Ratatouille Redux

Do you like Pixar? What a silly question, of course you do! Everyone likes Pixar! While there are the super famous ones everyone knows about, like Up and Toy Story and whatnot, they've made other good movies that less people have seen, like Ratatouille. And it's a shame that less people have seen this adorable movie, because it's a good Pixar movie with an uplifting message, but mostly because it focuses on delicious food. And that movie is the inspiration for this dish.

Ratatouille is usually a sort of stew-like dish of heart veggies in a tomato sauce, which can be kinda heavy and lack-luster. But this is a more delicate dish that still retains all the delicious flavors of the original.

Also, as a disclaimer, this recipe is blatantly taken from Smitten Kitchen with pretty much no alterations, because Smitten Kitchen is a fantastic source for good recipes. I highly recommend you check it out.

Also, another disclaimer, the pictures accompanying this recipe might be a little misleading, because I made a few adjustments. First, I put in a tomato (because it was about to go bad. If you're in a similar situation, try it out). Also, I ended up with way too much veggie slices, so I made a double layer instead of just one. So don't be discouraged if your dish doesn't look like the photos. It will be just as tasty (and more true to the movie recipe). But then again, if you end up with way to many veggies, like I did, know that this is a viable option (as long as your dish is deep enough).

And this isn't really a disclaimer as much as a bonus: this recipe is vegan! (which I guess shouldn't be surprising since it is composed pretty much solely of veggies)

Pixar Ratatouille

1/2 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup tomato sauce (you can use whatever kind of tomato sauce you want. As usual, I used whatever I had lying around)
1 small eggplant (I used a bunch of little heirloom eggplants that I got from Verrill Farm, because they were so cute)
2 small zucchinis
1 long red bell pepper
3 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375.

Pour the tomato sauce into the bottom of your baking dish (it should be around 8"x11", but use whatever you have that's around that size). Sprinkle in the onions and garlic and stir in with ~1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Slice all of the veggies as thin as possible (if you're lucky enough to own a mandoline, this is a perfect time to use it).

Arrange these veggie slices on top of the tomato sauce in layers. You can do them in rows, or if you really want to emulate the movie dish, you can make concentric rings with the veggies. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with another tablespoon of olive oil. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs by running your fingers down the stem from top to bottom. Sprinkle the thyme leaves over the top of the veggies.

Put in the oven for 45 - 55 minutes. The veggies should still have some structure to them, but they should obviously be cooked.

You can serve this with rice, couscous, crusty toast, or whatever you little heart desires.

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Continuing in my theme of reviewing critically acclaimed movies for you guys, today I'm gonna tell you about Searching for Sugarman.

This movie is a documentary about a 1970's musician called Rodriguez. Never heard of him? Not surprising. He was a massive failure in the US, but a huge success in South Africa (he was more popular than Elvis and the Rolling Stones). However, due to political censoring and other various reasons, Rodriguez was a complete enigma to all of his fans in South Africa. No one knew who he was or wehre he was from, or even how he died. There were many conflicting stories about how Rodriguez died, the most gruesome story being that he set himself on fire on stage at a gig. All of this mystery led to some fans starting to investigate the truth about Rodriguez, and they find more than they could ever imagine.

Now, I don't want you to get discouraged by the fact that this movie is a documentary (I know lots of people think that documentaries are boring). It's very visually interesting, (though I wish they utilized more of the original animations they occasionally used to portray Rodriguez from the past) and the soundtrack is lovely (which shouldn't be surprising, since it's composed entirely of Rodriguez' songs).

And, of course, you can't get past the fact that the story that unfolds is so fantastic it is hard to believe. But even when the main mystery is solved ("How did Rodriguez die?"), many more questions remain unanswered.

And one little detail that perfectly encapsulated the continuing enigma of this film is the fact that there is never an image of Rodriguez without sunglasses, except for one scene where you can see his entire face after the main mystery has been solved. I think that's a wonderful visual representation of the mystery of the film.

So if you are interested in 70's music or crazy real life mytseries or just like watching good movies, you should definitely check out Searching for Sugarman.

Banana bread

This blog has yet to showcase one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen: baking. I love making bread, cookies, brownies, tarts, whatever. I love that you can basically do chemistry and get delicious food out of it. Or, as this apron puts it:

Do you ever forget about bananas for a while, and they end up looking like this?

If so, you shouldn't throw them out, you should make banana bread! Once bananas reach this point of brownness, they are bursting with banana flavor and sweetness, and they are basically mush anyway, so you don't need to work hard to make them into mush to make the batter.

This recipe makes 2 loaves of banana bread, so you have a few options once they're done. If you feel like you have more willpower than I do, you can wrap one up and freeze it for later. Or, if you're like me, you can leave them both out and devour them in a matter of days, before they get a chance to go stale. Your choice.

Banana Bread

2 1/2 cups flour (if you want, you can use whole wheat flour, or a mix of whole wheat and all purpose)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 cup butter (softened in the microwave for about 10 seconds, so it's soft but not melted)
2 cups sugar
2 cups mashed bananas (for me, it usually takes about 4 bananas, but it definitely depends on the size of your bananas)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans. You do this by spreading a thin layer of butter over every surface of the pan that the batter will come in contact in (this means the corners, the edges, everything). Then you take a large pinch of flour and shake it around so that it sticks to all of the greasy parts of the pan (this is always where you can see what part of the pan you missed with the butter). Any extra flour left kicking around in your pans can be put back in the bag (or just dumped in the batter, it doesn't really matter).

In a large bowl (and I mean a large bowl. Use the biggest one you have), mash the bananas with a fork. Depending on their ripeness, this could be pretty easy, or require more effort. Once those mare mashed to a nice mush, add the sugar, butter, and eggs. Mix this all together as well as you can.

Now comes the time where I have to introduce the most important rule of baking (well cooking in general, but baking more often than not): DON'T PANIC! Things will usually look kinda funky in the intermediate steps between start and finish, but you should never think you've messed up. You can always salvage mistakes you make, and most of time it's actually supposed to look like that. For example, at this point in the recipe, my batter looked like this:

It's all lumpy and kinda looks like snot, but that's fine. You haven't made a horrible mistake, it's supposed to look like this (or maybe not, but this is how mine always looks. Maybe a professional baker can make banana bread batter look appetizing, but I can't). So now we move on to the next step, adding the dry ingredients.

Add all the flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon to your current mushy batter. This is another point where you might think something has gone horribly wrong. It will look like you have put in way too much flour, but that is actually the right amount of flour. All the liquid in the bananas and eggs and stuff will soak up that flour in a jiffy. Now, once you add the flour, you don't want to stir it too much. Obviously you want to get everything mixed together, but if you stir the batter with the flour in it for too long, it will get tough when you cook it. So just mix it until it looks kind of homogenous (it will still be lumpy, but that's ok, banana bread batter is allowed to be lumpy).

Now the final step with the batter is to stir in the chocolate chips. After this step, your batter should look like this:

Now, you take this batter and pour it into your prepped loaf pans. Try to split it in half as evenly as possible, but some variation isn't going to ruin it.

Put these pans side by side on the same rack in the preheated oven for 70-80 minutes. This doesn't, however, mean that you get to put the pans in the oven and then leave for the gym for a hour or whatever. You should check the loaves about halfway through the baking process and see if they're baking evenly (well, really they'll just look like pans of batter, but it's good to check). Also, at this point, you'll want to rotate the pans. Ovens always heat unevenly, and you don't want one side of one of your loaves to be cooked and the rest of them uncooked. So you should shuffle them around in the oven. Take the pan that was on the left and put it on the right, and vice versa. Also rotate the pans so that what was the front is now the back.

Once you rotate them, let them cook until they're done. You can tell when they're done by sticking a knife or a toothpick into the center of a loaf and pulling it out. If it comes out clean, it's done. It it comes out with batter stuck to it, it's not done, and you can put it in for like 10 more minutes (it's ok if there's melted chocolate on the knife. That's inevitable).

Now comes the hard part. You should really let the banana bread rest for like 10 minutes before you try to get it out of the pan and eat it. I know it looks and smells delicious, but trust me, it will be so much better to wait.

And for a serving suggestion, try spreading nutella (store-bought or homemade) over a thick slice (this may seem like overkill, since it already has chocolate chips in it, but I don't care, it's delicious).

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Today, I'm going to tell you about something that I've always been interested in, but let fall by the wayside until recently: poetry. I love poetry, but for some reason I haven't been reading it too much recently.

This changed when I saw the movie Midnight in Paris (which, on a sidenote, is a cute movie, and Owen Wilson does a fantastic job of channeling Woody Allen's nebbish character). In this movie, the main character briefly meets T S Eliot, and gushes about how much he like Prufrock, which reminded me that I wanted to check out The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. And when I finally did, I was not disappointed. There is a reason it is a classic of the modern age. His portrayal of love and life and the world is so realistic but also so beautiful, you can't help but get sucked into the world he creates. And in amongst this beautiful portrayal of love and life, he has this lingering self doubt ("Do I dare/Disturb the universe?). I think anyone who reads this poem could find something that resonates with them in it.

Another poet that comes to mind when I think of Eliot is W H Auden (I'm not sure why I think of him, but I do. It's like how my mind associates Hemingway and Melville. But I digress). My favorite poem of Auden's is As I Walked Out One Evening. It, too, deals with love, but in a more detached way. Auden describes lovers sitting down by the river, professing their love forever. However, Auden points out that forever is a very, very, VERY long time, and they are making promises that they cannot keep. A pair of stanzas that sum up the feel of the poem perfectly are:

The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
O let not time deceive you,
You cannot conquer time.

Auden understands that human love cannot outlast forever, because forever will outlast all of humanity's existence. Everything we know will fall apart before time ends. And while this may seem like a bleak view, it is told in such a beautiful way, you just have to agree with it (also, it's true).

So go find some poems that you love, and curl up and enjoy the beauty our language can produce.

Homemade Energy Things

So, this title is a bit vague, but I have no idea what to call these things. Basically, they are a bunch of dried fruit and nuts mushed up together into a delicious whole.

I like to pretend that they're healthy, because they're vegan and made of fruit and nuts, but in all honesty, they're incredibly high calorie (since they are packed with sugar and some fat from the nuts). So think of them as an energy bar (like a Larabar, which is definitely my favorite kind of energy bar, but whatever). But these are great snacks to pack for a hike or something like that. Or you can just sit on the couch at home and eat them like candy. Your choice.

Really, these could be made with a combination of your favorite stuff, or whatever stuff you have taking up space in the pantry (which is pretty much how I came up with this recipe). I do however think that some fruits work better than others. I almost always make mine with a base of figs or dates (they seem substantial enough to hold these things together without being too sweet or overpowering. But that might just be me).

Dried Fruit and Nut Balls

1/3 cup walnuts
1/3 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup dates (pitted)
4 dried pineapple rings
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries

~1/2 cup dried coconut (unsweetened)

Put all the dried fruit and nuts (except the coconut) into a food processor. Blend until it forms a mass (it's not going to particularly homogenous, but it will definitely stick to itself).

Now comes the messy part. Take this paste-like mass and form it into balls. I usually make them about 1 inch in diameter. But make them whatever shape or size you want). Take these balls and roll them in the coconut to coat.

Store these in a tupperware container in the fridge

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Movie time! So, I'm assuming if you spend any time on the internet and are interested at movies at all, you've probably heard of Moonrise Kingdom. But that's not going to stop me from joining in with the masses and saying that it's fantastic!

The basic plot layout is deceptively simple: a boy and a girl run away from camp and home, respectively, to be together. But it is done in Wes Anderson's typical style (though, to admit, I've only ever seen 2 other Wes Anderson movies, but after this I want to watch them all). The humor is very straight forward and blunt, and occasionally a little dark, but always hilarious. One of my favorite characters is Edward Norton's scout master, who vainly struggles to control his pack of rowdy khaki scouts (essentially boyscouts). He's incredibly compassionate and tries to do the right thing, but is, in reality, pretty much useless.

Along with the fantastic humor and the wonderful characters, the visuals are perfect. It's set in Maine in the 60's, and the visuals perfectly capture a nostalgia for a beautiful, kind of pastoral, past for coastal Maine. All the costumes are wonderfully vintage, and the choice to film it in a way that looks like it's from the 60's was brilliant.

And, of course, it doesn't hurt that this movie has a ridiculous list of awesome actors in it (Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman), and the new young talent doesn't disappoint either.

Fun with Alcohol

I absolutely love making (and drinking, obviously) fancy cocktails. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I peruse the cocktail menu and see if anything jumps out at me.

However, it can get very expensive to get fancy cocktails at fancy restaurants. So, I took it upon myself to learn to recreate these fancy cocktails at home. First I started with things like what I've decided to call a Dark and Stormy Daiquiri (recipe below), which is delicious, but only has a few basic ingredients. But then I decided to take it a step further, and make my own flavored alcohols.

I can often be a kind of food/alcohol snob, and therefore think that, often, flavored alcohol is pretty gross (Like that gross Smirnoff vodka that comes in technicolor bottles that everyone in college dorms thinks is delicious. I disagree). But I do like the idea of flavored alcohol, if it's done well, so I figured I try to make my own, because it didn't seem that hard. And, as it turned out, it's not.

As always, this is just a sort of outline of how you could go about making your own flavored liquor. Everyone has different tastes, so go crazy with flavor combinations that excite you. However, some foods don't lend themselves to much to infusing (I tried to make my roommate apple-spice vodka, but that failed miserably and just tasted like vodka). So I would advise using particularly aromatic or strongly flavored things (like oranges, berries, herbs, etc). But feel free to experiment. Maybe you'll succeed where I failed.

Here I'll tell you how I made my orange-anise whiskey, because it is the favorite one I've made so far.

Orange Anise Whiskey

1 bottle whiskey (I wouldn't splurge on top shelf stuff here, but also don't get swill, because no amount of flavorings can make that taste good)

1 orange

1 tsp anise seeds

Using a vegetable peeler, zest the entire orange, taking care to get just the orange part of the peel, and none of the white pith underneath (it's bitter and won't make your whiskey delicious and orangey).

I find that it's easier to make this all work if you transfer the whiskey to a large tupperware, but if you think you can get away with just plopping stuff in the bottle, go for it.

Add the orange zest and the anise seeds. Let them sit for 3-4 days (though letting it sit longer wont hurt), and strain out the orange zest and anise seeds. If you have it in a tupperware, return to the original bottle.

I enjoy drinking this straight, or with some ice (my friend says it tastes like Christmas).

Other flavor combinations that would be good are:

Cucmber-lime gin (I have made this and it's delicious. Just zest 2 limes, peel and slice one cucumber, and infuse for a few days)

Blackberry-anise gin (I haven't made this, but it sounds fantastic and it's next in line to be made)

Rosemary or thyme gin (This would be a good thing to use in this recipe. Gin tends to pair fantastically with herbs like this)

Christmas-spice whiskey (Taking my friend's description of my whiskey as inspiration, I want to try to make one with stuff like cinnamon and nutmeg and allspice and maybe anise, because anise is delicious)

Ginger rum (Again, I haven't made this yet, but I want to try, because it would be perfect in the Dark and Stormy Daiquiri.) 

Speaking of which, I haven't given you that recipe yet, so here you go:

Dark and Stormy Daiquiri

1 part dark rum (I like to experiment with new and interesting types of rum, though my current favorite is Old Monk)
1.5 parts lime juice
a dash to 1 part ginger syrup (it really depends on how sweet you want it to be)

To make ginger syrup, take equal parts sugar and water. In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and water until all the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, and add 2-3 slices of fresh ginger, and let steep for 5-10 minutes (the longer it sits, the stronger it gets).

Shake all ingredients with ice, and serve in a glass. Garnish with a slice of lime.

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Music again this time (if you don't like it, boo hoo). Foals, one of my favorite bands, has recently released a "mixtape" album (emulating an old cassete mix tape). It sounds kinda random (and really, it is), so I was pretty dubious. But upon checking it out, I was pleasantly surprised. This 10 minute 'sample' is has a really cool collection of music that you might not think would work together (like afropop and techno).

Chili-Lime Beef Jerky

All the posts on this blog so far may have been slightly misleading. It's all been focused on produce and whatnot, which belies a massive part of my diet: meat. This isn't to say that I feel the need to eat meat with every meal (I love having just a salad or something like a roasted veggie panini, mmmmm), but I will never deny my love of meat. Sausages (I'm part German, so I have to like sausages), steak, pork chops, grilled chicken, lamb curry, everything.

But I don't make myself meat that often (when I'm not at home with my parents), because whenever I go the butcher shop, I feel like I'm on a strict deadline to use up this meat before it goes bad. So often, to quell my meat cravings and not have to worry about it going bad, I'll make myself some beef jerky.

I've always loved beef jerky ever since I first picked up a random packet in a gas station. But making jerky at home is so much tastier and more cost effective than buying it in a store. And you can make it in whatever flavor you want, as opposed to the limited "plain", "peppered", and "teriyaki" that you can get in the store (though that doesn't mean I don't love making teriyaki jerky).

And while it doesn't have preservatives and therefore won't store as long as the store-bought version, that has never been a problem for me.

Oh, and since I apparently have no planning skills, I totally forgot to take pictures until they were all done, so you'll just have to imagine what it looks like in production (though, to be honest, it doesn't look too appetizing. It's just a pile of meat strips covered in spice paste).

Chili-Lime Beef Jerky

.5 pound flank steak

Juice from .5 limes (unless it’s a particularly un-juicy lime, then use the whole lime)

3-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp chili powder

.5 tsp cumin

.5 tsp smoked paprika

Sprinkle of red pepper flakes

Large pinch of sait

~ 1/8 tsp pepper

Heat your oven as low as it will go. 

Trim any excess fat off the flank steak, then, slice it about as thin as you can manage. Don’t be fooled by those “jerky nuggets” you might see in gas stations, jerky needs to be thin in order to dry out properly (also, those things just seem gross). It is also important to slice with the grain of the meat. This is specifically why we are using flank steak for this. It has a nice long grain that, when cut along, creates a fantastically chewy piece of jerky.

Put the beef slices in a bowl. Over these, add all the lime juice, Worcestershire sauce and the spices. Stir to completely coat the meat in spice mix. Let rest for about 10 minutes (or longer, it doesn’t really matter. Just make sure to put it back in the fridge if you let it rest for like a half hour).

After the meat has rested, lay the slices out on a wired rack in a backing sheet. The rack allows for maximum airflow around the jerky, and the pan catches any drips that might occur. 

Place the rack in the oven until the jerky is completely dried (this can take many hours. I often leave jerky to dry overnight) You don’t wan to see any pink, everything should be a deep brown and stiff (but not burnt. If your jerky is cooking, your oven is too hot, and you should prop the door open with a wooden spoon to cool it down some). 

Store in an airtight container (if your jerky is particularly fatty, you might want to layer it in paper towels).

Variations:

There are countless other flavors of jerky you can make. You're only limited by your imagination (and of course appetizing flavor combinations). Also, it's really easy to make two different flavors of jerky at the same time (as long as you can keep straight which is on which pan). Just split up the beef once it's sliced, season differently, and dry them together on separate pans (or, if you like surprises, just put them together haphazard on each pan).

Other variations that I make often are:

Teriyaki - make or buy teriyaki sauce and coat your slices in it, letting sit for about 15 minutes before drying. These might take longer to dry, since they're covered in wet teriyaki sauce, and will also be sticker as a final product.

BBQ - same as the teriyaki ones, but with BBQ sauce

Curry - (Disclaimer: I've never made this before, I just thought of it, and I totally wanna try it). Coat your beef slices in curry powder and lime juice, and dry just like the chili-lime ones.

If you think of any other great variations, tell me so I can try them out. That way I can have a giant selection of jerky to fit my every mood.

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Back to music for this post. I want to share some of my favorite bands that I genuinely feel like few people had heard of (and if this makes me sound like a hipster, I don't care. It's not the first time I've been called a hipster, and to be honest, the title kinda fits. So whatever). They range from bands from my friend's high school, to small bands acquaintances of mine have written reviews of for their local paper (gotta love Facebook for getting the most out of those incredibly tenuous friendships).

First, is an indie-folk band called The Novel Ideas. They are a product of Newton South High School, which impresses me, since my high school only every produced kinda crappy punkish bands (not what I'm interested in). The Novel Ideas  encapsulate feelings of innocence and romance and summer in their songs so well, it's a joy to listen to them.

Second comes a band called The Lisps. I learned of them after I saw their show (I'm not sure how to describe it other than just "show") called Futurity. It was about an American Civil War soldier corresponding with Ada Lovelace, trying to create an analytical engine to create world peace. The soundtrack to this show was fantastic, with elaborate steampunk set pieces being used as percussion. They ended the show with this song, Singularity, which is when I fell in love.

Last up comes Spiral Beach, a smallish band from Toronto. I've never seen them live, and definitely want to rectify this situation. From what I've seen and heard, I believe their live shows are amazing. But even without seeing the live experience, I can still say they are a great band. They have no lack of energy, and every song is brimming with attitude. Check out this performance of Raising the Snake at the old location for Sonic Boom.

Homemade Nutella

So, I would tell you what I'm making for dinner, but it's another tomato thing (Verrill Farm just keeps producing prodigious amounts of delicious tomatoes), and I don't want this to just be a tomato blog (though tomatoes are definitely delicious).

So, instead, I'll tell you how to make your own Nutella. Hazelnuts are my favorite kind of nut, and combining them with chocolate is always a good thing. And so I absolutely love Nutella. I'll put it on toast, fruit, whatever (or I'll just eat it straight out of the jar).

But I was thinking with my dad recently that there isn't really much in Nutella, and it should be easy to make it at home. And then it gets to have butter in it, and not palm kernel oil (whatever the hell that is), and if you can add stuff like cinnamon and honey. And maybe if you don't like hazelnuts, you can try to make it with almonds or peanuts (though I haven't tried either of those, so I can't vouch for if those taste good, so only try that if you are adventurous and enjoy tinkering with recipes)

Homemade Nutella

1 cup hazelnuts

8 ounces dark chocolate (I used 60% cocoa)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1 heaping tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup milk (or less or more depending on how thick/milky you want it to be)

Preheat oven to 350°F

Spread hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes (you can tell when they’re done when when your kitchen smells like delicious toasted nuts). If you used raw hazelnuts, you can try to remove the skins by rubbing them in a kitchen towel (but be warned, this process can be incredibly tedious and results in hazelnuts-skin-dust going everywhere, and only half of the skin comes off anyway). If you used hazelnuts that have been treated in some way so they don’t have skins (usually they are blanched), you’re all set to move onto the next step.

While the nuts are roasting, microwave the chocolate and 2 tablespoons of the butter slowly until fully melted (for me it usually takes a 2 to 3 30-second rounds in the microwave, stirring in between to speed the melting process). 

Add the roasted hazelnuts and the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the food processor and run until it forms a paste (it might be a little grainy, but it will get smoother as you blend more). Add the honey, confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Blend well

Add the melted chocolate and butter and blend well. Slowly add milk, stopping and tasting as you go, until it reached the consistency and taste you desire. Store in a resealable container. 

Also, as usual, feel free to tinker with this recipe as you see fit (that’s how I got to this recipe in the first place. I found this recipe this recipe, but it called for milk chocolate, which I don’t have in my house (dark chocolate FTW!). And then I added honey, since it was sitting on the counter and called out to be added, and cinnamon, because I love putting cinnamon in chocolate. 

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So, I'm just going all over the place with these recommendation sections, because now I'm gonna talk about movies. I recently saw The Dark Knight Rises, the third film in Christoper Nolan's Batman trilogy, and I highly recommend it. As usual, Nolan took the stories and themes from Batman and made it feel like a serious action film, not just another silly comic book movie. All of the characters are fantastic and compelling (I especially like Anne Hathaway's Catwoman. She effectively uses her "feminine wiles" without being automatically stuck in the romantic interest slot. Bane's approach to his villainy was also fantastic. He was so polite and classy while bringing about the destruction of Gotham. You could easily understand why the citizens were willing to go along with him). I loved when Scarecrow made his little appearance as Banes judge (of course he would take that role where he can sit up above everyone else and pass down judgement on people).

However, I wouldn't say this was the best of the series. I would have to award that honor to the second film, The Dark Knight. In that movie, we don't get bogged down in learning how Batman came to be, like we did in Batman Begins, and Gotham isn't quite as run down and depressing as in The Dark Knight Rises. In The Dark Knight, you see Batman in his prime going against one of his best villains. By that, I mean the Joker. Heath Ledger's Joker was amazingly creepy. He seemed so affable as he was cutting down all your henchmen. But mainly, his motivation was the most appealing part of him. He loved evil for evil's sake. Ra's al Ghul and the League of Shadows think they are making the world a better place, and Two Face came about through guilt and vengeance, but the Joker just raises hell because he's bored. And it's amazing. (It also doesn't hurt that the Joker often sounded/acted like Tom Waits)

Ways to use fresh tomatoes + books

So, while I do love fresh summer produce, I also love cooking things. So, for dinner tonight, a compromise was made.

Using the tomatoes my parents got from Verrill Farm, I made a caprese salad, and a simple cheese pizza.

Caprese salad is so simple but s good, and now that I'm trying to grow basil on my kitchen windowsill, I always have lush fresh basil leaves to layer between the tomato and the mozzarella.

And I absolutely LOVE making pizza at home. You get to customize it infinitely to make the exact pizza you want that night. However, I often stay on the simple side, because I think it's easier to make a really good cheese pizza than a sloppy pizza overloaded with toppings (though if you hand me a piece of pizza loaded with meat and veggies, I'm definitely not going to complain).

Caprese Salad

3 medium tomatoes (get the freshest tastiest ones you can find. Local is probably your best bet)
2 egg sized fresh mozzarella
a fair bunch of basil leaves (I never really measure, I just pick until it looks like enough)

Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella. Layer tomatoes, mozzarella and basil (or, if you're feeling lazy like I was tonight, just pile it on the plate and gently 'toss').

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Consume.

Pizza

I use store-bought pizza-dough, cause I'm lazy, but if you're feeling ambitious, go ahead and make your own)

I also use both fresh tomato and tomato sauce because I can never make a pizza tomatoey enough with fresh tomatoes without  subsequently making a super-soggy pizza. So I just compromise.

1 pizza dough
1 medium tomato (sliced)
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1-2 egg sized fresh mozzarella (sliced)
1/4 cup crumbled feta
Basil (chopped)
Parmesan

Preheat oven to 450 (or as hot as you can make it).

Stretch out the pizza dough. There are many techniques, but what I do is first press it relatively flat on the counter. Once you have a manageable disc of dough, pick it up and stretch it out over the back of your hands and knuckles.

Once the dough is a good size, lay it out on your baking sheet. Spread the tomato sauce as thinly and evenly as possible over the entire pizza (leaving some space for crust). The evenly distribute the tomato, mozzarella and feta. Place the pizza in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, rotating once in the middle.

Once the pizza is suitably cooked and crispy, remove it from the oven. While still too hot to eat, grate some parmesan over the pizza, and sprinkle with the fresh basil.

Once it is cool enough to eat, cut into slices and enjoy.

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So I keep giving music recommendations, which I could do 'till the cows come home, but I feel like you might get tired of me telling you what to listen to, so I'll switch it up by telling you what you should read instead.

It's summer currently, and that means you might have some more free time that you can spend reading (I love going to the library, getting a book, and lying in the field across the road and reading. It makes me feel so literary).

So I'll give you two recommendations, from different points on the 'literature' spectrum. First comes my most hard-core English Lit-type rec. It's called Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. It has lovingly described passages of English elite lounging on lazy summer days, mixed in with a plot fraught with romance and friendship (or possibly just more romance and infatuation), and an oppressive religion and culture overshadowing everything.

And on the other end of the "high-class literature scale" (though it is still one of the best books I've read in a really long time) is called The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. A boy and a girl meet in their cancer youth support group and fall in love. Sorrow is skillfully balanced with humor and beauty in this book, and you'll be just as likely to laugh as cry. Featuring a scene with a blind guy trying to egg his ex-girlfriend's car (unsuccessfully) and impressively poetic descriptions of beautiful places (Green really manages to capture the feeling of Amsterdam with his description of it), I cannot recommend this book enough. It was one of the few books that I simply didn't put down once I started it.

Morning Smoothie

I love my blender. It makes so much good stuff, like hummus and milkshakes. But the main reason I love my blender so much is smoothies. I love smoothies so much. They are so tasty and so easy, and relatively healthy (they're packed with sugar, that I admit, but at least it's sugar from fruit and not from soda or something).

And, I can say from experience that it goes fantastically well with toasted multigrain bread drizzled with honey.

Morning Fruit Smoothie

1/4 cup frozen peaches
1/4 cup frozen blackberries
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1 medium sized banana (if you have huge bananas, just put what looks good and eat the rest while you blend)
1/3 cup plain yogurt (I use greek, but that's just cause I love greek yogurt. Any other yogurt would be fine as well)
1/3-1/2 cup juice (I used currant juice here, but I also love using fresh orange juice when I have it)

Put all the ingredients in your blender, blend until smooth. It may require some stirring (I make my smoothies thick).

Variations:

Let's face it, this is a smoothie. You can make it however you like. Use frozen blueberries or mangos or whatever else you want. If you like thinner smoothies, add more juice. Go crazy, it's your breakfast.

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As my recommendation today, I'm going to show you one of my favorite site  to check out music. It's called la blogotheque, and they do this thing called "concerts a emporter" (which translates to "take away show") where bands perform songs randomly around a city. Occasionally, they wander the streets, other times they congregate in a park, or on a roof. This time, with Yeasayer, the journey spans a subway ride to a rather mysterious apartment with a piano. Though it was rather chaotic, it seemed like a worthwhile adventure.