I Want More Good Movies

Clearly the movie industry does not agree with me.

We rented Definitely, Maybe over the weekend and here’s my opinion: Definitely NOT.

Most people probably wouldn’t agree with me; I wish I didn’t agree with me. The movie was well acted – superb, believable performances by an excellent cast. It was well written – first-rate dialogue, brilliant use of voice over and foreshadowing. And the directing and cinematography were stellar as well. Why don’t I like it? I’m not a fan of immorality. Oh, sure the little girl catches out her dad as a former smoker and chastises him, but the teasing “Dad what’s the male word for slut?” doesn’t carry nearly as much weight. The movie condones (where it should condemn or at least correct) the loose morality and sexual perversion of the four adult characters.

Here’s the kicker for me though: His marriage, signing the divorce papers is presented as the only thing standing between the girl’s father and the woman he really loved all along (not her mother) – WHAT? What kind of message is that? Allow me to sum up.
‘Hey, Kido, it’s okay Mommy and Daddy are getting divorced. I know we made commitments and stuff but I never really loved her, we’d both had sex with so many people it was just time to try something else for a while. I’ve really been in love with someone else this whole time.'
‘Sounds great, Pop. Not like families matter that much afterall – need help getting the old girlfriend back?’
My predictable response? DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME.

Now a great movie, which properly addresses the idea of philandering (there are temptations, they are resolved), has yet to be released on DVD. I am not alone in my appreciation of this film. For whatever reasons tons of people love this movie. A Google search on the title reveals multiple sites offering good reviews, fans recommending the film, and several hundred petitions each demanding the release of this film on DVD. And I checked – there are over 800 pages listing bloggers on Google Blogger who have put this movie in their profile favorites.

Released in 1992 this movie, with a stellar cast and truly excellent cinematography (as well as my personal favorite, even though you can’t find it anywhere, movie soundtrack of all time), offers a soothing drama about the lives of four women who face life and find love where they least expected it – in unlikely friendships and their own marriages. The film, nominated for multiple Oscars and Golden Globes, garnered two of the latter. The reworked screenplay was revived in 2003 as a successful Broadway show, and the almost forgotten book on which the film was originally based has not only been reprinted but has become a book club favorite over the intervening years.

I am wearing out my second VHS tape of the movie at a rate which causes me to worry about where I’ll find another copy I can afford. Used VHS copies of the film range from $30 to $80 on Amazon, and yet the film still has not been released on DVD.

To which popular movie do I refer? ENCHANTED APRIL

If you haven't seen it (or haven't seen it in a while), go rent it – if you can find it – and if you can’t find it, do me a favor and complain. I think they’ve stopped listening to me.

Garlic Soup

I probably shouldn't admit this but I never follow the recipe, well, almost never. That's especially true with recipes that get scribbled down while I'm watching a chef on TV. Case in point, this garlic soup.

I modified the original recipe from the Victory Garden because, really, who has 12 heads of garlic on hand? I used two. I also substituted milk for cream to make a "healthier" soup and because I didn't actually have more than a tablespoon of cream left in the fridge anyway. The red pepper and thyme cream that the chef on the show made to go with this soup got a bare nod with thyme leaves as a garnish. You'll note my attitude is that if you don't have enough cream on hand you just have to make do with something else. Normal people would probably just not attempt the dish until they'd been shopping and bought what was needed.


So my cut-down, make-do recipe went something like this:
Two cups of water
Two vegetable bullion cubes, and
Two heads of garlic
went into a pot with a pinch of Kosher salt. That got cooked down for an hour and then strained. I removed the cloves and instead of pushing them through the strainer (because that would be a pain to clean up and I don't have kitchen staff to do that for me) I just chopped them a little, then mashed them with the side of the knife, and added them back to the pot. Still off the heat I also stirred in
1/3 cup milk, and
a squirt of lemon juice.

I did use a whisk, as reccommended, even though it made an extra dish to wash later because I do love whisks. There's just something chef-ish about whisking that makes me think the food is going to taste that much better. The soup went back on the stove over medium heat, stirring (whisking) constantly until it was warmed through. Once in the bowl mine didn't look as pretty as the TV soup (garlic soup by itself is really just kind of beige) so I used a couple drops of cream and a toothpick to make a marbled pattern and sprinkled some thyme leaves on for extra garnish and extra flavor.


It turned out pretty decent, but probably would have been better with the red pepper and thyme cream. And I thought it could have used more garlic, the flavor cooked down to such a mellow sweetness that it didn't have enough zing left for my taste. I think either more garlic or shorter cooking time (or both) might make it stronger. A trip to the grocery for the right supplies probably wouldn't hurt either.

Raspberry Drop Scones

I’ve seen the prices in the store, a pint of regular berries costs almost more than buying the plants, and our organic garden produces raspberries that would be out of my price range. Fortunately for me, we do grow them.

If you are blessed with a large patch of raspberries, or are quick enough to gather the wild raspberries (that’s wineberries to some of ya’ll) before the birds devour them, you’ll have extras to freeze and pull out for a taste of summer in winter. Just sprinkle the berries with a little sugar –little, I said – and seal in a Ziploc freezer bag. Sometime this winter, possibly as early as November, you’ll be glad you printed out the recipe below and taped it to the bag of raspberries. (You can use commercially frozen raspberries too – they get even juicier which is great for this recipe.)

Raspberry Drop

Scones

2 cup unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter (you can use margarine too, but it’s less sconey)
¾ cup milk

Aside from “Bake 400F 12-15 min” that’s where the handwritten recipe ends. What it forgets to say is that you should combine the ingredients in the order they’re listed, the way my grandmother taught me to make scones in my great grandmother’s kitchen one time when more family had gathered than expected. When you get to the butter, it’s easier to cut it in with two knives like you do for piecrust. Grandma used her hands.

Add the milk, especially that milk that you think might be going off a bit. If you're tempted to say "Hey, is this still good?" that's scone making milk. For regular scones you stop there and finish by patting the dough into two circles and cutting it into eight wedge shapes to bake; or you could keep going and add about 3 cups thawed-out frozen raspberries and all the juice they made. The juice will turn the scones pink and make the dough too gooey to shape into proper scones. That’s how my grandmother's scone recipe becomes my raspberry drop scones – just spoon about 12 big pink dollops onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 400 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.

They're best warm and with tea, a mellow oolong or confident English breakfast. Grandma always liked heavy whipping cream with them too.

Building Blocks (Part 2)

Sixteen units make a lovely block… and Yes, in my head that is set to the tune of “Sixteen Candles.” Here are several of the quilt squares that can be made using these simple quarter circle units as the building blocks.

I already mentioned Robbing Peter to Pay Paul (I’m certain this has something to do with the Biblical Peter and Paul and the collection of tithes in the early church, but I have no anecdotal proof.)

There are two versions of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul that use the unit we’re looking at. (There are also other variations that do not use this same basic unit).

If I had made an uneven number of units this next block could have been Wonder of the World (the four corners would have their values reversed) which is also pictured in the last post. With even numbers of light and dark quarter circles though, this is as close as you can get. Turns out this is Fool’s Puzzle, then.

Reverse Baseball -- Frankly, I don’t see the point of this one. Unless you use sashing the fact that it’s “reverse” gets completely lost. For more fun just go ahead and appliqué polkadot circles on wholecloth, asymmetrically of course.

Note that I am too lazy to sample all the possible patterns – I have used graph paper (don’t you love graph paper?) to illustrate the blocks Around the World which requires 16 identical units, and Love Ring also known as Nonesuch which requires 36 units so my sample would be huge. Sixteen units evenly divided works just fine for me, thanks. I know that somewhere there is another name for Queen’s Crown but I haven’t been able to find it. And really, since I’m being lazy today, one name is enough, don’t you think?

Many quilt names apply to more than one block, just as many quilt blocks have more than one name. The Snowball doesn’t always look like the above block and Ocean Waves (below) is also called Falling Timber.

There are two Drunkard’s Path blocks that use our quarter circle unit.

Drunkards Path – the version below anyway – is also known by the name of Rocky Road to Dublin. Which I’m hoping was not meant as an ethnic slur. I haven’t done the research on that one, but we’ll assume it wasn’t meant to indicate a drunken Irishman trying to find his way home from the pub, but was instead a keen observation on potholes and cobbles decorating the highways around that great town. While famous for its musical culture and the Book of Kells (housed at Trinity College, which people have also heard of), Dublin goes down in my book as being the home of the Italian restaurant Paddy Garibaldi’s. Twelve years ago my friend Fiona and I, tired and hungry, found it open on a bank holiday and were deserted by the rest of our group who went, in vain, to look for someplace better than “that hole in the wall.” Fiona and I ate there every night, and by the end of our week in Dublin everyone else in our group was eating there too.

Vine of Friendship creates diagonals that have many possibilities in setting. Placing them different directions could create diamond patterns, all striped diagonals, or zig zags. Fun.

And then there’s Wishing Well , when I sew my units together I think this is the pattern I’ll use. I love the round and flow of this pattern (and it’s perfect for penny fabric).

For those of you wondering why I’ve switched fabrics between posts – I have a yard of the pennies, and there’s something fitting about using a money print to illustrate Robbing Peter to Pay Paul and Wishing Well – don’t you think? Basically though, I ran out of carrot fabric. I knew I would. I only bought a fat quarter to began with, and I have used it in sampling several times already – always in combo with that lovely repro Depression Era orange which began life as a third (of a yard) and so is also running low. In case you’re curious, the test samples I make up generally become potholders or pillows – obviously the carrot samples became potholders.

Water Strider

In May I had a wonderful opportunity to attend my first Christian writers conference. Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference at Ridgecrest in NC, that’s a long name for a conference so wonderful that it seemed way too short. I could go on about how much I learned and how confirmed I was in the directions I felt God leading me – and I probably will in other posts – but right now I just wanted to say: “Have you looked at the BRMCWC blog?”

At the conference, on the last day, I had an opportunity to chat with Alton Gansky. Looks like it was a good idea to take him seriously when he said “send me a couple poems for the blog.” My poem “Water Strider” was posted to the BRMCWC blog today. Link is in the side bar (under Poetry) and here.

(How did he know that was my favorite of the three I sent him?)

Building Blocks (Part 1)

Who needs math? I remember arguments with my parents over doing useless algebra equations and geometry exercises. I remember my absolute certainty I would never need those word problems in the real world. And who would ever need to know how to draw a stupid parallelogram or enlarge a triangle?

Then I became a quilter. I don’t want to mention the number of times I’ve muttered “a squared plus b squared equals c squared… now add a quarter inch seam allowance.” Knowing math means being able to figure out how to take that tiny complicated block and grow it up into a larger still-complicated-but-I-don’t-have-to-make-as-many block. God bless math.

Dissecting quilt blocks to their core units allows me to recognize patterns, repeating shapes that are used and reused in different blocks. This is particularly obvious with the curved seam unit that is used to construct the block known as Drunkard’s Path. Four of those units put together one way make Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, while sixteen units laid out completely differently make Wonder of the World. I can see from a quick dip into my favorite reference books that there are many more possibilities as well.

What are my favorite reference books?
849 Traditional Patchwork Patterns by Susan W. Mills, The Quilter’s Album of Blocks and Borders by Jinny Beyer, Carrie Hall Blocks by Bettina Havig, and The Art of Classic Quiltmaking by Harriet Hargrave and Sharyn Craig.

What other quilt blocks use this quarter circle unit?
Wait and see.

Have you ever been to Winterthur in Delaware? Don't forget to take a camera with you. I had only a wobbly cell phone, with practically no memory and absolutely no zoom or flash.

So, you'll have to take my word for it, the place is spectacular.

They have an amazing museum. A fact I didn't fully appreciate when I was dragged there as a child, but now I realize how great it is. I don't think they'll mind if I quote their website "From a collection of more than 85,000 objects made or used in America between 1640 and 1860, Winterthur curators have crafted displays that focus on specific media. ... Objects selected range from historic clothing and craftsmen's tools to exquisite metalworks, ceramics, and paintings."

But, then, the grounds... I could have stayed in the gardens for days, and it wasn't even peak season -- when the gazillions of azaleas are on display. I could weep for the formal gardens, and quarry garden, dozens of beautiful things I have only one small blurry pictures of. I'll just have to go back. I did at least get some clear shots of the Pinetum (this is a Nikko Fir against the late afternoon sun),

the architectural selvage and millstone Stone Circle,

a rill running right across the path from a waterfall to a goldfish pond,

and the Enchanted Garden, with this thatched hut made from the hollow bark remains of an ancient tree.

Moreover, they had small cast metal rabbits as the knobs on the hose spigots in the children's garden. Down to the last detail it's a neat place to visit; I'm glad I got the chance to go.