Emily M. DeArdo's Blog, page 14

Oscars 2021: "West Side Story"

Next Up in my Oscar Race reviews: West Side Story!

(Previous entries: King Richard, Belfast, Dune)

This remake of the 1961 Best Picture winner by Stephen Spielberg has been nominated for seven Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Ariana DeBose as Anita), Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Sound. (Big 5 nominations: two, director and picture, the same amount as Dune.) Of course the 1961 picture was adapted from the Broadway musical, which was nominated for the Best Musical Tony Award.

When I first heard this was coming out (it was supposed to come out in 2020), I rolled my eyes. I grew up with the 1961 movie cast album, learning all the music and pretending to be Anita or Maria as a kid in the basement of our house. I didn’t think we needed a re-do.

My original assessment still stands: This isn’t a needed re-make. That being said, there are some strong points to it, along with some “meh”s.

Likes:

*Tony and Maria are actually the appropriate ages. As in, they don’t look like they’re in their late 20s or early 30s trying to play teenagers. Big plus. Same with the other actors. I love it when they’re the right age! (Or at least can pass!)

They look like teenagers! Yay! Ansel Elgort (Tony) and Rachel Zegler (Maria) meet at the Dance at the Gym.

It’s also great that everyone does their own singing, and everyone can sing. Some have done so on Broadway (Ariana DeBose was in the original Hamilton cast, and Mike Feist, who plays Riff, originated the role of Connor in Dear Evan Hansen as well as the role of Morris in Newsies. He’s also from Central Ohio! Yay local boy!) and are musical veterans (Brian D’Arcy James, who plays Officer Krupke, was in the original Broadway cast of Titanic, which was the first Broadway show I saw actually on Broadway.) I think that Elgort’s singing is just fine. Tony has a high tenor voice and it’s not an easy part to sing, but he does it well. (I do think that both he and Rachel Zegler, who plays Maria, could learn to emote a little more when they’re singing. They both do a lot of the “my face is blank while I sing!”)

*Ariana DeBose deserves her Best Supporting Actress nomination—her performance as Anita is extremely well done, especially in “America” and “A Boy Like That”. She is fabulous!

*Mike Feist is an amazing Riff, and for my money, the best actor amongst the “gang” kids. I feel like he shouldn’t been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, because he plays Riff just right: there’s an edge to him you believe, a fatalism that works for a kid who is supposed to be the leader of a gang. The scene where Riff goes to buy a gun for the rumble is one of the few good additions to the script, mostly because of Feist’s work in it.

Mike Feist as Riff

*Justin Peck’s choreography improves on some of Jerome Robbins’ original work; this is especially clear in the opening sequence, the re-imagined “Cool”, and the sprawling “America” sequence. Also those crisp motions leg movements during the Mambo section at the dance—gorgeous. Also “Officer Krupke”’s move from the streets to a NYPD precinct is a great call, with excellent choreography and vocals (check out the beginning, which starts a cappella and then the orchestration comes in.).

*The re-imagined “Somewhere” sequence works very well, especially as a solo for Valentina (Rita Moreno).

*it’s a gorgeous movie to look at. The cinematography, the color, the sets…gorgeous. Great production values. I definitely think it should win the Production Design Oscar. I also love Maria’s costumes for the last scene and “I Feel Pretty.”

Dislikes:

*The Spanish isn't captioned. This is a ridiculous decision on their part. I actually went back and read the screenplay, and then translated what was said, and it’s not the same as “what was just said next” as a lot of reviewers say. We’re missing the spice of the original, and in some cases we’re missing insults and even context. The song the Sharks sing in the opening fight with the Jets? Apparently it’s the Puerto Rican national anthem. If it was translated, we’d at least know what they’re singing about (Usually if a song is being sung in a non-musicals, the captions will give you the title of the song. This happened in Belfast.)

When Anita speaks to Valentina after her almost gang-rape, Anita is actually saying something along the lines of Valentina letting pigs in under her roof. It’s much sharper and harder than anything that Anita says after that. But Spielberg said that adding captions would have been disrespectful.

(I think it’s pretty disrespectful for those of us who rely on captions…but I digress. )

The only time I have ever seen the “no captions” thing work is on Outlander, where Gaelic isn’t subtitled because Claire doesn’t understand what’s being said, so the audience is as lost as she is. That’s the point.

Here the audience is just….lost. And the fact that it’s not even captioned for the hearing impaired? That’s ridiculous on a whole other level.

*Anita and Bernardo live together with Maria (which I really don’t think was happening among Catholics in the 1950s?) in a big apartment. We’re talking two big bedrooms and a large kitchen, bigger than any NYC kitchen I’ve actually seen, with an equally big dining room. This just struck me as unrealistic.

*And that leads into the re-writing of the script. Having Tony be an ex-inmate doesn’t work. You never buy it. You never buy that he’d break his parole to go to a dance (I mean, come on, are we in Les Miserables here? We’re going to rip up our ticket of leave and go on the run?). Why does this back story exist?

Valentina is also criminally underwritten when compared to Doc in the original. Doc had many more lines, and a lot more world-weariness that played against Tony really well. That doesn’t happen here at all.

(Also: Anita talking about having little mix during the Quintet while she’s….at Mass? Can we not?)

*The meeting scene. Tony and Maria meeting behind the bleachers is tacky, and it takes away the magic of the “eyes meeting across the room and the world fades away” thing. It’s just not magical anymore. And the re-write doesn’t help it here. Leave it alone, people! We get crappy dialogue where before it was better.

*Some of the the costumes. I like Paul Tazewell’s work in theater—he did the costumes for Hamilton. But the issue with some of the scenes is that the clothes are too theatrical. The general idea is that the Jets are in cool tones, and the Sharks are in warm ones. But at the dance, that translates into just about every Jet in a shade of blue (often the same shade of blue!), and every Shark in a shade of red.

See what I mean?

Again, this is great in theater. It works in theater. On screen it reads as off, at least to me. (The costumes are gorgeous, don’t get me wrong.) Compare it to Dune, where you have people who wear uniforms and color schemes, but it looks realistic as opposed to, “yes, we designed all of this! Look at our color scheme!”

I will say it’s not as overt throughout the entire film, and when it’s not, the costumes work much better.

A still from “America.”

Overall West Side Story is beautiful to watch. There are good performances, the music and dance are excellent; but there are things that keep it from being a great movie.

Maddie is Two Months Old!

I cannot believe that Madeleine is two months old already! Time flies!

Here she was last month!

Things that she likes and dislikes at two months old:

LIKES:

pacifier, especially her Longhorn Buddy

food :)

cuddles!

Her swing

naps

New this month: Her play gym. Holy cow does she love her play gym, especially kicking and grabbing the clouds, rainbow, elephant, and star!

At first she wasn’t too sure about the Elephant. Now they are buds.

Also, SMILING! She’s smiling a lot more and it’s just adorable. She smiles whenever she sees Mel and/or Jason!

Checking out her toys! Also that onesie is from Auntie Em. :) :) I love dressing her.

She also took her first trip to a ski resort—Jason loves to snowboard.

Mel and Maddie on the cabin deck. This is one of my favorite photos.

She also still loves music! Mel will even put her in her baby wearer and play the piano, which Maddie enjoys.

As far as dislikes:

baths have moved into the “I’m OK with them” category, so yay!

Messy diapers.

Being interrupted when she’s eating

Being held too long—she wants to sit up and look around and PLAY!

Cold milk! (If it’s a bottle right from the fridge)

Being left alone too long! Again, she wants to be around people!

She has a very sweet personality and beautiful eyes! Also, she and Patty wore that onesie at the same time last week, which just cracked me up. They’re twinning.

We’re so lucky to have this little doll in our lives.

Oscars 2021: Dune

Welcome to the continuation of my Best Picture Nominee Reviews! Here’s the overall list, with links to the reviews that are live, and notes about forthcoming reviews. I might not be able to see all the movies before the awards at the end of the month, but I’ll try!

(All the movies, with my linked reviews: King Richard/ Belfast , CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley , The Power of the Dog (review forthcoming) ,West Side Story (review forthcoming) )

Dune has been nominated for 10 Oscars: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Original Score, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume Design, and Cinematography. Of the “big five” awards (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay—original or adapted), it’s nominated for two. (For comparison, King Richard is nominated for three—picture, actor, and screenplay, and Belfast also is nominated for three—picture, screenplay, and director.)

I hadn’t read the massively popular sci-fi novel until right before I saw the movie. While some people said you didn’t need to read the novel ahead of time, I found that I did, and even then I’m still sort of sketchy about certain things. If I hadn’t read the novel, I think I would’ve been pretty lost. The screenplay does do a good job of exposition, but I still wondered about certain things and wanted more detail, which, of course, the source novel has. (You can’t get everything into a movie; it’s not possible.)

The novel is actually divided into two films, because the director, Denis Villeneuve (Arrival), didn’t want to skip anything from the book. So in order to present it in its entirety, it’s two films. This movie stops about halfway through the novel.

(Before we get into the plot: if you are a massive fan of Dune, I give you my apologies right now, because I’m probably mangling the plot in an attempt to simplify it. I’m sorry!)

The basic plot: Paul Atreides, heir to House Atreides, is sent to Dune (aka, Arrakis) since the Emperor of the Galaxy (or something like that) has decided that his father, Duke Leto (Oscar Isaacs, The Force Awakens), is the new ruler of the planet. This comes with the extremely lucrative “spice melange” contract—spice is really the only thing worth having on Dune, which is a desert planet where the lack of water affects everything from the color of the sky to the clothing you wear. The spice has incredible powers—it enables higher levels of cognition, it makes space travel possible (you can’t navigate in space without spice, apparently), etc. (More here.)

However, this move comes with a cost, because the former rules of Arrakis are the Harkonnens, who are enemies of the Atreides, and they are, as one of the characters says, “BRUTAL!” So this promotion is not without a lot of danger, because obviously the Harkonnens are a little annoyed at this turn of events.

Our enemy: Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard)

Paul’s mother is Lady Jessica (the fabulous Rebecca Ferguson, Mission: Impossible, The Greatest Showman) and is a member of the aforementioned Bene Gesserit, an order of what are basically nuns (they have a Reverend Mother, for example) who are gifted in manipulation, both bodily and otherwise, politics, and all sorts of other shadowy machinations. Before the family leaves for Arrakis, the Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling) comes to test Paul with a few Bene Gesserit tests—a box of pain and the gom jabar. Paul passes these tests with flying colors, and the Reverend Mother thinks that Jessica has manipulated her body (when she was pregnant with Paul) to produce “a mind”—the great mind that can see beyond space and time, into the future and the past, and bring about all sorts of things. Basically, a Messiah.

Paul (Timothee Chalamet) undergoes the gom jabar test at the hands of the Reverend Mother (Charlotte Rampling)

So, with all this happening in the background, the Atreides family leaves their home planet of Caladan and take up residence on Arrakis/Dune. From the first, things are not good. There’s an assassin’s plot to try to kill Paul in his room, the housekeeper that Lady Jessica interviews gives her a crysknife, a Fremen’s weapon, to defend herself, and there’s rumors that someone is going to betray the family. Paul has been trained in combat, and he wants to prove his worth, but at the same time, his father is reluctant to let him do that, since he is the House’s only heir.

Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and Duke Leto (Oscar Isaacs)

And, just to make things really interesting, Paul has been having dreams about Arrakis and a certain Freman girl, and his dreams about the future tend to come true.

I think that’s enough plot to get you going, right?

The movie is, first and foremost, gorgeous. The scenery, the effects, the cinematography, and the costumes are first rate and deserve to win the Oscars for their respective categories, I don’t think anything else comes close in terms of costumes this year. Lady Jessica gets to wear a lot of fun things, but every person is costumed appropriately and well, in a way that is uniform but not over the top (I thought this about the West Side Story costumes but we’ll get to that in that review.)

Costuming: Lady Jessica and Paul on Caladan, at the “Herald of the Change” ceremony.

On Dune: Paul and Lady Jessica in stillsuits, which enable survival in the desert by recycling the body’s water.

The casting is an embarrassment of riches. Ferguson and Issacs interact well together, and with Paul, create a believable family. You feel the affection they all have for each other. It’s criminal to me that Ferguson didn’t get nominated in the Best Actress category, because her part is difficult and she pulls it off beautifully.

Chalamet, who plays the teenage Paul, has been in high profile projects before, especially Little Women and Beautiful Boy. He does justice to the role of the perhaps-Messiah of the galaxy, going from a boy eager to fight to one who knows he has to fight to fulfill his destiny, even if he’s not entirely sure what that is. There’s a mystical edge to the part that could be overdone, but I don’t think Chalamet does that.

Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck and Oscar Isaacs as Duke Leto

Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa are excellent as members of the Duke’s entourage, and Javier Bardem plays a Freman leader, Stilgar, with the appropriate shadowy qualities—we’ll see more of him in Part II, along with Skarsgaard’s Baron, who only appears in flashes but whose menace underlines the entire movie.

Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho,

Zendaya plays Chani (aka the Freman girl in Paul’s dreams) well, even if we don’t see much of her here. (Again, more to come in Part II). There’s also one more cast member I really liked. In a gender-bending role—the character is male in the novel—Dr. Liet Kynes (played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster) is the planet’s top expert, and she’s in charge of helping with the peaceful (ha!) transfer of power. Duncan-Brewster’s performance is excellent.

I really enjoyed Dune. Of course I think the Best Picture Oscar would go to it after the second installment, assuming it’s nominated again ( a la Lord of the Rings being nominated but not winning the top prize until Return of the King). It’s an “old school” kind of movie: adventure, action, drama, all put together in a complete, gorgeous package. I’m very excited to see Part II.

Oscars 2021: "King Richard", "Belfast" reviews

If you’ve been reading here for awhile, you know I like to review movies and I’m generally insterested in the Oscar race (well, assuming there re good movies in that race.) This year I’ve seen several of the movies up for Best Picture and I’m hoping to see more before the awards at the end of the month, and I’m writing reviews about them!

The nominees for Best Picture are:

Belfast (reviewed below)

CODA

Don’t Look Up

Drive My Car

Dune (review coming)

King Richard (reviewed below!)

Licorice Pizza

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

West Side Story (review coming)

In this first installment I’m combining two movies, King Richard and Belfast, because I mostly have short notes about them—but that doesn’t mean they’re not good!

King Richard has been nominated for several Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor (Will Smith), Best Supporting Actress (Aunjanue Ellis as Oracene ‘Brandy’ Williams, Richard’s wife), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing. It’s rated PG-13.

The film focuses on Richard’s drive to ensure that his daughters, Serena (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton) get the world class tennis training he knows they deserve. He’s doing his best, teaching them skills he’s found in magazines and on VHS training tapes, but he knows the girls deserve better than practicing on a public park tennis court, where they’re also harassed (maliciously) by a gang of guys. The desire for excellence isn’t just in tennis, it’s in life, as seen in the scenes at home, where the girls are told to reach for excellence in every part of life, and to be humble. (A scene where Richard makes the family watch Disney’s Cinderella drives this point home in a cute way.)

Eventually Richard gets training for Venus, but not Serena; Serena enters tournaments on the sly and begins racking up her own wins. So with two potential champions in tow, Richard begins to search for sponsors and opportunities—but he wants to do it his way, which begins to cause some problems with the coaches and tournament directors. The film climaxes with Venus’ match against world number 1 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (who, by the way, was one of my favorite payers to watch back in the day). But undergirding the story is the question: is Richard doing this for his girls, or is he doing it for himself?

Smith and Ellis make a great couple, and their scenes together are fiery and realistic. They both deserve to win their respective categories. The girls who play Venus and Serena are excellent as well, both in their tennis skills and in their portrayal of young girls with incredible talents, being driven by their father in ways they sometimes don’t want to be (such as when they’re practicing in a downpour). Sidney is especially notable because she’d never played tennis before shooting this movie!

Even if you’re not a tennis fan, this is an enjoyable movie to watch because of the focus on the family and Richard’s quest to see his girls reach tennis stardom.

Demi Singleton (Serena) and Saniyaa Sidney (Venus), training with their dad and the shopping cart full of tennis balls.

Belfast is based on the autobiography of director Kenneth Branagh, who grew up in Belfast until he was nine and his family moved to England to escape the escalating “Troubles.” Buddy, the nine year old boy at the center of the story, is played charmingly by newcomer Jude Hill, who is absolutely perfect in the role (it also makes me wish the Academy still did Juvenile Oscars.)

Buddy lives with his older brother Will (Lewis McAskie), his Ma (Caitriona Balfe, Outlander), Pa (Jamie Dornan), and in the same neighborhood as his Grannie (Judi Dench, charming as always) and Pop (Ciaran Hinds, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II). He has a crush on Catherine, a Catholic girl in his class at school. He loves playing int he alley with the other neighborhood kids and wants to do his space project with Catherine.

Then the Troubles begin in his neighborhood, on August 15, 1969 (as a card tells us). There is violence on Buddy’s normally quiet street, and there are barricades set up that he has to go through to get to school. There’s violence against the local Catholics, and Buddy worries about Catherine, and asks his cousin what the difference is between the religions—she says you can tell mostly by their names, until Buddy stumps her with “Thomas” ,which can go either way!

In a very funny scene, Pa tells the boys that Catholicism is a “religion of fear”, then cuts to the boys attending service, where their pastor is preaching unrelenting hellfire at them, making Buddy terrified of choosing the “wrong way” that leads to hell.

Ma (Caitriona Balfe) and Pa (Jamie Dornan) dance at a neighborhood party.

Pa works in England, but that doesn’t mean the family is exempt from local problems. There are men in the area who want Pa to join them to “remove” the Catholics from the area; there are debt collectors calling and sending overdue bills, and Ma worries about money and the safety of her boys. Can the family stay in Belfast with all the chaos around them, or should they decamp for England?

This is a very sweet streak to this movie, since it’s told through Buddy’s eyes. We see him absorb the violence, but he doesn’t really understand it. When one of his friends decides to join a crowd of rioters in looting a Catholic-owned grocery, Buddy tags after her, not knowing that it’s wrong since adults are doing the same thing, and if adults are doing it, it must be OK, right?

The violence is tempered with Buddy’s innocence (especially in his scenes with Catherine, played by Olive Tennant. They’re perfect). Is there violence in the film? Yes. It’s not gratuitous and it’s never close up, but it’s there (Buddy and Will hide under the kitchen table while Ma hides in the living room as a car bomb explodes, for example). Buddy worries about his family, especially his ailing Pop. But even with the danger, Buddy feels secure with his family, and that warmth is tangible and important to see in movies. (Especially since one of the other nominees, West Side Story, essentially does away with family underpinnings.) In fact, that’s one of the things I liked best about both Belfast and King Richard: the emphasis on family.

Belfast has been nominated for seven Oscars: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Ciaran Hinds), Best Director (Kenneth Branagh), Best Performance by an Actress a Supporting Role (Judi Dench), Best Original Song (Van Morrison) and Best Sound. It’s a shame Balfe wasn’t nominated for best actress, since she’s been nominated in other major award shows (BAFTAs, Screen Actors’ Guild, Critics’ Choice Award, and the Golden Globes.) and she gives a luminous performance.

At the Golden Globes, Belfast won Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for several other awards, including Best Picture—Drama. It’s rated PG-13 and is available to stream on via iTunes.

Have you seen either film? What did you think?

Yarn Along: Ursina body!

About to begin bust darts after separating the sleeves from the body

It’s an Ash Wednesday Yarn Along! :) And we’re continuing adventures in top down sweater knitting!

I am loving this sweater. It’s so fun to knit, and I love the color and yarn I’ve chosen (Quince and Co Lark, in limited edition color way blue balloon). (Ravelry notes here)

In the photo above, you see the sweater after I separated the sleeves from the body (this link is genius for explaining it!), and began the bust darts in size D. (The sizing options are part of the pattern) The bust darts give you extra fabric so that you’re not pulling your sweater down! They’re genius! It gives you more length right where you need it.

After the bust darts it’s just regular rows, working the half brioche stitch when you get to them (that’s the bit in between the stitch markers). Now I’ve finished the body rows and I’m on to the triangle detailing at the bottom of the sweater, which you can see here:

From the designer’s website: you can see the sweater can be cropped or full-length. (I chose the latter.)

The triangle detailing is one of the things that drew me to this pattern in the first place because it directs attention up toward my face as opposed to on places I don’t want attention directed! The v-neck collar does the same thing.

you can see the bust darts here--those will smooth out after blocking.

I have 48 rows to do for the triangle shaping, and then it’s on to the sleeves. I will say I’m a litttttle nervous about the sleeves, but the one thing I’ve been using as a motto for this sweater is: do not read ahead. Read the directions one line at a time and do what that line says!

Since today kicks off Lent, my reading is all Lenten: Restore by Sr. Miriam James, SOLT, and Just Rest (a bible study of the Book of Exodus) by Sonja Corbitt.

What are you making or reading?

It's Time for Lent!

Botticelli, The Man of Sorrows

In case you were unaware, Lent starts on Wednesday. Yes, this coming Wednesday, March 2!

So, let’s talk about Lent, shall we?

First a few things…

My friend Jen Fitz has written a retreat ebook, called Lord, You Know That I Love You, that is currently free on Amazon. That’s right, free! I highly encourage you to go check it out! The sale runs through the end of the month. (as in, through Monday, Feb. 28, 2022)

Not sure what Lent is? Or what we do during it? You can check out this post, which has a link to a weeklong series I did on Lenten practices!

Do you want to know more about the basics of Catholicism? Then you’re in luck! I wrote a whole ebook about them, called Catholic 101! It covers the church year, the sacraments, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and lots more! You can read it on any e-reader, as well as on your desktop/laptop/phone, and you can even print it out if you want to read it on paper. It’s $5!

And, of course, Living Memento Mori is, dare I say, perfect for Lent. If you’d like a signed copy, email me.

My Lent is usually focused on a few things. I can’t fast, but I can abstain from meat, so I do that on the days required (Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all the Fridays of Lent). I also don’t use food for a penance. Instead, I give up book and yarn buying, and with the money I save from that, I use it for charitable donations (ie, almsgiving in Church parlance). Two of my favorite charities are Mary’s Meals and our local diaper bank.

I am single. I know you probably know that, but when I talk about things like penances and living Lent, I want to remind you that since I don’t have a family, I have a lot of flexibility that you might not have. Take what’s good here, and leave the rest. :) So when I say I want to try a monastic horarium for Lent (which I do, generally, try to do during Lent, in order to deepen my prayer life), that’s something that a lot of people can’t do, because they work outside the home, or they have children that wouldn't exactly allow them to pray all seven offices of the Liturgy of the Hours or have a holy hour every week!

I have a few books: Restore and Just Rest (a study of the book of Exodus). I will try to incorporate more offices from the Liturgy of the Hours —right now I say lauds (morning prayer) and vespers (evening prayer) every day, and I’d like to add in compline, night prayer. I can find time for more prayer because I’m going to limit my time on certain social media platforms, mostly Twitter right now, because I know I’m spending too much time there and Lent is a good time to try to restore correct balance in how I spend my time.

Is there anything that you would like to see me do during Lent? Living Memento Mori book club? Stations of the Cross on Facebook Live? Anything else? Please let me know!

What does your Lent look like? How are you preparing for this season?

2022 Columbus Catholic Women's Conference--In Person!

It was so nice to be back at the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference! Last year we didn’t have one, and the 2020 conference took place before all of the COVID shut downs. It was so wonderful to gather again in person!

The conference day begins with Mass and then there are four speakers scattered through the day, which ends with a holy hour. Breakfast and lunch are also provided, and during the lunch break, I had a book signing!

It’s still surreal to sign copies of my book. I mean to have my book out there in the world and people can read it and buy it and I can sign real copies! It’s insane!

I was also so happy to see my friend Elizabeth Tomlin, author of Joyful Momentum, who also did a signing at the conference!

The day is always a long day (I got up at 5:30 and was in bed at 11!) but it’s so worth it to see friends and to be spiritually nourished. I really loved all the speakers this year, especially Sr. Tracey Dugas:

And Lisa Brenninkmeyer, the founder of Walking with Purpose:

If you’d like to hear the conference talks, you can listen to them here.

And if you’d like a signed copy of Living Memento Mori for yourself, you can use the contact form, or email me!

Kitchen Chronicles: Buttermilk Chicken

One of my goals this month is to cook more, especially to try new recipes. This is the Buttermilk Chicken from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which I’ve had marked for years, but have never made. Until now!

When I tweeted about this, many people said they were interested in learning more. So I’m sharing the recipe and how the process went over here, because people want to know.

Here’s the recipe (although I also highly recommend getting the book because it’s just so useful it explains so many things about food and cooking!)

So the first thing you need to know is that this is a two day affair. You will salt the chicken, then place it in the buttermilk brine (because that’s what it is) the first day. On the second day, you will roast in a very specific manner, but it’s one that makes sense.

Also please, if you do not have one, get a plastic cutting board exclusively for raw chicken prep before you make this. It will make your life much easier. (I am a fan of one like this, which has color so it’s easy to distinguish; I haven’t used that one, but I do have this one.) I do have to be more careful about salmonella etc. than most people, but by using this system and by keeping antibacterial cleaner around to mop up spills that might happen, I have never had an issue (knock wood.) So, there’s your basic chicken safety lesson. :) I also toss the cutting board RIGHT in the dishwasher when I’m done with it, as well as anything else that touched the chicken.

Last note before we start the specifics: Samin (the author) is very specific about salt. She uses Diamond Kosher salt, and that’s what the measurements are for when she says “kosher salt” here.

DAY ONE: So, you get the chicken, you salt it—heavily—and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then you come to the buttermilk brine. This is where I think I made my mistake.

The stores are all out of buttermilk. So I did “clabbered milk”, which is milk+ vinegar or milk+lemon juice. I don’t think it sat long enough, so there wasn’t as much acid as the recipe should’ve had, which affected the final taste. (It still tasted fine, but I think it was missing the tang.) You will see, in the recipe, that you add salt to the buttermilk, hence, brine.

After the chicken has sat and the buttermilk is ready, you place the chicken in gallon size plastic bag (DO NOT get a big chicken for this it won’t work! It has to fit in the bag! Or make sure you have an appropriate sized bag for a larger chicken!), add the buttermilk and then seal. Squish it all around, put the bag on a rimmed plate or the pan you’ll use to cook it (I did the latter), and let it sit in the fridge up to 24 hours.

DAY TWO: I rotated the bag as my coffee was brewing, so that the other side could have a chance to really sit in the mixture. I turned it one more time before I took it out, but you can not turn it at all!

ONE HOUR before you want to put the chicken in, take it out (still in bag) and let it come to room temp. This affects the final color and juiciness and done-ness!

Now, the instructions are sort of weirdly specific about how to position the chicken in the oven. Follow the instructions. Just do it. Because that’s how you get that gorgeous skin that is so good, my friends.

This is a great company chicken. If you like to make gravy, this has a ton of pan drippings for you to use. I would serve it with Samin’s Bright Cabbage Slaw (another revelation I have discovered from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat this month). That slaw is amazing and also perfect for company. On the show (which is on Netflix), she serves it with rice which also looks really good. And of course a green salad with any vinaigrette would be perfect as well.

The great thing about this recipe is that everything is perfectly cooked. The breasts aren’t dry, the dark meat isn’t over done, it’s perfect in every way. Next time I might still stuff a lemon up it for more citrus, because I just love making chicken that way. But we’ll see!

Plated!

Give it a try! It’s yummy!

Living Memento Mori--AMA!

As Lent approaches—which is the perfect time for my book!—I thought I’d do an AMA post!

AMA=Ask Me Anything.

So if you have questions or comments about Living Memento Mori, drop them in the comment section below and I will answer them!

Madeleine is one month old!

Madeleine, my niece, is ONE MONTH OLD! I can’t believe it. I’ve been an aunt for a month! My sister and my BIL have been parents for a month!

Melanie (my sister) and Jason (her husband) are doing such a good job. They are just loving the pants off this little sweetheart and are such good parents. It makes me so happy to see them with their daughter. It really is strange to see my little sister as a mother. It makes me proud, but it’s also like, you were just this age! And now you have a daughter! (Cue “Sunrise, Sunset”)

Currently, Maddie likes her pacifier with her little Longhorn Buddy (Jason went to the University of Texas), being snuggled, EATING, and naps. She is also crazy alert and when she’s awake she wants to know everything that is going on! She loves her swing as well, which is funny because her mommy did too. And she likes music and loves when Mel and Jason sing to her.

She very much dislikes her baths, which I’m hoping she’ll grow out of, because baths are fun! She also does not like being burped because she just wants to eaaaaat.

So, that’s the Madeleine at one month dossier. She is just the cutest little person and I love watching her grow!