Slurping Noises

I was struck by the urge to make my own pasta today, for the first time ever.

The banks of my flour well broke and the egg rushed out. Eep!




With pirate cries I stemmed the flow, and soon had an assembled dough. Blimey, that rhymes!

Kneading took place and soon a smooth dough ball was in my proud possession:

After resting (both me and the dough), I did some rolling out.

My inexperience showed in in the tagliatelle that came out uneven and a bit too thick. I hadn't realized how much the strands would swell during cooking. Here they are, uncooked:

But, boy were they good when they were cooked! I served them with a fresh sage/butter sauce tossed with the pasta, then topped with lashings of finely shaved parmigiano and ground black pepper. My two human guinea pigs were very happy with the result.

And speaking of sage, I think it's time for a "quote of the day":

"Wisdom is the providence of the aged,

but the heart of a child is pure."

Peter Sellers as Hrundi V. Bakshi in The Party (1968)

//UPDATE: I was on the phone with a friend who asked me why the noodles appeared to be such different colours pre-cooking and post. Answer: they were photographed in different rooms. The cooked noodles look more like they did in real life.

Quote of the Day

General Lorenz Lowenhielm: I have been with you every day of my life. Tell me you know that.

Martina: Yes, I know it.

Lowenhielm: You must also know that I shall be with you every day that is granted to me from now on. Every evening I shall sit down to dine with you. Not with my body, which is of no importance, but with my soul. Because this evening I have learned, my dear, that in this beautiful world of ours, all things are possible.

Jarl Kulle as General Lorens Löwenhielm and Birgitte Federspiel as Martina in Babette's Feast (1987)

Soon...

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

From Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Photograph from last year's cottage trip.

Something Else I did on Blogging Hiatus

I love boxy handbags, usually 1950s in style. This white wicker basket bag was picked up in a little junk/antique shop. It had a very nasty old lining but a cute wooden handle and brass lock. It's 8" wide to give you some perspective.




Here it is with a spiffy new lining:

Bruce!

Song of the Day

I am Calling You
(Bob Telson)

A desert road from Vegas to nowhere
Some place better than where you've been
A coffee machine that needs some fixin'
In a little cafe just around the bend

I am calling you
Can't you hear me
I am calling you

A hot dry wind blows right through me
The baby's cryin' and I can't sleep
But we both know a change is comin'
Coming closer, sweet release

I am calling you
I know you hear me
I am calling you


This song, sung by Jevetta Steele, is one of the many memorable things from the film Bagdad Cafe (1987). So many more, including C.C.H. Pounder and Jack Palance. The luminous Marianne Sägebrecht is a German woman who emerges from the California desert in a way that brought to mind Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas (1984). (I think it's because I spent formative years living in the desert that draws me to it over and over). But here's the thing: Bagdad Cafe was directed by Percy Adlon (German, although I wouldn't have guessed from the name) and Paris, Texas was directed by Wim Wenders. Strange and delicious.

Stowe White and the Seven - make that Twenty-odd - Plums

It's too hot to do anything. So first of all I admired the paint job in my home (I did the whole thing this summer; amazing what you can do when taking a blog hiatus) and remarked on the many different hues that Stowe White paint can take in late afternoon light. Then I admired one of my hanging Jack Pines.




Then I lay on the carpet and considered dinner. Too hot to cook. Almost too hot to eat (let's not get carried away) so I consumed a bowl of yellow Ontario plums. A big bowl.

Stomach pains! Why do I do this? I cannot resist the lure of summer fruit. Sigh... OW!

Quote(s) of the Day

"Excellence does not require perfection."

Henry James


"That's a mercy."

BPG

It's Been a While...

... but tea time is always worth the wait. We consumed the entire batch of fresh-from-the-oven scones with lashings of butter and black cherry jam. Oh, and lots of tea.

Dainty half-scone:




Mmmmmmm...

Quote of the Day

"Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars."

From Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Quote of the Day

"The strange effect of this incident was that when they met that evening at dinner both Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline had a singular feeling of secret understanding with Mr. Wilkins. He could not be to them as other men. He could not be to them as he would have been if they had met him in his clothes. There was a sense of broken ice; they felt at once intimate and indulgent; almost they felt to him as nurses do – as those feel who have assisted either patients or young children at their baths. They were acquainted with Mr. Wilkins’s legs."

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

Quote of the Day

"My feelings for you, Hank, are like a big bowl of... fish hooks. I can't just pick up one up at a time. I pick one up and they all come, so I just had to leave 'em alone."

Meryl Streep as Lee in Marvin's Room (1996)

39.04%... and counting

Quote of the Day

The Organic Commandment

Love is the virtue of the heart
Sincerity the virtue of the mind
Courage the virtue of the spirit
Decision the virtue of the will.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Waving Vigorously

Hello! I'm hoping to start blogging again soon. In the meantime, I'll get myself back into the swing with a new "Quote of the Day" feature on the top of the right-hand column. Also, my top ten movie list is now up to twelve. Can you spot the latest addition?

Hey, have other bloggers noticed that the search feature on the top left doesn't seem to work any more? Also, the profile views counter seems to have frozen but I've heard that's pretty common.

Hope you're all well!

Hiatus Continues... but Welcome!

Yep, I decided that "Film, Food, Fiction" was a little limiting, especially as I've been such a poor reader of late.

So here it is... da new blog. And I'll be back to full blogging power ere long. Of this I am sure.

Food Film Fiction on Hiatus

All is well in the realm of Blog Princess G... but this blog will be on hiatus for the next little while...

I will be around to visit my favourite blogs whenever I can.

28.87%... and Counting

Song of the Day

Lullabye (Goodnight my Angel)
(Music and words by Billy Joel)

Watch below, or, for a much better version, click here and make sure you watch the high-quality version (just to the bottom right of the screen).



Good night my angel, time to close your eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you've been asking me
I think you know what I've been trying to say

I promised I would never leave you
And you should always know
Where ever you may go
No matter where you are
I never will be far away

Good night my angel, now it's time to sleep
And still so many things I want to say
Remember all the songs you sang for me
When we went sailing on an emerald bay

And like a boat out on the ocean
I'm rocking you to sleep
The water's dark and deep
Inside this ancient heart
You'll always be a part of me

Do do do do...

Goodnight my angel, now it's time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry and if you sing this lullaby
Then in your heart there will always be a part of me

Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die that's how you and I will be.

At Lunch with Bruce the Bat

This blog's favourite bat does get out and about and here he is at lunch with his friend, Dr. M. at our local Distillery District.

First, steak, stout and stilton pie at the Mill Street Brew Pub. Yum. Accompanied of course by Mill Street's own Cobblestone Stout.

We traditionally forgo dessert and stumble across the cobblestones to Soma Chocolatier, which is not unheard of on this blog. AND... they finally have a groovy new website.

And... here it is: dessert. A cup of warm Mayan hot chocolate, the "Drink of the Gods."

Is it any wonder I didn't weigh in last week?

Quote of the Day

"Soli d’inverno e cosa da morire… Ci lasceremo alla stagion dei fior…"

"To be alone in winter is death… we’ll part when the flowers bloom once more…” (from La Bohème, words by Illica and Giacosa, music by Puccini)