Friday I had a lovely evening with my group of 'sisters' that I get together with about once a month. We're all together again now that ~V has moved back stateside and pretty soon, we will hopefully be joined by Heathen at some point too. I always have a good time with this group and I'm very thankful that I have them. They're part of what I consider my 'chosen family,' something I've written about before.
Saturday I pretty much prepped cooking stuff all day. I made my first completely vegetarian meal, since I was having a vegetarian over for dinner. Stuffed eggplant is mighty yummy and easy to make. I had saffron rice, stuffed eggplant, a little na'an flat bread with tomato & feta. All in all, I was very proud of myself. I mean, I can cook and I like to cook, but I've never done an entire meal without some sort of meat. The hardest part was thinking of things that could go together with the main dish without conflicting flavors. In the end, pretty much everything I made contained most of the same ingredients in different combinations, and so it all worked well together. I made a peach cobbler for dessert too (come on - fresh farmer's market peaches, you gotta do something with them!).
We rented Diary of the Dead, which I liked and was interesting - classic George Romero - Zombie madness with the over-arching critique of human nature. I think I still like Dawn of the Dead (both the original and the remake) better though. The premise of Diary of the Dead is a bunch of college students are in the middle of making a film for Jason's final project (a horror movie of course) and wind up making a documentary of the events that unfold in the first three days of the zombie plague. The movie begins by one of the characters explaining that she edited the final version and uploaded it as a warning to future generations. It has interesting characters and a good balance of dialogue, analysis, action, and horror, and of course, Romero's constant question of 'do human beings really deserve to live?'
Annie was happy to have someone other than me to play with for a little while. The boy jokingly offered to buy her from me because she's so cute. Once she gets to know people, she's the sweetest little dog and everyone ends up loving her to death.
Sunday was a quiet day. I did some knitting and some operational stuff (pay bills, etc - wheeeee). I also decided to order Dead Snow off Comcast on demand. It's playing in a local theatre, but the showtimes are weird and honestly, it's $7 to watch it at home with nifty features like "pause" and $9 to see it in the theatre. So it was worth it, IMHO. It's only a couple bucks more than renting it - so why not?
Awesome movie. Unlike Romero's work, this is your classic totally ridiculous zombie movie. The point of this one is antics, action, and gore. The premise is totally formula and an homage to movies like Evil Dead - a bunch of happy go lucky college students go into the woods (or in this case, the mountains) for spring break. A friend of theirs is hiking across the mountains and will meet them at her family's cabin (or will she??). Kids are having a great time. Enter spooky old man that randomly shows up and warns them about the history of this place - that during World War II it was a Nazi stronghold and there are evil forces still at work. Exit spooky old man. One of the characters is a total movie nerd and is seen wearing several different shirts with various horror movie posters on them. The first half of the movie is essentially the kids trying to figure out what is stalking them from outside, then them getting picked off one by one in great gore fashion. And then the climax - killing Nazi zombies with chainsaws and sledgehammers... awesome fun. I should note that this is a Norwegian film - the version on comcast is overdubbed, not subtitled. But the movie/dvd version will likely be subtitled.
3 people give a shit:
I saw the real preview for the movie and it's subtitled, not dubbed. so I don't know what comcast did there.
Word Verification for the day:
"bificirt"
Two zombie movies I have yet to have seen. Yeah, I'm bad. Actually, I'm busy.
As for Romero, I'm glad you "get it." He's one of those directors who actually have something to say in his films, yet most people who see them only see the action and think they're awesome action films and that's it.
As for vegetarian meals, I'm surprised that this was your first. I've been making them for years. But then again, this is the SF area where probably well over 10% of the people here are vegetarian (and it's much higher among women).
Sounds like a great weekend.
I just made stuffed eggplant today, but not quite as fancy a recipe. Cut up the eggplant with zucchini, red onion, mushrooms and garlic, cooked in olive oil in a skillet, mixed with bread crumbs, stuffed in the shells, topped with tomato sauce and baked. Added some parmisan at the end. Very good.
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