Yulin Caves, Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China

 These caves are fewer in number and off the beaten path from Dunhuang.  They are very beautiful and distinctly different from the Mogao Caves.
The Yulin Grottoes, whose 1000-year construction spanned the Northern Wei (CE 386-533) to the Qing (CE 1644-1911) Dynasties, but the most interesting thing about the Yulin Grottoes is that they contain works belonging to the Western Xia (CE 1038-1227) Dynasty, aka the Tang Empire.   The painting of this period is distinctive in the prominent use of a light green pigment, and the combination of different cultural elements that might be expected of a non-native occupying force.

The Tanguts espoused a form of Buddhism that represents a hybrid mix of Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism, mixed with elements of animism, or the belief that all things, animate or inanimate, possess a spirit. The source of Tangut Buddhism's scriptures is the Chinese interpretation of Buddhism, translated into the Qiangic language of the Tanguts, though in practice, the Tanguts mixed elements of both the Chinese and the Tibetan interpretations of Buddhism, a development that is not at all surprising, given that the area occupied by the Western Xia Dynasty was formerly ruled by the Tibetans.

Mile 22 (2018)

As happens every March, the movies that i watch during this month are always just a little disappointing.  I have spent December, January, and February watching all of the Oscar nominees in every category, and some of the short listed movies that didn't quite make the final cut, and they are almost all really great.  I feel myself in touch with American pop culture for the briefest of times, and in love with going to the movies.  This year I even bought a refillable popcorn bucket, so excited was I by it all.
Then comes March, the month where even on the plane I look through the movies and I have seen practically all of them.  So on a recent Tanspacific flight I watched this movie--an action adventure movie that was perfect for the wine and dinner, soon to be followed by sleep and jetlag.  None the less, this was really just one long shoot out, where the object of protection is of somewhat dubious value and is unthankful for being saved and the lives it cost to do so.  Oh dear.  If one is seeking action, then this might fit the bill.  Otherwise skip over it.

Sabrina by Nick Drnaso

This book was long listed for the Booker prize this past year, which is of note because it is the first graphic novel to get the nod.  It didn't make the short list, but still, it is a start.
The world is a dangerous place we discover pretty quickly in this densely drawn novel.  It opens innocently enough, with a young woman cat-sitting for her parents. Her sister, Sandra, arrives for a brief visit, reminiscing about their parents, asking about her boyfriend, and soliciting some help with a crossword puzzle. Sandra mentions to her sister if she’d like to take a bicycle vacation along Lake Michigan later that summer. The two make a half-promise to do so and Sandra leaves. It will be the last time Sandra sees her sister.
From there, we are catapulted to a town in Colorado, where Calvin, an Air Force soldier, meets his childhood friend Teddy in the airport. He’s offering to put Teddy up for a while because, as we learn, Teddy’s girlfriend went missing a month before. Teddy, a quiet man-child who peers through shoulder-length blond hair, is shell-shocked and has little to say.  We go back and forth between the sad lives of each of the men, grappling with their problems in dysfunctional ways. 

Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China

On the edge of the Gobi Desert there are about 700 man made caves that have been dug into the hill side, about 400 of them painted inside, like this one on the left, with Buddhist altars within. 
These are truly amazing to see.  Photos do not capture their beauty.
We were only able to go into 14 of them, but they are larger than life and awe inspiring.  From the 4th to the 14th century, hundreds of caves were painstakingly hand carved out of the alluvial conglomerate rock cliff face, under the sponsorship of Buddhist monks, local officials, and wealthy families who wished to build karmic merit and perform an act of veneration. Although a Buddhist site, the art and objects found at Mogao reflect the meeting of cultures along the Silk Road, the collection of trade routes that for centuries linked China, Central Asia, and Europe. Discovered at the site were Confucian, Daoist, and Christian texts, and documents in multiple languages including Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Old Turkish. Even Hebrew manuscripts were found there.
 The Library Cave (Cave 17), which was unsealed by Wang Yuanlu, contained nearly 50,000 ancient manuscripts, silk banners and paintings, fine silk embroideries and other rare textiles dating from before the early 1000s, when this cave and all its contents were concealed for reasons still unknown. The Diamond Sutra, the earliest and complete printed book with an attested date (868), is among the most notable documents found in the Library Cave. Using carved wooden blocks, the book was printed onto strips of paper that were then pasted together to form a scroll.

Small Foot (2018)

Viewed as purely entertainment, this is a fun animated movie that follows on the heels of some great animated movies that were nominated for an Academy award in this category.  I was not disappointed in it.
If viewed on a larger scale, one where there might in fact be a message for all underneath, it is less successful.  The movie urges kids to think for themselves. To question what they’ve been taught. To challenge authority. It takes place in a mountaintop society of yetis where the rules are literally etched in stone and must be followed for fear of banishment. It could be viewed as a statement on the restrictive nature of government, religion or both. It’s a bold and exciting thematic choice for a film aimed at mainstream audiences of all ages.  But somehow it really doesn't deliver on that kind of promise, when all is said and done.  But there is nothing that I wouldn't watch with my young granddaughter in it either.

In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratane

While I still have three of the Booker Prize long listed books to go after this one, this is the year that sees me reading the most nominees in the shortest period of time.  There are other great book awards, and I really do follow them, but the Booker Prize remains for me the one where I find every book is well written and makes me think.

This book reflects a 48 hour period of time in London through the eyes of five residents.  These characters — a group of young men and their parents — live in and around council estates. They all have an immigrant point of view, a sense of otherness about them,  and an intimate knowledge of a history of colonial violence. When a fanatical recent convert to Islam hacks an off-duty soldier to death in the street (echoing an actual event), the young men are startled by a sense they could identify with the killer. He wore the same sneakers they do. He spoke the same slang.

Yusuf, the son of Pakistani immigrants, is doing his best to avoid the attention of local Muslim extremists hoping to recruit him. His knowledge of Islam comes mainly from Nas lyrics, and he would like to keep it that way. He is happiest at the football pitch with his mates: Ardan, a would-be rapper whose mother, Caroline, fled Northern Ireland during the Troubles; and Selvon, an obsessively disciplined athlete desperate to escape the neighborhood. Selvon’s father, Nelson — mute and wheelchair-bound — is the historical consciousness of the novel; he was part of the “Windrush generation,” the Caribbean workers enlisted to rebuild Britain after World War II.  It is through these eyes that we come to see a London that is grittier than what the average tourist passing through is likely to perceive.

Giant Buddha Temple, Zhangye, China

The Giant Buddha Temple (Dafo Temple) in Zhangye city, about 600 kilometers west of Gansu's provincial capital Lanzhou, is named after a statue worshiped inside. The temple, also known as "Wofo Temple" (Sleeping Buddha Temple), is very famous because it contains the biggest indoor sleeping Buddha in all of China. The buddha is 34.5 meter long and its shoulder spans across a width of 7.5 meters. Up to eight people can stand on the ear of the reclining Buddha.  It has a wooden interior that is five stories tall.
Established in 1098 (Western Xia Dynasty), it was rebuilt during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)--this happens a lot, and is unfortunate, because it is not the most artistic time in China.  Due to its extensive history, it is listed as an immovable cultural relic under state protection. 
Truthfully, the newly painted exterior buildings around the temple are just as beautiful as the Buddha itself, and it is a lovely place to walk around.

55 Steps (2018)

This movie tells two stories. The first is a legal drama based on the true story of Eleanor Riese, a psychiatric patient who, in the late 1980s, sued a San Francisco hospital for the right to refuse medication whose side effects she believed were harming her. The second is the story of the friendship that eventually grew out of her relationship with her lawyer, the patient’s rights attorney Colette Hughes.

The second of these two narratives — as brought to vivid life by the pair of fine actresses portraying Eleanor and Colette, Helena Bonham Carter and Hilary Swank — is the more stirring.

The drama of informed consent, which was then not the law for California mental patients, opens in 1985 with a phone call from Eleanor, then a patient at St. Mary’s Hospital, to a legal-aid hotline.  I have some ambivalence about this, as there is plenty that is portrayed here that is a challenge for modern psychiatric care, but it is a well told story.

Little by Edward Carey

I forget where I read about this book which led me to put this on my library hold list, but I am grateful that I did.  I read this as I was flying into the eye of a storm last week.  The bomb cyclone blizzard that hit Colorado shook everything up for a lot of people, myself included, but it did allow me time to really relish this book.
It is the retelling of how a penniless Swiss orphan who later became known as Madame Truffaut, founded a London museum full of effigies that still welcomes 2.5 million visitors a year . Early on, she is apprenticed to Dr. Curtius, whose job in Berne is to render diseased body parts in wax and tout them around the city as graphic public health warnings. The subject is Curtius’s boss, a well-known surgeon. But the girl, Marie, notes how, after two straws have been placed up the man’s nose so that he can breathe; after his face has been smoothed with oil, then with plaster, to make a cast, and after the cast is taken away, underneath there is only another human face, “humbled and vulnerable” – and equal. The surgeon understands this; when he sees the success Curtius’s heads are achieving, he cancels his wages, forcing Curtius and Marie to flee to Paris.

Presenting everyone as equal doesn’t sell.  And so Rousseau, Diderot, Voltaire, Robespierre and Louis XVI are added to the collection. Curtius himself is more interested in the people who are not fine – the murderers and castaways, the criminals and misfits – though, as the Revolution takes hold, it becomes increasingly unclear who’s who. Curtius and Marie cast them all.  And when it is all said and done, she leaves France, which is in ruins, and moves her show on the road to England.

Street Markets in Lanzhou

 It is hard to believe that the very first thing that I would post about my recent trip to China is photos from street markets.  I have my reasons for this.  The first is the overwhelming wealth of what is on display.  There are beautiful fruits and vegetables, some of them unfamiliar and many of them well known but beautifully displayed.
The other is that it is a window into a culture to see what they eat.  I could wander different markets, sampling street food, and absorbing the atmosphere as a part of every trip I take.

 This one has a love of noodles, that is for sure.  We saw bags of noodles for sale with a small packet of the sauce to mix with them once you got them home  We saw a vender who would chop the cooked noodles into your desired width and send you home with them.  You could buy the noodles to cook them yourself.  Every option, many sizes, and some variety of flavor.  The grains are much what we see here at home in a bulk section of a market, but somehow prettier.  There are tubs with fish that are still living, chickens that you can take home and butcher yourself, pet fish, tea, the list goes on.

Ladies in Black (2018)

I watched this on a transpacific flight of incredible length, and it was really fun to watch, in the sense that it was entertaining and while not action packed, it left you with plenty to think about.
The film is set in Sydney in 1959 in a department store.  We are all now more familiar with this setting since watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, who spends the first season of the show working in a very similar job in a Manhattan department store.
The heroine of the story, who takes her place as a lowly temp worker in the busy holiday season, is Lisa Miles, a 16-year-old high school graduate awaiting her university entrance exam results. The bookish girl dreams of being a poet and getting more out of life than the housewife role of her hard-working mother.  She finds that she has more in common with the European immigrants she meets through one of her co-workers than she does with other girls in the store, who dream of marriage rather than education.  The movie reminds us that it wasn't that long ago that women could not even go to college without their father's permission.  While there are miles to go in this arena, it is occasionally good to take stock of where we have come.

The Water Cure by Sophie Macintosh

This book was long listed for the Booker prize and is really quite thought provoking and also a very quick read.  Not that I am a big fan of that, but if you don't love the book at first sight, it is easier to get through to the end, and then you can reflect back on the overall result.  This is a book that benefits from that kind of after thought.
This book flits between The Handmaid's Tale and King Lear.  There is a house on an island, alone by the sea. Inside live three girls with their parents. Outside, beyond the sea and the horizon, there is a terrible world where everything can go wrong. To understand what toxins are, and indeed for their knowledge of everything else, the girls have always deferred to their father, aptly names King. Their world is complete. And then, one day, he is gone.
The title of the book refers to one of the 'cures' for what ails women.  They are sewn into “fainting sacks” and “drowning dresses”; they keep muslin pressed to their mouths like masks. Now, after  King is gone, the truth is that his legacy is the real toxin: a trauma that forces its victims to go on playing it out.
One day, three men wash up on their beach and the truth of that becomes clear.  Really great read.

Farewell, My Queen (2012)

This is a French movie, set early in the day of July 14, 1789, at the royal palace of Versailles. It was not yet a date fraught with destiny. In the rat-swarming servants' quarters, our heroine is a young woman named Sidonie Laborde , lady in waiting to the queen.  She slaps at mosquito bites, hurries through her toilet, and runs toward her appointment with Marie Antoinette. She is the official reader to the queen, and this position gives her a limited stature and some access to the royal life of luxurious decadence.
Over the next three days, we will witness life at Versailles exclusively through the eyes of Sidonie. Reports arrive at Versailles that the Bastille has been stormed, and although this is never publicly acknowledged, it spreads as circles of rumor through the ranks of the servants, some of whom perhaps only vaguely understand what it means — and what it will mean for them personally. The vast, all-powerful edifice of the French monarchy will be swept away in a matter of days, and Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XVI will inevitably be beheaded.  It is a lushly costumed movie with a slowly changing tone, from calm to urgency, that is very enjoyable to watch.

The Quiet Place (2018)

This collaboration between the husband and wife team of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt is pretty terrific (and I am not a fan of the horror genre).
The movie takes place in a near future post apocalypse where the aliens who invade are big, viscous, and  blind.  The bad news is that while they do not appear to smell all that well, they have a keen sense of hearing.  The survival of this family is tied to the fact that they have a deaf daughter, so they all know sign language. 
It is a tense ride.  It’s a movie designed to make you an active participant in a game of tension, not just a passive observer in an unfolding horror. Most of the great horror movies are so because we become actively invested in the fate of the characters and involved in the cinematic exercise playing out before us. It is the kind of movie that quickens the heart rate and plays with the expectations of the audience, while never treating them like idiots. In other words, it’s a really good horror movie.  Nominated in the sound category, it did not get the nod, but the Academy doesn't always get it right.

Effie Briest by Theodor Fontane (1894)

I read this after seeing it on a Facebook friend's list of seven books that influenced her.  I have never heard of it, and found that it has a circle of respect in German literature.  Thomas Mann said that the author was the best German author since Goethe, and since those are the two German authors that I have read a fair amount of, I tried this and liked it very much.  It is a strangely feminist book, in the same vain as Anne Bronte's The Widow of Wildfell Hall kind of feminism.
The book is considered to be the greatest work of Prussian realism and certainly one of the best tragic novels of the 19th century. The story is simple enough and hardly unique: Geert von Innstetten, an ambitious nobleman and civil servant on the brink of middle age, makes an uncontroversial marriage to Effi von Briest, the 17-year-old daughter of a former flame. Innstetten takes her back to the town in Pomerania from which he runs the local administration. A daughter, Annie, is born, but Innstetten is keen to get on, and leaves his young wife on her own where she falls prey to a womanizer, Major von Crampas.  The subsequent story is also in the end predictable, but plays out in an unusual manner.  Well worth reading.

Border (2018)

This is a movie that would be best seen rather than read the reviews, because I think it is hard to capture the underlying atmosphere of the movie in words.  Well, at least my words.  It was snubbed in the Best Foreign Language film shortlist (which is a list of ten), but captured a nomination for Make Up.  It did not win, but it was my choice in that category.
The story is about Tina, a border guard who literally has a nose for people who are misbehaving.  She is disfigured in a noticeable but not quite grotesque way.  She  lives an isolated life with a roommate who is really her friend until she meets another of her kind.  He is less attractive personally than she is, but he knows who he is and he travels around basically enjoying himself.  He reveals to Tina her previously unknown history and for a while she is quite taken with him.  It has been called a horror movie, and I can see why, but that really doesn't capture the underlying tensions about otherness that pervades the movie.  Very worth watching.

Cha Sui Kebab

We just got back from China and we were definitely not ready to stop eating Chinese food.  Here is one of the first attempts to capture the glorious food of our trip through Gansu Province.

• 3 tablespoons hoison sause
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 3 tablespoons honey (4 tablespoons for a sweeter taste)
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce (3 tablespoons light soy sauce for a saltier taste)
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1/8 teaspoon chili flakes
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 thumb ginger, minced
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 kilogram (2 1/4 pounds) meat (options: pork shoulder, pork neck, chicken thigh, chicken breast, wings) (*see footnote 1)

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Instructions

To marinate the meat

1. Combine all ingredients for the BBQ sauce except the vegetable oil, ginger, and garlic in a bowl and mix well.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat until warm. Turn to low heat. Add ginger and garlic. Cook and stir a few times until fragrant. Add the BBQ sauce. Cook and stir until the texture becomes smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Transfer the sauce to a bowl to cool.
4. Add meat to a ziplock bag and 2/3 of the sauce (*see footnote 2). Press the air out of the bag and seal it. Give the bag a good massage, so that the sauce covers the meat evenly.
5. Save the rest of the sauce in an airtight container and place it in the fridge. You will use it for the glaze later.
6. Marinate meat in the fridge for 24 hours.

To prepare barbecue

1. (Optional) If using bamboo skewers, soak 8 skewers in water for 15 minutes.
2. Transfer the meat to a plate and discard the marinade.
3. If you are cooking pork or chicken skewers, transfer the meat to a cutting board and cut it into bite sized cubes (about 1 inches / 2.5 centimeters). (*see footnote 3)
4. Thread the meat onto the bamboo or metal skewers.
5. Add charcoal to one end of the grill and start a fire. When the coals are evenly lit, close the grill and allow it to warm up.

To cook skewers

Place meat skewers on the direct heat (i.e. above the coals) and close the lid to cook, until nicely charred on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. Brush glaze on the meat. Turn meat to cook the other side. Close the lid and let cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. If the meat is getting burned, move the skewers to the other side of the grill (the one with no coals under it) and close the lid. Keep cooking over indirect heat until cooked through.

On Chesil Beach (2017)

For once I think the movie is better than the book.  It is based on Ian McEwan's novel of the same name, which opens with a line that pretty much sums up the content:  "They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible."
It is hard for people to talk about sex, and in 1962 one can only imagine that it was no better.  Florence (played by the very talented Saoirse Ronon) very clearly loves her young husband, but she struggles with physical intimacy to the point where she is just not sure if she is capable of it.  Her new husband who is equally inept in the bedroom handles it poorly, and with hurt feelings they part ways, to the tremendous embarrassment of both of them.  The rest of the movie reflects on the downstream effect of that single night, and what might have been if it had all gone differently.

At Eternity's Gate (2018)

Willem Dafoe once again has a stellar performance.

It is not hard to enjoy his portrayal of complicated men who we don't really get to know very well on screen, but who we are interested in.
This film focuses on Van Gogh in the last years of his life and there is really nothing new here.  That in and of itself is noteworthy, because what DaFoe presents to us is an intense impressionistic portrayal of an intense man, driven to paint and maybe a little bit on the spectrum in terms of his inability to really relate with the common man.  He was lucky to have a brother who not only loved him but supported him financially, and I think that buffered him a bit.  In the end it was not enough, and as the film moves through those last weeks of Van Gogh's life we see the inevitability of that outcome.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

This is just not that easy a book to read, and it is not all that easy to like either.  By all accounts, the man himself was down to earth, interesting, and people I know that have dined with him liked him.  So he is complicated, and I think that could be seen from his career and where it took him.
He is a man who loves food, although it is not clear to me from the book that he loves to feed people.  More what I took away is that he prides himself on his ability to obtain the best ingredients from reliable sources, and that his organizational skills made him a successful chef in a kitchen.  He very clearly describes the restaurant businesses #MeToo issues in spades (and for both men and women), the seamy side of feeding others, the things he would not do or order based on what he knows, and he also frankly discusses the pace and energy required, which leads to a lot of substance abuse.  It is a gritty book that made me leery of going out any day of the week on some level (although truthfully I read it in China, where the food on the street is incredible, and eating in a restaurant is delicious and affordable, and I really do not want to know where the food came from and how it was treated in the kitchen, I just wanted to enjoy it, and am sorry to no longer be there).  I think he is a food icon, and reading his work is well worth doing, even if it might be a bit painful.

Milkman by Anna Burns

This book was the Booker Prize winner for 2018, which means that it is exceptionally well written, but perhaps not all that easily read, if the past predicts the future.
The writer is from Northern Ireland, but she lives in England now.  this strange and intriguing novel that tackles the Northern Ireland conflict from the perspective of an 18-year-old girl with no interest in the politics. She keeps her head down, literally, by burying it in a book while she walks.  In so doing, she has marked herself as  other or different, and not in a good way.  That attracted the unwanted sexual attention of a senior paramilitary figure, the milkman, who has marked her as his property. It soon becomes common knowledge that she is having an affair with this older married man, which makes her vulnerable.  The restrained irritation and propensity to violence of men who believe that they have the right to a woman, regardless of her desires towards them is a tension that runs convincingly through the book.  Well written.

Music Man (1962)

Here we are on a slight break from Oscar nominated movies.  Which has been a way of life these last two months.  Two weekends ago I saw two full length movies and seven nominated shorts.  It has been emotionally intense in a lot of ways, so this was a "and now for something completely different".
The movie takes place in the early 20th century in River City, Iowa (supposedly Cedar Rapids), which is an unusually gifted town musically.  Then a con man, Harold Hill, moves to town. His scam is that he sells people musical instruments and the promise of lessons, and once he gets his money, he skips town.  This time however he becomes entangled with a woman who desperately wants to believe in him, to the point where what he says will happen does.  The town's band, with new instruments and uniforms, is able to sound like they have been practicing together for years.  Hill allows them to believe in themselves, and somehow they live up to their best potential.  It is kind of silly at heart, but a real feel good movie as well.  76 trombones in the big parade.....

Disobedience (2017)

This movie has a distinguished background.  It is based on a book by Naomi Alderman, the woman who wrote the highly acclaimed book The Power in 2018.  She is on her way to being a power house feminist author (interestingly, her mentor is Margaret Atwood, who has been active in supporting women authors). The director is Sebastian Lelio, who's film A Fantastic Woman won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  So a potent combination.
The film opens with the rabbi Rav Krushka giving a sermon about free will. He speaks of angels, beasts, and Adam and Eve. He says, fearsomely, that humans are "free to choose." Then he drops dead.
The back story is that he excommunicated his daughter after she was caught kissing one of her best friends, a young woman.  She left London, went to America and became a modestly successful photographer.  She returns for his funeral and finds that the object of her youthful desires has married their other childhood friend, now a devout holy man in the Orthodox community.  It is a well told story about tradition and who you are underneath and the conflict between the two.

Flourless Marble Cake

My friend who I bake with and I are doing some gluten free cooking for an upcoming wedding.  The very best recipe for this sort of thing is one that just does not have any gluten in it to begin with and this recipe fits that bill.

For the vanilla batter:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temperature

• 2/3 cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For the chocolate batter:

• 10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

• 5 oz. (10 Tbs.) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

• 3 large eggs

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

• 1 Tbs. dark rum or espresso

• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

• Pinch table salt

• Cocoa powder for dusting

Preparation

• Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 300°F. Lightly grease a 9×2-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment.

• Make the vanilla batter: In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and continue beating until well blended and no lumps remain. Add the egg and vanilla and beat just until blended. Set aside.

• Make the chocolate batter:  In a medium bowl, melt the chocolate and butter in a large metal bowl over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave. Whisk until smooth and set aside to cool slightly. With a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs, sugar, rum or espresso, vanilla, and salt on medium high until the mixture is pale and thick, 3 to 4 min. With the mixer on low, gradually pour in the chocolate mixture and continue beating until well blended.

• Combine and bake: Spread about half of the chocolate batter in the bottom of the pan. Alternately add large scoopfuls of each of the remaining batters to the cake pan. Using a knife or the tip of a rubber spatula, gently swirl the two batters together so they’re mixed but not completely blended. Rap the pan against the countertop several times to settle the batters.

• Bake until a pick inserted about 2 inches from the edge comes out gooey but not liquid, 40 to 42 min.; don’t overbake. The top will be puffed and slightly cracked, especially around the edges. It will sink down as it cools. Let cool on a rack until just slightly warm, about 1-1/2 hours. Loosen the cake from the pan by holding the pan almost perpendicular to the counter; tap the pan on the counter while rotating it clockwise. Invert onto a large flat plate or board. Remove the pan and carefully peel off the parchment. Sift some cocoa powder over the cake (this will make it easier to remove the slices when serving). Invert again onto a similar plate so that the top side is up. Let cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 4 hours or overnight, or freeze.

Period. End of Sentence (2018)

This is the last of the short documentaries that were nominated this year for best short documentary, and it is a really nice one.  Some of the documentaries can be a bit grim, but this one, while depicting the lives of rural women in India as being limited by their circumstances, the film is about changing that for them.
The fact that in the 21st century menstruation can limit a young woman's potential is in some ways quite shocking, but is none the less true.  This year there have been protests because men have barred women of menstruating age from temple because they are felt to be unclean.  There are consequently few menstrual supplies of any quality available most places, and girls drop out of school as a result.  In steps a man who makes a machine that makes a highly effective pad, and he teaches them how to make it.  It makes a huge difference.  The woman have jobs, they sell the pads, they offer girls and women something they desperately need, and it is a win all around.  Women are the key to a nation's success and this will help India.

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

This is a wonderful book.  I have always liked this author, and he not uncommonly writes books that are very long and involved, describing each and everything that happens in exceptional details.  The Japanese animated films from Gibly Studios have this same quality, where each leaf on each tree is carefully rendered in such a way to create a lush background, and this book shares that quality.
The book centers around the experiences of a 36 year old painter.  We know from the very beginning that his wife asks him for a divorce and then comes back to him.  We also know from the beginning that he comes out of this okay because he lives to tell the tale, which is important as this is not so much an action adventure story as it is one of magical realism.
When his wife tells him she is having an affair with someone, he leaves immediately, and a long-standing friend lets him live in his fathers house and studio.  The father was a very famous painter, and the spirit of that painter is still very much in the house.  He meets a man who is much like Gatsby, rich and soulless. who acts as the unleasher of spirits in the tale, sets balls in motion that cannot be stopped, and it is a fun and varied ride.

Zahav Quick and Easy Hummus

You are going to look at this recipe and think that there is too much tahini.  I did that too.  But it is flat out delicious, and you can make and serve it.
This is hummus that you can serve with a variety of toppings on--my preference would be a sauteed wild mushroom mixture, but caramelized onions would be great as well.

• ¼ garlic clove
•  Juice of 1 lemon, about 1/4 cup
• 1 (16-ounce) jar tahini
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 to 1 ½ cups ice water
• 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1. Drop the 1/4 garlic clove into a food processor and add the lemon juice. Pour the tahini on top, making sure to scrape it all out of the container, and add the salt and cumin. Process until the mixture looks peanut-buttery, about 1 minute. Stream in the ice water, a little at a time, with the motor running. Process just until the mixture is smooth and creamy and lightens to the color of dry sand.
2. Add the chickpeas and process for about 3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go, until the chickpeas are completely blended and the hummus is smooth and uniform in color.

For the Quick Tehina Sauce

1 garlic clove

Juice of 1 lemon

1 (16-ounce) jar tahini

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 to 1½ cups ice water

For the Hummus

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1. Make the tehina sauce: Nick off a piece of the garlic (about a quarter of the clove) and drop it into a food processor.
2. Squeeze the lemon juice into the food processor. Pour the tehina on top, making sure to scrape it all out of the container, and add the salt and cumin.
3. Process until the mixture looks peanut-buttery, about 1 minute.

Read more: https://forward.com/food/410601/michael-solomonovs-5-minute-hummus-with-quick-tehina-sauce/

For the Quick Tehina Sauce

1 garlic clove

Juice of 1 lemon

1 (16-ounce) jar tahini

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 to 1½ cups ice water

For the Hummus

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1. Make the tehina sauce: Nick off a piece of the garlic (about a quarter of the clove) and drop it into a food processor.
2. Squeeze the lemon juice into the food processor. Pour the tehina on top, making sure to scrape it all out of the container, and add the salt and cumin.
3. Process until the mixture looks peanut-buttery, about 1 minute.

Read more: https://forward.com/food/410601/michael-solomonovs-5-minute-hummus-with-quick-tehina-sauce/

For the Quick Tehina Sauce

1 garlic clove

Juice of 1 lemon

1 (16-ounce) jar tahini

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 to 1½ cups ice water

For the Hummus

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1. Make the tehina sauce: Nick off a piece of the garlic (about a quarter of the clove) and drop it into a food processor.
2. Squeeze the lemon juice into the food processor. Pour the tehina on top, making sure to scrape it all out of the container, and add the salt and cumin.
3. Process until the mixture looks peanut-buttery, about 1 minute.

Read more: https://forward.com/food/410601/michael-solomonovs-5-minute-hummus-with-quick-tehina-sauce/For the Quick Tehina Sauce

1 garlic clove

Juice of 1 lemon

1 (16-ounce) jar tahini

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 to 1½ cups ice water

For the Hummus

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1. Make the tehina sauce: Nick off a piece of the garlic (about a quarter of the clove) and drop it into a food processor.
2. Squeeze the lemon juice into the food processor. Pour the tehina on top, making sure to scrape it all out of the container, and add the salt and cumin.
3. Process until the mixture looks peanut-buttery, about 1 minute.

Read more: https://forward.com/food/410601/michael-solomonovs-5-minute-hummus-with-quick-tehina-sauce/