The Nature of Resolve

I hate this new layout. But I am determined to write more. Starting now. well, starting during this week.
So be on the lookout.
I'm going to play with this to get the hang on having it punctuate correctly (what are they? Facebook?).
then I'll fix that argo nonsense & move on.

two blogs. two twitters. that's a lot of clever for little old me. but i'm up to the challenge. lot of news & changes in January. you'll see them here.

Argo F*&K Yourself It'll make sense when you see it. I promise. Instead of writing a long wrought out review, i'm just posting my notes as is. For fun. - Laemmle NoHo7, 1:30 show 12 October. - Phone Off/Notebook out. - Popcorn is a good lunch right? - BYOW - Arclight ticket would've been $13. paid $11.50 here for tix & popcorn - My good deed for the day was holding the door for the guy in the walker. and then not sitting in the ADA seats in case he needed one. hilariously, the coffee sipping hipster with worse manners wound up with the older slightly deaf couple who showed up 15 minutes in sitting by him. ha. ha. - I think the woman in front of me might be here to binge eat in the dark. that's a huge bucket of popcorn. & she's got food in wrappers too - "Deep Dark Canyon" preview. could be quite cool. Abraham Benrubi had a couple great moments in the preview (that's Jerry the desk clerk to those of you playing the home game) - JohnHawkesJohnHawkesJohnHawkes. - Can you tell they showed "the Sessions" preview? Bawdy is the word for sure. - Who is that beautiful girl? David Oyelowo!!!!! ok. the beautiful girl is Emayatzy Corinealdi & this is not her first film but she is being billed as 'introducing' for this film, "Middle of Nowhere". i have a feeling we'll be hearing about her. I already knew this was Oyelowo's year. ***I got to the theatre 10 minutes before listed show time & there was 5 previews. no commercials. & a very funny clip of Anthony Hopkins as Hitch telling people to turn off their cell phones. - WB - used old school 70's logo. cool - who is narrating? (i think Clea Duvall now) - genuinely can't tell if they mixed in real news footage. if they shot that all themselves, its impressive. - took me forever to figure out that was Tate Donavon. like until they got to the Canadian ambassadors house. even longer with Clea. seriously. - Bring Kleenex. - Kyle! (chandler, that is) - wonder why they used Peter Jennings name? because he's passed? they showed clips of a bunch of other folk like Koppel & Conkrite. just curious. - fucking sh??d??? (i'll let you know if i figure out what that word is) - wouldn't it look suspicious to have dinner plates for 8 people & have 6 of them be missing? - Ernie!!! (Barry Livingston. Ernie from My Three Sons. I don't know why. - Ben is getting a lot of revenge shots in at Hollywood here. it's awesome - its a wonder they didn't use Hef (for the producer?) - City of 6 Films (hilarious name for the production company) - Tacos on either real or fake Rodeo Drive - God music was bad in the late 70's. - With the election on, Argo could maybe be the most important film this year. i'm surprised we're not hearing more. - Argo Fuck Yourself! geez - I hope they all got a shirt with that on. - "It's like talking to those 2 old fucks on the Muppets" - Ben Affleck should hire John Goodman all the time. - really smart casting all through. - who needs to bring an effing drink to Argo? at 1:30 on a Friday? the guys behind me apparently - smart violence. not bloody. not too much. well timed for tension. - pneumatic tubes! - "When the Levee Breaks". on vinyl. at the Canadian ambassadors house. - Cranston. Oscar. Now. effing hell can he build a character & then just tear the arse out of a piece when it's time. - kinds of sounds that will maybe resonate more with younger people who don't remember things like stampers. - that damn whiner killed it when it counted. jaysus. i thought he was gonna sink them. well done. Ok, so all in all, so needs to be watched. so amazing. If you're old enough to remember when this happened it will break your heart a bit. it's strange to me to tell people about it & realize how little it's remembered or what is known. it was such a huge part of our lives. It's extremely well done. not perfect but damned well executed. particularly as he's really making several small films & smooshing them together. hte hollywood part & the CIA parts & the 'Houseguests". I love it when something lives up to my expectations.

happy music!!

Fail on posting this on Monday but here's the brand spanking new video for "Rhyme O'Clock" by Wordburglar featuring Bram (as in Sharon, Lois &....)

This might be a rerun

but I haven't used it as a happy Monday tune. It may seem a bit dark for that but sometimes just rockin' out makes a gal happy. Well, this gal at least. Here we go with "Mr. Hurricane" from Beast

happy Monday!!!

More power pop (or poppy rock if you prefer) from the always terrific Yukon Blonde. *love* hope you enjoy! "Stairways"

Happy Mondays!!

yeah - I know it's Tuesday. but i've been putting up links on FB to a song i'm enjoying. Every Monday. it occurred to me I should be doing it from here.
It's so easy to just be cranky. particularly on Mondays. but I haven't been & now I kind of look forward to sharing something happy with people every Monday.
This week is Broken Bricks - "Boy Dressed in Blue"
You should definitely check out the original but this acoustic version is pretty kick ass too. I'm in the midst of making a mix to send to a pal & this was the first thing on the list.
It's a song I just love to share.

Going to hunt down a few of the earlier ones & post a list.
Ta

man, I love cooking

It takes a bit for me to get ambitious sometimes, particularly if I'm just cooking for me but I really do enjoy it. Even in our tiny kitchen.
So I was recently directed to a sustainable practices butcher here in L.A. which I'm thrilled about. I have no interest in being a vegetarian. I like protein. & meat. but I am seriously interested in the quality of meat I'm eating & where it comes from. Please check out Lindy & Grundy. Their site has a ton of information that I will not repeat. Melissa, who handles all their curing, helped me with my decision making. I picked up a pork top sirloin cut & some lamb medallion.
Sunday morning is also the Farmer's Market near my place, just off Hollywood & Vine. Obviously the options are seasonal but there's a very good herb stand there all the time (don't just take my word for it - Jimmy Kimmel was buying mint!). They had some gorgeous sage & they also have selections of mushrooms. I picked up a bag of shitakes.

So after a little searching for ideas, I came across this for Pork Tenderloin & did some adjusting. This is for rosemary but I subbed in the fresh sage. Due to the size of cut I was using, I halved the marinade. & used cippolini onions. For red wine I used a temperanillo, as that was what I had on hand. I wouldn't go sweeter (like sherry) with this recipe but maybe something a bit bolder like a pinot noir. I hold to the rule that I don't cook with what I won't drink.
Also, I did not make the polenta. I debated doing a side of some noodles but had brussel sprouts & some white beans instead.
It was really terrific & pretty easy, despite the somewhat fussy browning of the pork & the completing the cooking after the onions.
It was really tasty & a bit sweeter than I had expected. The cut of pork had a solid chuck of fat which I left on for cooking but did not eat. I also did not use any celery & did not miss it.
The sprouts were tossed in olive oil, sea salt & cracked black pepper. this Ina Garten recipe gives a good gage for measurement if you need.

The lamb is marinating & I will put up that recipe along with any notes tomorrow. I like to explain if I tweak anything & why. I'm debating on using some Hefe for that & am still undecided.

Photos here, along with my shopping adventures & some other produce I picked up.

Updates

Shockingly (not) running 2 blogs does not make me any better at keeping either of them up. I'm setting myself some goals to be better at posting on here & not all over FB so I'll be using that & the tweety to direct folks here.

I'm living in the same place in Hollywood. Have been here since December & plan to stay through the end of April. It's a good location, on Franklin. UCBTLA is just up the street & I've to a couple shows. & yes, I see some of the comics around the hood. I hate to post other folks activities on social media but I feel like I should be keeping a list of 'Gary Oldman at Skylight books today' or 'Dax Shepherd at the Oaks for coffee' & the like so I remember.
The Oaks is really the best coffee I've had in L.A., particularly the lattes. Good beer selection too, tho pricey.

I've added the link below to some photos of the house & courtyard. I have a great sunny bedroom & a useful large desk. Kitchen is too small to suit me though & I'd like it a bit cleaner all around. So hopefully I'll be able to find a place by end of April where I can rent out a guest room.

A couple more posts coming. Had a great day discovering a new butcher & good luck at the farmers market so some food photos pending. & keep checking my new film project ShortFilmSunday. We tweet a new short film to champion each week & eventually will have chats with creative folk & the like.


The abode

We baked scones

& by we, I mean me. unless you count the dog, who was mostly pissed I spent that amount of time in the kitchen & he didn't get a treat. & Nicole was home later to help with the tasting.

So my lovely & thoughtful friends Russ & Yort sent me jam for my birthday. Blueberry lavender & Cherry Cabernet from a place in Honor, MI called 'Food for Thought' . very good organic jam. I was looking for an interesting option to use them & always have bananas about the house. a little google search found banana-ginger scones & we were in business. The ginger is great for me as a flavour option to the perpetual presence of cinnamon in baked goods.

Not bad at all. it was a bit of an experiment for me. I don't bake much beyond brownies & really hadn't in this kitchen or in California so it was adjusting to the environment on several different levels. I found the liquid called for to not be enough & had to add another few tablespoons of milk to achieve dough. Another time I would make a couple adjustments. I may try the method where you freeze butter & then grate it or use pastry cutter as opposed to hand mix. I was concerned about overhandeling but don't think i had the right consistency. Also, I would cut the bananas smaller or maybe even mash. They'd contribute more moisture that way. I wasn't impressed with the 'chunks' but that just a personal preference.

As I also had some great organic blueberries & more fresh ginger, I found this

I'm much more pleased with the results. I really liked the yogurt egg combo to bind the dough. it worked great. as the recipe didn't call for an vanilla I used a mix of blueberry & vanilla yogurt. In the future I would probably just use vanilla as the fresh berries had plenty of flavour. The ginger was not terribly strong and I would maybe use a bit more of that but otherwise it was a great recipe.
My issue with lots of baked goods (muffins, scones & even pancakes) is they are too heavy. These rose well & were a nice light consistency. It turned out the blueberry jam on blueberry scones was probably overdoing it. they were great plain or would work with a little margarine or maybe cream cheese. I might try some lemon icing on them another time also.

Photo gallery here