Six Degrees...

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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