My New Boyfriend!

Last Friday, I went to dinner with some friends. And this was no ordinary dinner. I had been looking forward to this since September when Ross and Maggie first told me about their amazing experience at Bryan Zupon's Z Kitchen. If you don't know about Bryan, you can read about him in this NY Times article. Read it. After some rescheduling and more rescheduling, we were finally able to get over to his dorm room for dinner on Friday night.

Our courses included:

Scallop, avocado mosaic, olive oil-poached grapefruit, tomato-cumin chutney, mustard, Sichuan peppercorn, Old Bay



Red snapper, fennel, raisins, candied olive, pomegranate


And then there was the course that changed my life. The course that made me feel like I had died and gone to heaven. It was BACON-WRAPPED BACON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Bacon-wrapped pork belly) Oh. My. God. I fell in love. See that picture below? That is my boyfriend. My boyfriend is BACON!

Seattle Meets New York – Bacon Wrapped Bacon Buns: Pork belly, Nueske’s bacon, miso-butterscotch, snow peas

Bryan said that this dish might be his "greatest achievement and contribution to humanity at large." I agree. It was so delicious.

To see some of our other dishes, go here. I even licked my dessert plate!!!

After the meal, I went home and cried. Never has a meal moved me to tears before. But this one did. I love bacon. Bacon loves me. Maybe I should write a song for my new boyfriend on the ukulele. Woot!

Less Than Forty-Eight Hours

Holy cow! Holy cow! Holy cow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wootie woot woot!

After finishing the really amazing "Cheese Pork!" and banana pudding at Crooks with Maggie and my parents, I jumped into my car and let out a little "woo hoo!" My meal was soooo delicious that I felt giddy. And then I realized, I am not going to work tomorrow and that just made me feel all warm and happy. I clicked around on my Ipod to pull up my Richard Hawley playlist and hit play. (Who am I kidding, I haven't stopped listening to him since this summer.) The beautifully dreamy acoustic version of "Darliin'" came on and I just melted and I just smiled and smiled and smiled. By the time I reached 15-501 headed back to Durham, I was listening to his song "Serious" and I started squealing in the car. I literally screamed at the top of my lungs all the way to South Square. I am so darn excited! I am going to see Richard Hawley perform on Saturday night!



I'm flying to New York tomorrow afternoon in time for supper with the Badgers. Before the show on Saturday, I am going to spend some time eating with Robert. I think I might have even convinced him to come with me to the show. I need to pack my elastic waistband pants so that I can eat alot. I really hope I can make it to Crif Dogs. I haven't been there in a few years and their bacon-wrapped dog is divine.

But the show is going to be great. Seeing Richard Hawley is going to beat watching Duran Duran from the fifth row in the Greensboro Coliseum when I was in middle school. I hope I don't act too freaky. I am going to take Hawley a copy of my hot-off-the-burner Food Mix. Is that weird? Am I being too weird and stalkery? I am a little bit crazy.

Richard Hawley is performing an acoustic in-store set on Monday in New York at Other Music. Should I call in sick on Monday and Tuesday and stay a couple extra days? I feel like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Hawley do this in-store show. I am seriously thinking about it. And who cares, really... I'm quitting this job anyway. Hmmm. What should I do?

Radio Show Thursday, November 22 9AM-Noon

Wendy Renee - Bar-B-Q
Cisco Houston - Beans, Bacon And Gravy
The Viscounts - Shortnin' Bread
Louis Prima & Keely Smith - Banana Split For My Baby
Frank Sinatra - The Coffee Song
Big Bill Schaeffer - I Hate Popcorn
Louis Jordan - Cole Slaw
Little Joe and the Thrillers - Peanuts
Little Eva - Let's Turkey Trot
Oliver Twist - Food, Glorious Food
The Ink Spots - Pork Chops and Gravy
Sweet Violet Boys - I Love My Fruit
Little Jimmy Dickens - Cornbread and Buttermilk
Lonnie Donegan - Ham N' Eggs
Roscoe Gordan - Cheese and Crackers

On Thanksgiving morning, I did a three-hour show on food. Nothing but food songs. I loved it. I searched hard to find songs just about food. Not songs that mention food or songs about food-named dance styles. I wanted to hear folks singing about food or eating. Chomp. Chomp.

I made two exceptions to this rule, due to the fact that I rediscovered how much I love doo wop while researching this show. One of these exceptions was "Peanuts" by Little Joe and the Thrillers, which I played at full volume ten times before leaving for work on Wednesday. I was dancing hard in the kitchen until I realized that I was late for my 8am meeting.

The other exception to my food rule was Little Eva's "Let's Turkey Trot" which is about dancing. But I thought that this song is just brilliant. Instead of the backing vocalists singing "doo wop diddy diddy" as you might expect in a standard doo wop tune, they were singing "gobble gobble diddy diddy." How cool is that!?!?! So I just had to play it for Thanksgiving.

I discovered lots of new-to-me food songs from folks I know like Little Jimmy Dickens, Louis Jordan, the Sons of the Pioneers and Anita O'Day. And then there were songs from folks I had never heard of like the Sweet Violet Boys, the Thrones, and Bradley Kincaid.

But I think my favorite was the Viscounts' take on "Shortnin' Bread." That song is so much fun. It's a high-energy rockabilly number that makes me want to put on a cowgirl outfit with lots and lots of fringe and rollerskate around my house and dance like a lunatic. Wheeeeeeee!!!!!!

You can see all seventy-two food songs here. Chow!

California, California You're Such A Wonder That I Think I'll Stay In Bed

Craven and John got hitched last weekend on a hilltop in Calistoga, CA. It was a really touching ceremony. Lots of Magnetic Fields quotes. I cried.


There was alot of partying and playing and hiking and swimmng and dancing.


I was voted best dressed (besides the happy couple who looked extremely dapper). But 2 1/2 inch heels were not meant to be worn in grass.


The whole weekend was full of love and happiness. Craven's dad gave such a wonderful toast on Friday that I cried. It was great to see everyone so happy and having such a great time.


It was also wonderful to catch up with old friends that I haven't seen in years and years.


Today, I am exhausted. I got in late last night and I couldn't sleep. I made it into work at 8am and it was a blur. It is so busy at work and there is no time for me to be jet-lagged. I should get to bed.

For my drive up through wine country to the ranch, I chose to listen to Richard Hawley, which was perfect road trip music through the hills of Napa Valley.

Congratulations, John and Craven. Y'all are the greatest. And the bacon was the best.

Gutterglory & Gut Glory

My senior year at UNC, I realized that I needed to take one physical education class or else I wouldn't graduate. Yikes. I had taken an 8am aerobics class my freshman year and I knew that I didn't want to do anything like that ever again. Who wants to work out that early in the morning? As a college student, I sure didn't. During my senior year, the only time I worked up a sweat was dancing all night long at a local rave somewhere.

Anyway, there were stories about an easy PE class that didn't require any physical exertion or sweat and even allowed SMOKE BREAKS. (I am so glad that I grew up in this state.) I needed to take that class. It was bowling. It was hard as hell to get in the class because everyone else at UNC wanted an easy PE class, too. I took a gamble my final semester of college by signing up knowing that there was a great chance that I would be rejected. Thank god I made it into the class.

Bowling met on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons around 3:30 or so, which was great, because it allowed me, some of my classmates and a huge group of friends to go to Papagayo's for margarita pitchers before class. So not only did we get smoke breaks, we went to class tipsy on margaritas.

Our instructor was cute, but he wore those god-awful, tight, polyester coach shorts. Ew. But he was cool. Well, at least he didn't seem to mind or notice the margaritas on our breath. He encouraged us to do midnight bowling (bowling with the lights off)... which is always fun when you're a little tipsy. We had ridiculously easy multiple-choice tests, like how many pins are there in a frame? He didn't grade us on our bowling scores or number of strikes or technique really... if he did, I would've flunked. I never even broke a 100 in my bowling class. But I did make an A.

UNC offered its final bowling classes this past Spring semester. The student union's bowling alley is now closed and the university plans to turn that space into offices.

In March of this year, I joined a bowling league. I became part of a super team with some guys who are bigger music geeks than I am... I love it. They came up with the brilliant name Gutterglory, a nod to the now defunct indie rock band, Butterglory. The day before Gutterglory's first game, I fell and sprained/fractured my ankle. Luckily, the boys were able to find a last minute sub, who's been covering my slot since April. But last night, I was back in action! We got beat by the other team 2 out of our 3 games. But the one game that we won, I bowled a 120!!!! My cute, polyester-shorts-wearing, bowling instructor would be proud.

I wanted to celebrate my incredibly high score, so my teammate, Mark and I headed over to the Federal to meet up with some of the other bowlers. After a couple beers, Mark, who was starved suggested that we drive over to Cook-Out to get a burger and a milkshake. I was a little hesitant because for one, it was 12:30 at night and two, I am not a fan of fast food burgers. But he said that they had really good milkshakes. Let's go!!

As we were driving, Mark was telling me about Cook-Out's seasonal WATERMELON MILKSHAKES. Oh. My. God. We pulled up to the lighted menu board and then everything after that was a big blur. Before I could blink, we were driving away with two bacon cheeseburgers with grilled onions and two watermelon milkshakes. Mark and I sat at my kitchen table and enjoyed an incredible, late-night, gluttonous meal. The burger was really great for fast food. It was a decent thickness and rather juicy and had a good meaty flavor. The bacon on it ROCKED.

Oooooohh. But that milkshake. It was incredible. The watermelon chunks were so large that they kept clogging my straw. You couldn't help but use a spoon. I was afraid that the creaminess of the milkshake would overpower the sometimes delicate taste of the watermelon. But that was not the case at all. It was great. They had a gazillion milkshake flavors on that menu board, but the watermelon will only last another month or so.

I think that a late-night trip to Cook-Out might be mandatory for all future bowling nights.

I Heart Richard Serra

My trip to New York this month was filled with wonderful things. In addition to various hot dog activities, there was a recording session with the Badgers and Ewald made bacon-wrapped figs dipped in chocolate. The music was rough and I learned that attempting to play Duran Duran's "Rio" on ukulele is harder than I thought. And good lord. Figs. Wrapped in bacon. Dipped in chocolate. Incredible.

On my last day in New York, we went to the MOMA to see the Richard Serra retrospective. His work is so amazing and I think he might be my favorite sculptor. To be in the presence of one of his works is just thrilling. Serra creates these magestic metal torqued ellipses and spirals that have subtle bends and twists. I feel like you have to spend a good five or ten minutes with one of his pieces to "get it." Upon first glance, the sheer size and material of his works can be very intimidating. But the closer you get, the more inviting they become. Walking in and around them is dizzying and mezmerizing. They manipulate sounds as well as your perspective and balance. Heck, I can't describe his works. I lost the art history lingo when I graduated 14 years ago. But if you have the opportunity to see Richard Serra's work, I highly recommend that you go.


All the pictures from our Richard Serra experience can be found here.

Hey, Your Bacon's In My Chocolate!!

I had dinner with Christa one night at Torrero's last month where I ordered bacon-wrapped shrimp. I declared "wrapping anything in bacon makes it taste better. I'd even eat bacon-wrapped chocolate."

Lo and behold!!! I walked into the hair salon yesterday to find this:



#1 ingredient: Milk Chocolate. #2 ingredient: Bacon. #3 ingredient: Salt.


Those crazy Vosges chocolatiers who create things such as a wasabi chocolate bar or curry chocolate bar have now taken chocolate to the next level. THEY PUT BACON IN CHOCOLATE. And holy pork, it tastes amazing. I knew that Christa would be just as excited as I was.


We were both a little hesitant about tasting it. But it was really really good. I am not a fan of milk chocolate in general... the darker the better in my book.

But if any of you have been to my house lately for a chocolate tasting, you know that I've been loving this dark chocolate bar with smoked sea salt from a chocolatier in Beaufort, NC. So, I was ready for the bacon. Logically, it was the next step.

The milk chocolate was perfect... anything darker would've overpowered the salty meaty goodness of the bacon which was crunchy and very tasty. Not "Bacos"-flavored, but real, honest-to-goodness, right-off-the-hog BACON!!! The consistency of the bacon in the bar was perfect and provided a divinely meaty finish to each bite. (Be sure to click on the photo of the bar and look at that piece of bacon... it looks so delicious!)

Wacky chocolate makes me so happy.

I Miss Cooking

As I've been sitting here confined to my polka-dotted chair, I've been watching the magazines pile up. I don't know how I accumulated so many magazine subscriptions. I don't even read all of them. For instance, I receive the Duke alumni magazine which I only sometimes open. Boo Duke!! The New Yorker is so chock full of information that I feel overwhelmed and usually end up reading one article a month if I am lucky. Then there is the local Sun magazine of which I usually just browse the Readers Write section. I have two music magazine subscriptions, which is too much, but I think that one was a gift.

Today, Saveur came in the mail. This and Cooks Illustrated are my favorite magazines which is somewhat ironic since I have never cooked until very recently. And and it's going to be awhile before I return to my culinary explorations. On Saveur's cover is the tastiest looking salad ever. It's a spinach salad with shallots and bacon, much like the one that I made for Elizabeth & Noah a couple months ago. It looks so tasty. My diet of the past couple weeks has been lacking adequate leafy foods. I am dying for some greens. Especially greens with bacon. My diet is extremely limited these days.

As I was flipping through Saveur this evening, I saw various articles about elaborate kitchens and places that I cannot afford to visit. But then, I came across this one photograph and my jaw dropped and I immediately started salivating. It was a picture of chocolate. It was porn. Chocolate porn. Handmade corn tortilla filled with melted chocolate. Delicious. The recipe looks easy enough, but it calls for four cups of masa harina. There are enough Latino groceries in Lakewood that I am sure that I can find it around here.

The more recipes I read, the more I realize I have no clue what goes into the food I eat or how it is prepared. Maybe once I am better I'll try to continue teaching myself how to cook and learning where to find certain ingredients in the grocery. Until then, I think I'll set the goal of getting well enough to go out to eat supper at Lantern one night in the next couple weeks. Rossi still owes me dinner.

Powder Their Behinds

When I was little, I remember that my mom used to sing me bedtime songs like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and stuff like that. There's nothing wrong with these songs... they are very traditional songs that lots of little kids hear from parents. However, my dad sang completely different songs to me and my brothers when he was putting us to bed. I feel truly blessed (and simultaneously cursed) by the songs that my dad sang to us. Dad was way into country music, which might account for my cowboy phase. I vividly remember "Where Are You Tonight" from Hee Haw in which my dad would allow me to make the "PPBBBLLLLTTTT!!!" sound toward the end of the song. That was way cool. There was also the childen's classic "The Wreck of the Old 97" which I particualary liked because it was a true story in which a train crashed and the conductor died in Danville, VA where my grandparents lived.

This weekend, I took a trip to Miami, FL with my parents, my brothers and my sister-in-slaw for my cousin's wedding. On Friday, we took a little road trip out to Shark Valley, one of the National Park sites in the Everglades. Despite the name, there were no sharks, but you could find an alligator every few feet as well as herons and egrets. It was really amazing, but also a little frightening. The alligators were not in cages or separated from visitors in any way, but they were simply lying on the side of the path and they were EVERYWHERE. They were very laid back and seemed to love to sunbathe and have their picture taken, but still, these were not domesticated alligators. They were so close that you could reach out and pet them, although that was definitely discouraged and I certainly did not attempt it.

While there, my brother, Drew walked up to my dad and said, "You know, all these alligators remind me of 'The Battle of New Orleans.'"I think it took my dad a second or two to figure out the connection between the alligators and that song, but it was one in my dad's bedtime song repertoire. Once Drew mentioned it, the memories of my dad singing that song to me in my polyester footed pajamas came rushing back.

"In eighteen-fourteen we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the might Mississipp'
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans

We fired our guns and the British kept a comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

We looked down the river and we seed the British come
And there must've been a hundred of 'em beatin' on the drum
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
We stood beside our cotton bales, didn't say a thing

We fired . . .

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire muskets till we looked 'em in the eye
We held our fire till we seed their faces well
Then we opened up our squirrel guns and really gave 'em well

We fired . . .

Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

We fired our cannon till the barrel melted down
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round
We filled his head with cannonballs and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off the 'gator lost his mind

We fired . . ."

I remember thinking that this was THE BEST SONG EVER WRITTEN when I was a child. I think my dad thought so too, because I can remember him belting this song so loudly that I thought the whole house was shaking. I had no idea what the song was about, but I thought the part about powdering the alligator's behind and the gator lost his mind, was just pure brilliance in subject matter and in rhyme.

"The Battle of New Orleans" was originally written by a school teacher named Jimmy Driftwood. He tried desperately to keep his pupils' attention by setting lyrics to songs pertaining to the subject matter he was teaching. He took the old fiddle tune called "The Eighth of January" and gave it lyrics about the final battle of the of the War of 1812, hence the name "Battle of New Orleans." One night, Johnny Horton was driving home after a late concert in Nashville and heard Jimmy Driftwood's song on the radio. He liked it so much that he decided to record it and his version became one of the most popular songs in 1959.

I'm very glad that my dad chose these sorts of songs to sing to me and my brothers when we were little. I think it kinda contributed to our weirdness, but it in a very wonderful way. I hope to continue the tradition and sing these songs to my future kids one day.