Month: May 2012

Let’s Start At the Very Beginning

64 Arts

I’ve heard it’s a very good place to start…

Now that I’ve gotten that stuck in everyone’s head, how about we move on to our topic, today:

32 The art of telling stories

Do you consider yourself a good storyteller?

As bloggers, we tell stories with each post. Simply put, a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Some masterful storytellers can tell a story by starting at the end and working their way back–but that takes a tremendous amount of skill.

Me, I can usually find a pretty good beginning (certainly better than the old dark-and-stormy-night trope), get in all the necessary details for the middle but by the end, I’m usually wrapping things up abruptly. I need to work on my endings.

This is probably why I found the comics for the cookbook more difficult to write and execute compared to my webcomics that can go on as long as they need to.

Even still, comics need a beginning and an end. The middle is fuzzy ground in humor, where the important parts are the set-up and the punchline. Still, a middle can draw out the anticipation a bit, so to overlook it would be doing yourself and your readers a disservice.

When working on longer stories–novel length, for instance–the best advice I’ve ever read was back in my NaNoWriMo days. If you ever get stuck, just ask yourself (or your character): and then what happened?

A fellow blogger that serializes her own stories, Miranda of A Duck in Her Pond, she could probably teach us all a thing or three about writing whimsical stories that keep us, the readers, asking just that question.

But now I have a question for you:

Who do you read when you want a really great story?

If You Have to Spike Your PB&J, You Might Have a Problem

Nibbles

No, make that you definitely have a problem.

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But before I get into that, first we have a giveaway winner to announce! Drumroll, please…

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The winner of the OXO Good Grips Salad Dressing Shaker is Sara P. who left a comment on the Circle of Food post.

Congratulations, Sara, I’ll be emailing you for your mailing address (please respond within 24 hours or I’ll have to send the shaker to someone else).

Now, on with our post!

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A while back I requested a review copy of a new, fun-sounding cookbook: Never Cook Sober by Stacy Laabs & Sherri Field. I enjoy using alcohol in my recipes when the situation calls for it, and thought this book would give me some good ideas in that department.

I think I got a hangover just reading through the recipes. And I hate hangovers.

While I recognize the tried-and-true hangover remedy of “hair of the dog,” and I’ve had a mimosa to start a holiday morning more than once, I’m not sure dipping your morning fruit plate in 6 different spirits (Three Sheets to the Wind Vodka and Run Fruit Plate, the first recipe of the book) is a great way to start the day. Nor is it all that inventive, really. And Jell-O shots (Jiggling Vodka Shots, p. 25) for breakfast? Apparently I’m just not this book’s target audience.

Moving on to lunch and, yes, truly, there is a “recipe” for Peanut Butter and Vodka Jelly Sandwich which has all the finesse of mixing flavored vodka into your jelly before spreading it on bread. At least in this recipe the peanut butter will create a little balance to the booze, but if that’s too much for you, you can go back to the breakfast chapter and have Caribbean Cocktail Run Jelly and Toast.

Still, I was determined to make something out of this book for dinner one night, to give it a fair shot (ba dum bum!). The first thing that sounded almost appetizing was the Wobbly Chicken Tequila Fettuccine (page 34, still in the Lunch chapter), though wobbly and chicken doesn’t make the latter sound all that appetizing.

Wobbly Chicken Tequila Fettuccine from Never Drink Sober

I quibbled with wasting almost 2 quarts of chicken stock to boil my fettuccine in, so used about a cup diluted with tap water for the rest. The flavor was just fine without the wasting of $6 worth of stock. I also took issue with creating a sauce in one pan and letting it sit while you started the veggies in another, only to add the sauce in when you add the chicken–it would make much more sense to saute all the veggies, add the chicken and brown, then make the sauce in the same pan at that time, finishing with the heavy cream instead of adding the cream with the raw chicken and boiling until the chicken is done. I dislike inefficiency in recipes, and this is a prime example of it.

Nonetheless, the end result was tasty. The tequila was understated enough that I didn’t have to worry about bringing leftovers to work for lunch the next day, and the use of whole-wheat fettuccine assuaged my guilt over the heavy cream.

Though why they suggest pairing a Chardonnay with this meal instead of sticking with a classic tequila-based cocktail escapes me.

Recipes aside, the other thing that bugged me, was they completely ignored the myth that so many people have of when you cook with alcohol it all burns off. The introduction would have been a great place to discuss this, but they completely ignored it. And, for the record, it takes quite a bit of cooking to eliminate the alcohol from a dish and anything that’s not cooked (PB&J, I’m looking at you) isn’t losing one drop of alcohol between the plate and your lips.

That said, there are reasons to buy this book that have nothing to do with cooking with alcohol. On each recipe page are quotes from famous folk about alcohol. There are also bits of booze trivia, cocktail recipes as “pairings” and enough classic toasts to get you through a summer of weddings without coming close to repeating one.

While I doubt I’ll use this as any sort of go-to cookbook going forward, the “extras” make it worth a flipping though from time to time. I’d definitely shelve it with Humor rather than Cooking.

To see what I have to say about an alcohol-infused cookbook I did enjoy, make sure to check out my review of Slushed! on Sips & Shots.

FTC Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of Never Cook Sober by the publisher for purpose of review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review | Get Slushed! and Get Happy!

Sips

It’s summer, and summer means the colder the treat the better to combat the heat. Ice cream and popsicles and smoothies to the rescue and, if you can punch them up with a little bit of finely-crafted spirits, so be it!

Back at the Plantation, our Executive Chef wanted to try a dessert he’d read about that paired tropical fruits with 3 sorbets, each sorbet made with a liqueur. Now, the thing about booze is, it doesn’t freeze. The higher the sugar content of something, the less likely it is to freeze, and since alcohol is a sugar, items with alcohol in them wont’ freeze unless you keep the non-sugary bits in the right ratio.

We got our Chambord and Grand Marnier sorbets to freeze okay, but the Godiva chocolate? Just wouldn’t gel. It probably didn’t help that the ice cream maker we had was one of those that you needed ice and rock salt to surround the tub and was on its last legs anyway, but it took all day to get anything remotely solid out of the mixture. The dessert was a success and we had enough of each sorbet to last the 2 weeks it was on the menu, but I think we were all in agreement that Godiva sorbet would not be making a reappearance.

That was my first, strongest thought when I got the chance to review Slushed!: More Than 150 Frozen, Boozy Treats for the Coolest Happy Hour Ever by Jessie Cross.

Last year or so I purchases a Cuisinart ice cream maker, the one with the freezable canister that only takes 20 minutes to make just about anything, used it a few times, then got caught up with other things. Trying out some of the recipes from Slushed! was a great excuse to brush the perma-frost off of my ice cream maker and give it a spin.

Remembering my earlier incident with alcohol-laden sorbet, I was happy to see this very topic covered in the introduction along with guidelines of how much alcohol of a given strength could safely be added to a quart of ice cream. That, right there, was worth the price of admission, folks.

We made 2 ice creams and 2 frozen yogurts and 2 frozen pop recipes, though the book also covers smoothies, novelties, gelato and so much more.

Tonic Water with Mojito Ice Pop Cubes

Tonic Water with Mojito Ice Pop Cubes

First, of course, I had to try the Chocolate Martini Pudding Pops (page 25). Instant pudding and Godiva liqueur, opposite ends of the chocolate spectrum, and man were they great together! I couldn’t get these suckers out of the molds, but they ate just fine with a spoon, let me assure you!

The other ice pops I made were the Mojito Pops with Fresh Mint (page 26). Each pop recipe made 8-10 servings so I cut mine in half (to regulate the damage to my waistline), but still had extra mix to use. Into little leaf-shaped ice cube trays the extra went and, let me tell you, as good as they are on their own, a couple of the mini cubes in a glass of tonic water or club soda and you’ve got a nice, light, refreshing drink with a very low alcohol content.

As for ice creams, we tried both the Spice Trader’s Vanilla Vodka Ice Cream (page 37) and the Bananas Foster Ice Cream (page 48). The vanilla was a typical custard-style ice cream with vanilla beans and it was oh-so-rich and good. That one lasted maybe a week (though, in our defense, it was my birthday week and we had an awful lot of cake to eat up). The Bananas Foster used no eggs, though we did have to first cook the bananas in brown sugar and butter to get that amazing caramelized flavor going. Both boozy ice creams were scoopable straight out of the freezer–a definite benefit to a little liquor in the recipe.

The frozen yogurts, on the other hand, benefit from sitting out a little bit or 20 seconds in the microwave before trying to chip away at them. The Limoncello Swirl Frozen Yogurt is light, refreshing and just tart enough to get the job done, though I wish I’d added even more lemon curd swirl to this batch. The Sex on the Bean Frozen Yogurt was, unfortunately, the only one I wasn’t truly crazy about. Something about the combination of orange and dairy just didn’t want to work for me (though I know I used to love Dreamsicles as a child, so go figure). Still, it’s not a bad fro-yo at all.

Limoncello Swirl, Sex on the Beach, and Bananas Foster

(left to right) Limoncello Swirl Frozen Yogurt, Sex on the Beach Frozen Yogurt, and Bananas Foster Ice Cream

We stopped there, but I have at least 3 more recipes I want to try out in the near future (especially the St Germaine & Earl Grey Tea Gelato, page 61) and more after that.

Compared to the other alcohol-related book I reviewed this month, this one wins hands down!

Now, if I can just figure out how to get the frozen pops out of their molds. (Definitely a first world problem.)

FTC Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of Slushed! by the publisher for purpose of review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

 

Cosmic Cocktails | Leo | The Mane Event

Sips

Who just walked into the room–regal, grand, with a gravitational pull second only to the sun?

The Mane Event cocktail

It’s your friendly neighborhood Leo, most likely.

I’ve known many Leos over the years and, as shallow as it may seem, most of them can be easily spotted by their attention to their hair. It doesn’t always resemble the mane of a lion (though it can), but their hair will be one of the first things you notice about them.

The second fire sign, they have a bright, outgoing personality that exudes confidence, even if they don’t always feel it. Definitely great at the bluff or the fake-it-til-you-make-it when necessary. Generally friendly, the lion can be aloof until you pass their tests, but when you do they will be a generous friend, willing to give you the shirt off their back–or at least one like it–if they think you need it. In fact, like a lioness caring for her cubs, she might smother you with her generosity.

Of course, a cat can be fickle, as many a feline caretaker can attest, and wants attention when he wants it and not a moment before or after. Leos have the ability to want everyone’s full attention while simultaneously unable to keep their focus on any one thing, themselves. They are fabulous at organizing and can easily keep everyone in line with their charm.

The Mane Event

2 oz Mango Nectar
1 oz Cointreau
.5 oz Peach Schnapps
.5 oz Grenadine

Combine mango, Cointreau and Schnapps in a shaker over ice and shake, throwing in some fancy spins and shakes to entertain your guests, then strain into a fancy cocktail glass. Pour the grenadine over the back of a bar spoon and let it settle in the bottom of the glass. Admire your handy-work and sip proudly.

The two-tone look of this drink pairs the hue of fire with the rays of the sun. It’s a somewhat tropical drink, nice for cooling off in the summer heat of Leo’s July to August reign.  You can stir the very center just a little to get the grenadine to mix in a bit before drinking or drink the layers as settled, either way it’s a very tasty drink.

Not Even a Guilty Pleasure

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

This was originally written over a year ago, but these comments by Lena Dunham are still making the rounds in women’s lit circles. I still think the thoughts her comments spurred, however, are still important to consider.

While listening to the Fresh Air Weekend podcast, Terry Gross introduces the topic of chick lit/chick flicks as a contrast to Lena Dunham‘s main character in ‘Girls’ and to the creator herself. Dunham, while allowing that she figured writers wouldn’t appreciate such a “distillation of their thesis” of their work, and catching herself before she lambasted all chick-flicks with a pink poster, said

“It isn’t even fun to me in a guilty pleasure way…because I don’t see any of myself in it, because none of my, just none of my actions…have ever sort of been motored by the search for a husband, or wondering if I was going to have a family some day, or wanting to live in a really great house, or thinking it would be really great to have a diamond. . .There’s a kind of female character that doesn’t make sense to me.”

–Lena Dunham, on Fresh Air, 5/7/12

Wow, really? I fully admit that I had a knee-jerk reaction that bordered on offended. But it only lasted a second or three before I started to wonder about my specific reaction and the larger concept of relating–to people and ideas. Specifically those of the happily-ever-after sort.

As a genre, chick lit doesn’t get a lot of love from a lot of critics. And, yet, I find it hard to believe the books would have done so well and that people would still buy and read them if there wasn’t something relatable about the characters. After all, I read them from time to time, even when I was in my never-gonna-get-married-again phase. A phase that began before my second marriage ended and lasted through the first couple of years of my relationship with Mr. Road Trip.

You know, the guy who gave me a ring and I’m happily marrying in 535 days less than 6 months?

So… yeah. About the “I don’t see any of myself in it,” I think that maybe she’s not trying. Because it’s not necessarily about the person or the object–the carrot and the end of the string–it’s about the journey, the impetus. It’s about the wanting, that search in general, and anyone who cannot relate on that level, I kinda feel sorry for.

Even in my anti-marriage frame of mind, I still believed that there’s something somewhat pure about the dream of happily ever after. It’s one of those ideals that never goes out of style–I mean, really, who doesn’t want to find their own happiness at some point? Do people really go around looking for ways to ensure they are miserable?

Armchair psychology about self-destructive behaviors and self-sabotage notwithstanding.

It’s not about liking everything. Opinions are awesome, everyone’s got ’em, and there are plenty of things I don’t necessarily like, entertainment-wise (from the clips I’ve heard from the interview, for instance, ‘Girls’ doesn’t sound like my cup of tea, and that’s okay–I’m sure the show will do just fine without me watching it). But I can at least step outside myself, my small pocket of the world, and appreciate the larger concepts and relate that way.

Try to see beyond the end of your nose.

This blocking out of a style or idea is common in everything–it’s the downside to the natural pigeon-holing we do as human beings–even wedding-planning. Sure, it’s fun to snarkily riff on Bridezillas or My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, but I hope each bride recognizes that what drives those brides and grooms to what we see as a tire-squeal around the bend is the same thing that makes us contemplate DIY wedding flowers, punch rounded corners into every piece of wedding stationery, or the half-dozen other things we do in the name of bringing our idea and vision of our wedding day to life.

And here I am, come full circle. I went from the girl who dreamed about being married with all the trappings to a woman who wanted nothing to do with the institution ever again to the woman who’s happily engaged with her own, fledgling wedding blog. Pink background and all.

If you’re a regular reader of wedding blogs, chances are good you have no problem with the “search for the husband” idea. But if you ever did, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. And if not: share you’re favorite chick-lit read–I’m always looking for new books to add to my list!