Living in Long Beach

This picture from my 365 Project sums it all up: So, as I was saying in my last post before I got all caught up with Neely, Ann, and Jennifer (the dolls!!), this year Thanksgiving was celebrated at my little place in Long Beach. We ended up having 14 people, although one didn’t eat at the table with us because he is only 4 month old! I borrowed a table and many chairs from two different neighbors. One neighbor emptied out most of her refrigerator and freezer for me to use for the week. I also used a different neighbor’s oven for several dishes when we figured out that the turkey was sitting in an oven that had been turned off an hour earlier! Nothing like a little Thanksgiving turkey drama. I made several copies of the dinner menu for guests to peruse before dinner. My mother got many compliments from Tinu’s cousins about her cheese ball. We’ve all been making her recipe for years. It’s a family favorite. She also got raves for a new recipe that she created – Blue Cheese Slaw. ...

Or in other words…boy, am I pooped! (This was going to be one post about three "parties" but I got so carried away with the first one that I am going to spare you all by creating separate posts. You can thank me later...) Since this is my last year in my unit at Stoneybrook, it was decided that we would have Thanksgiving here. Wait, first let me back up. For those of you who don’t know, I love, love, love anything Jacqueline Susann and anything Valley of the Dolls (but NOT Beyond Valley of the Dolls!!) What does this have to do with Thanksgiving? Well, I have been talking about having a Valley of the Dolls party for like for-ev-er. So, I enticed my sister to come earlier than everyone else if I finally had this party. Due to my dwindling funds, I kept the party very small, plus a few of my friends had other plans that couldn’t change. The only props I bought were some “silver” trays from the dollar store to throw all my “pills” onto (actually candy.) I made several props ...

Over the past few years, I have picked up quite a few vintage cookbooks. I love looking through them, especially the pictures and illustrations. My friend Karen and I found quite a few Better Homes and Garden cookbooks from the 60's the other day at a thrift shop. Since we are both broke, we each only bought one. It took us forever to only choose those two. One that got away that we both wanted was Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Cookbook, hint hint. The reason I mention this is because later that evening, I started a new project called 365project. (I’ve created a permanent link on the sidebar to the left.) It’s a site where you take one picture a day and upload it. So I thought I would start by having my first picture be of a few of my most recent cookbook acquisitions.  Then that got me to thinking. Besides challenging myself to take a picture every day for a year, how about if I created a cooking challenge stemming from my new, old cookbooks? And what if I managed to get so...

Notice the Chococat bookmark?  I just started reading the book "As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto." Much to my surprise, I am loving it! Not only does it reveal Julia's cooking techniques and her road to publishing the first volume of the legendary "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"  but it also illuminates the attitudes and political climate of the 50's. In one letter Avis tells Julia that all her friends have electric dishwashers and how horrid she thinks the whole concept is. She refuses to ever get one. I still have a long way to go with the book but based on what I've already read, I just know I will continue to love it. I took a break and watched Julie and Julia , a movie which I taped a long time ago and never got around to watching. Do NOT watch this movie if you are also reading "As Always, Julia." From the very beginning, there are huge inconsistencies with the portion of the movie that deals with J...

On Friday nights, I sometimes go to the Friday Film Forum   "... a volunteer program dedicated to the art and history of motion pictures." They show classic movies released prior to 1976. Because of them I have seen two Charlie Chaplin movies, a great Tony Curtis movie (The Sweet Smell of Success), Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My Lovely, Steve McQueen in The Cincinnati Kid, and White Christmas on the big screen! (There are others but I can't think of them right now.) As you can see, I do gravitate to the later movies. So when I heard that they were going to show The Last of Sheila from 1973, I was very excited. (Remember, I am in to all things 70's right now!) Well, besides this movie having lots of twists and turns in the plot, I really loved it because it was totally 70's all the way. Maybe even more than The Bob Newhart Show, my current guilty pleasure. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, the following things happened: 1) The mushroom l...