Culinary Experiment: Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Some day I'm going to create a cook-book for single people living in small apartments without industrial size kitchens and expensive appliances, not to mention storage space, counter space, and decent ovens. It'll be free. And won't contain grains, nightshades, fodmaps, diary, soy, or refined sugar.

Attempted Lemon Blueberry Muffins - note to self, next time use melted butter not coconut oil - which decided to solidify while I was struggling to get an egg/coconut oil stain off my new pants. Which brings up another bit of advice? When cooking either invest in an apron or wear old clothes. Good news? I got the stain out - with a combination of lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, baking soda and eco stain remover. Personally think the latter did most of the work. Not so sure about the muffins, they aren't bad. Just a bit crumbly and difficult to remove from the muffin tin. Also, there's not a lot of rise or sponginess. That's the problem with gluten-free flours - they don't have much oomph. And while eggs can help - they don't exactly make up for the oomph. Avoiding Xanth Gum and Guar Gum, since not clean/whole foods. And you thought baking with wheat flour was complicated.

If you so choose to attempt this experiment yourself - here's the recipe:

http://purelyprimal.com/2012/08/06/blueberry-lemon-muffins/

And no, they didn't look quite like that. And yes, I did everything right, except I used coconut oil - thinking butter might have been a better bet, and next time almond flour?
( Blueberry Lemon Muffins from Practical Paoleo Cookbook )

I am suffering from food cravings. It's emotionally based. We know this. Although my mother believes it's due to lack of sleep. I did sleep seven hours last night, a record for me.

Book Review - Playbuilding as Qualitative Analysis

Recently finished reading the non-fiction novel Playbuilding as Qualitative Analysis, which I borrowed from the woman that I'm currently co-writing a play with for an informal theater project organized through First UU of Brooklyn.

The book surprised me, on the surface it's mainly an academic analysis and history of a Canadian Educational Theater experiment entitled "Mirror Theater", where social issues are examined via improvisational, and planned performances, some filmed, some theaterical. But in reality, it explores things such as bullying, miscommunication, bigotry, gender politics, play-building and play-writing, collaborative research, and interpersonal relationships. If you are a play write, an actor, a sociology major, or a teacher - I highly recommend reading this book. Although it doesn't really matter, since I'm certainly none of those things, yet it taught me a great deal.

Amongst the interesting tid-bits:

1. The term "slapstick comedy" derived from using "slap-sticks" to hit each other on stage in a comedic style of combat.
( origin of slapstick )

2. Communication Responsibility - how a simple word such as "NO" can mean various things depending on body language and tone of voice. This passage was eye-opening and managed to articulate something that I've been struggling to say in various online debates regarding "consent" since 2002.

In workshop discussions with the audience, issues of communication responsibility were raised. "What message do you want to send?" was an emerging question, as was "Are you interpreting the message appropriately?" [Too often, I see people being blasted for not writing something well but rarely do I see responsibility for how we listen or interpret what we see or hear. And that, is just as important.] ....in a scene that was originally named "Tickle" ....a male is playing a video game and his girlfriend enters. He laughs and says "No." He's really into the game, but she persists. Again he firmly says "No." The third time he says "No," he is referring to his loss of the game. They then playfully begin to tickle each other, and each advance is countered by a "No," albeit with a different inflection. Eventually, the scene escalates, with her on the floor, him on top and she screaming "NO!" It is a powerful scene and plays metaphorically. It can be, but need not be, about sexual or physical abuse.

In workshopping this.....the issue of the responsibility of the receiver was highlighted. In "Tickle", the audience was asked why she didn't stop after the first tickle. The common response was "HE laughed when he said it [No]." This led us quickly into how words are more ambiguous than they seem, that much of a word's meaning is in its oral expression. During a tour in a rural community where we were informed by the community's social workers of a possible date rape, "Tickle" became the focus of the high school students. As the discussion progressed, it was evident that it had an impact on the male audience members. The issue that emerged was "You need to listen carefully to all the signals being sent, and that isn't easy."

3. This quote about the purpose of theater and to a broader degree all art, be it a painting, a book, a film or a television series:
( Theater acts like a mirror )

4. Friends/Communities/Cliques/Gangs - I've often thought that no matter where I go or what group of people I interact with - I can't escape the clique or the feeling of exclusion, whether it is me or someone else.
( Read more... )

Education and therapy through theater and art - seems to be useful, it's a safer means of doing it - providing a mirror, that allows adjustment without unnecessary conflict or confrontation. Sometimes I think art works as a sort of peaceful diplomat or ambassador.

Great book, will haunt me for a time. And very useful.

Game of Thrones and other tv news items

1. EW announced that two interesting female actors have been added to the Star Wars cast. The actress who portrays Brienne on Game of Thrones, and the actress who recently won the best-supporting Oscar for 12 Years a Slave. This movie is beginning to intrigue me - based solely on its cast.

2. A handful new tv series, which were spot-lighted in EW, caught my interest:

* Scean Bean as a CIA agent, who has taken on so many roles, he no longer knows who he is and what he is, in LEGENDS. He plays three roles in it. Watching Scean Bean get a chewy role is intriguing in of itself. Bean last played Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, also known for the Sharpe films.

* The Strain - by Guillermo Del Toro ( the guy who did Pan's Labrynthe and various other horror flicks), and Carlton Cuse (one of the ex-Lost producers) - this is about vampirism as a parasitic viral outbreak in NYC, with a band of scientists fighting against it. Reminds me more of I AM LEGEND than Dracula, which is nice change of pace.

* Extant (Steven Spielberge produced) - Halle Barry plays a 47 year old astronaut who discovers she's pregnant after returning from a solo mission in space. She has a robot son.

* Tyrant - the new F/X series about man who returns with his family to a fictional and strife-ridden middle eastern country for his brother's wedding. Except it's run by his father, and ruled by his half crazed brother.

* The Left-Overs - 2% of the population disappeared three years ago, how has a small suburban area coped with these events?

* Welcome to Sweden - a semi-autobiographical tale about a man who moves with his wife to her home country, Sweden. By Greg Poehler, Amy Poehler's younger brother. Stars Lena Olin and Patrick Duffy, Greg Poehler and Illena Douglas, along with Swedish actors, Claes Mansson, Josephine Bornebusch. And the first season just finished airing in Sweden.

* Satisfaction - weirdly, USA network has decided to do a series about male prostitution. After discovering his wife of 18 years having sex with a male escort, suburban dad and investment banker, Neil, decides to try his hand at the world's oldest profession. Ie - he decides to become male escort. Talk about marital issues. It's described as a love story.

3. Finally caught up on Game of Thrones - which if you've read up to the mid-way point of Dance of Dragons...isn't really that suspenseful. They are actually following the books fairly closely in some respects. At least the major plot-points.

( eh spoilers )