

And Kilgore Trout said at the clambake, with Laurel and Hardy in a rowboat only fifty yards offshore, that young people liked movies with a lot of shooting because they showed that dying didn't hurt at all, that people with guns could be thought of as "free-lance anesthetists."

He was so happy! He was so popular! He was all dolled up in the tuxedo and boiled shirt and crimson cummerbund and bow tie that had belonged to Zoltan Pepper. I stood behind him in his suite in order to tie the tie for him, just as my big brother had done for me before I myself could tie a bow tie.

There on the beach, whatever Trout said produced laughter and applause. He couldn't believe it! He said the pyramids and Stonehenge were built in a time of very feeble gravity, when boulders could be tossed around like sofa pillows, and people loved it. They begged for more. He gave them the line from "Kiss Me Again": "There is no way a beautiful woman can live up to what she looks like for any appreciable length of time. Ting-a-ling?" People told him he was as witty as Oscar Wilde!

Understand, the biggest audience this man had had before the clambake was an artillery battery, when he was a forward spotter in Europe during World War Two.

"Ting-a-ling! If this isn't nice, what is?" he exclaimed to us all.

I called back to him from the rear of the crowd: "You've been sick, Mr. Trout, but now you're well again, and there's work to do."

pgs. 240-241
Putnam Publishing Group (1997)

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