November 7, 2008
Oscar Challenge: Casablanca
Okay, so it's the Best Movie in the Whole World Except for Citizen Kane (which I've never seen), and volumes have been written about how and why is it so great, so naturally I have nothing original to say about it.
But it's hard to deny that it really is pretty much the Best Movie in the Whole World. It really shouldn't be. It's kind of a schlocky, cheesy, melodramatic story. It seems like one string of cliches after another. But sometimes cheese works. This works like Star Wars works. It KNOWS it's cheese, it revels in its cheesiness.
Rick's Cafe is practically the Mos Eisley Cantina, and Han Solo owes a huge debt to Rick. I tried to expand this Casablanca/Star Wars parallel theory, but it's fatally flawed by the fact that Ilsa Lund is *way* too ladylike to shoot anyone with a blaster. Also, there is no Darth Vader.
But maybe that's why this flick transcends cheese. There ISN'T a mustache-twirling, mouth-breathing villain for everyone to hate. It's like in Bambi. You never really see the bad guy. But you know the evil is out there, and the stakes are ratcheted up so high that you can forgive a lot of interpersonal melodrama for the sake of of the fate of the free world, and stuff.
Wait, did I just switch from Star Wars to the Bush Administration? Never mind, ignore me. Go get yourself a couple of bottles of bubbly for to make some Champagne cocktails, and go fucking watch Casablanca. If you don't, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.
November 2, 2008
Oscar Challenge: Mrs. Miniver
Forgive me, movie fans, it's been months since we watched anything after work other than All My Children (TORNADO!) or Amazing Race or Survivor. No, seriously. It's pretty sad.
Even considering my extreme slackitude, we would have watched our next Oscar Challenge film a while ago if it hadn't involved hauling out the laser disc player. Call me crazy, but I just can't get rid of the thing. Dude, I have the original non-fucked-up Star Wars on laser. I will keep it until the end of time.
AAAAnyway, Mrs. Miniver. Damn. Every time I watch it, I think, "Don't get all caught up, it's a propaganda film." But it's sooooo good. Teresa Wright is sooooo good. Greer Garson is soooooo good. The story, the supporting actors, and the message are soooooo good.
As a would-be actress, I've always had the greatest respect for Greer Garson's technique. She had the most amazing ability to convey precisely what she was thinking and feeling without saying a word, and sometimes even with her back to the camera. She and Teresa Wright both absolutely, positively deserved their Best Actress/Best Supporting Actress Oscars. Every single scene they share is riveting.
If you haven't seen this, please do. It's a beautiful film. It's a little difficult to watch at this particular moment in time. It's hard to watch these wonderful actors eloquently make the case for fighting an absolutely necessary war while we're off screwing things up overseas.
Next up in the Oscar Challenge Propaganda-fest: Casablanca! Bring kleenex!
Posted by Kate at 10:55 AM | Comments (1)October 30, 2008
Spaghetti Carbonara
I promise soon I'll make something challenging or innovative from the Fat book. Right now all I have for you is easy, classic and totally delicious Spaghetti Carbonara.
This recipe calls for pancetta, but I used guanciale, because that's what's traditionally used, and I had some, and I really like it. The other minor variation was that I used extra egg yolks. This recipe calls for two eggs and an extra yolk. I cracked two beautiful Soul Food eggs into the bowl, then I cracked open the third egg to discover a double yolk. So of course I used them.
It might have been the extra yolk, but this was the silkiest, custardiest Carbonara I've ever made. Sooo delicious. Sorry about the crappy picture - the light was bad and I was a little toasty.
Posted by Kate at 10:26 AM
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October 24, 2008
girly day
I got up at the crack of dawn on my first actual day off in months and took Boris to the vet to have unspeakable things done to his parts. I felt like a monster and a horrible mommy, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
When I got home, The Grand Duchess Olga Katrina was very happy to see me, and we spent the day giving each other facials and pedicures and watching chick flicks. (Only the chick flick part of that is true, but we did have a nice afternoon together.)
Isn't she purty?
p.s. Her brother is home now, and she keeps hissing at him. Yesterday they were inseparable. Will this pass?
Posted by Kate at 7:45 PM | Comments (3)October 22, 2008
bacon mayo BLT
(no, really, this post has no kittens.)
So everyone who picks up the Fat book at the store somehow magically turns to the page that has the recipe for the BLT made with bacon mayonnaise.
On Friday I failed utterly to get my ass in gear and cook the lamb shanks I'd brought home (Nathan cooked them this week and they were amazing), so we made ourselves a batch of hurricanes (because it was time to watch the TORNADO episode of AMC), I cooked up some bacon and got out my whisk and made bacon mayo.
OMG. I'm sure it helped that it was (duh) Fatted Calf bacon fat and the yolk of a Soul Food chicken's egg, but, holy crap, this was the best mayo EVER. Slathered on Oatnut toast with lots of bacon and pretty yellow heirloom tomatoes, I don't think I've ever had a better BLT. Go make this NOW.
Okay, I lied. Here are some sweet sleeping kittens.
Posted by Kate at 9:45 AM
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October 21, 2008
spaghetti with brown butter and sage
(no kittens in this post)
When life gives you butter, spaghetti and sage, you should melt the butter, throw the sage leaves into it and cook until the sage gets crispy and the butter becomes browned. Then you toss it with some cooked spaghetti and you have the easiest, most delicious dinner in the whole world.
Okay, I lied. Boris likes to look at pictures of himself on iPhoto.
Posted by Kate at 10:32 PM
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October 15, 2008
I am STILL not knitting Clapotis.
Posted by Kate at 10:35 AM
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October 8, 2008
Pumpkin and Bacon Soup
Last night's delicious leftovers reminded me that I failed to talk about this wonderful, easy soup I made. It was so easy that I was able to make it after getting slightly sloshed while watching last Thursday's stupid-ass VP debate.
Our CSA brought us a little sugar pumpkin last week, and I was pretty sure I knew where I could get some decent bacon, so I girded my loins with some gin, watched idiocy in action, then made some soup.
I bought that other squash at the produce market at the Oxbow because I was a-skeered that my little punkin wouldn't be big enough, and I was right. It was a lovely squash, but it sure was hard to peel.
I sauteed some bacon, then added sliced onions, celery and sage.
Then water (I didn't have any stock) got added, then the soup simmered until the squash was soft. The recipe said to put the soup into a blender, but I was traumatized by soup and a blender at a tender age, so I stuck my rhnn thingy into the pot and let it do its immersion-blender-y job.
The soup was garnished with crumbled bacon and sage, and because I was somewhat intoxicated, roasted pumpkin seeds. The seeds didn't exactly work, but they were nice and nutty so we ate them anyway.
Yum. For a soup that used water instead of stock, it was plenty flavorful. The texture was nice and rich and creamy (without cream), and the sweet pumpkin and the sweet-salty bacon were beautiful together. With this we drank Champagne cocktails and wished we could move to Canada.
Posted by Kate at 9:39 AM | Comments (4)