Resurrection

Not dead yet...



More to come...

(P.S. Congrats Christian Borle)

Lemon Buttermilk "Cup-Pies"

I recently purchased a quart of buttermilk for a chicken recipe that called for 1/4 cup.  Naturally, I was left with a whole lot of buttermilk and little use for it.  In an attempt to prevent waste, I started looking up recipes that truly utilized buttermilk.

I came across this recipe for a lemon buttermilk pie and thought this could be a winner.  Of course I couldn't just prepare the pie exactly as directed in the recipe.  I had to put my own spin on it.

Ever since watching the incredibly awesome show Pushing Daisies on Netflix, I wanted to try my hand at the "cup-pie" (cup-pies are to pies what cupcakes are to cakes).  While the cup-pie was something of a joke on the series, I always thought they would make for a very fun treat.  The cup-pie is not exactly something novel.  It's been going by the more familiar (and less silly sounding) name "mini-pie" for some time now.  There's even a book about them.  But calling these little pies "cup-pies" is just more fun.

To make the buttermilk lemon cup-pies, I separately prepared a flaky pie crust dough and half the filling recipe for the lemon buttermilk pie mentioned above.  I rolled out the crust dough to 1/8" thick and cut out 2 1/2" fluted rounds.  I pressed the rounds into a mini-muffin pan.  I filled each cup-pie with about 1 Tbsp of lemon buttermilk batter.  I sprinkled the tops with a little cinnamon and nutmeg.

These cup-pies are absolutely delicious.  The filling is a nice combination of tart and sweet, and the eggs and buttermilk make for a rich custardy texture.  A few notes for next time...

I believe the crust to filling ratio is too high.  In the future, I will either roll the crust thinner or perhaps use a regular size muffin tin to increase the relative proportion of filling.  Also, I think the pie crust recipe I used, while wonderfully flaky, was lacking in flavor.  Perhaps a butter crust recipe or a bit of salt added to the shortening based crust would be better.

The bottom line:  Whether prepared as cup-pies or in a 9 inch shell, this lemon buttermilk pie is simple to make and wonderfully tasty.

Daily Monku:  It really pisses me off when people buy vowels on Wheel of Fortune.  I just don't understand the point of paying for letters when there are free ones.  My strategy:  stick to guessing consonants and let some other schmuck waste their money on vowels.

Also of note, the strawberry salad in my work cafeteria has been renamed "blueberry salad."  Order has been restored to the universe.

My Three Favorite Musical Finales

As I recently posted, I was completely unsatisfied (not to mention kind of confused) with the ending of Memphis.  With that in mind, I thought I'd post about some of my favorite musical finales (not to be confused with satisfying musical endings).  Finale often implies a big performance number involving the whole cast, but great musical finales can be quiet as well (see number 3 below).  Spoilers ahead, be forewarned.

My Three Favorite Musical Finales

1.  Les Miserables

This is the perfect example of the big, powerhouse finale number.  I especially love how the whole final scene is basically sung (including dialogue).  The orchestrations are beautiful and the reappearance of many of the earlier melodies helps solidify the themes of hope and faith, despite the fact that the ending is drenched in death.  Literally, I think four named characters are still alive by the end of the show (though the death of Valjean feels more like liberation than demise).

Sadly, I couldn't find a good video featuring the one and only Valjean, Colm Wilkinson, and instead had to settle for the 25th Anniversary concert (please ignore the awfulness that is Nick Jonas).

2.   Spring Awakening

This musical also ends on kind of a downer.  Melchior's best friend kills himself, and the girl he knocks up dies in a botched abortion attempt.  But the finale number is absolutely beautiful.  It's simple in its harmonies and sung largely in unison (think like your high school choir).  The lyrics are full of nature images.  Some beautiful "The butterfly sings / And opens purple summer / With a flutter of its wings";  some odd "And mares will neigh / With stallions that they mate / Foals they've born."

Ultimately, I like this finale because it kind of breaks from the story (aside from the implication of forward movement generated by ending SPRING Awakening with a song about summer) .  There's no concluding dialogue interspersed with the song.  The deceased characters reappear with the rest of the cast.  This finale functions well as a stand alone song outside the context of the musical, which means you can listen to it on your iPod or in your car and not feel completely embarrassed for singing along out loud.

I chose this video since it has most of the original cast and the superior updated lyrics and harmonies that you can't hear on the OBCR.

3.  Aida

Unlike the other two musicals listed above, this show ends on a quieter note.  The final scene has no lyrics or dialogue, purely action and instrumentals (there is a final-ish song in the reprise of "Every Story is a Love Story", but I wouldn't call it the finale number).  This Disney-fied, Elton John infused version of the Verdi opera ends in a hopeful way.  After the forbidden lovers are sentenced to death in ancient Egypt, we fast forward thousands of years to see the reincarnated versions of the characters meet each other in a modern day museum.  Some may argue this scene lessens the tragedy of the story, and I agree.  But Disney and Elton John have made enough comedic and upbeat changes to this story that it deserves a happier more hopeful ending.

I couldn't find a good clip of the finale (it was on Broadway in the days before video camera phones), so instead I've placed an awesome teaser clip of Adam Pascal and Heather Headley (man, they had some chemistry).

Daily Monku:  I bought a "Strawberry Salad" for lunch at work today.  It was supposed to have chicken and walnuts with strawberries and blueberries over a bed of mixed greens.  In place of walnuts, it had pecans.  Not a big deal.  I mean I prefer walnuts, but pecans are fine.  But the real kicker was the fact that there were no strawberries in the salad.  There were blueberries, but no strawberries in my strawberry salad.  Why call it a strawberry salad if you aren't going to put strawberries in it?  Why not call it just a berry salad?

Cookie Filled Mini-Cupcakes

Through some weird circumstances that I can't quite remember, I now have a subscription to Everyday Food Magazine.  An offshoot of the domestic conglomerate that is Martha Stewart, Everyday Food provides many fairly simple recipes and a ton of pretty pictures to entice you to try them.

The first thing I made was a "Tandoori-Style" chicken, which, while good, was not very "tandoori-style" at all (I guess it was a yogurt marinade, so that makes it tandoori?).  But the one recipe I was really looking forward to trying was the Cookie Cupcakes with Raspberry Fluff Frosting.

I'm not a big cupcake person in general, but a cupcake with an Oreo cookie inside (I love Oreos!)?  I had to try it.  I also had to miniaturize it (cause everything is cuter when it's smaller).  I followed the cake batter recipe exactly, but I used a mini muffin pan with mini Oreos as filling.

The chocolate cake in this recipe is okay.  Probably not better than my go-to Hershey's chocolate cake recipe, but still passable.  I like the Oreo cookie center in these cupcakes.  During the baking process, the cookie absorbs a lot of moisture, and it becomes soft and slightly chewy.  However, it appears Oreos are more buoyant than I expected.  They kept rising to the top of the cupcake instead of staying nicely sandwiched in the middle.  Perhaps this is only an issue for the mini cupcakes (something to do with the cookie to batter ratio?), but it was quite annoying.

The icing is made up of marshmallow fluff with a little raspberry jam added in.  I used some of the leftover rasberry jam from my adventures in canning.  The hint of raspberry goes very well with the chocolate flavor of the cake (plus it makes the frosting pink).  Unfortunately, I completely over mixed the frosting and basically beat out all the whipped lightness of the fluff.  The result was a sticky and dense icing that still tasted fine (it kind of reminded me of melted strawberry ice cream), but made for quite a mess.  I sprinkled some pink sanding sugar on top of my iced cupcakes to give them a little more visual appeal, since I couldn't create a nice voluminous top with my deflated frosting.

Cupcake Stats:
Cake:  Buttermilk chocolate cake with oreo filling
Icing: Raspberry, marshmallow fluff with pink sanding sugar decoration

Overall, these cupcakes were pretty fun.  I'm already considering the possibility of using other Nabisco cookies (like Chips Ahoy and Nutter Butters).  I think with a few tweaks, these cupcakes could be real winners.

Daily Monku:  As a kid, Nick-at-Nite (Nickelodeon's late night programming that plays re-runs of classic sitcoms) was my means for discovering many classic seventies television shows like Happy Days and The Brady Bunch.  As time has gone by, Nick-at-Nite has modified its programming by bringing in newer series to the schedule.  Recently however, I learned Nick-at-Nite has added Friends (original run 1994-2004) to its nightly line up.  My only response: way to make me feel old Nick-at-Nite.

End of Summer Movie Bottom Lines

With summer wrapping up, I'd like to present the second half of my summer movie bottom lines.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

This was by far the best of the Harry Potter movies.  The action and special effects were outstanding, and Daniel Radcliffe's performance didn't upset me too much (unlike a certain Broadway show).

Kudos:  Alan Rickman.  I loved him before the HP films, but he honestly brought Snape to life (considering my vision of Snape before the movies looked something like this).

Monkus:  Since when did Voldemort travel to the Island, fall down the cave of glowing light and transform into the smoke monster from Lost?

Winnie the Pooh

This was a great movie (if you can call it that).  It evoked all the fun and enjoyment of the original animated Pooh stories.  I laughed out loud multiple times, despite being over the age of five.

Kudos:  Bobby Lopez!  He wrote a song about Pooh's rumbly tummy and the song Hasa Diga Eebowai from The Book of Mormon.  I can't believe the versatility of this guy.

Monkus:  I paid full price for this ticket and the movie ran an hour and fifteen minutes from start to end including previews.  That's like 17 cents a minute.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Another so-so super hero movie.  I found myself getting bored mid-way through.  Here's hoping Joss Whedon can fix this with the Avengers movie.

Kudos:  Stanley Tucci was enjoyable and entertaining as the German scientist.

Monkus:  I'm not sure what sort of weird CG effects they used to put Chris Evans head onto a skinny guy body, but it just looked weird and unnatural (setting the something's slightly off tone for the whole movie).

Friends with Benefits

I was hoping this would be a better version of No Strings Attached.  Instead it was less funny, and the characters were less relatable (and NSA had Natalie Portman).

Kudos: After ten years of waiting, the teenaged Nsync lover in me secretly smiled upon seeing Justin Timberlake's ass.

Monkus: Justin Timberlake will always be Justin Timberlake.  I can't see him as any other character.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

For the longest time I thought the sub-title was "Dark Side of the Moon."  And considering the number of times they reference it in the film, I still don't understand why it wasn't called that.  The action was good and all that, but alien robot machines as characters just don't cut it for me.  I still don't understand why the autobots would want to stay on Earth and help humans when they are clearly so much more awesome than us.

Kudos: Shia LaBeouf is an entertaining actor to watch, even though he always kinda ends up playing the same character in all his movies (sort of like Michael Cera, except less annoying and more talented).

Monkus: I'm probably the only person for whom this is an issue, but I hate that they didn't resolve Sam's personal issues.  Does he get his shit together and get a job?  Or does he just financially rely on the hot chick for the rest of his life?

The Change-Up

This movie is advertised as an R-rated Freaky Friday (yeah I link to the Jodie Foster version, what?), and as far as that goes, it was pretty funny.

Kudos: I really like Jason Bateman.  He's clearly the best part of this movie.  But let's be honest, isn't it kind of funny how Bateman playing an irresponsible drugged-up man child is now considered playing against type (giving his own admissions about past drug use)?

Monkus: This movie takes itself too seriously.  From the corny ending to the overly dramatic background score.  Do we have to learn a lesson at the end?  Can't it just be funny (I mean with the body-swap plot it's not like we're restricting ourselves to the realm of realism?

Cowboys and Aliens
I wanted this movie to be awesome (I would even accept awesomely bad), but it came across as just plain stupid.  I seriously believe Harrison Ford is damaging his awesome man reputation with roles in movies with alien antagonists (Indy 4...).

Kudos: The concept was creative enough.  I mean for all the aliens attacking Earth scenarios out there, why wouldn't aliens have attacked during the frontier, wild west days?

Monkus: These kinds of movies are generally plagued with plot holes, but this one takes the cake.  Aliens who want gold, but are awesome enough to have strap-on laser guns? Does not really compute.

Crazy, Stupid, Love
I loved this movie.  This is the way romantic comedies should be done.  The story feels surprisingly grounded in reality, with generally realistic characters (except for Marissa Tomei).  Even though the story succumbs to a few "shoulda seen it coming" twists and a hokey, heartfelt conclusion, it still came across as fresh.
Kudos:  Ryan Gosling. Ryan Gosling. Ryan Gosling.
Monkus:  Plot lines that depend heavily on child actors generally make me cringe.  Sadly, this movie's weak point is also the child story line, (developed around Steve Carrell and Julianne Moore's tween son being in love with his babysitter).

The Help
Kind of sappy, a bit long, but overall an enjoyable movie.  Civil rights centered plots tend to involve some righteously open-minded and forward thinking white character who believes segregation is wrong.  This character, while likable, always comes across as slightly disingenuous to me (disingenuous with regard to history I guess), and Emma Stone's Skeeter is no exception.  Although this disingenuousness is more an issue with the genre in general, not this specific film.
Kudos:  Viola Davis provides a great performance as Abeline.
Monkus:  "You is kind.  You is smart.  You is important."  The grammar police in me suffered every time this line was uttered.  Ultimately, it's the lack of grammatical correctness that will prevent this saying from becoming  one of those memorable movie quotes we like to use in reference to real life (you know like "Life is like a box of chocolates.").

My movie attendence kind of fell off toward the end there, but sadly it seems so did the quality of movies.  So much so that I wasn't even tempted.

Daily Monku:  Last week Netflix announced that it would soon lose its access to Starz catalog of movies.  To which I can say that totally blows.  Without Starz movies in the Netflix streaming catalog, you're basically left with B and C level films.  So if you're not in the mood to watch an "It's So Bad It's Good" movie, you're out of luck (you'll have to wait for it to arrive in the mail on DVD).  Considering Netflix recently raised its prices (splitting streaming and at-home DVD services) with the justification that it needed the funds for renegotiating contracts with streaming content providers, I'm quite miffed.

Hurricane Microwave Smores

When the talk of hurricane Irene actually impacting New York City reached my ears a couple of weeks ago, I immediately thought camping.  Something about braving the elements while barricading yourself in your home feels kind of like indoor camping (my kind of camping).  And you can't go camping without smores.

So while everyone else was cleaning out the bread and canned goods aisles at my nearby grocery store, I stocked up on graham crackers, marshmallows and Hershey's chocolate (surprisingly, the woman behind me in line also had Hershey's and marshmallows in her basket, which means I'm not that off with the whole camping thing).

Now I didn't have an indoor campfire.  I don't even have a gas stove.  So to make my hurricane smores, I had to rely on the microwave.  Now before you cringe at the thought, let me show you the results.

Now you could choose to follow the recipe on the back of the marshmallow bag for microwave smores, or you can do it my (better) way.  

For awhile back in high school, I worked at a chocolate store.  One of the items we sold was a smore made in the microwave.  Instead of sandwiching the marshmallow and chocolate between the grahams, we made an all marshmallow sandwich and then coated the outside with chocolate (it was a chocolate store after all).  I feel like this makes for a more fun presentation, so I used it in my hurricane smores.

To make these delicious treats, I split one full graham cracker sheet in half.  Then I place HALF (yes half) a marshmallow on one cracker.  A full marshmallow is just too much and ultimately makes for a messy smore (which I realize some will argue is the point of a smore, but I beg to differ).

Next, microwave the marshmallow and cracker on a microwave-safe plate for 10-15 seconds.  The marshmallow will puff up.

Place the graham crackers on top of each other, sandwiching the marshmallow between.

Melt down the Hershey's chocolate in the microwave (I usually use about 30 sec increments, stirring in between, until it's completely melted).  Luckily, Hershey's chocolate has enough preservatives and fillers that you really don't have to worry about tempering (I've never seen anything dipped in Hershey's chocolate bloom).

Normally, I would completely submerge the graham sandwich in the chocolate, but I wanted to leave the edge exposed in the photo so the marshmallow was visible.  I also sprinkled the chocolate with some rainbow non-pareils to give it a little something extra.

The hurricane ultimately wasn't such a big deal in Manhattan, but I still enjoyed my hurricane smores.

Daily Monku:  During my indoor camping experience that was Hurricane Irene, I watched a lot of movies including Die Hard: With a Vengence (aka Die Hard 3).  And all I can say is, I wish I lived in the world where Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons are brothers (albeit German terrorist brothers).  I think that world's gotta be a lot cooler than this one.  This isn't really a monku, but I don't care.

A Month of Monkus - August 2011

A recap of monkus from August...

August 4, 2011:  I made a stop at the M&Ms store in Times Square recently to buy some fun colored M&Ms for the cupcake pops, and I couldn't believe the horrible, tacky crap they sell there.  Are you really going to buy an M&Ms bathrobe?  And wear it with your M&Ms pajamas and M&Ms underwear?  Are you going to drink from an M&Ms coffee mug (okay, I'll give you that one, maybe)?  But dinner plates? Really?  This store reeks of Affluenza.

August 9, 2011:  I despise how so many people seem to have difficulty with maintaining breathable space in a line.  I like to believe I'm a conscientious person.  When I enter a line (say at the grocery store), I leave adequate space between myself and the person in front of me.  It's not like anyone is going to squeeze in there if I don't fill up every inch of space there.  But this understanding seems lost on so many people.  Granted these are often children, who just don't seem to have a proper sense of personal boundaries.  But then I have to wonder, why aren't their parents teaching them about proper line etiquette (or teachers in school for that matter).  Because line encroaching children, ultimately grow into non-personal space abiding adults who breathe down your neck and accidentally bump into you with their sweaty, stinky limbs.

August 11, 2011:  I'm so sick of the midnight opening night movie show time.  It was fun when it was rare and unique.  Only the biggest movies with the craziest fan bases could possibly warrant a midnight showing.  Now, every week there's at least one movie with a midnight opening show time.  I understand part of this is a summer thing, but it's just not as fun or special when it's available every week.

August 16, 2011:  In 1999, Who Wants to be a Millionaire was the first TV game show to offer a $1 million grand prize.  The show single-handedly brought back the prime time game show. Today, twelve years later, game and competition shows are still a definite part of the network television lineup.  What I don't get is the fact that the grand prize is still never more than $1 million (unless it's some kind of special edition version [this of course excludes Jeopardy in which you could feasibly continue to win forever like that one guy]).  Shouldn't game show prizes be worth more now (I mean adjusting for inflation, $1 million in 1999 is equal to about $1.3 million today), especially given the ever more ridiculous things we make people do on television to win the money?

August 18, 2011:  As may have been evidenced in previous monkus, I'm kind of a grammar Nazi.  I simply hate when people use the wrong form of it's (vs. its) or there (vs. their or they're).  But lately, I find I've been over doing it on the instinct to correct my homophones.  I find in cases where I mean the contraction of "it is", I'll actually leave out the apostrophe.  Or worse, I've actually written "they're" when I meant to write "there".  Honestly, who does that?  I guess this isn't really a monku (although it does make proof reading extra annoying), rather a caution against complaining too vigorously.

August 23, 2011:  This past weekend, I had a coupon for 50% off a bakeware item from Michaels craft store (plus an additional coupon for 40% any item).  I went there specifically to purchase a mini cupcake pan (or two).  Considering Michaels loves to pimp Wilton products, I couldn't believe that the Upper West Side store didn't have a single cupcake pan (mini or otherwise).  I checked shelf labels to see if they were merely out of stock.  As it turns out, the only cupcake pan Michaels carries is one by Duff Goldman.  Seriously?  No mini pans, and the only cupcake pan is by the Ace of Cakes (the guy who attempted to break the world record for largest cupcake and failed because he didn't actually make a cupcake)?

August 25, 2011:  I dislike how Broadway audiences so readily give a standing ovation at curtain call.  Frankly, not every show deserves it.  And yet, at the end of most Broadway performances, the audience will inexplicably stand.  There also seems to be a higher percentage of standing ovations in the orchestra over the mezzanine(s) (I guess if you spend all that money, you really want to like it).  No one wants to be that one douche bag who doesn't stand up during a standing-o, but that's what I've been reduced to on many occasions.  Yeah, I'm that person. It's not like I'm rude.  I still applaud at the end of the show, but you've got to earn my standing ovation.


One of these days, these monkus are going to catch up with me.  Until then...