The Year of Living Gorgeously

DVD of the Month: Thank you for Smoking

Kid: My Mommy says smoking kills.
Nick Naylor: Oh, is your Mommy a doctor?
Kid: No.
Nick Naylor: A scientific researcher of some kind?
Kid: No.
Nick Naylor: Well then she's hardly a credible expert, is she?

Nick Naylor (Aaron Ekhart) is the press smokesman for the tobacco industry. He meets in a bar once a month with representatives of Alcohol and Gun industries to compare notes. He plans to resurrect the street-cred of cigarettes by strategic product placement in Hollywood movies (queue hilarious Rob Lowe as entirely malleable producer extraordinaire). His career goes awry due to a between the sheets interview with the ever-irritating Katie Holmes as journalist Heather Holloway.   

Reverent this is not. Healthy, this is not. Amazingly, jaw-droppingly, holy-mother-how-on-earth-can-they-say-that, funny, this is.*

If your resolutions have gone out the window, the grey skies and torrential rain (or snow, if you live anywhere outside of London) are getting you down and you can't bear the thought of Valentines looming, rent this and snort popcorn at the telly.

*The picture to the left is Nick convincing Cancer Boy on an Oprah-style show that smoking is cool. Pure genius. 

Cranachan

You have to make this!  So quick and easy and SO good.  And not entirely unhealthy either, though there is quite a lot of cream involved (but it's whipped and therefore full of air - so that's OK). 

Cranachan is apparently often served for a Burns Supper, but whatever the occasion it was delightful to feast on fresh raspberries in January.

Take 3oz of porridge oats and toast them in a dry frying pan being careful not to burn them.  Whip a pint of double cream (here in the US I can only find whipping cream which will do at a pinch, but it would have been even better had I been able to use decadent double cream).    

Stir in some 3 tablespoons of runny honey, a punnet of fresh raspberries and several tablespoons of whisky.  Or, if you're me and want to share it with your tiny daughter, substitute a few drops of vanilla essence for the whisky.  And no, it's not half as good that way.

Here's the recipe. And bon appetit - or whatever they say in Scotland.

Last chance to enter

Do go and have a look at the truly wonderful images which have been entered into the Living Gorgeously January photo competition. 

Entries for the competition will be accepted up until midnight GMT on 29th January.  Guest judge Lottie will be spending all day judging on the 30th and the winner's image will be posted on the 31st.

If you're having trouble entering your image into the Flickr group, you need to click on 'Join this group' at the bottom right hand corner of the page and then click 'send to group' above your photo on the photo page, where Living Gorgeously should come up as an option.  

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face

Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!

I'm sure you don't need us to remind you that on the 25th January you should be sitting down to a delicious plate of sheep's heart, liver and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock, and boiled in the sheep's stomach for approximately an hour.

Yes, the 25th of January is Burns' Night  when we celebrate the life and work of Robert Burns and for which the only appropriate food is haggis, piped in by a piper on the bagpipes, and  washed down with liberal quantities of Scotch whisky, while Robert Burns's Address to a Haggis is recited.

The only Burns' Supper I have ever attended was a rather drunken affair and I must confess to not remembering many details, though the haggis was surprisingly delicious.  It would be good if any of our Scottish readers could enlighten us further in the comments.

Sadly every supermarket in Seattle was clean out of haggis (and bagpipes) today so instead I will be making a traditional Scottish dessert which I will blog about tomorrow.

Parsnip Soup

As winter warmers go, you don't get much better than homemade root vegetable soup. One of my favourites is a recipe from my gran - she's a bit of an old harridan, but she makes a mean curried parsnip soup.

I remember this being her contribution to bonfire night parties, served up in mugs in the garden. This is a rather more chunky affair, to be served in the chunkiest bowls, with the chunkiest bread, curled up watching old movies (or, in this instance, Antiques Roadshow)...

The amounts are pretty vague, as I've never used a recipe, but feel free to contact us  if you're not sure.

Dry-roast a teaspoon of cumin seeds in a pan for a couple of minutes to bring out their flavour (a trick stolen from Delia). Decant into a pestle and mortar and pound until satisfied.

Dice one white onion and cook in a little oil over low heat until translucent. Stir through the cumin and add three peeled and chopped parsnips (chunked to about cork-size), along with a pint and a half of good vegetable stock. Simmer with a lid half-on for about half an hour, or until the vegs yield under a knife (like boiled potatoes).

Spoon into a blender and whizz. I left a few chunks unblended for bite, but it's up to you how chunky or not you like it.

Slice, toast and butter your favourite crusty loaf.* Serve, with smug satisfaction and a good DVD.  

*This image is of the soup served with cheese on toast so the Boy didn't feel like he was *only* having soup for dinner. Just in case you were concerned with the density of my butter-spreading

Most depressing time of the year

It's official.  The third (or, as is the case this year) fourth Monday of January is officially the most depressing day of the year.  In the Northern Hemisphere anyway. 

Christmas is long gone, the weather's foul and all you have left to show for the festive excesses are enormous credit card bills , enormous thighs and an enormous heap of broken resolutions.

So snuggle up in some brand new pjs from cult brand Bedhead,

 

here are a few links which might cheer you up.

 

 

You've read the book. Eaten the meatballs. Now transport yourself to hot foreign climes with Holly over at Decor8, who has written a great piece on the Moroccan trend in interiors. 

 

 

 

 

Saving the planet is guaranteed to make you feel better.  Check out the Year of Living Generously (love the name!) and see if there aren't a few small things you could be doing this year which will have a huge impact.

 

 

 

The most comforting piece of news we've heard in a long while is that three of the nominees (and the hottest favourites) for the Best Actress Oscar are over fifty or, as the Defamer puts it, 'Hot Old Dames'.

 

 

 

 

The entries for our fabulous January photo competition will make you feel that this month can be beautiful after all.  Interestingly there's still scope for someone to do a portrait of themselves snuggled up in bed hoping that January will go away.

 

And finally if all else fails there's always chocolate. Either gaze at it in all its forms on Flickr or else buy a fabulously-packaged dark chocolate Dechox bar from Bloomsberry and pretend that January hasn't been a total bust after all.

Dechox - a dark chocolate delight to detoxify your mind of all that bad mood food. Combats negative vibes like cravings and provides all the energy your body needs for regeneration, liver cleansing and going on weird diets. Active ingredients: 70% Cocoa solids. Bloomsberry & Co’s Premium Dark Chocolate also helps detoxify your conscience because in this world of greed and exploitation, we source our ingredients only from fair trade countries.

January Movie of the Month - Dreamgirls

It's January.  And therefore really not the time to be seeing any movie which can be classified as ' gritty',  'poignant' or 'bittersweet'.  We need flash and trash, glitz and glamour, fabulous costumes and big dance numbers. Yes, our first Movie of the Month is Dreamgirls.

It feels like I've been waiting half a lifetime to see this movie. 

I'm the hugest fan of soul and dance music and have long had a much treasured and played 7" (yes, an actual RECORD) of Jennifer Holliday singing the showstopping 'And I am telling you'  from the original Broadway musical in my collection.

Add to this the fact that newcomer Jennifer Hudson, my favourite ever contestant on American Idol, had been sensationally cast as Effie White  - the character who sings 'And I am telling you' - after a huge round of open auditions, and I was pretty excited about the whole project.  And it more or less fulfilled my expectations.

The film, and of the musical on which it is based, is a thinly-disguised reworking of the truelife story of the rise of The Supremes.  The Dreamettes go from enthusiastic backing group, headed up by the big-voiced, big 'boned' Effie, to superstar girlband - following the removal of Effie from lead vocals and her replacement by the slim, gorgeous' thinner voiced but more commercial sounding Deena (Beyonce'). This mirrors the replacement of original Supreme Florence Ballard by Diana Ross back in the 60s.

The casting is superb. Jennifer Hudson is incredible and well worthy of her Golden Globe award and all the Oscar buzz.  Her huge personality lights up the screen every time she appears and her acting is a revelation. She sings the hell, and her heart and soul, out of the signature song - which is the stand-out moment in the film - and she pretty much dominates the whole movie. (SPOILER.  The vid below is of the big number.).

I'm sort of glad that all her nominations are for Best Supporting Actress, as she is not up against Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren in that category, but it's a bit of a joke that Beyonce' is considered to be the 'leading' actress in the film. 

In an interesting parallel to the movie, though, you can see why J-Hud was famously criticised by Simon Cowell on Idol.  Sure, she can sing amazingly, but her voice is old-fashioned and she's a bit stompy as a performer and dancer. It's really as an actress that she completely comes into her own.

Beyonce', on the other hand, is a bland and robotic actress - and therefore perfect casting as the malleable, personality-free Deena - but absolutely tears up the screen as a performer in the big stage numbers - the camera loves her and she becomes a superstar before one's very eyes. A special mention should here be made about her costumes and make-up which are just gorgeous.  In fact the whole film is beautifully lit and shot.

Jamie Foxx does an OK job as Curtis Taylor, the somewhat one-dimensional Berry Gordy character who will do absolutely anything to commercialise black music, but the absolute standout for me, perhaps even more so than Hudson, was Eddie Murphy.

Why does one always forget just how good this guy is? He plays a Marvin Gaye-alike artist on Taylor's roster who compromises his musical integrity for the sake of Taylor's vision - and in Murphy's hands is deeply poignant, hilariously funny, and the most incredible performer, with a very creditable voice.

The bits that aren't so good are the plot - which is superficial at best and betrays the play's stage musical roots - and, less forgivably, the music. 

Aside from the big Effie White number, the tunes are so-so pastiches of Motown and 70s disco numbers and just not worthy of the great singing and full-on production values.

The ending was not as overly-sentimental as it could have been, but is the one area where the screenplay differs majorly from the real-life story. Bear in mind when you watch the film that Florence Ballard died in poverty at the age of 32 and it will seem all the more moving.

Anyway, if you're in any way a fan of black music, black music history, Motown, 70s fashion, Jennifer Hudson or Eddie Murphy then run to see this film.

And even if you're not, what the hell, go and see it anyway, it's not the greatest film ever but it's immensely enjoyable and two hours will just fly by.

Photo Competition Update

Wow, people are entering!  And we've seen some truly gorgeous photos.  To make things easier for all of us, we've now set up the a public Flickr group here.

January trees in the newly-opened Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle

To enter, please upload your photo to the group.  It would be cool if you could entitle it 'January in...' and then the name of your town, region or country.  We're getting entries from all over the world which is fabulous.

Please also note that your profile should show your email address if you'd like to be considered for the prize (just so we can notify you).

If you really don't want to join in the fun on Flickr, please email us a high resolution version of your image and we'll upload it for you.

Remember you can enter as many times as you want.

Happy clicking!

A Year of Tranquility

I am resolved never to run, to walk always with a slow, measured tread, and that when I choose, or am actually compelled, to look to right or left, I shall do so calmly and tranquilly.  I shall gear down my jittery European reactions to those of a Blue-man riding his camel across the Mauretanian deserts. I shall refuse to be hustled - why hurry? All the evidence about me points to the fact that it is forever NOW. You can't go skipping into the future, however much you hustle.  I shall be content, as the Moors are, with me in the centre of my universe and leave the Universe to do the spinning.

Taken from our Book of the Month.

Lebanese meatballs

We always have our fill of traditional food over Christmas and so it's nice to treat our jaded palates to some different flavours in January.

These little meatballs - taken from Claudia Roden's fabulous book Arabesque - are quick, easy and utterly delicious, and, being full of Middle Eastern flavours, are the perfect supper after you've been spending all afternoon engrossed in our 'Book of the Month'.  (Yes, I know I should have tried out one of the Moroccan recipes, but I liked the look of this one.) 

 

 

Recipe taken from 'Arabesque' by Claudia Roden

Making the meatballs themselves was really easy (things like that always sound more difficult on paper). There was something  wonderfully tactile and satisfying about rolling them gently in my fingers (would imagine small children would love to make them) and I felt like a Middle Eastern domestic goddess when they were cutely lined up on my board.

 

Ignore Claudia's suggestion of making a hole in each one and filling it with pinenuts.  I'm sure that's the traditional way, but I just mixed in the pinenuts and they tasted absolutely fine, with a very satisfying crunch. The recipe made loads so I froze some very successfully.

I'm sure they would taste even better with a homemade tomato sauce as Claudia suggests, but I just threw over jar of good-quality bought tomato sauce and that worked really well.

I served mine with buttered couscous flavoured with lots of chopped fresh parsley and a big blob of Greek yogurt and an endive salad on the side.