Saturday, April 2, 2016

Potato Gratin and Son Volt

After the Great Paella Failure of 2016, I wanted to do something that was pretty hard to fuck up. Potatoes and cheese are a pretty safe bet so instead of our usual main course recipe, Matt grilled steaks (just salt and pepper and those individually packed ribeyes from Trader Joe's) and we used a recipe for our side dish. In my hunt for a cheesey potato recipe took me to the embarrassingly-named Delushious site, the domain of famous-person-I'm-only-vaguely-aware of Chrissy Teigan. I think her deal is that she's a very babely swimsuit model but also likes to eat bacon, or something. And while I think everyone should do whatever makes them happy, I am suspicious of this trope of super hot women who are like "I can slam a cheeseburger nbd; I don't count calories and eat salads!" I don't want to go on a feminist rant but let's just say I think that sets up some unrealistic expectations and kind of pits women against each other. BUT I did see the below video of her balancing a plate of chicken wings on her butt and then booty bouncing it away from her husband (John Legend, apparently, who is bland but also handsome) and I was a little charmed. 


Her recipes overall look pretty good and there is a more realistic balance of super fatty food and less decadent options than I expected. Her writing makes me roll my eyes (more 'I'm just a regular gal like you' posturing, again she is a very successful swimsuit model married to a very successful musician and I'm just not buying it) but I must admit that these potatoes were actually quite delicious...or dare I say deLUSHious? It's no shocker that a bunch of cream and cheese and carbs are going to taste pretty good but I really gotta give it to her; the mix of sweet potato and regular potato was a really tasty change. If it had been just sweet potatoes, it would have been too sweet and gotten too mushy but if it had just been all regular potatoes, it would have been pretty dull.  Aside from slicing up a bunch of potatoes and some garlic, it isn't too labor intensive. You could easily not deal with the 3 different fresh herbs (I never can use them all up before they go bad) and just go with the thyme because that's the only one I could distinctly taste anyway. It actually came out of the oven looking just like the picture from the recipe which is always exciting (especially when it doesn't just look good but actually tastes good, too!)

Our record was Son Volt's first album Trace. This is perhaps my favorite album of all time and one of the few true "perfect albums" I've ever heard. Every song belongs, every song is perfect. I could go on - go on about how much I love each of these songs, go on about how I still can't really appreciate Wilco because I feel like I have to be true to Jay Farrar in their Uncle Tupelo beef (no Uncle Tupelo album is perfect because approx. 50% of them are by Jeff Tweedy with his whiney voice.)  Supposedly, Jeff Tweedy was always drunkenly crying to women to make them pity him (and subsequently sex him) and this was generally annoying and pathetic to Jay but it reached the breaking point when he tried to pull this routine on Jay's long-time girlfriend. There's that hot, 20 year old T for you. While I enjoy all other Son Volt albums, they do start to bring diminishing returns after Trace, not much can live up to it. Below you can hear them perform Loose String from the album but I'll warn you: he is one of the least charismatic performers I've ever seen. Son Volt has come to town many times but I can't quite bring myself to go see them because according to live videos (the video below is no exception) he really does not put on much of show. But will forgive him his lack of charisma because his voice is super hot (even if he has that butt-cut hair-do...he STILL has that haircut!)

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