A Few "Hours" in the Lives of Three Women

(#2) Read 25 books

1. Room by Emma Donohue
2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
5. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
7. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
8. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
9. The Shack by William Young
10.The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
12. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
13. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
14. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
15. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
16. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
17. Bossypants by Tina Fey
18. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
19. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
20. Watership Down by Richard Adams
21. The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
22. The Hours by Michael Cunningham

I have two problems with this novel: the extent to which Michael Cunningham, a man, can convincingly get inside women's heads; and the extent to which I as a sane and functioning human being can relate to the plights of these three tragically unraveling women.

Otherwise this book was fabulous.


The Hours follows the stories of three women living in different but also parallel times- Virginia Woolf in 1923 England, Laura Brown in 1949 Los Angeles, and Clarissa Vaughn (nicknamed "Mrs. Dalloway") in New York at an unspecified time in the late 20th century. Virginia Woolf, as you may know, struggles with depression, and the first few pages of the book detail her suicide before backtracking to her life leading up to it. Laura is a mother pregnant with her second child, stealing time to herself to read Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa, much like her namesake, is planning a party, this time for her friend Richard who has won a writing award.

The tie between them is of course Woolf herself- Clarissa's nickname and Laura's passion for reading. The three women are also alike in the way that they internalize their emotions and in their struggles to define themselves as women in a male world (ironic again that a male is the author here). Virginia is a creative genius whose work is the only thing keeping her anchored to reality. Laura feels she is only pretending to be the perfect wife and mother. Clarissa is a lesbian in a long-term partnership but still in love with her gay, male best friend. The stories are told in alternating chapters, transcending the time that separates them.


The ending is worth it. Cunningham managed to surprise me with a twist that brings sudden clarity to the connection between the three stories. I hope my saying that there is a twist does not ruin the twist for you.

I will give one caveat before recommending this book- the writing style is very reminiscent of Woolf herself, and therefore not for everyone. The stories of the three characters take place across one or two days, and are filled with the mundane moments that make up our lives. "The hours" that become years suddenly make us wonder where all the time has gotten to. Most of the novel is internal dialogue of the characters realizing a similar point themselves.  Little action takes place, and there is a total discard for predictable chronology. It is also helpful to your enjoyment of the book if you have read Mrs. Dalloway.

I am very excited to see the movie. Maybe that route would be more accessible for the reader who's afraid of Virginia Woolf.

(See what I did there? If not, probably don't read this book.)

"Are You Kidding" Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cake

(#10) Master 25 New Recipes

1. Stuffed Peppers
2. Risotto
3. Polenta
4. Beef Brisket
5. French Onion Soup
6. Chocolate Chip Cookies
7. Lentil Soup
8. Macaroni & Cheese
9. Zucchini Bread
10. Chicken Piccata
11. Moussaka
12. Chocolate Cake 

Once again I am proud of myself for actually making something that I pinned on Pinterest. I had to try this recipe mainly because I couldn't believe it would actually work.

Turns out, it does.

This is tastier and more unique than box cake- and yet it is actually easier than box cake.  Also you can customize to include any flavor combos you can think of!

Ronnie went crazy over this cake and has already requested it for his birthday. I also enjoyed it, but thought the Devil's Food overpowered the cherry a bit. Maybe next time I would use regular chocolate.

Also, the recipe claimed that this cake did not need frosting. I tasted it without the frosting and then decided to frost it. Use your best judgment.


"Are You Kidding" Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cake

Ingredients:

1 box  Devil's Food cake mix
1 can cherry pie filling
3 eggs
1 can chocolate frosting (optional)

That's it! No oil, no sugar, no butter, nothing.

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan.
2. Mix cake mix, pie filling, and eggs together in a large bowl. You don't even need to use your mixer!
3. Pour batter into pan. (Note: Due to the gelatinous texture of the pie filling, the batter will appear to be thicker than normal cake batter. But don't worry- it will still be incredibly moist!)

4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. (The original recipe recommended 35, but I checked it after 30 and it was done. You can always bake it more but you can never unbake it!)

5. Let cool before frosting- or before deciding not to frost.

 Enjoy!

Vegetarian Moussaka, and the Importance of High-Quality Cheese

(#10) Master 25 New Recipes

1. Stuffed Peppers
2. Risotto
3. Polenta
4. Beef Brisket
5. French Onion Soup
6. Chocolate Chip Cookies
7. Lentil Soup
8. Macaroni & Cheese
9. Zucchini Bread
10. Chicken Piccata
11. Moussaka

Moussaka as I understand it is a rather loose term referring to a layered dish made with some combination of eggplant, potatoes, spinach, and meat. It is popular mainly in Mediterranean cooking, This recipe (which I found from this blog via Pinterest, and modified slightly) is a very simple, vegetarian version made with spinach, potato, and feta cheese.

Though it takes awhile to cook, the recipe itself is very easy. Probably the hardest part is thawing and draining the spinach, during which time you will feel as if your kitchen sink has become a swamp of greenish liquid and scary dark plant tendrils.

Ronnie was a little skeptical because there is an egg and cream sauce that holds it together (not his favorite), but he enjoyed it. It would have been much improved by a higher-quality feta cheese, though. The one we had was too mild of a flavor, and the dish wound up crying out for that acidic bite that a good-quality feta has.  If I had a lemon on hand that would have saved it as well.

Full recipe below, but basically the dish is

A layer of potato:

Topped with spinach and feta:

Followed by a second layer of potato and the cream and egg mixture.

Vegetarian Moussaka

(Note: Requires advance prep of thawing/draining your spinach, and cook time is 1 hour 20 minutes. I'd save this one for the weekend!) 

Ingredients:

3 large potatoes, peeled, sliced 1/8-inch thick, and patted dry
3 boxes frozen spinach, thawed, drained,and squeezed dry with a paper towel
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 375 and grease a baking dish with butter.
2. After drying out the potato slices, layer half of your slices at the bottom of the baking dish. Overlap them slightly to fill the pan. (Note: Make sure you are almost ready to bake before laying out your potatoes, or they will start to brown. You can store the slices in water for a short time if you are waiting for the spinach to thaw, as I was.)
3.  Spread the thawed and dry spinach over the potatoes. Add the crumbled feta.
4. Top with the rest of the potato slices.
5. Whisk together your eggs, heavy cream, and salt and pepper in a separate bowl, and pour over the moussaka. The cream should just barely cover the top layer.
6. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
7. Remove foil and bake additional 35-40 minutes until top is golden. Let set for 5-10 minutes before serving. 

The Alchemist (Wait, J.K. Rowling Didn't Invent Alchemy?)

(#2) Read 25 books

1. Room by Emma Donohue
2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
5. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
7. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
8. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
9. The Shack by William Young
10.The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
12. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
13. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
14. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
15. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
16. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
17. Bossypants by Tina Fey
18. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
19. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
20. Watership Down by Richard Adams
21. The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

Let me start out by admitting that until I read this book I had assumed that alchemy and the philosopher's stone were both concepts created by J.K. Rowling as part of her wizard world. Mind blown.

Okay moving on.

I always wind up reading apparently random books and people always ask me who recommended them/why I decided to read them. Usually I have no idea other than a vague sensation that I "should" read a certain book. For this one, it was this infographic found on Squidoo:

I have no idea whether this data is correct, and in fact it seems somewhat unlikely. However, when a book I've never heard of lands between The Lord of the Rings and The DaVinci Code it seems to deserve my attention.

The Alchemist is the story of a young Spanish shepherd named Santiago. Santiago is happy with his shepherd life until he meets a king in disguise named Melchizedek who tells him to seek his Personal Legend by traveling to the pyramids in Egypt. If he follows the omens, the king tells him, he will find a great treasure.

Santiago's journey is all about listening to omens and learning to speak the Language of the World. Because he is seeking his true path, the world will conspire to help him. Bad things only happen to people who are not in touch with their true purpose.

I guess after reading a certain number of books you start to notice the similarities in things. The Alchemist turned out to have similar themes to both The Shack and The War of Art.

It is more of what I was hoping The Shack would be like. Things aren't just dictated to Santiago in the form of long monologues; he discovers his lessons while on a journey. He keeps an open mind but require proof of things he is told. And more importantly, the message is clear: Every person has a destiny that their whole life should be built around. If you follow the path destiny has chosen for you, you will find happiness.  

This message if very similar to that in The War of Art, which says that "Resistance" will conspire to keep you from starting on your destiny's journey, but once you start on that journey the world will conspire to help you.

The Alchemist is full of characters waiting. Santiago works for the owner of a crystal shop for a year before going on to the pyramids. The Shopkeeper is Muslim and talks about how he has always dreamed of going on the Hajj but doesn't think he will ever actually do it. In contrast, Santiago boldly travels to another continent, alone, where he doesn't speak the language, to follow his own treasure. And he is handsomely rewarded in the end.

While the book was a little too self-helpy for me, there was enough of an actual story for it to be enjoyable. And it had a solid message that I can get behind. Quit dreaming and make it happen. It will be worth it in the end. 

Two New Foods That Can Only Vaguely Be Called Food

(#13) Taste 25 Foods I've Never Tasted Before

1. Pattypan Squash
2. Beets
3. Eel
4.Wahoo
5.Lychee
6.Quinoa
7. Raw Oyster
8. Octopus
9. Duck
10. Daikon
11. Authentic French Food
12. Dragon Fruit
13. Bagel and Lox (/Smoked Salmon)
14. Astronaut Ice Cream
15. Big Mac

Astronaut ice cream and the McDonald's Big Mac. Two foods that would not exist without the marvels of space-age technology, and that could not survive in nature without extensive chemical preservation. Yum!

When Ronnie and I visited the Air and Space Museum in Dulles last weekend, I remembered a fun fact that I had once learned about my fiancé- that he actually loves astronaut ice cream. Which led me to another realization- I had never tried it. What a serendipitous opportunity to add to my new foods list.

I assumed this freeze drying process involved liquid nitrogen and other things humans should not ingest, but I was delighted to find out that it just involved really cold freezers.

Sure, there are some ingredients that I could not pronounce, but much fewer than I expected. Also the first three ingredients were milk, sugar, and corn syrup. Real Earth food!

It was sort of bizarre that it looked and tasted exactly like ice cream and yet wasn't cold. It was hard for my taste buds to process.

Of course upon closer inspection you can distinguish the chalky texture of the "ice cream." I would highly recommended letting it melt in your mouth rather than chewing.

It did have a nice sweet flavor, though. More concentrated than regular ice cream. I can see why a grade school-aged boy would have enjoyed it.

Next, the Big Mac. Thankfully I did not eat these two things on the same day.

As you can see there is a slight difference between this real-life Big Mac and the one you see in the commercials.

I would have taken a few more pictures, but with fast food of any kind it is pretty much a race to eat it before it cools. Cold fast food is even less recognizable as food than the hot variety.

I have never had a Big Mac and have not had a burger from McDonald's for probably ten years (though admittedly I have had their chicken strips much more recently) and yet all McDonalds' burgers have that distinct taste to them. You know the one I'm talking about.

I'll admit as a carb fiend I did love having that extra bun in there. It added a nice thickness to the burger without having to have too much beef. I am also a sucker for good old-fashioned American pasteurized cheese product so that was a nice treat.

I probably wouldn't order it again, but it was nice to join the club. I'm not crazy about thousand island dressing which is apparently what the "special sauce" tastes like, so that aspect didn't do it for me. Also, its a burger from McDonald's. So...slightly questionable, to say the least.
 
And of course the highlight of this particular meal was the world famous and fabulously salty French fries. Which also only vaguely resemble their natural state. But you can't argue with delicious.

Of COURSE Deckard Was A Replicant. Didn't You Pick Up on That Imperceptible Clue?

(#17) Watch 25 Classic Movies

1.   One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
2.   A Streetcar Named Desire
3.   It's a Wonderful Life
4.   Some Like it Hot
5.   The Terminator
6.   Terminator 2: Judgement Day
7.   The Princess Bride
8.   Ben-Hur
9.   Ferris Bueller's Day Off 
10. Sixteen Candles
11. Blade Runner

I was inspired to watch this movie after I saw Prometheus and then having to do extensive research on the interwebs about what Prometheus actually meant (I guess that should have been my first red flag). Apparently Ridley Scott's M.O. is just to think things in his head and not actually include them in the movie. Just from the extensive scrolling text in the beginning credits I knew I was going to struggle comprehending this one as well.

To demonstrate this point: Ronnie stepped out of the room to get a glass of water, came back, and asked "What'd I miss?" and I said, "We better rewind it." 

Anyway, the basic premise is there are these "replicants" who are the bad guy robots, but you can't tell them apart from humans. "Blade Runners" are special cops who are in charge of keeping replicants off Earth (they all work manual labor jobs on "off-world" colonies in space) and hunting down and terminating any that do try to escape. Which of course is a very difficult job because the replicants were designed to look and act exactly like humans.

Oh and also replicants eventually start to develop human emotions so to combat this their lifespans are limited to four years. But for some reason to make them MORE human they are given false memories so they believe their lives have actually been longer.

Following it so far? Just nod.

So Harrison Ford plays Deckard who is a retired Blade Runner, but apparently he is the best so he is forced to return to deal with an extra-difficult case. So he gets the scoop on these replicants and starts chasing them down through the confusing and crowded underground clubs of the future.

Maybe it would have made more sense if I could have seen what was going on half the time...

It is surprising that Deckard is the best Blade Runner because he is somewhat out of shape and not really a great shot. But (SPOILER ALERT!) he does manage to kill three out of four of the rebel replicants. The fourth one, Roy, saves Deckard from falling off a roof, presumably so Deckard can be witness to his death. Which is actually kind of a touching moment where Roy explains that when you know the time of your death, your whole life is lived in fear of that moment.

Then Deckard goes back to his apartment where he is hiding another fugitive replicant name Rachel whom he is now in love with. Rachel didn't know she was a replicant at first and so challenges Deckard to prove that he isn't one, too. Which really he can't. Other than that there is a brief daydream of a unicorn combined with a clue- an origami unicorn left in front of his apartment- that the unicorn wasn't a daydream but actually a thought implanted there by the police.

A unicorn! I get it. Wait...

Suddenly it is all so clear, right? According to Ridley Scott, Deckard is definitely a replicant.

But like with Prometheus (where the reason the aliens are pissed at us is because Jesus Christ was one of them and when they sent him down to Earth we killed him...both confusing AND blasphemous) movie-goers should not have to look to the words of the director to realize crucial plot points.

While sometimes lost when it comes to physics and futuristic technology, I consider myself an educated watcher, and I think maybe 1% of the population could have picked up on Scott's unicorn clue without any help. And those people include Scott, his mother, his wife, and anyone else who knows how frustratingly ambiguous he can be. And without the catharsis of finding out that Deckard has been a replicant the whole time- which most people do not get- the movies drives toward nothing.

Even realizing that Deckard is a replicant just leaves you with more questions- Why are the police letting him roam around on Earth? Why is he easily overpowered by the strength of the other replicants? Why do the police decide at the end of the movie to let him know that he is a replicant? Does he realize what the unicorn meant, or is just the viewer supposed to know?

Frustrating.

I know that Blade Runner has developed its own cult following (right down to several lines of merchandise) and I can appreciate that the graphics were actually really good for 1982.

All in all, though, I don't get it- literally and figuratively.

Bacon, For People Who Don't Eat Bacon

(#13) Taste 25 Foods I've Never Tasted Before

1. Pattypan Squash
2. Beets
3. Eel
4.Wahoo
5.Lychee
6.Quinoa
7. Raw Oyster
8. Octopus
9. Duck
10. Daikon
11. Authentic French Food
12. Dragon Fruit
13. Bagel and Lox (/Smoked Salmon)

I'd never had smoked salmon before but I felt I was almost guaranteed to like it. I love salmon, and I love sushi- I know the raw texture of the smoked salmon (though it is actually cooked through) is a put-off for some. And I love bagels. Win, win, win.

I was right, of course. I did really enjoy it.

I was surprised by how overwhelmingly smoky the salmon smelled- I was worried that a fishy smell would be too much to handle in the morning. But it barely smelled like salmon at all.

All items found at my local and fabulous Trader Joe's.

I know there are some very specific traditions as far as what a true bagel and lox would include. We used a plain bagel instead of a poppy seed bagel. We did have capers but we did not have red onion in the house (also, I don' t like red onion). Ronnie did mention that the red onion would have added a nice crunch. We also did not add tomato or cucumber which are more controversial ingredients.

Luckily the salmon we bought was thinly sliced. I was afraid I would have to develop some Morimoto knife skills on the fly.

 
I toasted the bagel, let it cool (as recommended) and put on a thin layer of cream cheese (as recommended).
 

While it seemed to make more sense to put the capers on before the lox, every picture I saw had the capers on top. I guess it makes it more decorative.

The taste of these ingredients combined is something that I have never experienced before. The smokiness of the salmon, the tart cream cheese, the chewy bagel, and that pop of salty caper all made for a flavorful bite full of depth.  I could definitely see why people crave it- especially people who don't eat pork, because the lox itself has a savory, smoky flavor comparable to smoked bacon or ham.

My only complaint would be that the taste absolutely refuses to leave your mouth for several hours, even after teeth brushing. I imagine this is exasperated even further by the addition of red onion.

It would also probably be a lot to take in for an early breakfast when your taste buds are still waking up. If it is your first time trying it, I would recommend saving it for brunch time.

Unless you are going on a brunch date and don't have any gum on you. In that case go with the pancakes.