magic

Thanks to "Browngirl" for drawing this picture for Allison, Jodi and me!



Arm somewhat worse today, hence this short Blather.

Saw Dirty Harry last night. Fun to see Clint Eastwood so young. My friend Iain pointed out that the bad guy in the movie also plays the tailor in Deep Space Nine (!).



Iain and Jeff playing Magic last night (Iain's first time)

Feb/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

food movies

Celery root: an astoundingly ugly vegetable.



My all-time favourite movie food scene is the climactic dinner in Babette's Feast, as well as the preparation scenes. I've always loved movies that emphasize the sensuality of food, not so much sexual (though Urban Tapestry songs My Jalapeno Man and Sex and Chocolate do explore that side of it :-)) as a feast of the senses.

Some of my other favourite food movie scenes:

- food prep scenes in Tortilla Soup

- fridge scene in 9 1/2 Weeks

- first pear scene in City of Angels

- making omelets at the end of Big Night

Darnitall, I know there are other specific scenes. I must watch Tampopo, Chocolat and Like Water For Chocolate again. How about the rest of you...what are YOUR particular favourite food scenes in movies?

But the whole sensuality thing is one reason I'm enjoying getting a bit back into cooking again. For a very long while, I think I was cooking for pure functionality's sake (must eat else hungry), paying little attention to the process itself. I realize that every meal can't be a feast of the senses, but neither does it have to always be the "open a can or box" routine.

I still order heavier and canned goods from Grocery Gateway, but I'm getting a real pleasure out of shopping for fresh produce myself. Yesterday I walked to St. Lawrence Market for the ingredients to make Caribbean Vegetable Stew, a recipe I've never tried from my new Moosewood cookbook. St. Lawrence Market is a feast of the senses itself, with its rows of merchant stalls full of fresh cheeses, meats, vegetables, and baked goods (including the best bagels in Toronto, from the St. Urbain bakery). All within walking distance of the Metro Convention Centre, by the way, for those attending Torcon at the end of summer.

Anyway, I bought fresh okra, ginger, cilantro, sweet potatoes, cabbage, limes, a chile pepper, a loaf of crusty Italian bread. I also picked out a papaya because I've never had one except in restaurants, when it was already cut up; I took it home, cut it open and ate it like custard, with a spoon. Are the black seeds inside edible, does anyone know? Bought a Forelle pear because I've never tried that variety and because it looked so small and interesting, with its shading of red on one side. And bought a celery root, because it was the ugliest vegetable I've ever seen; I want to find out what it tastes like, after I figure out how to cook it.

The Caribbean Vegetable Stew turned out much better than I expected, I'm happy to report. As I was chopping stuff up and throwing it into the pot, I started wondering at the odd combination of vegetables and flavours. Both Jeff and I really liked the results, however, and I'll definitely make this again.

Thanks to my sister and her family for buying me Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home: Fast and Easy Recipes Any Day, by the way. So far, every single recipe I've tried from this book has turned out wonderfully, and all the recipes are indeed "fast and easy".

RENTED MOVIE MICRO-REVIEW:

Smoke Signals
Wasn't sure if I was going to like this or not because none of the characters appealed to me, and I thought it was going to turn into yet another "Indians good, white man bad" plot. It didn't, and by the end of the movie, I loved all the characters and was bawling my head off. (Thanks, Rand)




Caribbean vegetable stew.

Mar/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

shortbread

Shortbread I made yesterday.



In a fit of sudden domesticity yesterday evening, I was overcome by a need to bake cookies. I didn't particularly WANT any cookies, just to bake them. I asked Jeff if he would eat some cookies if I made them. Trying to conceal the shock on his face, he wisely said yes.

I decided on shortbread, the kind baked flat in a pan and then cut up into squares. The recipe contained so much butter and sugar that when the cookies came out of the oven I decided that holding back further would be an act of culinary hypocrisy, so drizzled on some melted semi-sweet Sharffen-Berger chocolate (from Joey Shoji a while back) for extra decadence. And maybe "drizzle" is too delicate a term for my enthusiasm with the Sharffen-Berger (see photo above). I did resist using a ladle in the end.

Yum. Jeff and I both had one square each, and I'm sending the rest with Jeff to his office today.

Sent out four article queries yesterday, yay! I was starting to go a bit mad, not having anything new out circulating. I figure that even if my tendinitis is still lingering by the time any of these articles are accepted/due, I should be able to work on them, though maybe not as quickly as normal.

I think I overdid it a bit yesterday, however, because today my right elbow feels as if a nasty gnome is hitting it with a sharp pick. I'll probably use lots of ice today. Why do I feel like I'm prepping some kind of expensive roast?

Writing is still slow, which is why I'm focussing on outlining and queries rather than working on novels; yesterday I found it way too frustrating to only be able to painstakingly write/edit a few paragraphs at a time before I had to rest my arms. I'll try again today.

My tenditinis has improved enough that I can HOLD A BOOK. I can't tell you how happy this makes me. So I'm returning to my reread of The Two Towers (though my reports might be delayed until I can type easily again) and have also gotten thoroughly hooked on the Lemony Snicket books, "A Series of Unfortunate Events" for young people. Wonderful packaging and font, love the writing.

Lemony Snicket is actually a fellow named Daniel Handler, and apparently the books are being made into a movie. Not surprising, what with the success of Harry Potter. I'm not sure which series I like better, really. The Lemony Snicket books have more style, but so far (I'm on Book #3) I like the Harry Potter story better, though Violet Baudelaire from the Lemony Snicket books is rapidly on her way to becoming one of my favourite female characters in a kid's book.

Today's Poll: COOKIES

Are there any cookies you DON'T like? I'm not keen on Dad's Oatmeal or any other type of hard, crunchy cookies. My favourites: white chocolate macadamia nut, shortbread, ginger, chewy chocolate chip.

Mar/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

patience

One thing that this bout with tendinitis is teaching me is better time management. Though my arms are gradually getting better, it's going slowly. At least my arms aren't in constant pain anymore, which is a Good Thing. I can generally type for about ten minutes or so before my arms start going into rice pudding mode. Then I generally type for another five minutes until my little Konfabulator guy nags me to take a break.

Because I have such limited time on the keyboard, I've had to heavily cut down on a lot of my favourite keyboard activities, like visiting chats, journals, message boards, personal e-mail. Don't think I'll be able to play any guitar at Ad Astra or FKO, but should be okay with flute as long as I don't push it. Not sure about my percussion-bangystuff (tambourine, etc.). Rand and Adam are borrowing all my percussion for recording on their new CD project, but Rand promises to bring it to Ad Astra in time for our concert. Hopefully I'll actually be able to play it by then.

Speaking of music, I recently listened to the newly-mastered Urban Tapestry CD from Chris Conway. Sounds great! Allison, Jodi & I are pretty excited about this new CD project. I've started working on the liner notes, which we intend to include all the lyrics to the songs on our CD.

To those of you who went to Consonance:

So how was it? Any reports online?

Recently viewed movies:

Waiting For Guffman
Directed by Christopher Guest, who also did Best in Show (and played Nigel in Spinal Tap. This movie was shot in about a month, with no script. Pretty amusing, though I liked Best In Show more. Amazing to contrast Christopher Guest's character in this movie to the one he played in Spinal Tap, and then again to Best in Show. Don't think I'd recognize the fact that these characters were all played by the same guy unless I was specifically looking for him.

Philadelphia Story
Enjoyable movie. Love Katherine Hepburn. Nice twist at the end, not what I expected.

Mar/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

movies

Jeff gets tickle-attacked by Annie & Sara.



As I've mentioned before, I've been watching more movies lately. I watch most of them on evenings when Jeff is out gaming. Keeps me off the computer and is an engrossing activity where I don't have to use my arms (except for fast-forwarding over really dull or really scary bits).

Anyway, here are some micro-reviews of the movies I've rented and watched in the past eight days:

Josie and the Pussycats
Ultra-fluffy with fun bits scattered throughout. i rented it because I used to watch the Saturday morning cartoon and also have a weakness for movies about girl bands. :-) Not worth seeing twice, sadly.

Bridges over Madison County
I put off seeing this so long because it was over-hyped and has become a chick movie cliche. I am ashamed to admit that I adored this movie.

Thirteenth Floor
Watched the first bit but lost interest fairly early on because it began to remind me of a bad Star Trek holodeck episode.

Doctor Zhivago
Not at all what I expected. For some reason, I expected something completely different...I got it mixed up with a story about Shangri-La (?). Anyway, loved this movie. Heartbreakingly romantic.

K2: The Ultimate High
Almost as entertaining as a mediocre made-for-TV movie.

The Godfather
Enjoyed this much more than I expected, enough to want to rent Godfather II. Not nearly as violent as I expected, though the horse head scene was pretty gross. Some really great characters, especially Al Pacino's.

The Godfather II
Didn't enjoy this quite as much as the first one, probably because Michael Corleone's character was already too hardened and cynical for any real change. Probably won't rent the third one.

A Chorus Line
Disappointing. I think it would work better as a Broadway show.

Cast Away
Enjoyed this, especially from a "what would I do in this situation" point of view.

Best In Show
Loved this! The premise sounds pretty dull (dog show) but the characters were wonderful. Apparently most of the script was improvised.

Tortilla Soup
Loved this one, too, and would rate this as one of my favourite food movies. Peter Cook points out that this movie is actually a remake of Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman". Great food prep scenes! Had a terrible craving for Mexican food during and after this movie. Still do.

Sabrina
This is SO my kind of movie. :-) Audrey Hepburn was wonderful. Had to resist the urge to rush out and buy a pair of capri pants.

The Great Escape
Great movie, though the theme music got on my nerves after a while. This was the first time I'd ever seen Steve McQueen in anything. Quite liked Charles Bronson in this.

Mar/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ