That’s really all I am going to say right now, because it is getting late, and I better nap… but before I do just a few pictures of various recipe related posts to come…
Just a little “SOMETHING” that I whipped up over the weekend…
So I have been rather addicted to this series: “Once Upon a Time”. The irony is that although a fair number of my friends have insisted I should start watching it because it would be a series I would enjoy I made a point of not watching it for that same reason. Well that and the fact that I don’t always have the time to watch television shows anymore.
But then I started watching some time during the first half of Season Three when the characters went to Neverland and I was hooked (heh, Hook… Neverland… get it?). So I purchased the first two seasons of the series and got myself caught up and lo and behold I was definitely on the bandwagon.
I don’t know why I didn’t watch this series sooner… it took all the “happily ever afters” and turned them on their heads. It took all of the beloved fairytales and found ways to integrate them amongst one another from Snow White to Sleeping Beauty, from Pinocchio to Rumpelstiltskin, etc.
There were some ties in between various fairytales that were rather ingenious and inspiring that one can’t help but wonder why did it not happen before? I suppose in a lot of ways we’ll never know.
And now in the second half of the third season the core cast has been integrated with the Wicked Witch of the West… except that is the only integration. Oz appears primarily in flashbacks from the Wicked Witch’s point of view and Glinda the Good Witch makes a couple of appearances, but that’s about all. Which is too bad because I was hoping for some more…
Then again… this kind of popped up on my Facebook News Feed over a month ago. From the Disney ABC Careers, they are taking applications for writers on their current and / or new programs… Now isn’t this tempting.
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I know what you are thinking, this must be another boozy ice cream recipe from the “Ice Cream Happy Hour” book. Well I hate to bust your bubbles but it is not. In fact, what I have in my stores is actually some butterscotch schnapps that I used for cupcakes that I purchased regularly after wanting to try my hand at baking.
In fact I loved the schnapps so much that I continue to purchase it whenever I run out at home. So one day I was trying to figure out what I had in my pantry that I could use to make ice cream and the idea of trying my luck with a butterbeer ice cream using what I already have on hand seemed to be the perfect idea!
So off to the internets I went, searching and researching, reading and comparing all sorts of recipes that would first tell me how to make butterbeer… and then ice cream related recipes of other people’s trials and what worked.
However, there were pros and cons and all the recipe were non-alcoholic. Well poo.
Finally I found a recipe that was
1) eggless
2) appeared easy to change around
So as thus came the long sequence of trials and errors.
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Drooling yet?
Anyway before I go on the method used for these types of ice creams has stayed relatively the same:
1) let fruit soak in alcohol for at least an hour or more
2) puree fruit in food processor
3) strain the puree mix through a strainer and into a pot
4) cook the strained puree mix over medium heat until puree mix turns into a jam-like consistency
5) pour the jam-like mix into a container and refrigerate until ready to be mixed with an ice cream base
So what do I use for an ice cream base? Well… something relatively simply like…
– 1 and 1/2 cups of milk
– 1/2 cup honey powder
– 2 to 3 cups of heavy cream
Essentially any vanilla ice cream base just without the vanilla extract.
So how did I get started?
Yup. You read that right… ice cream flavors inspired by anything and everything Disney. Not just any ice cream mind you but alcoholic ice cream.
**evil cackle**
Drooling yet? Well my friends were, especially after the most recent Oscar Party, I decided to task myself with a dessert inspired by the latest Disney animated film: Frozen. And boy did it ever deliver.
But before I move on, I will admit that a lot of my inspiration is derived from the Facebook Page: Cocktails by Cody. Most (if not all) of the recipes below and any future ones are most than likely derived from one of his concoctions only made as an ice cream flavor.
Got that? Good. Let’s start with the first one that started it all:
“COLDFRONT”
– Coconut Ice Cream base
– White Chocolate Liqueur
– Peppermint (Schnapps or Extract, I used extract this time around)
– Coconut Flakes (Optional)
Why am I not putting in measurements? Because I’m lazy first off… and secondly because I rarely do, I just kind of add in what I think looked about right and hope for the best. 🙂 However, I will say that adding just enough peppermint to the mix would give that “freshness” that fallen snow would give. And as thus, a perfect addition. One thing I will say is that for the Coconut Ice Cream base, I used Cream of Coconut in addition to your usual heavy cream + whole milk. What I find happens is that by using Cream of Coconut as opposed to Coconut Milk, it provides a far better balance for the White Chocolate Liqueur and turning the ice cream mix into an ice cream consistency as opposed to harder / cheesier(?) consistency. Portions do change though.
So what’s next?
“MOUSE SLIDE”
– Crushed Oreo Cookies
– Cheesecake Ice Cream base
– Caramel drizzle
Actually this is similar to a dessert dish I created sometime in 2013 inspired by the telephone invention and as thus… not much thought went into this one when adapting it. However, one could never go wrong with Oreos and Cheesecake… so why not? And cheese = mice… so yeeeeaaaah.
ANYWAY…
I have made other ice creams, but nothing else Disney inspired… yet. Eventually I will though, I already have breakdowns written out and ideas floating around, but I probably need to expand my library of drinks first before going further… but that might take a while considering I don’t drink to begin with.
Ah well.
May the Fourth Be With You
So for the Star Wars themed Chef’s Table I was originally tasked with a side dish inspired by Qui-Gon Jinn. As thus my original idea was have
– quinoa soaked and cooked in a gin / water mix
– strips of veal marinated in gin then seared
And that was it, nothing terribly fancy, just something sweet and short because when I think of Qui-Gon Jinn what comes to mind are:
– his connection with the “Living Force” meaning he was very much “in the moment”
– his calming presence for Anakin Skywalker
As thus my desire to use ingredients that would help people “de-stress” and as thus provide that “calming” effect that Qui-Gon Jinn had on young Anakin.
However when another member dropped out and with it the meat / pork course I decided to take that over as well and turned my side dish into the main dish and added more stuff. So what did I end up doing?
So because I prefer this type of thing on a blog post or as a Facebook note as opposed to via a status message… Here ya go!
Last show added to your resume:
As director or actor? “Into the Woods” (actor)
Last show you auditioned for: “Lucky Stiff”
Did You Get It? Nope
Last Song You Sang at an Audition:
For “Lucky Stiff” it was excerpts from the show. So I sang “Rita’s Confession” and “Nice”. However in terms of song that I chose traditionally “Can’t Help Loving That Man of Mine” or more recently “My Strongest Suit”
Favorite Musical:
That I have been in?
– “City of Angels” for the concept.
– “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” for the group.
Greatest musical?
Those that have already been on Broadway / Off-Broadway… I always seem to go back to “Children of Eden” and “Jane Eyre”.
Those that have yet to make their Broadway Premieres include
– “Sense & Sensibility“: Jeffrey Haddow and Neal Hampton
– “Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice“: Lindsay Warren Baker and Amanda Jacobs
Favorite Plays:
That I have been in?
– Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”
– “Piece of My Heart”
Superstition:
For musicals: I do not eat or drink anything outside of water at least five hours prior to curtain up.
For plays: I do not eat or drink anything hot or dairy-related
Your Goal in Show Business: To enjoy every moment of the process either on stage or behind the scenes.
Favorite Director: Uh… none at the moment.
What Was Your First Show? Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. I kid you not, I don’t recommend Shakespeare as anyone’s first audition let alone first show unless you really like the challenge.
Have you ever taken the last bow? Nope.
Ever Had A Dance Solo? Nope.
Ever Had A Singing Solo? Yes.
Ever Been to New York? Yes.
Ever Been To L.A.? Yes.
What’s the Scariest Part of the Audition? Vocal auditions… I get so nervous that I bomb them rather consistently, really is a bane on my self confidence in that arena.
What’s the Best Part of the Audition? If I ever get myself relaxed enough it is singing well for myself to know that I have legitimately put my best foot forward.
Name A Show You Would Never Do Again: “Piece of My Heart”. Though technically never is an absolute and perhaps with the right group of people I would consider it. However the show was so emotionally draining for me the first time that to be lured into doing it again would have to require a lot of coaxing.
Name A Show You Could Do For Years: I plead the fifth.
What ARE you Auditioning for NEXT?
– Most likely: “The Last Five Years”, “The 39 Steps”
– Maybe: “Secret Garden”, “Spam-a-lot”
Do You Keep In TOUCH with past Cast Members? On occasion.
On A Scale of 1-10, How Important is Getting Paid? -5: I enjoy this realm enough to visit every now and then, but to be a part of it as a full time thing? I just can’t bring myself to do it.
Ever Been Naked on Stage? Does topless for rehearsals count since the show itself was first postponed then cancelled?
Have You Ever Been Killed? Yes.
Been Drunk?
In character? Yes.
Performed under the influence? Nope.
Cried? Yes.
Fired A Gun? Been fired at…
Been Drenched? Nope.
Been in a Dream Sequence? Does one of those “imagine this” sequences a la “City of Angels” count?
Been Kissed? Nope. Something about being cast as the bitch more often than not… tends to be a turn off with the leading man.
FINALLY! After who knows how long (probably wasn’t all that long it just felt like it) I finally got around to getting rid of the breading that I made ages ago for a get together with friends. The breading itself was comprised of:
– grounded pretzel sticks
– parmesan
– various seasonings
I could go through the seasonings used, but even I don’t remember even if I look through my cabinets because I have A LOT of seasonings in there.
Anyhoo the last of the mix was used on slices of zucchini, which I have grown a fondness of since college. After that I just have been finding various ways to cook those green mini bats to much success. But now that the breading is gone I can get around to really testing the cooking limits with the veggie greenness. I already baked, deep fried, sauted the vegetable. So what else could there be? I suppose time will tell.
So what else did I use this seasoning for? The obvious answer would be tilapia!
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It’s a little bit funny… This feeling inside…
Still trying to decipher it, but nonetheless there is something to be said about seeing something that one has nurtured from a speck of an idea in one’s imagination to words on paper. Then to trust another party to take those words that you have already cut up, broken, chopped, sewn together, simmer, percolate, etc until it is ripe for someone to then cast actors and have them act those same words out for others to see…
There is just something incredibly profound about the process and I had the chance to see that happen on stage last night during the tech rehearsal prior to opening weekend.
Yes… I know I have been MIA.
And yes… I know… I was putting together costumes where their pictures have yet to surface on the internet.
Well fear not… for it is that life (as in the real one) got busy. But isn’t that always the case?
**le sigh**
Anyway, the latest idea / obsession / hobby of mine is cosplaying, except I take it to the extreme. As mentioned in a few previous posts:
– FablesCon
– A Renaissance Appropriate Costume
– Costume Inspirations
– Corseted Inspired Costumes
– Disney Bounding
I have been putting together various costumes over the past year and a limited number of pictures to show for it. Well with a photographers lined up it is the matter of getting some well crafted accessories to complete the costume.
Blame the thespian in me… without a few accessories here and there, the costume just don’t feel complete to me.
So what am I talking about? Well…
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Why have I been busy? I’ve been writing… a lot of it.
But what exactly? Well that is a bit of a loaded question with a not so easy answer so I will try.
Over a year ago I was in rehearsals for a series of one-acts, one of those one-acts was Christopher Durang’s Kitty the Waitress. In his afterword this particular ten minute play was created with the intention of being one in a series of nine cat related plays… In his original intention the fifth life. So why not create something like that?
So where would I begin? Considering that I listen to music non-stop while working I decided to go with that and listen to songs and if inspiration strikes to quickly write ideas down before I forget them and move on. So if I were to do that what songs would I use? Early on, two songs whose story popped up rather quickly were:
1) Savage Garden’s Two Beds and a Coffee Machine
2) Celine Dion’s It’s All Coming Back to Me Now
After visiting my parents for dinner one day I was given a container of fresh pineapple… and instead of eating it, I decided to create some ice cream with it.
Say what?
Let’s just say this was my attempt in creating pina colada ice cream, with alcohol of course.
So what did I do?
Well I cheated, I used a container of coconut ice cream I made a few months earlier that used the following recipe from Girl Cooks World
INGREDIENTS:
* Two 15-ounce cans full-fat coconut milk, divided
* 3/4 cup sugar
* pinch salt
* 2-1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
* dried, unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted (optional)DIRECTIONS:
Combine all but 1/4 cup of the coconut milk, sugar and salt in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and the remaining 1/4 cup of coconut milk until smooth. Add to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and can coat the back of a wooden spoon.Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 3-4 hours, or up to 24 hours.
Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Serve with a sprinkle of toasted coconut, if desired
Then I added:
– 1 cup of heavy cream
– 1/4 cup of rum
– 1/4 cup of powder honey
– crushed pineapple
Needless to say, amongst the few friends that were given the chance to try it… it was a hit. And unfortunately as always I tend to forget to take pictures…
Hopefully that will change in 2014. 😉
So I started this last year, inspired by my friend’s list of things that she had accomplished in the past year when going into the new year… Since last year I had a list of items that I have completed in some capacity and what I was planning to do in an effort to continue into 2013 let’s see how my scorecard went:
1: Complete a full length play
2013: So I stared at the completed play and decided that I needed to do a major rewrite, but before I put pen to paper I was playing in my head of how I would like to story to go with only half of the cast. So while the original play included ten cast members, this I hope to bring down to only five.
2: Complete a ten-minute play
2013: Ironically, the whole “close to being public” got even closer. Close enough to the point that I am setting up a table reading soon. So why am I stalling? Well, I am currently editing another ten-minute that is tied with this one with two others simmering in my head. So perhaps that table read is going to have to wait til at least one other play is ready… preferably two additional.
3: Travel out of state more to visit friends
2013: Well, let’s see, I
– February: flew out to Anaheim for a friend’s Disneyland Birthday
– March: drove out to Rochester, Minnesota for FablesCon
– August: drove to Pennsylvania for MusikFest
– August: flew out to San Jose for a cousin’s wedding
And with more trips on the horizon, I think I am doing alright here.
4: Hit the community theatre audition circuit harder
2013: I did audition, but it wasn’t as much of a fruitful onstage year like it was in 2012, however, I learned a lot and worked on some things at home… so only time will tell if the work was worth it.
5: Work backstage
2013: And how… diving into Stage Managing, and with a planned trip to Los Angeles for a one-night only production… I think I found something that would be a worthwhile counterpoint from acting. However, I am also learning another skill set that only time would tell if it would be resume building.
6: Give someone a (second) chance when I felt they deserve none
2013: This, ironically, extended to a party this year that I did not expect and even though I felt I was being the bigger person and things were ok for a little while… everything kind of reverted back to square one and in the end it just wasn’t worth it. Ah well.
7: Reconnect with old friends
2013: Wow, this really took a 180 degree turn around in a lot of areas. It is true that you know who your friends are when you need help moving. Granted I did pick and choose people more this time around, but it was more because after I knew who was definitely going to help, who else could I invite where the personalities would blend… and if someone’s personality wouldn’t blend even though I knew they would help, I couldn’t bring myself to ask…
8: Polish my singing voice
2013: This still trip me up in vocal auditions, but I am slowly working towards being more confident in what I am capable of, let’s see what happens though.
9: Control my workload
2013: Even though this worked out for the most part in 2013, who knows if this would be the case in 2014. Time will tell I suppose.
10: Attempt NaNoWriMo
2013: Yeeeeaaaaah, this totally didn’t happen. Going to attempt again in 2014.
11: Focus on my secondary “career”
2013: Well, the secondary didn’t happen as much. However, a bunch of other irons that were in the fire are becoming rather ripe. So let’s see what happens in 2014.
12: Submitting writing works
2013: Just for the hell of it, I submitted a ten-minute play recently, though I doubt it would be picked up and that’s ok… as soon as I finish a few other things I’ll start submitting more and see what happens.
13: Spending more time with family
2013: After losing one set of grandparents in 2012 there is this need to spend more time with my parents and grandparents more this year than I ever did in the past. Although I managed to do this consistently throughout 2013 with my parents, that is not the case with my grandparents and that is going to have to change in 2014.
And what do I have planned for 2014?
Losing weight! Ok, no, not really… not exactly like that in any case, but more along the lines of bringing my size down to what it was back in early-2012 and I want to say that I am part way there, but who knows…
I will be at a point in my life that I am likely to want to get back into ballroom dancing and I think my ankles can handle it this time around… it is just the matter of timing, so I suppose my hope for 2014 would be to:
Expand my interests and hobbies… because one could never have enough.
So I totally mis-understood the televised schedule for this little gem and decided that since it is already a few weeks after the “finale”, I am probably better off just posting my thoughts about NBC’s The Sing-Off on my personal blog as opposed as on the PureTVNet.com blog… at least until I get my life back to relative normal instead of burned-out.
In case you don’t know, NBC’s The Sing-Off:
[…] showcases the country’s top a cappella groups performing popular songs in ways that viewers have never heard before. “The Sing-Off” has no lip-syching, backup bands or safety net.
Granted even though the series has been on hiatus for over a year, it was nice to see this back on the airwaves. However, one cannot help but wonder if this was because of the slowly growing success of Season Three’s winner Pentatonix?
And if you have been living under a rock for the past year… here is Pentatonix’s Evolution of Beyonce:
The fourth season of “The Sing-Off” showcased ten a cappella groups over seven weeks of singing, competing for a recording contract and $100,000…
So who won?
I blame my beau… affectionately of course, because he actually introduced me to some fun shows and those that I really want to know more about…
But I was doing quite well in grossly limiting my television viewing by a significant amount. Now I have been introduced to a fair number of shows that appears to only be available on Netflix…
So what shows finally got me to jump on the bandwagon?
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