Top 10 Movies Blogfest

This is a blogfest being hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh or, as somebody recently christened him, the Blogfather. If you click on the Ninja Captain's badge at the side, it will take you to his announcement.

At the moment, the top of my list is:
Avatar, fantastic movie, just wish I had seen it in 3D. I don’t want to know how it was done, but the idea of Pandora was incredible and I would love to be a Na’vi. If its sci fi, I enjoy it anyway. Its about scientists ‘driving’ avatars which are created with a combined genome of the local people and the human driver. One of the scientists dies and his twin brother, an ex Marine with a spinal injury, is sent to Pandora in his stead. He ends up getting really close to the Na’vi people.

The King and I, every time the king dies I cry, the film was just a fairy tale, the real Anna Leonowens wasn’t nearly such a nice person, not sure the king was either. Anna certainly thought they were all savages, if you read her memoires. Anna did help to modernise Siam though. Always liked Yul Brynner.

Anastasia, loved the concept that the Tzar’s youngest daughter might have survived. I always hoped she had. Yul Brynner again and Ingrid Bergman who was always a favourite. Such an elegant woman too, I think I saw most of the movies she ever made. One which comes to mind, was a slightly sad little move called The Yellow Rolls Royce which comprised three stories about the car and its current owners.

Gigi, lovely romance, lovely music. Liked Maurice Chevalier. In fact I made a point to see more of his films after I had seen this one. The time of the movie was an era I very much admired, clothing was so graceful and the lives they (well the rich anyway) led seemed to be admirable, or maybe ‘such a bore’.

The King’s Speech, well done and a good story based on fact. Colin Firth did an excellent job as the King and Geoffery Rush was a wonderful Lionel Logue. I was familiar with the speech done by the King himself although I didn’t hear it at the time, too young. Also, being too young, I had never heard about the king’s stutter which Colin Firth did beautifully.

Stardust, lots of magic and nasty witches; Michelle Pfeiffer was a great, but nasty, witch. More romance. Wonderful part played by Robert de Niro as Captain Shakespeare, one of the best bits in the movie. I first saw the movie on the plane returning from England and fell in love with it right away. Michelle Pfeiffer was a particularly wicked witch right to the bitter end. Of course there’s another love story. The hero has stars in his eyes.

How to Train Your Dragon, very funny although why Vikings should have Scottish accents, I haven’t a clue. A village is constantly plagued by dragons who steal their sheep and burn down their dwellings, the villages are excellent dragon fighters and know all about dragons from their many years of experience until the chieftain’s son, named Hiccup, turns it all on its head. The main love story here is between Hiccup and his dragon.

Dirty Dancing, great story and I love the dancing. Plus I was always nutty about Patrick Swayze. Certainly in his earlier films before he was struck by cancer. I loved him in Roadhouse and Ghost too although not so keen on Point Break which was a surfing movie, good, but not as good to me.  Particularly love Whoopie in Ghost, she played the most wonderful medium.

Starman, a love story with a twist and an alien played by Jeff Bridges. Earth has sent off invitations to aliens to come visit us. When one does, they shoot him down. He simulates a widow’s husband, but has to get back to his mother ship soon or he will die. At first she, the widow, is terrified but eventually, surprise, surprise, they kind of fall in love. OK, I love happy endings, so sue me!!

The Last Starfighter, you don’t have to be stuck in a boring life. A young man on a trailer park, fed up with spending his life fixing people’s power circuits and running errands. Disappointed about not getting a loan to go to a good college and take his girlfriend with him. His one pleasure is to play a video game of starfighting and protecting a planet against an armada. One day he breaks the record on the machine only it turns out it was actually a test for a real off world situation, not just a game at all. The only ‘name’ I know was Robert Preston of Music Man fame.

I want to say so much more on this subject, thinking about it, that I have started tomorrow’s blog about movies rather than make too long a post for the blogfest.
As this is all about movies, I thought a drink served on Oscar night would be appropriate.

Paris's Crimson Champagne Cocktail

Epicurious | February 2008

By Lara Shriftman and Elizabeth Harrison


yield: Makes 1 drink

Ingredients

Brandy-cranberry syrup

• 1 quart cranberry juice cocktail
• 4 slices fresh ginger
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 piece star anise

Champagne cocktail

• 1/4 cup brandy
• Champagne
• 1 fresh cranberry, for garnish

Preparation

For cranberry syrup
In a medium saucepan, boil the cranberry juice cocktail, the ginger, the cinnamon stick, and the star anise for half an hour or until reduced to 1 cup. Let cool.
For cocktail
Fill a Champagne flute half-full with Champagne and add the brandy. Add 1 ounce Brandy-Cranberry Syrup and mix. Garnish with fresh cranberry.
Cook's note: The syrup recipe makes enough for 10 drinks.

Have a great day

Weekend, Movie.

I hope those who were, or still are, celebrating the 4th enjoyed themselves. I heard on the news this morning that they had a stupendous firework show in New York last night and some bar owner charged a couple $1,400 to stand on his roof to watch!!! As someone commented, were free drinks included? Some people really are nuts.

We drove about an hour to Burlington to spend a few hours with friends for lunch. We ate in the back yard and really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was delightful although it did get a bit warm towards the end. We ate chilled pea soup, a kind of antipasto plate, a delicious chicken dish with a decadent cream sauce accompanied by broccoli salad and potato salad. By this time I was so full I couldn’t finish my chicken or my veg. Shame on me. Later on we had a very good and light dessert with raspberries and a kind of pound cake soaked in orange juice. When we got home we were both very full, but as a diabetic one has to eat three meals at least, so I had some cheese and toast later on.

I bought myself a copy of Stardust a few weeks ago and for various reasons, mostly medical, had not got round to playing it. Friday evening I tried, I could neither play it on my laptop nor on my DVD player. I seem to be having a lot of problems with this movie, I have downloaded it from iTunes without success. Maybe I am just not meant to own this movie?

Incredible picture on TV this morning. People watching a parade yesterday and a couple of horses pulling a carriage bolted, no reason given, but they dragged the carriage along with them and it hit several people in the crowd, including several children, and one 60 yr old woman was killed.

My blogs may be a bit sparse this week, Matt has to have a minor operation on Thursday which necessitates him being in the hospital at 8:15 a.m. (yuk as I have to go along to get the car in order to pick him up later). Then I have some involved appointments on Friday.

On Saturday I mentioned I had found this recipe for Pumpkin and Chocolate Chili, obviously I couldn’t resist it, the picture looks delicious, the ingredients sound great and it includes chocolate, what more could you want in a recipe?

Pumpkin and Chocolate Chili

Serves 4

Sample recipe from The Bittersweet World of Chocolate: With 50 delicious Recipes, a New Internationalist Publication. Sold at many Ten Thousand Villages stores. (Photos by Kam & Co, Denmark)

Ingredients:

3 cups (450g) cooked pumpkin

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, sliced

3 Tbsp jalapeño, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup (240ml) beer

1 cup (240 ml) stock

8 olives, sliced

1-2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground coriander

1 can tomatoes with juice

2 Tbsp cilantro/coriander, chopped

1 Tbsp cocoa

1-2 cans beans, such as pinto, white or kidney, drained

4-6 Tbsp scallions/spring onions, sliced

3 Tbsp cheddar cheese, grated

6 Tbsp sour cream or yogurt

oil

salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Sauté the onion and when it is translucent, add the bell pepper, jalapeño and garlic; stir for 5 minutes.
2. Next, add the beer, stock, olives, chili powder, coriander, and tomatoes with juice. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. The pumpkin goes in now, together with the cilantro/coriander, cocoa and beans. Stir well to combine the ingredients and season. Cook gently for 5 minutes or until the mix has cooked down and amalgamated.
4. Serve topped with the scallions/spring onion, cheese, and sour cream or yogurt.

Have a great day.

Stardust, Summer Treats, Salmon Imperial

I am presently reading Stardust which I saw as a movie on the plane coming back from England at Christmastime. At first I found the book a bit boring and stilted, but now I am well into it, I am enjoying it. I absolutely loved the movie, particularly the part played by Robert de Niro as a gay pirate. He was brilliant in it. I wrote about the movie in this blog when I got back. It is a lovely story and although a faerie story, not exactly for children. I have come across a few bits and pieces not considered suitable for youngsters although most of them seem to know more swearwords than I do.

Sadly, Father's Day will soon be here, which may be great for fathers, but it heralds the end of asparagus season which will have me in withdrawal for another year. I do sometimes buy the asparagus in the stores, but it just isn't the same.

I guess fresh corn is the next thing to look forward to, although the best corn I have ever tasted was when we were visiting NC a couple of years ago, it was called "How Sweet It Is" and it was wonderful. The only way to eat corn is straight out of the field, unfortunately I don't have that luxury, but to be able to buy fresh local corn is so much better than anything else one can buy. Matt loves frozen corn cooked on the barbecue which caramalizes some of the kernels and does taste great. For some reason it doesn't work quite as well with fresh corn although if you soak it well before you cook it, it helps. We soak the frozen corn as well so which keeps it moist. I first ate barbecued corn in Greece where they had corn perched above the coals on home made barbecues at street corners. Like the chestnut vendors one used to see in London, England and certainly saw in Portugal. Nothing like buying a bag of roast chestnuts in the street. I never did in Portugal as I was always too full as the food was so good there. It brings back memories of Sunday afternoons in England using a chestnut roaster (not sure it wasn't really a bed pan) over an open fire and then burning one's fingers to get at the nut meats. Chestnuts are so much better roasted, but you can boil them which I do when I want to make chestnut stuffing for a turkey. The worst part of cooking chestnuts is making a split or gash in their skins first so they don't burst all over the place.

Our friends came back from North Carolina this weekend and visited yesterday to bring me my Nopalitos (pickled cactus leaves). Apparently it was the end of the strawberry season down there and they actually went picking. I remember one particular strawberry farm where they had the best berries we have had in years. We used to haunt the place the same as I haunt the asparagus farm here. I remember being in France and being given Plougastines for dessert one time with Crème Chantilly. They are little wood strawberries and the sweetest berries you can ever imagine. I remember berries being much sweeter anyway when I lived in the UK. Not sure why, perhaps increased production has tended to grow hardier plants but not necessarily better tasting plants. People tend to prefer perfection in appearance rather than quality of taste. Tomatoes are another case in point. In my personal opinion, the smooth, pretty tomatoes on the vine don't taste of anything. We used to buy tomatoes from a local farm in NC and they were not necessarily pretty but boy did they have a wonderful flavour. We used to pick our own and could get two good 5 gallon buckets for $5. Where I live, I can't seem to get really good tomatoes in season. I even asked at Barrie's Asparagus farm where they bought theirs and they said their supermarket!!! He did say he had tried growing them but not very successfully.

I don't often post a fish recipe, but I thought I would this morning. It can always be served with a nice helping of gently cooked asparagus on the side with a rhubarb dessert to follow. We both love seafood although in Ontario it is very expensive. We are so very far from the sea.

Broiled Salmon Imperial
Serves: 8

Source: Chatelaine

3 lbs fresh salmon steaks or fillets
2 tbs melted butter
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp anchovy paste
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp paprika

Place salmon on greased broiler. Combine rest of ingredients. Brush salmon with mixture. Broil 5 inches from heat for 6 mins. Turn salmon and brush with remaining butter sauce. Broil 5 mins or until fish flakes.

Have a great day.