Happy Birthday to Me!

And I want this cake:



Because part of my junior year in college was spent on the couch, rewatching the Fraggle Rock from my childhood on DVD with my best friend instead of studying for exams. And because I love it so.

(Ganked from Cakewrecks a million years ago in preparation for this moment).

Review: Julie & Julia

TOBY: I was raised on Sesame Street. I was raised on Julia Child. I was raised on Brideshead Revisited. Their legacies are safe in my hands.

[C.J. is standing in the doorway, giggling]

TOBY: You've got a problem?

C.J.: You watched cooking shows?

TOBY: I watched Miss Julia Child.

Let me start right out front and say that I think Meryl Streep is very possibly the Best. Actress. Ever. I recognize serious competition from the person who has occupied the spot of Best. Actress. Ever. for most of my life, that being Katharine Hepburn, whom I also love.

So, Julie & Julia is amazing. Meryl Streep is amazing. Part of what makes Streep so amazing, aside from how she got the role of Child in the first place, is how she - a 5 foot, 6 inch woman - fills the space of a 6 foot 3 inch woman. Part of that is, of course, movie magic. But part of it is just being that good of an actress.

I did enjoy the Julia Child parts of Julie & Julia more than the Julie Powell parts of the film. That isn't because the 'Julie' part is weak. It is that the Julia Child part is just that wonderful. Part of this is because Child, even before she was synonymous with French Cooking, is so much larger than life. And with Streep portraying her, she practically explodes off of the screen itself. When she bursts into her French Cooking class with a glee filled, Bonjour, when she is on screen at all, the atmosphere of the movie theater is altered. A regular person, Julie Powell for instance, can't hope to compete with that force of nature. She does try, though. And her portion of the film is amply wonderful, even if I would almost have preferred if Nora Ephron had made two films, companion pieces, to create these women instead of smushing them into one.

One of the reasons I loved the Julia Child sections and only liked the Julie Powell sections were because of the relationships the two women had with their respective husbands. Julia and Paul (played deftly by Stanley Tucci) were so many things, and fun was a big part of that. They joked, they seemed to genuinely bask in each other's company, they were at ease together, and their sex life was readily apparent if not explicitly portrayed. In comparison, Julie and Eric don't seem to share the same joy in each other. There are certain scenes where they do. Eric's rendition of "Psycho Killer", substituting "Lobster Killer" is one such scene. It comes in waves and patches, but it isn't a pervasive presence as it is for Julia and Paul. That doesn't make their relationship off or wrong or bad; it just means that it may have been better if their more subdued relationship had a larger degree of separation from the Childs' exuberant one.

That being said, I do see the appeal in combining the two. It makes Julie's obsession and admiration of Julia Child much more palatable if we are shown what is to obsess and admire about Child herself. If all the audience had to go on were the clips of Child's shows and Dan Aykroyd's Saturday Night Live sketch and the factual snippets Powell mentions throughout the course of the film, Child would probably remain outside of the viewer's grasp. And in contrasting Child's own struggles in creating and publishing Mastering the Art of French Cooking with Powell's struggle to get through all 524 recipes contained within the cooking tome, it becomes apparent that a person doesn't have to be larger than life, to be extraordinary, in order to be worthwhile of admiration and focus. Because while Julie Powell is, more or less, ordinary, while Powell doesn't have the same spark, the same fearlessness, the same wonderment of her idol, she has still done something incredible. She has still done something with her life, and created enjoyment for all of those who followed her along her journey in real time as well as those of us who are only now aware of her feat.

Now, though, I've got to get some books about Julia Child. And maybe pick up Julie Powell's Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.

Grade: A

I Have A Secret

I'm kind of in love with the First Family. I love how the president is going off to town hall type meetings and meeting with people, even going to places and meeting people who didn't vote for him. I love Michelle Obama going around to D.C. public schools and talking about her own high school experience. I love President Obama utilizing his army of supporters in order to garner more support for his legislation. I love his somewhat understated wit. I love his constant speeches, even though I do worry about the whole "over saturated" aspect of the whole thing. And I absolutely adore that there is going to be an organic White House garden on the South Lawn with 55 different kinds of vegetables, and even some bee hives for honey. And unlike Jimmy Carter donning a sweater in order to convey to the American people that it might be in all of our best interests to get a little colder during the winter months instead of spending money on fuel, the Obamas actually make caring look cool. And that's what we need; yes, we need solutions to the complex problems of the day. But having people who are earnestly, actively out there, trying to make the world better and doing it themselves? People who are gardening and talking and generally engaged and intelligent? That is beyond awesome. 

Recipes I Like: Roasted Ratatouille

I've begun to cook; not very often, but sometimes. Generally, I'll do it a lot for a couple of weeks and then not at all for a couple of months. And generally, it is a winter/fall/early spring phenomenon that I kind of abandon once summer rolls around. That could be in part explained by my fear of the grill and of grilling in general. Anyway, in the interest of giving credit where it is due, I found a recipe for roasted ratatouille at Shakesville. But due to the nature of my family and the amount of us and the fact that I'm not a fan of 1 inch cubes of food items, I modified the recipe a bit; so, original recipe at the above link, and my own version down below, which feeds about 5 (and remember, left overs are a good thing!):

2 small to medium eggplants

2 small zucchini

4-5 small potatoes

1 red or green pepper

1 onion

4 plum tomatoes

3-4 garlic cloves

salt and pepper

dried oregano

dried basil

rosemary

thyme

garlic powder

olive oil

parmesan cheese

balsamic vinegar (optional)

1. Coat the bottom of a large baking pan (or two) with olive oil.

2. Cut eggplant, zucchini, pepper, onion, potatoes, and tomatoes into edible-sized bites.

3. Roughly chop the garlic.

4. Put vegetables in a big bowl (or two) and coat with olive oil; use your hands to spread the olive oil evenly.

5. Place mixed vegetables in baking pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried basil, dried oregano, and dried thyme to taste. Put a smidgen of rosemary on as well. Coat liberally with parmesan cheese.

6. Bake everything for 45 minutes or º350. Turn every 15 minutes.

7. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar (optional).

8. Serve.

Delicious, vegetarian, and easy. Also, kind of fun. Serve with a French baguette.

Supporting Small Businesses Is For Poseurs

I thought of yet another issue with those damn McDonalds commercials, the ones that managed to celebrate idiocy and make it seem like a wonderful national past time. A friend of mine mentioned Starbucks being just as "ubiquitous as McDonald's restaurants" (and I'm once again quoting without asking, because I suck). And I agree. But what strikes me is that many of the coffee shops I have frequented in my tenure as a coffee drinker have been independently owned and operated, actually have had things like Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble to play whilst drinking one's hot (or not so hot) beverage, and generally had some sort of non-pop music playing either from a stereo or through a live person sitting there serenading the generally unimpressed patrons.

I like coffee shops; I generally like independent vendors of any kind. Part of why I like them is because they aren't ubiquitous, at least not entirely. Every coffee shop sells basically the same product, but every shop has its own layout. Every shop has its own flavors and its own taste and its own baked goods. Every shop differs slightly in decor or style or music or what board games they have. Whether they have more couches or chairs. What kinds of bands they allow to play there. What kind of pamphlets and books and magazines are kicking around. And at the end of the day, I know that my dollar is going to support an individual who happens to enjoy selling coffee, or at the very least thought they could make a living doing it.

What McDonalds does is scoff at the very idea of individualism; it has done so with its food. A McDonalds Big Mac sold in California is the same as one sold in Connecticut is the same as one sold in France. Its workers are uniform, and wear uniforms. They are impersonal, and at the same time strangely comforting. But it is a false comfort; it is a comfort that allows conformity to become the status quo and rejects the notion of diversity. McDonalds -and other fast food restaurants- are a symptom of a greater problem. I know that McDonalds is a business. Businesses make commercials that supposedly positively influence the viewer into giving their product a chance. But there is something depressing about the idea that someone who may have once stopped for an individual experience at a coffee house will now pull up to a drive in window of a McDonalds and get a mass produced latte, and a latte and experience that is the same no matter which location that person chooses to frequent.