u/Inner_Vacation7734

I make homemade ice cream for our block party every year. It is this Saturday. I decided this year to make Caribbean flavors, in honor of the neighborhood. I lived for a year and a half in the British Virgin Islands years ago.

So far I am making soursop, guava, mango/coconut and malta. I want to round it out with tamarind, but I haven't found the pulp yet.

There is a brand called La Fe, which has the pulp of a lot of these kinds of fruits, and I have seen a package of tamarind by it before but I couldn't find it at Super Foodtown on Fulton right now.

Does anyone have any ideas where I might find that?

Hello Neighbors,

We are having our annual block party in just over a week, Saturday, August 15 -- Dean St. between Kingston & Albany -- and I'm looking to hire a face painter. We usually have one.

I've previously hired them from various online talent booking services, but I thought I'd give a try here and use someone from the neighborhood. I need to book soon, so this is a limited-time offer (\~24 hours).

Please respond only if you are an experienced face painter. We're not interested in a first-timer or amateur. I've hired face painters for several years already, so I have a sense of what's a fair rate. It should be for two hours, or however long it's going to take to paint maybe 30 kids. (That's just an estimate. If there's a long line and you still have enegy, we might be able to extend the job till all the kids are taken care of.)

Please include a portfolio and detail your rates and scope of service. Feel free to DM me.

Thanks,

Rick

Hello Neighbors,

We are having our annual block party in just over a week, Saturday, August 15 -- Dean St. between Kingston & Albany -- and I'm looking to hire a face painter. We usually have one.

I've previously hired them from various online talent booking services, but I thought I'd give a try here and use someone from the neighborhood. I need to book soon, so this is a limited-time offer (~24 hours).

Please respond only if you are an experienced face painter. We're not interested in a first-timer or amateur. I've hired face painters for several years already, so I have a sense of what's a fair rate. It should be for two hours, or however long it's going to take to paint maybe 30 kids. (That's just an estimate. If there's a long line and you still have enegy, we might be able to extend the job till all the kids are taken care of.)

Please include a portfolio and detail your rates and scope of service. Feel free to DM me.

Thanks,

Rick

I am always going through bells. Generally they break after a few months. Or jam. Or don't work in the rain. I don't love the idea of an electric one, partly because they're obnoxious and also it's a pain tending to batteries. But I really don't like having a mechanical bell malfunction when I need it most. I also like it to sound like a bike bell, so that people immediately know what's coming without having to see me. Any suggestions?

One sign you’re a pretty good cook is that you get as excited as I am about having last night’s leftovers for lunch!

Here’s a current favorite recipe: FRENCH ONION CHICKEN

Ingredients (~4 servings):

• Roasted chicken. I’ve used skinless, boneless breasts or bone-in, skin-on thighs. Last night, I just used shredded rotisserie chicken (1/2 chicken).
• One caramelized onion. (Thinly slice an onion and cook it over low-medium heat, stirring periodically, until it's wilted and browned and smells amazing. Might be 30+ minutes. Splashing in some water partway through the cook to soften further speeds things up a bit. But good carmelized onions shouldn't be rushed and are worth the wait. Get the rest going while this is doing its thing.)
• About a cup of creamy dairy mixture. I’m watching calories and saturated fat, so I use a handheld wand mixer to blend low-fat yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, and a little milk. You could use full-fat versions or simply use sour cream, if you prefer. I power it up with onion powder, garlic powder, fresh garlic (I buy the big jars of crushed garlic these days to save effort), AND French onion soup mix (half a package, given all the other salt and onion in the recipe, but suit yourself). Yes, it’s a lot of onion, especially once you include the caramelized onion, but trust me: it’s a flavor bomb. Salt.
• Shredded white cheese. Gruyère would be classic, but I used a combination of mozzarella, sharp provolone, and generic Swiss. Try to include some Swiss if you don’t use Gruyère. Somewhere between half a cup and a cup, depending on your love of cheese.
• Pasta or some other base, though pasta is classic, of course. I’ve made it with various pastas, but last night I used fluffy egg noodles for my son. Part of my diet lately involves substituting vegetables for pasta, so I made roasted eggplant and potato for myself.

(A cooking hack I like: parboil a batch of medium potatoes for about eight minutes, then refrigerate them and use them for various purposes later, such as hash browns, baked potatoes, or roasted potatoes. Much faster.)

I recommend cooking the seasoned chicken in advance. Likewise, cook the pasta in advance. Then put the pasta in an oven-safe pan (I typically use cast iron), top it with the chicken, spread the cream sauce over that, then add the caramelized onions and, lastly, the cheese.

Put it in a hot oven for 20–30 minutes, until bubbly, then finish it under the broiler until the cheese browns, about five minutes.

YUM!

I have several ukes, and I have long hankered for a micro instrument. I now also play concertina, which I transport in a backpack, and I would like a tiny uke to fit in the backpack inside its case together with the concertina, so I didn't have to carry it separately in my hand.

​

Something that sounds good and plays well. The comic effect of an extra small instrument is also part of the appeal.

Something I've noticed recently, after years of playing ukulele, is how casually we dispense with notes in chords when we don't necessarily have to.

I pay enough attention to chord construction (1, 3, 5, b7, 9, etc.) that I can usually work out unfamiliar chords from a lead sheet. Because the uke only has four strings, and because of reentrant tuning, compromises are inevitable. Once you get into 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, you have more chord tones than strings, so notes have to go. Usually the root and/or fifth gets sacrificed.

What surprises me is that the same thing often happens with dominant 7ths, even though a dominant 7th only has four notes and we have four strings.

For example:

• D7: 2223 contains all four notes (D, F#, A, C), but the common "Hawaiian D7" (2020) drops the fifth and doubles the b7.
• F7: 2313 contains all four notes, but many players use 2310, which drops the fifth.
• Christopher Davis-Shannon recently suggested 3003 as a nice C7 voicing. Again, it drops the fifth and doubles another chord tone.

In all three cases, the omitted note is the fifth.

My understanding is that the third and flatted seventh are the critical notes because together they define the dominant function (the tritone). The fifth contributes comparatively little, so it's the first note to get sacrificed.

If that's correct, why did these three-note dominant 7th voicings become so common in ukulele tradition when four-note alternatives are available? Is it purely a playability issue, or is there actually something people prefer about the sound of these incomplete voicings?

Hello Neighbors,

Two great events coming up in just over a week at Brower Park: Juneteenth on June 19 and June Balloon on June 20.

Juneteenth, as I'm sure everyone knows, is a commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Dance and music will take a prominent role in the celebration in the park, from 11:00am to 3:00pm, brought to you by Friends of Brower Park.

June Balloon is a restoration of a popular family festival that was hosted in Brower Park from in the 1980s and 1990s, basically a neighborhood-wide block party, but in the park. Brought to you by Another World and the Crown Heights Care Collective. Loads of fun from 11:00am to 6:00pm.

Details below.

https://preview.redd.it/auuxfx5dq35h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=94317312e823bf8e2b7988464bcbcfc3caf57bd8

https://preview.redd.it/yqnszj1bq35h1.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=62182734fb59af36fadb7bf22a23daf1f4e541cd