Julia Child and Julie Powell

  These two wonderful women never knew each other but one was very famous for French cooking and the other challenged herself with a blog saying that she would spend a whole year trying out all of Julia Child's recipes.

  But it was more than that.



Julia Child was an amazement to the world of French Cooking but it took forever for her to get into that.
   She studied, went to culinary school, lived in France and tried to publish a French cookbook. Had many doubts in her life.

   But she stuck it out as best as she could with the support of her loving husband and he suggested to her, after a failed attempt with a cookbook, try to go on TV and make so many amazing recipes. And she did. Calling it... The French Chef

    Happily to her, someone else loved her cookbook and decided to publish it. She still will be in our thoughts, and memories and parodied by Dan Akroyed on SNL. She passed away at 91 and her memory of cooking will never die.


  Julie Powell was a woman who tried hard to succeed in life. Sadly, after 9/11, she tried to help others who lost love ones in the two towers (like I did) and soon thought it would be great to follow in Julia Child's footsteps.
How? To blog... She called it: Julie & Julia 365 days, 542 recipes 1 tiny apartment kitchen

She started around the new year. Had a husband that helped her. She did the best she could following every step Julia Child did, hoping the blog would be any help or comfort, getting any results from her fans, sadly no results.

   Soon, she got what she needed. Mastering the art of French Cooking editor went on her blog and decided to try her meal and wrote an article. Everyone soon wanted to interview her. However, Julia Child was not pleased or so it seemed.

   At the end, she got her results and published a book. And it became a movie staring the great Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell.

    I enjoyed the flick. They were very accurate on how they portrayed each part. Sadly it came out after Julia Child passed away. The movie was dedicated in her honor and Meryl Streep wasn't as tall as Julia Child was but she tried her hardest staying in character and, she was amazing as the part.

   And Amy can be anyone she is willing to be.

We call have a special spark. Whether it is acting or cooking. In the kitchen or on stage. Julia Child was great in the kitchen and Julie Powell challenged herself to be great as a writer and a chef.  It seems. We haven't heard from her in a long time but it seems she is still out there, somewhere cooking and blogging, but not doing anything extreme. Till then, I won't do anything crazy, but I can cook and blog.

    For me, I love to cook and I love to write and those passions will stay with me forever.

Bonaparte!

hot chocolate love

  It is winter and we need it...



HOT CHOCOLATE. But the questions are, what is the best way to have it... with milk? water? marshmallows?

   Who cares as long as it's in our hands we know we can survive a long cold winter sitting at a fire place with a blanket and a hot coca in our hands.


   Sometimes I would wonder what is the best brand of hot chocolates and Swiss Miss mostly comes to mind. However; their commercials in the seventies are not all that amazing. To get their advertising to TV, they used what appeared to be a wooden doll to get their attention. She was a creepy as the first shot of the Green Giant. Horrifying.
   They used Judd Hirsch in the 80's and it seemed to work. Now a days, people use either packets or Keurig cups, and with us, we go either way,

   and I like using water in mine and no marshmallows. 

        Hot Chocolate is what usually starts off  the new year with the winter being so cold, but it brings the warmth as well. I don't mind winter, the snow even though everyone hates it but it bring back old memories of the blizzard of 96 and having hot cocoa at my aunts since she had electricity and we didn't.

   It's been about 21 years today since we had to deal with that and the hot chocolate brought me back to that day, let alone the snow we are getting. I don't think it's the end of that snow, it's only the beginning.

One more company I know that makes hot chocolate mix is Carnation, but I don't use their mix that much.

Till then, I will enjoy every cup of hot chocolate, no matter what brand, Swiss Miss or other.

    Ciao Bloggers, and enjoy your winter.

PRAY FOR FLORIDA

Is it just me or are all camera men scary?

   I just saw the movie "The Sixth sense" and not only did it creep some people out when it came to theaters, but it startled some into the camera movements that one finds in "The Blair witch project" or any other horror film.
 It's not how the movie is made, how the camera man does it. How the camera angels move, how the lighting works and how the camera movements happen.

  I feel that sometimes if the movie is creepy, and the killer in in the view of the camera man, BLAME HIM!!!!

I don't care if the point of view is from the camera man, if the murderer is him, I'm pointing to the camera man.

  The sixth sense was ok, but I felt, even if M. Night Shamalan was trying his best, it was his only great work because his rest were just trash.

   Other horror film makers, such as Stephen King, try to make his story not much like his books. He tries his best. He mostly makes his movies long and some of them are TV shorts that were three to four hours.

   Sometimes his stories would not make sense when it comes to film, but when he did Carrie, a girl with interesting Supernatural powers, that did scare people to death, some do the fear of wondering,

   "Was Sissy Spasik like that in real life?" 

   When the camera man in a horror film, and they are the one that feels as if they are the killer, does it make them the true murderer? The creepy music does most of the work, intending the viewer a scare is upon them.

With the Sixth Sense all Hayley Joel Osmond can see are dead people (and his career failing)  

   Bruce Willis never knew, he was that ghost (no thanks to someone shouting it out in the theaters) but I knew all along after him not able to communicate with Toni Collete and in the end, it made sense,

   The intense of the music helped as well as the coldness of the room wherever Hayley was in.

 

Maybe not every camera man is scary but the feeling of every horror film... The camera man is the real murder.

Ciao Bloggers

RIP CARRIE FISHER AKA PRINCESS LEIA

Gone too soon, but not forgotten

  It seems there has been a black cloud over 2016 lately. We had to suffer through hell and s*it with god knows what and now...

Another Celebrity is gone too soon at the age of 53. His name is George Michael.
   He used to be a huge star with Wham in the 1980s bringing out hits such as "Last Christmas" (although I prefer Train's version) "Wake me up Before you Go-Go" 

  He came out gay in the 90's but I already knew about his sexuality and I think almost everyone else did too. When he went on his own, he made amazing hits like "Faith", "Father Figure" "One more Try" and with Aretha Franklin performed "I knew you were trying"
Sadly, he was doing many drugs from 2006 to 2010, did some charity work and even released an album for Princess Di on the day of her death.

   So many people were shocked to hear about his sudden death of heart failure at 53 and on Christmas day as well and it struck me, we have lost so many celebrities this year than any other. More than last year.

  Like Prince, and David Bowie and the man who gave us the Oscar Mayer jingle for hot dogs.

   Bernard Fox lived to be 89 until his heart gave out. Alan Thicke from Growing Pains died suddenly from and Aortic Burst at 69. Gene Wilder, the wonderful Willie Wonka passed away from Alzheimer's '
 Alan Rickman and David Bowie both had cancer, Muhammad Ali died of Septic shock at 74. All sad, tragedies that took beloved actors young and old. Even Florence Henderson from Brady Bunch as people would call her TV mom, gone.

  I pray for next year to be better but I know it won't. Carrie Fisher, AKA Princess Leah, just praying, survived a massive heart attack and is now recuperating in a hospital in LA. I hope it doesn't end with her leaving us.

   2016 gave us great moments as well, mostly with movies, tv shows and books but even the summer Olympics
            We can't judge what happened this year by the deaths of so many celebrities but you know what happens this year will happen again next year. Till then, remember whom we have lost and what happened isn't all tragedy.
       We will miss 2016 for the best times and the worst times. And 2017, we'll try to take with a grain of salt.

Will blog next year. Have a safe and happy new year.

Is Millions considered a Christmas movie

      By all means it is based on a novel and a British movie that came out 12 years ago, but it is centered around two boys that found a bag of money that came from the sky.


             But here's the thing, it starts around the holidays, the boys lost their mother and just moved to a new town with their father.

  One of them sees images of saints and believes they are trying to do good deeds once again just like they have done before.
   But does this really make it a Christmas movie because it takes place around the holidays?

I'm going to have to say... Yes.

   Why?

Because, you don't have to see Snow, Santa and a Christmas Tree to make it a Christmas movie.

   What the boy wants to do with the money is give it to the poor, which is what many people want to do around the holidays, thinking of other. But not realizing the money was stolen, it doesn't matter to him.
          What matters to him, is not only seeing visions of Saints that only he can see but also knowing the money he found go to someone that needs it more than he does.

         I love to give around the holidays, money is one thing and gifts are another. But the unfortunate people around the world will need more and this boy does that with a bag of money (or pounds as they say in British money)

            It's how you want to celebrate Christmas and it doesn't have to involve a Santa Claus. This movie isn't a great movie, but it's a special movie for it's reasons, and it's sad that the boys didn't do any other acting gigs after this movie. But it's fine, it's what they did that made their heart grow stronger like the Grinch at the end of his movie (not the longer version, the cartoon)

    

       Till then, Happy Holidays and enjoy your Christmas, no matter what you do, and no matter what happens, remember to give and then receive. Ciao and Merry Christmas!