JanerBlog

More cookery.

We've been trying to get this one couple over for dinner for about six months now, and our schedules keep not lining up. So we finally got everyone to agree on Sunday dinner today, so Paul and I are now frantically cooking and cleaning before they get here.

I decided to make a really good dinner to ensure they'll come back, so the menu (though not particularly difficult) is pretty tempting: Garlic-stuffed pot roast with mushroom gravy, skin-on yukon gold mashed potatoes, buttered peas-n-onions, pearsauce (just like applesauce, but with pears) and peach crisp for dessert.

It's also a pretty local meal: the pearsauce comes from the Sizer family's pear tree, the peaches were overripe early clingstones from the farmer's market (honey-sweet but not very complex in flavor, so I kind of had to back off on the spices a bit so that some peach flavor will came through), the garlic is from Neighbor Nora's garden, and the pot roast is from our recent "Meat Harvest" -- we split a 1/8 beef share with another couple here in town and this is our first road test of the critter. Here's hoping he was a good steer.

Yay food. I love cooking.

Best. Pie. Ever.

Seriously.

Last year my pumpkin pie was a little anemic looking, so this year instead of all-pumpkin, I made the puree with half golden-hubbard squash. This proved to be a Very Good Idea. The hubbard gave the pie a darker, richer flavor and color, one that tastes more like pumpkin than the actual pumpkins did. I also used dark brown sugar and fresh-ground nutmeg, though I forgot gingerroot at the store and had to substitute ground ginger. This also proved to be a Very Good Thing.

The other thing I did differently this year was to make it with a graham cracker crust instead of my usual flour-n-shortening crust. This easter, I made a lemon meringue pie with a storebought graham cracker crust, and it was awful. It tasted of chemicals, and didn't hold together well when serving. For some unknown reason I always thought graham cracker crusts were difficult to make, but in reality, not so much. It took only a little more time than unboxing the storebought crust, and tasted a hundred times better.

Add to all this a dollop of hand-whipped heavy cream, and that was some mighty fine pie. If you want to replicate it, just follow the recipe in The Joy of Cooking, use heavy cream and double the amount of pie spices.

MMMmmm pie.

BPM Love

Hey, everybody. I've got more BPM love to share!

Here are just some of the reviews so far --

"...Roxy is a fully formed character, complete with self-doubt, determination, and a palpable euphoria when a night of music, dancing, and a great crowd all come together. Highly recommended for older teens and adults." —Eva Volin, ICv2. Rating: 4.5 Stars Out of 5

"...Call it a mashup, call it a remix, call it a day-glo pop love letter to a misspent youth: B.P.M. is brain candy in the best sense of the word." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"...It is an amazing transformation that unfolds for the reader. Starting slowly, tentatively, Sizer brings the story to a feverish pitch and when the graphic novel is over, the reader is energized, wanting more. Like a good techno set (and yes, they do exist), Sizer elicits the emotions that he wants." —Lee Newman, BROKEN FRONTIER

Plus, there's a new interview with Paul at Comic Geek Speak.

BPM hit stores last week, so you can buy it from your LCS, order it from any chain store, or get it direct from Paul here.

I know I've been talking about this a whole lot lately, but given that between the two of us, Paul and I only produce a comic book about once every two years or so, this is a pretty big deal. Go Paul!

Thanksgiving cookery

Just finished my contribution to Irwin Thanksgiving:

Decent wine (Grand Traverse Riesling, Sweet harvest, semi-dry, and late-harvest)
One squash-n-pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust
One rhubarb pie with regular crust
Spinach salad with bacon, egg and tomato (and bacon-fat vinaigrette dressing)
Two pounds of cranberry sauce

Of course, I made the cranberries before mom informed me that she's already made hers; guess I'll have to can the surplus for jam.

Yum, yum. This is really going to be great. Paul and I have an awful lot to be thankful for this year: good health, two stable incomes, a new book out, and lots of love between us, and our extended families and friends. We are lucky, lucky folks, and we don't take as much time as we should to say so. Thanks and love to all of you, near and far. Know that we're thinking of you, even if we haven't seen you for a while.

Aw, yay!

I got Scans_Daily-ed today! How thoughtful of you, Joysweeper! This totally made my day.

Attention East Lansing Concertgoers: Y'all SUCK.

I mean, seriously.

Paul and I and a couple friends went up to the Wharton Center on Wednesday night to see The Decemberists, and it was a pretty bad show.

Not because of the band, oh no. Even Paul and J_, both brand new to the band (J_'s first time hearing them was in the car on the way up) thought their musicianship was outstanding. Tight, thorough, completely engaging.

It was the crowd. They sat there throughout the. entire. show. I'ma say that again: They sat. At a Decemberists concert. Until the final number. (By the way, thank you, three dancing girls a few seats over from us, because without you, nobody would have stood up at all. You guys win. )

I felt so bad for the band. They were giving it their all, and the audience was giving them nothing back. When it came time for the audience response portion, Colin was all, "Come on, guys, you can do better than that!" and it wasn't the usual cajoling -- he was putting on a good face, but you could tell he was thinking, "No, really. Seriously, is that the best you can do?" My heart was breaking, watching him trying to whip some excitement out of the proverbial oil painting.

And worst of all, this being my first Decemberists show, I was so very disappointed, because I went in expecting this. Now I'm going to have to keep a tight watch on their website and try to catch them when they come to Chicago, and in the meantime try to forget that this was my formal live introduction to the band. I totally wouldn't blame them if they never came back this way again.

Now, I want you to pay attention, Michigan State: this is what a Decemberists show ought to look like:

Or this:

Yeah.

A whole bunch of videos that make me happy

Since I'm still pinching myself to make sure this isn't a big bright beautiful dream, here are some videos to help convince me (and hopefully you):

Sidney Poitier and Spencer Tracy discuss the possibility of a mixed-race president in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (start watching at about 4:30):

Jay Smooth shows us some on-the-street film of Election Night in Harlem:

Colin Powell gets choked up:

Juan Williams gets choked up:

Keith Olbermann gets choked up, calls it for Obama:

Post-election discussion on The View:

Oprah Unleashed:

And finally, Eddie Murphy, only twenty-five years ago, on "The First Black President" (warning, contains language):

I can see my hope from here.

House full of people last night, toasting the concession and acceptance speeches with champagne, and running outside to holler exuberant whoops like children on new year's eve. Phoned my mom a little before midnight, found her sobbing tears of joy.

YES.

WE.

DID.

This is the first day of the rest of our country.

Between McCain's solemn and pitch-perfect concession, and Obama's truly inspiring, come-together acceptance -- which would have been the speech of any politician's lifetime, if he hadn't given so many even better than this one -- any desire I had for schadenfreude has evaporated in the moment. T

Put on your boots and gloves, kids. No time to celebrate -- we have eight years of garbage to clean up. Let's get to work.

I voted! I voted!

Paul and I were in and out of our polling station by the time I'm usually just waking up. We arrived at 7:10am and the place was already PACKED.

GO VOTE.

GO EARLY.

GO NOW.

I won't bore you with details, as anyone who's read this blog for more than a few posts shouldn't have any trouble figuring out whom I voted for. But! I will share this bit of election funny from John Scalzi, because it pretty much sums up the emotional holding pattern I've been in for the last six weeks:

Aside from not automatically having an inward cringe when I think of the occupant of the White House, that is — is the fact that I will finally get my brain back. It’s been extremely difficult for me to focus on anything but the election since about midway through September, which has not been a good thing; I admit I’ve been one of those people who has been refreshing FiveThirtyEight.com like a rat at a feeder bar and otherwise cruising political sites.

(Full article here.)

And lastly, I present you Jay Smooth's Economics and Annoying Smart Guys and his Poem for the Young Voter.

Hallowe'en Steam

I haven't made a good Hallowe'en costume in years and years, mostly because I'm usually spending all my time working on comic books. This year, however, Paul and I got invited to a party over at Katja and Steven's house -- and since they're both costumers, the bar was set pretty high. I knew I'd have to come up with something decent, so I decided to be an air pirate.

Then the jacket I ordered made me look all goofy and not cool and menacing at all. Then I couldn't find a cheap aviator helmet (or anything that looked close enough to an aviator helmet to count). And then after going through my basement and visiting both toy and craft stores, I couldn't find enough junk to cobble together a convincing Rocketeer-style jet-pack.

So I had to come up with a new plan: The Backyard Aviatrix.

Inspired by this awesome Instructable, I decided to make a set of daVinci-glider-looking wings. I'm enough of a klutz, however, that I knew I couldn't rig them to open and close as my arms moved, or people ten feet away would lose their drinks. Talk about widening my spill field. After a few adjustments, I settled on a pair of handles that I could use to spread and retract the wings, and they worked pretty well until the foamcore gave out. Unfortunately, I didn't get the angle on the wings quite right, so at full extension they were at waist-height instead of shoulder height.

Still, they were so much fun and such a neat challenge that I'm thinking of making a better set for next year's Hallowe'en out of more sturdy, permanent materials. Lightweight wood like basswood probably wouldn't weigh much more than the foamcore, and a stretch fabric between the wingbones instead of a solid sheet would allow the wings to collapse up much closer to the body.

Yay for costuming! I forget how much fun this stuff is. Anybody else got Hallowe'en pictures to share?