Garlic Kale with pine nuts - budget friendly dinner

I've been writing quite a bit lately. Between publications, book stuff and the biiiiiiig paper, I haven't been hitting the gym as much. I used to go for 2 hours a day. Now I sit in one position, and putter about looking for grants and whatnot. This is the recipe I go to on the days when I'm pretty sure I blew my calorie allowance by noon.

I think I came across this recipe during my running days. It's iron rich and filled with fiber - all things runners need. It's pretty simple

2 Tbsp olive oil

2-4 gloves of garlic diced

1 bunch of kale

2 Tbsp of pine nuts

2 Tbsp of dried cranberries

2-4 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper to taste.

Heat the oil on medium heat. Add the garlic and wait until it is almost brown before adding the kale. I usually cover for 2 minutes while the kale cooks down. Take the cover off and let the kale cook for 3-4 more minutes. Add the pine nuts and cranberries. cook for a minute. Add balsamic and cook until the kale starts to turn brown. Take off the heat and season to taste.

I sometimes eat this with a little chunk of bread or pasta and a poached egg on top. Cost comes to about $5 for two people. Done and done.

Indaba Sauvignon Blanc - wine on a budget

My second recommendation is a Sauvignon Blanc. The Sauvignon Blanc grape is a little bit like the rock dove of grape varieties, in that it presumably originated in Europe and then successfully stormed every possible habitat. Depending on the climate and how long the must touches the grape skins the taste ranges considerably.

Indaba Sauvignon Blanc, South Africa 2010 - ($5.99 @ Trader Joe's, $8 range elsewhere)

Light-medium bodied white. Long finish. Dry, grassy, with a touch of peach and grapefruit. A little zesty.

Buy it, drink it - great low cost wedding wine

Don't bother aging it. As a category of wine most Sauvignon Blancs do not really benefit from aging in the bottle......and the few that do, I can't afford at the moment :) It goes down easily and has a little body. It's a crowd pleaser.

Soooo good with sushi, fried chicken, cilantro, goat cheese - and could possibly swing asparagus

Sauvignon Blancs are wildly different from region to region, so they pair with many different types of food. This one does well with just about everything - poultry dishes, sushi, goat cheese anything with garlic or cilantro.....salads, salads, salads. It might pair with asparagus - I haven't had a chance to try it, but I get the sense that it would work.

It needs to stay pretty cold, as it warms up it get progressively grassy/terroir-y...which is fine, but it's a pretty big change.

Damn fine. I always a bottle on hand.

Major Debt milestone

My student line of credit, acquired and used since the early 00s, is back down to its 2000 level today. I have successfully put 22K towards the debt acquired during my early student years since August 2008. I'm a third of the way out of student debt, and I'm still in school. At some point I'll sit down here and explain how I've been reducing my debt.

Since the National Debt Bill Vote is making me nauseous with anxiety AND NYC is under a severe-weather/tornado warning tonight, I've decided to deal with that circus by watching Mad Men on Netflix.

This is the exact opposite attitude I take towards my own finances and politics in general. I have rationalized this night of a$$-sitting and Don Draper-watching with my own debt-reduction success.

There will plenty of pre-market freak out to watch on tv while at the gym this weekend.

Wedding karaoke

Believe me when I tell you that we tried to have a backyard wedding. We really wanted a semi-potluck get together, but neither of our parents' houses had backyards and setting up an affordable backyard wedding in or around NYC proved to be difficult. The primary problem with planning weddings in NYC is that every spot has a fee attached to it and party planner who has arranged some A-list event there ahead of you.

There are no ingenious low cost weddings-on-top-of-parking-garages here.....because even the parking garages have been priced up. Campgrounds and B&Bs outside of NYC are pretty pricey as well. We looked into renting someone's barn in the Hudson River Valley and found a $5K fee attached to it before chairs, tables, food, wine - you named. One very disappointing attempt to get space at a Long Island vineyard came with a $300K site rental fee before food and wine!!!

When we realized that planning a backyard wedding in any other location would prove to be either financially, or logically very difficult we settled on finding a restaurant in the city (we were very lucky to find a fantastic restaurant with a backyard)......alas, this ruled out our bonfire plan. We settled for option 2 - fantastic after party at an activity-based bar.

Neither H nor I are huge karaoke fans. It's fun, but we don't actively seek it out all that often. It turns out to be a pretty cheap entertainment option in the city. Most of our friends have asked or joined us in ad hoc karaoking around town. While, in the lead up to the wedding we ended up going out to quite a few karaoke bars, it isn't a serious activity for us....so why do it?

Well, three reasons

1) we wanted our guests to get to know one another

2) it mimicked the sing-a-longs of my family

3) it's cheap. Buying out a karaoke bar is really, really inexpensive.

Our guests had a blast. Everyone loosened up and had a turn with the mic. It was really cool to see so many people dressed in fancy clothes dancing and having large sing-a-longs. It made our wedding

Buying the alcohol and not the bar = cheap

Here is how we did it. I found all of the karaoke bars within reasonable walking distance of the restaurant. I contacted the management and made an offer - not to buy out the bar or a private room, but to buy a fixed about of alcohol for my guests. We guaranteed the bars $500 worth of business in a 3 hour period and to prepay it in alcohol sales. The bars responded very positively. Had I known that I would get this sort of a response, I might have held my wedding in a bar :)

We asked for bar access during the early evening

We asked for a few hours at the beginning of the night, when business is dead anyway. Bars responded very positively to this suggestion. We were basically permitted to make any arrangements we wanted - bring in outside food, choose any brand of wine or beer, song fees waived. The most conveniently located bar was on board immediately, so I left the other bars in dust and made the agreement with them.

We chose a karaoke bar with a big public bar area

It was really important to us that our guests not feel pressured to sing and getting a private room would put that kind of pressure on people. This meant choosing a bar with a large public area. To avoid a buy-out fee we allowed other patrons in on our party - which was cool because many friendly strangers offered congratulations. We marked out guests's hands with a little red sharpie so that they could access the alcohol we purchased.

We brought in outside and low cost food

Everyone had a very fancy brunch, so it seemed just fine to provide little sub sandwiches as a snack at the bar. We pre-ordered a plate of of sandwiches from the Subway around the corner just in case anyone was hungry. H picked them up with a friend while I ran down the street with half our guests to throw my bouquet down 7th avenue. The low cost food and the fun bar really made for a laid back, relaxing atmospher - ties came undone, shoes came off. Everyone started dancing and singing. It was a fantastic night.

Six pieces of advice I have for someone who wants to arrange this sort of event

a) offer an alcohol buy in place of a bar buy out. This will likely mean letting other patrons in the bar while you are there, but if you do it early enough you may not see anyone. Five patrons might have come in while we were there and they took private rooms and general avoided our party

b) choose a bar with a friendly atmosphere where your guests can hang out at the bar or choose to sing, but are not pressured to choose a song.

c) find a place that is easily accessed from your wedding site (you could even set up karaoke at your wedding site. The cost for a machine rental in the city is almost as much as the alcohol purchase I made

d) make sure the bar has a good book of songs - meaning highly varied. Survey your friends for songs they might want to sing and make sure they are in the book. It makes it a lot easier for your guests to cut loose.

e) make sure the management is consistent. Be sure to meet the people who will staff the bar that night in person. I met one manager but not the next shift manager. The staff turned over in towards the end of the event and this caused a lot of confusion. I spent the last hour in the event in a back office being shaken down by the second manager. I can think of dozens of businesses in the immediate area where this would never have happened.

f) get an agreement in writing - or at the very least a clearly stated email. I had copies of an email agreement with me at the time of the shake down and it helped.

Americans finally care about the national debt

...or so it would seem. While I'm sitting here pondering what the remainder of my adult life might look like should it be spent in an economic depression and a little pi$$ed that we are facing a second severe economic crisis in three years, I'm choosing to see the Capitol Hill server crash as good news. Good. Give a s#$%. This matters.

Now what the hell are we going to do about it?

Motivation is drained by bad bossmanship

Five years ago my friend was struggling to remain motivated enough to finish a course paper.

Today, I'm struggling to stay motivated enough to not blow my entire career in a single "this-is-where-you-can-stick-your-paper-draft-and-crap-attitude" phone blast to my bosses.

..so it seems particularly apt that I ran across the email I sent that friend so many years ago.

Reproduced here for your reading enjoyment

" Here's how you hold on to Motivation. I start typing random thoughts related to the topic until motivation creeps by and looks over my shoulder. That's when I grab the sack I've hidden between my legs and whip it up over my shoulder and bag motivation. Once bagged, I give it a few punches to the stomach and few kicks to the ribs. Then I lean over motivation and loudly whisper "you ain't never gonna f*(&^% with me again, are you??? Are you???? I didn't think so. I'll see you here at work tomorrow, on time. I will won't I? Did Creativity tell you what I did to his mother? It was pretty f$&&*)(@ ugly. Ask Imagination how he drives to work in the morning with no f$&%^* legs!!!!"

Then open the bag...and lo' and behold motivation shows up on time next work day.

Seriously, those first five minutes are hyper important".

I feel so much better for having pasted it here.

Zafrika Pinotage - wine on a budget

I heart wine

I love wine. Looooove wine. I like to smell it, taste it, roll it around in a glass. My relationship with wine is very similar to the one that women on television have with designer shoes - I window shop for bottles, fantasize how I will impress guests with it at the next party and take pictures of every bottle I drink so that it is easy to pair bottles with food. I love wine.

That said, I am one of the relatively uneducated masses. I am neither a serious connossieur nor even a regular reader of reviews. Actually, the scientist in me finds the multitude of nouns and adjectives channeling everything from cigar smoke and blackberries to leather and soil kind of humourous. I understand that some people take wine very seriously and some even develop a career purely in the service of wine distribution, menu design or even creation. I am not that person. Wine is at my dinner table, my parties and sometimes my cafe table with only me. I have little to no patience for the kind of pretension required to elevate a $20 bottle of wine to a McQueen ballgown or decimate it to the wellington's worn by sewage maintenance workers. Wine is to be had - what matters is that you like it.

All of that said - I have a very small budget. A budget that can put me in batch mixing, chemically altered wine territory...not a nice place to be.

...which is why the Trader Joe's wine shop is the perfect store for me to choose wines right now.

From here on out my recommendations will be brief. My first recommendation is a pinotage. Pinotage grape is a hybrid of Pinot Noir and Hermitage grapes (known as Cinsault grapes everywhere else). I've had many and loved many a Pinotage, but these days I'm on a serious budget...so my recommendation is

Zafrika Pinotage, Western Cape, South Africa 2010 - ($4.99- $7 depending on time of year)

Light-medium bodied red. Long finish. Dry, tart, berry flavour with some vanilla and ends with spice. To be honest, vanilla is the only word I could think of - the note isn't exactly vanilla.

It needs to breathe

The nose on this wine, and all Pinotages I've had to date, is rubbery. I mean it literally smells like rubber. This wine is also really alcoholic (14%). You can't really drink this stuff straight out of the bottle - it really needs to be decanted and allowed to breath. Pour it into something else and give it 20 minutes and it evens out and becomes quiet tasty.

Soooo good with hamburgers and pizza

Pinotages pair really well with hearty stews and game. One of the reasons I love them is that they are a great wine for low down dirty food options that most of us love but do not eat all that often - like hamburgers, pizza and cheddar cheese. Given breathing time, this is also wine that can stand on its own.

Again - in case you forget...decant, decant, decant.

Restaurant recommendation: Cafe Himalaya, East Village

Nasty week - let's eat out

It has been an emotional week. I became an aunt. A dear, dear uncle of mine passed away very suddenly. Several co-workers passed the buck this week on tasks they agreed to do, leading me to scramble to find others to do the work for them. My bosses have been sitting on my publication since April. They ignore my emails and demand last minute meetings that always devolve into checking of stock holdings and social meetings with other people. Someone has already scooped part of my project due to my bosses' off-the-cuff demands. I am at my emotional limit.

Given the tough week, H decided to take me out to dinner. He had two stipulations a) it had to be outside of our neighbourhood and, because are pretty close to exceeding our restaurant budget this month, b) it had to be inexpensive. He dug around on Yelp and Menupages and found the highly recommended Himalaya Cafe - a BYOB Nepalese restaurant on 1st and 1st in the East Village.

Cafe Himalaya

Having never had Nepalese food before, it is difficult for me to say whether this restaurant replicates it well. I can say the food is damn fine. I'll likely get reamed out for this description - but the cuisine really appears to be a hybrid of Northern Indian Food (read, little to no cream) mixed with Chinese and touches of SouthEast Asian influences. The menu at Himalaya consists of a lot of dumplings, light, yogurt-based curries and similar dishes served with either basmati rice or egg noddles. Many people come to this restaurant for the dumplings which, as I understand it, are better pan fried than steamed.

The proteins on the menu are mainly beef, pork and chicken. The menu is heavy with veggie friendly options. The restaurant has a very visible list of recommended dishes on a blackboard above the kitchen. The dishes are large, designed to be shared and run about $7 a plate. While a little oily, the dishes are generally light and spicy - perfect for an overwhelmingly hot day.

We had the

Tsel Gyathuk Ngopa

sauteed noodles mixed with fresh green vegetables & tofu ($6.75)

Chasha Shamdey

a himalayan style chicken curry marinated in homemade yogurt & spices with served basmati rice ($7.50)

The actually location isn't much to look at, but the interior hardly matters. The overall appearance is really one of a neighbourhood dumpling house. It is a small,clean cafe with a chalkboard menu, visible kitchen and relatively unadorned wooden interior. The restaurant has intimate seating. The staff lets the clientele sit for as long as they please. In combination those two factors make for a friendly, upbeat and even romantic atmosphere. We were surrounded by couples and groups of friends who had come in with their own bottles of beer and wine to enjoy company and food on a hot day.

The wine

The Himalaya Cafe is very close to a number of liquor stores and markets. We didn't realize that at the time and stopped by Trader Joe's wine shop in Union Square. I realize Trader Joe's wine shop probably brings two-buck-chuck to mind. For anyone who hasn't been there in the last 5 years, the T.J. wine shop stocks some really fantastic wines at very low prices. At some point, I'll get around to posting my favourites on this site. For the time being, I'll tell you that we picked up a bottle of Oyster Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, 2010 - a wine that I have seen retail for $20+ - for $7.99

In retrospect the food could have handled a wine that was a little bit more floral, however Sauvignon Blanc is a great pairing for Nepalese curries.

Oyster Bay 2010 Sauvignon Blanc is crisp, low acid and has citrus (mainly lemon) and grass clipping notes. As many Sauvignon Blancs warm they can taste more and more barnyard-like. This is a quality that I like, even when the wine is perfectly chilled. However, I knew I really wanted a wine that was smooth and low on the front lawn taste. Oyster Bay was perfect. Given the heat outside, it did warm a little and held up very well and maintained a very clean finish. I cannot recommend it enough.

The cost

We walked home. The total cost of a night out $24 (+tip), which represents a 1/4 of our monthly restaurant budget ($100).

Is it a night at the Mandarin Orient? No - but my ventures into highly-budgeted-ville are teaching me that fun and romance are really more about the company and adventure, than views and sparkling sakes (though, the M.O. view of Central Park is pretty amazing). Our dinner at the Cafe Himalaya was damn tasty, a lot of fun and a nice break in an otherwise taxing week.

Wedding playlists

On the odd chance that anyone is interested in the playlist that we, my father and friends pulled together, I thought I'd post it.

Figuring out what music we needed

We figured that including the possibility that guests would show early and we would likely be a little late leaving the restaurant, we would need

1) four hours of music

2) music split into 4 categories - welcome/post-food mingling, eating, first dance, mother-son dance.

I really wanted to start the process of selecting music early. I had watched two of my friends stay up all night the night before their wedding programing music. I knew that I wanted to get a few hours of sleep before a day long party, so when we decided to get married in January I asked H for a list of songs that he liked/reminded him of us/were important to him/were fun.

Figuring out what music we wanted

While waiting for that list, I asked my friends to dial through their iPods and suggest songs. The stipulations were as follows:

1) no break up songs

2) music had to be fun/chipper/happy

3) there had to be a few songs that invited dancing

4) only the slightest bit romantic if romantic at all. Ideally, the song was just fun

5) songs could not be overplayed

6) no Disney, no 80s rock, no "I knew the bride"

Our friends and family helped us choose songs

This turned out to be a little bit more difficult than I had thought. For one, most of my own music is old school R&B...that's a lot of breaking up and cheating music. No song suggestions were coming in, so two of my friends and I cracked open a bottle of wine, and made a list of fun songs. I highly recommend this technique for the fun. I ended up not using a lot of the music.

I came out of that evening with a bit of headache, but a list of 40 songs to review. Combined with H's 100 songs I thought I would have enough. I flew off to a few conferences. When I got back, I sat down with the songs to review them and realized that only about 10 of the songs my friends and I had picked were happy songs. H's list was even trickier. A lot of H mainly provided songs that were sad/a little too loud/actually about cars or break ups but had played during some event he enjoyed etc.. In the end 5 of those songs were not about breaking up and never-ending sadness or engine mechanics and ended up on the list.

Putting the playlist together: My father hip-i-fied our list

H and I looked at our 15 songs. We were now 4 days away from the wedding with about 5 songs he and I had picked randomly over the course of the last 5 months and 15 songs that we had salvaged out of at least 4 iPods. Not good.

H grew up going to and performing in a lot of musicals. He dug out cassette tapes of his favourite musicals and started writing a new list of songs he really liked. This produced another 20. I started flipping through iTunes Genius recommendations to see if there were songs I loved but had forgotten. We also decided to loosen up the stipulations - we let a few songs about unhappy topics slip in. Now we had close to two hours of music.

My parents arrived Thursday and my brother, Friday. As I upcycled H's tie to skinny-fy it, I asked my Dad and brother to pick through their iPods for songs. My mother and I ran off for errands and returned to a list of 100 songs. Amazing. My father is cool - like blues man cool. I would never have been able to put together a list of music as hip as this without him.

Putting the playlist together: Let the corporations do the rest of the dirty work

After what might have been the most bizarre rehearsal dinner (H's parents decided to hold one and invited my family) in history, H and I sat down and picked through the songs. Turns out, I had most of the songs on my Dad's list but hadn't thought to put them on the playlist.

Still, we were up late the night before choosing music. Two decisions let us get sleep that night

1) We let iTunes decide how to arrange the songs. We didn't shuffle the songs. We threw the songs into the playlists and iTunes put them in whatever order it pleased according to some fancy algorithm. I went back and reordered 5 or so songs, but that's it. Thanks Apple.

2) If iTunes or Amazon gave us a recommendation based on a previous song, we either threw it into the playlist if we had the song or we previewed it.

Basically we let the big corporations do two of the more difficult tasks for us. In the end, we compiled 5 hours of music in a pretty short period of time.

With that, here are the lists with albums from which we pulled the songs (not always the original albums).

First Dance

The Littlest Birds - The Be Good Tanyas

(H's mother seemed really down and expectant when this was playing, so about 1/3rd into the dance, I convinced H that he should dance with his mother instead. I moved on to dance with friends and eventually my Dad).

Mother-son Dance

Perhaps Love - John Denver

(This song was H's mother's choice. The restaurant's sound system wouldn't play it in any version. I suppose it's a good thing that I gave up 2/3rds of our first dance to H's mother. )

Welcome/after-food mingling playlist

Song: Chuck E's In Love (LP Version) -

Rickie Lee Jones

Album: The Duchess Of Coolsville (US Release)

She Makes Me Feel Good -

Lyle Lovett

Joshua Judges Ruth

The Passenger -

Iggy Pop

Lust for Life

Oh Yoko! -

John Lennon

Rushmore

A Funky Space Reincarnation -

Marvin Gaye

Here, My Dear

Good Times -

Sam Cooke

30 Greatest Hits - Sam Cooke Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 (Remastered)

Green Onions -

Booker T. & The MG's

Green Onions (US Release)

Superfly (LP Version) -

Curtis Mayfield

Superfly

Cissy Strut -

The Meters

The Meters

Here I Am -

Lyle Lovett

Lyle Lovett And His Large Band

How Sweet It Is -

The Lincolns

Take One

Love Train -

The O'Jays

The Ultimate O'Jays

Little Boxes -

Randy Newman

Weeds - Little Boxes Dimebag #1

He Needs Me -

Jon Brion

Punch-Drunk Love (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Dancing In the Moonlight (Original Recording)-

King Harvest

Dancing In the Moonlight - Single

Hey Ya! (Radio Mix/Club Mix)-

Outkast

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below [Explicit]

Sweet Pea-

Amos Lee

Supply and Demand

Birdhouse In Your Soul -

They Might Be Giants

Flood

Scenic World -

Beirut

Lon Gisland - EP

Accentuate The Positive -

Dr. John

In A Sentimental Mood

Higher And Higher -

The Lincolns

Take One

The Log Driver's Waltz -

Moira Nelson

Echoes of Another Time

Rock The Casbah -

The Clash

The Singles

They Say It's Wonderful -

Frank Sinatra

This Love Of Mine

These Arms of Mine -

Otis Redding

The Very Best of Otis Redding

Take On Me -

Pickin' On Series

Pickin' and Singin' the Biggest Hits of the 1980's, Vol. 1

Irresistible You -

Taj Mahal

Senor Blues

Shiny Shiny Car -

The Priorities

First Offense, No Priors

Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won't Do) -

Wilson Pickett

A Bronx Tale - Music From The Motion Picture

Hey Ya -

Booker T.

Potato Hole

Get Ready -

The Temptations

The Temptations: The Ultimate Collection

Glad Tidings -

Van Morrison

Moondance

Here Comes Your Man -

Pixies

Doolittle

Feeling Good -

Nina Simone

Feeling Good Hit Pack

Love And Happiness -

Al Green

Greatest Hits

Share Your Love With Me -

Aretha Franklin

The Very Best

New York -

Cat Power

Jukebox

Friday I'm In Love -

The Cure

Galore (The Singles 1987-1997)

Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) (Remastered) [The Frank Sinatra Collection] -

Frank Sinatra

Nothing But The Best [The Frank Sinatra Collection]

What Is Life (2001 Digital Remaster) -

George Harrison

All Things Must Pass

Hardest Geometry Problem In The World -

Mark Mothersbaugh

Rushmore

You Shook Me All Night Long -

The Lost Fingers

Lost In The 80's

A Bushel And A Peck -

The Andrews Sisters

Canciones Con Historia: The Andrews Sisters

Use Me (Single Version) -

Bill Withers

The Best Of Bill Withers: Lean On Me

Brick House -

Commodores

Commodores

It's All Right -

The Impressions

20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of Curtis Mayfield And The Impressions

Move on Up (ReMastered) -

Curtis Mayfield

Future Shock

Home -

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) -

Arcade Fire

Funeral

Vehicle -

Ides Of March

Ideology: Version 11.0

All I Want Is You -

Barry Louis Polisar

Juno - Music From The Motion Picture

(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher -

Jackie Wilson

The Ultimate Jackie Wilson

Knock On Wood (Single/LP Version) -

Eddie Floyd

Knock On Wood

Groove Me -

King Floyd

Swingers

Moi je joue -

Brigitte Bardot

The Best of Bardot

I've Just Seen a Face -

The Beatles

Help!

Beyond The Sea -

Bobby Darin

GoodFellas: Music From The Motion Picture

Across 110th Street -

Bobby Womack & Peace

Across 110th Street

Express Yourself (Mocean Worker Remix) -

Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

Express Yourself

Cigarettes and Coffee -

Otis Redding

The Soul Album

Polly Wolly Doodle (Album Version) -

Leon Redbone

On The Track

That Was Your Mother -

Paul Simon

Graceland

Sweet Jane -

The Velvet Underground

The Best Of The Velvet Underground

That's Where It's At -

Sam Cooke

30 Greatest Hits - Sam Cooke Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 (Remastered)

I Want to Take You Higher -

Sly & The Family Stone

The Essential Sly & the Family Stone

Uptight (Everything's Alright) -

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder: The Definitive Collection

Return To Me - Bob Dylan

The Sopranos - Music From The HBO Original Series - Peppers & Eggs (Disc 2)

Downtown Train -

Tom Waits

Rain Dogs

Satellite -

Colin James

Colin James And The Little Big Band

Modern Love (Single Version) (2002 Digital Remaster) -

David Bowie

The Best Of 1980/1987

In Dreams -

Roy Orbison

Playlist: The Very Best Of Roy Orbison

Only The Good Die Young -

Billy Joel

Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II

Inside Of Me -

Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul

The Sopranos

Groove is in the heart -

Deelite

World Clique

I Say A Little Prayer -

Aretha Franklin

The Very Best

The Longest Time -

Billy Joel

Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II

Bruises -

Chairlift

Does You Inspire You

Just Like Heaven -

The Cure

Galore (The Singles 1987-1997)

Secret Heart -

Feist

Let It Die

Temptation -

Diana Krall

Temptation

You Can't Hurry Love -

The Supremes

Diana Ross & The Supremes: Anthology

Sunshine Superman -

Donovan

The Essential Donovan

American Boy (feat. Kanye West) -

Estelle

Shine

Love Is All Around -

The Guess Who

This Time Long Ago

Light My Fire -

Jackie Wilson

The Ultimate Jackie Wilson

Instant Karma -

John Lennon

Lennon Legend: The Very Best Of John Lennon

Watching The Wheels -

John Lennon

Lennon Legend: The Very Best Of John Lennon

Read My Mind -

The Killers

Sam's Town

Try a Little Tenderness -

Otis Redding

The Very Best of Otis Redding

By Your Side -

Sade

Lovers Rock

Everyday People -

Sly & The Family Stone

The Essential Sly & the Family Stone

I'm a Man -

The Spencer Davis Group

The Best of Spencer Davis Group

Lebanese Blonde -

Thievery Corporation

The Mirror Conspiracy

I'm Sticking With You -

The Velvet Underground

The Very Best Of The Velvet Underground

Sincerely -

The Moonglows

GoodFellas: Music From The Motion Picture

A Kiss To Build A Dream On -

Louis Armstrong

Sleepless In Seattle

A Wink And A Smile -

Harry Connick, Jr.

Sleepless In Seattle

A Whiter Shade Of Pale -

Procol Harum

The Big Chill

Here Comes My Baby -

Cat Stevens

Rushmore

I Wish -

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder: The Definitive Collection

I Will -

The Beatles

The White Album

Everybody Is A Star (Single Version) -

Sly & The Family Stone

Greatest Hits

Margaret Yang's Theme -

Mark Mothersbaugh

Rushmore

Rue St. Vincent -

Yves Montand

Rushmore

Who Knows -

Marion Black

Marion Black: Who Knows EP

Eating music

Little Boxes -

Randy Newman

Weeds - Little Boxes Dimebag #1

A Whiter Shade Of Pale -

Procol Harum

The Big Chill

Each Coming Night -

Iron & Wine

Our Endless Numbered Days

The Book Of Love -

The Magnetic Fields

69 Love Songs Volume 1

I'll Be Your Mirror -

The Velvet Underground

The Best Of The Velvet Underground

Into the Mystic -

Van Morrison

Moondance

In A Little While -

U2

All That You Can't Leave Behind

Long Time Running -

The Tragically Hip

Road Apples

All I Do Is Dream of You -

Leon Redbone

Any Time

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) -

Marvin Gaye

The Very Best Of Marvin Gaye

The Lad With The Silver Button -

Mark Mothersbaugh

Rushmore

To Each His Own Symphony -

Django Reinhardt

The Best of Django Reinhardt

So...there it is. Not the perfect list, but we enjoyed it. Hopefully it turns out to be helpful for someone else and saves another couple out there a few hours of sleep.