(.)_(.)
Thursday, December 22, 2005
gumbo
with the sausage out of the way, tonight was a night for gumbo. And in the spirit of Jason's apple tart cook-along, here's a quick lowdown on how it went. From left to right we have: beer, veggies, AP flour, chicken pieces overnighted in seasoned buttermilk, baggie of seasoned flour, floured chicken ready to fry, stock pot with chicken broth in it, cast iron fry pan with 1/4" of oil in it for frying.
There are 4 basic steps along the way to gumbo land:
-fry the chicken
-make the roux
-cook veggies in roux
-assemble gumbo
My most favorite part of this exercise is the roux. Just making it is cool because of the dirt simple ingredients of oil and flour. But together with some heat added, it's a whole complex animal. It's great fun to watch the roux slowly darken as you continually whisk it. I tried to photograph the stages of the different colors but it didn't come out. Maybe it's all for the best as I wouldn't want to diminish the joy of watching the process yourself for the first time. And by the way, I do mean continually whisk. This isn't like risotto where you read/hear that you must continually stir it or else, but once you've done it you realize that paying such detailed attention to the dish would be overly conservative and wasteful of time that can quite safely be spent cooking the rest of dinner. Oh no. You must keep this stuff moving or else you will burn the flour and taint the roux and thus have fatally wounded the heart of your gumbo. So have a beer (I enjoyed 3 through the course of the evening) and focus all your love and attention on the roux. It will repay you in spades.
The best part about the roux is once it's darkened to a deep red/brown it's time to add the veggies. Again very plain components: onion, celery and green pepper. Adding this into the roux is the single coolest cooking...meneuver that I have personal experience with. For me this is on par with the magic of taking sausages out of the smoker, but better because you can see/hear/smell the magic happening right in front of you. In making the roux, it sputters a bit as you first work in the flour but for most of the time it is essentially inert. Just slowly changing colors and giving off the lovely nutty/burnt popcorn aroma. You just keep stirring until it's as dark as you want it. Upon adding the vegetables, the whole pan springs to life, bubbling and sputtering wildly as the water from the greens evaporates and escapes as steam. In an instant your cast iron transitions from boring dark pan to furious cauldron. What's really cool is that you always take the roux just to the limit of the color you want but invariably once you add the veggies, it goes a full shade darker. For me this means a clear jump from deep red/brown to a sinister black, which looks and behaves just like the evil goo from Creepshow 2. And the smell! There's nothing like it to compare with. In the vein of when you start a sauce with just onions and garlic and are amazed for the umpteenth time of how good it smells. But more intense than that. It is truly the concentrated essence of the wonderful gumbo that will soon be born.
Once the veggies are cooked for a bit you are home free. Work the veggie/roux into the boiling stock in batches, add the fried chicken and sausage and let cook for a few hours. When you are ready, remove the chicken, discard skin and bones, shred the meat and return this to the pot. This batch will sit for 48 hours before serving but that isn't necessary although it does benefit from a little age.
And I guess I forgot the very important 5th step to gumbo
-clean up
Happy late December everybody! 1 comments
with the sausage out of the way, tonight was a night for gumbo. And in the spirit of Jason's apple tart cook-along, here's a quick lowdown on how it went. From left to right we have: beer, veggies, AP flour, chicken pieces overnighted in seasoned buttermilk, baggie of seasoned flour, floured chicken ready to fry, stock pot with chicken broth in it, cast iron fry pan with 1/4" of oil in it for frying.
There are 4 basic steps along the way to gumbo land:
-fry the chicken
-make the roux
-cook veggies in roux
-assemble gumbo
My most favorite part of this exercise is the roux. Just making it is cool because of the dirt simple ingredients of oil and flour. But together with some heat added, it's a whole complex animal. It's great fun to watch the roux slowly darken as you continually whisk it. I tried to photograph the stages of the different colors but it didn't come out. Maybe it's all for the best as I wouldn't want to diminish the joy of watching the process yourself for the first time. And by the way, I do mean continually whisk. This isn't like risotto where you read/hear that you must continually stir it or else, but once you've done it you realize that paying such detailed attention to the dish would be overly conservative and wasteful of time that can quite safely be spent cooking the rest of dinner. Oh no. You must keep this stuff moving or else you will burn the flour and taint the roux and thus have fatally wounded the heart of your gumbo. So have a beer (I enjoyed 3 through the course of the evening) and focus all your love and attention on the roux. It will repay you in spades.
The best part about the roux is once it's darkened to a deep red/brown it's time to add the veggies. Again very plain components: onion, celery and green pepper. Adding this into the roux is the single coolest cooking...meneuver that I have personal experience with. For me this is on par with the magic of taking sausages out of the smoker, but better because you can see/hear/smell the magic happening right in front of you. In making the roux, it sputters a bit as you first work in the flour but for most of the time it is essentially inert. Just slowly changing colors and giving off the lovely nutty/burnt popcorn aroma. You just keep stirring until it's as dark as you want it. Upon adding the vegetables, the whole pan springs to life, bubbling and sputtering wildly as the water from the greens evaporates and escapes as steam. In an instant your cast iron transitions from boring dark pan to furious cauldron. What's really cool is that you always take the roux just to the limit of the color you want but invariably once you add the veggies, it goes a full shade darker. For me this means a clear jump from deep red/brown to a sinister black, which looks and behaves just like the evil goo from Creepshow 2. And the smell! There's nothing like it to compare with. In the vein of when you start a sauce with just onions and garlic and are amazed for the umpteenth time of how good it smells. But more intense than that. It is truly the concentrated essence of the wonderful gumbo that will soon be born.
Once the veggies are cooked for a bit you are home free. Work the veggie/roux into the boiling stock in batches, add the fried chicken and sausage and let cook for a few hours. When you are ready, remove the chicken, discard skin and bones, shred the meat and return this to the pot. This batch will sit for 48 hours before serving but that isn't necessary although it does benefit from a little age.
And I guess I forgot the very important 5th step to gumbo
-clean up
Happy late December everybody! 1 comments
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
andouille indeed have fun
we got back from PA christmas around 4pm on Monday. By 7:30 I had 5 pounds of andouille stuffed and nestled into the fridge, ready for action. Tonight was the trial of my new propane setup for the smoker and here's how it went.
The hookup went fine after some tinkering and I realized that the connection from the regulator hose to the burner should be more than hand tight. I used a bit of TFE tape (although I think there's special stuff for propane connections) and cranked her down. I also turned the gas on very low and put soap solution around the connections to check for leaks. Happily I found none.
The burner worked well although at the lowest flame I could get it was prone to getting blown out so I couldn't keep it on really low. But it was about 26 degrees out so I had plenty of heat to make up in the smoker. Getting up to 130ish wasn't a problem, in fact I think the burner would be too hot if I try to use it in the warmer months, unless I can figure a way to reduce it's output even further than just by turning the valve down low.
I fashioned a wind screen out of tin foil to shield the bottom and that seemed to work fine. One of the problems I faced was what to put the wood chips in. I needed something to sit level on the burner but small enough to fit within the diameter of the smoker. I first tried a small cast iron frying pan, but that was too dense and wasn't getting hot enough to smoke the chips. I then tried just a sheet of heavy duty tin foil but that quickly disintegrated leaving me with a hot, smoldery mess to deal with. I finally settled on a cookie tin (thanks Amy!) which was perfect. It conducted the heat directly enough to get a good smoke but also didn't fall to pieces. I felt just like Goldilocks, after she finds the right bed but before the bears eat her.
In all it was a 3 hour smoke with the 1st hour on cherry wood and the rest on maple. I hadn't used the cherry before and I found the smoke kind of fruity and perfumey which I didn't think would suit the andouille. It would be good with poultry I bet but I was happy that I still had some maple around. Supposedly pecan wood is the authentic smoke wood for this and I'd love to try it some day. Perhaps Reen and I can make a drive to Peoples Woods in Rhode Island some time.
Next up is to fry some chicken and then finish off the gumbo. Man do I enjoy doing this. 1 comments
we got back from PA christmas around 4pm on Monday. By 7:30 I had 5 pounds of andouille stuffed and nestled into the fridge, ready for action. Tonight was the trial of my new propane setup for the smoker and here's how it went.
The hookup went fine after some tinkering and I realized that the connection from the regulator hose to the burner should be more than hand tight. I used a bit of TFE tape (although I think there's special stuff for propane connections) and cranked her down. I also turned the gas on very low and put soap solution around the connections to check for leaks. Happily I found none.
The burner worked well although at the lowest flame I could get it was prone to getting blown out so I couldn't keep it on really low. But it was about 26 degrees out so I had plenty of heat to make up in the smoker. Getting up to 130ish wasn't a problem, in fact I think the burner would be too hot if I try to use it in the warmer months, unless I can figure a way to reduce it's output even further than just by turning the valve down low.
I fashioned a wind screen out of tin foil to shield the bottom and that seemed to work fine. One of the problems I faced was what to put the wood chips in. I needed something to sit level on the burner but small enough to fit within the diameter of the smoker. I first tried a small cast iron frying pan, but that was too dense and wasn't getting hot enough to smoke the chips. I then tried just a sheet of heavy duty tin foil but that quickly disintegrated leaving me with a hot, smoldery mess to deal with. I finally settled on a cookie tin (thanks Amy!) which was perfect. It conducted the heat directly enough to get a good smoke but also didn't fall to pieces. I felt just like Goldilocks, after she finds the right bed but before the bears eat her.
In all it was a 3 hour smoke with the 1st hour on cherry wood and the rest on maple. I hadn't used the cherry before and I found the smoke kind of fruity and perfumey which I didn't think would suit the andouille. It would be good with poultry I bet but I was happy that I still had some maple around. Supposedly pecan wood is the authentic smoke wood for this and I'd love to try it some day. Perhaps Reen and I can make a drive to Peoples Woods in Rhode Island some time.
Next up is to fry some chicken and then finish off the gumbo. Man do I enjoy doing this. 1 comments
Friday, December 16, 2005
grinder update
I wanted to pass along my experience with the folks at Maverick when I called to talk about a repair for the grinder base which I broke because I'm an idiot.
So I call the number in NJ which is in the back of the manual. Tell the girl that the grinder base is broken. She says to go ahead and send it in for repair. Just send the base, nothing else. No questions about why it broke, where I bought it, how long ago I bought it, nothing like that. Just mail it in to us, Attn: Bernie on the address.
So I mail it out last Tuesday. And then I call on Friday to see if it got there. I get to talk to Bernie himself down on the floor. He says they've received it and he'll have a look at it Monday or Tuesday. And then today (Friday) in the mail is a box from them. I open it up and it's a brand new grinder in the box with all the stuff that came with the original. So it has a new base obviously, but also the auger, plates, knife and all the other bits. A whole new setup from scratch, with a little note saying the old one was shot so here's a replacement, free of charge. Didn't charge for return shipping or anything.
Needless to say I'm just amazed. After buying this thing from some noname online place I never expected to receive customer service like this. 0 comments
I wanted to pass along my experience with the folks at Maverick when I called to talk about a repair for the grinder base which I broke because I'm an idiot.
So I call the number in NJ which is in the back of the manual. Tell the girl that the grinder base is broken. She says to go ahead and send it in for repair. Just send the base, nothing else. No questions about why it broke, where I bought it, how long ago I bought it, nothing like that. Just mail it in to us, Attn: Bernie on the address.
So I mail it out last Tuesday. And then I call on Friday to see if it got there. I get to talk to Bernie himself down on the floor. He says they've received it and he'll have a look at it Monday or Tuesday. And then today (Friday) in the mail is a box from them. I open it up and it's a brand new grinder in the box with all the stuff that came with the original. So it has a new base obviously, but also the auger, plates, knife and all the other bits. A whole new setup from scratch, with a little note saying the old one was shot so here's a replacement, free of charge. Didn't charge for return shipping or anything.
Needless to say I'm just amazed. After buying this thing from some noname online place I never expected to receive customer service like this. 0 comments
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
plastic doodads
As you know, this is the time of year for cutting down trees and hanging plastic doodads on them and watching them die slowly in your living room. And that’s just what we did Tuesday night. Well at least the doodad part. The living room looks very cozy now, what with the new paint job around the fire place and the Christmas decorations up. We also got the chimney inspected and it got a clean bill of health so all that is needed is to get some wood in there and light her up.
The home of childish insults and blinding homerism under the best of conditions, the online soccer forums are going crazy now that the WC groups have been announced. Just absolute garbage posted in a seemingly endless stream, each serving topped with a large dollop of nationalistic vitriol. The US sucks, MLS sucks, Italians are diving whiners, Czech Republic will stink if Nedved doesn’t play, Ghana will lose all 3 games, not 1 US player could play in Serie A, Italy’s 3-1 win over Holland a month ago doesn’t mean anything, Ghana can’t play defense and blah and Blah and BLAH. I loathe reality TV and yet I put on my hip boots and wade through this cyber-offal looking for what exactly? Who knows.
One thing that is neat however, and unique to soccer, is that this typical sportsmonkey chest beating is a global hobby. The people posting about the Italian team are in Italy and there’s folks from Africa talking about Ghana and how they did during qualifying. So that part is cool I think. And then, like a KC Royals fan weighing in on the Red Sox/Yankees debate, we have a post like this from a fine gent in South Africa:
You know you want it and so here it is…a World Cup IQ test. I’d be fascinated to know what you score, so please post results. I will happily boast that I scored 11/11! Hooray for me! 3 comments
As you know, this is the time of year for cutting down trees and hanging plastic doodads on them and watching them die slowly in your living room. And that’s just what we did Tuesday night. Well at least the doodad part. The living room looks very cozy now, what with the new paint job around the fire place and the Christmas decorations up. We also got the chimney inspected and it got a clean bill of health so all that is needed is to get some wood in there and light her up.
The home of childish insults and blinding homerism under the best of conditions, the online soccer forums are going crazy now that the WC groups have been announced. Just absolute garbage posted in a seemingly endless stream, each serving topped with a large dollop of nationalistic vitriol. The US sucks, MLS sucks, Italians are diving whiners, Czech Republic will stink if Nedved doesn’t play, Ghana will lose all 3 games, not 1 US player could play in Serie A, Italy’s 3-1 win over Holland a month ago doesn’t mean anything, Ghana can’t play defense and blah and Blah and BLAH. I loathe reality TV and yet I put on my hip boots and wade through this cyber-offal looking for what exactly? Who knows.
One thing that is neat however, and unique to soccer, is that this typical sportsmonkey chest beating is a global hobby. The people posting about the Italian team are in Italy and there’s folks from Africa talking about Ghana and how they did during qualifying. So that part is cool I think. And then, like a KC Royals fan weighing in on the Red Sox/Yankees debate, we have a post like this from a fine gent in South Africa:
I admire all the United State supporters on this forum backing there boys and talking about qualifying but have you seriously looked at who you coming up against? I mean Italy are head and shoulders above of you in terms of players and tactics. Czech Republic is an awesome side with Nedved, Rosicky and Pobosky all quality players. Ghana has Essein and Appiah both could easily win a game individually.And that about sums up what I’ve been feeling over the past few days. The US do have a shot at being one of the top 2 teams from the group and thus earn themselves a place in the final 16, but it would be an amazing feat. A sizeable step forward from their impressive run in 2002.
The U.S.A like every team has a chance and you have proven to mix it with the big boys before but I think the group you find yourselves in is one of the toughest to get out of. But anything is possible, good luck to all the teams.
You know you want it and so here it is…a World Cup IQ test. I’d be fascinated to know what you score, so please post results. I will happily boast that I scored 11/11! Hooray for me! 3 comments
Friday, December 09, 2005
the draw is bloody
The US was drawn into Group E this afternoon, along with Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic. This is easily the most difficult group of the eight, with perhaps a nod to Group F which consists of Brazil, Croatia, Australia and Japan.
If you consider each team's current world ranking and sum them up for the four teams, Group E's total is the lowest at 72 with 50 of that accounted for by Ghana. The next lowest is Group F's 85 and then 3 groups in the mid-90s, 2 in the low 100s and Group G's total soaring to 126.
I'm not quite up for a full analysis of the group right now and there's plenty of time for that between now and June anyways. I will say that a small piece that fell in the US's favor is that they won't play their opening match until the 4th day of the tournament which will allow the players to settle in and observe how the games will be refereed. And of course there's the fact that it's impossible (not very difficult, impossible) to say what will happen once the games start being played. The US team will be in full control of their destiny. Provided they can keep key players healthy, the Americans are good enough to beat any team over the course of 90 minutes.
So for now, just brush up on your German. 0 comments
The US was drawn into Group E this afternoon, along with Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic. This is easily the most difficult group of the eight, with perhaps a nod to Group F which consists of Brazil, Croatia, Australia and Japan.
If you consider each team's current world ranking and sum them up for the four teams, Group E's total is the lowest at 72 with 50 of that accounted for by Ghana. The next lowest is Group F's 85 and then 3 groups in the mid-90s, 2 in the low 100s and Group G's total soaring to 126.
I'm not quite up for a full analysis of the group right now and there's plenty of time for that between now and June anyways. I will say that a small piece that fell in the US's favor is that they won't play their opening match until the 4th day of the tournament which will allow the players to settle in and observe how the games will be refereed. And of course there's the fact that it's impossible (not very difficult, impossible) to say what will happen once the games start being played. The US team will be in full control of their destiny. Provided they can keep key players healthy, the Americans are good enough to beat any team over the course of 90 minutes.
So for now, just brush up on your German. 0 comments
Thursday, December 08, 2005
broke down kitchen
I am very sad to share with you the fact that I broke my new grinder Monday night. It seems that a big chunk of venison fat doesn’t break down very well but rather creates a chalky smear that was enough to bind up the auger and blow something in the motor. I really should have known to break down the fat into smaller pieces but I was in a bit of a hurry to get the meat ground and in the freezer. Not a mistake I will make twice. The gear teeth on the base and auger aren’t stripped but when the motor is running, the gear teeth on the motor base don’t turn. The motor also smelled a bit like burnt hair which can’t be good. So I’ve sent it back to a warehouse in NJ and have been told that it will be repaired or replaced. No questions about when or where I bought it or how it broke which I thought was a bit odd but nice. Hopefully I’ll get it back soon.
The first piece of the conversion of the smoker to gas arrived today. Very happy about that. With any luck the burner will be here soon. PA Christmas is just around the corner so I needs to get busy.
Of the myriad web site reviews focusing exclusively on hardwood charcoal this site is the clear leader of the pack. It’s never too early to decide which lump charcoal you are going to use next grilling season.
So the draw for the World Cup is tomorrow but the seeds were announced on Tuesday morning. And…………the US didn’t get one. Our regional rivals Mexico did get one but our fine country missed out by a hair’s width. We ended up ranked 9th, losing the 8th and final spot to Italy by a single point. It’s worth noting that of all the different variables that were used to determine the rankings, the single item which lowered the US’s score the most was the team’s performance in WC 1998. And we all know whose fault that was don’t we? That’s right, everyone’s favorite ODB, Steve Sampson. So thank you Steve, for humiliating the country 7 years ago in such a profound way that the negative shockwaves are still being felt today. 0 comments
I am very sad to share with you the fact that I broke my new grinder Monday night. It seems that a big chunk of venison fat doesn’t break down very well but rather creates a chalky smear that was enough to bind up the auger and blow something in the motor. I really should have known to break down the fat into smaller pieces but I was in a bit of a hurry to get the meat ground and in the freezer. Not a mistake I will make twice. The gear teeth on the base and auger aren’t stripped but when the motor is running, the gear teeth on the motor base don’t turn. The motor also smelled a bit like burnt hair which can’t be good. So I’ve sent it back to a warehouse in NJ and have been told that it will be repaired or replaced. No questions about when or where I bought it or how it broke which I thought was a bit odd but nice. Hopefully I’ll get it back soon.
The first piece of the conversion of the smoker to gas arrived today. Very happy about that. With any luck the burner will be here soon. PA Christmas is just around the corner so I needs to get busy.
Of the myriad web site reviews focusing exclusively on hardwood charcoal this site is the clear leader of the pack. It’s never too early to decide which lump charcoal you are going to use next grilling season.
So the draw for the World Cup is tomorrow but the seeds were announced on Tuesday morning. And…………the US didn’t get one. Our regional rivals Mexico did get one but our fine country missed out by a hair’s width. We ended up ranked 9th, losing the 8th and final spot to Italy by a single point. It’s worth noting that of all the different variables that were used to determine the rankings, the single item which lowered the US’s score the most was the team’s performance in WC 1998. And we all know whose fault that was don’t we? That’s right, everyone’s favorite ODB, Steve Sampson. So thank you Steve, for humiliating the country 7 years ago in such a profound way that the negative shockwaves are still being felt today. 0 comments
Monday, December 05, 2005
welcome welcome
welcome to the world Alaina Kelsey Crossett. So nice to have you. We’re glad that you and your Mom are healthy and we can’t wait to meet you.
We took the plunge and painted the wall around the fireplace this weekend. With some excellent guidance from Pete and my brother I felt like I had a passing idea of how to proceed and what to expect. I taped in and got the coat of tinted primer down on Saturday afternoon. And on Sunday I was able to get up 3 coats of the topcoat itself. Cutting in and then rolling out took about 2 hours total and then an hour or so to dry. It looks great from up to 3 feet away but any closer and you start to perceive the differences in shading in certain places. This may drive me to a 4th coat but we’ll wait a few days to see how we feel about that. If it’s any indication, I didn’t take up the masking tape yet…
Saturday afternoon found us in Plymouth for some venison carving and then dinner. Dad had come back from the Vineyard with some deer parts in the cooler which we broke down into sausage meat and steaks for the freezer. Trying to carve out the more complicated joints like the shoulders and hips is akin to those 3-D tavern puzzles that have to fit together just right and in the proper order. Except the butchering is in reverse, where you’re trying to take it apart in just the right order. A few beers and some sharp knives helped us through it and we did alright.
The draw for the 2006 WC will take place this Friday and will be shown live on ESPN2 at 3pm, so set your VCR/TiVo. There’s a tiny slim miniscule iota of a chance that the US could earn one of the 8 seeds. If this happened eurosnob fans across the US and most fans from across the footballing world would simultaneously soil themselves. So I think it’s worth tuning in for that reason alone. Aside from that, at the end of the day each of the 32 teams will know which 3 teams they will face in the round robin opening groups of the tourney. Because of how the seeds are assigned and how the draw proceeds, there is usually a “group of death” which contains one of the seeded teams and also one of the top teams who just missed out on a seed (Holland for example). In addition, the other 2 teams in this group will be above average and thus round out a group of 4 teams who each have a clear chance at advancing out of group play. Such a group is bad news for all four teams involved. The perfect scenario is that you are drawn into a group with the seeded team, you and then 2 other relative minnows from say Africa or Asia. It should be noted however that just making the final 32 team field is a major achievement and there are no easy games. Seeing the 2002 Cup should drive that point home when defending champs France as well as Argentina and Portugal each failed to advance from the group stage. Check out this riveting interview with world class hottie Heidi Klum as she discusses her roll as hostess for the event. 0 comments
welcome to the world Alaina Kelsey Crossett. So nice to have you. We’re glad that you and your Mom are healthy and we can’t wait to meet you.
We took the plunge and painted the wall around the fireplace this weekend. With some excellent guidance from Pete and my brother I felt like I had a passing idea of how to proceed and what to expect. I taped in and got the coat of tinted primer down on Saturday afternoon. And on Sunday I was able to get up 3 coats of the topcoat itself. Cutting in and then rolling out took about 2 hours total and then an hour or so to dry. It looks great from up to 3 feet away but any closer and you start to perceive the differences in shading in certain places. This may drive me to a 4th coat but we’ll wait a few days to see how we feel about that. If it’s any indication, I didn’t take up the masking tape yet…
Saturday afternoon found us in Plymouth for some venison carving and then dinner. Dad had come back from the Vineyard with some deer parts in the cooler which we broke down into sausage meat and steaks for the freezer. Trying to carve out the more complicated joints like the shoulders and hips is akin to those 3-D tavern puzzles that have to fit together just right and in the proper order. Except the butchering is in reverse, where you’re trying to take it apart in just the right order. A few beers and some sharp knives helped us through it and we did alright.
The draw for the 2006 WC will take place this Friday and will be shown live on ESPN2 at 3pm, so set your VCR/TiVo. There’s a tiny slim miniscule iota of a chance that the US could earn one of the 8 seeds. If this happened eurosnob fans across the US and most fans from across the footballing world would simultaneously soil themselves. So I think it’s worth tuning in for that reason alone. Aside from that, at the end of the day each of the 32 teams will know which 3 teams they will face in the round robin opening groups of the tourney. Because of how the seeds are assigned and how the draw proceeds, there is usually a “group of death” which contains one of the seeded teams and also one of the top teams who just missed out on a seed (Holland for example). In addition, the other 2 teams in this group will be above average and thus round out a group of 4 teams who each have a clear chance at advancing out of group play. Such a group is bad news for all four teams involved. The perfect scenario is that you are drawn into a group with the seeded team, you and then 2 other relative minnows from say Africa or Asia. It should be noted however that just making the final 32 team field is a major achievement and there are no easy games. Seeing the 2002 Cup should drive that point home when defending champs France as well as Argentina and Portugal each failed to advance from the group stage. Check out this riveting interview with world class hottie Heidi Klum as she discusses her roll as hostess for the event. 0 comments
