The other day, I thought about what I could do about this months-neglected blog.  I had recently taken up the delicious (and often necessary) art of cooking.  While consuming good food/drink/media is still a part of FoodBoozeTunes, I would like to make this blog more about creating as much as it is about consuming.  That being said, I plan to share some recipes I have learned from others, found on the Web, and/or have modified to my liking.

I don’t claim to be a chef or short-order cook.  I won’t make it in the high-stakes world of fast food.  I am no connoisseur of food.  But I like to cook, I like to eat, I like to pour, I like to drink, I like to create multimedia, and I like to consume media worth consuming.

Let me share some of my cooking process.  I am at that age where my hair falls more often then I’d like.  Since I like cooking for not only myself, but also for others, I don’t want them to eat a mouthful of my hair.  I don’t own a chef’s hat, and I don’t want to wear a hairnet, so I like to wear a black felt cowboy hat to keep the food free from falling head debris.

The above hat was my party hat (sometimes) during my college years, and it’s totally badass to this day!

When I wore glasses, I (A) could see better and (B) had relatively good eye protection for much of the day.  Ever since I got LASIK surgery (a big shout-out to the wonderful folks at Inland Eye LASIK!), I could see slightly better than 20/20 (approaching 20/15), but my eyes don’t have the “built-in” protection of wearing glasses all the time.

While cooking, you kind of want to protect your eyes from random splattering from the stove and the virtual backdraft from the oven.  I wear protective goggles.  I actually bought them during my final year of college, for a microbiology class.

Since this is FoodBoozeTunes, I like listening to music while cooking, but not just any music — it has to be the music from the band Queen.  I have their first seven albums, as well as various latter-era tracks, stuffed into a second-generation iPod shuffle.

I prefer Queen songs that are not well-known amongst general American audiences, and I give bonus points to the tracks written by their non-singing bass player John Deacon.

It would be an awesome cooking show.

Now that I’ve suited up with the “proper” sanitary and protective equipment, I can cook (and be awesome whilst cooking).

The LEGO minifigure wearing a cowboy hat and protective goggles is a close enough approximation of yours truly in FoodBoozeTunes action.  Anyhow, I look forward to sharing recipes and other awesomeness in this new FoodBoozeTunes!

— Ryan

Anyhow, we’re taking this website break to retool the podcast.  Perhaps a more bite-sized eating-drinking-listening commentary would be a better choice.  Perhaps we might add some video (note to self:  get a video camera) to the mix.  We’ll probably do some full-length album and Shut-in Cinema feature film podcasts from time to time as well.

And finally:  “Do You Feel Like We Do”?

— Ryan

I admit that I had a little too much fun recording this episode of FoodBoozeTunes.

The idea for this episode began, like so many others, with The Whitny List.  My friend’s food, booze, and tunes combination was any Lean Cuisine TV dinner + wine coolers + sappy 80s Heart.

I had none of the above in stock, so I dared to do the relative opposite of the prescription, starting with badass 70s Heart.  I listened to their Greatest Hits compilation (CD | MP3), which mostly contains their louder, earlier work.

Food:

The relative opposite of a calorie-conscious TV dinner are meatballs, doused in honey mustard, followed by some tri-tip roast (with the fat hanging from the edges).  It was a glorious meal.

Booze:

I use the term relative opposite because I’m pretty much staying within some thematic limit (for instance, the band Heart) but doing the opposite within those limits (badass 70s Heart vs. sappy 80s Heart).  So with my ad hoc terminology in mind, the relative opposite of a nice and breezy wine cooler would be some 2004 Merlot from the Central Coast of California, drunk straight from the bottle.  It totally worked with the beef and the rock music.

When that was finished, I had a bottle of Stella, then a bottle of Newcastle. You can hear my condition by the end of the podcast.

Tunes:

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

— Ryan

This is another combination from The Whitny List, albeit minutely modified.  In its original form, the prescription was chili + moonshine + “Renegade” by Styx.  The only Styx album in my collection is their Greatest Hits (CD | MP3) compilation, which contains “Renegade” and a bunch of familiar-sounding tracks (hence the Greatest Hits label).

Food:

True to the prescription, I had chili.  I opened two cans of chili:  One was a really “hot” con carne with beans; the other was of the vegetarian variety with beans.  I warmed the chili over the stove, adding some chopped beef bacon and meatballs to the mix.  Garnished with some shredded four-cheese “Mexican” blend, it was delightful.

Booze:

I didn’t have moonshine on hand, so I went with ol’ reliable Gentleman Jack, my go-to North American whiskey.  I had a couple of shots’ worth, but I didn’t shoot ‘em.  (If you want to hear some borderline binge-drinkin’, try the Skynyrd and Lennon/Dimebag podcasts.)

Anyhow, since I mentioned moonshine, let’s talk about making your own booze.  Well, distilling homemade liquor might not be safe, but home-brewed beer could be good.  Mr. Beer sells home-brewing kits:  “America’s most popular brewing kit.  Complete, easy-to-use.  Only $39.95.”

Okay, back to our regularly-scheduled program –

Tunes:

Long story short — this episode gave me gas.  I blame Dennis DeYoung’s synthesizer.  (Okay, the chili might have played a minor role.)

Incidentally, using “Renegade” is one of the best ways to end a TV episode:

— Ryan

I haven’t recorded a Shut-in Cinema podcast since November.  (If you haven’t noticed, I use the term podcast very loosely on this site, since they only involve a dude — yours truly — eating, drinking, and sometimes talking while consuming some form of media, like albums and films.)  My friend Whitny recently reviewed the film Frozen (DVD | Blu-ray) on her blog, comparing its premise to an actual personal experience of hers, so I thought I’d watch it too.

Food: Popcorn:

Unlike the FoodBoozeTunes music podcast, with a seemingly random menu, the Shut-in Cinema movie podcast will have a more structured menu (with slight variations, of course).  Instead of food, booze, and tunes, we’ll have popcorn, soda, and a movie.

The popcorn I had was from a Popcornopolis gift basket, a Christmas gift from my cousins (thanks, Lee, Sharon, and baby Lucas!).  The basket contained four varieties of popcorn:  A bag of salty Cheddar Cheese, a bag of less-salty, somewhat sweet Kettle Corn, a bag of sweeter Caramel, and a bag of chocolate-covered Zebra.  I was most impressed by the Zebra variety of popcorn, so much that I had to see if Popcornopolis offered an affiliate program.  I want to spread the word (and possibly keep this site afloat, if there are any kind shoppers among you!).

Okay, the product placement commercial break is over.

Booze: Soda:

I just had a caffeine-free Pepsi from the can.  The sugary cola worked well with the salty Cheddar Cheese popcorn, but not so much the sweeter varieties (even though liked the chocolate Zebra the best).  I should have spiked the soda with something, but I already had a couple of drinks recording a FoodBoozeTunes podcast (which I’ll post in a few days).

Tunes: Movie:

I’m not much of a reviewer.  I loved the creaky, bassy, wooshy sound design in Frozen.  My reactions and rants recorded in the podcast are real.  I applaud the masterful performances by the wolves, who exemplified the “waste not, want not” philosophy of planetary stewardship.  (Okay, maybe I read into that a little too much.)  In any case –

Tunes:

Here’s Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf”:

— Ryan

This episode is once again from what I now call “The Whitny List.”  Her original prescription is as follows:  Meatloaf + milk and bourbon + Meat Loaf.  The only Meat Loaf album in my collection is the first Bat Out of Hell (CD | MP3) album, so that’s where we start our menu.  As for food and booze…

Food:

My mom’s specialty meatloaf (leftover from Christmas, since I recorded the podcast a day or two after Christmas) fills the food part of this trio.  If you’ve ever had it in your life, consider yourself blessed.  It’s a ground beef loaf with baked-in ketchup topping, stuffed with hot dogs, hard-boiled eggs, sweet pickles, and raisins.  It’s like Stollen cake, but made out of meat (filled with meaty things).

Best.  Meatloaf.  Ever.

Booze:

I don’t usually carry Kentucky bourbon in my whiskey stockpile, so I went with (yet again) Gentleman Jack Tennessee whiskey.  I had milk in the fridge, but I also had eggnog.  It was Christmastime, after all.  I usually spike my eggnog with Captain Morgan spiced rum, but this time, I used some Gentleman Jack.  While spiced rum has similar spices as eggnog, it adds more flavor to the mix.  The resulting mix has double the spice, which is all right, but it could be better.

Gentleman Jack, on the other hand, complements the eggnog with a rather smoky sweetness.  I’m trying to say that Gentleman Jack makes for a more pleasant spiked eggnog than his seafaring buddy Captain Morgan.

In any case, whiskey-spiked eggnog isn’t really milk and bourbon.  Two out of three ain’t bad.

Tunes:

That “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” reference worked out well.

This podcast is also available at Auderamos.

— Ryan

In this episode, we listen to the soundtrack to the film Tron:  Legacy, by Daft Punk (CD | MP3).  I watched the first Tron film before the listening session, so things made quite a bit of sense this time around.  I want to thank my friend Rama from Rama’s Screen for that opportunity.  (By the way, check out his review of the sequel film.)

Food:

I continued to modify some suggestions from my friends.

My friend Cianar wrote:  “It’s Daft Punk, dude. Eat anything, even Cheerios, to the robotic beat and you are SET.”  I didn’t have Cheerios, so I finished a box of (stale) Corn Pops.

My friend Whitny suggested I eat Triscuits, but I only had Wheat Thins on hand, so I ate Wheat Thins (the low sodium variety).

Booze:

My friend Matt (from Seven Minute Silence) wrote:  “Pop rocks n’ coke.”  I drank a couple of rum and colas, made from Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Caffeine-free Coca-Cola Classic, in a tall glass full of ice, with a bendy straw.  The second drink had some expired grenadine in it, as well.

As mentioned above, I ate some Corn Pops (not pop rocks), so I’m saying that counts.

Tunes:

Daft Punk’s score is pretty freakin’ epic. As far as the movie is concerned, I have no plans to go to a theater this weekend to watch Tron:  Legacy.  If you’re going to watch the film, enjoy!

Again, I want to thank all my friends who suggested this random menu for the album.

This podcast is also available at Auderamos.

— Ryan

In this episode, we listen to the soundtrack to the first Tron film, the score by Wendy Carlos and a couple of songs by Journey.

Food:

I asked for a bit of help from my friends when it came to figuring out a random menu for this album.

My friend Leonilynn suggested I eat In-N-Out, which is a fantastic burger joint located in various California locations (and perhaps other states, too).

Two friends named Matt gave me suggestions, one of whom wrote:  “Cook something on the GRIDdle and drink a Blue Bolt Gatorade.”

Having not seen the movie in about 20 years, I didn’t quite understand the GRID reference, but I tried my best to have a beefy sandwich, fried on a skillet.  I ate two pseudo-Philly cheesesteaks.  It’s basically chopped steak, bell peppers, and onions cooked together in a skillet.  Stuff all that, with cheese, in a bun of some sort.  Delicious.

Booze:

I didn’t have any blue Gatorade in my cupboard, so I tried to un-purple some Grape Crush with Sierra Mist Natural and Skyy vodka.  When that failed, I added some red Welch’s strawberry soda, which only made the concoction into a murky dark red.  I failed at Kindergarten arts and crafts (mixing colors), but at least I had like three sweet vodka drinks in the process.

Thanks to Leonilynn and Matt; I tried to use your suggestions for this album listening podcast.  Thanks also to Whitny, Cianar, and a different Matt for their suggestions; I’ll try to incorporate them for the Tron:  Legacy podcast.

Tunes:

The album is basically Moog synthesizers mixed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with a light sprinkling of Journey.

This podcast is also available at Auderamos.

— Ryan

In this episode, we listen to Neil Diamond’s Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show, otherwise known as Sweet Caroline (CD | MP3).  Last May, my friend Whitny made the suggestion of pastrami + Shirley Temple (the non-alcoholic cocktail) + Neil Diamond.  I pretty much stuck to her prescription.

Food:

I ate a couple of large pastrami sandwiches made from a submarine bun (first sandwich) and a French roll (second sandwich), yellow mustard, honey mustard, and lots of sliced pastrami.  It was fantastic!

(Non-)Booze:

This is probably the first ever sober* installment of FoodBoozeTunes.  I tried my best to create a Shirley Temple-like drink:  One part no-pulp orange juice, two parts Sierra Mist Natural, and a dash of grenadine.  I used a tall glass filled with ice, but I did not garnish the drink with a maraschino cherry.  I had about four Shirley Temples, and they were delightful!

*The grenadine “expired” in November 2009, so the possibility of syrup poisoning may have contributed to the “sober” enjoyment.  (Please help!)

Tunes:

Mr. Neil Diamond is superb!

This podcast is also available at Auderamos.

— Ryan

John Lennon (45:25)

In this episode, we listen to Pantera’s Cowboys from Hell (CD | MP3) and John Lennon’s Imagine (CD | MP3).  Along with the usual drunken, gluttonous ramblings, I name drop some very cool artists; you can check out that info at Auderamos.

Food:

I eat three Buck Doubles from Burger King.

Booze:

The official recipe for a Black Tooth Grin is one shot of Crown Royal whisky, one shot of Seagram’s 7 whiskey, and a splash of Coca-Cola for color.  Shoot.  Repeat.

Having a limited amount of North American whisk(e)y on hand, I improvised what I call a Jack Tooth Grin:  One shot Gentleman Jack, colored by Caffeine-free Coca-Cola Classic.  In the course of the recording session, I drank about nine shots (I think).  I drank a tenth shot soon after.

Tunes:

Here’s to John and Dime!

— Ryan