botwerks

if you’re physical about your cooking this is the only way to make brussel sprouts.

tools

• cast iron frying pan (what? you don’t have one of these? WTF is wrong with you? go get one and come back when you’ve come to your senses)
• tongs
• stovetop capable of getting that frying pan really hot

ingredients

• brussel sprouts – 1-3 lbs.
• kosher salt
• pepper
• chili powder
• onion sliced – 1 large
• garlic sliced (4 cloves)
• walnuts
• olive oil
• dijon mustard (optional)

instructions

1. clean and halve the brussel sprouts. halving them is important
2. get that frying pan hot, like really frickin’ hot, but not so hot that your oil smokes
3. pour in enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the frying pan
4. put a layer of brussel sprouts in the pan, cut face down
5. let the brussel sprouts sear
6. liberally salt and pepper the sprouts while cooking
7. add onions and garlic
8. let onions soften and start to scorch
9. add walnuts
10. toss the whole concoction with a few passes of chili powder
11. if stuff falls out of the frying pan, STFU and eat it.
12. when the mixture has reached the appropriate level of badass sear remove from heat and serve with dijon mustard on the side
13. evaluate offers of baby-daddy-hood from consumers of these sprouts

additional notes

i will acknowledge that it is indeed possible to improve upon this recipe through the judicious application of bacon. however, bacon use is widely regarded as cheating.

the following albums have been in heavy rotation over the course of 2011. these were all released last year. (i believe) this is presented in no particular order and i’m sure there’s stuff that’s been in correspondingly heavy rotation which missed the list.

mason jennings :: minnesota

we’re big mason jennings fans in our house. that a mason jennings album should be in heavy rotation is really of no surprise to anyone. what was probably in even more rotation this year was the recent mason jennings live album i picked up on amazon a while back. i don’t think it was released this year, so i’ll elide it from the list.

adele :: 21

yes, i know that this is on the hitlist of every suburban mom in the u.s.. sue me. this album just keeps going and going. there’s the stuff that’s been getting copious amounts of airplay, then there are those album only gems that you have to love.

atmosphere :: the family sign

how can you not love slug and co.? dark, cool and funny. “just for show” has to be one of the more entertaining songs of the last year. come on you’ve been there, you know it.

bon iver :: bon iver

they should classify this man’s voice as a national treasure or something. between this album and “skinny love” from the previous album you should have a pretty strong case.

death cab for cutie :: codes and keys

this album rocks on so many different levels. if you don’t love this, you’re a terrorist.

dessa :: castor, the twin

it would have been sweet to make it to the fitz to see this show. first rate musicians performing mindblowing renditions of dessa on ‘ludes. dessa didn’t really work for me solidly until this year, this album was like backing off on the threads for something til you get the click and then everything just lines up.

doomtree :: no kings

i have such a soft spot for the doomtree crew it’s not funny. P.O.S., dessa, lazerbeak, etc. this album just rocks. there’s a little bit of something for everyone on this album even if you’re not a huge fan of minneapolis hip-hop.

pert near sandstone :: paradise hop

i ran across this band when watching some current in-studio performances online. i was completely blown away. a $5 sucking sound was nearly instantly emitted from my wallet. the aforementioned online video is available here. that dude’s dancing as an instrument. boom.

wilco :: the whole love

i’ve had this on again, off again thing with wilco. lately it’s been on again. there’s a lot to love in this album, particularly the title track, which just oozes cool. then there’s born alone, and i might, and … well, you get the point.

89.3 the current :: live current vol. 7 (various artists)

this is an annual thing. i can’t help it, when it shows up in the mail, it immediately gets ripped and onto the phone. i have an addiction to these particular compilation albums. the production is immaculate, the performances rock and i’m supporting the station. ’nuff said.

addendum

---

the decemberists :: the king is dead

WTF was i thinking forgetting about this. poor kathy had to endure my anticipation of this album and with manic episodes of checking to see if it’s available on amazon or not. this pretty much got all 5 stars upon touching my itunes instantiation. silly me.

somehow, i ran across this – the original New York Times review of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four.  every few years i reread 1984 just to see how it measures up against life many years later.

orwell was an optimist.

 

in the mid-90s someone gave me a copy of engines of creation.  this blew my mind.  well, more accurately, that, plus a copy of neil stephenson’s the diamond age, blew my mind.  nanotech is still a ways off from realizing the vision laid out in either of these  books. but we’re starting to see the nascent forms of this kind of create your own product with the emergence of low cost stereolitho gear and and micro-manufacturing.  the raw materials are just a little less raw than drexler (or feynman if you want to be pedantic) posed we’d be crafting with.

but that really isn’t the point of this posting, i followed a link erix drexler’s blog the other day and ran across this little gem - How to Learn About Everything.  in this article he suggests the following workflow:

1. Read and skim journals and textbooks that (at the moment) you only half understand. Include Science and Nature.
2. Don’t halt, dig a hole, and study a particular subject as if you had to pass a test on it.
3. Don’t avoid a subject because it seems beyond you — instead, read other half-understandable journals and textbooks to absorb more vocabulary, perspective, and context, then circle back.
4. Notice that concepts make more sense when you revisit a topic.
5. Notice which topics link in all directions, and provide keys to many others. Consider taking a class.
6. Continue until almost everything you encounter in Science and Nature makes sense as a contribution to a field you know something about.

i’ve been surprised by how close this is to my knowledge acquisition process.  i don’t necessarily read Science and Nature (at least with the objectives he’s outline) but i do have a nasty habit of  hoovering information up from a wide array of sources and applying my filtration to things and establishing the linkages that are interesting or relevant to me.  this seems to be more than a little useful when it comes to tackling problems from different perspectives or understanding how to break things down into digestible chunks for research or fixing.  i don’t know how many folks apply a similar process to knowledge / information acquisition, but in a world where you have to constantly throw some information out on a regular basis, supporting this mode of knowledge acquisition is increasingly difficult.