Monday, August 3, 2015

American Sniper, Storm.

Saturday night I watched American Sniper which I later found out won an Oscar for sound editing. I wonder why? I quite enjoyed the movie but would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had understood what people were saying. Maybe it was very realistic, but I did not know what they were saying. Of course the movie was littered with swear words just to add to the difficulties. Such a pity because it was a good story but although I stayed with it, nearly turned it off a couple of times, I found I was very disappointed. I was also distressed about the fact that he was shot by a veteran he was trying to help. I knew he had been killed, I didn't know by whom and how it happened. A tragedy to survive 4 tours in Iraq and then to end up being killed by a compatriot whom he was helping. He was apparently America's best sharpshooter with pinpoint accuracy. He had 160 verified kills to his name. He had a strong sense of responsibility to his brothers in the SEALS. Because of the sound, Matt didn't even watch it as he had trouble figuring out what was going on anyway. Not really surprising. Too much realism in a movie is not a good thing in my opinion when people cannot fathom out the gist of the film.

Late afternoon on Sunday it started clouding up. We ended up with a huge big black cloud hanging over us. I took 4 shots two of which don't show how dark the cloud was. Not a very good photographer. One you can see where it is raining in the distance. Then we got a thunderstorm and a half with lots and lots of rain. Matt says not enough to do any good because it wasn't very long, but the amount that came down in a steady downpour, I think it will have done good.





Believe it or not, but the clouds were all the same colour as the last picture.  However, I wanted to show you what it looked like. In the second picture you can see the rain to the left pouring down in the distance. In the last picture you can see the corner of our building. Actually it was so dark it made me think of tornadoes  As you can see in the first two pictures it was coming down pretty close to the ground but luckily there was no wind until it started with the rain, thunder and lightening. I was standing by the open window when one crack came down really close, made me jump out of my skin. Now everything is fresh and clean looking with blue skies. Amazing how fast it changes.

This is a vegetarian recipe from the New York Times. I thought it looked delicious and might please some of my vegetarian friends.

Layered Vegetable Torte
Mark Bittman New York Times
Serves 4 - 6





Ingredients

  • 1 large eggplant, cut into 1/4-inch slices
  • 4 medium zucchini or yellow squash, cut into 1/4-inch slices
  • 2 portobello mushrooms, cut into 1/4-inch slices
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil, or more as needed
  •  Salt
  •  freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 plum tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
  • ½ cup bread crumbs, preferably fresh

Preparation

  1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put a grill pan over medium-high heat, or prepare a grill; the heat should be medium-high, and the rack about 4 inches from flame. Brush eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms lightly with half the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; if roasting, grease 2 baking sheets with oil. Roast or grill vegetables on both sides until soft.
  2. Coat bottom and sides of 8-inch springform pan with oil. Layer a third of the eggplant slices into bottom of the pan, then layer in half the zucchini, mushrooms, tomato, garlic and basil, sprinkling each layer with a bit of salt and pepper. Repeat layers until all vegetable are used. Press the top with a spatula or spoon to make the torte as compact as possible. Sprinkle top with Parmesan and bread crumbs, and drizzle with about 1 tablespoon oil.
  3. Bake torte in oven until hot throughout and browned on top, about 30 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing outer ring of pan, then let cool for another 10 minutes before cutting into wedges.

Have a great day
 

22 comments:

  1. I saw that rain on radar headed your way early in the day. We got ours around 10:30 last night. Have to go out and pump out the window wells.

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    1. We got more later on then I think it rained during the night too. What are window wells Denise?

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  2. I guess any rain is better than none - and those clouds were certainly impressive. The torte sounds tasty. I'll be making that.

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    1. They really were Helen. We got quite a lot more rain during the evening and then during the night.

      I thought it sounded good too.

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  3. I wish we'd get some decent rain. Those pics of the clouds are impressive. A lot of my friends saw American Sniper but it's not my cup of tea. I don't like violence or swearing (or sex but I know that wasn't in this movie) in movies at all.

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    1. I thought I had seen hail. Turns out I did although not as much as other friends in the area. I'm with you JoJo, I don't like sex in movies or books. These books which detail everything he did to her and she did to him drive me up the wall, I do NOT need to read about that thank you. Swearing can be overdone as well I have turned off movies where every other word began with f or something similar.

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  4. That recipe looks delicious! Never thought of assembling veggies in this way.

    betty

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  5. Wow, those are some black, ominous clouds. I hate when thunder's so loud it makes me jump. It's hard to look tough when you jump at a loud sound. :)

    So what's the difference between a torte and a ratatouille? The bread crumbs? This recipe looks almost identical to the ratatouille I make. I just don't bake it with bread crumbs on top.

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    1. Luckily I don't have to look tough Bryan. Turns out we had hail too, thought I saw some.

      Basically a different way of serving it I guess.

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  6. The recipe sounds good. And it does sound a bit like Ratatouille. (Which I have finally mastered.)

    Those clouds turned dark really quick.

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    1. Haven't had ratatouille in ages Diane. I should make it again, or this I guess.

      They were always dark, just my pix which made them look light in a couple but the last pic was how they were from the start. Not sure why my camera lightened the others.

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  7. I still want to see American Sniper!
    That storm would worry me.

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    1. You do surprised me Alex, I would have bet money on it that you had seen it. I was somewhat disappointed but I still enjoyed it. I was going to test the sound on a PC but didn't do it before Matt whipped the movie back to the library.

      It did worry me. Turned out to be not that serious though.

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  8. I am going to talk about this movie plus many others later today. I know what you mean about the film. I saw that same ominous cloud on the weekend and was right in it when the rain and hail came down. What is funny is on the other end of the city my best friend said they only got a couple of drops of rain

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    1. I'll look for your post Birgit. I don't know whether other parts of the city got it or not, but they had it in Burlington and in Cambridge too.

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  9. Those storm clouds look really ominous. Glad you got some needed rain. We're having our first dry spell of the summer and I really don't mind.
    Susan Says

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  10. I agree with you about the movie. The fake baby was obvious, too.

    Great recipe!

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