off my chest

I spent the week in Philly, and I have to say I ate well… Buddakan, Bec Fin, Amada. I had an amazing meal at Bec Fin, and asked for the recipe for the Roast Chestnut Soup, which I may have to make at the holidays:

The recipe is as follows:

1 pound roasted chestnut
1 parsnip diced
1 potato diced
1 carrot diced
1 celery diced
1 onion diced
3 cloves of garlic crushed
4 sprigs of thyme
4 sprigs of parsley
3 bay leaves
1* anis
1/4 cup of heavy cream
1/2 pound of butter

Sauté ingredients (from the carrot to the garlic) together in a pan. Then
add 1 gallon of chicken stock/broth and add the rest of the ingredients
except the butter and cream. Boil for 30-40 min. Add the cream and cook for
another 10 min.
Put all the ingredients into a blender with the butter.
Sieve the soup and add salt and pepper and you are ready to serve.

Actually found this in USA Weekend, it’s great for the 4th…

time to make 5 min 5 min prep
2 tablespoons minced fresh gingerroot
1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup honey
2 medium mangoes, peeled, seeded, and cut into cubes
3 cups green grapes (about 1 1/4 pounds)
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (about 2 4.4-ounce containers)
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves (optional)

1. Whisk together ginger, lime zest, lime juice, and honey in a small bowl; set aside.
2. Mix fruits and mint in a large bowl.
3. Add dressing; toss to coat.
4. (Can be covered and refrigerated overnight.).

Disclaimer: I’m Mike Fricklas’ brother. Nothing of what I say comes from him, however.

My assumption about the purpose of the op-ed, and for that matter, the law suit: This lawsuit isn’t about trying to get $1B (or for that matter $1) out of Google – Viacom has less risky ways of trying to make money than high-dollar lawsuits against other mega-glomerates. What this suit is about is refining the DMCA or introducing new legislation to specifically address fair use in the case of copyrighted works, posted in significant part or in their entirety, without the consent of the copyright holder. This obviously has ramifications for the copyright holder, as well as the sites that contain the content. Without an express definition of fair use, there is little difference between downloading the latest episode of The Daily Show via bittorrent and viewing it online at YouTube — in fact, it’s much easier to find and view on YouTube due to the various ways in which content is indexed and crossreferenced.

The world seems to have defined fair use in sound clips as 30-second segments used in context of providing the copyright information in situ. It has long defined fair use on copyrighted print materials in well-defined ways. Use of video content without copyright holder agreement, knowledge, or attribution isn’t the same thing… especially when the video content is used in a way that is specifically designed to make money.

Another argument is that YouTube only provides an “index” to content, similar to google or The Wayback Machine’s archived content of the web. This isn’t the same thing again, since web based content can be prevented from search engine indexing easily by the copyright holder, by putting metatags on the sites (to request non-indexing). On a search engin, the siteis used as a pointer to its original context – the original site still gets hit. However, YouTube is designed to keep viewers _on_ YouTube, so viewers will implicitly authorize ad placement and support it’s revenue model. Archive.org is very explicit about authorization to hold copyright material (e.g. live music archive) before posting material — YouTube doesn’t check with copyright holders in any way (or attempt to research them, which admittedly would be an onerous task given the quantity and flow of the material).

Hopefully this case will rigidly define (or at least better define) where the line is between fair use and free use.

This was a great dinner tonight… serve with a salad with homemade lime vinaigrette and a nice Sauvignon Blanc (St. Supery in our case.) Bay scallops are relatively inexpensive, and this is a great quick way to use them.

extra virgin olive oil
1 red pepper, sliced into thin strips (about 1/4″)
1/2 lemon
the zest from that 1/2 lemon
2 tsp. unsalted butter
1/4 cup or so of the wine you’re drinking with dinner (dry white)
1 tsp. chopped garlic (2-3 cloves)
1 lb. bay scallops (fresh or defrost until a warm tap for a couple of minutes and drain)
1/4 cup chopped basil (since it’s not exactly the season, I use 2 Tbsp. jarred from Christopher Ranch.)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese
salt/pepper
8 oz. good fettucine

Boil a bunch of water with salt. Cook the fettucine in the water until al dente while doing the rest.

Start by putting a little (2 tsp or so) of olive oil into a non-stick skillet, and heating until hot. Lower the heat to medium high and add the pepper strips, and cook until they are past soft and starting to brown. Remove the pepper strips to a bowl (don’t drain) and leave any juice and the oil in the skillet. Return the skillet to the heat.

Melt the butter in the oil. Squeeze the 1/2 lemon into the skillet — it’s good if pulp gets in there, but try to avoid the seeds. Add the wine and stir to mix, then (it should be boiling by now) add the garlic. Boil for minute or so. Add the scallops and some salt and pepper to taste, and stir (if they were recently frozen in may take a minute or two to boil again). Stir in the lemon zest. Cook until they are done — probably about 2 minutes, but possibly at long as 4 (if they start to shrink and give up their liquid, you’re done). Remove the scallops from the pan, leaving the liquid in there. (I do this by pouring the scallops and liquid into a colander over a bowl, and pouring the liquid from the bowl back into the pan.) Boil down the liquid by about 2/3, to 1/4 cup or so. (don’t bother measuring it).

Add the basil to the liquid and stir, then add back in the peppers and scallops and heat for a minute or so. Add in the parsley and stir until it wilts (shouldn’t take long).

Remove from heat, toss with the fettucine and asiago cheese.

PS… picked up the Stax 50th Anniversary CD Set tonight (10.99 on sale at Best Buy!)… great!