Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Dumbed-Down Pasta alla Zozzona

I subscribe to Sip and Feast on YouTube, and this is a variation of his recipe. I don't think I've ever seen guanciale around these parts of east-central Illinois. Hell, I rarely see pancetta around here. 

And since I only see pecorino romano at Aldi on occasion, I just had to use parmesan. 

And before I watched the video, I had no idea what the heck pasatta was. I was able to acquire that via the InterWebs. 

If you want a truly Roman version of this dish, check out "Pasta alla Zozzona - The Secret Roman Pasta I Can't Stop Making." 

After we ate this today, the comment I made to Mrs. Nasty was that if I had to add anything to this dish, it would be mushrooms. I don't know if that would be a sacrilege or not. 

Ingredients

4 slices of good bacon, cut into small pieces

1 lb. of Italian sausage

2 egg yolks

1 egg

1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

A healthy amount of cracked black pepper

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

1/2 cup of dry white wine

1 bottle of pasatta (I used the Rutti brand)

1 lb. of penne pasta (use the tubular pasta of your choice)

Process

I used a Dutch oven for this dish, but if you have a very saute pan, that will work too. 

Place the bacon into the oven and render it. Pull it out and drain on a plate lined with paper towels. 

I cooked the pasta and then drained it while doing this. Reserve some pasta water in case you need to thin out the sauce a bit. 

Set to medium heat and add in the sausage. Cook halfway through and add in the onion. I broke up the sausage with potato masher and mix the sausage and onion together. 

Add the pepper flakes and distribute them for a minute or two. 

Add the wine, set to high to burn off the alcohol, then move the heat to just under medium heat, and add the Passata. 

Combine the egg yolks, egg, and ton of freshly cracked black pepper. Mix thoroughly. 

Set the sauce to a low-key simmer for approximately 15 minutes and add the pasta. Thoroughly mix it in and cook for approximately 10 minutes. 

Taste to see if you need to add salt (I added a little). 

Take the Dutch oven off the heat and mix in the egg-parmesan mixture. Serve. 

One of the aspects of this dish that surprised me is that it does not call for any garlic at all.  

Random Notes from a Crank

As I can attest to, gardening is good for people from a physical and mental standpoint. The New York Times has a nice little article about the subject: "Why Gardening Is So Good for You." 

As much as I hate weeding, especially flower beds, I enjoy seeding and planting new crops. 

However, there are benefits of digging in the dirt. 

I'm in the midst of watching the Netflix documentary Turning Point: The Vietnam War. It's a good documentary. It's not as good as the PBS documentary by Ken Burn and Lynn Novick, but it's solid. 

As I was watching the third episode "Life Is Cheap," I had the idea or rather the question of whether anyone has ever written speculative novel that narrates what would have happened if Bobby Kennedy would not have been assassinated and would have become President in 1968. 

I guess what I'm looking for is perhaps some positive speculative fiction. 

At an antique bazaar we went to on Saturday, I bought a movie poster for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, easily one of the best comedies of the 80s. 

The poster inspired me to watch the movie yesterday, and it was excellent. 

The one scene in which the teacher talks about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that launched the Great Depression and George W. Bush's description of "voodoo economics" is relevant. 

Music Friday: "Buggin' Out" & "Check the Rhime"

One of the albums I listened to this week was The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest. 

Here are two standout tunes from this opus. 

Musing of the Moment: Tottenham to a European Final

Tottenham beat Bodo Glimt 2 to 0 in the second leg of the semifinal with goals from Solanke and Porro. 

Spurs are in the Europa League Final and will face Manchester United. It's a Premier-League Final. 

The last time Tottenham was in a European final they faced another red-clad, Premier-Leage team: Liverpool. 

My hope is the outcome is different in 2025. 

Come On You Spurs. 

Music Friday: "Bad State of Mind"

I've heard this song played on the SiriusXM station The Spectrum. 

I immediately enjoyed the sound of this band and will probably be checking out their first two albums. 

Treaty Oak Revival is a new band to me. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Lots of things are going to get more expensive. 

A bunch of idiots are counting on Moscow Don to make some deals that help the U.S. and bring business and industry back to the United States. The New York Times has a good article on this nonsense: "A Flashing Economic Warning and a Sharp Political Jolt." 

The Canadian Prime Minister, who has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oxford, has a more realistic view of what's happening: "Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over. The system of open global trade anchored but the United States, a system that Canada has relied on since the Second World War, a system that, while not perfect, has helped deliver prosperity for a country for decades, is over."

What's more menacing is how President Adolf tariff nonsense has strengthened China's position in the world economy. China is now importing soybeans from South American and getting its beef and pork from other countries. 

I woke up in a pissed-off mood this morning because I was thinking about how the head coach of high school basketball team basically wasted my son's junior year. And to a certain extent, the head coach of the high school baseball team is doing something similar. 

As I was driving to a baseball game yesterday, I caught the broadcast of the Barcelona-Inter Milan Champions League match, the first tie of two matches. It sounded like it was bananas. 

Based on the highlights, it was. 

I don't have a team I'm rooting for in that competition, but I certainly want PSG to beat Arsenal. 

Musing of the Moment: Canada's Election as a Harbinger of Good?

The New York Times reports that the Liberal Party of Canada won the election this week, so the new Prime Minister is Mark Carney. 

See "Mark Carney's Liberals Win Canada's Election. Here Are Four Takeaways." 

As polls have shown this week, Moscow Don's approval rating is in the crapper. 

The Democrats need to take advantage of this goon's failings, overreach, idiocy, and mismanagement to take the House back in 2026. 

Get it done. 

Music Friday: "Bring on the Night/When the World Is Running Down You Make the Best of What's (Still Around)"

Sting's Bring on the Night live album is one of the albums I listened to this week. 

Back when I had this album on cassette, I played the hell out of this opus. I have always been a huge fan of the Police and Sting. And this album is great. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In a FAFO moment, the current administration is denying disaster relief to ruby red Arkansas, which is surely a stinging rebuke to his former press secretary who is the governor of the Natural State. 

If you like this image, I got it from SheTraps. 

Apparently, President Adolf and his goons want to eliminate FEMA and leave relief funding/repairs to states and local governments. I'm not sure how that's going to work. That idea is as illogical as his dumbass tariffs. 

The Guardian has a good article about it: "Trump Denies Aid for Arkansas after Storms That Killed More than 40 People." 

Ah, the result of GOP Complicity...

Some Chinese folks on social media are doing some good work: "For China's Trolls, 'Chairman Trump' and "Eyeliner Man' Are Easy Targets." Check out the video of the "Chinese Trump." 

I've been using a 50/50 white vinegar and water mix for cleaning for years. The BBC has an interesting article about the benefits of using vinegar: "'Its Strength Is Its Simplicity': The Benefits of Cleaning with Vinegar." 

Archeologists found a skeleton that provides proof that gladiators had to fight large mammals: "A Roman Gladiator and a Lion Met in Combat. Only One Walked Away." So all those movies about gladiators have some proof about depictions. 

Musing of the Moment: Oncoming Proposals to Improve Birthrates

I've read a number of newspaper articles about how the current administration has plans to boost the birthrates in the U.S. There's even talk about giving mothers a $5,000 "baby bonus" after they have a kid. 

How you gonna fund that, bro? 

I don't get the fascination with improving the birthrates in the U.S. But I do think that their proposals and plans are not probably going to address the reasons why birthrates have been declining in the U.S. for quite a while.

To expose some of the factors that probably affect the U.S. birthrate, I'm going to ask some simple questions, and as you read these, please do so in your head with a snarky tone:

• Do you know how expensive child care costs if the parents both work?
• Have you looked at how high rent is?
• Have you considered how expensive buying a new home costs? 
• Do you know how expensive it is to raise a child?
• Do people have access to IVF?
• Do you know how expensive IVF is?
• Have you noticed that people are getting married later in life?
• Do you realize how many people are in student loan debt? 
• How does parental leave work in the U.S.?
• Don't you even understand how tariffs work? 
• Have you bought a dozen eggs lately? 
• Do you realize how much the U.S. economy relies on Chinese imports? 
• Don't you know how expensive health care is in America?

Actually, if the U.S. went to universal health care like every other modern, industrialized nation in the world, that move might actually improve the U.S. birthrate. 

Instead, we have one of the most expensive health care systems because of health insurance, medical, and big Pharma lobbyists pimping owning politicians in D.C. 

Music Friday: "Give It Time"

I've gotten into the band Goose over the past year or so. I listen to their live performances on the SiriusXM station Jam On, and this tune from their album that comes out next week has been featured on the Spectrum channel. 

There are two videos here - one official for the song and then a live performance. 

Random Notes from a Crank

After watching Elizabeth Warren's appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, it's pretty clear to me that she is the President of the United States that the country should have had. 

She was my first choice, and Kamala was my second choice. 

Thursday's word of the day on my word-of-the-day calendar was "superbity," which is a noun meaning "haughtiness or arrogance." That's a new one on me, but it's a word that can applied to current conditions in the U.S. for sure. 

I saw a guy on Tik Tok talking about a "joke going around the White House this week." It's "What do all the universities that Trump is targeting have in common? Baron didn't get into them." 

It's probably true. He's attending NYU.

The Washington Post has reported on the proposed cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services: "Internal Budget Document Reveals Extent of Trump Program Cuts." 

Apparently they plan to eliminate Head Start, and there are severe cuts to the hospitals in rural areas. As the article states, "Rural programs formerly under the Health Resources and Services Administration appear to be hard-hit. The rural flexibility grants, state offices of rural health, rural residency development program and at-risk rural hospitals program grants are listed as eliminations under AHA." 

Rural America, FAFO. You nitwits voted for this idiotic goon. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Rachel Maddow covered the imbecility of the Secretary of Education extensively in one of her shows, but the marketing gurus took it a step further with this Instagram post. 

That's some pretty good satire right there. 

I happened upon an interesting article from the BBC that talks about how people are using brewers spent grain. They're experimenting will turning it into food products and an alternative to leather. Check it out in "How Beer Sludge Is Being Turned into Vegan Milk and Leather." 

My word-of-the-day calendar shows that today's word as "mala fide," which is an adverb or adjective meaning "with or in bad faith." That word sums up a lot about the current administration in D.C. 

My club, Tottenham Hotspur, have a huge away game tomorrow. 

As much as I like Ange, if he doesn't win it all in the Europa League, I think he's going to get sacked. 

The team went through a dreadful spell for about three months when they had all kinds of injuries, but with the way he has turned again or criticized the fans, I don't think he'll survive for next season. 

But I hope to be proven wrong by him winning a trophy and Spurs doing well in the remaining games in the Premier League. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In the wake of all kinds of deregulation from the Adolf administration, the U.S. is set be a hell of a lot less safe and more polluted: "Inside Trump's Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations." 

I saw a clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart talking to Rahm Emanuel about who will become the next leader of the Democratic Party, who will become the next presidential candidate. 

Emanuel seemed to think that the next leader will be a governor, which got me contemplating which governors would be good choices: 

• Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan)
• Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania)
• J.B. Pritzker (Illinois)
• Andy Beshear (Kentucky)
• Tim Walz (Minnesota)

I'd be fine with any of those people. Beshear is the only person from a traditionally red state.

The notion that other countries "stole" American jobs is asinine. The ultra wealthy and greedy corporations moved those jobs to other countries because they didn't want to pay U.S. workers what they deserved and didn't want to follow sensible environmental regulations. Instead, they wanted to employ sweatshop cheap workers in foreign countries. 

Moscow Don and his cronies are defying court orders. We are in a constitutional crisis. 

President Adolf has bankrupt this country morally and ethically. And don't forget money. The guy who somehow got a casino to go bankrupt is fleecing Americans because of his stupid tariffs and his dumb economic policies like tax cuts for the wealthy. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Spicy Green Sauce

I got the basis of this recipe from a guy on YouTube who does good work, Sip and Feast. I modified it a bit according to my taste. 

Ingredients

1 cup of sour cream

1/4 cup of mayonnaise

1/4 cup of diced yellow onion

3 cloves of garlic 

Half of a lime, juiced

1 Serrano pepper, seeds and membrane removed (or pepper of your choice)

1/2 cup of fresh cilantro

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1 teaspoon of Penzey's Salsa seasoning

Smidge of Penzey's Justice seasoning 

Process

It's pretty easy. Put everything into a blender. Blend until smooth and transfer to squeeze bottle of some sort. 

I original recipe called for a jalapeño, but I don't have any of those, so I used a Serrano. 

I might try this with a Caribbean Red Hot habanero I grew last summer.