Makin' Candy loves HST, 2/22/05

This show dedicated to Hunter S. Thompson, one of my heroes. Not sure if he'd actually LIKE this music, but I just must shout out somehow. Cheers, Doc.


  • Dance of Death: John Fahey (Zabriskie Point s/t)
  • Heart Beat, Big Meat: Pink Floyd (Zabriskie Point s/t)
  • Summertime: Janis Joplin
  • Drug Test: Yo La Tengo
  • What is Life: George Harrison
  • Well All Right: Blind Faith
  • Jiving Sister Fanny: Rolling Stones
  • Wild Bill Jones: Bad Livers
  • Clampdown: The Clash
  • Jesus Built My Hotrod: Ministry
  • It Was (Wars of Armageddon): Tal Ross
  • Wheels: Flying Burrito Brothers
  • Coconut Boogaloo: Martin Medeski & Wood
  • Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: The Carter Family
  • Wild Tyme: Jefferson Airplane
  • Girl from the North Country: Bob Dylan with Johnny Cash
  • Slick Tricks & Bright Lights: Archers of Loaf
  • Marijuana Cigarette: Cat Mother
  • 5D (Fifth Dimension): The Byrds
  • "Fear & Loathing" clip: Johnny Depp
  • Expecting to Fly: Buffalo Springfield
  • Golden Hours: Brian Eno
  • Mushroom Clouds: Love
  • To Lay Me Down: Jerry Garcia
  • [unknown]: Johnny Cash
  • Story of My Life: Velvet Underground
  • Salt of the Earth: Rolling Stones
  • A Simple Desultory Phillipic (or How I wsa Robert McNamara'd into Submission): Simon & Garfunkel
  • Moanin' at Midnight: Howlin' Wolf
  • Crumblin' Land: Pink Floyd (Zabriskie Point s/t)

Of Lambs & Nightshades: Moussaka

I modified a Frugal Gourmet recipe for moussaka, a Greek culinary classic, to come up with something a little faster, although there is still some whisking involved.

Ingredients:
1/2 pound ground lamb
1 onion, chopped
chopped parsley
dash cinnamon
1 t oregano
1/2 c. red wine
1+ cup tomato sauce (any kind will do)
parmesan cheese
1 eggplant
salt
olive oil
2 eggs
1 T butter
1 T flour
1 c milk
dash nutmeg

Assemble ingredients as follows
In a saucepan, saute onion in some olive oil until glassy. Add ground lamb, parsley, cinnamon and oregano and brown together. Then add red wine to deglaze (i.e. help dissolve any delicious crud from bottom of pan). Add tomato sauce and cook together on low heat for at least half an hour (try a heat diffuser underneath to avoid burning). Towards end of cooking, add a generous handful of parmesan cheese and mix together.

Meanwhile, wash the eggplant (don't peel it) and slice it in 1/4-inch disks. Arrange them in layers in a colander and sprinkle salt over each layer. Leave in the sink for half an hour or more. Heat oven to 425˚. Rinse the slices and dry them with a cloth towel (paper towels are OK if you have a lot of them). Place slices on an oiled cookie sheet and bake in oven for about 15 minutes per side, or until tender and somewhat browned. Set aside and turn oven down to 350˚.

With meat sauce & eggplant slices in a warm holding pattern, start the topping by melting the butter in a saucepan and whisking it together with the flour once melted. It should form a crumbly paste. Then pour in the milk a little at a time and whisk together (this bit-by-bit method helps avoid lumps). Cook until mixture has somewhat thickened. Add dash of nutmeg, salt, and handful of parmesan cheese, and stir in. In a separate bowl, beat together 2 eggs. Take milk mixture off heat and pour a bit into the eggs (not too much at once, or the eggs might scramble in the bowl). Beat together. Then, pour egg mixture into milk mixture and return to heat. Here's where you need to have a steady whisking hand for about 10 minutes. The idea is to cook the topping until it becomes nice and thick (almost like frosting), but not clumpy or overcooked. You may want to remove the pan from the heat periodically as you whisk, to avoid overheating the bottom too much. One chef's trick for testing doneness is to try to drizzle some of the mixture off the end of the whisk onto the surface of the rest of the mixture. When you notice that the drizzle sits on the surface for a moment before disappearing, you're getting close. The mixture should become smooth and paste-y in a few minutes. Take it off the heat.

Now it's time to put everything together. Divide the eggplant slices in half and place half in the bottom of a glass baking dish (a 9x9 square or 8x10 rectangle are good approximate sizes). Pour all of meat sauce over the eggplant, then layer on the rest of the eggplant slices. Pour the topping over the top layer and smooth it out with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle top with more parmesan cheese. Put in the oven for 45-60 minutes, or until the top is browned and the lower layers are happily bubbling. Cut as if lasagna and serve!

Makin' Love Candy, 2/15/05

Be they passionate, bizarre, mournful, noisy, cute, songs about love are frickin' everywhere. Here's a slice, home-slice.


  • My Love Is You: David Byrne
  • Love Hurts (but Not That Much): Didi & Dexter
  • I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby: Barry White
  • Looking for Love: The Cars
  • Love Thing: Spice Girls
  • Lifted by Love: kd lang
  • Sentimental Love: The Elevator Drops
  • Will to Love: Neil Young & Crazy Horse
  • I Don't Want Your Love: Duran Duran
  • What the Snowman Learned About Love: Stars
  • Modern Love: David Bowie
  • I Love You: King Biscuit Time
  • It's Love: You Bet!
  • What is Love?: Howard Jones
  • Love Is: Amy Correia
  • I Dig Love: George Harrison
  • Some Kinda Love: Velvet Underground
  • With My Love: The Shades
  • True Love Travels on a Gravel Road: The Afghan Whigs
  • Fools in Love: Joe Jackson
  • Easy to Love: Harry Connick, Jr.
  • 10 Commandments of Love: Bob Marley & the Wailers
  • I'm in Love Again: Bobby Short
  • Love is Teasin': The Chieftains with Marianne Faithfull
  • We Laughed at Love: Anita O'Day
  • (I Love You) for Sentimental Reasons: Nat "King" Cole Trio
  • You Are Love: Frank Sinatra
  • True Love: Dean Martin

Great 80's! Makin' Candy 2/8/05

One of my favorite themes this week, the eighties, helped along by some new $1 albums from the discount rack. (Can you believe Corey Hart's "First Offense" for just a buck?)


  • 1984: Van Halen
  • Sunglasses at Night: Corey Hart
  • 2 Tribes: Frankie Goes to Hollywood
  • I Go Crazy: Flesh for Lulu
  • Sledgehammer: Peter Gabriel
  • Kiss Me Deadly: Lita Ford
  • Only You & I: Psychedelic Furs
  • Cool it Now: New Edition
  • Vienna Calling: Falco
  • New Song: Howard Jones
  • They Don't Know: Tracy Ullman
  • Rebel Yell: Billy Idol
  • Mickey: Toni Basil
  • I Feel For You: Chaka Kahn
  • Destination Unknown: Missing Persons
  • Breakdancin': Irene Cara
  • Our Lips are Sealed: Go Go's
  • Miami Vice: Jan Hammer
  • Axel F: Harold Faltermeier
  • Opening Theme: Crocodile Dundee s/t
  • Gold: Spandau Ballet
  • My Bag: Lloyd Cole
  • The Limits We Set: The Beat
    Here follows a Makin' Candy patented cool-down, chill-out period
  • Extrication Love Song: Hot Tuna
  • More than This: Roxy Music
  • Oh to Be in Love: Kate Bush
  • Still Crazy After All these Years: Paul Simon
  • Here We Go Again: Ray Charles
  • The River of No Return: Marilyn Monroe

Makin' Candy, 2/1/05

In honor of the start of Black History Month, music with lots of soul.


  • St. Thomas: Sonny Rollins
  • Feelin' Good: Tal Ross
  • I am that I am: Peter Tosh
  • Keep Your Worries: Guru feat. Angie Stone
  • Love or Confusion: Jimi Hendrix
  • Freak of the Week: Funkadelic
  • Sai: Kanda Bongo Man
  • Hold Everything: Robert Lockwood, Jr.
  • Superfly: Curtis Mayfield
  • Beautiful Woman: Toots & the Maytals
  • Cholly (Funk Getting Ready to Roll): Funkadelic
  • Love of My Life: Erykah Badu
  • Too High: Stevie Wonder
  • Heygana: Ali Farka Toure
  • (All I Wanna Do Is) Lay Around and Love on You: Ray Charles
  • My Mind is Ramblin': Howling Wolf
  • Yield Not to Tempatation: Aretha Franklin
  • You're A Sweetheart: Dinah Washington
  • Dancing Shoes: Bob Marley & the Wailers
  • Mhondoro: Thomas Mapfumo & the Blacks Unlimited
  • Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans: Billie Holiday
  • Confession: Shirley Horn
  • Dream a Little Dream: Ella & Basie
  • 13 (Death March): Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery
  • Warm Valley: Johnny Hodges
  • My Song: Hadda Brooks
  • Early Ev'ry Midnite: Roberta Flack