May 29, 2012
May 26, 2012
F.R.E.A.M.
Food rules everything around me, F.R.E.A.M., be a fatty, eatin' eatin' good y'all!
Okay, so maybe I am not meant to be a rapper and that opening line would make Wu-Tang cry. I apologize. Moving on.
All of you that know me know that I have a deep love for food (right after you, Franco!). Lately my love affair has been stressed. Our 30 day challenge has kept me away from all things fatty, sweet, and salty, which has led me to do some crazy things in the kitchen. (Did you miss the avocado brownies?) My latest creation was a challenge friendly milk and cookie snack.
For the cookies I made biscotti based on The Foodie Physician's Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti. (Awesome food blog for those who are interested in healthy cooking; she's also on Instagram.) I substituted ground almonds for the white flour, chia seeds for the eggs, date sugar and honey for the white sugar and brown sugar, respectively, and dried cranberries for the chopped chocolate. The result: almost vegan, minimally processed, yummie, challenge friendly cookies!
For the milk, Franco and I attempted nut milk for our first time. It was surprisingly easy. I soaked 2 cups of almonds in water for four hours first. Then we blended them with 2 cups of water on low until it made a thick, creamy paste. Next we added four more cups of water and blended on high. The last step was to pour this liquid through a fabric bag (I got a special nut milk bag at Rainbow Grocery, but you can also use cheesecloth). Ta-daa! Almond milk!! Then we added a little maple syrup, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon for some gluttonous flavor. Making almond milk was pretty messy and more expensive than just buying it, but we had fun and we had a product without any gellan gum or zinc glucanate in it.
I also made a couple great food-related book purchases recently: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The American Woman's Cookbook (1948 version).
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has really inspired me to continue eating healthy foods and even step it up a little, a.k.a. make my own almond milk. Franco and I recently ordered some apartment-friendly gardening books and one on urban homesteading (read: make our own cheese and grow mushrooms) and are super excited to get more involved in our food chain.
The second book, The American Woman's Cookbook has been a long-time favorite of mine. It is a vintage cookbook with the recipe for every American classic you can think of and lots of tutorials for how to prep certain foods and even entertaining. My mom has a copy that was my great-grandma's and we daughters all hold it near and dear to our hearts. Instead of borrowing it again and again, I decided it was time to finally find a copy of my own. God bless the Amazon Marketplace. I found a copy from the Salvation Army for only $18.99. Score!
Okay, so maybe I am not meant to be a rapper and that opening line would make Wu-Tang cry. I apologize. Moving on.
All of you that know me know that I have a deep love for food (right after you, Franco!). Lately my love affair has been stressed. Our 30 day challenge has kept me away from all things fatty, sweet, and salty, which has led me to do some crazy things in the kitchen. (Did you miss the avocado brownies?) My latest creation was a challenge friendly milk and cookie snack.
For the cookies I made biscotti based on The Foodie Physician's Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti. (Awesome food blog for those who are interested in healthy cooking; she's also on Instagram.) I substituted ground almonds for the white flour, chia seeds for the eggs, date sugar and honey for the white sugar and brown sugar, respectively, and dried cranberries for the chopped chocolate. The result: almost vegan, minimally processed, yummie, challenge friendly cookies!
For the milk, Franco and I attempted nut milk for our first time. It was surprisingly easy. I soaked 2 cups of almonds in water for four hours first. Then we blended them with 2 cups of water on low until it made a thick, creamy paste. Next we added four more cups of water and blended on high. The last step was to pour this liquid through a fabric bag (I got a special nut milk bag at Rainbow Grocery, but you can also use cheesecloth). Ta-daa! Almond milk!! Then we added a little maple syrup, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon for some gluttonous flavor. Making almond milk was pretty messy and more expensive than just buying it, but we had fun and we had a product without any gellan gum or zinc glucanate in it.
I also made a couple great food-related book purchases recently: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The American Woman's Cookbook (1948 version).
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has really inspired me to continue eating healthy foods and even step it up a little, a.k.a. make my own almond milk. Franco and I recently ordered some apartment-friendly gardening books and one on urban homesteading (read: make our own cheese and grow mushrooms) and are super excited to get more involved in our food chain.
That's my foodie/fatty update for now. As always, thank you for reading. Now go pick up a food-related book or go cook something delicious! Enjoy the flavors of the weekend. :D
May 19, 2012
Alien to Alien Pt. 1
[This entry is part of an ongoing series concerning Franco and CoCo's Alien franchise marathon. For the opening entry click here]
As I have stated in an earlier post, CoCo and I have decided to watch the Alien prequel, Prometheus, on opening night. In an effort to have the series fresh in our minds CoCo suggested we marathon the previous four entries. Last night, we visited Ridley Scott's world of Alien (1979). If you're unfamiliar with the plot it can be found here.
Disclaimer: If I had to make a list of my favorite movies of all time I'm pretty sure Alien would be in my top 5. The Alien franchise is near to my heart as I got into these films as a pre-teen and used it as nerd currency with my girlphobic classmates. I love this franchise and especially the first entry in the series.
The suspense is so well crafted that I consider it more a suspense film or a thriller in the vein of Psycho with its slow boil pacing and nuanced approach to film scoring. Not only that but the lighting and shot selection of the film is phenomenal. After working on a couple sets and taking a cinema production class I can only imagine the ingenuity and hard work that went into the execution of Alien's cinematography. Most of the film is in the dark with sparse lighting that creates hard shadows on the set design and faces. Speaking of set design, my God. The set is meticulously designed in such a way that informs the claustrophobic tone and the dirty, lonely world of space mining. It serves as a perfect venue for a cat and mouse tale. I was so in awe of the film that within the opening five minutes of the film CoCo elbowed me to calm down. She took umbrage to my celebrations of long scenes of immaculately-lit empty corridors. In my defense, I was cheering silently by only thrusting my clenched fist into the air. I don't see how that could bother anyone.
So that's where I'm coming from. CoCo, on the other hand, figured out very quickly that she had never seen the original Alien. Upon further grilling, I discovered that CoCo had only seen Alien: Resurrection (the fourth installment) and was not sure if she had seen Aliens. It turned out she didn't remember a single thing about the Alien mythology (no recollection of face-hugging, chest-bursting, Ash's turn, nothing nothing nothing). You can imagine my envy. What I would give to experience this film for the first time again! Needless to say, this got me very excited. I felt like something important was about to happen -- our energies were about to intertwine in a way that only soul mates whom possess a love for the same bull can.
It turns out CoCo thought the movie was okay but slow and slept through some of it. In her defense we had just worked out and she said her body fell asleep on her (and then she proceeded to fall asleep on me). She gives it a 3 out of 5 stars which I can live with. This morning she woke up early with me and made and packed my lunch-- on a Saturday. So I have nothing to complain about. Quite the contrary.
It's just a shame she won't be down to watch the Director's Cut of Alien with me any time soon. :)
I leave you with what probably will go down down as one of the greatest trailers of all time. Enjoy.
As I have stated in an earlier post, CoCo and I have decided to watch the Alien prequel, Prometheus, on opening night. In an effort to have the series fresh in our minds CoCo suggested we marathon the previous four entries. Last night, we visited Ridley Scott's world of Alien (1979). If you're unfamiliar with the plot it can be found here.
Disclaimer: If I had to make a list of my favorite movies of all time I'm pretty sure Alien would be in my top 5. The Alien franchise is near to my heart as I got into these films as a pre-teen and used it as nerd currency with my girlphobic classmates. I love this franchise and especially the first entry in the series.
The suspense is so well crafted that I consider it more a suspense film or a thriller in the vein of Psycho with its slow boil pacing and nuanced approach to film scoring. Not only that but the lighting and shot selection of the film is phenomenal. After working on a couple sets and taking a cinema production class I can only imagine the ingenuity and hard work that went into the execution of Alien's cinematography. Most of the film is in the dark with sparse lighting that creates hard shadows on the set design and faces. Speaking of set design, my God. The set is meticulously designed in such a way that informs the claustrophobic tone and the dirty, lonely world of space mining. It serves as a perfect venue for a cat and mouse tale. I was so in awe of the film that within the opening five minutes of the film CoCo elbowed me to calm down. She took umbrage to my celebrations of long scenes of immaculately-lit empty corridors. In my defense, I was cheering silently by only thrusting my clenched fist into the air. I don't see how that could bother anyone.
So that's where I'm coming from. CoCo, on the other hand, figured out very quickly that she had never seen the original Alien. Upon further grilling, I discovered that CoCo had only seen Alien: Resurrection (the fourth installment) and was not sure if she had seen Aliens. It turned out she didn't remember a single thing about the Alien mythology (no recollection of face-hugging, chest-bursting, Ash's turn, nothing nothing nothing). You can imagine my envy. What I would give to experience this film for the first time again! Needless to say, this got me very excited. I felt like something important was about to happen -- our energies were about to intertwine in a way that only soul mates whom possess a love for the same bull can.
It turns out CoCo thought the movie was okay but slow and slept through some of it. In her defense we had just worked out and she said her body fell asleep on her (and then she proceeded to fall asleep on me). She gives it a 3 out of 5 stars which I can live with. This morning she woke up early with me and made and packed my lunch-- on a Saturday. So I have nothing to complain about. Quite the contrary.
It's just a shame she won't be down to watch the Director's Cut of Alien with me any time soon. :)
I leave you with what probably will go down down as one of the greatest trailers of all time. Enjoy.
May 18, 2012
All Things Shining
Franco:
Check out my final project for my basic cinema production class. I wanted it to have a Terrance Malick vibe since going a little experimental was an available option to us this time around. I shot the whole thing on Super 8MM as opposed to using a digital camera. It was pretty nerve-wracking since I had no idea what my shots looked like until over a week after shooting since I had to wait for the film to be processed at a lab in southern California. What made it even more precarious was the fact that I chose to shoot the whole thing at the golden hour with an unreliable amount of dwindling light source. The film could've turned out to be very underexposed (too dark) or overexposed (due to opening up the aperture, or iris, of the lens in an effort to overcompensate for lack of light). It turns our most shots were okay and some were too underexposed which I didn't use. A couple were overexposed and you can easily tell which are which but given that the film exists mostly in a non-narrative dreamscape it doesn't seem too out of place. Unfortunately, the film came out grainy as all hell. This was due to the 100 ISO film speed which is, apparently, the only available speed on the market for Super 8MM nowadays. Crash photography course: ISO (aka ASA, EI, or film speed) measures the sensitivity to light of the film. The higher the ISO the more sensitive it is to light. For shooting at sunset I should've used at least 200 ISO but couldn't get my hands on any. Oh well, again, the grain could seem alright since the film could've taken place at a different time in the past.
Thanks to everyone who helped along the way and to CoCo for putting up with my expensive time-consuming hobby. A special thanks to Willow and Ray for letting me shoot your sweet baby.
Check out my final project for my basic cinema production class. I wanted it to have a Terrance Malick vibe since going a little experimental was an available option to us this time around. I shot the whole thing on Super 8MM as opposed to using a digital camera. It was pretty nerve-wracking since I had no idea what my shots looked like until over a week after shooting since I had to wait for the film to be processed at a lab in southern California. What made it even more precarious was the fact that I chose to shoot the whole thing at the golden hour with an unreliable amount of dwindling light source. The film could've turned out to be very underexposed (too dark) or overexposed (due to opening up the aperture, or iris, of the lens in an effort to overcompensate for lack of light). It turns our most shots were okay and some were too underexposed which I didn't use. A couple were overexposed and you can easily tell which are which but given that the film exists mostly in a non-narrative dreamscape it doesn't seem too out of place. Unfortunately, the film came out grainy as all hell. This was due to the 100 ISO film speed which is, apparently, the only available speed on the market for Super 8MM nowadays. Crash photography course: ISO (aka ASA, EI, or film speed) measures the sensitivity to light of the film. The higher the ISO the more sensitive it is to light. For shooting at sunset I should've used at least 200 ISO but couldn't get my hands on any. Oh well, again, the grain could seem alright since the film could've taken place at a different time in the past.
Thanks to everyone who helped along the way and to CoCo for putting up with my expensive time-consuming hobby. A special thanks to Willow and Ray for letting me shoot your sweet baby.
May 14, 2012
Experiment Gone Right
Six months after the wedding I noticed my better half was becoming my better two-thirds, so I challenged Franco to a 30-day healthy lifestyle binge. I'll let him explain in detail, but basically it means daily workouts and a pretty much vegan, whole foods diet.
We're on day seven and a colleague brought some homemade brownies to work today. As I sat at my desk, I could only think of the fudgey brownies in the copy room that I COULD NOT EAT. Insanity drove me to turn my kitchen into a test lab after work and the results were surprisingly good. Let me introduce you to challenge-friendly brownies:
The delectable treat above contains no dairy, no grains, and no processed sugar (making it the most ingenious way to stick to our challenge diet yet). After looking at a few brownie recipes online, I created a recipe that uses almonds, avocado, honey, bananas, cocoa powder, shredded coconut, a little water, and a pinch of salt. I seriously doubted that the brownies would turn out good and was ready to settle for a meh chocolate-treat-substitute, but they are actually GOOD.
30 days may not be such a challenge after all...
We're on day seven and a colleague brought some homemade brownies to work today. As I sat at my desk, I could only think of the fudgey brownies in the copy room that I COULD NOT EAT. Insanity drove me to turn my kitchen into a test lab after work and the results were surprisingly good. Let me introduce you to challenge-friendly brownies:
The delectable treat above contains no dairy, no grains, and no processed sugar (making it the most ingenious way to stick to our challenge diet yet). After looking at a few brownie recipes online, I created a recipe that uses almonds, avocado, honey, bananas, cocoa powder, shredded coconut, a little water, and a pinch of salt. I seriously doubted that the brownies would turn out good and was ready to settle for a meh chocolate-treat-substitute, but they are actually GOOD.
30 days may not be such a challenge after all...
May 09, 2012
Why I Should Check My Email More Often
As you may or may not know, I am awful with the emails in my inbox. I sometimes read them and rarely respond to them. Then once, maybe twice, a year I go through my inbox and try to sort out the mountain of digital mail on my figurative desk. Today is one of those days and I came across an email Franco sent me LAST JUNE (yes, almost a year ago) and it contained this:
What a great way to show me that email should be checked more often. I can't believe I was missing out on this for a year of my life.
What a great way to show me that email should be checked more often. I can't believe I was missing out on this for a year of my life.
May 08, 2012
In Space, No One Can Hear You Nerdgasm
Franco:
During the trailers (there were about seven!) ahead of The Avengers, CoCo leaned over and whispered that she would like to watch the Alien films ahead of the June 8th Prometheus release. I told her there were four (I do not include those cynical cash grabs aka Alien vs Predator films) and she said we'd have to do one a week. I'm very lucky to have married somebody who would suggest marathoning my most cherished film franchise with me. Although, I did marathon all Harry Potter films with her before #8 hit theaters. That was mostly satisfactory except for #2 and #4 which were quite difficult to stomach.
Expect detailed reports of our Alien marathon in the weeks to come. I leave you with the great Prometheus teaser trailer.
One more thing: It seems everyone has Avengers fever (I don't blame them. It was pure summer fun akin to the Indiana Jones films of yesteryear) so here's a little funny bit about Batman vs Avengers and the surprisingly forgotten Spider Man too. ha.
May 07, 2012
May 06, 2012
Flower Power
We decided to stop by the SF Conservatory of Flowers today and it's
definitely worth the five bucks. That's the cheapest tropical vacation
I'll ever find. Next time we'll bring piña coladas along.
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