Fall Love

I'm typing this on relatively lazy Sunday - finally having some time to do a bit of catch-up after a busy week filled with a bunch of nothing activities.  Something about maternity leave - the days (can) feel like they're 83 hours long (especially when you have stereophonic baby wailing) and yet, I never have enough time.  I have costumes to sew and little wee hats to knit and frequently find myself zonked by around 9pm, without fail.  It's too much for me to even make a phone call and catch up with friends most nights.

This morning though - we've got the furnace on (I finally caved), we have the flannel sheets on the bed and the big comforter out, slippers are on our feet, and I've got a 4-hour spaghetti sauce started on the stove.  Autumn has arrived at Casa Dotytron-Lagerfeld and I couldn't be happier about it.  I'm ready.  Ready to wind down, unplug, curl up, hibernate.  Ready for weekends to consist of less activities, big dinners with family and friends, movie nights.  

Pretty much the only thing left on my fall checklist is a hike through the Don Valley to take in the colours.  I also have a semi-harebrained scheme that I'm going to build some kind of garbage/recycling shed but we'll see whether that actually happens.  

99 Luftballoons ended up being a lot less majestic than I had envisioned - but the Big Yam was still thrilled:

Family Thanksgiving weekend involved three (!) days of turkey, one jacked-up looking Thomas cake (I made Smitten Kitchens apple pie spice cake with cream cheese frosting - it was a fail.  I wouldn't do it again), a viewing of the newest production of Les Misérables, dim sum, and a visit to the pumpkin patch/farm on Monday, that was the stereotypical pumpkin patch experience: corn maze, giant tricycle rides, an obstacle course, feeding goats, etc.

Les Misérables was great.  Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, can ever come close to Colm Wilkinson's genius and embodiment of Jean Valjean, but the current one is really good.  The revised staging is really great - the sets are used to great effect and they do some evocative things with screens and lighting - you can see the smoke moving in the factory chimneys and the wind moving the trees.  Our Eponine is top-notch - a crystal-clear pop voice that nails her big song.  Fantine is a bit weird, and they changed the pacing to speed things up a bit.  Overall, it was a really fun night.

Some pumpkin patch/farm shots:

Cousins!

Squinty pumpkin selection

Last night we had friends over for a film club - we watched Dog Day Afternoon.  Ummm...Sidney Lumet is a freakin' genius.  You CANNOT replicate how amazing 70s American film was.  First of all: shooting on film gives the film, which is already beautiful, an extra warm luminosity.  The daytime sequences glow.  The story is almost too unbelievable to be true.  Al Pacino's character holds up a bank to pay for sex reassignment surgery for Leon, his "wife."  The film rides this incredible line between humour and drama.  It's not a dark comedy.  Instead the film walks this balancing line between being legitimately funny and tense.  They don't make movies like this any more.  It's so anti-establishment.  It thrums with counter-culture zeitgeist.  It also makes you understand how film critics long for the heydey of 70s American cinema.

These two are in cahoots in a big way.

Prof. Gantok's other doppelganger - Boh from Spirited Away

We also had Dr. Rei and Uncle Hanbo over for brunch today.  We had croissant sandwiches with bacon and leek scrambled eggs and they made a pear-blue cheese spinach salad.  We also had monkey bread and then went on a long walk to check out the Leslieville Flea and be surrounded by hipsters over-paying for mason jars and other novelty goods.  It was so much fun:

This pear tart is SO EASY!  You can whip it up anywhere and with almost any fruit.  We first had it at JJ's house for Oktoberfest.  It uses just a few ingredients: butter, oil, sugar, flour, and the end result is fantastic.  Easily made dairy-free too!  I'll post the recipe below.

Leftover turkey and stuffing turned into one of my all-time favorite meals: a hot turkey sandwich with canned gravy.

Fin.

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Easy Pear Tart
serves 8
not adapted in the slightest, from Food52

1 1/2 c. plus 2 T. all purpose flour
3/4 t. salt
3/4 c. plus 1 t. sugar
1/4 c. mild oil (vegetable or canola)
1/4 c. olive oil
2 T. whole milk
2 T. cold unsalted butter
3 bartlett pears (but can also be made with 3-5 peaches, or any similar sized fruit)

- in a bowl, mix together the 1 1/2 c. flour, 1/2 t. of the salt salt, and 1 t. of sugar with a fork.  In a separate measuring cup/bowl, stir together the oils (note: I didn't have enough olive oil so used all canola and it was fine), the milk, and maybe a 1/2 t. of almond extract if you have it (I didn't and it was fine).  Stir the liquids into the dry ingredients and combine until everything is evenly mixed.
- dump this mixture into a 9" diameter tart pan with a removable bottom and press the mixture on the bottom and slightly up the sides of the pan
- in a separate bowl, mix together 3/4 c. of sugar, 2 T. of the flour, and 1/4 t. of salt.  Using your hands, pinch the butter into this mixture until all the butter is in small-ish pieces (as if you're making a crumb/crisp topping).
- slice the fruit of your choosing into 1/2" slice and then arrange on the crust.  Sprinkle with the butter-sugar-flour mixture and bake in a preheated 425F oven for about 35-45 minutes or until golden brown and the top is shiny and bubbly.

diaries of a hypochondriac

so the question on everyone's lips (or, facebook statuses) this season is: to get the h1n1 shot or not to get the h1n1 shot?

i think i've got a fairly good immune system. i don't like to advertise this fact, lest the fates strike me down for my impudence, but...i've never had the flu. the dotytron has and i've bathed in his virulent juices by sleeping in the same (double!) bed with him while he's been sick, and i've never gotten it. my secret is that come winter, i eat 2 grapefruits, 1 banana, and an apple almost every day. i also drink a glass of o.j. every day. and generally (popeye's chicken notwithstanding) eat healthy, home-cooked, veggie-present meals.

the last time i got really sick was when i had bronchitis like, 7 years ago. i was working at bymark then as the day hot apps person so i worked through the increasingly ragged cough for 3 weeks. then, by the time i went to the doctor, she said that my phlegm had changed back to normal so there was no point prescribing me penicillin as i was already on the mend. is my immune system basically a biological double for jesse ventura's character blain in "predator"? "i ain't go time to bleed" = "i ain't got time to get sick"???

the problem is: i'm a hypochondriac (no surprise for faithful readers - i'm a self-aware hypochondriac, at the very least). so while i'm usually fine with my decision to forgo the seasonal flu shot - this h1n1 stuff is scaring the crap outta me because i'm in a RISK group! it strikes healthy people! women more likely to die! HEALTHY WOMEN more likely to contract a more virulent case that will require more aggressive treatment! as i was joking to my male doppelganger, A, i need a hypochondriac vector on the WHO statistics, or a lens, or like an applet that i can run - a hypochondriac google translate was his suggestion. lol!

so i don't know quite yet what i'm going to do. i'm going to send the dotytron to get the seasonal one AND the h1n1 because he's around filthy, disgusting, grubby children all day and that's basically like spending your time simmering in the pus from scabrous boils(golly, do i have the maternal instinct or what?!)

i'm not really getting the hang of this whole, "cooking for 2" thing. we're swimming in leftovers. so i have to get over my innate aversion to eating things twice. this means that last night i ate leftover farfalle in the creamy squash sauce with herbs and tonight i'm planning on tucking into another round of creamed chicken stew with dill dumplings. truth be told, with leftovers like these, it's no hardship having a second go.

i had a talk with my film friend D about "where the wild things are" - he really didn't like it. he said that a) he hated the soundtrack (it's hilarious talking to him about it because he has no idea who karen o is) and talked about how he hated the keening, one voice vocals and how he doesn't know from pop music (the funny thing is, the dotytron had exactly the same opinion and he DOES know from pop music). he brought up some things i agreed with - how the pseudo-freudian notes were out of place in the film...and he talked about how his favorite image in the book is when max goes to bed without his supper, and the walls come crashing down and the ocean comes in - and how in the hands of a director like spike jonze, that would have been a lovely scene. instead what you get is a max running away in the night and a strange boat appearing out of nowhere. i think upon revisiting, i would say that's it's an unsuccessful children's film AND an unsuccessful adult film, with some funny moments.


last night we watched "anvil: the story of anvil" it's a documentary about this band, anvil, that reached it's zenith in the early 80s and served as a total inspiration for megadeath, anthrax, gun's'roses, etc but never achieved the same fame and then fell off the radar. the two principals, "lips" and robb reiner, have continued to put out record after record, playing to crowds of like, 40 in sudbury and the documentary follows their attempts to record their 13th album and make a last stab at success at the age of 50. it's really, really, great. so entertaining - it's like metallica's "some kind of monster" but like, good, because they're real people and not total wads like lars ulrich and you actually care about their process.

guys, can anyone BELIEVE how much of a wad lars ulrich is? every time i see that guy or hear him speak i want to spit in his mouth.

"anvil: the story of anvil" is really great - i highly recommend it. it made the dotytron cry because nothing gets to the dotytron more than talented, well-meaning musicians trying to eke out a living in this crazy world. also, it features a brief appearance by scott ian from anthrax, who i've always had a soft spot for because he KILLED an episode of rock'n'roll jeopardy i saw once. he was really smart! anyway, you become so invested in anvil's success (they're actually REALLY good if you like that kind of classic, shredding, super-fast metal sound) that we went upstairs to see how they're doing now. i think the film has developed a cult following so based on their website (talk about a throwback! check out that webpage!!!) and myspace, they're touring a fair bit and at decent-sized venues, too!

can everyone else feel the insistent tug of fall? the lull? the desire for cocooning, coziness, legs curled up and under a woolly afghan, sleeping in a pile, long-stewed, simmered, braised meats, root vegetables smelling like the earth? the golden light of hearth (i wish) and home winking out into the darkness? i love this season for mulled apple cider, and warm cookies, and sheepskin slippers, and flannels.

i'm almost dizzy with joy when i ride over the bloor viaduct and i see the don valley stretched out like a giant, undulating carpet of russet, tawny port, claret, and gold. i feel so alive and so present and so immediate in the last flush of sunlight before the dusk comes and casts long shadows over all.

it's getting harder and harder to come home and think of anything but settling down on the couch with a big bowl of warm foodstuffs resting on my belly and a pile of books to bury into. i'm letting more and more things slide until "tomorrow" - if ever.

we had the roomie and l'army over after dinner for some SYTYCD and cookies and talking - it was fun! they hadn't seen lil' ugmo since we had gotten ceilings - so it was a big revelation - they were suitably awed.

fin.