Gluttony y Glotonería

It was a night of food y música with Dez -- dinner at Ms. B's M & M's Soul Food on Manchester

 then Café Tacvba y Los Tigres del Norte en El Forum. 

Food first:

I got the Catfish (REALLY good), Dez got the Baked Chicken. 

There were sides, I didn't take a picture. 

We split the awesome Peach Cobbler. 

After walking my leftover catfish to a very secret free parking spot, we went over to The Forum.

We surveyed El Merch

Gorras de beisbol y Tigres

Baratijas

I know I'm going to regret not getting that embroidered edge key chain

Best of all, and take note of this my musician friends, 

¡Los Sharpies!

Nice markup, right? Or is that markerup - haha.

Café Tacvba opened and wow were they a visual and sonic feast!

Their hats and fringe glowed in the dark!

I sense a SpyGirl sketch of Rubén coming soon. 

Here's a silent stop motion video showing the fringe in action:

¡Fantástico! 

 I have no photos of Los Tigres del Norte. Perhaps I was too transfixed by the spectacle. There was video, sometimes the usual live feed and sometimes prerecorded performances of the same song but at another venue (confusing!). They wore shiny jackets and leather pants with thin metal tubing over the knees (strange!). The vocals started sounding just a little bit weird then ¡BAM! the power went out. For a few seconds, the entire venue was dark -- except for the light from everyones' phones (disturbing!). The percussionists kept playing (troupers!). Gradually the power restored, and a backing track revealed itself by repeatedly playing the finale "muchas gracias" over and over (oops!).
Behind me lurked La Caterwalla. She very enthusiastically sang along, WAY off key. She also had a bad sense of personal space and managed to crowd me, despite the chair between us. Hit by her fan, check. Hit in head, check. At least she didn't throw her drink at me! ¡Ay, señora!

[Pardon any bad Spanish. I was using el Google for translations].

Linked up with Shelbee's On the Edge of the Week Linkup

Fig Jam

Severo brings home reject figs from his day job as a produce pro at a local grocery store. I've always liked dried figs, but fresh figs I still avoid. (Is it a texture thing?) Fig jam is a nice half-way point and it tastes great on yogurt.

My starting point was the Fig Preserves recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, ed Judi Kingry & Lauren Devine ISBN 978-0-7788-0131-3 Their version is too labor intensive (it's for fruit kept whole) and calls for perfect firm fruit.

Here's my version:

Fig Jam

Ingredients

8c whole figs

8c boiling water

2-2/3c sugar

1 whole lemon, seeded and chopped

Using a glass or stainless steel bowl, cover the whole figs with boiling water

Let stand for 15 minutes

Drain the figs in a colander placed over another bowl -- SAVE THE WATER*

Pour 1/2 the water into a saucepan. Add sugar and chopped lemon.

Boil hard, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes

Meanwhile, coarsely chop figs

Add figs to pot, bring back to full boil, boil until mixture reaches 240º

Pour into jars

Freeze or process in canner

*About that extra fig water -- drink the rest! It's good for you!

Corn Griddlecakes Recipe

We had some fresh grilled corn leftovers, and I got a hankering for my Dad's Corn Griddlecakes.

"I'll have what she's having." 

Working our way backwards, here they are cooking:

It took me a while to find the recipe. The last place I looked was in my Grandmother's Fannie Farmer.
Yes!

(He called them fritters. They're not those round ball, doughy, deep fried fritters though).

Corn Griddlecakes
1 can creamed corn or 1 cup fresh corn (1 ear)
2 eggs
blend in blender until merged

add
6 TB flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg
milk as needed while blending -- you'll be pouring it onto skillet

fry in butter, bacon grease, or coconut oil

serve with maple syrup

(made 13 3" diameter cakes my last batch)