Double Take

Last night, driving home down Comm Ave from Chestnut Hill, I spied a car a little bit ahead of me that had a bumper sticker that caught my eye. Now I don't have the best distance vision and it was both dark and rainy, but I swear this bumper sticker said "L.A. is killing my car."

If that is indeed what the sticker said, and the L.A. stands for Lower Allston, then I seriously need to get me one of those bumper stickers. Over the past twelve days and three separate trips to the repairman, I have had to pour $3.5K into fixing damage to my car. Between the rats in the engine, the wear of stop and go traffic on my breaks, and the pot holes doing a number to the axles, Lower Allston (weeeeell, Allston Village really) is killing MY poor car.

I wonder if the sticker really did say "L.A. is killing my car" or if it was just wishful thinking on my part. Either way, it made my day.

"Somewhere I have never traveled" *

I was moving some cold weather clothes from the back of the closet and came across something of mine that I had forgotten that I had. When I was younger, I starting collecting travel patches and sewing them on my L.L.Bean backpack. Thing was, the patches were from other people's travels and trips, not my own. So the bag was christened the "Backpack of Places I have Never Been." I suppose it was kind of like displaying Girl Scout badges that you hadn't earned, but, as I never was a Girl Scout, I didn't care. I just thought it was cool, and it was a great conversation starter with new people.

This backpack is actually the second "Back Pack of Places I Have Never Been" as the first one had to be retired shortly after I moved to Boston. So the second version is a little more structured in the placement of patches; it also has a lot more patches as I made more friends who went on trips and brought me back patches as souvenirs. And, eventually, I went to some of these places.

I stopped collecting the patches shortly before my first trip to Europe because I didn't come back from England or France with any patches of my own. I think it was mostly because I had run out of room on the bag, but I have to confess that sewing them on was rather tedious. Anyhow, I thought I would take some photos of the bag for posterity and post them here. Some of my friends and family members who read this blog might recognize a patch or two that they brought home for me!







*The title of this blog post comes from a poem by e.ecummings, whose grave I still can't seem to locate

I get by with a little help from my friends

I don't consider myself to be a cook, by any stretch of the imagination, although I have a few meals that I do prepare well (one of them is chicken soup with rice. I make really good chicken soup; my mom taught me how. Hers is stupendous.) My younger sisters are much more at home in the kitchen than I am; sister B has taken classes and was considering going to culinary school at one point. I would prefer to eat the meal than create it. As a result, I don't take a lot of risks in the kitchen. I make what I know how to make, and I make enough of it to last for several nights.

My good friend RJ is a kick ass cook - she went to culinary school and it shows. I have been fortunate enough to have been a recipient of several cooking lessons from her. As a result, I can now chop up vegetables properly (well, sort of - some pieces are more uniform than others), prepare a delicious risotto, and am no longer afraid to cook steak in my small apartment kitchen.

Steak is like the library for me (in terms of food) - something awesome, filled with things I love, but completely intimidating to visit (or in this case, do) on your own. I would order it out, but wouldn't cook it at home. My sister K grills all the time, but, as I don't have any outdoor space for a grill, I am limited to cooking on my gas stove. I just didn't think that pan fried steak could possibly be as tasty as one cooked on the grill. Enter RJ and her steak lesson.

The first thing I needed to figure out was what to look for in a steak at the grocery store. I wanted to pick a cut I liked to eat that also fit in my budget. So now I buy either a strip steak or a rib eye, keeping an eye out for the pieces with nice marbling. After defrosting it in the fridge, I take it out about 10 minutes before planning to cook it to allow it to come to room temperature. I coat the steak in a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

After the ten minutes is up (I use this time to start cooking the side dishes - tonight's were spinach and buttered noodles), I put the pan on the stove and let it warm up to a medium high temperature. (You put your hand over the pan to judge the heat. Just don't get burned.) Then I put the steak in the pan and sear each side for about a minute. Then I turn down the gas to a medium low flame and let the meat cook for about 7 minutes on each side until the steak is cooked to medium, just the way I like it.

Because I have been watching "Good Morning America"'s segments about E. Coli, which has me freaked out, I cooked tonight's steak a little bit longer than I normally would. Fortunately, it was only to medium well and not well done like I had feared when I first took it out of the pan. Funny thing is that when I was younger, I wouldn't eat meat that was remotely pink. My dad always left my burgers on the grill longer than anyone else's, and I would only eat the ends of the Christmas roast. Now, I want my meat done medium/medium rare. It is funny how our tastes change as we get older. (I still don't like tomatoes though, and I can't imagine that I ever will.)

It is thanks to RJ that I am happily eating steak dinners on Sundays and that I have gained some confidence in branching out to cook things that I normally would feel overwhelmed by. It's all about confidence and practice, as so many things are. I certainly won't be taking on Mastering the Art of French Cooking any time soon, but there definitely will be more red meat in my home menu preparation.

Now if we could just sort out the E. coli problem (and heart disease too, while we are at it).

Bring on the clothes

Last week, JR and I went to see Coco avant Chanel at the Kendall Square Cinema. I was really inspired by Chanel's style, as portrayed on the screen by Audrey Tautou, so I purchased a long string of fake pearls which I have been wearing doubled up and a pair of fake pearl set in silver clip-on earrings (which I have to take off when I use the phone which makes me feel like I am in a movie from the 1940s or 50s.)

While the movie was good, it wasn't great (although it reminded me a lot of La môme, which I liked a lot), but it certainly inspired me to take a look at the classic Chanel style and embrace some of its signature pieces (while I flat out reject Karl Lagerfeld and his comments about thin models.)

Waiting for the Great Pumpkin...

Halloween is, was, and ever shall be my favorite holiday. What other holiday has scary movies, gobs of candy, and hot apple cider? And if you are lucky, a cool crisp fall night with a full moon!!!

Leaf Peeping

Sister K and I took a leaf peeping driving tour through Litchfield County, Connecticut yesterday. It was lots of fun, and we ended up taking a lot of photos. It was a really beautiful day, and Sister K picked a great route that took us up into Cornwall, CT for a look at the Housatonic River and the West Cornwall covered bridge.

Movie reflections

I went to see An Education after work on Tuesday at the Coolidge Corner Cinema in Brookline. I love that theater, and they make awesome popcorn. I think that I cut my tongue though on a popcorn kernel because it feels like I have popcorn stuck in the back of my mouth and no amount of brushing or flossing is moving that sucker. Therefore, I think that I have a cut... or something.

ANYHOW, about the movie, believe the hype. This movie, in its understated indie way, is excellent, although it took me a day and a half of reflection to come up with that assessment. The film was much more character driven than plot, and there were all of these characters approaching this one situation with these varied viewpoints.

The story is this:

The 1960s were a time of change. So is life when you are 16. That combination propels An Education, set in London in 1961, and makes it an unforgettable coming-of-age story.Attractive, bright, 16-year-old Jenny is stifled by the tedium of adolescent routine; she can’t wait for adult life to begin. One rainy day her suburban existence is upended by the arrival of a much older suitor, David. Urbane and witty, David instantly charms Jenny and introduces her to a glittering new world of classical concerts, art auctions, smoky bars, and late-night suppers with his attractive friends. He replaces Jenny’s traditional education with his own more-dangerous version. Just as the family’s long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into Oxford has seemed within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life. Will David be the making of Jenny, or her undoing?

In reviews I have read, there are a lot of comparisons between Carey Mulligan's character "Jenny" and "Holly Golightly", which I think is a mistake. Jenny and Holly couldn't be any more different if they tried. I do think that, as Jenny becomes more involved in David's world, she is channeling the style of a young Audrey Hepburn, but that is it. Jenny is her own self, trying to figure out her place in the world as she struggles with dichotomy presented by the opportunities David offers her and the "price" to be paid for them, which lays in conflict with her "bourgeois" values.

Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike are excellent as David (Peter Sarsgaard)'s friends, Danny and Helen, who epitomize the glamorous lifestyle that Jenny yearns for. They look fantastic, but underneath you can see that something is wrong with these people. They live in a world with fancy apartments, clothes, paintings, but something is off, and it makes them more interesting, especially as you realize that they are a huge part of Jenny's attraction to David's world. They claim they are looking out for Jenny, but are they? And what is the relationship between David and Danny really?

I always feel that Peter Sarsgaard plays a creep in movies; even if you like him at the start, there is something he is going to do in the story that is going to make you want to slug him in the nose by the end. Nothing new here. He is charming and does his best to charm Jenny and her parents, who are taken in by his car, his manners, and his "class". I understood why they all fell for him. The thing that wasn't clear to me was why he wanted to indoctrinate Jenny into his world in the first place. Is he a corrupter of youth, or instead does he want to reclaim that innocent excitement and response to his world that Jenny exhibits? Is David bored or disgusted with his life? That isn't clarified, but certainly, looking at it through Jenny's eyes would help make it appealing again.

I lovelovelove Carey Mulligan (from "Bleak House", "Northranger Abbey", "Doctor Who: Blink", etc.) and clearly the camera does too. (Maybe it is the dimples?) She holds her own in scenes with more seasoned actors like Emma Thompson and Olivia Williams (who is still rocking the "Dollhouse") and is such fun to watch with Rosamund Pike (her Pride and Prejudice big sister!) who cannot understand why Jenny wants to "read English books" at Oxford or spontaneously starts speaking French, but does have such fun dressing her up in her old clothes.

I said earlier on that it took me a day and a half of reflection to decide that I really enjoyed this film. The last film that made me feel like that was Rachel Getting Married. I am glad that they are making these wonderful films that don't hit us over the head with emotions, but make us think and work for them. There is something very satisfying about that.