San Francisco New Year's

Well, ladies & germs, my love and I are back from the wilds of the Nation's Capital over Christmas. It was largely uneventful and lovely.

My family and I played "Celebrity" which is a really fun game if you're not familiar with it. You all write down 6-10 names of celebrities on slips of paper and put them in a bowl and get in teams of 2 or more. Then one team member describes the celebrity to his/her teammates in as many words as you want without using obvious clues like "sounds like". You have a minute to get through as many names as you can until the opposite teams goes and you flip-flop back and forth until all the names are used up.

The next round you do the same (with the same names) except you can only use ONE word to get your teammates to guess the celebrity and the last round you can only use gestures and no sounds - i.e., charades.

I'm not a huge game fan, but this one is pretty goddamn funny. I even mimed performing cunnilingus to get my niece to guess a certain celebrity who shall remain nameless. That was a low/high point.

Next we are off to the West Coast to ring in the New Year with friends in the City by the Bay. Should be a lot of fun.

I put up a recipe for Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream Icing on my recipe blog, Flavors to Marry. I will be making them for NYE and I recommend that you do too!

I'm also selling my special homemade mustard which is available on Etsy.com and if you are a spicy mustard fan, I suggest ordering a jar or two. Pretty much everyone who eats this stuff is obsessed with it and wants more, more, more.

I'll write more useless information as we approach New Year's Eve. Until then...

PS Will someone figure out how to fix my &%#$ing header?

Blogspot has decided to change the way pictures are uploaded to the header of all the blogs resulting in mass chaos. I've done some research on it and changed the "padding pixels" to the correct amount, but it's way off to the left now.

If someone's reallllllllly bored and wants to tell me how to fix it, I would really appreciate it.

A Very Drunk Holiday & Happy New Year to All

I hope you all survive whatever Holiday plans you may have in store and definitely spike that eggnog! It helps.

If you're looking for a last minute gift for someone I suggest doing the noble thing and going to charity sites and buying a gift in their name. At the very least, they'll feel small for not giving YOU something priceless.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Kiva

Doctors Without Borders

Humane Society of the United States aka HSUS

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

World Wildlife Fund

Either that or blood diamonds - those are also priceless in a very different way.

Have a great holiday!

-Catastrophe Smith

Farenheit 451

The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They're Caesar's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, 'Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.' Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore.

-Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Xmas not for the faint of heart

If any of you live in the tri-state area you may have seen Dyker Heights' version of celebrating Christmas. It puts most other hoods to shame.

Last night some friends, my fiance and I went out there to check out the spectacle. It was pretty fun, albeit damn cold.











The Manger Scene



The Missing Baby Jesus (Stolen? Or just not born yet?... you be the judge.)
































It was a fun evening and now I'm taking it easy because I feel a cold coming on. Blech.

Happy Holidays everybody. Don't kill your family.

a plea

I write reviews of movies I like and recommend, or hate and want to burn... and I just rented a movie off of HBO's On Demand that has rendered me speechless.

"Lives of Others", a German film made in 2006 that earned the most nominations ever at the German Film Awards with a total of 11.

Watch it.

I can't even recommend it because it needs no recommendation. It was incredible. I don't want to say anything (having just said something) because I don't want to spoil it.

That's all, just watch it.

No Country for Old Men

A short movie review here - if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

No Country for Old Men is more than just a vehicle for my all time Number One Celebrity Boyfriend (Javier Bardem), it is a chilling and somewhat confusing tale of morality and modernity and fate. I loved it.

Make haste to the cinema and see it soon. And if you haven't seen Before Night Falls then get to it. You will understand why I love Sr. Bardem and think he may be one of the few extremely hot actors who can actually do his job. Sorry, Brad.

I'm not a huge fan of all the Coen Brothers' movies, but I do consider The Big Lebowski to be one of my favorite movies of all time and definitely a great comedy.

Fargo did not move me as it did other people. Don't know why.

My fiance and I are now watching Eyes Without a Face. I will let you know how it is.

To the Midwest and back again...

Well, fellow Internet People,

I don't know what YOU did for the holiday, but I went to America's Heartland and shared a fabulous meal with my fiance's family. It was a fast-paced, interesting trip. I had never been to the Southern Midwest and in some ways it was exactly what I expected. I have lived in several major cities on the coasts of the US and the middle is VERY different. The first thing I noticed was the pace... conversation, travel, eating is all done at a much slower pace than I am used to. Also everything is a chain. And nothing is low-fat.



My fiance's family was charming and generous beyond belief and cooked for us every day.









We went into Chicago one night and had drinks at The Signature Lounge at the John Hancock Building downtown. It was beautiful. It was an uncharacteristically foggy night in Chicago, from what I understand, and we sat and watched the lights of the city fade in and out as walls of fog passed by our window-side table. We even saw a spider climbing up the window, 96 stories about the ground with determination. Amazing.

I highly recommend it if you're looking for a not cheap view of Chicago and don't want a meat factory or something filled with douches.









All in all it was a good trip and we made it back to our home of NYC which I was very glad to see. I'm not good in the suburbs, no matter how much I want to see who lives there, and it was nice to return to the uber-urban environment in which we live.



I'll post pictures when I'm not sick with the cold I picked up out there after jogging in freezing rain (literally) and staying up until 3 am most nights. (have re-edited since then.)

Here's hoping all you made it through the holiday without going crazy or killing any relatives.

New Recipe Blog!

I have no idea if anyone besides Amy and Sharky read my silly, little blog... but if you do and you like to cook you might want to check out my new recipe blog that I started-

Flavors to Marry

My dear friend, Amy, has one of her own which she has just moved to an honest-to-goodness website if you want to check hers out -

Other People's Recipes

I highly, HIGHLY recommend the Buffalo Chicken Dip. Holy Mary mother of God that's good. So is the Corned Beef Casserole. Ayayay. She has really good stuff on there. One of my favorite places in the world is her kitchen... and part of that is the really good food that comes outta there.

Anyway, Amy came up with the idea to store her recipes online so she doesn't have to sort through a million pieces of paper to find something and darnit, that sounds like a great idea.

So that blog I will be adding to as quickly as my schedule allows. I don't have a lot of baking recipes up there yet, but I will. So keep checking back.

And if you're checking out blogs that I recommend you should probably check out my friend, Sharky's blog - The Chum Slick. It will not entice you to eat anything but it's very clever and disgusting.

Other than that I have no news to report having had a pulled neck over the weekend my life has been pretty slow. But I'm back up again and will be reporting on the state of my fragile, little world soon enough.

Mexican food in La Manzana Principal

Today I'm not feeling my best due to a particularly rowdy night out with friends last night. Thank you, friends, it was a lovely time and now I feel like poo.

However, it occurred to me that I have not yet mentioned my newest restaurant craze. I am eating tons of Mexcian food these days - I avoided it pretty much for the first three years after I moved back to NYC from the West Coast because, let's face it, Mexcian food in CA is WAYYYY better than in NYC. But you know what? I can't take it anymore. I want my burritos and moles and margaritas and enchiladas suizas and guacamole and salsa. Venga me.

So.

First of all, the best Mexican restaurant in NYC hands down is El Parador on E34th Street. It's so good that I hesitated to even put it on my blog because I don't want tons of people flooding it and making it impossible to go to. The ambience is without par. If you have read any of my entries on restaurants and bars you know that I hate corporate America and bright light and tons of people. I am a city girl who believes in the echoing streets of noir films, the click of good shoes on cement in the rain. So if you like dim and chill you're gonna love this place. If you are looking for a place to meet people, go somewhere else.

El Parador is somewhat upscale - i.e., it's not a burrito shack, it's a sit-down restaurant with excellent service and great food and fabulous margaritas and is completely reasonably priced.

Seeing as I live in Brooklyn and am not often willing to travel to Manhattan for Mexican I, and my Brooklyn-savvy friends, are doing research on where to go in the BK. So far (I've tried two places recently) my favorite is the newly remodeled Rachel's Taqueria on 5th Ave in Park Slope. There's another location, but I haven't checked that one out yet. Rachel's on 5th Ave has a bunch of yummy burritos. My favorite (and of course the name escapes me NOW) is a shrimp burrito with guacamole and a spicy sauce and no beans. It's really good. The food is good, not great, but good. It's a little overpriced but it's a little nicer than your average burrito shack - I mean, this is Park Slope after all.

Soon I will venture to Greenwood Heights where there seems to be a decent Mexican population and try more. And I'll let you know what I find. My friends recommend Taqueria DF and I'm anxious to try it.

Chocolate and sex have been scientifically linked.

Hold onto your sock garters - I found a new chocolate cupcake recipe and it's awesome. I used another one recently with sour cream in it and I found it didn't congeal as well as I'd like. It was a little mushy and soft and, while tasty, didn't have the form a proper cupcake needs.

So I scrounged through my other cookbooks and found a recipe in Crazy About Cupcakes and the recipe is on this website here. I paired it with cream cheese frosting (1/2 cup unsalted butter, 6 oz cream cheese [both room temp], 1 teaspoon vanilla - blend in mixer and then add 3 cups of confectioner's sugar and beat for one minute to incorporate and then on medium for 3 minutes to cream) and it was delicious. So there.

Here they are.









Oh wait, the last one was a scene from Kubrick's "Lolita" which is one of my favorite movies. She's kind of like a cupcake.

ALSO, I found a kick ass Indian food restaurant in the East Village (rather my friends took us there and I am claiming all the credit) that I highly recommend. Brick Lane. Go there and order the eggplant dish and the Goan. Really yummy. As I said, "There is not a heat lamp in sight in this restaurant." The staff was helpful and efficient and the decor is dim and pleasant and the food... OH, the food. Delightful. Delovely.

And this may be the most shocking news of all... but I have to say that Ben Affleck should be proud of himself. He's been in several films where his acting could have used some help (sorry, Ben) but he just made his directorial debut with "Gone Baby Gone" and it was DAMN good. So if you haven't caught it yet, check it out. I have lived in Boston and it's not my favorite place. But this movie catches a slice of Boston that is unique to that city and is rare to see in film. I hated "Mystic River" except for the all-too-brief performance by Laura Linney - I didn't believe a single moment of that film except for that scene. This movie however is fraught with relationships and interactions and scenarios that are real and complex and difficult to know where the good and bad guys are - i.e., a rarity in American cinema and a real treat. Well done, Mr. Affleck (both of them actually since his younger brother, Casey, stars in the lead role and did a great job), well done indeed.

I kick ass for the Lord!

You guessed it, we watched "Dead Alive" last night and as someone who is terrified of scary + gore in movies this one was hilarious. Gorey doesn't begin to describe the disgusting mayhem that occurs in this film (an early Peter Jackson movie for "Lord of the Ring" fans like myself) but it's so absurd it's not actually scary, more amusing and grotesque.

I HAVE IMPORTANT CUPCAKE NEWS!

The Pumpkin-Ginger Cupcakes that I made yesterday for Halloween are fucking incredible. I won't even tell you how many I've had, I'm too embarrassed. That's how many. SHAME is involved.

The reviews from friends and neighbors were positive, although some of them lacked the outrageous enthusiasm I have for these little delicious nuggets of Heaven.

Check em out...





I highly recommend you whip up a batch of these for the upcoming holidays. I also highly recommend you use Cream Cheese Frosting. The combination is sublime. I am trying to move away from the incredibly decadent and rich desserts I have gravited to my entire life. They are yummy, but awfully filling and a little too much in the sugar department for me. These are by no means light, but they flavors are more subtle and really enjoyable after a meal.

Pumpkin-Ginger Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
3 large eggs
1/4 cup (about 1 1/4 oz) crystallized ginger cut into 1/8-1/4-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low-medium speed, beat the melted butter, sugar, and pumpkin until smoothly blended. Mix in the eggs and crystallized ginger. On low speed, mix in the flour mixture until it is incorporated. The batter will be thick.

Fill each paper liner with a generous 1/4 cup of batter, to about 1/2 inch below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Then remove from pan and cool completely before icing.

I have to say, as a beginner baker this book of recipes is one I use very regularly and with great results. I bought it at Crate and Barrel, but you can also find it online.

When there's no more room in Hell, the Dead will walk the Earth.

It is time, Ghosts and Goblins, for my favorite holiday - Halloween. Have you carved your pumpkin? Created your costume? Gotten candy? Purchased fangs?

I have done none of those things but I have made a shitload of cupcakes for an office party and some for a friends cocktail party and now I am going to make some for Halloween night. Pumpkin cupcakes. I will post pictures and reviews after they are done.

I'm a little hungover from my friends Halloween/pumpkin carving from last night. There was no pumpkin carving... there was only drinking and eating carnitas (homemade) and playing celebrity. It was a lot of fun.

Betty Boop lost her head.



Who are these strange people? Ah yes, my friends.



Tonight, after I get Halloween candy, I will pass some out to the little tots who swarm our neighborhood and then watch horror films with friends.

I'm staring at copies of "Dead Alive", "Dawn of the Dead", "Cemetery Man", "Return of the Living Dead" and the video game "Manhunt 2".

I'm not a big horror fan but we did see "30 Days of Night" in the theaters recently and I though it was pretty good. I liked "28 Weeks Later" better. But I enjoyed it. My more horror-savvy friends were less impressed.

Ok, I'm off to make pumpkin cupcakes and get into the spirit of the best holiday.

FYI - this pumpkin recipe is the best thing ever. It's pumpkin-ginger and I've paired it with cream cheese frosting and it may be the best cupcake to pass my fair lips. I'll post photos of them in a while. Here's a few of the ones I delivered to the party and to the office party.





And here are photos of my father's cat just because she is the cutest fluffy thing in the world. She's fat and happy and tough and sweet and sexy... yes, sexy. As a friend once said, "She is the Marilyn Monroe of cats".





HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Red velvet, i hope to know thee well.

I have heard tell of the Red Velvet cake. I have heard stories of glory, stories of woe... and yet I had never tried to master said delicacy.

Tonight, fair readers, I braved the pristine beaches of Fort Red Velvet.

Alllll right... enough with the ridiculousness.

I made some cupcakes. And they are pretty damn good.

Someone close to me is secretly getting hitched tomorrow and I made him and his bride two Red Velvet mini-heart-cakes. Aaaawwwwww.

Here they are.

G'night.

No Hollandaise? No problem!

Further along the road of trying to be healthy and still eat like a pig, my fiance and I have been making Eggs Benedict... without the Benedict.

Eggs Benedict may be my favorite dish in the world. Ever. En totale.

And if I can enjoy this weekend morning ritual so can you.

All you need to do is buy eggs, real canadian bacon and whole wheat english muffins. And voila! A yummy, relatively healthy breakfast meal where you only miss the fatty, super-tasty sauce for a minute.



Oh, and this is my gorgeous cat. He's grumpy, but he loves me.