Author Archives: Marianya Klis

Recipe: (Gluten Free) Molten Lava Cake Variations

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20121218-195252.jpgIn a previous post I talked about my attempt of turning the molten lava cake recipe into something more cupcake-y… and then how I tried to adapt the same recipe for friends of mine that is gluten-free.

But why should I stop at the traditional molten lava cake? I mean there are other bags of “chips” that I had readily accessible that are outside of the semi-sweet chocolate vein… including but not limited to butterscotch (which I have used for the Butterbeer Cupcake recipe), cinnamon (in hopes of creating a chocolate / cinnamon cupcake adaptation), white chocolate… and others.

So that is why in this post I decided to really take it another step and create other variations of the molten lava cake recipe by using first the white chocolate chips and the later the butterscotch chips.
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UPDATES: Busy Busy Busy Little Bee

It’s that time of the year again and I am more than swamped between my day life and night life (if one could call it that). But what have I been up to? Well… Let’s start with shows that I have been or will be a part of:
– Sound of Music: I was helping out with set / stage crew for this little ditty. But because I was a part of the show in some capacity I won’t be writing my thoughts about this production
– Sister Mary Ignatius: this controversial piece was suppose to have its run in December, however due to casting difficulties the cast at that time (myself included) agreed to postpone the show until March
– Blithe Spirit: rehearsal have yet to start, but this show will open in mid-February
You can find more information about upcoming shows that I am in via my Thespian page.

So I suppose you can say that I will be in rehearsals non stop until at least end of March… But what else has been going on in my life?

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Fleeting: Philosophy Class

The following came around my Facebook feed and I felt it had to be shared:

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed..

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else—the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.

Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’ The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

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Recipe: (Gluten Free) Molten Lava Cakes with Candy Canes

Many months (over a year) ago, my mother and I concocted the idea of baking our own version of the “molten lava cake” that we loved eating at restaurants so much. So, we searched online for various recipes and came across one that we decided that we liked from Savory Sweet Life.

The recipe seemed simple enough, and had the addition of Kahlua, which was a plus for the both of us since there was a bottle of kahlua that has been untouched for years (if not decades).

We used custard dishes for the formations and created the molten lava cakes that we absolutely loved.

Over time, a coworker asked if I would be willing to bake a batch of such treats but in a smaller form. I agreed as long as he paid for the ingredients. Unfortunately that agreement never materialized so I never had a reason to try out the recipe in a different medium.

Recently as I was walking through my local Meijer I came across a shelf of Peppermint Mocha Kahlua and instantly a new idea came to mind: What if I took the molten lava cake recipe, added ground up candy canes and exchanged the traditional Kahlua with the Peppermint Mocha Kahlua? I mean, it couldn’t be all that bad could it?
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Entertainment: Anna Kendrick as Elphaba in For Good

This came through my RSS Reader and I just had to share.

Earlier this year I wrote a post about Anna Kendrick being in a reading / workshop of a potential film version of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods as well as diving into speculation as to whether she could truly fill the role of Cinderella?

Also there were rumors flying about her taking the part of Cathy in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years that is also being rumored to be headed to film?

Well… here is a video of her singing “For Good” from Stephen Schwartz’s “Wicked” with none other than the original Glinda: Kristin Chenoweth. Not only that but Anna ended up singing Elphaba’s part…

So she’s got the pipes, but Cinderella is a fairly high vocal part and Anna sounds more in the mezzo-soprano range at most, well based on the videos I have seen thus far… so it remains to be seen / heard if she could hit the high notes, but at least in the above video she is getting closer.

Review: BrightSide Theatre’s Company

Show: COMPANY
Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: George Furth 		Location: BrightSide Theatre
Director: Jeffrey Cass
Music Director: Justin Potter

Acting: like
Singing: like
Set: meh
Staging: like
Choreography: Could do without

Standouts: Jess Iovinelli as Amy, Michelle McKenzie-Voigt at Joanne, Peter Sipla as Robert

So my friend got me to be her date for “industry night” at BrightSide Theatre for Company. Company was one of those shows that liked a lot of the songs, but the book is either hit or miss depending on what the actors and director bring to the table.

For the most part… the show did well. I would be the first to admit that there were moments that I was scrunching my face up in all sorts of strange contortions because of the choreography or movement that the actors were doing. In fact… to me movement is suppose to either move the story along or enhance it, and in this production Company the movement work detracts from the singing and acting to the point that it probably hinders the singing and acting. But I digress.

The first number to really catch my attention was “The Little Things You Do Together”, particularly the lines that were sung by Joanne as portrayed by Michelle McKenzie-Voigt. Just everything she did during this number was drawing my attention with ease and in a very good way. You knew right off the bad the kind of character she was and I was waiting with anticipation (maybe not that extreme) until her big moment towards the end of the production to decide if she was worth waiting for…

The next number to really catch my attention was “Getting Married Today” particularly one Jess Iovinelli who portrayed Amy the young lady who was about to be married to Paul. The frantic undertones during her moment was not just spot on but hilariously funny. In fact… her performance was so engaging I went to my friend and whispered “she is worth the price of admission”. And I stick to that… in hindsight there were other reasons overall that made the show worthwhile but I am getting ahead of myself.

During the second act the song that did it for me was Michelle McKenzie-Voigt’s moment in the spotlight with “The Ladies Who Lunch”. Granted the Chicago Theatre Review made mention that it appears that Michelle’s rendition of the song was a bit forced… but I thought that in a lot of ways this was more of her character choice and it appeared to be rather seamless to me.

As for the center of the production, Peter Sipla deserves more than a mere commendation for his interpretation of Robert but also for going through the production whilst getting over a sinus infection. Very well done, he hit the highs and lows of his character as he observes the couples around him until finally hitting a moment with Joanne when she presses him that she would “take care of him” to which his soft spoken blink and you would miss reply of “then who would I take care of?”. This epiphany leads him into his heartbreaking rendition of “Being Alive” which… considering that his nose was red and it would appear that he was still under was still pretty darn good.

One of the things that my friend and I noticed right off the bat was that each of the five couples had amazing chemistry with one another from the “karate” fight between Sarah and Harry (Julie Ann Kornak and Matt Gidson respectively) to Jenny and David (Sarah Page and Dan Maxon). From Susan and Peter (Katy Harth and Peter Durkin) to Amy and Paul (Jess Iovinelli and Steven Attanasie)… and finally Joanne and Larry (Michelle McKenzie-Voigt and Jim Heatherly)… the chemistry between each couple was not only realistic, but palpable too. You could actually believe them to truly be couples. Not a weak couple in sight.

As for the three single ladies… none truly stood out for me, which I found to be rather odd because for some reason the “single” characters (outside of Robert) felt weaker overall than the “coupled” characters, not that this was the intent but it did have a feeling of people are stronger when with someone than alone.

Of the three single ladies (Amy Stricker as Marta, Angela Bubash as Kathy, and Allison Sill as April) I actually enjoyed Kathy and her moving dialogue with Robert. April was pleasantly airheaded and “dumb” but I felt she oversang her solo a bit. It was too nice and pretty… which maybe fits, but it seemed off to me. Marta during her moment in “Another Hundred People” did rather well but seemed to fall flat through her dialogue moments after having such an impact in her couple of lines in the opening song.

However, a lot of thing could probably have been rectified and cleaned up if it weren’t for the fact that it felt suspiciously like the actors were focusing more on the choreography (or movement in accordance to some people) than on their vocals. But again, since I already mentioned this before… I’ll stop.

Overall this was a good production and one with enough highlights to make the price of admission worthwhile for me. Heck… I would not mind going back to watch the standouts again because well… they were worth it.

UPDATES: Changing up the Review process

So I am going to try a new thing when talking about shows that I have seen… since I have a bad habbit of over chatting. At the top of the post I will have a list of points that I either liked, loved, or could do without… then if there were any standouts I would list them.

Once the basic bullet points are over then if you would like to read more in detail then I would do so as I normally would.

Hopefully this would help more in understanding what I was trying to say in the first place.

So the first thing anyone would see when coming onto my blog at the top would be the typical table breakdown of the show, director, musical director, and the creators. Afterwards for musicals I would include my instant thoughts of acting, singing, staging, set, choreography… and finally I would list the standouts and any other quick thoughts that I believe are rather important.

Then after the break I would go into my usual song and dance breaking everything down even more if you want to know the whys behind the whats.

Why am I am changing it up (again) well… after seeing Company out in BrightSide in Naperville with a friend earlier this week I realized that in every show I have gone to I would say something of the following:
– Acting: meh
– Singing: liked
– Set: meh
– Staging: loved
– Choreography: liked

Then I would proceed to go into details of the whys… by doing it this way I think it would give you the readers a chance to do a quick look of my “instant thoughts” as I call it and then if you have time could continue to read.

Would I go back to some of the past reviews and use this system? Probably not, it would take too much time, might as well just start with now.

Fleeting: Creating Bios for Playbills

I’m bored… entertain me.

Sound familiar? If you are friends with me then at some point in time I have said these very words either out of jest or actual boredom. Considering this is me the latter is more likely to be true.

When in community theatre, the actors and production team are usually asked to provide a bio for the playbill so that audience members coming to see the production would have an idea as to who has done what in the past, or their thoughts of the show/people, etc.

However… for me… that has become rather dull and boring, and I rather blame a good friend of mine for that. In the very few shows I have either been with him or seen him in he has always provided an entertaining and off the wall bio that is sure to crack a smile on anyone.

Me on the other hand? Bleh… I go the “traditional” route as I would put it.

There is one bio that I am itching to use one day if someone would let me:

[…] is a multi-linguist that has traveled throughout the Eastern hemisphere as a tour guide and is highly knowledgeable in not only the various dialects but a vast variety of cultures as well. She is also well versed in a plethora of martial arts / fighting styles and is skilled with the katana which has scalped many heads of her opponents.

Oh the inside jokes to be had. If you are confused there was a post about ignorance I wrote a few months ago that touches on the above that as now become a running joke that I use to sort of “break the ice” in a way.
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Fleeting: Smoking Kids

Normally I am pretty open minded when it comes to habits… particularly of the smoking variety. I am personally a non-smoker and will forever be a non-smoker. However, I do know quite a few people that do smoke and I just leave them be… they know me well enough to know that if they smoke they should at minimum pop a mint or a piece of gum if they want to talk to me again… I’m just that sensitive to cigarette smoking.

But enough about me… via my Facebook feed earlier this week a friend of mine shared the following video (that I managed to hunt down via YouTube) and I have to say… this is probably by far the best anti-smoking video I have seen in a very long time:

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Review: Live Arena Tour’s Jesus Christ Superstar

This cannot be considered a true review because I haven’t seen the production in its entirety, however… what I have seen (which is more than plenty) is enough for me to warrant putting my thoughts down on a post and continue on my merry way.

I’ll be brutally honest… first… if I were to do the last year all over again, I would participate in this show once and that is it. Once is more than I am able to stomach and there has to be a damn good reason as to why I would want to participate in the production a second time and in all honesty it wasn’t worthwhile. So by extension I have been adverse to actually since any kind of production of JCS on stage… unless it is for a damn good reason.

Well is Melanie Chisholm and Tim Minchin good enough reasons? After the following live performance with Mel C as Mary, Tim Minchin as Judas, and Ben Forster as Jesus… For me hell yeah!

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Endeavors: NaNoWriMo Weeks 2 and 3

Ok… so it would appear that it takes me another two weeks before I found a block of time to sit down and just write again.

So for a quick update of Week 3 (since I did squat in Week 2):
Day 15: edited the first ten-minute scripted. Deleted a character and streamlined the script more before sending out to a few friends.

Day 18: edited the first ten-minute again after talking to friends and going back to old comments. Also worked on other ten-minute scripts. Reprinted script that I didn’t have access to originally.

Day 19: I wrapped up all the scenes that were missing in the accidental deletion bring the overall word count to 5,019 (words written / added: 326).

Day 21: Expanding the Sixth Scene in the series of vignettes as well as re-worked a few of the earlier scenes so that the Narrator wouldn’t be talking so much or rather narrating the piece too much by himself. Also added an afterword kind of describing the purpose of the work and the inspiration. Word count: 6,010 (words written / added: 991).

Conclusion: So I did manage to get some decent work in, I am impressed with myself. It only took a week of doing squat before I was able to get back into the groove of writing.

However, there is no way I will be able to hit the 50,000 word goal that is typically set by NaNoWriMo unless by some miracle I pull off an all day marathon writing session… and who knows if that would happen.

What I will say is that for the series of vignettes, now that one scene is completed I am back to going back to the research material to plan out what I would like to do next. So it might be a day or two until I actually get anymore writing done, unless something presents itself.

Ah well… one can hope I suppose.

As for another other posts? I am not exactly dry on the posting front I have just been focused on getting some legitimate writing done this month since that was the commitment I made. Eventually I’ll start posting again… but until then I will work on the writing projects and maybe if things work out I’ll post a few tidbits, but somehow I am doubt that I would even do that.

UPDATE: NaNoWriMo Day 21

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Wow, this was a rather strong writing day. Didn’t expect that. I kind of just sat down, reworked a few scenes, redistributed a bunch of lines and expanded on Scene Six. Now I am done with Scene Six and am looking into my research to see what I have to do next…

Total Word Count: 6,010

Yup, that is a pretty decent jump.

Granted I have been doing a little bit of editing other stuff… so really is this any surprise? I also added an Afterword to the script to gives additional information about inspiration and how the idea came about… which added to the over all word count.

When looking at the “research” for the series of vignettes… I ended up breaking down approximately how many other scenes I most likely have and I counted at minimum around eight and at most? Ha I don’t want to think about that yet… yeeeeaaaah I am not even halfway done. Go figure.

So what else do I have in the queue should I be so lucky as to finish writing the vignettes? Well there is the first ten-minute play formally named “Cycles”, I also have another ten-minute that is going to undergo heavy revisions if not a full out rewrite called “Moments”. Another script that needs to go through heavy revisions is based off of Ray Bradbury’s “The Rocket Man”.

Then of course there is the full show that I have to streamline called “Arrangements”… if I do this right I would be able to whittle the character list from ten to six and possibly even five… but I am unsure if I could even do that! Ugh.

Of course I have all these prose projects that have been on back burner… in the end I am just glad to have gotten started on anything at all… hopefully this motivation lasts into the next month or so. We’ll see.

UPDATE: NaNoWriMo Day 19

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So I finally got around to completing a couple more scenes from the series of vignettes stage play that I have been working on being my word total up to 5,019-ish… Well more or less. I am sure I am off by a few words give or take.

From here on out the series will be new material compiled from previous stories… And as thus a kind of “starting from fresh” kind of mentality. Not a bad thing mind you but it may or may not make plowing along easier.

But really…
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Recipe: Cracker Jack Breaded Chicken w/ Orange Sauce

Don’t ask me why Cracker Jack (as in the caramel popcorn) because that was the challenge issued to me and for someone that likes challenges… why not? So I had the darnedest time trying to figure out what would work and a shot out of the blue I thought “breaded chicken”! So the simplest would be to ground the Cracker Jack into a powder for the breading. Not bad… but now what? Well for the adhesive I had a basic idea what I wanted… but to get a basic idea of portions I had to look up the interwebs… and the following is what I found.

So what did I end up using? Well…
– Jolly Time: Thai Peanut and Popcorn Crusted Chicken
– Tasty Trials: Peanut and Crack Jack Crusted Chicken with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce
– No Recipes Blog: Orange Chicken

How did I marry the above three recipes together?
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UPDATE: NaNoWriMo Days 18 and 19

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So during a rehearsal line read through over the weekend I went through a couple of ten minute plays of mine and reworked and continued to edit them. I have completed the editing process for one and once I have implemented the changes will go through it again one more time before sending it off to a couple of close friends for their opinions on the changes.

As for the other? Well it needs work. I like the concept and the idea and the whys, but since a lot of the dialogue is based off of conversations I had many moons ago what works in real life doesn’t necessarily work on stage. So I have two choices I could rework from the script what I want or I could scrap the whole thing and just start from scratch. Now that I have a better idea of what I want to do and how to shape it, the latter might be more to my liking, who knows.

What is on the agenda? Other than the above I still have the series of vignettes to continue working on. I am tempted to just go back and start formatting the sucker for my sanity and so others could start reading (or I could start editing) but I don’t know if that would help or hinder the process… Meh, does it really matter? I am getting stuff done… that’s all that counts. 😉

Overall I have gotten… or have been getting a lot more done editing-wise than I had initially anticipated, and it is a good feeling. Moreso now that I have a couple half an hour or so just sitting down and focusing on editing during rehearsals. Multi-tasking is a beautiful thing.