I give opinions on all sort of random stuff EXCEPT religion and politics...two of the most divisive topics on the planet. I give advice and answer questions (like an advice column), and I love the topics of all things spiritual and metaphysical, parenting and general life issues. I'll review products, movies, books, you name it.
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Last week, when I went to pick up my eggs at the farmer's market, the grower was giving out samples of this summer salad. This photo and the recipe come from Val's Veggies. Check out their website for other farm-fresh recipes.
Mine turned out to look different and yours may as well, depending on the size of your cut fruit, and the type of your cut fruit. I found it didn't keep well because the fruit wants to get all wet and start to mush up, so make what you think you can reasonably eat in a day or two.
One of the cool things about this is the Quinoa. It is a seed more than a grain, and it is very high in protein. So this could be a stand alone meal on a really hot night when you don't want to cook. I ate it for breakfast this morning and that worked well too...I might even eat it for lunch.
What I will do differently next time is chop my mint much finer. I did more of a chiffonade cut than a mince and so I got a few bites that were a bit strong. Hubby wasn't too keen on the mint. With a finer mince, I think it will be fine next time.
This time I used halved strawberries and whole blue and black berries. Use any fruit you like best. On average, the juice of a single grapefruit will give you adequate (or surplus) juice.
You can cook quinoa ahead and have it chilled and ready for later to make it a minutes to prepare meal.
Mint Summer Salad
approximately 1 cup quinoa
1/2 cup grapefruit juice (freshly squeezed)
3 tbsps honey
1/2 tsp lime zest
1/4 tsp salt
1 lb fruit (mixed, strawberries, grapes, melon, whatever fruit you want to use.)
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
Cook the quinoa according to directions.
Allow the quinoa time to cool and then mix with the remaining ingredients in with the quinoa.
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves (2012) is a historical novel by Kristina McMorris dealing with the Japanese American experience during WWII.
Childhood friends, Maddie, Lane and TJ find themselves faced with conflicts of the heart at every turn. Lane is the son of Japanese immigrants. Maddie and TJ are Caucasian Americans or European Americans.
Mixed relationships are suspect at best in the 40's but when Pearl Harbor is bombed, suddenly the xenophobia runs wild. Japanese Americans are rounded up and placed in internment camps just shy of repeating the atrocities of the Holocaust. This is a story of that journey for our small cast of characters.
I really disappeared into these pages. To say I "liked" it, when it was a hard story to witness wouldn't be quite accurate. Once again, I was reminded of some of our "American" history that we ought not be proud of at all. Our role as dominate master has been played out in many forms over our history and it is one that makes me not a "flag-waver" in the least. I have a hard time claiming pride in a country with such a history...with the Native Americans, with African Americans, with the Chinese, with the Japanese, with Hispanics and with Middle Easterners...and probably other groups I'm missing in the long list. I wonder when or if we will learn that there is "enough" for all, and to fear and dominate and destroy is no way to live and no way to demonstrate being "great".
It helped me to digest some of this history in an "entertaining" and accessible way. It made me ache. I highly recommend it.
Watch this video clip of the author talking about the book here, or below.
I'll tell you upfront, I'm about to be a bit irreverent regarding what is considered to be a classic and a controversial book/movie.
My mom and I were talking about various "taboo" books or movies that we remembered from our youth. She remembered that "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand (1943) and the subsequent film by the same title (1949) starring Patricia O'Neal and Gary Cooper was supposed to be some steam, sexy stuff.
Everything about "taboo" screams "READ ME, WATCH ME!" does it not? So I told her I would try to find it. The other she mentioned was Forever Amber...I found that in used book but not movie form...we haven't read that yet, so I'll deal with that later. Also previously reviewed was Carnal Knowledge and at some future date will be Myra Breckenridge. If you have any other risque' titles from yesteryear you want me to look into...I'm your gal.
Back to our regularly scheduled program:
In a nutshell, the movie is about an architect with innovative ideas for the time period (based loosley on Frank Lloyd Wright). He refuses to knuckle under to any pressure from the public, or companies or firms to compromise his designs to fit more conventional themes. As a result, he is often seen barely making it and even working in a rock quarry. That's one theme. The other is of his love for a woman...(a psycho woman, in my opinion). She is also dealing with the issue of compromise, or submission. That and her wild, crazy devil eyes...trust me on this. So we follow his career and their "romance". Both are unconventional.
After watching the movie, I had questions. I didn't see anything particularly sexy, risque' or bothersome about the film. I had a slight inkling that one scene MAY have represented one of those "yes, no, yes, no types of rape". And I don't mean that to minimize or call it anything other than what it was. But in the film, as you might imagine in 1949, it was vague. Plus, I hadn't read the book. Hubby went looking and here's what he turned up.
The book was controversial for the rape scene and even in 1949 the controversy raged over "deserved rape through yes/no behavior", or "rape is rape". Having seen the film, I thought Gary Cooper should have walked away because she was a freaking psycho. I don't know if that was intentional (again, not having read the book) but Patricia O'Neal's behavior was comically disturbing. Wide glaring eyes, and so much yes/no behavior that you could swear she was two people. Like I said...psycho.
The book and/or film was also apparently controversial for Rand herself...her political, philosophical and religious views which were not received well in her day.
Also, there was a court scene where censors felt it mandatory to clarify the difference between criminal and civil responsibility. The film almost didn't get made trying to clarify this point which was not clarified in the book.
I thought Gary Cooper did a fine acting job (given that melodrama was the flavor of the day) and Patricia O'Neal sucked. But that's just me.
I find in watching old classics or chasing a controversy that the back story is often way more interesting than the film itself. We borrowed the movie on DVD from Netflix. Oh, and I have no idea how the title ties in. Do you?
Onward with more classics and more scatological fare if I can find it.
Now You See Me (2013) is a fun flick full of cool illusions.
Four street magicians/illusionists are brought together based on their skill by an unknown person or persons to pull off a series of heists. The FBI is hot on their trail. The questions are, how do they do it? Why are they doing it? Who is behind them as their benefactor? Sort of a series of "mission impossible" tasks by an unlikely team.
Rated PG-13 for ...hmm...who knows what? Oh...these people do. From my perspective, anything really wrong with it may have zipped by in a flash and I missed it. I think tracking the story and the illusions would be a bit of a challenge for young kids, but otherwise, I had no objections to it for older kids.
Heck, even I got a bit confused by all of the twists, but enjoyed it nonetheless. Good acting. Good illusions. Good entertainment.
Robert B. Parker has authored over 70 books. He may be best known for his Jessie Stone series that was made into several movies starring Tom Selleck or his Spencer series which ended up at the Spencer for Hire television series. Parker died in 2010 but there must be some unpublished manuscripts (partial or complete) still held in his estate. This book, Ironhorse (2013) is credited to Robert B. Parker but written by Robert Knott. I'm not sure how that works...but it works.
I don't recall if the text came right out and stated so, but I don't think it mentioned a date of time period that the story took place. It is in the old west, during the time when steam engines were in use. I can give you a historical parameter for the time period: Steam engines came into use, give or take, in the very early 1800's. They began to disappear from main lines by 1930. The book mentions a somewhat recent event of the replacement of brakemen on trains by the Westinghouse air brake which was patented in 1868. So I'm gonna take a wild stab and give you the range of 1870 or so. How's that for deductive reasoning. They probably said the date right in the book and I missed it. But I digress. Always.
The story takes place over just a few days time...and involves a train robbery and the subsequent aftermath and manhunt by two Texas Marshals, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. Apparently, this isn't the first book featuring these two seasoned partners. They don't need a lot of words between them. The dialogue often consists of minimalistic exchanges, such as:
We stood side by side, looking down the track into the darkness. I turned the wheel, adjusting the brake, keeping our speed steady as the blowing rain swirled around us. "Like sailors," I said. It's wet enough," Virgil said. "I'll give you that." "Fact remains, though, we're on a hard damn rail that ain't leading to the open seas." "That's a fact.: "We go at it alone," I said. "We do." "Like we've done many times before." "We have." "Can't think of anybody I'd rather be going at it with." "Me neither," Virgil said I thought of Virgil's words. Luck most often is accompanied with knowing what you're doing. We rode in silence for a while before I asked, "You want to tell me about what was in that telegram?" "No." Virgil said "But you will." Virgil nodded "Yes, I will."
The book seems to be primarily narrated by the character of Everett. I love the simplicity of the dialogue. You can picture these men who are so attuned to each other, and so used to keeping an understated communication between them. The dialogue style is one of the primary means of character development.
It's a fast read. I finished it in a couple of days. Without other activities, one could finish it in a day (depending on if you're a fast reader or not, or if you have chores to do or a job to go to). I know I keep using this word, but I really enjoyed the simplicity of it. Good read.
There are several versions of this recipe floating all over the web, so crediting it to its source was more of a challenge than I was up for. *I* got the recipe from my mom who got it from my sister. I looked on the web and found many variations and many of the same recipe. I used the recipe my sister made and looked up one I found at Cooks.com Here we go:
Cranberry Russian Chicken
1 pkg boneless, skinless chicken breasts
(a "pkg" is rather misleading so I asked my sister. She used six breasts cut in half to make somewhat smaller serving sizes for a pot luck. The family pack I bought had five in it so that's what I used...there will be leftovers to freeze for next time).
1 can whole cranberries
1 "jar" of Russian Dressing
(the recipe from my sister said 1-8 oz bottle. In my store there was only ONE brand [Wishbone] and it came in 16 oz...so I measured out one cup and saved the rest for next time. If you want to avoid the majority of the weird ingredients and chemicals in most commercial salad dressings, here is a recipe for Russian dressing that looks pretty easy and basic.)
1 pkt of Lipton Onion Soup mix
(For my maiden voyage with this recipe I used a store brand dry onion soup mix. Next time I will make my own because most of the soup mixes have weird ingredients which include MSG. Here is a recipe for dry onion soup mix I found online.)
Mix dressing, soup mix and cranberries together with a whisk. Put some in the bottom of a 13x9 baking pan, place chicken breasts on top and top with remaining sauce. Bake COVERED with foil at 350 degrees for about an hour.
Serve over rice spooning some of the pan juices over both rice and chicken. Add a veg.
This stuff would be good on a pork loin roast or turkey breast too!
Turtles Can Fly (2004) is a subtitled foreign film set just prior to the United States invasion of Iraq in a Kurdish refugee camp in the Iraq-Turkey border.
A large group of children largely take care of themselves working as a group for money by sweeping/collecting/selling landmines from mine fields near the camp.
We came across the film on Netflix rather by accident and when it loaded itself to play, we just said "what the heck, let's watch it".
I can't tell you that I loved or hated it. I can't say I liked it either. Rapid subtitle reading is typically not my favorite thing to do while watching a movie. Also, the setting, the harshness, the experiences of the children, so old before their time is not pleasant viewing. The young girl has been gang-raped by Iraqi-Arab soldiers and has given birth to a blind child she cannot bond with. She is unable to overcome her trauma.
It also seems like all of the dialogue is high pitched and everyone seems to yell as their normal voice. Luckily for us, since it is all subtitled, the sound is not very important so you can turn it way down or even off.
I'm ambivalent. I can't recommend it, but neither am I sorry I saw it.
Not for kids...they won't be able to read or follow along fast enough and the subject matter is dismal. Sort of like The Goonies if they lived in a war zone. No graphic violence or swearing or explicit sex. It's challenging to figure out what's happened and what's going on. The acting must be fairly good because they all had me convinced they were living it as I watched.
I have no idea about the title. The baby has two turtles in a single scene in the movie that he dumps into a muddy water hole. That's it.
Watch the trailer below, or via this link. Don't let this sweetie-pie, light trailer fool you...it is anything but light. It's is full-on dark and dismal. Sure, it's also about survival in the worst imaginable circumstances...but that's not how it made me feel. I came away grateful for the life I have, and sad for the life they have/had. There was little joy...just survival.
