I woke up at 4:21

and now I’m watching “Walk the Line”.  Tonight I’m going with Keith to see “3:10 to Yuma”.  Kind of a Mangold festival.

Ooooh that’s good coffee I made.  Yarr!

Tomorrow, rehearsal for Sunday church.  I’ll see if I can avoid walking out this Sunday – I was most distressed last Sunday.

Keith lost his phone.  This is a message to the karmic beings – kick the ass of the little sod who picked it up and then started harassing everybody on the phone list!!! Got hold of Paul who killed the phone stone dead within instants, thank Goodness.

My apartment is SHINY CLEAN except I gotta take out the trash.

Daughter Katie’s best friend from high school moved back to town.  I detect the possibility of roommatishness.

The Secret Policeman’s Other Camping Trip is now scheduled for the 22nd of September.  I is SO TEMPTED to invite the CEO but that would likely crimp the connections of the other invitees, so I’ll just think about it really hard.  This time I would buy the beer….

Just noticed that the bassist in Walk the Line is the same guy who played the jock in Buffy.

More coffee.

I think I will serenade one of my coworkers today.  Peter A said he would be very happy to accept my serenade, but I told him:

Mandos are LOUD instruments… well they are, for their size.  And no work will get done while I am singing to which his response was to purse his lips and raise one eyebrow, something he does so well he really should get paid extra for it.  Anyway, if I actually do sing to him it will be “Buy me a Beer” aka “The Cougar’s Love Call”.
RobofNine and I ate at the Himalaya last night.  Umm, umm, yum.

Jericho & other natters

Saw Plough at Jericho. I really wish Keith could have been there, they were totally in the O Brother Where Art Thou groove and very very musical and fun, and lively and young and respectful to the audience… and don’t forget banjo and fiddle and guitar and standup bass…..

Katie K took me. Her car is only plated for another week or so; we are making best advantage of this. Consuming burgers and sitting on the beautiful deck at the Sailing Club while sucking back Raven on tap. Singing and playing and having half a dozen people come up to me afterwards and exclaim over my tunes (I played Words Fail (also known as the Telecom song) and Bruise (also known as Green and Purple and Black and Blue)). The rest of the open stage was uniformly excellent, as always.

Tom and Peggy also came out to see Patrick Metzger who in addition to being the bassist for Lesismore is the guitarist/bassist for Plough; Katie and I talked to them briefly; Katie knows them from way back from Beacon when her kids were in Religious Education there.

I’m bagged, suddenly… it is bedtime.

Once again the time has come for me to post my biscotti recipe

Because I feel like it.

 

Biscotti  Don’t forget to double the recipe
 

MIX IN ANY ORDER
3 large eggs
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup melted butter
1 cup pretoasted any combination of coarsely chopped hazelnuts/almonds
1 tsp cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cardamom (Optional — but optimal)
3 drops of almond flavouring (Optional, and don’t overdo it)
 

Add, until no flour shows:
 

2 ½ cups all purpose flour (you may add a little more if dough is too sticky)
1 tablespoon baking powder (I use less).
 

Cover carefully with at least a couple of layers of cling-style wrap and refrigerate for NO MORE THAN A DAY
Cook in two stages  – Preheat the oven to 350
 

Form dough into two logs (or four if you have doubled the recipe).  Roll the dough between your hands until the logs are between 1½ and 2 inches in diameter and about 14 inches long.  Place on greased heavy duty aluminum foil (properly spaced you can get two logs onto a cookie sheet) and squish down with your hands until they are less than  3/4s of an inch high.
 

Cook for about 25 minutes, but watch it like a hawk for the last 5 minutes so it doesn’t burn.  You want everything cooked right through but not so cooked that you have trouble cutting the logs up because they crumble.  If it still looks bubbly on top it isn’t done.  While still warm, slice logs using serrated knife in ½ inch thicknesses.  If the dough is gooey wipe off the knife with every cut.  Return to the oven at 350 until golden brown, about another 15 minutes.  For extra crispiness turn the oven off and let them sit for another 10, or even overnight with the oven off.
 

A double batch makes about 60 biscotti, depending on how thin you slice them.