Hair!

The family and I went to see this over the weekend and we had so much fun. Particularly thrilling was seeing Sasha Allen, the daughter of M.'s 4th grade teacher, in a lead role and opening the play with the classic "Age of Aquarius." The show, which I had never seen performed on stage before, is incredibly different than the movie, with different plot turns and a less structured feel. The music is glorious and the performances, especially by the two lead men, were memorable. And, M. and I went onstage for the dance party at the end! There are glimpses of us here and there (clink this link), but especially at minutes 2:50-2:55!

Isabella

Have I mentioned my cat, Isabella? From the streets, as an abandoned kitten, she insisted her way into our life nearly 19 years ago. She is ornery and attractive and smart. She only sits on your lap or allows to be pet if she desires the interaction. If you try even a smidgen too hard, she nips you or scratches.

She has become more affectionate as she’s aged, but totally on her terms. She sleeps at the foot of my bed every evening. She curls up in my lap every morning when I read the paper. She sits close to me throughout the day when I work. If I reach out to stroke her, she vocalizes a half-purr, half-meow.

I believe she has lived this long in good health because she is persnickety and self-aware and vocal.

I am inordinately amused by her.

Movies: District 9

Well, here’s a case for the 10 best picture nominations. I would NEVER have seen District 9 if it had not been in the expanded category, and that would have been my loss. Sci-fi, adventure, suspense, morality tale and a buddy movie all wrapped into one, it was riveting and meaningful. We always wonder what the aliens would do to us – what would we do to them? This movie makes clear we don’t have a great track record with each other, so you connect the dots. Really worth the space on the Netflix queue.

Of Ratatouille and Interventions

My cooking spark has been re-ignited, especially since M. asked for ratatouille last night. I adore ratatouille. My family likes it a lot, too, but this fall they did a ratatouille intervention and pointed out I made it way too frequently and asked me to stop the madness. I balked, I sniffled, I acquiesced.

I was so happy to accommodate the recent request (though it did come with the caveat: "Mom, this does not mean you can make it every single week from now on in!").

Here's how I made ratatouille

I chop one medium eggplant into smallish cubes. I sautee the eggplant until very golden and soft. I'm pretty liberal with the olive oil since eggplant drinks the freakin' olive oil up. When it's nice and soft and yummy looking, I toss it in to my big red enamel pot and add 3 cans of diced tomatoes, a healthy pinch of marjoram (or oregano), a healthy few turns on the pepper mill and a healthy few shakes of the salt shaker and a hearty pinch (probably closer to 1/2 teaspoon) of red pepper flakes for heat. Don't like heat? Skip it.

Then I keep the eggplant/tomato thing on simmer, while I proceed to sautee in separate batches -- chopped up green pepper (I use one big one), 2 zuchinni chopped into half-penny shapes. These are the golden 4 must-haves: eggplant, canned tomatoes, green pepper and zuchinni.

M. once made ratatouille and added carrots. I like the crunch a lot so now I almost always saute a batch of 2 chopped up carrots. If I have mushrooms or leftover onions (that pesky 1/2 onion still in the fridge, or the rest of the red onion from the fajitas...), I sautee those, too, but they're not essential. Think of the ratatouille graciously accommodating the leftovers not the leftovers doing any favors for the ratatouille.

Beyond the eggplant, I don't over-oil or overcook the other veggies -- just enough olive oil to keep things from sticking and a quick softening to give them a head start and bring out a little caramelized goodness to some of their surface. And don't even sweat softening or caramelizing the carrots. I just swirl them around the sautee pan for a minute or two to give equal treatment among my veggies.

After each veggie gets its just turn in the sautee pan, pop them into the big pot. Let the entire pot simmer for a bit more -- I dunno, maybe 15 minutes or so. We always serve the first round of ratatouille with couscous. Leftovers can be served hot on pasta or in an omelet or even just a big bowl of them with lots of grated parmesan cheese. Tabasco sauce is nice, too, if you want it very spicy. You could eat it cold also. It's that good.

Look at the pretty picture of the real-life ratatouille I made yesterday night. I so love building the ratatouille. It's so colorful and it smells good and a big pot of vegetables feels yummy and virtuous at the same pleasant time. No wonder I have a problem.

And the nominations are...

Oscars 2010 is here! After careful analysis of the top categories (best picture--10 this year!, director, all 4 acting categories, and 2 screenplay categories), I have 11 movies to see if I am to go into the awards show fully prepared. I won't be; I never am, but I have fun trying. Here is the ideal goal in my rough order of priority:

1. Inglourious Basterds, which takes care of 4 noms in my above categories
2. The Blind Side, 2 noms
3. Crazy Heart, 2 noms
4. The Last Station, 2 noms
5. The Messenger, 2 noms
6. A Serious Man, 2 noms
7. District 9, 2 noms
8. A Single Man, 1 nom
9. Up, 1 nom
10. Nine, 1 nom
11. In the Loop, 1 nom

All the other movies with top category noms, I've seen. Here they are in no order of preference:
-Avatar
-An Education
-The Hurt Locker
-Precious
-Up in the Air
-Invictus
-Julie & Julia
-The Lovely Bones

Get the popcorn popping!

Blueberry and Multigrain Coffee Cake

This is a great brunch cake because you can make the cake and topping the night before—then put it all together and bake the next morning. But you don't have to if you don't want to -- doesn't affect outcome. It's adapted from a Country Home recipe. F. wants me to double the topping, which I might try, but that suggestions remains untested!



2 cups all-purpose flour, divided into 1 cup and 1/2 cup
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2–1 tsp. ground nutmeg or cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 8-oz. carton dairy sour cream (not reduced-fat)
1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
1 3/4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup coarsely chopped slivered almonds
3 Tbsp. butter

1. Grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan; set aside. In a medium bowl combine 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt; set aside.

2. In a large bowl beat 3/4 cup butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar; beat well. Add eggs and sour cream; beat until combined. Add flour mixture; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in lemon peel and 1 cup of the blueberries. Batter will be thick. Spread batter into prepared pan. (At this point, you can cover and refrigerate overnight.) For topping, stir together remaining 1/2 cup all purpose flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. Cut in 3 tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (At this point, you can place in a covered container and chill overnight).

3. If you refrigerated ahead of time, about 15 minutes before baking, remove cake and topping from refrigerator. Continue on: Sprinkle cake with remaining blueberries. Sprinkle with topping. Bake, uncovered, in a 350° oven for 65-80 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (I found with frozen blueberries, that you need more time, so check every 5 or 10 minutes from an hour onward). Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove sides of pan. Cool for 30 minutes more. Serve warm. Makes 12 servings.

A Trio of Movies

Been on a bit of a movie binge. Let's start with Avatar, shall we? I've heard the apt Dances With Wolves/Pocahontas comparisons, but I also saw me some Star Wars and Matrix, too. Delightful to look at and while I was there I had a very good time. Away from the dazzling visuals, I felt a little less euphoric about the trite story-telling and cliches and a little lightheaded from the 3-D after-effects. All in all, I liked Avatar a lot, but I didn't love it.


I loved the book, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, which was mostly a story about a family coping with tragedy and enormous, shocking grief. The movie, not so much -- they flattened the delicacy of what I loved most about the book and turned it into simply a murder plot -- will the bad guy get his comeuppance? It has some nice performances and some visually arresting work, but all in all, The Lovely Bones was a disappointment.


Is there a more beautiful woman alive right now than Penelope Cruz? I don't think so, and she's a damn fine actress, too. I'm not such an afficianado of Pedro Almodovar and my understanding is there are a lot of references in Broken Embraces to some of his earlier work. Those references were lost on me (I mean I've seen some of his work, but not a lot and not enough to access easily). Beautiful to look at and absorbing, this movie, nevertheless, didn't rock my world. I felt like a lot of key plot points were simply narrated instead of shown. Another movie I liked, but didn't love.