Brie on baguettes
Mixed Mediterranean olives
Antipasta plate
Garlic-herb rubbed Turkey roasted on onions and lemon
Herbed bread and sausage stuffing
Green beans with tarragon and caramelized onions
Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes with chives
Roasted parsnips, brussel sprouts and carrots with savory finishing sauce
Cranberry ginger clove sauce
Pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream
Thanksgiving Turkey
Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday | Tagged Brussels sprout, Cook, Garlic, Home, Thanksgiving, turkey, Yukon Gold potato | Leave a Comment »
The Many Moods of Macaroni
I consider myself a good cook, however, tonight I proved that corollary wrong! I improvised a recipe and even as I was doing it, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. And it was a classic case of being penny wise and pound foolish. I had it in mind to make a pasta dish tonight that I had seen in Martha Stewart‘s everyday Food.
The dish is Orrechiette with broccoli rabe, oregano and lemon. It’s simple, easy and quick to make and I thought it was the perfect dish to make tonight as I was out all day and didn’t want to prepare something that needed a lot of prep or ingredients.
Here’s the recipe:
3/4 # of orrechiette
1 bunch of broccoli rabe (about 1#) trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 TBS fresh oregano leaves for serving
2-3 TBS fresh lemon juice for serving
Cook pasta according to directions , adding broccoli rabe 4 minutes before pasta is done.
Meanwhile in a small saucepan, heat oil, garlic and red pepper flakes over medium heat till garlic begins to sizzle.
Drain pasta and broccoli rabe and return to pot. Add oil mixture and toss to coat; season with coarse salt and pepper. To serve, sprinkle oregano over pasta and drizzle with lemon juice.
It was really tasty and certainly easy to prepare. Here’s where I made my mistake and I did know better; When a recipe calls for a certain type and shape of macaroni (pasta to you all), there’s a reason. This is a weekly debate in our house as my husband (who is not Italian) only likes linguine. Seriously he likes linguine with any and all kinds of sauces. Different shapes have different densities and are able to hold the sauce better than others. Some penne have lines like penne rigate as opposed to ziti and the sauce will cling to one and not the other.
This recipe called for orrechiette (little ears) and they are small, slightly dense and concave. I love Wegman’s Food store, you all know that already, but lately I have a gripe with them; Over that last six months, Wegman’s has been eliminating the shelf space allotted to Barilla (my absolute favorite) and DeCecco brand of pasta and filling the shelves with their own brand. So when I looked for Barilla’s orrechiette there wasn’t any. In fact, even in the Wegman’s pasta, super pasta and whole wheat pasta sections, there weren’t any orrechiette. BUT, in their Wegman’s Classic Italian line which comes in all kinds of exotic shapes and is packaged in a clear cellophane bag, they did have orrechiette BUT that pasta line is priced in the $3.00+ category and I just couldn’t justify spending that much on the pasta itself. MISTAKE! Well not really, I should have gone elsewhere. Instead, I cruised the aisle back and forth and back and forth trying to discern what other shape might be substitutable for the little ears. There really wasn’t anything and I settled on some very small penne regate that Barilla calls Piccolini Penne and it cooks in 7 minutes. The end result was that the penne cooked very quickly and even though I tried to cook it according to the package directions (something I NEVER do) and add the rabe at the right moment, the penne were a little soft. We like our pasta al dente, the orrechiette would have been perfect. So I saved some money and made a dish that was tasty but could have been fantastic.
Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes) | Tagged Barilla, broccoli rabe, Cook, Everyday Food, Martha Stewart, Olive oil, Pasta, Rapini, recipe, Wegman, Wegmans Food Markets | Leave a Comment »
Francesca Lillian Clark
Photo by Diana DeLucia
Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Frankie | Leave a Comment »
BEECHWOOD 4-5789
You know this blog likes to take trips back into the world of long gone now – that is my own childhood and young adulthood, lol! We’ve looked at classic cars, vintage board games and even phrases that have gone the way of the past. Today I have a list of sounds your kids have probably never heard.
Gail, ever my faithful contributor, sent me a link to the Mental__Floss website which is a true treasure trove of the odd, the strange, the creative, the inventive and certainly the nostalgic. This post on their site is all about sounds of items and circumstances that have disappeared from our culture and everyday life. When you hear/see them, I bet you’ll smile to yourself as each one brings back its own set of unique memories. Enjoy the sounds of yesteryear!
Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Peter Coddles, Thursday's Top Ten | Leave a Comment »
Seamlessly weaving his story with flashbacks and the present, director Sean Durkin presents a low-key thriller from the perspective of a young, unstable woman (think Black Swan). The opening scene transports us to a seemingly bucolic setting, a slightly rundown farmhouse, men hammering and women mending, a couple of kids, in a remote area which is tucked into the hills of the Catskills. We meet Martha who meets Patrick who quickly anoints her Marcy May, and by doing so, rebirths her into a new life in the cult commune. His eyes tell it all; they’re penetrating, his look sinister yet seductive , his voice sincere (think Charles Manson). This is a psychological thriller and within moments, apprehension and anxiety begin to mount.
From there, the story unfolds with Marcy May running away from the cult and going to live with her estranged sister. They are awkward with one another; Guilt weighing on Lucy, frustration consuming Ted (Lucy’s husband) and increasing paranoia in Martha. Flashbacks fill in the blanks and introduce the viewers to the life Marcy May led under the strange manipulative influence of Patrick.
The present deals with Martha who is tortured by her twisted desire to go back to the commune and her revulsion of what went on there. Her mind wanders back and forth between the past and the present, and she slips in and out of reality. Martha resists telling her clueless sister where she was and with who, but wouldn’t you think that after the third totally inappropriate episode with Martha, Lucy would persist in discovering the what and where of Martha’s last two years? Instead we hear “What’s wrong with you”? Plenty!
By the time the movie ended, I was as paranoid as Marcy May; she got under my skin and I couldn’t shake her off. The baffling and somewhat infuriating ending only added to my distress.
Spoiler Alert: “All the children are boys”. “He only has boys”. Who’s buried in the backyard? We see two or three white crosses in the backyard in the first scene.
Elizabeth Olsen(sister of the twins) makes her debut and leaves no doubt that she is on her way to a career in film. John Hawkes is compelling, scary and yes sexy. Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy co-star in this Sundance favorite.
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books | Tagged Black Swan, Charles Manson, Elizabeth Olsen, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, Marcy May, Patrick, Sarah Paulson | Leave a Comment »
It’s not just New York City folklore, there really is a secret train station located underneath the Waldorf-Astoria. I’ve never seen it and you probably won’t either but here’s a chance to see some great photos of the station and the famous FDR train. My friend Gail, sent me this article in The Gothamist: Take a look! http://gothamist.com/2011/11/07/photos.php#photo-1
The FDR Train
Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Only in New York | Tagged Amuse-bouche, Barack Obama, New York, New York City, Train station, United States, Waldorf Astoria, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel | Leave a Comment »
Oh it’s good to be so young, no worries, no bills, the sun is shining and wearing PINK!
Sweetie Face
Photo by Diane DeLucia
Just Another Day on the Playground
Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Finley Ray | Leave a Comment »
47,000 Runners Cross the Verazano Bridge
That’s the way it went down today for Mary Keitany today!
We were up and out early today (the fall back time change helped) to have breakfast at Gracie’s, a favorite all night coffee shop. Although I would love to live downtown, there are some big pluses to the UES. Can’t beat the convenience of our neighborhood plus my daughter and granddaughters live around the corner and once a year, the New York Marathon runs right past our building.
It is wonderful to gather out in front of the building, sipping our coffee and cheer on the first handicapped runners to sail past us as they speed downhill on 1st Avenue. We live at the 18th mile mark and as the runners crest the slight rise at 85th St, it is downhill for them for several blocks.
This morning although the sun was shining, there was a nip in the air, so it was back upstairs to get a shawl and some gloves. It wasn’t long before the sirens came roaring down toward us, signaling the approach of the first of the elite women. Surprise! THERE WAS ONLY ONE WOMAN running toward us! Mary Keitany, a small, wiry, woman sped by clipping along and NO ONE was behind her. I’ve never seen this before. Here we are, 18 miles into the race and only ONE woman is running past us. We decided to time the interval between her passing and the next female runner. It was 2 MINUTES!!!
People were screaming her name as she went by, clapping loudly and cheering wildly.
More female runners appeared, as well as more handicapped participants. Before the race started, we were watching NBC news and it was stated that probably the elite men would be in Central Park at the Finish Line at 11:45am. We figured that would put them passing us at about 11 am. Sure enough, the sirens and flashing lights and the camera truck preceded a small but tight pack of very lean and muscular runners. Their long-legged stride was something to behold and every year I marvel at the running machines these runners have trained themselves to be.
We have the routine down so about 15 minutes later, Chiara, Finley and I headed upstairs to watch the winners cross the Finish Line on TV. We sat down to watch and were surprised to see Mary still running AND with two women runners right behind her. I couldn’t believe it – was this the mighty runner who was 2 minutes ahead of everyone else. The two Ethiopean runners were gaining on her second by second. This was the 26th mile, for God’s sake! What a shame! It was clearly obvious that Mary had run out of steam, and as the commentator said, the two women behind her could smell blood and they amped up their press. Not a quitter by any means, Mary actually drew on some hidden reserve and kicked up her pace a bit. But the die had been cast – she had run too fast for too long but not long enough. It was heartbreaking to see her passed by Dado and Deba but it is a race and it’s not over until it’s over and this day it was over for Mary.
23 SECONDS is all that separated the Winner from the Third Place runner, Mary Keitany.
Posted in BY THE WAY, New York Speaks, Only in New York | Tagged Central Park, Ethiopia, Finish Line, Firehiwot Dado, Mary Jepkosgei Keitany, Mary Keitany, New York City Marathon | Leave a Comment »
Find me on FB
Pbenjay's Blog 
Two Nights-Two Movies-It’s All About Love and Relationships
November 17, 2011 by pbenjay
The Federal Bureau of Investigagtion
Not necessarily healthy, mature love or balanced, equitable relationships negotiated between two or more adults. No, instead it was more about obsession, control, immaturity, desperation, loyalty, fidelity, commitment.
Let’s start with LIKE CRAZY. Superbly acted by Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin, LIKE CRAZY is a love story about two young college students who think they are in love. They probably are in love or at least as they define love. It seemed to have a lot to do with sex, fantasy and a disregard for life as it is with rules and boundaries as only two young people wrapped up in their own world perceive it.
Really it’s about love, that beautiful precious emotional gift, mishandled by two immature kids. Basically that’s the problem here – Jacob and Anna are just too immature to grasp what love and commitment really mean. Patience! That one word engraved on the bracelet given to Anna by Jacob was the key to creating a deep and lasting relationship. They talked the talk, but couldn’t walk the walk. Maturity knows patience, maturity understands that it isn’t necessary to indulge your every desire in order to be happy.
Final thought: Anna’s parents came off as way too liberal psuedo-hippies from another era.
J. Edgar
Now here is tale or two of twisted love….a doting mother whose love was controlling, compulsive and suffocating and lavished on a son eager for Mommy’s approval in all things. Dame Judi Dench embodied the role of this overbearing and obsessive mother. Edgar was her favorite, Edgar was destined to be a great man and she was the stage mother in the background, directing and advising on everything from the clothes he wore to commanding him to find the Lindberg baby. Edgar was devoted to his mother, turning to her for counsel, revering her and escorting her to political functions as his date. The only other woman in his life was Miss Gandy, his personal secretary who was not only the gate-keeper, she was also his trusted secret-keeper.
And then Clyde Tolsen is introduced to the Director of the FBI and in a swift series of meaningful glances, we know that Clyde is destined to be in Hoover’s life. Almost laughably transparent in his intent, Hoover arranges for Tolsen to be accepted into the Bureau even though as a candidate, Tolsen has none of the desired qualities. But he is tall and good-looking. In this day and age, homosexuality is understood, acknowledged and acceptable in most circles. NOT in those days. It was apparent that J. Edgar was somewhat conflicted, alternating between assuming an almost asexual ascetic life and craving the companionship that Clyde so eagerly offered. Although there were moments of tenderness between Tolsen and Hoover, their relationship was not consumated, at least not in this depiction. Poor Clyde was ever the faithful puppy dog sidekick, thankful for any random ear-scratching that Edgar rarely bestowed.
We don’t know how much of this movie is based on fact or historical fiction. After all, Hoover appeared to be a very private man and the only two people who could know the intimate side of him (Miss Gandy and Clyde Tolsen) did not talk!
Overall I found the movie interesting because it was a biopic, but I didn’t think it was an exceptionally good movie. I expected more from Clint Eastwood than a laundry list of Hoovers triumphs and failures. Of course it was hard for me to spend 2 hours in the life of a man who I believe was misguided by his obsessiveness and evil in his vindictiveness. Also not for a minute was I not aware that DiCaprio was the actor behind the make-up. I don’t know if that’s because of mis-casting or bad acting – I believe it to be the former.
Related articles
Rate this:
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books | Tagged Anton Yelchin, Clint Eastwood, Felicity Jones, Helen Gandy, Hoover, J. Edgar, Jacob, Judi Dench, Leo DiCaprio, Robert Kennedy | Leave a Comment »