Food, Movies, Geeks and More!

A Nagging Observation

2012-02-12T01:13:00.000-08:00

Do you show people you care with food? I certainly do. We have friends over and I want to cook them dinner. Friend's having a hard day, I want to bring them cookies. But...I have this issue. Maybe issue is too strong a word, I am not bothered by it, merely curious. I love taking care of people (not the issue.) I love feeling like I am making someone else feel better. If you are my friend, and you are hurting, I just want to give you a big hug. I love knowing that people find comfort in the food I give them.

Here is the "issue": I love my female friends, I really do, but show me a male friend who is hurting and I am overcome with a wanting to make it all better. I'm like a mother hen. I want to hug them, give them cookies, anything to help. I don't know if this is because I am a heterosexual female, or something else. Is it some sort of biological need that I have? No idea. Is it an unconscious desire for affirmation that I am a good person? No idea, but if this was so, why would I not feel the same way when my female friends need comfort?

Or, is this a result of years of living and socializing with testosterone? I have two younger brothers, most of my friends are male (this is not new, in elementary school I had almost all male friends,) I spent over two years almost every day at a game store where most of the patrons were male, most of my roommates have been male. The first roommates I had (including my husband) I was fiercely protective of, they were my boys and it was my job to take care of them.

I know plenty of women, but more of them are acquaintances than friends. And I would do everything in my power to help them, or comfort them, but the interaction for me is different.

I am very interested to hear any and all thoughts on this...issue...observation...whatever it is.

Red Because of Lots of Food Coloring Cake

2012-02-06T18:52:00.001-08:00

It's almost Valentine's Day, and you know what that means-Red Velvet EVERYTHING! Red velvet cakes, red velvet cupcakes, red velvet pancakes...you see my point. I have never been a fan of red velvet. Semi-chocolate cake? Boring. I don't much care for regular chocolate most of the time, because it is always so one note: chocolate cake with fudge frosting. There's no variation, no contrasting flavors.

Anywho, I have tried red velvet cake several times and never seen what all the fuss is about. When I put the word out to the internets in the form of Facebook, I got several responses. Some love red velvet, some, like me, don't understand what is so great about it. One friend gave me her recipe for real Appalachian red velvet cake. I think I should give it a go and see if I really don't like it, or if I have just had inferior red velvet cakes in the past. When I do, I will post the recipe and photos here and give my verdict on the subject.

Til we meet again!

On Why Plays are Awesome

2012-02-04T01:31:00.000-08:00

Friday night I got to meet Jim Beaver for a second time. For those of you not aware of this wonderful actor, Jim is known most for his role as Bobby Singer on the CW's Supernatural, and Whitney Ellsworth on HBO's Deadwood. The best part of these meetings (besides meeting Jim, obviously) was the fact that I did not have to pay premium prices to get into a convention. No, instead I went to plays.

A few weeks ago Jim mentioned on his Twitter that he was directing a play reading. It sounded interesting and my friend asked if we wanted to go. I figured, why not? The reading was free, as it was at the stage of not really being a play yet, so that helped. The ability to interact with Jim in a normal setting was a big plus to me, as fandoms tend to drive me crazy.

The reading was for a two act play called A Season for Vivaldi. The audience had the job of writing notes about the play so that the playwright could have a chance to see how we responded to it and take in any criticism we had. The writing and acting at this reading was superb! The play had plenty of wit, humor, and real emotion. Sadly, the playwright recently died (he was 83,) so now there is no word on whether or not this play will ever get made.

After the reading, my husband, my friend, and I waited around and had a chance to talk to Jim about the performances and other such things. Let me tell you, this man is quite the gentleman! He was so nice to us and let me take a photo with him (instead of paying stupid convention prices for a photo op!)

I had so much fun at this event that I could not wait to go to more plays. Then, shortly after the reading, Jim mentioned he would be doing a short run in Madame Butterfly. As soon as I read this I asked my friend if we were going to go, and she immediately responded that we were.

Friday the three of us set off to Glendale to see Madame Butterfly. None of us had ever seen the play or the opera before so we didn't really know what to expect. The theater was very small, maybe forty seats? And the "stage" was pretty much just the floor 2 1/2 feet in front of us in the front row. I was terribly excited by this, as I love to be up close at any show.

Some information on Madame Butterfly: The opera with which we are most familiar (at least by name) is based off a one act play, of which we were to see tonight. The basics of the plot are: A Japanese woman is waiting patiently for the American Naval Lieutenant whom she wed some months before. He had told her that he would return when the robins begin nesting again. We find out that she has had a child with this man and when he does return we discover he has a new, American wife.

All of the actors did a wonderful job. The play was both funny and sad. I, for one, was riveted. After the show we all had a chance to mingle with the actors, and the playhouse provided some snacks in the chip and dip, crackers and cheese range. It is so nice to be reminded that actors are regular people, just like us. We stood and talked with Jim for a while (I think we were among the only people there who had come specifically to see him,) told him how much we enjoyed the performance. Before we left I asked for a second photo, the one from the reading was very dark. Never once did he seem to busy or important not to talk and interact with us.

All in all, these past two play goings made me realize how much I love plays. I used to go fairly often as a child and always had a good time. I want to thank Jim for giving me a reason to go see plays again!

Michael Symon's Collard Greens and White Bean Soup (Sort of)

2012-01-29T20:34:00.001-08:00

Yes, I know in my last post I said I was hoping to blog more. I'm a bad blogger, sorry :( It has been more than five months since I last wrote a post. Before I get to the recipe I guess so updates are in order.

First, Santa Cruz is no longer my destination for completing my degree. I know, it sounded so great. Eventually I realized I really did not want to move 600 miles away from my friends and family. I have since applied to Cal State Northridge and expect to start in the fall.

Second, I still need to move. Some of this issues that I did not go into last time are no longer a problem, but living here is still stressful and aggravating. We are hoping to move with some friends who are in a similar situation and also need to move.

Third, I have updated my deviantART page and am now a semi-active member of that community again. I would hope that you all would take a look at my art. Some is good, some is eh, and some I don't know what I was thinking ;)

Now for the recipe. Have any of you been watching ABC's The Chew? It is the only daytime talkshow that I watch and I love it so much! For those of you who have yet to see it, the show has five hosts: Iron Chefs Michael Symon and Mario Batali, Clinton Kelly from TLC's What Not to Wear, Top Chef fan favorite Carla Hall, and Daphne Oz, daughter of Dr. Oz. Together they talk about what is going on in the food world, offer up so fashion and healthy living tips, and cooks amazing food! Check it out Monday through Friday at 12pm Pacific time.

The most recent recipe that I made from The Chew is Michael Symon's Collard Greens and White Bean Soup. Now, Brandon doesn't like collard greens so instead I used wild arugula. Then I decided it could use a few more vegetables so I added heirloom carrots and white potatoes. The original recipe calls for 12 cups of chicken stock. Originally the soup was suposed to be simmering for an hour to cook the dry beans. I used only canned beans and the potaotes didn't take that long so I only used 10 cups of stock. I also love sage so I threw some of that in the simmering soup as well. Oh, and I added cayenne pepper and chili powder. I think it is offically MY soup recipe and not HIS soup recipe at this point. The recipe that follows is my recipe, please check out thechew.com for Michael Symon's recipe.

Sausage and Arugula Soup

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Olive oil

1 1/2 yellow onions, diced finely

3/4 pound sausage (any kind, but I used Argentinian) casings removed and crumbled

1 teaspoon Red Pepper flakes

3 large heirloom carrots (I used 1 yellow, 1 purple, and 1 light orange)

4 large white potaotes

10 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 small bunch of sage

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon each, chili powder and cayenne pepper

2 cans cannellini beans

8 cups wild arugula

In a medium stock pot, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook until soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the sausage and red pepper flakes and cook until the sausage is no longer pink.

While the sausage is cooking, chop the carrots and potatoes. Small pieces will cook more quickly and be easier to eat.

Add the vegetables, spices, sage and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.

Simmer until the potaotes are tender, about forty minutes.

Add the beans and simmer another twenty minutes.

Add the arugula and simmer for ten more minutes.

Test your seasoning and adjust with salt or pepper.

Serve with freshly grated parmasan cheese and some qualty french bread.

Here is a photo of the finished product.

This soup does take quite a bit of time to make, so it is not best for a busy night, but it does make a whole lot of soup, so feel free to make it on a weekend and freeze most of it for a later date!

A Long Absence

2011-08-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

I have not made a new blog post since December! I have had so much to blog about and for no good reason i have neglected to share what has been going on. In January Brandon and I visited his parents in Washington, they live in Grand Coulee. While there I made those delicious lemon cookies and the fruit gelees. Both were received very well. I took so many photos while we were there and hopefully I will share some in the near future (I am apparently a photo hoarder!)

I have failed to find a steady job since Dairy Queen closed on me ( I was not too sad to see that store close forever!) I am doing seasonal work at See's which is a lot of fun. No work til November though. School is going...ok. I am so tired of going to community college!

We have been spending a lot of time with another married couple we have known for...as a couple...maybe eight years? Recently Brandon has started introducing them to horror movies and we have been watching influential horror movies in chronological order. Right now we are in the 70's. It has been fun as I have not seen most of the movies we watch and I am excited to rewatch those that I love.

Family life has been very stressful. Without gong in to details things in the Cohen house have been rough and I really do not deal with stress well at all. I can't wait to move, I miss have a whole apartment that is mine. The plan is still to move to Santa Cruz next summer so I will have to stick it out until then.

Several months ago our friend introduced us to Millenium Pro Wresting, a local promotion that puts on a GREAT live show. It has been a blast getting to know the wresters and the people who run the company. I have taken over 800 photos at their last four shows! Please check out their website and see what they are all about.

Well, I have to go to the store to buy more peaches so I can make peach/blueberry crisp again. Until later, have a great day!

Holidays 2010

2010-12-28T11:50:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over for another year. I have been so busy and unmotivated that I have not been posting anything. I did make some great goodies this year that everyone loved. I am glad that I decided to go the food gift route this year because we had no money and no time for store-bought gifts.

This year I made Fruit Gelées from Not So Humble Pie. These were my great triumph this year as I had never made anything like it before. They came out perfect! I want to make them again and again because it was so easy and so awesome. I did take some photos with my phone so they are only ok.

By the way, do not do what I did and scatter extra sugar on the bottom of the container. Even though I *know* sugar sucks up moisture (after watching years of Good Eats how could I not know!) I added more to the bottom. Two days later when I was ready to make up my gifts there was a layer of goo at the bottom because the sugar and moisture in the air made a thick syrup. I salvaged as much as I could, not wanting to give my friends sticky candy, and only threw out about a third of what I made.

I am very excited to try making these again. I need to find a good place to buy pectin at a reasonable price because I don't think more than $5 a box is reasonable when I need two for the recipe.

My gifts this year had a yellow theme apparently. Also included in my gift boxes this year were these Lemon Burst Cookies. These cookies were delicious and delightfully fragrant. I do not own any fruit extracts so I made up the difference with extra zest and extra juice. The photo for these came out better than the candy photo.

Unfortunately I over baked one batch of these cookies. Fortunately it didn't make much of a difference in taste, they were just a bit darker. These were a big hit and I recommend anyone who enjoys lemon to make them. Also it is a good idea to chill the dough before rolling in the powdered sugar, it will be less sticky.

You have to have fudge for Christmas. I think it is a rule somewhere. I tried two fudge recipes. One failed and one surpassed my expectations. The first recipe I tried was Chocolate Philadelphia Fudge which sounded great. Why not replace the marshmallow creme with cream cheese, sounds delicious, right?

This did not come out right at all. If you click on the link and check out their photos, it looks like real fudge. Here is a photo of how mine looked.

It came out really light colored and did not set up at all. Furthermore it didn't taste very good which is odd because it is basically chocolate cream cheese frosting. I don't know what I did wrong but even freezing this fudge didn't help. I had to throw it out. If anyone decided to make this, please let me know the result.

My second fudge recipe came on the back of a baking bar that I bought to make the Philly fudge with. I do not remember the company but I think it was Tollhouse or Nestle. Here is the recipe for the fudge, it is very simple.

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
8 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped*
1 teaspoon vanilla.

Combine condensed milk and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave on high for one minute**
Stir and microwave 15 seconds more if needed.
Stir in vanilla a pour into an 8X8 pan lined with foil***
Refrigerate at least 2 hours until firm.

*I used chocolate chips because that is what I had on hand
**Don't worry the chocolate won't burn
***The recipe calls for a loaf pan but I felt that would make really thick fudge so I used a larger pan

Sadly, I have no photos of the yummy fudge but it did come out excellent and is my new favorite recipe. I used it to make, not only regular fudge, but chocolate mint fudge as well by using the dark and mint chips from Nestle. They were very well received.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and great food!

Sam

Turkey Day

2010-11-22T20:39:00.000-08:00

I hate when people call Thanksgiving "Turkey Day". It isn't all about the turkey, it is about family. I also have this thing where I can't stand it when people give things new names (like turkey day.) Why can't we just call it what it is? Anyway, I already used "Thanksgiving" as a post title so I went with the popular term for Thanksgiving. Random rant over and done with!

Thanksgiving is only THREE days away! I am looking forward to the meal and the baking and cooking and hopefully this holiday will help it feel like the Christmas season in our house. We don't have any Scrooges in my family but no one seems to care and I can't care enough for the whole house! Here's hoping.

New Name?

2010-11-16T20:16:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking of renaming by blog. When I started I couldn't think of a name and came up with the one I have now. I don't really like it so I thought I might change it. While at dinner tonight we were both full but still wanted dessert. Brandon said, "There is always room for dessert." I thought that would be a great name for this blog since when I blog about food it is mostly dessert. Does anyone have any thoughts on this new name? Any other ideas? Please help, my current name is lame!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-13T17:57:00.001-08:00

I freaked out a little bit yesterday when I realized Thanksgiving was a mere two weeks away! How did this happen? Somehow it is almost Christmas! I am really looking forward to the holidays this year because last year my dad was sick and in the hospital and our holidays kind of sucked. I told my mom we should go all out this year (at least with the decorations around the house) and she agreed! I am anticipating some fun days of decorating ahead.

For Thanksgiving this year we are most likely celebrating with some of my parents' friends and some of their family. This means that we will be making more food and my mom and I are going to be perfectionists in the kitchen. We are also having some non-traditional foods this year.

We are making a goose instead of a turkey and I am really excited to try goose as I have never had it before. Along with that we may be making some sort of fish as a second main course. We plan to roast vegetables and make traditional stuffing. Since the Cinnamon Pear Bruschetta was such a hit I am making that again for dinner. I knew when I made the Brownie Cheesecake that I wanted to make a pumpkin version for Thanksgiving and I found the exact recipe that I needed. Now that we are having dinner with others I have to get candy melts and decorate the cheesecake, but that is OK by me! For a second dessert I want to make these Apple Tarts. They are from Alton Brown so you know they will be good and easy to make.

I think we are going to end up with way too much food but I also think it is going to be a lot of fun. I only know these friends of my parents' in passing but they sound like good people. You can bet that I am going to be taking photos galore so there will be plenty to see in a few weeks.

On a slightly related note: this upcoming week KOST 103.5 should start their 'Month Long of Christmas Song'. I am of course more than ready to start listening to more Christmas music. Brandon is less than enthused. He knows that whenever we are in the car, whether in our car or in my mom's car, that station will be on and we will be singing along with Bing and Nat and everyone else. I <3 Christmas!

Week of New Things

2010-11-11T21:41:00.001-08:00

This past week my parents went on a cruise to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. This left me and the boys (my husband and my brother) alone and me responsible for dinners. Feeling a little ambitious, I chose a menu comprised entirely of dishes I had never made before (except for pizza but that ended up not working so we had pasta.)

Some of these dishes came out better than others. Here are the dishes and my thoughts on each:

Stuffed Potato Pancakes-Great idea in theory but I must have done something wrong because they weren't that great. Aside from the fact that shredded potato oxidizes really quickly and turns kinda pink and then black after a while, this dish didn't really have any flavor. Also, the potato cakes soaked up all the oil used to fry them so they turned grey. I plan to try this again in the future, maybe asking some questions of the person who posted this dish first. No photos because they were too ugly.

Chocolate Chip Dream Bars-These were amazing! I accidentally over-baked them a little and they were still delicious. These have great flavor because, unlike a standard cookie bar, they have a crust and this crust was basically brown sugar and butter (and of course, my ever-present Pumpkin Pie Spice.) All in all, very delicious and a recipe I will keep and most certainly make again. Here are some photos:

You can see how crispy the top got; do not over-bake!
I actually made these twice within one week, they were so good I had to make them again! The second time I used less chocolate because it was all I had left and I was careful not to over bake them. This resulted in a much chewier texture that was similar to pecan pie filling. I thought this was very interesting and delicious!

Marinated Tofu and Vegetable Stir Fry-I wasn't too impressed with this when I first made it, but after I was done eating I decided it was really good. The vegetables I used were bell peppers (red and yellow), broccoli, bok choy (yum!) and white onion. The only problem I really had with this dish is it needed something to go with it, probably rice. A nice bowl of sticky rice with the stir fry on top would have been awesome. No photos, I forgot. I made this twice as well. When my parents came home I made them dinner for their anniversary and this was part of their dinner. They both enjoyed it.

Crab and Cream Cheese Stuffed Wontons-This is possibly my favorite dish this week! This recipe is very easy although extremely time consuming, an assembly line would have been nice. The original recipe called for imitation lobster but I though crab would be good since I had eaten Crab Ragoon (basically the same thing only fried) before. I also left out the green onion because I don't like it. The original recipe called for 1/2 a teaspoon of sriracha in the filling, you can see in the original step-by-step photos that her cream cheese is still white. I added at least 1 whole teaspoon, if not more and my cream cheese was pink! We like spicy food though so it was good. We ate this for lunch because we were running out of days on our own and I really wanted to make it. Supposedly this should have made about 32 wontons but I ended up using the whole package of wrappers (42!) and still had filling left! I could have easily served my whole family this dish (with some rice and veggies) and my parents would have enjoyed it. Photos:

Serve with some soy and sriracha sauce. Mmmmm.

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables-Yours truly has never roasted a chicken before. I know that sounds ridiculous since roast chicken is incredibly easy and very popular but somehow I have always ended up using my slow cooker instead. This week I was determined to roast a chicken like everyone else has. It came out very tasty! For my veggies I used leftover bok choy, leftover red and yellow bell peppers, new potatoes and zucchini. For my spices I chopped some rosemary and thyme, added some salt, black pepper, white pepper and garlic powder. After sprinkling the veggies with the spices I added the remainder to some soft butter and spread it over the chicken. The result was super crispy skin and slightly too oily veggies, but the chicken was very tender. The bok choy was my favorite veggie. Hooray for first tries!

To go along with the tofu stir fry I made for my parents I also made these Pork and Ginger Pot Stickers. I changed the recipe a bit. I did not want cabbage and other veggies inside so I made them with ground pork and ground beef. I did not have any sesame oil on hand and omitted the bouillon. They were superb! The recipe says to cook them for seven minutes but I found they did not need that long. I would say four minutes was plenty of time, all of the meat was thoroughly cooked by then. I had a bit of the filling left over and I cooked it up and added it to the left over stir fry for lunch the next day. It was yummy! Again, no photos but they looked pretty much the same as the other ones. I am now not afraid of making won tons and can't wait to make more!

Please check out these links and consider making some of them for your dinner.

Sam

Weekend of Horrors October 2010

2010-10-23T19:57:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, Brandon and I and a friend of ours attended part 2 of Creation Entertainment's Weekend of Horrors. We had a great time, going to panels and meeting some of our favorite celebrities. The convention itself was quite small and while that meant there were less vendors, it also meant that it was easier to meet with the actors who attended and almost all of the seats in a panel were good ones.

One of the first things I did was pay $1.00 for this awesome pin:

That is Bub from George Romero's Day of the Dead. "Day" is my favorite of the living dead films and the character of Bub is possibly the best in the movie.

After the pin purchase and a short trip to a nearby hotel to check in, we returned to the con and I spotted Joe Pilato at his table. Joe was also in Day of the Dead as Captain Rhodes and has the best lines in the whole movie. While I was talking with him, Brandon took a photo of his table (just to check the camera, but I like the photo)

Those are all images of him from the movie. And Joe's alcoholic beverage.

As we were standing at his table this guy comes up and starts talking with Joe. It turns out he is Zebediah De Soto, a new director directing a new Night of the Living Dead movie. And Joe Pilato is playing the part of Harry Cooper. Good idea since Cooper spent most of the original movie yelling at Ben. Pilato is good at yelling. Anyway, when I asked to have my picture taken, Zebediah offered to shoot it for me. We took one with all three of us and then one with just Joe and I:

Look at my awesome Zombie shirt and my Bub pin!

Joe was so nice. He signed our DVD for free (see photo above), took a photo for free and only charged me $10 for a signed 8X10 photo (they were supposed to be $20.) Here is my awesome signed photo:

This shot is right at the end when Rhodes gets attacked by the horde of zombies that overrun the compound.

Here is a close-up of the quote:

By the way, that says, "Sit down woman or I'll have you shot!" NOT something about snot.

Friday concluded with a panel Brandon was very much looking forward to, Joe Bob Briggs. JBB was the host of such shows as Mostervision and Joe Bob's Drive-in Theater. These are not shows that are terribly interesting to me as they mostly consist of movies of lesser quality, but listening to him speak was quite interesting. I did not get any shots during the panel because I was unsure if photography was allowed but on Saturday Brandon talked with Briggs and got a photo with him at his table.

Brandon also bought from Briggs a DVD on which he does a commentary track. The movie is Samurai Cop a parody of the horror classic Maniac Cop, both starring Robert Z'Dar:

Saturday I was very excited because the first panel of the day was on AMC's The Walking Dead TV show. Included in the panel were Norman Reedus of Boondock Saints fame, who plays a newly created character on Walking Dead, and the person I was most looking forward to all weekend, Greg Nicotero! Greg is the 'N' in KNB Effects the Academy Award winning effects group that has done such movies as Drag me to Hell, Mirrors and The Mist. Before creating his own effects studio with Howard Berger and Robert Kurtzman, Nicotero got his start working on George Romero's living dead films. In fact, the first film Greg worked on was Day of the Dead under the supervision of effects master Tom Savini.

I was so excited to hear that KNB was doing the effects for The Walking Dead. Who better to bring Robert Krikman's zombies to life (heh) than the man who started his career working for the man who made zombies what they are today? The only other person I would want to work on this is Savini himself but he doesn't do much effects work these days.

Anyway the panel was pretty good and the questions that followed weren't too silly or stupid. I don't really remember much of what was talked about other than the fact that someone asked Greg if he had kids and, if so, if said children dominated all the others when it came time for costume day. I thought that was a hilarious question with an even better answer: Yes! Greg said he had recently made his son a Godzilla costume and that it was just awesome. He also said that his daughter has the best zombie walk. How precious! He asked her to come to the panel but she declined because she was afraid of being in front of all the people.

I got some decent photos during the panel (I found out that it was OK to take photos, just no recording.)

The background lights kept changing and that coupled with the bad lighting overall made for really red and orange photos.

Norman Reedus (left) and Greg Nicotero (right) and some guy's head (in front.)

Also present was Joe Giles.

Don't be worried if he doesn't look familiar to you, I didn't know who he was either. He works for KNB and they did all of the zombie test make-up on him. Director, Frank Darabont, liked him so much he is in the show! You may have seen him as this zombie:

Now that I know that is Joe, I can totally see his face under the make-up.

After the panel Nicotero got a little swamped with fans wanting autographs and photos. He was very nice about it even though it was obvious he wanted to leave. Brandon and I had him sign our Day of the Dead DVD and our Land of the Dead DVD. Here is a shot of the autographs:

We didn't want to pester him so we didn't ask for a photo. Yet. A little while later we noticed that he was still in the main hall, talking and signing. I begged Brandon to take a photo of me with him but he kept saying we shouldn't bother him, it was clear he was trying to leave. Finally he gave in and we walked over to him. I apologized for bothering him and he was very nice about saying that that was the reason he was here. I got a pretty good photo:

Be jealous of my awesome Walking Dead shirt! Thanks Aaron!

We did some more shopping (well, Colin did most of the shopping. He ended up buying like 30 DVDs) and had some lunch before making it back to the convention hall for the costume contest. I actually did want to see the contest but the ulterior motive was to get as good seats as I could for the Bruce Campbell panel immediately following. It seemed others had the same idea so my seats weren't as good as they had been in the morning but they weren't too bad. At least I was on the end (easier to take good photos.) Here are my photos from the costume contest:

A pretty good zombie costume.

A zombie Nazi from the movie Dead Snow, which was a surprisingly good movie.

This was the winning costume and I must say, it is quite good.

Here is a full length shot of the winner.

For those of you living under a rock for the last 25 or so years, Bruce Campbell is a horror icon, starring in The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Man with the Screaming Brain, Bubba Hotep and My Name is Bruce. Most recently he has been in the hit TV show, Burn Notice. The Evil Dead was Campbell's first feature length film and is considered a cult classic.

Bruce was hilarious in the panel, playing the nice guy pretending to be a dick. He seems to genuinely love what he does and he graciously answered (most) of the audience's questions. (If they were silly questions he went to the next person so as not to waste our time.) After his panel was the autograph signing which, unfortunately you had to pay in advance for, and I wish we had. He was very nice to everyone who came up and talked with them rather than just signing and sending them on their way. Here are some shots from the panel:

The man himself!

He was singing :)

This was the only panel that was completely packed (at least that I went to, maybe the Boondock Saints panel was too but what is an action movie doing at a horror con?) and I was happy for the small venue because, as I said before, none of the seats were terrible. It was also nice because unlike Comic-Con there weren't thousands of people milling around being rude and all of the celebrities were there because they believe in what they do, not because of the money.

After Bruce's panel we did some more shopping and talking and I finally went to Ken Foree's table to ask about the price of a large Dawn of the Dead poster. It was only $20! I used the last of our spending money (and some of Colin's) to purchase this poster and have him sign it. Ken is one of the leads in Dawn of the Dead and says the movie's tagline, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth." At Comic-Con a few years ago Brandon and I went to Ken's signing and Brandon got a nice photo with him and now I wanted one. Unfortunately, Brandon was not paying enough attention to the lens and the photo is completely out of focus. First I will show you the poster, then maybe I will show the out of focus photo. Maybe.

Please excuse the clothes, I needed something to keep it from rolling up.

I guess I will show the blurry photo. I am so disappointed. Here:

:( My chance for a picture and it's out of focus. Oh well.

We also stopped at Fred Williamson's table so he could sign Brandon's copy of From Dusk Till Dawn, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's amazing vampire movie. (Interesting trivia: Tarantino was paid by Robert Kurtzman, formerly of KNB, to write the screenplay for Dusk Till Dawn based on a short story he had written.) If you have not seen this movie, see it. Brandon and Fred Williamson:

He makes Brandon look so pale! (He is!)

Some other movies that were purchased over the weekend: a copy of Submersion of Japan (the link is to "Tidal Wave" an apparently crappy American re-edit of the film.) a film I have never heard of but Brandon had been looking for for a long time, and an 18 DVD set from Charles Band, called the Archive Collection. Some photos:

The top.

The side, signed and numbered.

That was the end of the weekend for us, we decided not to go on Sunday because there really wasn't anything to see (although we did want to go to the auction) and we had run out of money. Overall we had a great time and I can't wait to go again next year, John Carpenter is going to be there! Brandon is very excited. On an only slightly related note, here is a Halloween decoration in front of someone's house between the con and our hotel:

It kind of looks like the creatures from Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal**.

I know this post has been long but I hope you have enjoyed the photos and stories!
Sam

P.S. Yes, I love zombies. Yes, running zombies are stupid. Yes, I would freak if I ever got to meet George Romero, he is the reason I love horror movies (and zombies!) No, 28 Days later is NOT a zombie movie, you have to be dead to be a zombie.

Cinnamon Pear Bruschetta

2010-10-17T13:42:00.001-07:00

Some time ago, while browsing Tasty Kitchen, I came across this recipe for a pear bruschetta. It sounded delicious and I knew I had to make it.

I told my mom about the recipe and she was excited too so she agreed to buy the ingredients. I have never cooked or baked with mascarpone so I was looking forward to that.

This recipe is fairly easy and turned out a product I would be happy to serve to guests. I hope to make it again for Thanksgiving this year. I did have some difficulty getting the results I thought I should. In the directions for the recipe it says to allow the pears to slowly caramelize. Now I don't know if my pears were too ripe and therefore there was too much liquid and this did not allow for caramelization or what, but it didn't matter how long I cooked the pears, they just got softer and no caramelizing was in sight.

Next time I will buy my pears the day I want to make this and maybe use a different pear, we will see. I hope some of you will make this, it is so delicious and looks really pretty. I adjusted the recipe slightly with the bread and spices and really liked the flavor I came away with.

Original recipe here

Ingredients:
1 loaf Baguette, sliced
1 T. butter
3 whole pears, chopped
1/4 t. salt
1/2 T. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/4 t. allspice
1/2 c. mascarpone
1 t. honey
1/2 t. sugar
1/4 t. nutmeg
2 T. balsamic vinegar

Heat the oven to 400°.
Place the baguette rounds on a baking sheet. Bake 5-7 minutes or until toasted and golden brown.
Heat a skillet over medium-low heat.
Add the butter. Add the pears and sprinkle with cinnamon, allspice, ginger and salt.
Allow to caramelize slowly for 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
In a small bowl, combine mascarpone, honey, nutmeg and sugar.
Spread on baguette slices.
Once the pears caramelize, add the balsamic vinegar and cook for 1-2 minutes more.*
Spoon pears over bread.
Serve warm or cold**

* I completely forgot to add the balsamic vinegar when I made this. It still tasted good!
** I recommend serving warm, it's kind of like eating a pear pie :)
By the way, make sure not to add the pears to the baguette while they are really hot, they will melt the mascarpone.

I took some nice photos and instead of showing you only one, I am going to show you all of the good ones!

The cinnamon stick was my mom's idea :)

I love how this looks against the fall tablecloth!

My mom thought it needed some green. It looks pretty good!

As always, thanks for reading!

Sam

Pear Cake

2010-10-06T21:45:00.001-07:00

Remember this? I knew I wanted to bake a pear version of this cake and one day while I was out shopping I found a bag of bartlett pears for $0.97! They were smaller than the ones I usually bought but the bag had enough in it to make up for size. So I ate a few and let the rest ripen just for this cake recipe.

As I was gathering all of the ingredients for the cake I noticed that I probably did not have enough white sugar to fulfill the two cups needed. Luckily I did have an even one cup so I used brown sugar for the other cup.

What an amazing difference! This cake was waaaaay better than the peach version and the brown sugar was the only difference. This cake is so tasty and tastes just like fall. Perfect way to start the season.

I posted this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's website, Tasty Kitchen, so I am going to make you go to that site for the actual recipe. I urge you all to make this cake and then serve it warm, perhaps with some vanilla ice cream. But for now you can see some photos of this lovely cake.

University

2010-10-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

The grade came in for my Christmas paper and I received an 'A'! This brings my GPA up to just over a 3.0 which is what I needed to qualify for the TAG so I can go to UC Santa Cruz next fall.

The above is the only positive thing about this post. Just warning you.

Once my grade had been posted I started to work on the TAG application. I was a little worried it would be complicated, the school offers workshops on this application. The worry was unfounded, the application was easy, although a little time consuming. (I guess this part isn't so bad either. Don't worry, it will get crappy really soon.)

I finish the application and then it comes to the 'Submit' portion where I have to check these boxes before I can actually submit. One such box asks if I have met the minimum requirements of all UC schools at this point. I click on the link and my world shatters.

To transfer, even with the TAG, I need 2 transferable English classes and 1 transferable Math class. What? I have not taken any English or Math classes yet. I saw TWO counselors about this application and they both told me about having to meet the requirements for the TAG. Neither of them mentioned I would also have to meet these requirements. That was the whole reason I wanted to do the TAG, because I had not yet done Math or English.

I talked with someone in the transfer center at school and she said there is pretty much nothing I can do. I can call UCSC and see if they are doing Winter admissions but there is not much hope in that. Budget cuts being what they are, they have only been accepting people in the fall.

So now instead of going to this school next fall, the earliest I can go is next winter (January I guess.) I don't think I can wait another year! This is complete and utter bullshit! I was misinformed and now have wasted more of my time at this stupid community college. I am so done with VCCCD. I want to go to a real school and finally get a degree instead of wasting time and money and earning nothing.

Brandon says that we should move up there as planned and both attend the community college there. That might be a good idea, getting a change of scene. I am so angry at both Ventura and Moorpark college and so depressed that this whole thing is happening. I don't even want to deal with school anymore.

I feel so pathetic and unsuccessful in life. I look at my friends and so many of them have degrees and good jobs and are moving on with their lives. I am 26 and still going to a "two-year" school where I have been for 4 years. I have no job because without a degree and the economy what it is I can't get a job. Or I get some lame retail job but I can't keep it because I am in school so my availability isn't open enough. I have no money because I have no job and life just sucks.

I hope this post has brightened all of your days!

Sam

2010-09-23T23:10:00.001-07:00

So I turned in my Christmas paper today. I won't know for a few days what my grade is but I feel pretty good about my work. Hopefully in the next few days I will have a more interesting post for everyone.

Blogging and Baking

2010-09-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

All of the baking I have been doing to keep this blog moving forward (as well as keep me happy) has really made me want to work in the food industry. The problem is, I don't want to work in a restaurant or a bakery or a grocery store.

What I really want to do is to be able to sell baked goods out of my home. Just a small business that I would be able to keep up with by myself.

I don't know if this is ever going to be something that I can achieve but it is a goal of mine.

Christmas Paper

2010-09-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Once again, a school paper is taking over my life. This time, though, it is my fault.

I am doing a directed studies program in Anthropology and chose to write a paper about the ways people view and celebrate Christmas. I wasn't able to finish it in the semester I started so I took an incomplete and thus gave myself another year to finish it.

Unfortunately, I want to go to UC Santa Cruz. While this in itself is not the problem, it is the transfer agreement program (TAG) that I am using to transfer. I need to have a 3.0 GPA to qualify for the TAG and as of last semester my GPA was 2.95. How irritating.

So now, instead of collecting data over the holiday season and having lots of time to finish, I need to finish this paper in the next few days so that it can be graded. Once the paper is graded it will bring my GPA up enough to qualify.

Here is the real problem. I was told I had until October 15 to send my application in and now I find out it is September 30! Two weeks lost. Now I have to scramble to get this somewhat together and decent. Here is what I think I am going to do:

Throw together something so that my teacher has something to grade. Get an OK grade (preferably a 'B'.) Redo the paper at a later date so that it is up to my standards and something worth keeping.

I have a couple of blog post ideas but, until this paper is done you will see none of them. Sorry.

Sam

3-2-1 Birthday Cake

2010-09-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

So the 5th was Brandon's birthday. Of course I had to make a cake and our friend, Justin, came out and we went out to lunch at Famous Dave's. If you have not eaten there and you have a chance to, you really should. It is quite tasty, good Southern BBQ.

I usually use a cake mix (gasp!) and spend most of my time on the decorating but Brandon wanted specific flavors for his cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting) and didn't care how it looked so I made a cake from scratch using my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (mine is the 1993 edition.)

The cake came out yummy and much more dense than the boxed cakes and the frosting (actually an icing) was just as delicious as the last time I made it. I used Wilton's Chocolate Fudge Icing, which would be divine on brownies, and warmed it until it could be poured.

Here is the recipe and following that are some photos:

Ingredients:

Cake-
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 T. Baking Powder (hence the 3-2-1)
1 1/2 c. Milk
1/2 c. Butter, softened
1 1/2 t. Vanilla
2 Eggs

Icing-
2/3 c. Butter
1 1/3 c. Cocoa
2/3 c. Milk
6 c. Powdered Sugar
2 t. Vanilla***

For the cake:
Set the oven to 375°. Spray or grease 2 9inch cake pans.*
In a bowl, combine flour, sugar and baking powder.
Add milk, butter and vanilla. Beat on low speed until combined. Beat on high for 2 minutes.
Add eggs and beat for 2 more minutes.
Pour into pans. Bake 25-30 minutes** or until done.
Cool for about 10 minutes the remove cake from pans and continue to cool on a wire rack.

For the icing:
Melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the cocoa and heat just until boiling, stirring constantly until smooth.
Pour cocoa/butter mixture into a bowl and cool.
Alternately add powdered sugar and milk and beat to a spreading consistency.
Blend in vanilla.

*I used an angel food cake pan, which turned out looking like a doughnut!
**The baking time was about the same.
***I ran out of vanilla at this point but it still tasted good.

Here it is right out of the pan. Looks a little like a doughnut!

First stage of icing application. Now it really looks like a doughnut!

I added shredded coconut and ground chocolate to the top.

Justin was REALLY excited about the cake (because I told him to!)

Brandon, contemplating that first bite.

The fudge icing is really rich so if you use it, you might want to go easy on the amount. It would also be really tasty on cupcakes or cookies.

The cake was really good and I want to try substituting pineapple juice for the water at a later date. All in all: two great recipes that need to be made by all.

Sam

Fall!

2010-09-08T14:16:00.001-07:00

I know it's not technically fall until September 21st but if you looked out my window you would feel as I do.

This summer has been oppressive, at least in my mind. This probably has more to do with the fact that I had been living 5 minutes from the ocean for 4 years and got used to the temperature there, and less to do with how hot this summer actually was.

Yesterday I awoke to a sky that was blissfully overcast and an outside temp much lower than it was the previous day. Today was much the same and my brain immediately went into "fall" mode. Instead of thinking of berries and peaches, I now want apples and pears and pumpkin pie. I am thinking of getting my long-sleeved shirts out of my closet.

Part of my love for fall is the fact that it means that Christmas seems to be right around the corner, but I also love fall baking. Here are some things I am looking forward to this fall:

Changing my clocks back an hour
Using this Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe to make a Thanksgiving version of this
Making a pear version of this
Possibly whipping up a batch of Ginger Cookies or Pumpkin Fudge
Getting together with my family for Thanksgiving
Going to my friend Doug's family's pumpkin patch
A better chance of getting a job as retailers start hiring for the holiday season
Applying to UC Santa Cruz
The Premier of "The Walking Dead" on AMC (on Halloween!)
Lovely, cooler weather

What are YOU looking forward to this fall?

Sam

Brownie Cheesecake: Take One

2010-08-28T23:52:00.001-07:00

My mom, being the lovely woman that she is, randomly will buy brownie mix for no reason. When I see this I get very excited. I love brownies and while I don't mind making them from scratch, the box makes pretty darn good brownies. I made brownies about a month ago so I wanted to try something different this time around.

After checking my usual food sites (Allrecipes.com, Tasty Kitchen, Food Network and Taste of Home,) I checked in with Food.com (formerly Recipezaar.) This is a newer site so the amount of tested recipes is lower than at Allrecipes. Still there were several brownie recipes that looked tempting.

The only problem I came across is the number of brownie recipes that are paired with peanut butter. If Brandon and I were still living on our own this would be no big deal. We love peanut butter and there are several recipes that I saved that I will be making one day. Unfortunately we are also living with my brother and he is allergic to peanuts. That ruled out an awful lot of brownie recipes.

Just when I was starting to think that I should just make regular brownies, I came across this recipe. The original called for cherry pie filling. While I am somewhat ok with apple pie filling from a can, I do not like cherries at all and the thought of pie filling did not sound good to me, so I just omitted it. One reviewer said that the pie filling starts to liquefy the cheesecake layer so I am glad I got rid of it all together.

Here is the recipe and my thoughts will follow:

Ingredients:
1 (19 1/2 ounce) box of brownie mix or a brownie recipe that fills a 13X9 inch pan
1/2 cup Oil
1/4 cup Water
2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 egg
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk*
8 ounces Cream Cheese

Heat the oven to 350°. Grease a 13X9 inch pan
Combine the first four ingredients just until all of the dry mix is moistened.
Spread into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, beat the remaining ingredient until smooth and creamy.
Pour over the partially baked brownie.
Bake until topping is set, about 25 minutes.
Cool and refrigerate until cold**

*Condensed milk is ridiculously expensive. The only ingredients are milk and sugar. When I got back from the store I checked, and there is a recipe for homemade condensed milk. If any of you have done this, please let me know how it turn out. I plan to make this in the next few months so I will make a post about it.

**I ate the bars while they were still warm. Let them chill, it will taste more like cheesecake.

Let's look at some photos before we get to my thoughts on this recipe, shall we?

The far shot.

The close up.

Now for my thoughts:
I liked it. But. The cheesecake layer isn't as tasty as it could be. It is not sweet enough and just doesn't quite taste like cheesecake.

My plan? To make this again using a regular cheesecake recipe for the topping. I am going to have to cut it down by about a third but I think I can make it work.

My other plan? To bake this in a springform pan with either a pumpkin cheesecake or cinnamon cheesecake layer and serve it for Thanksgiving. I am very excited about this!

When brownie mix goes on sale I will buy several boxes and try to create a new recipe out of this. Stay tuned for "Brownie Cheesecake: Take Two!" (in like a month or two...)

The Fajitas, They Mock You

2010-08-22T15:41:00.001-07:00

This recipe is for something that I randomly decided to try at some point last year. I thought it would be really good to braise meat in taco sauce.

Not just any sauce, mind you. Sauce from fast food taco restaurants (Taco Bell, Del Taco, those places.)

People at Seth's would always go to Taco Bell because it was just down the street and I started asking for their leftover sauce. I made it with chicken and it was quite good. I made it with chicken again, but this time, used the crock pot. Good, but not as good.

Right now Del Taco has regular crunchy or soft tacos for $0.39. Each. How awesome is that? I knew it was time to start stocking up on sauce. (don't tell Del Taco, but I took a lot of extra sauce each time I went. Shhhh...) Brandon and I both love the medium sauce at Del Taco. Del Scorcho, it's called.

I wanted to make a fajita-like dish, with peppers and onions. This dish came out really tasty and I will definitely be making it again. They are not traditional fajitas but they are awesome none-the-less.

This post is my attempt to come up with some sort of repeatable recipe. I hope it works. Here you are:

Ingredients:
1 lb. meat (I used some cut of beef whose name eludes me) sliced or cubed
2 bell peppers
1 med. onion
1 c. taco sauce (mild, med, or hot or any combination thereof)
Olive Oil, for the pan
Spices for the veggies (i used ground cumin, white pepper and salt
Tortillas
Sour Cream, to serve

Heat the oven to 250°. Spray an 8X8 baking dish.
Place the meat in the dish. Pour sauce over the meat. Stir so that all of the meat is coated.
Cover with tin foil and bake for 60-70 minutes. Uncover and bake for about 15 more minutes.
When the meat is almost done, chop the veggies.
Drizzle olive oil into a large pan and heat. Add spices.
When the pan is hot, add the veggies.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp tender, about 5-7 minutes.
Warm tortillas and then pile on the goodness!

As I was cooking the peppers and onion, I knew I had to get some photos of the finished product, the veggies alone were so beautiful! Burrito sized tortillas were all we had so I wrapped up some fajita burritos and man, were they good! Served with a side or two and in smaller tortillas, this dish could easily serve 6 people (I fed three with leftovers. We are going to make breakfast burritos with the rest!)

Dinner was fantastic and for dessert we had these. What a great way to end a crazy day. Here are some lovely photos:

Pre-Sour Cream.

Deliciousness zoom!

Mmmm...look at the sauce!

Knock, Knock. Who's There? Banana. Banana Who?

2010-08-21T21:51:00.001-07:00

My mom had bought a bunch of bananas for work and there were a few left over that just sat in our fruit bowl. I saw these spotty bananas the other day and knew I had to do something with them.

Banana bread wasn't really an option this time. I wanted something different. My brother ruled out Banana Cookies in favor of something more breakfast like. This muffin recipe sounded really good and had great reviews so I had to give it a try. I have found so many tasty things at Allrecipes.com and this recipe did not disappoint.

My only complaint? It didn't have enough banana flavor to me. Usually three bananas is one cup, which this recipe called for. I think the problem was that these bananas were smaller than the ones I usually buy. Other than that they were quite yummy! Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice (optional)
1 Egg
1/4 cup Oil*
3/4 cup Plain Yogurt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup Mashed Banana
3/4 cup Chocolate Chips or Chopped Chocolate**

Heat oven to 350°. Grease or line muffin tins.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
In a separate bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt and extract.
Stir the wet into the dry until just moistened.
Fold in the bananas and chocolate.
Fill the muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake for 22 minutes, or until done.
Yield: I got 17. Strange number. The original says 16. Oh well.

*All I had was olive oil so that is what I used. They came out fine.
**I chopped chocolate rather than spend the money on chips. Half was milk and half was dark.

Here are some lovely photos:

Please make these. They are so good!

Just Peachy

2010-08-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

The fruit crisp was devoured in a matter of days so I knew I had to come up with another recipe soon.

Every week when I go to the farmer's market, the peaches always smell so delicious, I knew I had to buy some and make something fabulous.

After much searching I found this. Cake sounded like a good idea so I went ahead with it. I adapted the recipe slightly, adding more fruit because some reviewers had felt it wasn't flavorful enough.

The result was quite good. In the original recipe, it calls for the cake to be baked in a 10inch tube pan. We do not have one of these so I baked it in two loaf pans. We ate one and I froze the other. It will be a nice reminder of summer in the months to come.

Peach Pound Cake
Ingredients:
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 t. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 c. chopped peaches
1 c. mashed peaches
1 t. pumpkin pie spice

Heat the oven to 325°. Spray 2 glass loaf pans.
Cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the vanilla and pumpkin pie spice to the mashed peaches. Beat into the butter/sugar.
Reserve 1/4 c. of the flour. Sift the rest with the salt and baking powder. Stir into batter.
Use reserved flour to coat the chopped peaches. Fold peaches into batter.
Divide batter into the loaf pans. Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Serve with sliced peaches and whipped cream.

I used a combination of white and yellow peaches but it would be just as good with all white or all yellow or, even another fruit. Pears would be divine and now I think I have to try that!

In other news, school has started again. I am taking three classes this semester while waiting to get into a university. UC Santa Cruz has guaranteed acceptance with the Transfer Agreement Program but I wouldn't be able to go until next fall so to bring up my GPA and to keep my student loans at bay, I am staying in school. This semester I am taking Mysteries of the Ancient Maya, Sociology and Logic. Should be a fun semester!

Summer Fruit

2010-08-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

Over the last few months of living in Simi with my parents again I have discovered something. I have a NEED to bake. Or at least cook. As soon as I start baking all of my stress goes away and I am happy. I first figured this out about a month ago when I made Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake, which I will post at some point.

This week Albertson's has blueberries at $2 for 18oz! I couldn't pass that great a price up so I bought 2. If my parents don't buy any I might have to buy one more container so I have a lot to freeze. Now usually when I buy blueberries, I make muffins, pancakes, and eat a lot of yogurt and cereal. This time I wanted to make something different.

After two days of searching for a good berry recipe I found this. A Triple Berry Crisp recipe with over 500 great reviews! After reading the reviews, I knew I had to make this.

Most people who reviewed the crisp advised to add more fruit, closer to 6 cups than the 4.5 cups the recipe called for. That was great because I knew I had about 3 cups of blueberries left in one container (I of course had been eating them in my cereal.) I didn't want to only use blueberries and I have totally been on a peach kick since my mom made this amazing Peach Pie (if I convince her to make it again I will post it here) and thought that would be yummy. I ended up using white peaches because I like them more than the traditional yellow.

As I sit here and finish a plate of this crisp for my breakfast, I can tell you this is one of the most delicious things I have ever made. My family loved it too which is always nice. I made it last night and it is almost half gone already! It probably won't last another three days. What will I make next?

Here is the recipe, enjoy the fruits of summer in a delicious dessert!

Fruit Crisp
adapted from here

Ingredients:
6 cups fruit
4 Tablespoons white sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
1.5 cups brown sugar
1.5 teaspoons spices (I used pumpkin pie spice)
1 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

Heat the oven to 350°. Grease or spray a 13X9 inch pan.
Toss the fruit with the white sugar (I also added a little PPS to the fruit)
Whisk together all other dry ingredients.
Using your hands or a pastry knife, or 2 forks, cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly and holds together when you squeeze it.
Press a little less than half of the crisp mixture into the bottom of the pan. Spread the fruit over the bottom layer. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit until mostly covered*
Bake 30-40 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbly.

*I had extra topping and didn't want to completely cover the fruit. I pressed it into a loaf pan and baked with the crisp for about 15 minutes. It is a great ice cream topping.

P.S. I am only uploading one photo and it is sitting at the top because ScribeFire is not working again. Hopefully it will get fixed soon.

Horror and Politics: the films of George A. Romero

2010-06-13T21:02:00.001-07:00

The paper I was lamenting about a few posts ago turned out to be very good. I got 590/600 on it and I am very proud of it. Those of you who wish to brave the extremely long post that follows, I applaud you. Any feedback would be welcome.
Brandon and I talked with Simon (the teacher) after class and he agreed to help us fine tune our papers so we could submit them to a magazine. Isn't that awesome?!
For those of you who do not know, George Romero is the mastermind behind Night of the Living Dead and many other great films. Here is a picture of him:
I originally wanted to call this paper, "The Glasses that ate Pittsburgh" because of his gigantic glasses but this title works better.
Enjoy:

"They're coming to get you, Barbara!" (1968) With those six words a new face of horror was born and a new breed of monsters were launched on an unsuspecting nation. Few directors have had such a lasting impact on our culture like George Romero. Zombie fever is sweeping the nation as we speak, with people like Max Brooks, author of “The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead” (2003) and “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” (2007) as well as the successful “Resident Evil” series of movies. Fans gather en masse to do zombie walks, each person in full undead make-up, staggering down the street.

I was introduced to the horror genre by way of “Dawn of the Dead” (1978) so it is no surprise that I have a soft spot for zombies and George Romero. It has been interesting to re-watch several of his movies after weeks of analyzing films. It causes one to see them in a new light and to see things we might have missed before. In viewing the majority of his directorial work, several aspects were found to reoccur throughout. These include locations, actors, and themes.

The location for most of Romero's films is his (former) hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or the surrounding areas. Originally the reason for this was financial. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) was independently financed by Romero and his friends so shooting where they lived made sense. With the surprising success of “Night” it would not have been too difficult to find extras for his following films, especially the “Dead” series. Tom Savini, in the documentary short, “The Many Days of Day of the Dead” commented on that subject. He states, “When you're born in Pittsburgh, one of the things you want to be when you grow up is a zombie in a George Romero movie...So there was never a shortage of zombies.” This continued use of Pittsburgh as the setting for his films has instilled a sense of pride in those who live there.

Watch enough Romero movies and you will see some of the same people cropping up either as extras or in minor roles. Those you are most likely to see are Tom Savini, John Amplas and Christine Forrest. The most recognizable of the three is Savini, who was given more speaking roles than the others. While Savini has had decent acting career, out of Romero's sixteen films, Savini has been in seven. John Amplas, who plays the title character in Romero's “Martin”, (1977) has had a rather small acting career with only ten roles, half of which were in George Romero movies. Last but not least, we have Christine Forrest Romero. Out of her nine acting roles, eight of them were in Romero films. In reusing actors and settings, Romero is much like the contemporary favorite, Kevin Smith, who repeatedly sets his movies in New Jersey and reuses actors. In fact, it could be said that Tom Savini is George Romero's Ben Affleck.

If there is one theme that ties all of Romero's films together, it is the world collapsing down around the characters. Whether it is the possible end of the human race or an end of a way of living, all of the characters are made to watch their lives crumble. Several other themes are evident, though not exhibited in all of the movies. Under the gore, Romero is a very political director. He makes movies that take a stance on many social and political issues. The three most prevalent socio-political themes are family values, military interference and the role of the media. And then there is the violence.

There is definitely a lot of violence in Romero's films. Now, if one were to just take it at face value, they would think that he just liked violence. They would be wrong. It is not violence for violence's sake. The violence enacted by whatever outside forces are in place are only a parallel to show how horrible the violence is the characters inflict upon one another. The outside violence should give the characters a reason to work together but, for reasons unfathomable, they can't and it always brings about their downfall.

Romero also employs many of the same shooting techniques throughout his films. Most, if not all of his movies have a lot of close up shots. These close-ups can be particularly effective when used to show the effects of the infection on the undead. Another technique most of his movies share is that of steady shots. These enable the audience to see the action as it unfolds.

The first, and perhaps most famous, of Romero's films is “Night of the Living Dead” (1968). Set at the very beginning of the infection, “Night” tells the story of a small group of people just trying to survive. Romero grew up and came of age in a country that was embroiled in an extremely controversial war. This is most evident in this movie. At that time the news was in black and white and people were glued to their TV sets for information on the war. While the decision to shoot with black and white film might have been a financial one, it gave the movie a feeling of reality it would not otherwise have had. In addition to being shot in black and white, this movie was also shot and shown as fullscreen just as the televisions were in people's homes. To go along with the mindset of Americans in the 60's, it is postulated that radiation is the cause of the dead returning to life. With everyone living in fear of the bomb, it is no wonder that would have been their reaction. Alas, trying to outlive an army of undead, flesh-eating ghouls is about as probable as a desk saving you from the Atomic bomb.

“Night” is perhaps the movie that showcases the theme of family values the best. In looking for information on Romero's early childhood, I have decided there is none readily available. One can only speculate, then, that at some point in his life Romero had some family issues. The theme seems too prevalent to merely be a statement about others' lives. The breakdown of the American family is first shown in the dynamic of Harry and Helen Cooper. This husband and wife obviously hate each other and yet remain married, perhaps for the sake of their daughter, Karen. Unfortunately this family is further destroyed by the turning of Karen and her subsequent killing and eating of her parents. A similar fate befalls Barbara. No longer can she bicker with her brother Johnny. At the end of the movie we see him return as one of the undead and promptly attack his sister.

The media plays an important role in this film. The discovery of a working TV and radio give the party a reason to momentarily stop fighting. In fact, it is the reason the Cooper's agree to leave the cellar they believe is so safe. Helen Cooper gets angry at Harry for deciding to stay in the cellar when she learns of the existence of this link with the outside world. The characters watch the news, taking at face value all of the information they see. The local law enforcement seen on the news proclaim to have the situation under control and that it is easy to deal with the ghouls.

One would think that the threat of hundreds of undead beings would give people a reason to work together to stay alive. For some reason humanity is incapable of this. From the moment the two groups come together there is a power play and constant yelling of who is right or wrong. Ben has decided he will be the boss of the people who want to stay upstairs and Harry can be the boss of those who want to stay in the cellar. It is clear that each man strongly feels they are in the right. This school yard squabbling comes to a climax when Harry tries to keep Ben from returning to the house after a disastrous attempt to leave the farmhouse. Ben becomes very angry and begins to punch Harry, causing him to drop the rifle he was holding. Then Ben wastes no time and shoots Harry, leaving him to die in the cellar where he wanted to be. If only this group of people were not reduced to petty arguing like children, they might have had a chance.

1973 saw the release of Romero's film, “The Crazies”. This film is mostly a mockery of the government as they accidentally cause the release of a chemical weapon known as 'Trixie' that causes permanent insanity in those infected and then must try to contain the spread of infection. The two main characters, David and Clank did a tour of duty in Vietnam and so are very distrustful of anything the military is involved in. David even makes an off-handed remark about the Kent State shooting.

Another way to look at this movie is that of the class system. The people who live in the rural town of Evan's City are paying for the mistakes of the government. As usual it is the rich and powerful who are messing things up for those “beneath” them.

The breakdown of the family is evident in this movie as well. Towards the end of the film, David leads his small group of survivors to an abandoned house. Once inside the characters get a chance to take a break and talk. There is worry over the young woman, Kathy, who is showing symptoms of infection. In talking with her father we find he is very overprotective of her as well as very old fashioned. He does not allow her to date because he thinks that boys are pigs. There is terrible irony in this statement when, just minutes later, he tries to rape his daughter while under the influence of Trixie.

In this movie lighting became an issue. It had not been bad in “Night”, but was awful at some points in this film. Overall it was not too bad but whenever the characters were outside in the full dark it was still very easy to see them and their immediate surroundings. The worst moment of this was when they came to the abandoned house mentioned earlier. They are creeping up along the front of the house and apparently the house has superb outside lights because they are too well lit.

“Martin” (1977) was Romero's take on the classic vampire movie. It is about a young man who believes he is a vampire, but is not restrained by traditional lore surrounding them, and his distant cousin who is determined to save his soul and then destroy him. This film did not have the political themes present in most of his other films but instead was about the self. Martin is a sweet young man who does not really know who he is. This comes from his family having told him all his life that he is a monster and a curse. This film does, however, include the theme of the breakdown of the family. Martin's cousin, Cuda has told him that if Martin preys on any of their neighbors, Cuda will be forced to destroy him without salvation. When one of their neighbors commits suicide Cuda believes that Martin has killed her and made it look like a suicide. Armed with this belief, Cuda kills Martin in his sleep by driving a stake through his heart.

The music and the way this movie was shot were both very effective. The story of Martin is a sad one and the music conveys that. Done only with a score, the music brings the audience into the feeling of the title character. Throughout the film we see pieces of what Martin believes are memories of times past where he has been attacked by a mob, complete with torches, and a priest is trying to rid Martin's soul of the demon inside. These “memories” are shown in black and white and thus greatly differentiate them from what is happening in the present. The black and white also serves to make his memories look older, similar to the way the original “Dracula” (1931) was presented. There is also a great use of depth in this film. In many of the shots there would be something coming into the foreground, whether a hand, a car or an actor.

Ten years after the release of “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), Romero finally released a sequel entitled, “Dawn of the Dead” (1978). This movie saw a group of four survivors take refuge in the Monroville Mall. The main theme in this movie was consumerism. The ghouls return to the mall because it is what their body remembers from life. Francine asks, “What the hell are they?” and Peter answers, “They're us, thats all...” It is kind of depressing to think that shopping has become so important in our lives that not even death can stop the desire to go to the mall. The main characters embody this theme themselves when, after having secured the mall from roaming ghouls, they all go crazy “buying” things from the department stores. This makes them happy for a while but having everything becomes monotonous eventually makes them happy no longer. This just proves that those who “have everything” are rarely truly happy. We as a culture are so sure that it is stuff that will make us happy and we define ourselves by our possessions.

This is the first Romero film to have a truly strong female lead character. In “Night” Barbara was so timid she was comatose for most of the movie. This time around we are presented with Francine. She is an independent woman with a good job at a television studio. At no time in the movie does she scream. In fact, one of the bits of trivia from IMDb.com states, “She felt that Fran was a strong female character, and if she screamed, the strength would be lost.”This was a great improvement over the whimpering, unhelpful Barbara.

The importance of the media is brought home in this film with two main characters who are employed by the local TV station. In the beginning of the movie you can see the responsibility some of the employees feel to keep the news station up and running. Unfortunately, many of the supporting cast do not believe what their scientist guests are saying and things get out of control. Later, when safe at the mall, Stephen religiously has the TV set on in hopes of getting some information about what is going on.

Since the four main characters knew each other before the infection started, there was no internal breakdown of the their group. These people knew what it would take to be safe. They had taken care of all the ghouls in the mall and blocked the doors from more getting inside. Eventually, of course, their peace is disturbed by a rouge band of motorcyclists. Instead of letting our main characters know there were other live people around and trying to work together, this band of ruffians decide to take the mall by force. Into the mall pour all the ghouls that have been patiently waiting outside the mall doors. Making this decision ultimately leads to (almost) everyone's doom.

I feel the need to discuss the music in this movie. I found it very unsettling and strange. It was very different than any of the music Romero had used before and I did not enjoy it at all. The movie used original music by the band 'Goblin'. “Dawn” was financed and produced by Dario Argento, the famed Italian director. He regularly uses this band in his own movies which, I think, works well, as his movies are often very surreal. My guess is that since Argento was producing the film it was his idea to use the band for the music. This movie was received quite well and is usually the favorite among Romero fans so it might just be me who has this reaction to the music.

Interestingly, for most of this film there is a feeling of jubilation. Once the initial shock of seeing the undead and having to kill some, the characters go about their business as if life were normal. Even during the scenes of trying to secure the mall from the outside, Peter and Roger are joking with each other and generally having a good time. This, I think, is partially why this movie did so well. The audience knew that the characters were still in danger but they were having so much fun it made the problem seem less immanent.

Taking a break from the horror genre, Romero released “Knightriders” in 1981. Right away it is clear that this movie is going to be different. Instead of death and destruction, the audience is thrown into the world of Billy and his troupe of traveling motorcycle-riding jousters. The group is threatening to fall apart from the inside out because some of its members feel that Billy is no longer fit to be their king and a new one should be crowned. The group is split by those who still follow Billy and those who are trying to undermine his leadership. This strife plays out in a number of ways. Early on in the film, Morgan and Billy fight. If Morgan is able to make Billy surrender, Morgan will become the new king. The other jousters stand on the sidelines waiting to swoop in to keep this from happening. Then, midway through, a meeting is called without Billy's presence and when he arrives he is incensed that someone would have the audacity to call a meeting without everyone present.

Being true to yourself is the main theme in this movie. Billy needs to discover if he can really be the leader his group needs him to be. It is a painful process for him to accept defeat. Morgan thinks he needs the glamor of fame when in reality, he is perfectly happy being a part of this group. In one instance several of the characters have a frank discussion of sexuality and question the orientation of a fellow troupe member. Pippin, the member in question, states that he is unsure of whether or not he is gay. Eventually he comes to terms with his sexuality and embraces it, beginning a relationship with another male member of the troupe. It was interesting how forward all of the characters were about the subject. There is even a proud lesbian who was the only female jouster. This subject matter is, as always, very topical. In 1981 the AIDS virus was discovered and the nation's feelings for homosexuals, while never very good, went extremely south.

The theme of government interference is shown in this movie by way of a money grubbing police officer who threatens to shut down Billy's production unless he gets a pay off. Morgan is all for paying the cop, saying that if they do, he will be out of their hair and no longer a problem. Billy has too much pride and refuses. This does not go well when the police officer arrests and subsequently beats a member of Billy's troupe.

The breakdown of the family and the media also play a role in this movie. At the first show we are introduced to Julie and her parents. Her father is obviously drunk and makes callous remarks about the show. Julie calls him a fat slob and promptly walks away from her family and strikes up a relationship with our main character, Alan. Later when Julie stops at her house for supplies she sees her mother with a black eye. So, not only is her father a drunk, he is also physically abusive. Also, the structure of the troupe is similar to an extended family and it's breakdown is much like that of the breakdowns is Romero's other films.The media is seen as evil by the leader of this group. When a fan asks for his autograph in a motorcycle magazine Billy becomes upset because this is not the kind of attention he wants and the photo was used without his permission. In addition, the media is what lures Morgan away and causes him to act poorly.

This movie was one of my favorites for several reasons. First of all, it is obviously a very personal film and it shows. Taking a close look at what happens, it can be seen as his experience in independent film making. Being an independent film make is difficult at the best of times but one if the hardest things is staying true to yourself and what you believe in. Romero has achieved this is most, if not all, of his films. The second thing that really made this movie for me was the lighting and sound. The film was shot with all natural lighting, either outside during the day or at night buy firelight. The music was almost all diegetic, with the majority of it coming from characters singing and playing songs or from the sound system used for the jousting tournaments.

In 1985 Romero returned to his living dead series with “Day of the Dead”. With superb writing, great effects, lighting, acting and his largest production value at the time, “Day” is by far, my favorite of the series. It unfortunately did not do well with audiences. “Day of the Dead is a very dark and grim movie, showing humanity on its last legs and after the party that was “Dawn of the Dead” I guess the fans were not up to the feeling of impending doom. This movie is the best example of how the violence done within the group is more damaging than that of the outside entity. Tied in with that theme is also the theme of the government causing problems.

The story revolves around a group of scientists who are doing research on the infection and the military unit assigned to them. With the death of Major Cooper, Captain Rhodes takes over and proves to be a man on the brink of insanity. He spends most of the movie shouting at everyone angrily. The soldiers follow suit and spend their days belittling the scientists and complaining about how much time the research is taking. In the end several of the non-military personnel are shot by Rhodes and the other scientists are sent into the bowels of the compound to fend for themselves.

This is the first movie where the subject of race is brought up. The soldiers love to use derogatory terms when talking about Miguel. The argument could be made that that is just how men in the military talk. Whether or no that is is true, it shows that they have no compassion or courtesy for others and reinforces the feeling that the military are the real bad guys.

By far the most disturbing Romero film I have watched is “Bruiser” (2000). About a man who is pushed beyond his limits and finally snaps and starts killing those who walked all over him, “Bruiser” was more steeped in reality than the other movies. For this reason I found it more unsettling than Romero's living dead films. The main character, Henry wakes up one morning to find that his face has become a white mask. Using his new found anonymity, he takes revenge on those who slighted him. This film takes a look at the darker half of our nature and what people are capable of when anonymous. In this digital age, many people are just like Henry, using their anonymity on the internet to say and do whatever they want without repercussions.

Humans may try to be good and kind but inside all of us are thoughts of rage and cruelty. It would be easy to release those thoughts if no one would know who we are. Henry faces the same internal dilemma that Kevin Bacon's character in “Hollow Man” (2000) does when he becomes permanently invisible. What to do when no one knows who you are? For these two characters their invisibility (whether literal or figurative) enables them to engage in actions they as good human beings would not have.

One of the people Henry kills first is his cheating wife. Here again is the breakdown of the family. His wife finds him too passive and so finds excitement in his outspoken, brazen boss. His boss is not only breaking up Henry's family but his own as well. Rosemary, the boss's wife knows that her husband is constantly cheating on her but needs proof for the divorce. She finds it when she catches her husband and Henry's wife in the act.

In a spectacular show of what Romero is capable of with a big budget, “Land of the Dead” (2005) is the fourth installment of the living dead series. This movie is interesting because it makes distinct use of the class system. The undead situation has been going on for quite some time by now and the surviving citizens of Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas have gathered together to form a “safe community. Heading this community is Dennis Hopper's character, the unscrupulous Kaufman. Kaufman has transformed the stately Fiddler's Green into luxury housing and dining for his people. Well, for those who can afford it and whom he deems “suitable.” Juxtaposed against the splendor that the rich and powerful have, we also see how the poor and unfortunate live. These people have little food or medicine and are living in the filthy streets that surround the green.

Just as in today's society, the rich live in a world of fantasy and overindulgence and have no idea how hard life really is. For the people who have to work for those in the Green or those unable to live inside, life is much different. The humans are now in the minority and death is inevitable. Still the wealthy go about their lives as is there are not flesh-easting creatures running (well, shambling) around outside their walls. They are in denial.

The film's main character is Riley, one of those assigned to leave the safety of the community to scout for supplies. One of his team member is Cholo, big-talking tough guy who thinks that money is all it takes to get a place in the Green. When Cholo is denied entrance because he is not the right kind of person, he decides to leave and destroy the entire community. This is our internal breakdown. Neither Riley nor Cholo is happy working for Kaufman and Cholo's leaving causes the death of many innocent citizens when the ghouls break through their safeguards and their defense has run away.

This is the first Romero film to use digital effects and the amount of gore is significantly increased. There are two possible reasons for this. One is that he is reacting to the preferences of the audiences of today who don't seem to be happy with a horror movie unless there are a lot of blood and guts. The second possibility is that this is the kind of movie he has always wanted to make and finally has the money to do so. While the effects were very well done and the digital effects were used much less than in most contemporary horror films, the movie seemed to have lost some of the credibility that the older films had. It was too polished and shiny.

The films of George Romero subtly combine horror and gore with real world issues. It is my hope that those who are fans of his take a closer look at their favorite movies and try to see and understand what the director is really trying to say.

By the way, that line I opened the paper with, I have never been able to say it in a normal voice. If you have seen the movie you will understand. Also, the paper was typed in double spaced and when I copied it into my blogging software the whole thing became double spaced. I couldn't figure out how to fix it so this post is even longer!

I hope you have enjoyed this post,
Sam

Brownie Goodness

2010-05-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

I know I said I wasn't going to do any more posts until after we moved but I made this dessert tonight that was too delicious to keep to myself!

Brandon and I had a hard day today. Go here to read why. So I was feeling upset and thought chocolate might make me feel better. I had a box of brownie mix and decided to make them. As soon as the thought hit me I had another: I should heat up some bananas and blueberries in brown sugar and put that on top of the brownie. And I should top it all with whipped cream!

For some semblance of a recipe here are the steps:

Make brownies according to box or make your own.
Once the brownies have mostly cooled start on the fruit:
Slice however much banana you want and toss in a pot with about the same amount of blueberries.
Add brown sugar and vanilla to taste.
Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until berries pop, about 5-7 minutes.
While the fruit is cooking make the whipped cream:
Beat cold cream until frothy and then add powdered sugar to taste (you don't need much.)
Beat until stiff peaks form.
Slice a brownie, top with fruit and whipped cream.
Enjoy!

I have no photos because I was too focused on the food. Maybe I will make this again and be prepared. As a side note: the fruit would make a great pancake or waffle topping!

Moving

2010-05-23T14:32:00.001-07:00

We are moving at the beginning of the month. Our roommate needed to move out and we still had no jobs so we talked to my parents about moving back in with them. Not the most wonderful of situations but it beats having to find another roommate and job hunt like crazy to make rent. Living with my parents will enable us to save up for our move up north for school.

For this reason I doubt I will be doing any posts until mid-June. We have some major packing to do and I just don't think I will have the time. Hopefully, once we get settled in I can start blogging again (as long as my computer does not blow up again!) I don't know if anyone really cares but I have been enjoying this blog and I missed being able to post something because my computer stopped working.

Farewell for now!
Sam

Please Wait While we Return you to Your Regularly Scheduled Program...

2010-05-04T19:16:00.001-07:00

I realize that it has been quite a while since my last post. The reason for this is school. I have been working on this huge paper for my Aesthetics of Film class and doing nothing else for the last several weeks. The only reason I am writing this post is because my brain needs a break every now and then.

It is due tomorrow.

God willing I will be done.

I may cry :(

Soon after I hope to have a new post about something yummy ( I have several ideas!) Thanks to those who actually read my blog!

Sam

Six Degrees...

2010-04-15T22:28:00.000-07:00

I never got the whole "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" thing. How did it start? Has he been in that many different movies or something? Besides not getting it, I thought this would be an appropriate title for this post.

Why? Because of conversations like this that happen while Brandon and I watch movies or TV:

Me: "Man that guy/woman looks really familiar. Where have I seen him/her before?"
Husband: "I don't know, go look it up."
Me: Rushes to the room to check IMDb. A few moments later, "Oh! They were (some person) on Friends!"

It has gotten to the point that whenever I say this, Brandon immediately assumes it is someone from Friends. Let me state for the record that Friends is quite possibly my favorite TV show. Ever. I have watched every episode so many times I can quote some word for word. I blame my brother and my friend from high school, Erin.

Now I know the show better than my brother and he thinks I am crazy. I am, but just a little.

If a show is on for 10 years it is going to have it's share of supporting characters. I have a great memory for faces but can be bad with names or WHERE I have seen them. If I say, "That looks like so-and-so." It probably is.

I thought it would be fun to compile a list of the actors I have had this "Aha!" moment about.

This is Harry Van Gorkum. In the episode where Joey tells Rachel how she feels and Phoebe meets a man she thinks is Monica's soul mate. He played Don, the British food lover. About a year ago we were watching Entourage and I saw this guy and was like, "Hmmm, he looks familiar." Lo and behold it was Harry!

This is Shelley Berman. In the episode where Rachel quits her job at the coffee house and gets a job working at a fashion company, she meets Mr. Kaplan Jr. played by Shelley. We were watching Don't Mess With the Zohan (which was simultaneously overly offensive and hilarious) and the actor who played Zohan's dad looked a little familiar but not enough to warrant looking up. At the very end of the movie when he asks for a hair cut I got this mental image of him doing something else in another show I had seen. I couldn't get enough information from my memory so I went to the internet. As soon as I saw Friends on the list it was like a light switch went on and I remembered the rest of the scene.

Say hello to Bob Balaban. He is quite famous and recently I have been seeing him everywhere. The first time I saw him was in the episode where Phoebe's grandmother dies. She meets the man who turns out to be her birth father, played by Bob. While watching Entourage (same time frame as with the spotting of Harry) there was this scene where Turtle wanted to get into the medical marijuana storefront but he needed a card so they sent him to a doctor. That doctor was Bob Balaban.

Meet Professor Jarvis Oberblau, of Cornell. Oh wait, that was just his character on Friends. He played an incredibly creepy fan of Ross at the convention in Barbados. A few months ago I was re-watching Boy Meets World and I saw this character (a hotel man) and my eyes got squinty like they do when I am thinking really hard. I thought it might be the same actor so I rushed over to IMDb and sure enough, it was! (By the way, I want to apologize for the very small photo. The only larger photos were on IMDb and they would not let me save them.)

This is Lee Arenberg. He had a very small role in Friends as the guy who needed change for the bus while Phoebe was in front of Macy's doing her holiday bell ringing. I was watching Scrubs at some unknown time and recognized him when playing Dr. Moyer (I think he was a radiologist or something.) When I was looking up photos for this post I got a great shock when I discovered he was also in Pirates of the Caribbean! Pintel, the guy who was friends with the guy with the fake eye was Lee! I had no idea and I was like, "How did I miss that?"

Hello Cleo King. You may remember her from the Friends episode, "The one where no one Proposes" as the nurse who is helping Rachel with Emma. A month or two ago we were watching "Deadwood" (which you should all see, it is an amazing show) and in the third season this character of 'Aunt Lou' shows up and I kept staring at her, knowing I had seen her before. This time, however, I figured it out quickly and then used the internet to double check. She was in the show (Friends) for maybe a minute but I still knew who she had been. Sometimes I think I am strange for remembering these things.

This ever-funny woman is Jane Lynch. Her role in Friends was quite innocent and normal, especially as compared to some of her other roles. When Monica and Chandler are looking into buying a house, she is the Realtor for the house next door to the one they are looking at. I have looked her up twice in the recent past. For some reason I keep forgetting what she has been in that I have seen. The first time I looked her up was when watching "40 Year-Old Virgin" for the second time. The second time was after watching "Role Models".

This lovely lady is Olivia Williams. By now I am sure everyone knows her from her role in "Dollhouse". We have recently began to watch that show and in the back of my mind was the fact that she looked familiar. When I finally gave in and looked her up I found that she was one of the bridesmaids at Ross and Emily's wedding. By the way, Dollhouse is pretty nifty. I would recommend it.

Here is Sam Anderson. He played one of my favorite characters in Friends. In the episode where Phoebe is having the triplets, Sam played the doctor who was obsessed with Fonzie. He was so funny in that role. About a month ago we rented Critters 2. At first, I thought it was some other actor but after I thought about it for a little while, I realized he had played the awesome doctor. When I went to his page on IMDb I got a huge shock when I discovered he also plays Bernard on Lost. How could I have possibly missed that? We are rewatching the DVDs of that show and at no time did I ever think that I recognized him. I was blown away!

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed my vacation into Friends-induced craziness.

Sam

Cheesecake Yumminess and Some Random Thoughts

2010-04-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

Finally there was an update for ScribeFire and I can now upload photos! This is a post I tried to do right after Easter but because of the technical difficulties, was unable to post. Here you go!

This year my family decided to celebrate Easter more than usual. In the past, my mom has made little baskets for us and I remember, years and years ago, going to a church service for Easter. That is usually about it as we predominately celebrate the Jewish holidays.

This year, however, my mom thought it would be nice to do an Easter dinner at my house. This was fine by me as it meant that I got to eat lots of good food with minimum effort and spend time with my family. So we came up with a menu and decided who was going to make and buy what. I of course was going to do a dessert. I wanted something light and Spring-y and I thought of cheesecake. And when I thought of cheesecake, I thought of these. When I first read this post I knew I would have to make them soon. Now I had a perfect reason.

I followed the recipe exactly as she posted so I am not going to post it here. Instead I would suggest heading over to the site yourself and checking out the other recipes and fun stuff.

I did get some pretty nice photos that I am going to share with you.

These were so good! I cannot wait to make them again. One thing that was not mentioned in the original post that I think is important is that these need to be refrigerated before you eat them or they fall apart. When I served them to my family they were still warm and very hard to eat. When I had them the next day they were perfect!

Some random thoughts: I don't think I can buy strawberries from the supermarket anymore. I bought the berries for this recipe from Vons because they were on sale for under $1. They looked ok but they had no flavor. The berries from the farmer's market are so incredibly sweet and tasty that I can never go back!

So I guess it was just one random thought. Oh well!

Sam

Music in Movies

2010-04-10T16:35:00.001-07:00

So I was going to do a post about the delicious cheesecake cupcakes that I made for Easter, but something is wrong with ScribeFire (the blogging editor I use) and it is not letting me import photos. This is a major issue because Blogger, near as I can figure, only allows one photo to be uploaded and it shows at the top of the page. :/ Until this problem resolves itself I have something else to discuss.

The other day, while in our Aesthetics of Film class, we watched "Paradise Now" (2005.) If you haven't heard of it, it is a movie about the Israel/Palestine conflict. It was a very powerful movie and very well made.

I noticed while watching this movie that there was no music in it at all. Later that day I was still thinking about the role of music in movies and how most music supervisors and directors seem to just throw random song into the movie they are working on.

If you are watching a contemporary action movie there is bound to be random rap and/or hip-hop songs playing in the background that do nothing to strengthen it as a film. In romantic comedies or love stories there will be the obligatory love song or sad romance song. Most of the time the music is set so much louder than the dialogue it almost hurts. I see no reason for this as people in theaters are already watching movies at a louder volume than needed. Then when you get the DVD it is sometimes necessary to turn the movie down during the music. Annoying.

One of the other movies we have watched for this class was "Bom yeoreum gaeul gyoel geurigo bom" (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring.) All songs except for one in this movie were instrumental. The one song that did have words, I found to be very distracting.

I feel that it is almost never necessary to use songs in movies. Scores, yes. I am all for instrumental music if it helps to set the mood for the scene. The one place where a good composer is very important and songs are completely irrelevant is in a horror movie. Would "Halloween" or "Jaws" have been the same without their iconic scores? I really doubt it. We went to go see "The Shining" and I kept jumping because of the music. That is what it is designed to do. Music in a horror film is preparing you for the horror that is to come. You always know when something awful is about to happen because of the music.

I know I don't have a lot of followers, but, if anyone reads this I would really like to hear what you have to say in response. As always, thanks for reading!

Sam

Spring!

2010-03-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

Spring is finally here! In the middle of winter I was lamenting that I was sick of citrus and was craving fresh berries. The only blueberries that were available were from South America. Don't get me wrong, they were good, but I knew the berries from the Farmer's Market would be better. And don't get me started on the horrible strawberry prices! Who wants to pay $5 for a pack of unripe berries? Not me!

Saturday I went to our Farmer's Market and the strawberries smelled so good! I know their season really doesn't start until April but they were so tasty now and I couldn't resist!

The little old lady with the best prices on produce at the market had 6 ounces of blueberries for $3.50. I could of course get them at the grocery store for less but they might not taste as yummy and I would not be supporting my community.

Here are some photos of my beautiful spring produce:

Just look at how lovely they are!

The strawberries are finally ripe!

I love the market stand carrots! They are so sweet.

OK, so maybe theses aren't very spring-like, but they are the best shitake mushrooms that I have ever had!

In other, related news: You know how everyone keeps saying, "Buy meat from your farmer's market. It will taste better." I have always been annoyed at this statement because my market never had any meat beyond sausages (very expensive, DELICIOUS sausage.) This past Wednesday I went to the market and lo and behold, there was a gentleman selling all sorts of cuts of beef! I thought, "Finally, I can join the masses in buying local meats!" I purchased a breakfast steak as the prices were a bit out of my price range. When we eat it I will do a review of the taste and such.

I guess that about wraps up today's post. Hopefully more yummy foods will start appearing at the market and I can get some healthy, delicious cooking in!

Sam

An Ode to Biscuits From a Tube

2010-03-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

Our Albertson's has store-brand biscuits for $0.50. As someone on a serious budget that is a price I could not ignore. Last night I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I had to cook out of the freezer because we have so much food in there it is a waste not to. I thought of the biscuits and remembered that we enjoyed the crescent rolls filled with meat and cheese. I thought, "Perhaps I could make some sort of cup out of biscuit dough and fill it with meat and cheese." Thus the recipe was born.

I started cooking the meat and saw the rosemary I had sitting next to stove in water. Light bulb! I snipped a few springs of the rosemary and added it to the pan while the meat cooked. While cooking I recalled the bag of bell pepper slices that might still be in the freezer. We are big pepper fans so I thought it would be a good way to get some veggies into dinner. Luckily there was about a quarter of the bag left which ended up being just enough. Fresh pepper would work just fine as I defrosted them before use. Here is the recipe:

Rosemary Ground Beef and Bell Pepper Biscuit Cups
Ingredients:
1lb ground beef (I used just under that much)
Two or three 2inch sprigs of rosemary (basically, to taste)
About 1/2 cup of chopped bell peppers, frozen or fresh, any color
Two 10-count tubes of biscuits*
4oz shredded cheddar cheese (maybe 1 1/2 cups?)
BBQ or ketchup for dipping

Heat the oven to 400°. Cook the rosemary and ground beef in a pan until the meat is no longer pink.
Drain the beef and discard the rosemary. Transfer to a plate to cool.
Spray two six-count muffin tins with pan spray.
Open biscuits per directions on packaging. Take each biscuit, one by one, and flatten/stretch to about 2 or 3 inches (do not let them tear!)
Place flattened biscuits into muffin tins, pressing sides of dough up and against sides of the pan.
Place a few pieces (4 or 5 depending on size) of pepper in the bottom of each cup.
Spoon two (regular sized) spoonfulls of ground beef on top.
Place in the oven and bake for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, sprinkle them with the cheese and return to the oven for 6 minutes**.
Remove and enjoy!!
Makes 12
*I used Albertson's brand biscuits, this recipe is NOT sized for Pillsbury grands, the store brand are much smaller!
**This is to ensure the biscuits are done, if you use a brand with a different baking time, adjust!

These are super delicious and relatively healthy. If all goes well they should come out looking something like this:



You may notice that the recipe called for two 10-count tubes of dough and I only make 12 dinner cups. This is because as I was making them I was also thinking of dessert!

I recently bought some Lemon Curd from Trader Joe's. It is so lemony good I have been looking for excuses to eat it (besides out of the jar!) A while back chocolate chips were on sale and lemon and chocolate are yummy so I improvised a dessert to go with the improvised dinner.

Chocolate Chip Lemon Dessert Cups
Ingredients:
A handful of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 teaspoons lemon curd*
8 store brand biscuits
Powdered sugar for dusting**

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray a six-count muffin tin with pan spray.
As before stretch/flatten the biscuit dough into 2-3 inch disks and drop into muffin tin.
You will have 2 biscuits left over. Place them on a tray as per package instructions and push some mini chips on them.
Spoon a teaspoon of lemon curd into 4 of the cups. Sprinkle two of the lemon cups with mini chips.
Add some mini chips to the two remaining cups.
Bake 10-12 minutes rotating halfway.
Remove from the oven and dust with powdered sugar.
Makes 8
*My husband does not like lemon as much as I do so I only made 4 with the lemon curd. Use about 1 teaspoon per cup.
**I wish I had thought of this when I made them. The chocolate chip only ones would have really benefited from this.

Below is a close-up of the lemon and chocolate cup. They were so delicious!

If you do not like lemon these could of course be made with any type of jam (I do not recommend jelly, too fluid) or even a custard. I am considering making another batch of these soon and trying them with melted butter and sugar brushed on before baking. Will it burn? No idea.

I hope you enjoy!

Sam

Bits of My Childhood: Part 2

2010-03-08T09:43:00.001-08:00

So the other day I posted about things that had a great impact on my childhood. I tried to get part two up yesterday but my computer was being weird and dumb so I didn't get a chance. Today the computer seems to be in better health and so here we have it; part 2:

The Polar Bear King (or Kvitebjørn Kong Valemon)
This is another instance of me having no idea where and how my mother came in to possession with a film. I suppose it is possible that she just saw it in the store and thought we kids would like it. Well, if that was the case the she was absolutely right! I watched this so many times as a child, I loved it. Growing up I was always confused as to why the actors mouths never quite matched what they were saying. Recently I have discovered that the Polar Bear King is a Norwegian folktale and this movie was in Norwegian and dubbed over in English. This is another piece of my past that is now available on DVD and eventually I am going to have to buy it. What I really want is to find a non-dubbed version and see if there are any differences is dialogue. If anyone finds this PLEASE let me know!

Just in Time for Chanukah
Another peek into my religious studies as a child :) This was a great tape (cassette) that we always played at Chanukah. It helped my brothers and me learn the Chanukah blessings and other fun facts about the holiday. There are two song in particular that stand out in my mind and the minds of my siblings: The first is, "Matathias Bold", a short little song sung in round. I can still hear the song in my head and we used to sing it ALL the time, even if it wasn't Chanukah. The second song is the ballad of Judah Maccabee. I don't remember anything about this song other than it's chorus because my brother and I used to sing at each other, swinging our head towards one another like madmen.The first song on the list is also one of my favorites, "O Chanukah".

Old Disney Channel
There is a Facebook page out there that is, "If Walt Disney watched the Disney Channel right now, he would cry." I think this would, in fact, be true. The Disney Channel used to be awesome. They showed all of the old shorts on tv (now you have to buy them in expensive tins,) they showed good movies each week (remember when Michael Eisner introduced the movies with Mickey and Minnie?) and they had no commercials. Granted, now the commercials are usually for Disney related things, but still! Some of my favorite short are the ones shown above, "Rugged Bear" (the one where all the other bears get a cave and they won't let Humphrey in so he goes to Donald's cabin) and "Grin and Bear it" (Humphrey teams up with Donald because be wants his ham.) At some point my parents recorded these and several other "Humphrey" shorts on a tape and I watched them all the time (I apparently did all of these things 'all the time'. :) ) Also on the tape may have been "Tea for Two Hundred". I used this as an example of racism in Disney cartoon when I asked them why they wouldn't release "Song of the South" but they would release obviously racist cartoons. I have yet to get a response. Don't think I will. Anyway, I have been happy to find that I have two Humphrey cartoons as well as Tea for Two Hundred on two of my Disney Treasures Tins.

Well folks that concludes my childhood in a nutshell. I have some ideas for more posts but I have a lot of homework right now so we will see when they actually get posted. I hope you all have enjoyed reading.

Sam

Bits of My Childhood: Part 1

2010-03-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been thinking about how certain things in my childhood left such an imprint on me that I still think of them to this day. Last night I decided this would make an interesting blog post; reliving my childhood through books, music and TV/movies.

...If you Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
I have no idea where or when my family acquired this book but as a child I read it so many times. For some reason the story captivated me and I learned so much from it. Now, whenever I think of the pilgrims or something associated with them, I think of this book. A couple of months ago I was reading a book about Christmas and the author was talking about how the Puritans did not celebrate. As I read those words I remembered the book and how Christmas day came and the settlers saw it as just another work day but the ship's crew, who were not Puritans, did celebrate. It amazes me how much that book impacted my life. Apparently the woman who wrote the book has done a whole series of these kinds of books. I would recommend them to any young child who wants to learn.

Sesame Street Episode 2485: Maria and Luis get Married
I have seen this episode of Sesame Street more than any other. My mom recorded it off TV and we watched it all the time. I have most of the songs from this episode memorized and still enjoy watching it today. About a year ago I was pleased to discover the full episode on dailymotion.com and burned it to DVD for my mom. So much does my family love this episode that when Brandon and I got married, when his Best man went for the wedding ring, we played the sound clip, "Don't drop the rings Elmo, please Elmo don't drop the rings!" which was always my favorite part. I had no idea they had incorporated that into the ceremony and I was delighted! Please go here to watch the episode as it is not available on youtube. Right before we got married I watched this video several times and now Brandon quotes it all the time! Especially the beginning where Maria is on the roof talking with Linda in Sign Language.

Bubbe's Boarding House: Passover at Bubbe's
This is a really cute, muppet-like, mostly educational film about Passover. Before doing this post I did not know that there was a Chanuka one as well. I am really not sure how we came to posses this movie but my brothers and I had a great time watching it as kids. We learned the four questions in Hebrew and had a lot of fun singing the title song! Even to this day I still break into songs from this movie and my brothers get a big kick out of it. When my cousin was born we gave the video to her and now I am sad about that because I want to watch it again. Fortunately for me I can by the DVD from Amazon. I may have to buy this soon, not only to relive my childhood, but to see the Chanuka story as well.

Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon! (Probably tomorrow.)

Sam

When the truth is found to be lies / And all the joy within you dies

2010-03-05T18:07:00.001-08:00

Brandon and I are taking an Aesthetics of Film class at VC. I has been an interesting couple of weeks because I have been given the chance to see many movies I otherwise would not have seen. Every fifth week we must turn in a 'film log' of the four movies we have just seen, giving our thoughts on the way the movie was shot, the acting, etc. This past week we watched "A Serious Man" the Academy Award nominee by the Coen Brothers. I would like to give you my thoughts on this movie because it truly was a very well made film.

Warning: Contains Spoilers!

An ordinary man tries to live his ordinary life but things get in the way...like Sy Abelman.
    This is the third film by the Coen Brothers that I have seen and like the other two, I did not enjoy it. I think it was a very well done, excellent film, it just didn't do anything for me. I know it was a great movie because, as with other movies we have watched in this class, I have not been able to get it out of my head.
    I would like to start with fist adressing the opening scene. The big question is, "Dos this part have anything to do with the rest of the film?" We discussed how the brothers have stated that it does not and perhaps they are right. However, I think that it could be seen as the reason for the whole movie. The couple in the beginning could have been Larry's ancestors and their actions with the supposed dybbuk caused their family to be forever cused, thereby causing the long sting of misfortune for Larry.
    There were a few of the characters in the movie that I thought were amusing. Danny's Hebrew teacher was a fine example of the stuffy old teacher. He just stood at his blackboard, his back to the students, droning on and on in Hebrew. Frankly I also would have almost fallen asleep. The Clive characted I loved. He was so funny in his brolen English, "Secret test. Hush, hush." HIs delivery of the lines was absolutely perfect. The Sy Ableman character was amusing in an annoying way. You knew the actor was doing a good job because you just hated him and were happy when he died.
    I was not overly enthused with the character of Larry Gopnik. He seemed to be a man who was uncomfortable in his own skin. He was completely lost in life, oblivious to the things around him, almost as if he wasn't really there. He was more an observer of life than someone actually living it. I was also annoyed at the foul-mouthed kid on the bus. In movies there always seems to be one kid (as far as I have seen, always a boy) who is trying way to hard to seem "cool" and inserts as many four letter words into his sentances as possible. I am guessing the Coen Brothers hired Simon Helberg to play the part of the Jr. Rabbi because people already have a dard time taking him seriously. In his other roles he seemed much the same character. I couldn't take him seriously and neither did Larry.
    There were a couple of comments made by characters that I found interesting. All throughout the movie members of the Gopnik family kept saying, "I didn't do anything." It's as if none of them actual do anything. Larry certainly does not. He walks through life letting things happen to him rather than making them happen. Also, when Larry, Judith and Sy meet at Amber's and Sy is telling Larry about the Jolly Roger, he tells him they have a pool. The only time we see the pool is during the very sad scene with Arthur and Larry and the pool is completely drained!
    After the movie when we were discussing several people talked about how great the cinematography was. I don't know whether is was my dislike for the movie or if I was just having an off day but I didn't see anything special. The whole movie was very dark, which made taking notes difficult and there were only a few scenes that I found worthy of note. I really liked the shots in the Bar Mitzvah scene. Danny is stoned and it's almost as if he has tunnel vision, he has a very narrow window of focus and all of the edges are blurry. I enjoyed the way they played with the foucs. This was really also the only part of the movie that I could relate to, having had a Bat Mitzvah.
    You may wonder why I say I did not like this movie when I have just spent the last several pages talking about all the great things in it. There are two things that I can pinpoint that would really make me dislike a movie. The first is Larry's character. I could not empathize or relate to this character at all. He just seemed to be floating through life, not trying very hard to be a good father or husband. He was a total doormate, letting everyone walk all over him all the time. The only thing he seemed to understand was physics. If only he understood life the way he understood math. The other thing that severely irked me was the end. Through the movie I could not wait for it to be over. I kind of started to enyoy it the last 30 minutes or so (starting with the Bar Mitzvah scene,) things seemed to be looking up, his wife apologized, Danny gets his radio and money back and Larry decided to change Clive's grade and keep the money. Then the tornado is about to start, there is an onimous call from the doctor and the movie just ends. There is no resolution to anything! The property lawyer dies in the middle of the movie without revealing what he has found, Danny does not give the money he owess to Fagle, Larry and Judith are still going to get a divorce and to top it all off, a tornado is coming but we don't get to see it. I understant that life does not always give you the resolution that you want but to sit through this movie watching this schlub lose everything and not even fight for it and then the audience gets nothing in the end is just annoying.

So there you go, my thoughts on this movie. I am trying not to let my thoughts on the few films by the Coens inform my thoughts on any future movies of theirs I might watch but I must admit that it is difficult. If any of you have seen this movie I would love to hear your thoughts!

Sam

Chicken With Goat Cheese and Basil

2010-03-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

Several months ago I stopped home for something (no idea what for, not important) and was talking with my mom. Every time I go home my mom tries to give me food and this instance was no exception. She had made dinner for her, my dad and my brother for that night but there was extra food so she gave it to me. It looked and smelled very good so I accepted and ate it for my dinner that night.

Let me just tell you how delicious that chicken was! Goat cheese was oozing out from under the wonderfully crispy skin and the flavor of the basil was a wonderful addition.

Later I called my mom to tell her how much I enjoyed the food and told her I had to have the recipe. I have no idea where she got the original recipe, she just told me the ingredients and how to put it together. I have made this several times for Brandon and myself and I love it each time. The original way to put it together is to put everything under the skin but the first time I made this all I had was boneless, skinless chicken breast so I did a roll instead. That worked although I missed the taste and texture of the skin.

I have tried to assemble some semblance of a recipe here but there are so many variables to take into account; how many chicken breasts you are using, how much skin in on the breast and how much basil you like. Here are the basics, do with them what you will:

Chicken with basil and goat cheese:
Ingredients:
Skin-on chicken breasts (the bone is not necessary)
Log of Chevre goat cheese (amount is variable, however much you want)
Bunch of basil leaves (also variable)
Salt, Pepper and Olive oil

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breasts into a baking dish.
Slice the goat cheese and gather the basil leaves.
Pull the skin away from the breasts and stuff with the goat cheese and then the basil.
Drizzle the chicken with olive oil (this will make the skin nice and crispy) and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake until done, about 30 minutes

Simple, delicious and nice enough to serve to guests. If the chicken does not have bones this will of course be easier to eat but we all know that the bones give extra flavor so it is up to you!

Enjoy!

Sam

My First Blog

2010-03-03T12:51:00.000-08:00
So this is my fist blog ever unless you count LiveJournal. I have been wanting to do a blog for a while now but I thought, "Who would want to read what I have to say?" Recently I discovered 'feedly' a Firefox add-on that lets you have all of the blogs one wants to read all in one place. I went crazy adding food blogs and started to think that perhaps I could do a blog of my own. After Watching "Julie & Julia" I wanted to do a blog even more. To quote the movie, "I have thoughts." And I do. Who knows if anyone besides my husband will ever read this. Frankly I don't think I care that much anymore. I make so many observations about my world and I thought perhaps I could share them with the rest of the world.

If anyone is curious about my profile photo (which I LOVE) it is from a trip to Magic Mountain almost six years ago. We were in 'Gotham City' and they had these foam Batman masks at this one stand. I had to try one on and my friend Justin took this picture.

Anyway, if anyone is out there, thanks for reading and hopefully I will post something of interest sometime soon!

Sam