Originally created as a recap blog for my friends too busy to watch t.v., I've branched out to movies, books, food, life in general. No politics tho', don't worry.
It's been AGES since I put a food post up so, in an attempt to assuage the prevailing mood with chocolate, here's a new brownie recipe. Mr. Mouse and I are attempting to eat a plant-based diet these days which, to us, means not only no animal products but also no oils. A lot of vegan recipes add fats via oils so I have adapted a "Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe from www.food.com as follows:
CHEWY VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIP BROWNIES
¾ cup unsweetened applesauce*
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp ground
flax seed**
½ cup almond milk (or soymilk)
2 cups flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups semisweet vegan chocolate
chips***
Preheat oven to 350◦F. Add
ground flax seeds to almond milk and stir for about 30 seconds, set
aside. In a large bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking soda and
salt. Cream sugar and applesauce in another large bowl. Add the
flax seed/almond milk mixture and mix well. Stir in vanilla. Slowly
mix in dry ingredients. Mix in chocolate chips. Pour brownie mixture into
lightly greased**** 9x13 baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until knife
inserted comes out clean.
Note: the original recipe was for cookies but I found the
dough too wet to roll into balls and went the brownie route instead. They
came out very moist and fudgy.
* This is a
substitution for ¾ cup canola oil. The applesauce worked GREAT.
** I found
pre-ground flax seed in the health food section of my regular grocery store; you can also find
whole flax seeds and grind them yourself. Flax seed is somehow an egg
substitution in vegan baking.
*** I found
non-dairy/non-gluten dark chocolate chips in the health food section and just used a whole bag. They were actually tasty on their own – not
like yucky carob.
If you're a sailor (or if you've watched the Pirates of the Caribbeanmovies), you know that the doldrums are places in the oceans where the prevailing winds are calm or even non-existent, sometimes trapped sail-powered boats for days or weeks on end. If you're a landlubber, you know that the doldrums have come to refer to a period of listlessness or mild depression. Well, I'm not a sailor. Ever since the election but especially since the inauguration, I have been fighting to compartmentalize my sadness and horror at what this country is becoming. I'm not succeeding particularly well - although while I walk around feeling like crying all time, I am not actually crying all the time. So there's that. To be able to sleep at night, I have been severely restricting my online presence after making my phone calls/sending my emails to try to fight the power.
And my entertainment has been focused as well. I'm trying Tom Hardy's FX show, Taboo, although I am finding it slow (and since when are you allowed to say "fuck" on that level of cable? I'm all for it, of course. I was just surprised by it.). I plowed through Netflix's The O.A. and am almost done with their A Series of Unfortunate Events as well. Both shows are pretty well done and continue Netflix's strong streak of original programming. (For books I just plowed through my collection of old Bloom County and Outland books - dated 1980s through early 1990s - and it is amazing that so much of the stuff Berkeley Breathed was poking at back in those days - environmental damage/change, corrupt politics and Donald fucking Trump - are still issues today.)
Things will pick up here on the blog in a couple of weeks when The Walking Dead comes back. I'm even looking forward to watching that damn show again, where I can say, "Well, things are going to shit in the U.S. now but at least we aren't overrun with zombies." Yet, anyway.
Mr. Mouse and I don't watch a lot of the same stuff. We have agreed upon Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Justified and Cougar Town, but he would rather have a tooth pulled than watch the genre stuff that I love, and just last week I was horrified to catch him watching a History Channel show on grease. Not Grease, the classic Olivia Newton-John/John Travolta musical, but grease, the stuff you slop onto moving parts so they don't get stuck. Seriously, for that I have no words. We do tend to like the same sort of televised sports (except that he does like motorized vehicles rushing around on tracks and I don't at all): soccer, Olympics both winter and summer (but not gymnastics or figure skating), skiing, American Ninja Warrior, triathlons, curling, etc. In the last couple of years, we've really stepped up our soccer consumption: Salt Lake City has its own team, Real Salt Lake (who are doing terribly right now, btw); plus the men's and women's World Cup; plus the British Premier League. We even have our own BPL teams to root for. He's for Arsenal and I like Swansea, the only remaining Welsh team.
While watching the most recent men's World Cup, we were introduced to Michael Davies and Roger Bennett, also known as Men In Blazers, and then once the World Cup was over, we kept watching their television recap show on the BPL. Some people find their shtick tiresome but we think it's just the right amount of bonkers. (Mr. Mouse does miss a lot of their Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, LotR, and other references; I explain where necessary.) When we learned that the Esquire channel had hired them to cover the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, we knew we'd watch, despite not really having much foreknowledge of or interest in the event.
We've learned a lot, actually, because Rog and Davo do a good job of adding historical and cultural context, including lots of interviews with notable Spanish and American bull-runners, Pamplonan restauranteurs and local figures, all in between calling play-by-plays of the action and being dutifully horrified at the gorings. For the record, they seem to be on the bulls' side more often than not, especially when the runners display above average idiocy. One thing they've been doing with each episode is featuring a local beverage or food. One that piqued our interest was kalimotxo, a half and half mixture of red wine and regular Coca-Cola. It's a recently developed beverage, starting in the Basque region of Spain, and the revelers at the Sanfermines festival and encierro, a/k/a the running of the bulls in Pamplona, drink it by the liters.
We tried it (good grief, when was the last time I ever drank Coke that wasn't diet?) and ... amazingly, it isn't that bad, with a sangria sort of feel to it. Even the New York Times is on board. I'm not sure we'll drink enough of it to kill that two liter of regular Coke I bought, but it was certainly quaffable. (Next up? The Basque combination of chocolate milk and cognac ...)
This week's The Walking Dead recap may be slightly delayed this week. We have a house guest through Tuesday morning and the guest room shares a wall with the t.v. room; I don't think it's good host etiquette to keep one's guest awake with screams, shouting and general zombie mayhem seeping through the drywall.
We watch too much television. There’s no question about
that: Justified (both of us), Modern
Family (both), American Horror Story (FM), Go
On (both), Cougar Town (both), New
Girl (both), Parks & Rec (both), The
Office (Mr. Mouse), Jeopardy (both),
Louie (both), Wilfred (both),
Breaking Bad (both), Restaurant
Impossible (both), Top Gear (Mr. Mouse),
Arrow (FM), Lost Girl (FM),
Fashion Police (FM), The Biggest Loser
(both), The Soup (FM), The Americans
(FM), The Following (FM), The Walking
Dead (FM), Hawaii 5-0 (both - although I mostly
just yell at the TV about how bad the writing is), KSL
Outdoors (both), miscellaneous sporting events like skiing, Tour de
France, etc., but not the NBA/NFL/MLB (both).
But here’s the
thing. It’s not like watching television is ALL we do. We both
work. We both work out after work 4-5 times a week. We eat out at
most once a week so we always make dinner – not fast food – at home. We
walk the dog. We make beer and wine. I grow a few summertime
vegetables in the backyard. We always have at least one book each going
at all times; I read daily. 99% of our weekends include time spent
skiing, hiking, mountain-biking, road-biking, fishing or camping. Could
we accomplish more if we didn’t watch so much TV? Of course: the house
would be cleaner, the laundry wouldn’t stack up so much, the weeds wouldn’t
dare poke their heads out of the flower beds ... but I feel like our lives are
pretty full, active and connected as they are. So, yes, in the evenings,
after the busy day’s activities have wound down, Mr. Mouse, the dog and I
cuddle up and watch television together. And I’m okay with that.
The house-guests who arrived this past Saturday have put a crimp in my Sarah Connor Chronicles viewing - apparently it's poor form to recap outdated sci fi when people have traveled thousands of miles to spend their vacation with you. But I've read a couple of bad urban fantasy books that I'll tell you about soon, and I'm tearing my way through The Walking Dead: Compendium One, which is a ginormous book containing issues 1-48 of the zombie comic. In a nutshell: freaking awesome and so, so, so, so much more intense than the television show.
I finished up preparing for Christmas last weekend - tree up and lit, presents wrapped and sent, card signed and mailed, cookies baked - and I'm feeling so happy about being done with it all that I cannot be bothered to put together a Christmasy post this year. What I can do, however, is link to winter holiday-themed past posts and invite you to browse, if you are so inclined.
Like The Road Warrior, Zack Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead is a very excellent movie to watch whilst trotting on the treadmill at the gym. I've seen it several times before, plus it's a remake, so it's not like I'm going to miss anything crucial if I look away. It's action-action-action for the most part, especially the last half hour what with the shootings and chewings and chainsaws and exploding propane containers and exploding trucks and exploding zombies. And the pretty little Mormon girls with their fake boobs and bleach-blonde hair take one look at what's on the screen and scurry far, far away. Plus, if you start to get tired, just imagine that the zombies are chasing you, and that's good motivation to keep going. Personally, I've been running enough so when the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse happens, I think I'll be okay if the zombies turn out to be classic shamblers. It's if we get the newfangled sprinters that I'm going to be S.O.L. (Well, so won't everyone else, I guess.)
It's been ages since I posted a Christmas cookie recipe (over three years, to be precise), so I'm thrilled to have found a new one to share with you. I don't know where I got it - looks like somewhere online, either the Portland Press Herald or the Salt Lake Tribune or some food blog/site that I visit occasionally - but I love it because it's easy and very tasty and gorgeously colored and Mr. Mouse doesn't like them* so I don't have to share. So if this is your recipe, THANK YOU! I've made three batches thus far (it makes small batches, btw) and we still have a week to go for Christmas.
Pistachio-Cranberry Cookie Sticks
3/4 cup whole pistachios (shelled)
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. almond extract (optional)
1/3 cup chopped dried cranberries (or dried cherries)
Combine the pistachios, flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until it is a fine meal. Add the butter and pulse until the dough looks crumbly. Combine the water, vanilla and almond extract and add it to the food processor, pulsing until it just looks damp. Add the dried cranberries and pulse until evenly distributed.
On a piece of parchment paper, roll out the dough into a 6x9 inch rectangle that's a 1/2-inch thick. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat over to 350. Using a pizza cutter or long knife, cut 3/8-inch thick slices and place them on parchment-lined cookie sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake 12-14 minutes, until golden at the edges. Don't overbake as they will continue to firm as they cool.
* Mr. Mouse is not being deprived. Just today I made him a whole batch of Giant Ginger Cookies.
You don't need to have the sound on. I've seen this movie so many times, I almost know it by heart, and what little dialogue there is doesn't really add a whole lot to what's going on on-screen.
The action scenes are so fast-paced/frenzied/exciting that it encourages you to pick up your pace subliminally.
All the suburban Utah housewives on the other treadmills give you plenty of space because they're appalled at the movie's violence, outfits and teeth.
This is what will be programmed into the Mouse DVR for the fall television season, plus Mr. Mouse will probably want to add new Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs:
Mondays How I Met Your Mother (9/20) House (9/20) The Event (9/20) Hawaii 5-0 (9/20)
Tuesdays* No Ordinary Family (9/28) The Biggest Loser (9/21) Glee (9/21)
Wednesdays Modern Family (9/22) Terriers (9/8)
Thursdays Community (9/23) The Office (9/23)
Sundays The Walking Dead (10/31)
Of course, much of this will probably get weeded out as the t.v. suckfest reasserts itself. I really really really hope The Walking Dead is good - I'm really looking forward to it. What will you all be watching?
* I'll end up watching Glee on Hulu, however, since all three Tuesday shows are in the same timeslot and my DVR just can't handle that.
It's been far too long since my last bacon post, I realize. I don't have any new products or links or restaurant encounters for you, but what I do have is my recent epiphany.
This is how you cook bacon when it's 94 degrees out:
I don't know why I didn't do this before (well, mostly because I never had a grill with a side burner before, but still) because it's genius. The house doesn't smell like bacon for the next three days; the dog licks up any stray bacon grease splatters on the deck; and I get to be outside with a cocktail. Brilliant.
The whole reason I was needing to fry bacon - other than, duh, wanting some - was that I was trying out a new recipe for a homemade, non-processed energy bar to take with us on all the hikes we've been doing. Store-bought granola bars and energy bars can be too sweet and I had seen something on television during the Tour de France where the Radio Shack team's nutritionist whipped this up. It's cooked sushi rice, a couple of scrambled eggs and bacon mixed together with a little soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and grated Parmesan cheese. Pack it down into a pan, sprinkle a little brown sugar on top. Let cool then cut into bar sizes and wrap in foil paper.
Mr. Mouse and I tried them on our hike today. Pretty good, although I might go with less soy sauce and more brown sugar next time. Still, if it's good enough for the RS boys to eat, it's good enough for us. Plus, bacon!
Wow: it's been over a year since my last "Titles Nine" post. What can I have been doing in all that time? Best not to ask, I guess. For those of you come late to the party, this series is where I go to my bookcases and pick out nine books to share with you. Usually it's just nine books sitting there in a row although sometimes there's a theme: cookbooks, comics, Stephen King. This time there's a theme: books I own and while I'm always intending to read them, I've just never quite gotten around to it. Yet.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson - Now, to be honest, I haven't had this one that long and the plan is in place to read it on an upcoming flight. I figure it's best to read it first before I see the Swedish film - I'm guessing I'm going to like those two versions too much to bother with the American remake. (Why o why must Americans remake everything?)
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - I rarely read nonfiction but I find that Bryson keeps the pace moving right along, plus he's pretty funny. This book is technically Mr. Mouse's but he's willing to share.
Ulysses by James Joyce - No, really, I am going to read this one of these days. Mr. Mouse and I need to find a cabin in the middle of nowhere and in between hikes and mountain bike rides, I shall drink whiskey and read this book. Yes I said yes I will yes. Or something like that.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - My mother will be appalled that I haven't read this yet. I might have but I don't think so. I think I tried but kept falling asleep and so probably put it aside from some swords-and-sandals fantasy series.
The Coming of the King by Nikolai Tolstoy - This is another one that I may possibly have read - seeing how it's historical fiction/fantasy with Welsh names and thus right up my alley - but I just don't think so. Not yet. Maybe soon as I seem to be on a Welsh mythology kick of late (book review to come soon).
Contactby Carl Sagan - I have not seen the Jodie Foster vehicle and have no intention of doing so. This is another one that would be on the mountain cabin/whiskey list.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenanceby Robert M. Persig - Let's be honest. I'm never going to read this. I tried back in high school or maybe college - a long time ago, regardless - because everyone was all, "Ooh, it's so good," and I tried it and was all, "Ack - boring."
Wild Fruits by Henry David Thoreau - Someone gave this to me as a gift ages ago, Thoreau's final and unfinished manuscript whereby he ponders religious and philosophical ideas whilst opining and sketching native North American plantlife.
Collected Poems by George Seferis - I had to read some of these for a study abroad program in Chania, Crete. Seferis is the national poet of Greece or something and I suppose they're good poems. I struggle with poetry, though.
Mr. Mouse is involved in an epic battle with Comcast (stupid effing cable company) which may result in our canceling our cable. Before the end of Lost.
I am trying to remain calm. It's only a T.V. show.
In which I have invested YEARS of my life. I need a drink.
Posting may be a little sporadic in the next few days: Mr. Mouse and I bought a new house and we're moving ourselves in. The cable guy comes tomorrow, however, so I should be able to have the Lost post up in a timely fashion. Yay for a new Mouse House!
I mean, srsly, it's been nothing but excuses on this blog for such a long time now: there's nothing good on television, I'm all discombobulated, I'm watching the U.S. Open and/or Gossip Girl S2 ... so pathetic.
Well, I've got another one to hand you now. I'm moving*. Across the country**. To the mountains***. Finally, after having the house on the market for just over a year, and 77+ showings, we are under contract (yay!) with the buyers' loan approved (yay!!) and the closing scheduled for the end of the month (yay!!!). The Mouse House is an absolute shambles, everything half-packed - so I can't even recap a Firefly for you since the DVDs are all stowed away somewhere in the 67 boxes that are currently packed - and thus most of my free time has been, and will be, spent trying to pack the other half. It's amazing what one (two) can accumulate in nine years.
What this means for you all is that I'll post as often as I can between now and the end of the month, plus I promise to get the first two Heroes episodes recapped for you, but the third one will probably be late. Of course, by the third episode that show will most likely be in full suck mode and none of you will care anyway. Please be patient with me and please keep checking back in. Things will resume normal SOP as soon as possible.
In the meantime, here's a list of what I think I will/won't miss when we leave Maine:
Things I Will Not Miss:
mosquitoes black flies March “New England packed powder” humidity bad roads heavy, wet snow frizzy hair mowing this enormous lawn mud season hurricane season
* Mr. Mouse's job is transferring but I will soon be earnestly searching for work. So if any of you devoted readers are actually Salt Lake City area-based employers looking to hire an industrious, fairly articulate Mouse (who promises to scale back the sarcasm, at least at first), drop me a line at friend dot mouse at yahoo dot com.
Are you just not getting enough vitamin B ... as in, B-movies? AMCtv.com has the answer to that: BMC has around forty full-length, full-screen online cinematic gems ready and waiting for you in all the genres you could hope for. Spaghetti westerns? You betcha! Sci-fi/fantasy? How does The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpentgrab you? There's horror (Devil Doll, The Cat Girl), comedy (Raquel Welch in A Swingin' Summer), action/adventure (Hercules Unchained and Dragstrip Girls) and crime/thrillers (The Crawling Eye, Dog Eat Dog and The Haunted Strangler) - to name just a few. I plan to watch as many of these "unsung classics" as I can stand.
It's like AMC Day around here! I also learned of The. Best. Holiday. Ever. over there on the Horror Hacker blog: World Zombie Day. It's an old post, sure, but still - who doesn't need to know that there is one day when the world's zombies and zombie fans can join together and stagger around celebrate? This year, it's October 11. World-headquarters are in Pittsburgh, of course.
As soon as we sell this frakkin' house and move out to Utah, I'm so going to read every page of this blog: Stuff Unemployed People Like. I haven't poked around on it much yet - want to save it for when I need it! - but it looks to be chockful of very important information, such as "Walking Everywhere to Save Time," "Finally Having Time to Be an Artist" and "Getting Annoyed About Having to Get Dressed."
This super-easy, no-bake dessert comes to you from my mom (whom I suspect got it from the yogurt container as the recipe specifically mentions a particular brand of yogurt). Mr. Mouse notes that "no-bake" actually means "no-burn" and, as usual, he is absolutely right. I just made it for the impending Mouse in-law visit - and had to use California strawberries since the Maine ones aren't out yet - and thought I'd share it with you.
1 cup "Stonyfield Farm Organic" french vanilla yogurt 1 8 oz. package of Neufchatel (or fat-free cream cheese) 3 Tbsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup strawberries, diced 1 9" graham cracker crust
In a medium size mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and sugar. Blend yogurt and vanilla into the mixture and fold in the strawberries. Pour into pie crust. Freeze for 2-3 hours or until set. Before serving, place pie in fridge for at least 15 minutes to soften. Garnish with whipped cream and more strawberries.
Note: we had this for a recent girls' weekend (thanks again, Mom!) and recommend eating with forks as spoons tend to send the frozen pieces of pie skittering off the plates.
Yes, it's a long-overdue installment of the riveting FMS series, "Titles Nine," whereby I go to my many bookshelves and pick out nine volumes to share with you, my faithful reader[s]. This time we're browsing the cookbook shelf. I have actually used each of these cookbooks at least once in my culinary tenure but you'd have to ask Mr. Mouse as to the quality of the results.
The Cake Mix Doctorby Anne Byrn - with everyday pantry item additions, you too can fancy up an ol' box of cake mix! (I've actually made the Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake several times - mmmmmmmmm)
Pasta Harvestby Janet Fletcher - given to me by the Mouse Parents who claim there is not a bad recipe in the lot
Leafy Greens by Mark Bittman - lots of different ways to eat lots of different kinds of leafy greens
Dishing Up Maineby Brooke Dojny - another one from the Mouse Parents. Gorgeous photos, lots of information on Maine and the recipes are awfully excellent too
Cooking Down Eastby Marjorie Standish - a classic Maine cookbook
Cold-Weather Cookingby Sarah Leah Chase - famous Nantucket restauranteur/chef
The Frugal Gourmetby Jeff Smith - no-nonsense, tasty and cost-minded
The Daily Soup Cookbookby Leslie Kaul, Bob Spiegel, et al. - I went through a soup phase a couple of winters ago and used this book a lot
James McNair's New Pizza - because sometimes you want something besides pepperoni
I read, ski, drink good beer, go to matinees by myself, honestly believe that the DVR is the world's greatest invention, burn dinner for Mr. Mouse on a semi-regular basis and watch more horror films than I think I do. I like puppies and kittens and baby bunnies and bacon and sunshine and the mountains of Utah and chocolate banana malted milkshakes and puppies and chick flicks (no, not chick flicks) and surprises and classic Mustangs and did I say puppies already? I like sarcasm and snark and tend to have a glass-half-empty view of life because when things turn out, I'm pleasantly surprised. I also like puppies.
But since I'm supposed to say something: "We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information you’ve provided to them or they’ve collected from your use of their services." EXCEPT I DON'T: I don't use ads, I don't analyze traffic, I don't have third party/advertising/analytics/social media partners. Enjoy your time here.
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