Everyone has their favorite way to issue out the calendar and welcome in the new! While I'm a social creature in general, I must confess New Year's Eve parties aren't always my favorite. A lot of them seem to depend on people drinking for enjoyment rather than providing games or other activities, which won't keep me entertained through midnight. Plus, I'm often just returned home from long stretches of socializing with family, and my energy reserves are low. And finally, people drive like morons on New Years. For these reasons, I prefer to relax at home on December 31st.
My tradition is to stay in, make homemade pizza, and watch a movie marathon. We like to do trilogies and time them so the last film wraps up about 10 minutes to midnight. This year? Oh yeah, you guessed it: Star Wars.
But not just any Star Wars! We're starting with "A New Hope," the "Despecialized Edition." This is a version cobbled together and edited by the geekiest-geek fans ever (read: sincerely awesome people) to be as close to the original theater release as can be. Why? Because the original theater version won multiple Academy Awards, and a place in the Library of Congresses' American Film Collection.
Then we're watching "Empire Strikes Back." But then we're veering off course and checking out this crazy fan edit of the prequels, entitled "Star Wars: The Black Mantle." Haven't watched it yet, so I can't speak to how good it is, but I am VERY intrigued by the concept! Because the dialogue in the original films was so wooden, they actually used the Japanese dubbed release, then created their own subtitles to re-write the script! Now that's creativity, ladies and gentlemen. I will be sure to let you know what I think.
Obviously we'll finish with "Return of the Jedi." And then a few minutes to find out mistletoe and welcome in the new year!
And as for the pizza? Here's the crust, here's the sauce. This year I'm topping mine with gourmet salami and pepperoni, fresh mozzerella and ages parmesan, crimini mushrooms, arugula, dry brined Greek olives, and fresh basil. Finish it up with some good cocktails and the remainder of the holiday cookies and that's a contented farewell to 2015.
If you read this blog, you've probably figured out that I'm a nerd. If you listen to my podcast, Shadows On the Sound, you know for certain that I am a big nerd. And now, just in case you had any doubts as to how big of a nerd, it is my distinct delight and honor to announce:
While this is by no means my first experience with public speaking or creating my own presentations, it is my first time doing so as a Con panel. But I can think of no better place to make my debut than Ohayocon, which has become my favorite part of living in Ohio! So if you're looking for a way to banish the post-holiday blues mid-January, find your way to Columbus and hit up the biggest anime convention in the state. And while you're there, come to my panels! The schedule is still being settled, but here are the titles:
"From Jiangshi to Alucard: Vampires East & West"
"Brainy Anime Babes Who Know More Science Than You!"
During the holiday season, a lot of focus goes to the cookies. And why not? Cookies are fabulous! They're tasty, and pretty, and welcoming--everything you want to associate with the holidays.
Some of my cookies this year!
But if you're like me, you want those same tasty flavors from other sources, too. Which is why I invented this recipe for Gingerbread Spice French Toast! Now mind you: this does NOT use gingerbread, it uses regular sandwich bread. It just tastes like gingerbread cookies because of the spices and molasses!
A lot of French Toast recipes call for french bread - which is wonderful - but sometimes you just want to use up what you've got on hand, so this is a quick, easy holiday treat.
So go ahead. Because you can never have too much gingerbread.
Z.D.'s Gingerbread Spice French Toast
Ingredients:
6 slices white sandwich bread, slightly stale
4 large eggs
1/2 Cup milk (not skim)
1 Tablespoon unsulphured molasses
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
unsalted butter, for greasing
Directions:
- In a shallow dish, whisk together the eggs, milk, molasses, spices, and salt. Beat until thoroughly combined, but not frothy.
I used a sandwich tupperware container because it is the perfect size for soaking bread!
- Grease a griddle or large skillet over medium-high heat. Soak the pieces of bread one at a time, until just saturated.
Don't let them saturate for too long or they'll fall apart!
- Place on hot griddle and cook until deep golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. Flip toast, and turn down heat to medium. Cook until deep golden brown on other side, about 2-4 minutes.
They look unassuming - even a little ugly - but they pack such a lovely holiday spice flavor!
- Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.
Serve with some toasted nuts, too!
Quicker than a lot of holiday breakfast treats, but with all the flavor you want, I recommend this dish! Go ahead--it's Christmas!
Last month I saw a smashing performance of "My Fair Lady." It had been years since I watched the movie with Audrey Hepburn (in my opinion, still the most beautiful Hollywood actress of all time), and I'd never seen a live performance of the whole musical. The set design was great, the cast was brilliant, and the costumes were amazing--especially the hats!
Oh, the hats!!!!
I had a great time, but there was some nagging little discomfort in the back of my mind. Thanksgiving dinner occurred the very next day, however, and the copious amounts of turkey and other delicacies smothered said discomfort very well. It wasn't until later when I found the playbill that I recollected the sensation, and began to ponder.
My Fair Lady is a classic musical; a Broadway hit, rendered immortal by the film version, and the songs are frankly timeless.* And the costumes. Did I mention the hats? Anyway, despite all this, it has never been one of my favorite musicals--but until this week I'd never stopped to wonder why. Now, reflecting on the excellent stage production I'd just enjoyed, I finally put my finger on it.
WARNING: This really is a great musical, and if you've never seen it, you may want to stop here and enjoy it at least once without my spoilers and subsequent plot dissection.
When you step back from the charm of the characters and the joy of the music, this is one really, really disturbing plot-line. It basically tells the story of an impoverished young woman, neglected and exploited by her alcoholic father, who dares to attempt to break out of her under-privileged social caste only to become embroiled in an emotionally abusive relationship that disintegrates her social ties, shatters her identity, and seems to leave her chained to her abuser for life. But with great dance numbers.
So let's trace this back to it's roots. The musical "My Fair Lady" is based on the play "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw, which essentially tells the same story. That play is based on the ancient Greek myth of the same name, briefly: a genius sculptor named Pygmalion scorns women and all concepts of romantic love, and decides to mock both by creating his "perfect woman" in the shape of a statue. Displeased, Aphrodite makes him fall helplessly in love with his own creation. For awhile he pretends, but eventually breaks down, begs the goddess's forgiveness, and asks for a real woman to love. He returns to his workshop, kisses the statue farewell, only to find Aphrodite has taken pity on him and brings the statue to life as a woman named Galatea. The End.
Oddly enough, I've always loved that myth. To me it's the story of a man recognizing his own folly and embracing humility. But Pygmalion's reimagined character as Professor Higgins barely tastes even a crumb of humility in "My Fair Lady."** If anything, it seems his concept of women as things - first as annoying things to be avoided, then a flawed thing to be changed, and finally as a thing that's preferable to have around after all - is reinforced by Eliza Doolittle's choice to return to him, even after the way he's treated her. The way he focuses on her "flaws" and takes her assistance around his home for granted is impersonal at best, and the way he speaks to her is abusive. Yes, abusive: let's call a spade a spade.
The stage performance I saw last month attempted to address this issue. They coached the actors to use body language and inflection to create a sense of change in Higgins, and a sense of strength in Eliza. They attempted to portray Higgins as having an epiphany of love in his final song, "I've Grown Accustom To Her Face," and also a feeling of humility in the tentative, penitent way he delivers his famous last line: "Eliza? Where the devil are my slippers?" But performance can only change the meaning of words so much.
Here's your bloody slippers, Henry. Wear these for a few days, then we'll talk.
This is what has been bothering me since the first time I saw this musical, which was about age 10. I was a feminist at age 10, before I even knew what the word meant. And I think that's because I have always had a deeply ingrained value of fair play. Life isn't fair, the forces of Nature aren't fair, and Death is certainly never fair. But human beings can choose to be fair in the ways they treat one another. I am an advocate for women and minorities because society does not treat them fairly, and it should. Henry Higgins treats Eliza Doolittle horribly unfairly, and it's a tragedy that she lets him.
I want to re-write this musical. Here's my version:
Everything stays the same up until the night of the ball, with the exception of the Higgins house staff empathizing with Eliza instead of Henry. When she leaves after his dismissive and impersonal treatment of her following the ball, the servants all quit. The shock gives Henry a stroke. The stroke causes him to lose the power of speech, making him even more ornery than before, and nobody will come and work for him. On the verge of ruin, his mother comes to his aid (once more) by hiring Eliza - who has made good on her "threat" to become a vocal coach using Henry's own techniques - to teach him to speak again. Eliza essentially takes control of his household, his finances, and his life, giving him a taste of his own medicine as she helps him re-learn how to talk. And he REALLY learns humility then.
My version makes this song seem waaaaay more ominous. Which is frankly awesome. Anyway, I haven't decided whether they would end up together or not. How would you end it?
*Proof: my husband, who had never seen the musical in any format, told me afterward that he recognized over half of the songs.
**I've neither read the script nor seen a performance of Shaw's play, so I cannot comment on his rendition.
I know I said I was done with pumpkin for awhile, but it seems I lied. I think it's the color, and the spice, and the warm flavor; when the last of the leaves are gone and the smell of frost is in the air I just start dreaming about it! Of course there are thousands of pumpkin muffin recipes in the world. This is my twist, with a crunchy, almost savory streusel topping involving one of my favorite nutrient-packed pantry oddities: cacao nibs!
Tender, moist and flavorful--and like all muffins, pretty darn easy to make!
Z.D's Pumpkin Muffins with Cacao Nib Streusel
Ingredients: For the Streusel:
1/4 Cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1/4 Cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 Cup old fashioned oats, divided
1/4 Tablespoon (generous) kosher salt
1/2 Cup raw almonds, chopped
1 & 1/2 Tablespoon cacao nibs
For the Batter:
1 & 1/2 Cups flour
1/2 Cup old-fashioned oats
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 Cup canned pumpkin purée
1 Cup golden brown sugar (packed, of course)
1/2 Cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon freshly grated orange zest (optional)
Directions:
- Pre-heat your oven to 350º F, and line 12 regular muffin cups with paper liners. In a food processor, combine butter, sugar, 2 Tablespoons of the oats, and salt. Pulse together until large clumps form. Transfer to a small bowl, and mush in the remaining oats, almonds and cacao nibs until combined. Set aside.
If you don't have a food processor, you can mash the ingredients together with a fork. It takes longer, & you'll have coarser streusel because all of the oats will be intact, but it tastes just as yum.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and spices until fully mixed. Sat aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together remaining ingredients until well combined. If using orange zest, grate it fresh, directly into the bowl so as not to lose the flavorful oils.
If you use the orange zest, your muffins will have a slightly brighter flavor, and they will be a little puffier, because the acid will interact with the baking soda for a little more lift. I did not use the orange zest for this batch, but left it in the recipe for those of you who prefer bigger, fluffier muffins!
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until thoroughly combined. Scoop batter into muffin cups (about 1/2 Cup of batter per muffin comes out perfect), and sprinkle streusel mixture evenly over the tops.
This looks like a lot of topping, but remember the butter will melt deliciously into the muffins as they bake, and the streusel will flatten out.
- Bake at 350º F until the tops are tinted gold and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 24 - 25 minutes. Cool in pan, serve slightly warm or at room temp.
Put a basket of those beauties on your kitchen table, and see how fast they go!
I store my muffins by leaving them in the muffin tin and laying a sheet of plastic wrap over the top, it seems to be the perfect combo to keep them fresh. While my husband was slightly disappointed these didn't have cream cheese frosting anywhere, we both the loved the distinctive, slightly bitter, almost umami crunch from the cacao. As the days get darker and colder, a pretty, nummy breakfast like this is a big help for getting out of bed in the morning.
Or, enjoy with a cup of afternoon tea over your favorite book. Camela and I are reading Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" for our Shadows On the Sound December bookclub read--read along and tune in for our review in a couple weeks! Happy holidays!
I DO have a recipe to post today, but before I had a chance to type it up I did my weekly Sunday check-in at PostSecret.com and found this video at the bottom. A high school girl did a project where she took video images of people, and didn't tell them until she started filming that the project was about "taking pictures of things [she] finds beautiful." I thought it was positively amazing, and I never want to forget it, so I'm putting it here in my blog and I'll post the muffins tomorrow.
Watch this: it's food for the soul.
I spent my weekend eating out with friends and family, and making holiday cookies in between. In other words, for a couple days I was briefly allowed to walk the hallowed halls of Paradise. The only thing missing was my cat, who was staying with a friend. Add in a demanding ball of super-fuzz and my life would have been complete.
Once you pet that soft, fuzzy chin and get an answering purr, you are hooked.
Anyways, I'm not posting any of the cookie recipes because none of them are my own, but I'll link to some of them online. My family has a number of traditional cookies that we make sometime between the end of Thanksgiving and December 20th, about which time we declare that if another sweet enters the household we will all outgrow our wardrobes. This is divided into two lists.
Also known as "Seven Layer Bars," this timeless goodie first entered my Grandma's recipe box from the inside of the label on the "Eagle Brand" Sweetened Condensed Milk. They're the easiest by far, and once I got over my dislike of coconut they became one of my favorites, too. Everyone in the family makes them, each with their own preferences of order of toppings (I like nuts, coconut, then chocolate, so the melted chocolate helps to hold down the rest of the ingredients), and variety of chocolate chips (although semi-sweet is traditional, I like to use milk chocolate for the holidays because it so rarely makes an appearance in my other baking).
I've seen other recipes call these "Thumbprint Cookies," and even "Crater Cookies." The latter gets used a lot in Seattle especially, where I think some people like to associate the indented pastry with Mt. Saint Helens in some bizarre way. Anyway, the pastry has a lovely warm color from the golden brown sugar, then is rolled in chopped nuts, baked, indented, and then baked a little more. Then the dent is filled with a dollop of jelly. My family likes to use current jelly because of it's tang and ruby red color. Then it really does look like a jewel set in bronze, and it's worth admiring for a moment before it disappears into one's mouth. Another personal preference is how fine to chop the nuts. I've seen versions that were seriously chunky, ranging to a fine nut dust covering the cookie. We usually go for just on the chunky side of finely chopped--we like them to have some crunch!
These are essentially tiny pecan pies, about an inch high and 1 & 1/4 inch wide at the top. The crust is made with cream cheese (that's why they're so flaky and amazing) and then molded into a miniature cupcake pan. In many ways these are the fussiest Christmas cookie we make: the dough must be cut together like regular pie crust, then chilled, then divided into 24 equal pieces, then pressed into the tin. Then the filling is assembled and spooned into each cup, and believe me--you HAVE to wipe up any spills on the edge of the pan, or they will burn in the oven! Finally, getting the darn things out without making them crumble is a pain. I've seen plenty of variations on this recipe suggesting "fool proof" techniques for every stage. I've tried them all, and the only thing that helps me is keeping my hands cold in the pastry stages (not hard in winter).
One final word on these, and that word is "tassy:" a tart is a large, pie-like pastry that is cut into wedges and served; a "tartlet" is a smaller tart - typically about 2 to 3 inches in diameter - served as an individual dessert; a "tassy" is a tiny, super-miniature tart, served as a cookie. Now you know.
I practice peace. Peace is not just the absence of violence, it is the choice to actively do good.
I practice peace by decrying all forms of violence, whether it's a mass shooting, military aggression, or online harassment, or domestic abuse. But I also practice peace donating time and money to charities. I practice peace by supporting the rights of minorities. I practice peace by refusing to validate the inflammatory rhetoric (and often downright lies) of any politician.
I practice peace by believing that all human beings are capable of change. I practice peace by trying to listen with empathy to people who have views that differ from my own, identifying the wisdom that motivates them, and seeking our common ground. I practice peace by seeking environmentally responsible choices in my food, clothing, and travel. I practice peace by supporting food, shelter, and safety for all human beings. I practice peace by respecting human dignity.
I am not perfect. I wish I could say that I do all of the above flawlessly, to my fullest, every single day, but I don't. I try, though. And in the wake of all the violence that seems to be swelling across the globe, I want to try harder than ever. Because I believe that most people practice peace. Just as we all want security of food and shelter, opportunities to work and grow, and love, I believe all human beings want peace. Of course it doesn't always appear that way. As a psychotherapist, I know too well how the human psyche can be battered and coerced into perverted beliefs about how peace is best accomplished. So today, I want to commit anew to practicing peace in as many ways as I can.
Today, I will practice peace by:
- Expressing my love to my family and friends
- Letting people know I appreciate them
- Selecting my holiday charities, and giving generously
- Forcing myself out of my comfort zone to smile at pan-handlers, instead of averting my gaze
- Letting people merge in traffic
- Recylcing
- Thanking veterans and those on active duty for their service
- Writing to my political representatives to ask for peace
- Act on opportunities to stand up for others, however those opportunities emerge
- Sending my pleas to the Higher Power I embrace for peace on earth, and good will to all
- Refusing to give in to fear, hate, or revenge in the face of horrific violence
Thank you for reading, and I support you in however you choose to practice peace today.
Z.D. Gladstone is an aspiring novelist who apparently decides she needs to write about herself in the third person in the bio section of her blog. Having spent most of her life in the Pacific Northwest, she whet her imagination on rainy afternoons--and her appetite on the warm, bustling kitchens of her family members. She is a story-teller, a nerd, a reader, and a Scorpio. This blog allows her to share some of her inspirations, both the literary kind (Scribbles) and the culinary kind (Munch). All content of this blog is intended for mature audiences.
