Overheard in Italy..... "Mama Mia!" also a new recipe for you!
When I was in Italy I heard an Italian say "Mama Mia!" after climbing up a big hill
(It may have even been this hill. It was exhausting.)
That is both a true thing that happened, and also my lead in for some minimal thoughts about the movie Mama Mia: Here We Go Again.
If there is one thing that is true about me, it is that I am exactly the type of person to see Mama Mia: Here We Go Again on opening weekend. Unfortunately, the second Mama Mia made the same mistake as the first, in thinking that anyone gave a shit about boring Pierce Brosnan who can't sing, playing the most boring man alive (some architect or something??), and not on Colin Firth, who is more fun and also has a not terrible voice. Also, this movie was made in 2018, they could have taken this opportunity to make Colin Firth's character gay, as he was supposed to be (make it gay you cowards!). They didn't do that. But, more importantly, they did all of Abba's club bangers in the first movie, and all they had left for the second movie were ballads. This is a real tragedy. Nobody should have to listen to ballads, ever. Also, and I say this as someone who saw this movie on opening weekend, the people who are going to see a jukebox musical featuring Abba songs Will Not Care if you do the same songs in both movies. Just play the hits over again! It doesn't matter! My final note is, don't let the appearance of Meryl Streep on the poster fool you: she's MEGA dead in this movie, and they talk about how dead she is a lot. She only shows up for her grandchild's christening (??????) which felt really super out of character, but I guess Donna loves Jesus in Mama Mia the Reboot.
There was one bright spot though, which was the Young Colin Firth and Young Meryl Streep (nobody can tell me that they know his character's name, they would be lying) performing Waterloo in a French restaurant.
Here is a video taken from inside a theatre, which may well be taken down by the time I send this out.
Here's another version, which is slightly less uh... DIY.
Rating:
3/10 Chers
1/10 Meryls
3/10 Mama Mias (just watch the first one over again)
The reference letter corner
(All parts of the dandelion are edible)
This week was kind of depressing for me, I got two letters asking for things that seemed so simple, and yet I was not able to help. I got a letter asking for the address of an organization that would send free kufis and prayer rugs to Muslims in prison, and I just couldn't find one. I got another letter asking for the DMV's book about how to get a commercial drivers license, but the DMV doesn't have a mailing address for requesting those books. I did get one letter that I could answer though, and I learned something new in answering it: the letter included a request for distinguishing edible and inedible plants, and in my research I learned about the Universal Edibility Test. Have you heard of this? It was totally new to me. Basically the idea of the Universal Edibility Test is to take a specific part of a plant, do something with it for 15 minutes (rub it on you, hold it against your mouth, boil it, chew, eat) and then wait for 8 hours to see if you start dying. If you ever get stuck in the woods, remember to chew for 15 minutes (and not to swallow!) and wait 8 hours. If you start to feel bad, induce vomiting and hope for the best!
Coming up next... a recipe that hopefully won't make you vomit! (what a transition!)
This week's recipe:
And this one's vegan!
(We've finally made it to the dismally bad food photography. I deliver on my promises!)
(this is the crisp after it came out of the oven at like, 10 pm)
It is, blessedly, not too hot this week. I decided to take advantage of this, and to capitalize on my current feeling, which is that I would DIE if I had to eat overnight oats one more goddamn time. So, I am presenting to you, a pretty easy crisp! When I made it the hardest and most effortful part was pitting a bunch of only moderately ripe plums and nectarines.
Granola-inspired breakfast crisp
Filling:
1 1/2 to 2ish pounds of fruit. I have found nectarine and blueberry to be very good, but this time I used plums, just sliced in a normal way
1 tablespoon corn starch (or flour)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tsp lemon juice (don't do this if your fruit is mega unripe)
1/4 tsp or a bit less salt
Topping:
5 tablespoons melted and cooled coconut oil (or butter if not doing it vegan/I used coconut oil because it had melted in my kitchen and like hell I was getting a pan out to melt butter)
3 tablespoons maple syrup (or honey)
1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cups oats
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 tablespoons flax seeds
a bit more salt
Set oven to 400, get an 8x8 pan, or a 9 inch dish, which would probably be better, but my 8x8 has a lid, so I used that.
Mix the filling ingredients together, you can do this in the baking dish.
Mix the topping ingredients together, it should be clumpy. If you want it sweeter add a bit more honey or maple syrup. If you don’t like coconut or don’t have flax seeds, don’t add them! If you want walnuts, put them in! I don’t care, you're the one who will eat it!
Bake! If you use apples or something solid, it’ll take a bit longer. I think I checked mine after about 30 minutes and it looked good. I mean, you just want the granola to be crunchy. It should be a bit bubbly. If it browns too fast, put on foil.
Take it out and let it cool, wrap with foil and stick it in your refrigerator. I have it with coconut yogurt, which I’ve found to be very good. I think it's best with some sort of yogurt because otherwise you're just eating a big pile of granola and some fruit. It just needs the liquid, IMO.
There you go! It’s breakfast!
Notes:
(Bake time will vary by fruits. I made it with nectarines and it was done after 30 minutes, but I made it with plums most recently and took it out after 30 minutes and another 5 would have been helpful.)
Good fruit combos:
Nectarines and blueberries
Plums and raspberries, probably
Rhubarb with ginger and strawberries
Peaches and whatever
The fruits don't have to be perfectly ripe, because they're getting baked, which will soften them and concentrate the sugars, if they're too tart, add a bit more sugar to the mix!
Here's an attractive-ish picture of plums I took.
So that's what I've got for you this week. My macbook charger is... well I can see the cord inside of the wires, which has never happened before, so do you have any suggestions for where to get a new one?
Also, the jury is in, thank you to everyone who responded, we have now all agreed: The Vicar Is Hot.
As always, if you have any good recipe suggestions, let me know what they are. I long for things that I can make without melting my body due to the horrid heat in my kitchen.