Midnight's Children (2012)

This Deepa Mehta movie is a somewhat boggy work covering over 60 years in the turbulent history of India and Pakistan from just before the second world war up to Indira Gandhi's repressive "Emergency" of the late 1970s, as they affect five generations of a well-off Muslim clan and their associates in Kashmir, Agra, Mumbai, and Karachi. It brings together Dickens, Kipling and Shakespeare, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, comedy, tragedy and farce, and has as its moral and dramatic fulcrum the year 1947 when the misjudged partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan was insisted upon by the Muslims and acquiesced in by the departing British.  The further break up of what is now just called Pakistan from East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1974 is largely depicted as a body pile up ending in the split, but was precipitated by the western parts trying to impose Urdu on the Bengalis, who were not about to give up their culture and language. 

Salman Rushdie wrote the script from his 1981 novel , and his Rushdie's brilliant insight was to bring together the private and public lives of those involved by inventing a mystical bond between the children born around the midnight hour of 17 August 1947, which is the birthday of modern India.  Why the movie was so long in coming is hard to say, but it brings all sorts of walks of life together under one film umbrella, and it is fascinating to watch. 

Gertrude's Gardens

Google tells me that today is the 174th birthday of Gertrude Jekyll, a woman who designed country gardens across England and in America as well.  While I am not much of a gardener myself, the ability to make a yard look both beautiful and a bit wild is something I love, and I do on occasion find myself going to English manors to marvel at the yards. 
Jekyll, born in 1843, was influenced by prominent English painters of her time, with the artist JMW Turner cited as a particularly strong influence, and often worked in collaboration with the architect Edwin Luytens to create stunning combinations of homes and gardens. Her work has come to be seen as embodying the “Arts and Crafts” style, with arrangements of flowers that mimic the brush-strokes used by painters.  I was at one such styled garden this past summer, Hidcote in the Cotswolds.  Lawrence Johnston created the house and gardens in the style of Jekyll.
It wasn’t just a matter of abstract designs that drove Jekyll: she also dove into horticulture, cultivating, selecting and breeding many plants. That legacy has also helped inspire the names of flowers that nod at Ms Jekyll’s contributions to the field of horticulture, among them the Munstead Wood rose. Another flower known as the Gertrude Jekyll rose is well-regarded by gardening enthusiasts.  Finally, in a bit of trivia, her brother was friends with Robert Louis Stevenson and may have been an influence for the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Bathers, Cézanne, 1985

Cézanne painted bathers from the 1870s onwards, including numerous paintings with compositions of male and female bathers, singly or in groups. Late in life, he painted three large-scale female bather groups. In addition to the National Gallery's painting in London, they are now in the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I recently visited with this one in London, but am more familiar with the others.  Cézanne seems to have been at work on all three simultaneously at the time of his death.

In such works, Cézanne was reinterpreting a long tradition of paintings with nude figures in the landscape by artists such as Titian. While the subjects of their works were taken from Gree myths, Cézanne did not use direct literary sources. Instead, his central theme was the harmony of the figures with the landscape expressed through solid forms, strict architectonic structure, and the earth tones of the bodies. When exhibited in 1907, this painting became an inspiration for the nascent Cubist movement; he influenced both Picasso and Matisse.

Jodhaa Akbar (2008)

In preparation for all things Indian, we watched this classic Bollywood style movie, which is set in Agra during the Mughal empire rule, but before the Taj Majal was built.  The fort that the Mughal emperors lived in is a central feature and the whole movie, while a bit too long, was fascinating.
The story revolves around a possibly true marriage of alliance between the mid-sixteenth century Mughal emperor, Jalal-ud-dim Mohammed Akbar and Jodhaa Bai, a Rajput princess.  The part that is left out, with the exception of a passing mention of the harem and the eunuch attendant, is the other 199 wives.  Details that are best passed over in a love story.  Jodhaa was originally betrothed to another Rajput king and her dowry was her father's crown, which will pass to that Rajput king, after his death. Through this arrangement, the son of the elder brother of the king, Sujjamal gets deprived of his rightful throne and he leaves the kingdom angrily to join rebels. But when Mughal empire plans to attack Amer, king Bharmal, resentfully offers his daughter's hand to the emperor himself to avoid war. Akbar agrees to the marriage as it would bring forward a true strong alliance and long lasting peace between the empire and Rajputs.   there are the age old issues of differences in religion that are a very real part of India's 20th century story, and the costumes, music and dance in this epic film are something to behold.

Hydroelectric Power

Developing countries around the world are expanding hydropower to meet growing energy demand.  The move away from fossil fuels is one to applaud, and cost effective alternatives are hard to come by.  The resulting impact on the environment locally may be compromised in an effort to protect the atmosphere of the planet, but the truth is that we jsut don't know.  What we do know is that there are a number of cities in the devloped and developing world that are significantly hampered by air pollution (Beijing and Dehli, to name two), and that needs to improve.
In the Brazilian Amazon, >200 dams are planned over the next 30 years, and questions about the impacts of current and future hydropower in this globally important watershed remain unanswered. In this context, a sutdy recently published in Science applied a hydrologic indicator method to quantify how existing Amazon dams have altered the natural flow regime and to identify predictors of alteration. The type and magnitude of hydrologic alteration varied widely by dam, but the largest changes were to critical characteristics of the flood pulse. Impacts were largest for low-elevation, large-reservoir dams; however, small dams had enormous impacts relative to electricity production. Finally, the “cumulative” effect of multiple dams was significant but only for some aspects of the flow regime. This analysis is a first step toward the development of environmental flows plans and policies relevant to the Amazon and other megadiverse river basins.

Paneer Makhnai

This is a great sauce--you can put chicken in it (already cooked) if you want to substitute out the cheese.

8 fl oz	tomato puree
8 fl oz	heavy cream
2 tsp	peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
1 tsp	garam masala
2 tsp	lemon juice
½ tsp	sugar
1	fresh hot green chilli, finely chopped
1¼ tsp	salt
¼ tsp	nice red chilli powder
1 tsp	ground roasted cumin seeds
1 tbsp	dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi), crumbled (optional)
14 oz	fresh Indian cheese (paneer), cut into 2 cm/ ¾ inch squares
	freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp	unsalted butter plus
1 tbsp	olive or peanut oil
¼ tsp	whole cumin seeds
2–3 tbsp	chopped fresh coriander

 

 Combine the tomato puree, cream, ginger, garam masala, lemon juice, sugar, green chilli, 1 teaspoon of the salt, chilli powder, ground roasted cumin and dried fenugreek leaves
(if using) in a bowl. Stir thoroughly and set aside.
Put the cubed cheese into another bowl. Add ¼ teaspoon of salt and some black pepper. Toss well to mix.
Put the butter, oil and cumin seeds in a medium, non-stick pan and set over a medium heat. Put all the cheese cubes in the pan in a single layer and brown them very lightly on at least two sides. Pour the tomato sauce over the top and stir to mix. Bring to a simmer, then heat very gently for 4–5 minutes,
stirring with a light hand as you do so. Sprinkle the fresh coriander over the top before serving.

Baby Boss (2017)

Who is the parent indeed?  This is a movie that my youngest son wanted to see, and as with most things animated, I wanted to see it with him rather than separately, because part of the joy of animated films for me is the return to my own childhood favorites that are animated, and then the experience of watching them with my children.  I think my parents have enjoyed watching them with their grandchildren for similar reasons.
I may have been influenced by not feeling well, but I very much enjoyed this movie.  It has a very silly premise, and even sillier plot trajectory, and in my mind is only saved by the Baby Boss himself, voiced by Alec Baldwin, who is having the time of his life right now.  He is just everywhere doing amusing things with this sardonic look on his face that makes him very enjoyable to watch.
This is a good sibling movie, where it starts with real animosity and ends with friendship, but covers a lot of the sibling rivalry bases in the mean time.

Thanksgiving Modern Style

Having taken American Indian Art last spring alongside my youngest son gave me a much better appreciation for what was going on with the Americans in the area.  America's native inhabitants in the Northeast were a thriving interconnected group of tribes that had forged peace, trade, and alliances amongst themselves before my ancestors arrived with their ideas of religious freedom and societal ideals.  This holiday, a celebration of our successful toe hold on the new continent, is widely celebrated throughout the United States (the exception being native people, who see this as the beginning of the end of their cultural and religious freedom), and is a time to reflect on one's blessings and give thanks.
So here goes, since my root stalk is the Puritans.  It has been a rough year for folks with values that include priorities like environmental protection, combating climate change, health care as a basic right, and just over all decency.  I am still unable to be anything but furious at the people who facilitated this regime.  I have definitely cut off ties because of it, and while it is hard, I am working on being at peace with it.  They may be good people but we don't share values.  Happy (mostly; still some very real anger) about working on that.
I am grateful for the time, to have been able to travel with family and friends and really enjoy things that I love.  I have gotten to do some things that are on my lifetime "To Do" list and that has been really nice.  The biggest change this year is that my spouse and I became grandparents, which has been a joyful thing that caught us both completely by surprise.  So here I stop, because it is hard to top that one.

Vegetable Biryani

This is great because you can easily make it vegan by using vegetable oil instead of butter, and it is delicious for non-vegetarians to eat as well, but can serve as a primary source of protein for those who need it.  Don't be overwhelmed by the ingredient list length--alot of the spices you will need to have out if you are cooking an Indian meal.

• 3/4 cups basmati rice
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons blanched, sliced almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 3 whole cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the vegetables:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon peeled, minced fresh ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons blanched, sliced almonds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 5 whole cardamom pods
• 1 cup small cauliflower florets
• 3 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 small new potatoes (about 6 ounces), peeled and quartered
• 1 medium carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons toasted shredded coconut
• 2 tablespoons toasted blanched, sliced almonds

Make the rice: Place the rice in a sieve and rinse under cold running water until the water runs clear. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, over medium-high heat. Add the golden raisins, almonds, turmeric, cumin seed, coriander seed, cardamom pods, and cinnamon stick and cook, stirring, until toasted and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, until toasted, about 1 minute more. Add the water and salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, (wrap the lid tightly with a kitchen towel), cover, and steam until the rice is tender, 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and set aside.
Meanwhile, make the vegetables. Melt the butter in a medium straight-sided skillet with a tight-fitting lid, over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the golden raisins, almonds, coriander seed, cumin seed, and cardamom and cook, stirring, until toasted and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cauliflower, green beans, potatoes, carrots, and salt. Raise the heat to high, pour in the water, and cook, covered, for 4 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender and most of the water has evaporated, about 1 1/2 minutes more.
Add the rice to the vegetable mixture and, using a rubber spatula, stir to combine. Season with salt to taste. Divide the vegetable-rice mixture among plates and top with some of the toasted coconut and almonds. Serve immediately.

The Last Word (2017)

This was a remarkably enjoyable movie, that I would definitely recommend.  The critics would roundly disagree with me, but I live in an America that elected Trump and so movies that display a certain amount of that thinking right out there are par for the course.  We now have to figure out how to combat that because not only do ordinary folks feel like it is flat out okay to flaunt their white privileged as superiority rather than an uneven playing field, they are getting elected to office and doing damage.
So here we have Harriet, who is clearly on the spectrum when it comes to her inability to read the social landscape and saying pretty much anything that comes to find without one iota of filtering.  She commissions a newspaper to write her obituary before she dies and then trying to bully the obituary writer into coming up with something that doesn't make her seem just downright awful.  Challenged by having a mirror held up for her to scrutinize herself, Harriet goes about changing some unflattering aspects.  She can't change the past, but she decides to do something improbably (which is deejaying at a local indie radio station) and adopting an underprivileged kid.  MacLaine does a fine job of being the character she is dealt and it is fun to watch.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, Gainsborough, 1750

The museum near where I grew up had a large and beautiful painting entitle Blue Boy by Gainsborough and I have since liked him quite a lot.  Maybe it is the familiarity, but I do like things from the mid-eighteenth century because I come from Revolutionary roots.
This portrait is the masterpiece of Gainsborough's early years. It was painted after his return home from London to Suffolk in 1748, soon after the marriage of Robert Andrews of the Auberies and Frances Carter of Ballingdon House, near Sudbury, in November of that year.  So very much the class-conscious England of the day.
The landscape evokes Robert Andrews's estate, to which his marriage added property. He has a gun under his arm, while his wife sits on an elaborate  wooden bench. The painting of Mrs Andrews's lap is unfinished. The space may have been reserved for a child for Mrs Andrews to hold.  What happened?  We do not know.
The painting follows the fashionable convention of the conversation piece, a (usually) small-scale portrait showing two or more people, often out of doors. The emphasis on the landscape here allows Gainsborough to display his skills as a painter of convincingly changing weather and naturalistic scenery, still a novelty at this time.

Apple Fennel Salad

This was a recipe that was floated as a lighter salad that could be on the Thanksgiving table.  I would agree with that (especially if you left the cheese out, as I did), but at this point, our kids absolutely want their favorites and that doesn't leave much room on the groaning table, so I made it early, with a fennel bulb that came with our CSA.

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice, plus more to taste
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 large fennel bulbs, thinly sliced on a mandoline
• 2 Granny Smith apples, halved and cored, thinly sliced on a mandoline
• 3 celery stalks, thinly sliced on a mandoline
• ⅓ cup fennel fronds or roughly chopped parsley leaves
• ½ cup toasted walnuts
• 2 ½ ounces Parmesan, shaved with a vegetable peeler (about 2/3 cup) (optional)

1. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in oil, continuously whisking, until dressing is emulsified. Taste and add more lemon juice and/or salt if needed.
2. In a large bowl, toss the dressing with fennel, apple and celery. Fold in fennel fronds or parsley and walnuts. Top with Parmesan just before serving.

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

Right about now I am just hoping that the smog problem in Dehli subsides and that flights are resumed, but this was a nice introduction to the city.  The story revolves around an extended Indian family that are well off but not ridiculously wealthy.  They are preparing for the arranged wedding of their daughter, and that is at the center of the movie.
The various family members create different threads of the story, many of which require going out and about in the city, which for us was one of the reasons to watch the movie.  Another would be that if you haven't experienced a traditional Indian wedding, then this is a great rendition of one, and well worth watching for that alone.  There is a lot of drama and pathos here.  The colors are spectacular, Dehli comes off looking a bit shabby, but then the high points of the city are not front and center here, and Mira Nair's films are well worth seeing.

Plastic from Plants

Polymers protect us from the elements, increase the fuel efficiency of cars, protect food from pathogens, help cure disease, and enable renewable-energy technologies. To promote, foster, and enable a sustainable society, we need polymers. Yet polymers can also create serious environmental challenges. Nearly all plastic packaging produced—more than 80 billion kg annually—originates from fossil resources and is disposed of after a relatively short period of use.
Biodegradable plastics are those that can be completely degraded in landfills, composters or sewage treatment plants by the action of naturally occurring micro-organisms. Truly biodegradable plastics leave no toxic, visible or distinguishable residues following degradation. Their biodegradability contrasts sharply with most petroleum-based plastics, which are essentially indestructible in a biological context. Because of the ubiquitous use of petroleum-based plastics, their persistence in the environment and their fossil-fuel derivation, alternatives to these traditional plastics are being explored. Issues surrounding waste management of traditional and biodegradable polymers are discussed in the context of reducing environmental pressures and carbon footprints.  Plants naturally produce numerous polymers, including rubber, starch, cellulose and storage proteins, all of which have been exploited for biodegradable plastic production. Bacterial bioreactors fed with renewable resources from plants--so-called 'white biotechnology'--have also been successful in producing biodegradable polymers.

Cauliflower and Pomegranate Chaat

The stars aligned just right for this dish to be made.  My youngest son is making Indian food on a regular basis with a friend, and so the spices and the cookbooks are out and about.  This one is from Meera Sodha's latest book, Fresh India, which is vegetarian dishes.
I had cauliflower from my CSA, pomegranates from Costco, and some vegans coming to dinner so I needed some dishes that packed some protien.  The chaat masala, which blends dried ground mango and ginger, drives the show in this.

• 1 medium cauliflower (about 650g)
• Vegetable oil
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained
• ½ cucumber
• Seeds of ½ pomegranate
•  fresh cilantro chopped
• 1 1/3 tbsp chaat masala (see above), plus extra to serve
• Juice of ½ lime

1.  Using your fingers, break the cauliflower into small florets, so that each one is 1.5cm-2cm across. Put 2mm of oil into a wide-bottomed frying pan over a high heat.
2. Once hot, add the florets and have them in one layer, so that they char a bit as they fry.  Stir infrequently until they have a bit of brown, then add the drained chickpeas.  I added a bit of salt at this point, but that is not what the original recipe calls for.  Toss until cauliflower is a bit creamy, then set aside to cool. 
3.  Do not assemble until ready to serve.  Toss cauliflower, chickpeas, and cucumbers, add the chaat masala and mix.  Then add the pomegranates, mix lightly, then sprinkle with cilantro and squeeze a lime over the top and serve.

Octopussy (1984)

This film is set in Udaipur, and as part of the preparation for places that we are hoping to go in December, this was our first stop in films.  Odd, you might think, but we have watched a lot of James Bond together over the decades, and it was a light place to start.  Rather than watching something with crushing poverty, or revisiting the terrifying moments in Lion, which we did in February.
I missed that it was filmed in India the first time around, and Udaipur is called the Crystal City, with some impressive white architecture that while not highlighted in the film, is present.  The film itself is the end of the Roger Moore as James Bond era, and while he is his usual annoying polished self, it is not one of the best of that genre.  None-the-less, it is is entertaining in a slightly dated manner.

Fiber Art, Jan Friedman

Jan is an artist who resides in my home town, so I have the opportunity to see her work with some frequency.  In addition, I have one of her pieces, and so do a couple of my friends, so I can see her fiber collages hung in familiar surroundings on a regular basis.  
She has been weaving for more than 40 years.  I got a loom soon after the birth of my third child, and managed to get it warped once, and completed a really beautiful, if inexpertly woven, summer and shade pattern that I really loved and found soothing.  But it gave me a window into just how hard this work is to produce.
Her tapestries use hand-dyed wool, cotton, rayon and silk as well as a variety of other natural materials. Her work frequently has a nature theme because the inherent beauty of a leaf or a tree, for instance, inspires her. According to on-line sources, Friedman received her M.A. in Textile Design at the University of Iowa in 1980. She is self-employed, works out of her home, which has a well designed studio area, and marches to her own drummer. When she began weaving, she mainly was creating tapestries. Eventually she shifted to framed fiber collages because she could vary the materials and protect her work under glass.  She incorporates real elements of nature, like actual leaves, as well as images taken from nature, in her work.  It is gorgeous, so check it out when she is at an art festival near you!

Red Lentil and Squash Sambar

I made this out of Meera Sodha's new cookbook, Fresh from India, which I love the look of, and if this recipe is any indication, I am going to also love the results.  The original calls for eggplant, but since in my hemisphere, squash and eggplant are not overlapping seasons, I made it with squash, and will try it again next summer with eggplant instead.  The melding of the sweetness of the squash with the sour of the tamarind is delicious, and it is hearty because of the lentils.

• 1 cup red lentils
• 4 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 3/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• 12 fresh curry leaves
• 4 shallots, finely sliced
• 8-16 ounces butternut squash, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 medium, ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons tamarind paste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons nice red chili powder
• 7 ounces green beans, trimmed

1. Wash the lentils with cold water until the water runs clear, then put into a deep saucepan, cover with three times the amount of water, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 25 minutes, or until soft, scooping off any foam.
2. Meanwhile, put 1 tablespoon of oil into a wide, lidded frying pan and add the fenugreek, coriander, and cumin seeds. Stir-fry for a minute, then take off the heat and grind to a coarse paste with a pestle and mortar.
3. Put the remaining oil into the frying pan over a medium-high heat. When hot, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves, followed closely by the shallots, and cook for around 10 minutes, until the shallots are golden. Then add the diced squash and a couple of tablespoons of water, cover with the lid, and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, along with the spices you ground earlier, the salt, sugar, tamarind paste, and chilli powder. Cover again and leave to cook for a further 5 -10 minutes, until the tomatoes have broken down and the squash is tender. Add the lentils to the vegetables (or the other way around, depending on which pan is bigger), then add the green beans and enough water to make a thick, soupy texture, and cook for a final 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt, sugar, and tamarind as you wish.

Mother's Day (2016)

This film was panned,and in someways I see where that sentiment is coming from.  There are some great actors in this who are to a greater or lesser degree are limping along with a less than perfect script, and to a lesser extent, the story line is weak at best.  Despite all of these limitations, I really enjoyed this movie, with some laugh out loud moments.  I streamed it from the United Airlines app during a flight, something that I rarely do, but it is a nice option to use when it works.  There are five main stories that have some interconnection with each other, and centering on the role of parenting children across the lifespan.  There are a number of issues that resonate with me, like parents who have different social values, mixed marriages,  and mothers who die and leave the parenting to the remaining spouse and then some things that I don't worry about but that are very real, like co-parenting without an on-going relationship.  So something for everyone, and not to heavy.  So, yes, the script could have been better, but enjoyable none-the-less.

The Cenetaur by Charlotte Mew

Not yet will those measureless fields be green again
Where only yesterday the wild sweet blood of wonderful youth was shed;
There is a grave whose earth must hold too long, too deep a stain,
Though for ever over it we may speak as proudly as we may tread.
But here, where the watchers by lonely hearths from the thrust of an inward sword have more slowly bled,
We shall build the Cenotaph: Victory, winged, with Peace, winged too, at the column's head.
And over the stairway, at the foot - oh! here, leave desolate, passionate hands to spread
Violets, roses, and laurel with the small sweet twinkling country things
Speaking so wistfully of other Springs
From the little gardens of little places where son or sweetheart was born and bred.
In splendid sleep, with a thousand brothers
To lovers - to mothers
Here, too, lies he:
Under the purple, the green, the red,
It is all young life: it must break some women's hearts to see
Such a brave, gay coverlet to such a bed!
Only, when all is done and said,
God is not mocked and neither are the dead.
For this will stand in our Market-place -
Who'll sell, who'll buy
(Will you or I
Lie each to each with the better grace)?
While looking into every busy whore's and huckster's face
As they drive their bargains, is the Face
Of God: and some young, piteous, murdered face.

Roasted Red Pepper and White Bean Salad

THis was a great recipe to use with an abundance of pepers, which we always have in the fall.

• 4 small red bell peppers
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 can (15 ounces) small white beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (2 tablespoons)
• 1 cup packed spicy baby greens, such as watercress or arugula

1. Halve and seed the peppers and toss with olive oil, and roast for about 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees.  Coll and cut into strips.
2.   Whisk together garlic, vinegar, oil, and parsley in a medium bowl. Add beans and peppers and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon over peppers and top with Parmesan and greens.

Nile Ethipian Restaurant, Coralville Iowa

This restaurant is in a space that I always felt was not inviting.  The previous restaurant had excellent food,my favorite Middle Eastern food in town, by it was hard to eat there.  Not so now.  The restaurant is well laid out, with good lighting, and continuous hours, so that if you want to eat at 3:30 in the afternoon, as we did recently, it is possible to do so.  And feed us they did.  The food was excellent.  It is primarily served with injera, the crepe-like bread of the region, but you can ask for a fork if you like.  We had a beef dish, a chicken dish, and some vegetarian dishes, and they were all delicious.  The appetizers were great.  The food was so good that even though I have made very good Ethiopian food in the past, I was not moved to go home and make it.  Rather, I would come back here, because it would satisfy that yen, as well as support a new dining option.  And it is very reasonably priced.  In all, this is a bright new start in the ethnic food options in Iowa City, one which I hope is longitudinally successful.

Chips (2017)

I watched this on a trip home that was lengthy (like 5-6 movies lengthy), and while I chose it for its lightness, I actually enjoyed it.  Micheal Pena is great as the serious cop, and Dax Shephard is outstanding as the screw up side kick.  I liked Shephard as Crosby in Parenthood, and his role here shares some of the same features.  He is charming but very imperfect,with a good heart and a wandering eye.  In this version of the story, Shephard is not just a motorcycle cop, he is a professional rider, who can provide value added (Pena provides the solid cop training and knowledge, but also the rigidity that that imposes)--so they are a more modern version of the original TV partners, and some of the fun part of the TV show is also picked up in the movie.  I would wholeheartedly agree that this is super light weight, and very imperfect as a film, but it is a pretty funny chase movie with a hint of nostalgia for those of us who are old enough to remember the original show.

James Cook, 1728

I have been thinking about how to positively respond to the growing culture of a reverence for ignorance. I have been very upset, almost agitated, by the pervasiveness of flat out lying at the highest levels of government, and the deprecation of a free press.  It really feels like the beginning of totalitarianism.  I know that I have a lot of company in theses feelings, and maybe even a majority of people feel this way.  May we rise up and take back what is good and great about our culture.

So part of what I have been doing is to look back at the people who were instrumental in our growth as a people.  James Cook is one of the world navigators of the 18th century who was really impressive.  He dies a grizzly death as a result of his miscalculation and his crew's mistreatment of Hawaiians, but prior to that he provided a wide range of discoveries for the Western world.  He may not have been the first to find Australia, but he opened it to European exploration.  He is most likely the man who first European to seek out both Antarctica and the Arctic Northwest Passage.  He was a talented seaman, but for me, the two things that he gave the future generations were detailed and accurate maps, and he carried talented engravers who did detailed depictions of the native populations of the lands that he explored.  The Northwest Indians culture and art in the 18th century was so impressive and our best record of it comes from his voyages.  Exploration is complicated, but Cook was a master to be remembered.

The Origin of the Mighty Oak

This week's Science Monday comes from the journal of the same name.
The mighty oak.  One of my favorite trees.
It is pretty universally popular, it turns out.  The oak is the national tree of the United States, Germany, and a dozen other countries—as well as the stuff of fine wine barrels—yet little is known about where the North American oak tree came from. Now, biologists have pieced together the past of the most dominant species of oaks and come to a startling conclusion: The mother of all oaks didn’t arise in the tropics, as many botanists thought, but rather near the Arctic Circle, then spread southward.
It is perhaps a spectacular example of an ecological opportunity in the south that allowed for an explosive species diversification.  To reconstruct the mighty American oak’s history, Andrew Hipp, a plant systematist at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, and colleagues obtained tens of thousands of pieces of DNA from 300 trees representing 146 oak species. That enormous amount of genetic material allowed the team to conduct comparisons that revealed which species are most closely related, and avoid the confusion created by genes that jump between the branches of a family tree when two species interbreed. “This is a demonstration of the power of next-generation sequencing techniques to unlock some previously intractable problems,” Pennington says. Hipp’s team also used oak fossils to help it date when certain branches of this family tree arose.

Baywatch (2017)

I chose this movie to watch on a recent long haul flight precisely because I thought it would be light enough not to keep me up.  Possibly not even for the whole movie.  Nothing to think about and nothing to get upset about.
I was surprised to find that while I was right about it's relative safety to watch as one dozed off, that it was surprisingly entertaining.  I never watched the original TV show that it is both eulogizing and parodying, but the character that Dwayne Johnson portrays has his usual charm and sparkle, and Zac Efron does a nice job playing off of him as the screw up of the crew.  The movie has a healthy sense of spoofing off the TV version, and being able to laugh at itself, mixed in with a likable cast, makes for a pretty enjoyable, if very fluffy light movie.  It would be a great family night movie that has an audience of older teens and up.  There is a bit too much bad behavior for a younger audience to watch with their parents, but don't write this off based on its admittedly silly aura.

Aloo Tikka, Made in India

I bought Meera Sodha's book, Made in India and before I could even open it, one of my kids made some recipes out of it, including this one.  It is fantastic!

1 1/4 pound potatoes
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp neutral oil, plus extra to fry
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1-2 medium green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp black mustard seeds
½ tsp garam masala
1/3 c. shelled peas (frozen is fine)
3 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
Juice of ½ lemon
4 tbsp semolina or cornmeal (or plain flour)
Knob of ghee or butter (optional)
Put the potatoes, whole and unpeeled, into a pan just big enough to hold them, along with the turmeric and a generous pinch of salt and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer until very tender and drain. Put back into the hot pan for a minute or so to steam dry.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and then fry the onion until soft and beginning to caramelize. Stir in the ginger, garlic, chillis, mustard seeds and garam masala and fry for another minute. Stir in the peas and cook for a minute or so to defrost if necessary.
If you must, peel the potatoes, then mash well, and add to the frying pan. Stir in the lemon juice and two tablespoons of semolina, mix well then season to taste.
Roll the mixture into golf-ball sized portions, then flatten into cakes. Press both sides in semolina.
Coat the bottom of a frying pan with oil, and add the ghee if using. Heat over a medium-high flame, then add the tikki (they should sizzle). Cook until golden brown, then carefully flip over and repeat. Serve warm with chutney.

Sushiya, North Liberty, Iowa

I usually don't do this, but I am writing a review after having been to this restaurant more than once.  I know that a real reviewer would routinely do this to evaluate the consistency of the food, and to have the opportunity to sample more dishes than is really possible on one trip, even with a lot of people.
Even though I live a bit far from this place to eat here regularly, I really like it, and if I were going to go out for sushi, this would be the place that I would go, despite the distance.  The shaman is better than any I have had at a restaurant in Iowa.  The octopus salad has large tender pickled pieces of octopus that are tender and delicious, and again, novel.  The seaweed salad doesn't stand out, but it is ver good.  The sushi and nigiri are both well executed and it is a very good overall experience.  The quality dining scene used to be confined to Iowa City proper, but over the last decade that has been changing, and this restaurant is an example of that trend at its very best.  highly recommended.

Table 19 (2017)

This is a movie about the people who have been invited to a wedding but who are more or less not expected to show up.  Anna Kendrick says it clearly when she says: if you find yourself in the high teens, stop by.  It is lonely there.  It's far away from the bride's and groom's family tables. In fact it's about as far back as you can get and not be out on the street. It takes a while for everyone at the table in this movie to figure out the common element that resulted in all of them being placed at this particular table. Suffice to say that they all have a problematic relationship with somebody in the wedding party, and that's how they ended up seated in a corner near a restroom.
Everybody at the table has a secret, and in due time the secrets are revealed, often through interactions with table-mates that they've just met. The best part of the film is the middle, where the characters sort of wander off on their own and momentarily forget about the reception they came here to attend.  There are some pearls to be had here, and it is a good, but not great, indie movie.

Riverbank by Dong Yuan

Featured by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The majestic Riverbank is a rare and important survivor from the formative days of Chinese landscape painting. This image of a scholar's retreat nestled in a windswept mountain defile offers a window onto the pivotal but mysterious tenth century, when images of nature rose to prominence, replacing pictures of the human figure as the dominant form of pictorial expression for ambitious artists. Only a handful of paintings survive from this period, but they, along with textual evidence, indicate that it was a time of epochal transformation, when landscape painting made a quantum leap in scale, sophistication, and ambition. Riverbank is a key piece of evidence of this revolution.
The painting's central scene takes place in a small waterside pavilion, where a scholar sits gazing at the turbulent surface of a river. Behind him, his wife and two children are framed against a screen of cursive calligraphy. In a complex of buildings that extends back from the pavilion, figures busily engage in housework. Weary travelers approach the buildings on a path, completing the final stage of their journey as a powerful wind arises, bending the trees around them from right to left. Towering and tortuous mountain forms jut and twist with violent force as waterfalls plunge to the river below. At the center of this awesome vision of nature stands the scholar's retreat, a haven of peace and respite from the world beyond its walls.