Favorites of 2011

You know when you have really bad writer's block? After you've been to three states in nine days and thought about nothing but family and Christmas for weeks.

Since imitation truly is the highest form of flattery, I decided to copy Simple Mom and share my favorite books, movies, TV shows, and music of 2011. (As she said, ones that were new to me, not necessarily new to 2011.)

Sometimes it takes the act of writing to spark further writing, which is why "they" say all the best writers write every day. A practice I've fallen out of. I write a lot in my head. Does that count?

So without further ado ...

BOOKS (of course)

I read so, so, SO many amazing books in 2011. I don't know what sparked that, if it was just a streak of luck or coming into contact with great recommendations, but I am certainly glad for it.


You can read my treatise on why I think everyone should read Heaven Is for Real. I zipped through the small book a few short hours and found it very affecting. Read it.

I don't think there's much you haven't heard about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or The Help. Both are wonderful, fast-paced reads that have spurred movies. (The former, movies in both Swedish and English!) There is a reason both are so popular: plots full of detail and excitement, rendering the reader completely unable to put them down. Read when you have the hours to devote to them!

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood was an unexpected favorite from this year. The author created another world ... just after the one in which we currently live. (After reading The Hunger Games, fear of the government is starting to get to me!) Atwood is a word artist and I left this book wanting to read everything she's written.

You can see everything I read in 2011 on this page. A few other favorites: Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks; The Paris Wife by Paula McClain; Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis.

TV

I loved watching Top Chef: All-Stars. I suppose it's part of the little voice in my head that tells me I could be a chef if I REALLY wanted to (I don't.) that convinces me to watch the crazy cooking shows. I'd seen most of the prior seasons of Top Chef, though, and enjoyed watching the old favorites. (As I am sure I will love Project Runway All-Stars. Woohoo!) 

I am pretty sure Modern Family is the best show on television. (At least if you vastly prefer sitcoms, as I do. I'm just not a drama girl.) It never fails to crack me up; and mid-week, a girl just needs a good laugh.

Mr. V and I still watch How I Met Your Mother, and we will 'til the end. I won't say it's the best show out there ... it's had its ups and downs and maybe peaked at season 2. But in all its ridiculousness, it just makes me smile a lot of the time.

Honorable mentions to Once Upon a Time and Firefly, which Mr. V and I saw for the first time and proceeded to mourn the loss of all the seasons it should have had.

MOVIES

I confess I am not into movies like I used to be. Mr. V and I went with the crowd and changed to just Netflix instant streaming with the price increase, and we mostly use it to watch old TV shows anyway.

The only movies I saw in the theater this year were Something Borrowed (and you know that was a great cinema masterpiece) and two-thirds of Monsters vs. Aliens ($1 summer movie with the kids, who started crying, so we left).

So, as I can remember, the best movies I watched this year (for the first time) were The Social Network, Edward Scissorhands, and Despicable Me.




MUSIC

Thanks to the wonder that is Spotify, we've listened to a lot of new music this year. (I am not someone who thinks your music, make-up, exercise, etc, need to be "social," but we definitely enjoy being able to listen to anything under the sun!)

Here are some new favorites.


Station Wagon: Songs for Parents by Sara Groves - If you are a parent, you MUST give this at least one listen. All of the songs ring true and some crack me up. (The line "Do you have any idea how much it hurts to give birth?" is sung in the background of one song. Love it.)

Kari Jobe by ... well, Kari Jobe - A great album of praises to God. Love her voice.

The Band Perry - Another great breakout album. Fills my country fix. (Since when do I need a country fix?? I HATED country music growing up. I've been in Tennessee too long!)

Kuhzoo by Bellaruse - The lead singer of this group happens to be my uber-talented cousin, Kay Gillette ... but if I didn't like the music, I still wouldn't listen to it. And I do. It's crazy, jazz/folk/something type stuff. Just trying listening to The Kazoo Song and see if you aren't addicted!

If you've made it through this lengthy ordeal, you must tell me: what were your favorites of 2011?


Let's pretend this is a top ten plus, oh, eight list and link it to Top Ten Tuesday. I think Amanda loves me too much to call me out on it. ;)

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For Starters, Turtle Soup

I wasn't feeling so well this afternoon, so during Libbie's nap I hibernated on the couch and watched one of my favorite movies, Babette's Feast. 

I absolutely despised the college class where I was introduced to the film. I need one more filler course my senior year, and dropped out of two classes before I finally settled on this one. Had it been first, I would have dropped it, too. It was a seminar on "The Gift." No, not the story The Greatest Gift or The Gift of the Magi. Just "The Gift." Period. 

It was something like a combo anthropology-philosophy seminar. How did I end up there? A professor suggested my best friend Michelle take it. But she didn't.

It stunk.

But as one of the last class sessions, the professor had us watch Babette's Feast, declaring it the best movie to watch before preparing Thanksgiving dinner. The film is in Dutch and French and is set in 19th-century Denmark. I love the plot line. I love the language. I love the darkness and moodiness of the whole picture (filmography?).

My favorite part, of course, is the actual feast. And to prove my insanity, I took notes so I could tell you exactly what they have during this beautiful French meal (which allegedly cost 10,000 francs in the late 1800s).

Turtle Soup
Blinis Demidoff - pastry with caviar and creme fraiche
Cailles en Sarcophage - Quails in puff pastry with black figs, truffles, and foie gras
Some sort of salad - endive?
Cheese
Rum Cake with Dried Figs
Tropical Fruit
and, of course, lots of wine and champagne, including Veuve Clicquot

Who wants to join me for this dinner party? (Anyone know how to cook a quail?)

It's really a wonderful movie and I hope you'll check it out!

Linked to Things I Love Thursday and Friday Favorites.

This post includes Amazon affiliate links. Read more in my disclosure policy.

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It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas on TV

Yeah, I love White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, and Rudolph. But I also love these obscure Christmas movies. Enjoy this rerun from 2007!

1. Christmas Every Day

Erik Von Detten (The Princess Diaries) made this movie when he was 14 in 1996...which happens to be the same age I was in 1996! It was a made-for-TV movie made in Richmond, VA, where I grew up. Erik's character's little brother wishes for it to be Christmas every day...and so in Groundhog Day-fashion, they repeat the holiday over and over until they get it right! :) Mostly I think I liked it cause it was in Richmond and because Erik was sooooo cute.

2. The Christmas Toy



My sister and I watched this movie every single year off a taped cassette. It's about a room of toys that come alive when the humans are away. It's Christmas Eve, and Rugby the Tiger is trying to figure out how he will be Jaime's present again this year. Sadly, our VHS died this year and my sister had a mental breakdown. Apparently it now sells for like $85 on eBay. A VHS!! We were also fond of the 1986 "Celebrate the season with Kraft" commercials on our tape. [2009 update: They now have it on DVD. But without the 80s commercials.]

3. A Muppet Family Christmas

All of the Muppets and the entire cast of Sesame Street have Christmas together at Fozzie's mom's house. The Swedish chef tries to cook Big Bird. Miss Piggy can't get home from shopping because it's snowing. Classic. Oh, and they go to Fraggle Rock.

Merry Christmas!

Originally posted December 25, 2007

A Mouthwatering Revelation

Like probably half of the bloggers in American, I've been to see Julie and Julia since it came out in theaters a couple weeks ago. I rarely see movies in the theater, so it was a real treat (especially considering Mr. V and I just saw Harry Potter AND My Life in Ruins in the last month or two). My sister and I went, and, of course, we stopped at the grocery store on the way back home, ravenous.

That is when I got it in my silly mind I wanted to make braised cucumbers, which Julie declares in the movie "a revelation." So I bought two, threw them in the fridge, and didn't touch them until tonight (a week later). I bought Mastering the Art of French Cooking after I read the book, so I already had it there, resting on my cookbook shelf. I have used it once in approximately three years: to make a one-layer cake that would not exit its pan, despite the requisite buttering and flouring of said pan.

This is how you make braised cucumbers.


Peel the cucumbers. I used two, and the recipe called for six, so I cut the recipe in thirds. Cut the cucumbers into what Julia Child calls "lengthwise strips about 3/8" thick." And then the strips in 2" pieces. Pour them into a bowl. Then remember you were supposed to seed the cucumbers, so take (most of) them back out and slice out the seeds.

Add 2 tsp. white wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and the tiniest pinch ever (really, what does 1/24 of a tsp. even look like?) of white sugar. Stir it up in the big bowl and let sit at least half an hour.

Take your daughter upstairs for a bath and playtime and promptly forget about the cucumbers until you go back downstairs and realize it's been 45 minutes.

Drain the cucumbers and pat them dry in a dish towel.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in the microwave. Put it and the cucumbers in a small baking dish. Add a couple shakes of dried dill or basil. Remember that you were cutting the recipe in third and should have only used 1 tablespoon of butter. Decide it will probably just taste REALLY good this way.

Try to add black pepper to the dish while your daughter scurries around your feet and eats long-forsaken crumbs off what you thought was your clean kitchen floor. Try to shoo her away from the premises long enough to stick the dish in a 375 degree oven.

Recall that you probably should have taken a picture of the dish before it went in the oven. Lazily try to take a picture of the dish IN the oven, while still trying to keep the baby away from an open heat device. Fail miserably because you have a crazy tremor in your left hand that makes it impossible to hold a camera steady.



Let the cucumbers cook for an hour, opening to stir them around 2 or 3 times.



These beautiful lovers were my dinner for one tonight, but they would make a fine side dish for two. Or you could actually make it for six by tripling all the ingredients except the butter (or defy the love handles and just throw a whole stick in).

Braised Cucumbers

2 cucumbers, peeled
2 tsp. white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
a pinch sugar
1 T. butter
1/8 tsp. dried dill or basil
a few grinds fresh black pepper

Cut cucumbers into lengthwise quarters. Use a spoon or knife to remove seeds. Cut long strips into 2-inch pieces. Combine in a bowl with vinegar, salt, and sugar. Let sit 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 375F.

Melt butter. Combine butter, dill or basil, cucumbers (patted dry), and pepper in a small baking dish.

Cook for an hour, stirring a few times during cooking.

Serves 2 as a side dish.

Submitted to Mouthwatering Monday at A Southern Fairytale and Friday Feasts at Momtrends.

Warbles

Usually I am in bed by now, but I am trying to wash clothes so I can go on my trip tomorrow! It's for one of the MANY baby showers I will be attending in the next few months. It's for my cousin's wife. This cousin and I were born about six weeks apart, he got married two weeks after me, and had we gotten pregnant when I wanted to, our kids would have been born about the same time! So alas, they will be 5 months apart instead. I totally trust in God's plan for our childbearing so I am sure there is a reason I wasn't able to conceive right away. Even if it was just to have me work on certain things! I am really excited about a project that we are starting now and will be finished up after I return from maternity leave. It really works out perfectly that way.

We watched the new Sweeney Todd movie with Johnny Depp tonight. I had watched it in a movie version (no music) a few months back and for some reason I thought maybe they made it funny with musical numbers. Not so. Gross, gross, and more gross. I think I preferred the non-musical version, which must have stuck to the book because the story line was very different. I am pretty sure it was a BBC made for TV movie or something. I saw it on Comcast on Demand. Anyway, I was pretty disappointed. Anyone have any movie suggestions? We are thinking about getting rid of cable soon so we might up our Netflix to three at a time. I mostly like comedies but not slapstick, some foreign films, anything romantic. I can appreciate a good drama, I just don't like lots of violence or overbearing cursing.

Enough random rambling for now, I suppose.

Can't Keep My Eyes off You

If you have read about my total infatuation with the movie 10 Things I Hate about You, I am sure you know how struck and sad I am about the death of Heath Ledger. While he was in some crappy movies (A Knight's Tale, being the exceptional example), I thought he was a great actor and so incredibly handsome to boot. He was 28, which is only 3 years older than me (I always thought he was older than that. In 10 Things he seemed like one of those 29-year-olds who was playing a 17-year-old, and that was in 1999). I'm not Princess-Diana kind of heartbroken, but I do think Hollywood lost a great star and someone with potential to make great films. (I was reading my diaries the other night from when I was 15, and I really was pretty sick over Di dying. More to come on diary revelations later.) (Sorry for the excessive use of parentheses in this entry.)
In reading about Heath Ledger, I came across a list of other actors who died in their 20s. Of course, there was Brad Renfro who died just last week--is this some sort of epidemic? Who I was really surprised to see on the list was Jonathan Brandis. I don't even remember what I liked him from, but I specifically remember having a short-lived obsession with him when I was about 11. My next-door neighbor and I wrote him a fan letter and he wrote us back with signed pictures and a letter-length ad for his upcoming show, SeaQuest DSV, which premiered in 1993. The only other thing I know I've seen from his filmography list on imdb is The Neverending Story II, so maybe that was the root of obsession. Anyway, finding out he killed himself in 2003 was a second blow to my childhood fantasies! I guess I was too busy being an English major at the time to hear about it.

Now I really want to watch The Neverending Story movies. And not think about how I could easily die in my 20s too, and then worry about if I've wasted my 25 years.

Gilbert Grape

I am watching the movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape right now. I've had it from Netflix for about three weeks and I was bound and determined to watch it. Even after the DVD kind of messed up when I tried to watch it when we were babysitting last week. Why?

Some of my most vivid memories are of when I was not true to myself. Is that the same for everyone? I was in seventh grade math class. The girl who sat in front of me quoted something from this movie and laughed like it was hysterical. She said something like, "You know, Gilbert Grape?" And I said yes. And laughed. Even though I had never seen it.

It still kind of disgusts me that I would do something like that, something so little and insignificant. So what if I hadn't seen the movie? But in seventh grade it somehow mattered. Seventh grade sucked by the way. I can't even go into the bitterness that developed in my soul that year. I think, oh, 78% of my self-esteem issues come from middle school. But anyway, that's what Gilbert Grape makes me think of. And now I am going to finally watch it, 13 years later, and move on.

Edited to add: I wouldn't have been allowed to see this anyway because it was PG-13, and I was allowed to see maybe two PG-13 movies before I turned 13.

6 Things About 10 Things I Hate About You

At one point during my senior year of high school, I went through a period of being absolutely obsessed with the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. If you haven’t been blessed with seeing this fun teen movie, rent it! Even my husband loves it: it’s got love stories, but they are mixed in with a bunch of ridiculously stereotypical characters and high-school drama.

My best friend Cynthia and I literally watched this movie every day for weeks. I remember we were at a church youth group party for Y2K, and our first celebration that the world had not ended was watching it crowded around a tiny portable TV someone had brought.

Since I have been living in 1999 lately, I thought I’d present you with the very useful life lessons that come from this excellent comedy. (I mean, Julia Stiles even won an MTV Movie Award so you know it’s got to be quality film!)

Six Lessons Learned from 10 Things I Hate About You

1. As in every Disney movie, happily ever after can only be obtained if your mom is dead/gone. The two main female characters, Kat and Bianca, are sisters whose mom has “left.”

2. Every tough guy is really a softie instead and therefore you should just try really hard to change him. Someday he might sing to you from the school bleachers during soccer practice.

3. Even if you are completely incoherent at a foreign language at the beginning of film and hire a tutor who can’t speak that language, when you need to know it to insult someone, you will be fluent!

4. Geeks are cute. And when geeks fall in love with superficial girls, it’s because they are obviously hiding their inner brilliance and aptitude.

5. If a guy is nice, he is probably either trying to sleep with you or it’s a bet. Unless he’s a geek.

6. Every good story comes from Shakespeare in one way or another!

Grief, In More Ways Than One

I'm feeling sad today. And it's my 2-year-anniversary. Not sad about that, just about the human condition.

Am I the only person alive about the age of 12 who still thinks some things are inappropriate? I get uncomfortable at nudity in movies! Especially when it is just crude, like Wedding Crashers. I am alarmed by people who think Wedding Crashers was a good movie.

I like to think of myself as an artist type--I am a writer, at least in my head. I love art and writing and music and the like. But I watched the movie Frida this weekend and was fairly scandalized by the nudity, sex scenes, including homosexual ones. I think that's a good thing, unlike what people might tell me. Being a Christian, I think I should still be offended by things that offend God. I don't want to be judgmental, but I do want to walk in light!

Thought 2, I am kind of starting phase 1 of South Beach today (again). Except I had 3 dark chocolate Hershey kisses. But not like 3 Hershey bars or anything. They were sitting there melting all over everything in my purse including my nice new cell phone.

Everyone at work is at a funeral today for the son of a guy who works in this department. The boy was just going to be a senior in high school. Football player, played in the church's worship band, good student, witnessed to friends. Makes it very confusing to know what God is thinking sometime, but I know I am not one to try to compare my thinking to God's. In my heart, I know that He knows best and I am ridiculous to think I might know better. He has a plan.

J