Took the Moj’ out for a walk and saw lots of visual spirituality.
I just received a comment asking where to find the recipe. My first reaction was “Doh! The link is in the post.” When I clicked the link, I discovered The Chew link is broken. How odd!
Fortunately for you my cooking memory is better than my normal memory. The recipe called for two baguettes cut up and toasted in oven, but I know you can find ready made crostini in the market. Good luck. I would be interested to know if this recipe works for you. In the meantime, I will make it again, using the information I supplied below and let you know how it came out. Stay tuned.
INGREDIENTS
2 pints cherry/grape tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 package cream cheese
1 cup grated mozzarella
1/2 cup grated parmesan
6 cloves garlic
2 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs oregano
I used low fat cream cheese and because I didn’t have fresh herbs substituted 1/2 tsp of dry herbs. My family and I still loved it.
INSTRUCTIONS
Roasting Tomatoes: cut tomatoes in half. Crush garlic cloves. Mix tomatoes, garlic, thyme, oregano and oil. Place on cookie sheet, salt and pepper, and roast for about 20 minutes (until you notice charring) at 425 degrees fahrenheit.
Mix tomato mixture with cream cheese, mozzarella and parmesan.
Put entire mixture in oven-dish and bake for about 20 minutes.
My Roasted Tomato Dip was accepted to “My Bites” on TheChew.com! Click here to go there now.
So I have been watching The Chew and I was finally inspired to try something new; coincidentally, all the items I cooked are recipes of Clinton Kelly’s. I shopped this morning about 10:00, came home and started the appetizer and then moved on to the dessert. At 14:30 I took a break to watch Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth in You’ll Never Get Rich. I was back in the kitchen at 16:00 and managed to have everything done by the specified time of 17:00.
I started shopping at the 99 Cent Store Only and used an imitation cream chesse for the Roasted Tomato Dip, but it was still frikkin’ gooder!
The Ginger-Orange Chicken and Coconut Rice required less preparation and was very simple to prepare. I was surprised by the flavor, half expecting more sweetness, which I may have not enjoyed. I related the ginger to the occasions when I dine out on Thai food. On a note of caution, make sure you are using sufficient pot holders: I have a habit of grabbing the nearest dishcloth and folding it up; and apparently I did not fold it enough times. I don’t remember seeing this on the show, but I poured out my rendered fat from the chicken skin and the initial three tablespoons of oil before adding the wine, orange juice and brown sugar. Mmm, mmm, good! The recipe calls for peanut garnish, but mom ate my peanuts and then I forgot about them.
As for Clinton Kelly’s Crispy Peanut Butter Balls, I think I made them too big. They are about an inch diameter and they are very sweet! Too sweet. I think the next time I will try leaving out the confectioner’s sugar. I also tried to save money by using the semisweet chocolate chips I found at the 99 Cent Only Store. When it came time to melting them they did not melt very well; I had to add milk. I checked the package and I don’t think they were REAL chocolate.
courtesy impawards.com
SYNOPSIS: Movie Website
One night, Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) wakes up with a sudden wave of panic over thoughts of mortality. Abandoning Helena (Gemma Jones), his wife of forty years, Alfie sets out to relive the pleasures of his youth. Devastated, Helena tries to kill herself, and then, finding no consolation from medicine and therapy, seeks out the help of a fortune teller, Cristal (Pauline Collins). Before long, Helena finds the tranquility she seeks by surrendering all her thoughts and actions to Cristal’s guidance. Helena’s daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) encourages her mother’s pacifying visits to the charlatan fortune teller, as she is weary of dealing with her mother’s trauma, and has marital problems of her own. Her novelist husband Roy (Josh Brolin) is unable to hold a paying job and the couple live off of Helena’s support and Sally’s earnings as an assistant to a prominent gallery owner, Greg Clemente (Antonio Banderas). Years ago, Roy produced an acclaimed first novel, but his subsequent books haven’t lived up to his initial promise. Roy’s fears that he may be a flash in the pan make him hard to live with and they clash over Sally’s desire to have a child.
Years pass, and as Roy struggles to complete his latest novel, he becomes obsessed with a mysterious young woman in a red dress, who plays her guitar from a nearby window. Just as he is completing his book, a friend, Henry Strangler (Ewen Bremner), gives him the manuscript of his first novel. Roy recognizes that Strangler possesses the literary talent that has always eluded him. Cristal tells Helena that she will be finding new love with a handsome stranger. Roy, annoyed by Helena’s frequent visits, tells her that the dark stranger she will meet is the one everyone eventually meets. Sally accompanies Greg to a jewelry store to help him choose earrings for his wife, a task Sally does and envies Greg’s wife, the life she leads with Greg. While Alfie’s pursuit of a second youth proved to be more challenging than he had hoped, one day he announces to Sally and Roy that he has found a woman, fallen in love, and is going to marry her. When Sally and Roy meet Alfie’s fiancée, Charmaine (Lucy Punch), they discover her to be decades younger, very attractive, and utterly frivolous. Alfie fails to mention that he met Charmaine when he was paying for her services as a call girl.
To keep Helena occupied, Alfie had previously gotten her a job as a personal shopper for Enid (Celia Imrie) and Peter Wicklow (Jim Piddock). While at the Wicklow home, she meets Peter’s uncle Jonathan (Roger Ashton-Griffiths), a recent a widower who runs an occult bookshop.
While not exactly handsome or tall, Jonathan is at least a stranger, and Helena starts keeping company with him.
As Roy anxiously awaits a response to his manuscript from his editor, Malcolm Dodds (Alex Macqueen), he invites the woman in the window for lunch. Seeing the woman, whose name is Dia (Freida Pinto), at close quarters for the first time, he discovers that she is both breathtakingly beautiful and soon to marry. Roy flirts brazenly with Dia, and she doesn’t discourage him. Sally takes Greg to visit the gallery of a painter friend that she believes in as an artist, Iris (Anna Friel). Greg is impressed with her work and agrees to represent her. Greg has opera tickets for the evening, and as his wife can’t go, he invites Sally to come with him. Afterwards, as Greg drops Sally off, he thanks her for coming with him, listening to his marital woes, and for all the help she gives him at the office. It’s clear that Sally is developing a crush on her boss, but his interest in her is hard to gauge.
The passing days bring about impending troubles and disappointments: Alfie is increasingly aware he can’t afford the luxuries he is showering on Charmaine: Sally is disheartened to find out that Greg is having an affair with Iris; and worst of all, Roy’s book is rejected and he sees his world collapsing. Roy can’t imagine living without writing, and he knows that without success he will never be able to support a life with Dia.
Just as Roy seems to have no way out, he hears that that two of his friends have been in an accident—Mike is in a coma and Strangler is dead. Certain that Strangler hasn’t shown his book to anyone else, Roy breaks into Strangler’s apartment and steals his manuscript.
Won over by Roy’s persistent courtship, Dia cancels her marriage shortly before the ceremony, creating uproar in her family and her fiancé Alan’s (Neil Jackson) family. With Dia now free and with the acclaim for Strangler’s manuscript, Roy gets both the woman of his dreams and the literary success he had always yearned for.
Helena and Jonathan are getting more serious but as he believes in the afterlife, the two of them attempt to secure his dead wife’s permission to marry at a séance. Now that Sally has the emotional burden of Roy out of her life, she decides to start up her own gallery with her friend Jane (Fenella Woolgar), and Helena agrees to bankroll her. As she’ll no longer be Greg’s employee, Sally feels the time is right for her to make her romantic feelings known to him. Finally, after discovering that Charmaine has been cheating, Alfie finally comprehends the calamity his behavior has brought for Helena and for himself, and decides to do something about it.
Just as the characters seem to be drawing towards resolutions of their problems, they learn there are no easy ways out. In fact, amid all their disappointments, it may only have been their fantasies that have kept them going. Through the stories of the characters in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Woody Allen explores the human need to elude life’s adversities by nurturing illusions.
REVIEW
Sheesh! After that long synopsis, why would one even bother watching the movie? Mom said I was going to laugh out loud while watching this movie. Mom is a Woody Allen fan; I am not. Enough said?
I did manage to stay awake during the entire viewing and I did find the movie entertaining, but nary a laugh out loud uttered from my lips. I loved the relationship dynamics of this movie, feeling like I was watching a UK Seinfeld episode or Almodovar movie. I just wish there had been more closure in the end: people getting their just deserts, an idea of how everything turned out.
I suppose Woody Allen fans will enjoy this movie more than I.
I recently watched season one and two of Downton Abbey…LOVED IT! I went online to see if I could watch season three and discovered that Downton Abbey has been replaced with Mr. Selfridge. I thought Mr. Selfridge was the episode name of the Downton Abby Season three opener, but it turns out it is a new series.
Anyway, that is Jeremy Piven (Mr. Selfridge) pictured above and I am loving that chest.
courtesy impawards.com
SYNOPSIS: Focus Features
Academy Award nominees Bill Murray and Laura Linney star in a historical tale that uniquely explores the all-too-human side of one of history’s iconic leaders. Blending literate wit and drama, Hyde Park on Hudson is directed by Roger Michell from a screenplay by Richard Nelson.
In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (played by Mr. Murray) readies to host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – marking the first-ever visit of a reigning British monarch to America. As Britain faces imminent war with Germany, the royals are desperately looking to FDR for U.S. support.
But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams), mother Sara (Elizabeth Wilson), and secretary Missy (Elizabeth Marvel) will all play a part in making the royal weekend an unforgettable one.
Seen through the eyes of Daisy (Ms. Linney), Franklin’s neighbor and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations, but, for Daisy – and through her, for us all – a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.
REVIEW
I had heard that Murray was complimented on his performance in this movie and I must concur.
I managed to stay awake during the whole movie and found it very enlightening, though probably not as you might expect: historically. My first question had to do with Roosevelt’s infirmity: I guess it could not go unnoticed that he had an assistant to carry him and I learned from my parents that he never allowed himself to be photographed in his chair. My second line of thought was more of a comparison between his sexual escapades – as well as Eleanor’s sexual orientation – during that time and how politicians caught in affairs today are quickly removed from office. Back in the day I think people had more propriety versus today’s society which thinks they deserver transparency.
Based on my observations above, I am glad I saw this as my parent’s rental; I certainly would’ve been disappointed if I had paid to see that in the theaters, though we both know that, not falling into my favorite genres, it probably would not have even made my list.
Stephanie Fry
This was a rush job, as she was going to appear on Deco Drive and wanted her website updated for the broadcast. Desperate for work, I sent her an agreement for the work, put what I was currently working on aside to accommodate her, and never got paid. After my 90 Day Past Due Invoice was ignored, and because I had moved across country, I tried to take her to People’s Court or Judge Judy. I actually heard back from one of the shows, but because Stephanie Fry did not agree to appear on television, my case was dropped from consideration.
Because I watch a lot of television court shows, I know I can’t be sued for what I am writing because it is true. I don’t understand why she would not appear on television – well, I understand a little bit. From my understanding, the court television shows pay you to appear, so the money she owes me would not have had to come out of her pocket. I could be wrong.
Anyway, I was organizing my computer files today and came across her files. It really just angers me that some people can be so unprofessional. Just so you know, I tried to find her website through Google, but it does not exist anymore. “Things That Make You Go Hmmm…”
…a beautiful day for a neighbor.”
Boy could I use “the boy next door.” Been feeling so horny lately. It could be rebirth signified by Spring. It could be my beautiful flowers. Whatever it is, it, too, shall pass.
Curses! I while photographing Centipede Scarf, I had occasion to open the new gate and take a peek at the old King Acres. It’s weeded and my Freesia bloomed (purple/blue) in more abundance than years past, but they are all covered up by the tenant’s pots. I really should get busy with King Acres II…I’m so lazy.
I decided to cut my Zantedeschia as they bloom and put them in a vase by my bed. Don’t they look pretty?
