I grew up listening to the classics. Led Zeppelin, The stones, The beetles, The Who etc... The first record I ever listened to was a 45 LP of Paul Simon singing love me like a rock. I think I was eight years old and I would play it over and over again. Imagine how annoying it was for my parents to have an eight year old walking around the house singing ‘love me like a rock now baby” over and over again.
The point of all this is that I grew up on rock and roll and blues and I always thought that my musical tastes would remain within the realm of rock, blues and all the similar derivatives.
Change often occurs without you being aware of it. Kind of like the way that couples in long term relationships slowly start dressing the same.
That slow change began for me when I first saw the Movie Oh Brother, where Art thou! You know, the one with George Clooney....everyone seems to remember George Clooney. In this movie, there was a song called “man of constant sorrow” from the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys. Every time I heard that song I couldn’t help but smile. Something about the way they harmonize, the call and response type lyrics. It’s just a great song. In terms of style it’s considered “old Timey music” not really Americana as I mentioned in my previous posting but I guess Americana style music can be considered a derivative of old timey and vice versa.
That song along with the “duelling banjos” from the movie Deliverance somehow planted a seed that has expanded my musical inclinations and introduced me to artists such as Jolie Holland, The Be Good Tanya’s and Frazei Ford. They take the Old timey style and put a modern twist on it.
Don’t worry; I’m still a rock and roll blues guy at heart. I just happen to own a Gold Tone banjo now. Someone has to make the banjo cool. ; )
I have read that it’s ok to ask people to “like” or “twit” a post if they enjoyed it. So if you enjoyed reading this and then bought a banjo, started making moonshine and formed an Old-Timey band, then please click the” like” or share on twitter.
For you superstitious people please click on the “like” button and something good will happen to you. For all you negatively superstitious people, if you don’t click on the “like” button something bad will happen to you.
Spicy Thai Scallops  For Christmas eve I'm having the in-laws over and with them being of Italian decent the menu will consist of nothing but seafood and fish!!. No meat.....which means no turkey no stuffing and no cranberry sauce. Not to worry though
because I will have that the next day with my family.
Thank god!
I'm actually quite excited at having them over and I have been slowly but surely preparing the menu. This latest recipe was essentially a trial run to see if it was worthy for inclusion on Christmas eve. You'll notice on the picture that there seems to be two different kinds of scallops. One of them made the cut and the other one.......just not good enough. The hands down winner was the Spicy Thai scallops. This recipe will have people ranting and raving. It's that good. The beauty of it is that it takes about 20 minutes to do.
So the appetizer is done and I picked out two main courses and another spectacular appetizer.
I have learned that you can never have enough food when doing things Italian style.
If you are curious maybe I'll post the rest of the menu.
On another note I wanted to thank a Twitter follower for clearing up the distinction between Cilantro and Coriander. Now I understand ; ) http://whatscookingamerica.net/cilantro.htm
Check out the the spicy Thai scallops under Supper anxiety.Next up......... Oh Brother, where art thou!!
Check in this week to find out how to make Spicy Thai Scallops. This recipe is ridiculously simple.
I will also be talking about my new found love of americana music that somehow started with Oh Brother, where art thou!!
Stay tuned!
 There is often a story behind the discovery of a new artist, musician or song. With Lucinda Williams, the story begins with Mitch Melnyk.
If you are not from Montreal then you have probably never heard this name before. Mitch Melnyk is a radio broadcaster on TSN the team990 and he hosts a show called Melnyk in the afternoon. Mitch is great at what he does because he simply loves his work. You'll always know what his position is and he’s not afraid to speak his mind on any subject.
Above and beyond everything else, he is a music fan. Probably the biggest music fan I know of. He usually starts off the first segment of his show with a few songs of his choosing and this has always been a good source for me to discover new music.
This is where I heard my first Lucinda Williams song. The best way for me to describe Lucinda Williams is that she is like Cheryl Crows sexy aunt. I’m not sure why but that’s the first thing to come to my mind when I hear her music.
Her music is in the Americana style which is pretty much a merge of folk, country, blues and rock. Her song writing is some of the sexiest I have ever heard. Provocative, sexy and edgy!
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It’s interesting that even though I have never met Mitch, he seems to know people who have passed through my life at some point. Andie the hairdresser, Rod the manager at Hurleys downtown etc..
Mitch Melnyk is my Kevin Bacon!!
Now go listen to Lucinda on the Music Finder!!
Do you remember that wine we had a few weeks ago??
“Um..no not really”. You know the red wine we liked so much...I think it was French or maybe Italian?? “Oh yea! that one, with the blueberries on the label”. I don’t think it was blueberries.
It must have been grapes since it’s a wine?
So anyways what was the name of it??? ” I have no idea but it was amazing”.
Does this sound familiar to you?
I know for myself it was a regular occurrence. It seems so hard just to keep track of the little things in life like wines that we like. I used to walk through the SAQ (wine store) mindlessly not knowing what to buy and trying to figure out which wines I’ve tried before. It’s so frustrating.
For a while I tried removing the labels from the bottle and pasting them in a book. That lasted about two weeks and after many ripped labels and a lot of swearing I had an epiphany! Why not just post the wines I have tried and love to a website.
And so the Cellar was born!!!
The wines I post fall into the category of “affordable”meaning that you will very rarely find anything here over 18$. I am of course looking for collaboration so if you try one of the wines from The Cellar please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. You can also click the Facebook “like”button.
If you have a wine to recommend, send it to me and I will try it out and who knows, it might even make it into The Cellar. ; )
Cheers
(PS: I will try as much as possible to match the recipes to wines in the Cellar)
Simple meal ideas are what so many of us are looking for. Do you walk aimelessly through the aisles at the grocery store randomly picking up items that you hope to somehow put together as a meal.
I know I have done that and the result is what I like to call 'Supper Anxiety".
The result of stressing over what to make every day of the week. I've decided to put an end to this issue by putting together a collection of simple, delicious and mostly nutritious meals that I prepare on a regular basis.
So lets get started. Try out the Asian style boneless ribs and tell me what you think?
What's next?? The Cellar and the Music Finder
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