In Which Monday Menu Mayhem Eats Dessert First

Another Monday, another bout of snow on the way for the Northeast!  Woo-hoo!

Unfortunately I left all of the warm and lovely food I cooked this weekend at Scout Camp, so I'll have to eat healthily, if not comfortingly, during the next batch of inches.

This weekend was shockingly Nigella-lite-- despite a dinner party and two days full of culinary delights, there was only one thing from our guiding-light cookbook that was prepared, and that was Grasshopper Pie.

Despite what you might think from the content of this blog thus far, I am a huge dessert fan.  It started long ago when my grandfather corrected my mother's healthy teachings of yogurt and apple sauce, replacing the "good for me" foods with the "good" foods, namely ice cream and cookies.  Thanks, Pappy.

In any case, when it comes to dinner party planning, dessert is often a top priority for me, and I was intrigued by the Grasshopper Pie (having never made one myself) when I saw it in the book.  So easy!  So boozey!  With a crust of smashed Oreos and a filling of melted marshmallows and whipped cream, this was, in many ways, a perfect dessert.  It was light and refreshing (thank you, crème de mènthe), and because it's served cold was an excellent juxtaposition to the rest of the warmth-inducing meal.

I foregoed (forewent?  foregot?  foregrew?) the food coloring, as Nigella noted that it is not necessary, and I am in a place in life where I don't feel it adds anything other than chemicals.  This is (a fraction of) the finished product:

It also makes an excellent breakfast.  And dessert at lunch time.  And afternoon snack...

In Which Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday is a Day Late on Purpose. (Honestly)

Well, it's been quite a week in the Northeast in terms of weather disruptions and feet of snow.  You won't find me among the naysayers suffering from Snow Fatigue, but you will find me firmly in the "as long as it's snowing, can I just stay home and watch Buffy and/or read one of the Zoe Archer books I picked up last weekend?" camp.

But instead of doing either of those things yesterday following the Great and Unexpected Blizzard of January 27, 2011, I came up to Scout Camp and we, er, decamped to Boston to watch the Sundance USA film My Idiot Brother at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

I could have been heard complaining loudly this week (mostly to Boy Scout) that I wish that I had been at Sundance this year rather than last year (even the logos are prettier!) but that is neither here nor there.  As the Oscar nominations came out this week, it was also fun to discover that I knew a lot of the movies (especially the docs) because they came straight out of Sundance 2010.

ANYWAY.  My Idiot Brother is the tale of, well... an idiot brother.  Played by Paul Rudd.  "How is he that much of an idiot?" you ask.  Well, in the opening scene he sells weed to a uniformed cop.  What's so most excellent about this movie, though, is that there's more depth to it than "Ohmygod, how can anyone be that stupid?"

Ned is essentially a hippie who believes that in putting your trust in others, they will repay your trust with goodness.  The officer made a good case for needing weed, and so Ned was happy to oblige him.

When Ned gets out of prison he gets passed around between his mother and three sisters (played with varying degrees of neurosis by Emily Mortimer, Elizabeth Banks, and Zooey Deschanel).  In his own way, and through use of his crunchy naivete, Ned then proceeds to deconstruct their lives (for better?) by exposing the cracks in their well veneered worlds.

There are some truly hilarious moments in this film (to detail them would be too spoiler-y), but it's also just the story of a family dealing with changing dynamics and real honesty, which I think we all know can be challenging.

When it makes wide release (and it did get sold at Sundance... yay!) I highly recommend seeing My Idiot Brother.  The ensemble is stellar, as is the writing.  Go go go go go.

Have a lovely weekend, and be careful.  If you're not lucky you're going to end up with a review of Buffy Season 3.

In Which Monday Menu Mayhem Makes Chicken Soup

First of all, Happy 100th Post everyone!  It's been a long(-ish) journey, but we've made it to triple digits.  Wa-hoo.

I know you're going to be surprised, but I am celebrating with a Buffy ep, and soon will have a glass of wine.  Wild, wild parties over here.  (Come on! Xander is fighting the undead while the others are trying to fend off an apocalypse.  How am I not supposed to watch that?!)

Anyway, on to more important business.  This week's Nigella recipe, Thai Chicken Soup, was rather disappointing.  However, it could very well be that it's my own damn fault.  The recipe called for tamarind paste and turmeric.  I may (or may not) have substituted those two ingredients for Yellow Curry Paste, which contains those ingredients and (through no conflict of interest at all) I am able to get for free.

The final result was a tasty soup (which, like all soups, definitely benefited from sitting overnight) which was a little sour (hello, lime juice and fish sauce!) and not exactly like I expected it to taste, which might be half of the problem.  Someone who's been eating Ramen like it's going out of style tends to have different expectations of what chicken soup should taste like.

Hark!  A photo:

Will make this dish again, but will also definitely feel free to modify to my heart's content.  What's nice about it is that it's easy... pre-cooked chicken, stock, frozen veggies... As Boy Scout said, "I give it a solid C."  Which, now that I think about it, isn't so positive after all...

In Which Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday Lives the Obsession

First of all, a very special thanks and shout-out to the Wendy Pan for her most excellent review of the Amazon Kindle.  As a hopeful librarian in training, I have serious issues with the thought of giving up printed books, though we all know I have certainly found solace in my Kindle for iPhone.

I was going to let the Wendy Pan's obsession sit as Obsession de la semaine, but I already had mine plotted... so hers shall be the review de la semaine.  Dig?

So the reason I can't come up with a review myself is because this week I am obsessed with... Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Have I mentioned that one of the ways I maintain my sanity in life is through marathons of excellent TV shows?  It's been far too long since I have Buffy'd, Aliased, Felicity'd, and Battlestar Galactica'd, and my psyche is showing the signs of neglect.

Part of the ohholyhell awesomeness is the heroines, obviously.  Sydney Bristow is one of the best (duh), and I have even taken important life lessons from Felicity, especially in the realm of... not getting drunk and waking up in a frat boy's bed.

ANYWAY.

Buffy and I have very little in common, and I can't relate to her, so it's hard for me to call her One of My Favorite Heroines.  That said, Joss Whedon wrote a brilliant character; a valley girl who fights vampires, is secretly super smart, and has common sense coming out of her ears. And as I watch first two and a half seasons (Thank you, Boy Scout.  There is a secret place in Boyfriend Heaven for Boys Who Let Their Girlfriends Work Out Their Issues Through Vampire Violence), I cannot help but think about another teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire against her better judgment (?) and lives to tell the tale.  Whether that tale is horrifically bad or not.

But as in so many most excellent things, the best part of Buffy is the supporting players.  Xander, Willow, and Giles all make or break the show... the few eps that any or all of them are not present are lacking severely.  The dialogue, the intelligence, the His Girl Friday-brand rapport is insane (in the best way) and when (the long-suffering) Boy Scout announced that he wasn't a fan of Buffy because "it's just not realistic," I couldn't help but take it as the best compliment ever.

This is where we are.  Obsessed with marathoning, and marathoning Buffy.  It's comfort food for the nerd's hibernating soul.

Kindle: To excite (interest, feelings etc), Ignite

Okay, so, I had my doubts. Well, not really. But for the sake of argument - let's pretend I did. I had read about them and I had a narrow vision of what they might have been like. But never in my wildest imaginings did I expect to fall in rapture! I am speaking, of course, of my Kindle!

Dan Darling gave me one for Christmas after I expressed an interest in stealing Sam-I-Am's from him. Maybe Dan Darling had ulterior motives. The Amazon boxes were piling up on the front porch... daily! Maybe he thought this would curtail my reading (ha!) maybe he just plain old accepts that I am a reading machine and loves me anyway! For whatever reason, I am the proud owner of a Kindle (with a lighted brown leather cover, no less!)

Did it take a while to get used to? Nope! I downloaded my first book the day after Christmas. A Nora Roberts. And I like to think I helped to push her over the top as the all time best selling author on Kindle (to date.) I read with the usual distraction of a Beagle on my lap. I held my Kindle with one hand and became adept at turning the page without even moving my arm! I downloaded my next book later that day and was reading as if I had a lot of time to make up for. Dan Darling asks, "Are you still reading the same book?" Um, not quite! 15 books later (this is just since Christmas mind you) he caught me reading a paperback book. "What's that?" It was my Book Club book. The one I had ordered from Amazon before I knew I was getting a Kindle. I started/finished that on a snowy/icy Wednesday with the same Beagle on my lap. I had to turn pages. I had to read both sides of the book (not just a single screen.) It was awkward. I survived. Hereafter, I will make sure I can download my Book Club books.

Will I ever prefer a book to my Kindle again? Absolutely! I must have my J.D. Robb books in bound, covered editions. I own them all so far. And downloading them all to my Kindle would be really silly! And since I am notorious for rereading things over and over, it makes sense for me to have the whole series... in print.

That being said, I am a huge Kindle fan! I have no intention of using it just when I travel! I will use it any and every opportunity I am given! UPS doesn't visit so much anymore, but the satisfaction of going online and ordering a book and having it loaded in my Kindle immediately is beyond description!

I did have one minor issue with my brand new Kindle! And it was not pretty. I had finished the last of my downloaded books and was ready to find another - when our internet went down. I drove around town (at 9:00 at night) looking for WiFi. Even the town library was inaccessible from the parking lot! I was like an addict! It was a long night! I will have to make sure I always have a few books on my queue! Lesson learned!

In Which Monday Menu Mayhem is Still Mayhem-ic

Greetings from the sad, sad land where the Patriots are no longer in contention for the Super Bowl.

It's been a culinary weekend here at Scout Camp, starting with marinated steaks, lemon mousse, and roasted butternut squash.  Unfortunately I cannot write about any of those things since none of them are part of The Great Experiment, but let me assure you that they were very, very good.

This weekend's Nigella (semi-)triumph was the African Drumsticks, which are essentially just marinated chicken legs.  However, the marinade was delicious; Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, mustard, apricot jam, ginger and some onion (chopped with gratifying efficiency in my sexy new chopper).

The recipe indicates that the chicken can marinate overnight, so we let it do just that, and it came out perfectly-- totally succulent and flavorful.  In fact, the only criticism we both had was that it could have used a little more spice.  Will have to try to remember that for the next round.

And apologies to Lady Liberty.  We were so busy devouring, the idea of photography was completely lost.

Oh, and thanks to Boy Scout, who is dutifully cleaning up the mayhem I left in my wake while I write this entry.

Happy MLK Day!

In Which Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday Reads Warrior by Zoe Archer, Becomes Obsessed

There was a very precise “ohholyshit, what have a stumbled on to here?” moment that came relatively early on in Warrior by Zoe Archer. This is that moment:

“Gabriel made a face. ‘Dried mutton and horse sweat? Even enlisted men were fed better. It’s grounds for mutiny.’

‘I hope not,’ Thalia answered. ‘Flogging is so time consuming.’”

It comes on page 97 of the adventure involving Gabriel Huntley, Thalia Burgess, and the Blades of the Rose, a secret society tasked with guarding the Sources of all of the world’s magic.

When Gabriel accidentally witnesses a murder near the docks in London, he feels honor-bound to deliver a message carried by the dead man and intended for Thalia Burgess’ father, who happens to reside in outer Mongolia. Gabriel has literally just retired from the army and has yet to establish himself back at home, and so has very little trouble jumping on a boat and journeying to the other side of the world.

What he discovers once there is that a) he has a serious thing for Burgess’ daughter (natch) and b) magic actually exists here on Earth. These are not simultaneous happenings, but they take place close enough to one another.

Because Burgess is injured, it’s Thalia who has to set out to protect the Source (of magic) located in Mongolia, and despite warnings that his work there is done, Gabriel decides to tag along for the ride.

I don’t think I can stress enough how much I LOVED this book. I loved Thalia; she’s headstrong and not at all proper, but doesn’t see the need to defend herself or the way she has been raised on the edge of the map. She’s had her heart broken, but survived, and doesn’t try to fight her attraction to Gabriel on principle. In addition, as the quote above demonstrates, she has a rather badass sense of humor.

As for Gabriel, he’s an alpha (oh boy, is he ever) but he’s not a raging butthole. And that is awesome. He’s super proud of Thalia and all of the things that make her less-than-normal (she’s not shocked by his language, can shoot a rifle like nobody’s business, etc.) and is protective of her in a reasonable and not at all psychotic way.

Here is what I really like though: this book represents the perfect, flawless combination of my two favorite genres, which are fantasy and romance. All I could think while I was reading this was “This is like The Enchanted Forest Chronicles! With hot sex!” There aren’t any moments of “Um... that’s awkward and makes no sense” in either direction-- in the fantasy or the romance. It’s books like this that make be feel like a seriously inferior writer of fiction, because I know I’m never going to write anything half as awesome. Or even have an idea that is half as awesome.

Warrior is the first book in the Blades of the Rose series, and before the end of the book we got to make the acquaintance of three more Blades... and look at that! There are three more books to order!

I. Cannot. Wait.