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/