What you are about to experience is a potato salad version of South Carolina’s famous Frogmore Stew.

This sort of high-concept statement is endemic to the local South Carolina music scene, if Paste’s list of 12 South Carolina Bands You Should Listen To Now is any indication. Admittedly, South Carolina bands rarely make these statements about potato salad or even about Frogmore Stew, preferring to stick to topics such as love, death, and the Civil War — but concept albums abound.

Today’s quick threebie tour may therefore seem a little piecemeal (as opposed to peameal, which will be saved for Canada). But piecemeal is a good fit for a dish constructed from handy pantry items. Let’s start at a position not too far out in left field with not-quite-shoegazing Run Dan Run (Bandcamp). Read the rest of this entry »

After my encounter with a bleu cheese-bacon burger on Sunday afternoon, I swore there was salad in my future. Indeed, my threats to gnaw on frozen lettuce leaves were only slightly exaggerated.

To go with my foray into dinner salad, it seems appropriate to go with a more pleasant surprise from Sunday. Uh Huh Her (listen — or not, as there will be vids) played at the Phoenix Gay Pride Festival, which was near enough to the residence of the pals I was hanging with that we got a free loud concert without the trouble of paying admission. I was charmed. Read the rest of this entry »

My favorite bun-in-a-bowl is some of the provocation to review my favorite recipes since starting the blog. A few caloric goodies are going to be featured in the early weeks of the New Year just to wrap up the holiday baking, but I’m thinking lasciviously about salad these days. So shed a tear for some of the more caloric goodies but take a listen to their accompanying soundtracks.

Best Breakfast for One
Philadelphia Sticky Buns
It requires getting up early in the morning for the last rise, but these buns in a bowl are worth the effort. Cocoa in the filling is the necessary touch of sophistication. Read the rest of this entry »

Focus your eyes on the spinach leaf. This proves there’s a salad under there.

Having reached FoodThursday with no fixed plans, I declared this a whimsical rummage-through-the-fridge night. Whimsy reminded me that I’ve not yet written about She & Him (listen), which consists of Zooey Deschanel (she) and M. Ward (him). They are playing the odd West Coast date in support of the aptly named Volume 2. Read the rest of this entry »

How committed am I to salad in the wake of the cheeseburger-and-a-half weekend?

This is breakfast salad. I had a little snuggle with Google on the topic of “breakfast salad” and determined that (a) it exists and (b) it requires poaching an egg, not in the “hand secretively under the hen” sense but in the “raw egg in hot water” sense.

This seemed like the moment to go with chealion’s recommendation of Saving Jane (listen — or not, as vids follow). The first thing you need to know about Saving Jane is… remember that Taylor Swift hit about “she’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers”? Saving Jane covered that territory earlier and better. The more grown-up music is even better. Read the rest of this entry »

Look! It’s not chicken!

I’m in the awkward position that the recipe turned out not to be complicated enough for the band I’d intended to write about (yes, there is a surprise coming) but edible enough to include. So I decided to treat this as an opportunity to explore. Since shrimp and red beans are vaguely New Orleans-like, I went looking for New Orleans indie bands and found Caddywhompus (listen) by the method of “choose an odd music combo.” Read the rest of this entry »

Having finished the package of chicken breast strips, I am now on to steak in my quest for high-protein, low-carb bliss. Note the presence of lettuce. This is not a garnish. I intend to consume it without undue bitching, whining, and moaning.

Since I’d been discussing Thinking vs. Feeling types elsewhere, the obvious band to accompany this endeavor is Love and Logic (listen — or don’t, as I’m about to do vids). Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s World Cup Food Challenge menu calls for an Argentine-Nigerian main dish, a U.S.-English dessert, and a Greek-Korean side dish.

Mentions of kimchi will be strictly ignored until and unless Korea plays Germany. Kimchi is sauerkraut with attitude. I’d originally intended to inflict an avgolemono with buckwheat noodles on the world, but the meal was getting starchy, so I changed plans to a Greco-Korean salad. Since there is not (yet) a Greek angle to K-Pop, let’s go with music from the country of the losing team and check out Despina Vandi (listen), Greece’s Queen of Pop, who is releasing her tenth album, C’est La Vie, this month. Read the rest of this entry »

No, I have not become a Chariots of the Gods crackpot, this despite the fact that I’m officially going to live forever.

I took advantage of an existing sick headache to kick my six-cups-a-day coffee habit, figuring the withdrawal symptoms would get lost in the overall pain. In the aftermath, I am dewy, energetic, and brimming with smugness.

This led to my skipping the planned adventure in Swedish meatballs in favor of researching which fruits have the highest levels of antioxidants in order to construct a salad that would allow me to be the smuggest woman on the planet.
Read the rest of this entry »