1. The XX – Intro
2. Fol Chen – Cable Tv
3. Keane – Spiralling
4. The Flaming Lips – Watching the Planets
5. The Antlers – Bear
6. Vampire Weekend – Giving Up the Gun
7. MGMT – Time to Pretend
8. The Morning Benders – Excuses
9. The Delta Mirror – He Was Worse Than the Needle He Gave You
10. The Dead Weather – Die By the Drop
11. Sleigh Bells – Crown on the Ground
12. Broken Bells – The High Road
13. Jonsi – Go Do
14. The Constellations – Felicia
15. New Politics – Yeah Yeah Yeah

And some bonus country (yes, COUNTRY) stuff I’m enjoying lately:

The Wreckers – “My, Oh My”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Little Big Town – “Bones”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pfft, it took 2 1/2 months to compile even one!   Slow music year I guess…

1. Sleigh Bells – Infinity Guitars
2. LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk is Playing at My House
3. Le Tigre – Hot Topic
4. Yeasayer – Ambling Alp
5. The Xx – Crystalised
6. Cold War Kids – Audience of One
7. The Heavy – How You Like Me Now
8. Metric – Help I’m Alive
9. Caribou – Odessa
10. Spinerette – Baptized by Fire
11. Ok Go – This Too Shall Pass
12. Broken Social Scene – All to All

Four words:  Never Ending Pie Buffet

Please anticipate pictures that will make your saliva glands burst with happiness.

(If you want to attend on your own, it is being held at the Omni Championsgate in Kissimmee, FL.)

Then used even more peaches for fried peach pies…

These were simply amazing, most amazing pastry dough EVER.  The recipe came from a cookbook I knew I had to have once I saw the title:  Screen Doors and Sweet Tea I’ll probably get all lawyered if I repost the recipe here, so just buy the book, mmkay?

And finally, today (appropriately enough, Pi day) saw my very first attempt – EVER – at pie.  Why?  Well, not a huge fan of fruit in semi-sweet bread, on the whole I’d just rather have a piece of chocolate, but it’s kind of one of those things you need to know how to cook, like turkey and french bread.  Oh, that’s just me?  Anyway, here’s the pie:

The crust recipe came from the above Screen Doors cookbook, and uses the French method frissage (demonstrated somewhere in that damn video, I lost patience about 30 seconds in…looks like she starts on it about 4:18 in the timeline there), which is feathering the dough on your countertop…taking an egg-sized piece, smooshing it with the heel of your hand away from you, then repeating with the remaining dough.  You’ll see some say, “Gasp!  Mon dieu!  Frissaging will destroy the gluten!”  Pfft.  Don’t overwork it and you’re fine.

See?

The crust was crazy-good, flaky and tender.  I am not a Granny Smith fan, so I used Pink Lady apples exclusively.  This made for a non-goopy filling, with nice tender-sweet apples.  Not the prettiest pie in the world, but tasted damn good for a first ever effort.

This is “Evan Saul” (not quite fully open yet):
 

Such an unsual coral-y color, such a lovely contrast with the dark green foliage.   Cheerfully self-sowing and a guaranteed flutterby attractor.

(Available from Plant Delights.)

Sure, it’s *another* tall bearded iris (var. Batik), but I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE GROWING IT DOWN HERE.
 

Snort, indeed.

The Sarracenia leucophylla ‘Tarnok’ is doing very well.  It has produced mid-sized pitchers since being potted up, and is now about 12″ tall and turning out laaaarge pitchers.
 

And if you gently peer down into the pitcher itself, you can see all kinds of horror:
 

I’m glad to be rid of the pesky love bugs (which the pitchers consume in droves) and the even peskier destructive-caterpillar-spawning moths, but I’m still a softie at heart, and can’t help but feel the teensiest bit sorry for them.

Which is, I suppose, why I dreamed last night of murderous, body-snatching pitcher plants.  

Sooo, no more peering down into pitchers for me.  Eat up, fellas!