Spooky, scary skeletons, and shivers down your spine... When we think of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, we all think of the forlorn, unnamed narrator trying to shoo away that pesky bird as it perches itself on the pallid bust of Pallas, always and only uttering that single word, "Nevermore." Thoughts of lost Lenore are shelved for … Continue reading Eddie Poe Goes To Camp
Dining With Dracula (Mom and Grandma’s Baked Chicken)
Next to garlic, chicken is the food named more than any other in Bram Stoker's novel and in Dracula lore (See a list of other foods mentioned here). Why was it such a favorite? Who knows. Bram Stoker may have just liked it. When Bram Stoker's original novel was published in 1897, chicken was a … Continue reading Dining With Dracula (Mom and Grandma’s Baked Chicken)
Cooking With the French Chef: Chop Dinner In Half an Hour
Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I review episodes of Julia Child’s original show, cook out of the new edition of the French Chef Cookbook and share the results with you. Past posts can be found here. School has probably started for everyone, right? It started over a month ago for me, and my … Continue reading Cooking With the French Chef: Chop Dinner In Half an Hour
Cooking With the French Chef: Paella Americaine
Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I review episodes of Julia Child’s original show, cook out of the new edition of the French Chef Cookbook and share the results with you. Past posts can be found here. It's a little funny to see paella in what is supposedly a French cookbook, since paella is … Continue reading Cooking With the French Chef: Paella Americaine
Cooking With the French Chef: French Onion Soup
Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I review episodes of Julia Child’s original show, cook out of the new edition of the French Chef Cookbook and share the results with you. Past posts can be found here. Yep, this time we're making one of the Quintessential French recipes, French Onion Soup! Who doesn't love … Continue reading Cooking With the French Chef: French Onion Soup
Cooking With the French Chef: Brains, Aspic, and Other Gross Stuff
Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I review episodes of Julia Child’s original show, cook out of the new edition of the French Chef Cookbook and share the results with you. Past posts can be found here. We all like to wax lyrical about Julia Child, but there are some recipes of hers I … Continue reading Cooking With the French Chef: Brains, Aspic, and Other Gross Stuff
Judy Garland, Protagonist
It's Judy Garland's one-hundred second birthday today. This great artist has been extensively written about, speculated about, pitied, celebrated and misjudged for decades, both when she was alive and in the nearly sixty years that have passed since her death. She even starred in her own mystery novel in 1945, but that's another topic for … Continue reading Judy Garland, Protagonist
Cooking With the French Chef: Reine de Saba Cake
Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I review episodes of Julia Child’s original show, cook out of the new edition of the French Chef Cookbook and share the results with you. Past posts can be found here. Next to Beouf Borguignon, Julia's Queen of Sheba cake seems to be one of her most famous … Continue reading Cooking With the French Chef: Reine de Saba Cake
Cooking With the French Chef: Coquilles Saint-Jacques
Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I make recipes from the new edition of Julia Child's French Chef Cookbook and review episodes of Julia's original TV series, The French Chef. Past installments can be found here. Coquilles Saint-Jacques is a dish I've been wanting to make for a long time but never … Continue reading Cooking With the French Chef: Coquilles Saint-Jacques
Cooking With the French Chef: Boeuf Bourguignon
Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I review episodes of Julia Child's original show, cook out of the new edition of the French Chef Cookbook and share the results with you. Past posts can be found here. Our first official installment! This month's recipe is a no-brainer: Since Julia made Boeuf Bourguignon … Continue reading Cooking With the French Chef: Boeuf Bourguignon
Cooking With the French Chef: Introduction
Et voilá, here's a new series! As of today, it's sixty-one years since Julia Child's peerless first show, The French Chef premiered, and a few months ago a fancy new edition of The French Chef cookbook became available. Naturally, I want to review it, but instead of publishing one post with the results of a … Continue reading Cooking With the French Chef: Introduction
Four Hundred Years Ago
2023 is the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio, and I can't believe I forgot to commemorate it. Oh well, it's December, obviously, so we're still in the ballpark. Phew. Anyway, the First Folio was published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, by Henry Condell and John Heminge, two friends of … Continue reading Four Hundred Years Ago
Page To Screen: Emma
While it's hard to touch Pride and Prejudice in terms of screentime, Jane Austen's 1815 novel, Emma comes pretty close. Like Pride and Prejudice, one of Emma's major themes is marriage, but unlike that august work, there isn't the looming spectre of home passing to someone else in the event of Father's death. There is, however, the looming spectre of … Continue reading Page To Screen: Emma
C.S. Lewis, Poet
It's very common knowledge that C.S. Lewis was a brilliant author and professor, but what isn't often talked about is his poetry, probably because a lot of people over the years haven't really liked it, not to mention Lewis's other works, particularly Narnia, cast big, wide shadows. Another possible reason for the avoidance might be … Continue reading C.S. Lewis, Poet
Still More Cuisine, Stars Hollow Style (This Time It’s Official)
It's time for another Stars Hollow food adventure! Those of you who have been around my blog for at least a few years will no doubt remember my reviews of Eat Like A Gilmore and its sequel, Daily Cravings, in which I not only reviewed the books but cooked out of them. So yeah, we're going to … Continue reading Still More Cuisine, Stars Hollow Style (This Time It’s Official)
Stage To Screen: Grand Hotel
"Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come. People go. Nothing ever happens." So intones the lonely and forgotten Doctor Otternschalg as he watches guests and former guests mill around in the lobby of Berlin's Grand Hotel. For him, a former First World War military doctor and burn victim, nothing ever does happen. No one writes … Continue reading Stage To Screen: Grand Hotel
Page To Screen: The Bridge of San Luis Rey
While Thornton Wilder is best known for his 1938 play, Our Town, he was by no means a one-hit wonder. Eleven years before Our Town, his novella (and only his second published work), The Bridge of San Luis Rey would release to wide acclaim and win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature the following year. For those who aren't … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Taking Up Room 