Daddy Voltron

My favorite games, in no order.  Note that I make no claim that these are “the best” games; there are gaping holes in my play experience, especially with SNES and PC.

Tetris (Gameboy)

Super Mario Brothers (NES)

Contra (NES)

Mike Tyson’s Punchout (NES)

Sonic 2 (Genesis)

F-Zero (SNES)

Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo (SNES)

Mario Kart 64 (N64)

Mario Tennis (N64)

Perfect Dark (N64)

Mario Party 3 (N64)

Dragon Force (Saturn)

Worms: Armageddon (Dreamcast)

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (Dreamcast)

Marvel vs Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)

Burnout 3: Takedown (XBox)

Halo 1 (Xbox)

Halo 2 (Xbox)

Super Puzzle Fighter 2: Turbo (Playstation)

Final Fantasy VII (Playstation)

Suikoden 2 (Playstation)

Metal Gear Solid (Playstation)

Castlevania: SOTN (Playstation)

Final Fantasy: Tactics (Playstation)

Okami (Playstation 2)

God of War (Playstation 2)

Katamari Damarcy (Playstation 2)

Grand Theft Auto III (Playstation 2)

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (Playstation 2)

Shadow of the Colossus (Playstation 2)

Tekken Tag Tournament (Playstation 2)

Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube)

Super Smash Brothers Melee (Gamecube)

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Playstation 3)

Little Big Planet 2 (Playstation 3)

Journey (Playstation 3)

Uncharted 2 (Playstation 3)

Gears of War (Xbox 360)

Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360)

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360)

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360)

Fallout 3 (Xbox 360)

Fallout: New Vegas (Xbox 360)

Dishonored (Xbox 360)

Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360)

Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360)

Portal (Xbox 360)

Portal 2 (Xbox 360)

Bastion (Xbox 360)

Far Cry 3 (Xbox 360)

Minecraft (Xbox 360)

The Walking Dead (Xbox 360)

Bioshock (Xbox 360)

Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)

The Secret of Monkey Island (PC)

The Secret of Monkey Island 2 (PC)

Counterstrike (PC)

Starcraft (PC)

Doom (PC)

Doom 2 (PC)

Wolfenstein 3D (PC)

Civilization IV (PC)

Faster than Light (PC)

Mechwarrior 2 (PC)

Star Control 2 (PC)

 Master of Magic (PC)

Some thoughts on this console generation, as the new one is about to launch.

Reasons why I prefer XB360 to PS3:

1 - Generally superior versions of multi-platform games (relative to PS3 / Wii)

2 - Controller is much more comfortable for me

3 - XBL easier to play games online with friends than PSN

4 - Better catalog of games on XBLA compared to PSN, though this has eroded some over time.  Some of my favorite game experiences this generation are from XBLA games

5 - Earlier release of Bethesda add-ons (or, in the case of Skyrim, versions that function, period)

6 - Exclusive FPS and 3rd-person shooters like Halo and Gears

7 - Original Perfect Dark on XBLA!

8 - Both of my broken consoles being replaced for free with reasonably good customer service experience

That said, I give the nod to PS3 here:

1 - Netflix at 1080p

2 - Blu-ray including 3D

3 - Strong exclusives outside of shooters (Metal Gear Solid 4, Little Big Planet 1 & 2, Uncharted 2, etc)

4 - Console doesn’t have a death wish or suicide pact or whatever was wrong with the original XB360s

5 - Much quieter than 360 and no giant power brick from 1962

6 - PS Plus is pretty sweet and really makes the current XB Live model look badly dated

This irked me about the XB360:

1 - Kinect was fun for a few weeks, then boring, like almost all peripherals

2 - I don’t like waving my arms or talking to devices, it makes me really concerned about schizophrenia, so this is not a selling point (also led to me ignoring the Wii despite getting one at launch)

3 - No Netflix at 1080p - Y U NO LIKE 1080p?

4 - First console dying within 6 months

5 - Second console dying after 2 years

6 - Selling 20GB hard drives way after it was just embarassing

7 - Forcing me to buy a ridiculous transfer cable to move content from one system to another (before the Cloud)

8 -  Ridiculous management of profiles prior to last year’s update (allowing Cloud saves and downloading profiles on other consoles)

9 - MS Points. Seriously?

And, PS3:

1 - Controller just isn’t comfortable to me, which alone was enough to get me to spend most of my time on 360

2 - Playstation Store, while improving over the past 6-12 months, is annoying to navigate and just doesn’t feel “integrated” the way XBLA does

3 - UI on the PS3 is atrocious, I’ve owned the system for 3 years and I still can’t find basic functions without looking for them through numerous menus

4 - PS3 decided not to work on one of my TVs after it was plugged into a different set, which is probably the TV’s issue, but it didn’t have that problem with XB360 (just saying - and yes I did eventually work through the problem after a couple hours of experimentation)

5 - Ports seemed to be worse on PS3 than 360 and often had later DLC or other issues

6 - Area of strength on PS3, like JRPGs, are not genres that matter to me

7 - Putting in new games and having to wait while 1, 2, or even 5GB of data was installed, and THEN waiting approximately forever for additional updates when you want to turn it on, or use the PS store, or play a game, or look at it wrong…

8 - Controllers seem to die way to quickly; not helped by the fact that they don’t seem to shut off as XB360 does

For fun, what I liked about the Wii:

1 - It is small.

2 - Bowling is still kinda fun to this day.

And, what irked me:

1 - Everything else, basically.

2 - Bad Mario Party games.  Seriously, not even one good one.

3 - I don’t want to wave my arms around

4 - I don’t like JRPGs

5 - I don’t like Carnival Games or other games that I can play in real life 

6 - I like graphics that aren’t out-muscled by my Kindle Fire

7 - Online store had the best potential for a retro catalog and squandered it in ways too numerous to list

8 - Call me crazy, but I like high definition

9 - I like my console to have real games released by major companies for more than 2-3 years

All that said, this XBox One release does worry me a little bit.  I don’t really want or need my console to be the center of everything, though I guess it is fine if it is.  Some things are neat - booting back up instantly and resuming content - others seem ridiculous.  I’m not going to Skype while I play a game and watch a movie trailer at the same time.  If you have that level of ADD, they sell pills you can take.  

I’m not going to talk to my console, because inevitably I know I’ll end up arguing with it, and that’s one step closer to owning 60 cats and living by the abandoned railroad.

Similarly, I am not in the movie Minority Report and still feel more comfortable navigating with a controller.

Always online or mostly online or whatever is irrelevant to me.  I can’t remember the last time I didn’t play Xbox with Live connected.  Every time I try, the console reminds me I’m not logged in and I just log int.

Used Games are irrelevant to me for the most part.  I’ve sold a few random games on Ebay here and there but haven’t bought a used game this console generation and haven’t been in a Gamestop since I bought the Wii (I needed an extra controller and they were sold out everywhere).  I know I’m lucky to be well enough off at this point, or just old enough really, that I don’t have to churn my game library, but the reality is I could care less about used being a thing or not.

Anyway, I really just want a console with a good UI that has great games, a nice mix of retail and online games, solid matchmaking and communication options for social online gaming, a comfortable controller, and playing Blu Ray and streaming Netflix / Amazon / HBO Go in HD (preferably 1080p) is the extent of my media integration.  

I suppose access to my Amazon Cloud music library is also a plus.

So, my worry is that this launch is way too much about stuff I don’t care about (live TV, using lots of apps at once, talking and gesturing to my device, etc) and not enough about games.  I have to say the early lead goes to PS4.

But that controller looks weird and will probably be uncomfortable, and at the first sign that Fallout 4 is better and/or DLC releases earlier, it’ll be another Xbox generation for me.

Identify the person from the quote!

Gitaxian Probe

“Not enough can be said in this short paragraph about this card and its applications in Eternal formats, where combo is heavily played. ”

“Now this card has some serious potential. It’s a shame this card suffers from the fact that it’s a sorcery (it would’ve been too strong if it was an instant), but the fact that it’s basically “free” makes this a valuable inclusion in any deck especially Vintage Storm Combo. ”

“Gitaxian Probe is going to be a Vintage mainstay for as long as Vintage continues to exist and is going to be a card worthy of consideration in combo decks from now until the end of time.”

Mental Misstep

“Everybody is going buns wild about how Mental Misstep is going to completely redefine Legacy—however, I haven’t really heard anybody talking about its application in Vintage. While I believe it is a stretch to play this card in the maindeck, since the entire Mishra’s archetype rarely even has 1CC spells in their deck, I think it’s possible that Mental Misstep could be a really nice sideboard card in blue-spell decks against other blue-spell decks.”

“Even though Vintage holds one of the most powerful cards ever printed at the 1-mana slot (Ancestral Recall) There are better ways to deal with that (Misdirection). The sad fact is that there are few cards in Vintage this actually stop that you want to counter.”

“I’m also excited about this card in Vintage; I have a few decks that have been crunched for blue cards, and this one fills a specific role very well. It hits a huge chunk of the format, adds another crucial layer of protection against opposing openers with Ancestral Recall, Fastbond, or other brokenness… It’s also quite strong against Dredge post-board, as it protects your Leyline of the Void or Yixlid Jailer against most commonly played answers: Chain of Vapor, Nature’s Claim, Firestorm, and Darkblast. And, it does this even when you’re tapped out. This fact is actually a really big deal.”

“Mental Misstep is misplaced in Vintage.”

“It’s kind of cute, but not a real barn burner in Vintage.”

I read about this online a while ago, but kept forgetting to pick up a few of the ingredients that I didn’t have.  Yesterday, I finally made it:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/baked-french-toast-casserole-with-maple-syrup-recipe2/index.html

I say yesterday, because you have to let it sit overnight in the fridge.  So, changes to the recipe as listed:

I used vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract, because I forgot to buy any.

I cut 1 egg. I cut 1/2 cup of Half & Half.  A lot of reviews said there was a bit too much of the liquid mixture.  (with these corrections, the bottom came out sort of pudding-y but not really bad, but the top part was crispy; I liked having the varying texture but if you want to avoid any mushiness at all, just cut back the egg & liquid a bit more)

I used 1 full loaf of Wegman’s Egg Challah as the bread.  If you know anything about French Toast, you know Challah is the best French Toast by a mile.

In the praline topping, I cut 1/2 a stick of butter.  In the future, I’d suggest slightly scaling back the pecans also, it just seemed like a ton.  And be careful with the Nutmeg, it can overpower the other flavors pretty easily.

Anyway, this is really easy to make outside of the fact that you have to do the prep work the night before.  Probably feeds a good 5-6 people, too.

Upcoming “Gathering Magic” articles that make as much sense as Darwin on creepy stalking  girlfriend thievery dating:

Patrick Chapin, “Coping with Obesity”

Stephen Menendian, “Avoiding Hubris”

Matt Sperling, “How to Best Utilize Your Writing Talent”

Mark Rosewater, “Why I Excel at Basketball”

Tom LaPille, “Public Relations”

Adrian Sullivan, “Magic Decks since 2004”

Matt Elias, “How to Play Relevant Decks and Relevant Formats”

Michael J. Flores, “Avoiding Made-up Abbreviations”

Ted Knutson, “Things that Don’t Involve Women and Soccer”

Chris Pikula, “The Top 10 Ballet Performances of 2011”

Sleep deprived mom, crying baby, whining dogs?  Wish they’d all just go to sleep for a bit?

The secret to quieting them all:  CLASSICAL MUSIC.

I’m serious. It works. My house has been dead quiet for over two hours this morning save for the sweet, sweet, sound of classical music.  

Thank me later.

Diane says I should do a new top 10 list for her.  If you missed the original, you can check it out, here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UxtpNbf3m0

Now, I don’t have the energy to create another movie (oh God the free time I used to have and the ways I wasted it)… but here’s a text version (with added clarifications for those that don’t know me that well):

1.  Levi  (son)

2. Hannibal (1st dog)

3. Claire (2nd dog)

4. Levi’s Poops (makes him stop crying)

5. Levi’s Farts (sometimes makes him stop crying, also farts are funny)

6. Levi’s “coos”

7. Levi’s smiles

8. Alexis (cousin)

9. Pretending to be on a low-carb diet

10. TV Shows with “Jersey” in them (Jerseylicious, Jersey Shore)

Note that 10 is the one that really disturbs me, as it is a new development, and I swear those shows make you dumber.

With all these new updates, I’m now somewhere around 37th, probably after Burger King and before Working from Home.

In case you’re wondering, you definitely go through some changes when you become a dad.  For instance, one of the best parts of my day these days is when Levi farts or poops, because it calms him down.  Before, I can’t say I ever high-fived anyone when someone had explosive bowel movements in my presence, but now, I do that with disturbing regularity.

So, that’s something for you to look forward to.

Something very bizarre happened the past few days.

I had yet another issue with my iPod Touch not charging or syncing, and finally took it to the Apple Store at King of Prussia Mall, which had approximately six hundred billion Apple fanatics in it.  To Apple’s credit, I got there at 2:40 and was given a 2:50 appointment, and at 3:05 someone was working on my iPod.  Granted, 15 minutes after the appointment time, but given that it was only 25 minutes after I arrived, and the business of the store, I was quite pleased.  I wasn’t so pleased with the fact that the woman who worked on my iPod clearly had no clue why it wasn’t working, and wanted me to trade it in plus $150 for a replacement or 10% off a new iPod. 

This puts me in a bit of a weird spot.  I would consider getting an iPhone, however I need 64GB of storage space, and also want my new phone to be 4G.  I also really like my Droid, to such an extent that I’m pretty sure I’d rather stay in the Droid / Google family than the Apple family.  The only reason I’ve been married to the iPod or Apple at all, is that I purchased a pretty considerable amount of music from the iTunes store, which doesn’t work with non-Apple music devices.  So, even though I can’t access all my music with it, I’m likely to get the Droid Bionic (although, at 32 GB, that is also short of my memory requirements should ALL my music.

[As an aside, if anyone knows an easy way to unlock a significant amount of itunes music into unprotected MP3s in one shot, I’m all ears. End aside.]

Now, as I was dozing off to sleep on Sunday night, I was thinking, “Why can’t Google come up with a Music app that functions just like iTunes but doesn’t tie me to Apple?  That’d make my Droid just about perfect.  I wish Google would make that happen.”

Then, yesterday, a friend from waaaaay back in the day, Tim LeGower, asked if anyone wanted an invite to the Beta test for the new version of Google Music.  I snap-called despite knowing nothing about it.  Last night before bed, I set it up on my computer, and it started importing over 10,000 songs from my iTunes library (although not, it would appear, the 3000+ locked songs that I have in my library).

This morning, my Droid has access to thousands and thousands of songs from my computer.

And there was much rejoicing……….

(although the proximity of these events to my wishing they could come to pass is a bit unnerving)

So I’m normally pretty much a meat-eating type of guy, but I like to try vegetarian things now and again, because I have plenty of friends who have various meat restrictions or don’t eat meat at all.  One recent thing I tried that came out really good was eggplant pitas, which are basically gyros with eggplant substituting in for meat.

Anyway, not that long ago I made a Lasagna from scratch for the first time, following a recipe.  It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t really as good as I expected.  I made a second one today, this time without a recipe.  Here’s how it went down.

Items needed:

3 Eggplants (smaller-ish, don’t need 3 giant ones)

4 Tomatoes

1 Onion

32 Oz Ricotta Cheese

1 package, lasagna noodles

3 Eggs

Basil

Parsely

Oregano

Garlic

2 packages of sauce

Mozzarella Cheese

Step 1:  Roasted Vegetables!

Since we’re just going meat and cheese here, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of good vegetable flavor.  So, I cranked up the trust oven to 375.  While it was heating up, I sliced up:

2 Small Graffiti Eggplant (locally grown, from Wegmans)

2 Small on-the-vine tomatoes

1 Onion

2 Garlic cloves

1 Red Pepper

I took out some foil, sprayed some no-stick spray on it, drizzled some olive oil, sea salt, and butter on them, and threw them in the oven, I want to say for 30 minutes or so.  Basically just watch for them to get nice and roasted, without burning or getting crispy.

Once the veggies are done, take your favorite sauce (or, if you’re so inclined, make one) and throw the veggies in there.  Put the veggies plus sauce on the stove on low heat for a while, and they’ll basically come apart and integrate into the sauce, giving it a nice roasted veggie flavor. 

Next thing is you need a cheese mixture.  I used two different ones for this.  First, Ricotta cheese.  I used 32 oz.  Into that, mix 3 eggs, and some chopped Basil and Parsley, and then mix in any additional spices you want.  I added oregano, and some spicy red pepper for a little bit of kick.

Separate from this, you should have some mozzarella cheese, prepackaged / sliced is fine, or slice some up if you want to be fancy.

Finally, you should have one more package of sauce.  For this lasagna, I used Don Peppino’s:  http://www.rosafoods.com/DP28ozspaghetti.html 

I have no idea if this is a nationally available product, but I really recommend it.  It’s not expensive, and as soon as you open the can, you can smell delicious, ripe tomato, and a great sweetness as well.

So you now have the following:  sauce with roasted

veggies, plain sauce, ricotta cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese.  Two more items to go!

Take your last eggplant and tomatoes, and roast that in the oven similar to the above, for 30ish minutes.  And, boil your noodles for about 4ish minutes.  You don’t want them as soft as normal pasta, because they need to hold their shape while you set them up.

Once you have those last two things, you’re ready to assemble.

Take your plain sauce, and put about 1/2 of a jar on the bottom of a lasagna pan.  Add a layer of noodles, cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese, and some of the roasted tomatoes and eggplant.  Cover that with your roasted veggie sauce mixture.  Then add more noodles, and repeat.  End with a layer of noodles, and on top of that, put the rest of the plain sauce.  Make sure you’ve moistened the entire top with sauce so that it doesn’t burn or crisp up (unless you’re into that; I am not).  

Put this in the oven on 375 for 45 minutes, with foil covering it. At 45 minutes, take it out, add some more mozzarella cheese on top, and put it back in uncovered for 15 more minutes.

I like to eat this with salad and some warmed Italian bread, which you can throw in the oven for a few minutes right before the lasagna is done.

Reading this, it sounds like more work than it is.

As far as eggplant goes, I am a big fan of slicing it, pressing out some of the moisture, and then salting it for a day before cooking it as I think that brings out the flavor, but your mileage may vary.  I also usually make my veggie sauce and cheese mixture the day before, so I can finish up the rest in a reasonable amount of time the next day.

Calories:  A lot, probably. Who knows.  You can mitigate this by using stuff like skim ricotta and so on.  For what it’s worth, this is much healthier than, say, the sausage lasagna I’m going to make next time…….

I’ve done a decent amount of reading this year relative to the four or five years prior.  I’m finally reading through the Game of Thrones books, so George R. R. Martin has produced the largest volume of what I’ve read in 2011 (as I hadn’t read any before this year and am now working on the third book).  The largest quantity of books I’ve read this year, however, easily belongs to Scott Sigler.

How I stumbled on Infected, I’m not sure.  I want to say Amazon suggested it to me after I read World War Z, The Road, Ex-Heroes, and a few similar books, but I just can’t remember.  I actually got it right before I got my Kindle, so it will probably be one of the last old-fashioned paper books I buy.

So, Infected - which has a great cover, by the way - is the story of a football jock (Perry) that didn’t make the pros, who gets Infected with an alien disease launched from an invisible orbiter.  I won’t spoil too much of the story, but a few points.  By far the best parts of the story, in my opinion, deal with the science of the orbiter and the spores it launches, which cause the “infection” to occur.  As the infection becomes sentient, the interaction between Perry, the host, and his triangles is gripping, and disturbing.  Sigler takes great care to explain the science behind what is happening, which I loved.  It adds a depth to the story that gave it that “just one more chapter” feeling, as things spiral out of control for Perry.

Less interesting is the dialogue between scientiest Margaret Montoya and, well, anyone that has anything to do with her or her storyline.  Similarly, the dialogue between supposedly best friends Perry and Bill Miller comes off as a bit forced; there’s a strange divide between Sigler’s ability to hook you with his story, and the oddly unpolished and weak dialogue between the characters.

Almost immediately after I finished Infected, I moved on to the sequel, Contagious.  Contagious takes Infected and kicks it up a notch.  Of Sigler’s works that I’ve read, my favorite character, and one of the creepiest characters I’ve ever come across ever, is Chelsea.  Chelsea is a little girl infected with spores several iterations after those that got Perry.  Some reviews I’ve read didn’t like the character, but for me, every section that had her was oozing with the exact mood that this type of book needs.   

And, like with Infected, the book drags down when Margaret interacts with the other people on her team, or various agents talk to each other.  I don’t mean to imply that the writing is terrible, I just found it weak compared to the rest of the book.  It stands out, it’s jarring.  When I read the majority of the book, I think, “This would be a fantastic movie!” but when I look at some of the dialogue, I think “This would be a cool mini-series on FX!”  

Still, the ending of Contagious is awesome.  By and large, these were two great books that I enjoyed, and would recommend.  They’re relatively long in paper page count, but I found them to be quick reads.  I also pretty much ripped through them as fast as I could.  Sigler definitely knows how to hook his reader.  

I just hope that as his career goes on, the dialogue is less reliant on what stereotypical versions of characters might say (categories:  best friends!  ex-jocks!  cops!  politicians! sexy scientists!) and instead feels more organic, the way people actually talk to each other.  

After Contagious, I read The Rookie, which is only $4.99 on Amazon for Kindle.  This is the first in series of stories detailing the rise of a quarterback in the Galactic Football League in the 27th century.  I loved this story.  It’s less of a page-turner in that it lacks that horror, “holy crap what is going to happen now!” type of element you get in Infected / Contagious, but there’s a ton of great things going on in the world Sigler creates.

The GFL contains multiple races, human and various aliens, who have (mostly) been conquered by the same alien race for the purpose of saving them from themselves.  They’re allowed to compete in the GFL, which is based on the old Earth NFL and is supposed to create better interactions between the aliens.

You should know that the football jargon gets pretty technical, much the same way that the author takes great pains to detail the science in Infected/Contagious.  For me, that’s awesome.  I love football. I love sci-fi.  I love the ideas about racism and race relations that are infused in the story.  I love the smuggling and crime syndicate action, the weird alien cultures, everything.  

If you have a Kindle (and you should), and like football and sci-fi (and why are you reading this if you don’t?) go online and spend a few bucks on this.  Worth noting: I love the dialogue in this book.  Whether it’s the seasoned QB Pine, or the coach, or anyone else, the writing in this series feels stronger than it did in parts of Infected/Contagious.

I then went back and read Ancestor.  There’s some very cool ideas in Ancestor, but after a while, you realize that they’re all fading away, and the story isn’t quite as “big” as it seemed; it closes on a long, claustrophobic set-piece that is needed for the horror-action ending that is the second half.  That isn’t to say the book isn’t good - I enjoyed it - but rather that it lacks the scale of Infected/Contagious, and the most interesting characters have a bad habit of dying.

I’m working on The Starter currently.  It’s good.  Go buy it.

So, that’s my thoughts on Scott Sigler.  I recommend reading Infected and Contagious, and The Rookie / The Starter.  If you really dig his stuff, you’ll probably like Ancestor, too, but I’d say it isn’t essential.

Strictly in terms of the writing, these books are in a different class than, say, the Game of Thrones books that I’m reading along with them, but in their own way, I find them just as enjoyable.

Now, I hope someone puts together a reasonable movie treatment of Infected.  With some dialogue rewrites, it would be a fantastic action/horror/sci-fi hybrid film.

I should put more thought into these titles, I know.  I’m used to having an editor.

I’m also used to getting paid in american cash dollars or college credits, so I had more reason to work at it.

Anyway, music.  It’s pretty awesome, right?  I believe pretty strongly that one of the reasons that humans are always battling each other rather than working together (beyond basic animal need to fight over scarce resources etc) is that we just don’t perceive things the same way.  Music is a great example of this.

I don’t simply mean that some people like Nickelback, or country western music, or Limp Bizkit.  Rather, I mean that music has an amazingly varied degree of relevance in people’s lives.  Social media makes this really obvious; some people list a ton of artists on their FB page, share songs and song lyrics with their friends, and so on.  You can often tell pretty quickly the people for whom music resonates, literally; the folks that include music in their daily routine, find that it moves them, helps them express themselves, or drives (or syncs with) their emotions.

I’ve always been interested in the way that certain songs, heard for the first time, have a lasting effect on me.  Have you ever heard an artist you’ve never heard before and almost gotten goosebumps or the shivers because there’s just something there that sticks with you?

Here’s a few of mine from over the years, just at random.  Keep in mind that these songs were the first time I was hearing this artist or group.

Tool, Sober

Death Cab for Cutie, Sound of Settling

Method Man, Bring the Pain

Nirvana, Smells like Teen Spirit

Ben Harper, Oppression

The Black Keys, AM Automatic

The Strokes, Last Nite

The Hives, Hate to Say I told you So

The White Stripes, Fell In Love with a Girl

The Shins, Turn a Square

So there’s some of mine… what are some of yours? Or, do you even think about music this way? 

My first job, besides hustling cards, was working at the Suncoast Motion Picture Company store at Montgomeryville Mall.  I started there in the summer of 1997, pulling down a legit paycheck of $4.93 an hour.  Around this time they started releasing those quarters for each state in the US, which was actually rather annoying, as people would ask you for specific quarters when you gave them change.

One day after the quarters first came out, a very old woman came in, and purchased a movie on VHS (remember those?), and I gave her change.  She asked if I had another copy of  a specific state quarter, because she was collecting them all for her grandchildren.  I asked her if she realized they’d be putting them out for 10 years.

What I meant to suggest was that, given the line behind her, she’d have plenty of other chances to get that quarter.  From the sad, dejected look on her face, I realized that she took me to mean, “You’ll be dead long before these are all released, you old hag!”  Which I swear was not what I meant.

So, that’s my feel-good quarter story.

Happy 4th of July!

(that’s the patriotic part)

Bicentennial Man.

That is all.

When I moved in with Diane, it became obvious that my options were:

1 - Starve.

2 - Eat out for the rest of my life.

3 - Learn to cook.

Being, at that time, a young go-getter, I started to teach myself to cook.  I grew up mostly eating chicken, so that’s where the majority of my focus was.  My Mom is an incredible cook, and I think I inherited at least a bit from her, although I doubt I’ll ever be in the same league as her - but meatballs weren’t really one of her strengths.

My wife, however, loves beef.  So, I’ve tried to learn more beef recipes, and one of the basic beef recipes is classic Italian meatballs.

When you look online at meatball recipes, there’s a lot of suggestions.  Fry them, bake them, whatever.  They all seemed like a lot of work.  I tried a few different recipes but found them to be pretty involved, and was never happy with the results, especially given a decent chunk of prep time.

“There’s got to be a better way!”, I would think.  Well, there is.

And, no matter how inept you are in the kitchen, or how pressed for time, you can make meatballs.  They’re freaking easy.  They take about 20 minutes of prep time and then, this way, cook for an hour or two, which is up to you based on how  long you want to wait, basically.

Here’s all you need:

1 LB Ground Beef (preferably something not too fatty, like 85/15 or 90/10)

1 LB Ground Pork

1 Jar, Sauce (I made my last batch with Classico Four Cheese - you don’t need anything super fancy.  You can certainly make it from scratch but that dramatically increases the preparation time)

1 Tomato, 1 Onion, 1 Pepper

Parmesan and/or Romano Cheese, Garlic, Oregano, Basil, Hot Pepper

2 Eggs

Bread Crumbs (any type, doesn’t have to be fancy)

First step, dump the sauce into a pan, preferably something wide and not that deep, like this: http://www.target.com/s/ref=in_se_pagelist_btm_5?ie=UTF8&keywords=pot&searchSize=30&searchView=grid5&searchNodeID=1038576|1287991011&searchPage=5&fromGsearch=true&rh=&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&searchRank=price

Turn the stove top up about half way and put on the lid, and let that heat up.  Chop up the tomato, the onion, and the pepper - not diced, but chopped up.  I like red or orange peppers, but any will do, and throw them in the sauce.  This’ll add a nice fresh flavor even if you’re using $2 store sauce.

Let that heat up, and get to work on the meatballs.  Grab a big bowl.  Dump the 1 LB of Beef and 1 LB of Pork into the bowl.  Crack the eggs and put those in.  Sprinkle bread crumbs into the bowl - this is a “to taste” type of thing, but say 1/2 cup or so if you’re the measuring type of person - and mix it all together.  Add some spices:  salt, pepper, oregano, basil, garlic powder, Parmesan / Romano cheese, dash of hot pepper.  Just wash your hands first, and then get on in there, and mush all the ingredients together. 

Take the meat and form it into little balls, and set them aside.  I like to make them about golf-ball size. Once you’re done with that, just toss them in the sauce.  You don’t have to heat them up in the oven first, or pan-fry them, or anything.  That’s why I love this way:  it’s idiot-proof.  The eggs and bread crumbs should keep them together if they’re about the size of golf balls, so you can just drop them into the hot sauce, one by one.  Then, leave the sauce on the stove, with the meatballs inside, on low-medium (so that the sauce is simmering, but not boiling).  

And, that’s it!  

After about 90 minutes or so (depending on how hot you leave it), come back, and enjoy your meatballs.  They’ll be cooked through, but a great consistency (not tough on the outside), and moist and delicious.  If you’re so inclined, you can heat up the sauce at the end, and the fat/oil will rise to the top, and you can skim it off. If you use low-fat ground beef, this isn’t necessary.

Total prep time is all of 20 minutes or so.  So, you can chop your veggies, throw the stuff together, then go and do something else for a while- you can leave them cooking for probably two hours if you keep the heat from getting too high, which gives you the time to do lots of stuff… MTGO Draft?  Couple rounds of SC2?  Call of Duty?  Watch a movie?  So many options!

Now, if you want to get fancy, you can make a full meal out of this pretty easily.  For example:  buy basically any nice type of baguette.  Cut it in half long-ways.  Spread some butter (margarine, Olivio, whatever) on one half and top with some garlic powder, and sprinkle some Mozzarella cheese on the other, and bake in the oven / toaster oven on 300F for 10 minutes or so.  Or, you can just heat up the bread, and put some olive oil in a bowl for dipping with some sun-dried tomatoes.

Take a salad bag, and add some goat cheese, fresh basil, something like a raisin and pecan mix, and some croutons, and you’ve got a great salad.

Add bread and a salad to some pasta, and you’ve got a great meal to make for guests, or to impress your parents, who think you’re probably eating Tombstones every day.

The best thing about meatballs, though, is that if you’re cooking for one or two people, and make 2 lbs worth of meat, you’re going to have plenty of leftovers.  

My favorite way to eat meatball leftovers:  Buy Amoroso Club rolls.  If you don’t have those, move somewhere that does.  Cut in half, and toast up a bit with some Provolone cheese, open face, in the toaster oven.  Drop 4 meatballs and some sauce on there, and enjoy.