ISP, Movie

At approximately 2:00 pm on Friday afternoon Matt tried to turn on the TV and it was dead, I subsequently discovered the internet and our home phone was also dead. I tried to get hold of the service provider and they were apparently having problems with their phones so I assumed it was everywhere. I tried to get them two or three times and eventually, maybe a couple of hours or so later, I did get hold of them and they told me it was only in our apartment. Sh*t. They said they could get a repairman here on Monday morning – I promptly hit the roof. The service guy told me to calm down and said, because we had no phone service it would go through as an emergency. He said the repair dept. would phone me and let me know when they could come. Over an hour later, I hadn’t heard anything so I called back when an automatic voice told me I had a service man calling between 9 and 11 on Saturday – they were supposed to have called me. I eventually managed to speak to a person but despite speaking to lots of people, nobody could do anything. We are thoroughly teed off to say the least. Not only that, my IT guy was calling and I phoned him and left a message not to come because he couldn’t phone us from the lobby nor could I let him in. As it happened he turned up anyway and somebody let him in. Obviously this is why my blog was not posted early this morning and why nobody could get hold of us. No-one has our cell phone number because, basically, we don’t use it except for emergencies so as far as the rest of the world was concerned, we were incommunicado. Grrrrrrrrr. The language that has been going through my mind would have this blog removed from all computers. Just to add to the problems it has snowed over night and is still snowing this morning so presumably the service guy will have driving difficulties. Once he gets here, mind you, he can’t phone us to be let in!!!!

OK, he’s been, turned out somebody switched off the cable to our apartment instead of the one below!!!!!!!!

However, Matt’s Christmas present turned up today. I had bought him the first two seasons of As Time Goes By with Judi Dench and Lionel Palmer. It always used to be a favourite of Matt’s, mine too, but Matt especially. We were still able to play it on the DVD player even though the TV itself doesn’t work so we watched the first season and Matt was delighted with it. He really enjoyed it once again, as did I.

Watched Camilla on TV Thursday night. Had seen it before, but it really is a good movie with Jessica Tandy. She was such a great actress, think Driving Miss Daisy. In Camilla she plays an aging violinist who befriends a young woman (Bridget Fonda) who is also a musician. The part shows her as being slightly dotty, but she plays it so well. Even the scene where she is listening to a Brahms concert, she is so obviously taking part in her mind, just by her facial expressions. Brilliant acting. Its such a shame she is no longer with us. I have never actually seen the first part of the movie, I always end up coming in part way through, but the part I do see is great.

This recipe appealed to me for New Year’s Eve. I have never seen store bought raspberry sorbet, so I have included a link to making one, fairly simple to do in fact. Don’t be frightened to use the Black Pepper. I first used it on strawberries as recommended by the Australian chef Graham Kerr many years ago and it is incredible how just a little pepper brings out the flavour of the fruit.

Black Pepper-Raspberry Sorbet with Prosecco

Contributed by James Holmes

SERVINGS:8

Chef James Holmes of Olivia, in Austin, topped raw oysters with this sweet-savory sorbet before deciding it would make an excellent cocktail with Prosecco. A good-quality, store-bought raspberry sorbet is a fine shortcut.

One 750-milliliter bottle Prosecco, chilled

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 pint raspberry sorbet, softened slightly

In a large bowl, sprinkle the pepper all over the sorbet and fold it in with a rubber spatula. Cover and freeze for about 3 hours, until firm.

Chill 8 champagne saucers. Using a 1/2-ounce ice cream scoop, place 3 scoops of sorbet in each saucer. Pour about 1/3 cup of Prosecco into each saucer.

Make Ahead The black pepper–raspberry sorbet can be frozen for up to 3 days.

Have a great weekend

The Theatre, RIP Celeste Holm, Spicy or Bland.

For some reason on Saturday I started thinking about the theatre. What I was mainly thinking about was the time when I went to see the production of Turandot by Puccini on film presented by Live at the Met. During the intervals, we were taken back stage and watched interviews with the various opera stars who were in the show. I enjoyed the production very much, but…. when I was involved with theatre, many years ago, part of our job as actors was to maintain the mystery and magic of the theatre. This is destroyed by going back stage during a performance or by talking to the performers who revert from fabulous characters,  be it heroes or villains, to ordinary people. Nor, when I see some of these performances, do I want to see close ups of the singer’s mouth, or the actor’s sweat, or even in less expensive performances, the odd problems with the props or wardrobe. All of that should stay their side of the footlights and should never intrude on the audience. In my opinion, the way many shows are staged on TV and film, destroys the magic and mystery which we used to be at such pains to create. When I see a show of any kind, I want to suspend disbelief and to see the characters being portrayed as those characters only. I used to enjoy leaving a performance in which I had completely forgotten the actor and just remembered the character. Sadly, it doesn’t happen much any more. As an illustration, I hold up the example of Peter O’Toole who was Lawrence of Arabia, or was definitely Henry II in Beckett. The same can be said of any part he has played. Many times I haven’t even realised it was him, he is so good; a brilliant actor. It is NOT the job of an actor to portray him/herself but to make you believe wholeheartedly in the character, and only the character. He has now retired as he has lost the heart for acting, but I understand he has  written two volumes of an autobiography Loitering with Intent: The Child and Loitering with Intent: The Apprentice which I hear are great reads. I have requested the first one from the library.

Talking of the stage and actors, RIP Celeste Holm, she left us on Sunday after having a great career. I especially remember her singing Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Sinatra in High Society. She was a very successful actress and had a long run although apparently the last year or two of her life were not so happy, she had fallen out with her children. So sad. Last night I happened to see a movie with Jessica Tandy called Camilla. Marvellous actress, so sorry she left us some time ago now.

OK, I admit it, I am a bit slow. I was talking to another English woman about the accusation that English food is bland, then I saw a recipe for gazpacho which added a jalapeño pepper – gazpacho does NOT need jalapeño. Then it suddenly hit me, no wonder Brits are accused of bland food, we don’t add chilies, jalapeños, etc. etc. to practically everything we eat which is beginning to be what happens on this side of the pond. Personally I get sick of all the spiced up recipes I see. If you want to eat Thai or Mexican, do so, but don’t just spice up things for the sake of it. These days, if it doesn’t burn your mouth off, food is considered bland. Never thought of it before, sorry for my dinner guests, they must find my food boring!!! Gazpacho is a delicious soup of blended summer vegetables the subtle tastes of which would be totally lost once you started adding hot and fiery peppers to it. If English food is bland, North American food is becoming over spiced. A language difference here, in England food with lots of chilies is/was called ‘hot’, over here its called ‘spicy’. The Brits do eat spicy things, witness the amount of Indian takeaways that have sprung up all over the country. Curry is almost a national dish and a good Vindaloo can knock your socks off. Not sure why, Indian food hasn’t caught on round here for some reason. There is one Indian restaurant I know of which my doctor, who’s background is Indian, says is not much good, other than their breads. Having written all this, we decided to have Devilled Kidneys for supper last night, they are hot or spicy enough. When I think about it, Devilling is a very old English method of preparing foods and usually involves hot mustards. We always have our Devilled Kidneys over rice although as you can see it is shown over toast here. It is made with lamb’s kidneys.

Saturday night I decided to try out a new recipe for Brussels Sprouts. I have mentioned before that I get tired of plain ol’ veg so am always on the lookout for something different. This is a recipe from Kraft and I have altered it a bit as the original had healthy options such as low fat or low salt. I thought it was delicious but a little too crunchy, needed either a bit more cooking or a bit more root cut off the sprout, not sure which. I also added just a sprinkle of salt. You can see in the picture that some of it hasn’t been cooked at all but it still comes out attractively. The serving size is for 6 half cups, not nearly enough. Matt and I split it between us.

Pan-Fried Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

2 slices bacon
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
20 Brussels sprouts (1 lb./450 g), trimmed, halved and thinly sliced

1. COOK bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet; drain on paper towels. Discard drippings from skillet.

2. ADD onions to skillet; cook on medium-high heat 3 min. or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Add next 3 ingredients; stir.

3. STIR in Brussels sprouts; cook 6 min. or until crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Crumble bacon; sprinkle over Brussels sprouts.

Kraft kitchens tips

For added flavour, stir in 1 Tbsp. cider vinegar before topping with the crumbled bacon

Servings: 6 (1/2 cup each)

Have a great day