25 for 25 Project Week Three Update: A Cross Blog Extravaganza

Above: Can you tell which one is the over-stirred one? Below: The cupcakes dusted and ready to eat.

My usual posting date is Friday, but due to an unexpectedly hectic schedule I am posting a day late. My schedule was so hectic I didn’t even have the entry typed up. I am penning it over morning coffee, watching Dances with Wolves. I hear its the Help but with Indians instead of black people. Ugh white people. Anyway, this week was really great for productivity in my two lists within the list. I crossed two cupcakes off of the to-bake list. A delicious marble swirl and a triple citrus cake with a lime glaze. I whipped up the marble cakes for when Sara came over to watch the Lord of the Rings with me. The batter was simple enough to whip up, but the real fun was combining the batters and then swirling them together. I did have an accident where I over-stirred one, but other than that they were pretty great. The two flavored cake and the lovely design the swirl creates led me to decide not to ice them but instead dust them with powdered sugar.

My first of several bowls of Frito Pie.

Now, onto the second cupcake. On January 1st I relaunched this blog as BEST Blog, but my friend Trang also began a new journey into blogging. She took her blog Curiosity Killed the Cook live the same day. A blog about recipes she whipped up at home and journeys through the culinary world that is New York City, the blog is a diary of a foodie. Since I have known Trang she has always been interested in cooking, even attending all sorts of Food and Cooking events. When she suggested we get together for a cross-blog hang out where we cook and watch an Oscar winner/contender I was so excited. We made plans to get together on Friday and bake and watch the Beginners. We whipped up a recipe I read about on Trang’s blog called Frito Pie. Its Frito’s Corn Chips, Chili and Cheese mixed together. I had three bowls. Three heaping bowls. Its amazing. After lunch, we made the Triple Citrus Cupcakes as Trang suggested, since citrus is in season right now. I was hesitant about them as I am not a big citrus fan but they came out delicious! I was so excited to be pleasantly surprised. The perfect amount of sweet and sour, in a super light cake. The glaze is just that a glaze you would find more often of a doughnut, but with a lime zing. Then we sprinkled leftover citrus zest on each one. Not only adding another zing of flavor, but also a lovely garnish.

Here is the finished product, after Trang and I glazed and sprinkled them.

The Citrus Cake called for lots of lime, lemon and orange zest.

Here is a lovely shot of the cupcakes all glazed, we sprinkled each of the three with a different zest.

It was great baking with Trang, who has as much, if not more passion than I do in the kitchen. We have another recipe picked so another cooking play date is not too far off.

This week, I crossed the 30 mark meaning there are less than 53 films to be watched from here on out. This week, I crossed off Hurt Locker, From Here to Eternity, the Gladiator, Marty, the Broadway Melody of 1929, Out of Africa and as I mentioned am in the process of watching Dances with Wolves. It was a good week for movies, with not one bad one in the bunch. From Here to Eternity was probably the one I enjoyed the least, even with the classic scene of Burt Lancaster and Debrah Karr kissing on the beach. What surprised me most this week was the movie Marty. When I read its summary “a lonely butcher from the Bronx who lives with his mother finds love in a meek school teacher” I was not too optimistic. But. It was incredible. I enjoyed it so much, such a simple but sweet movie. Also, as a little bit of trivia the Broadway Melody of 1929 was the first speaking picture to ever win the Best Picture Oscar. It was such a throw back, whenever there wasn’t dialogue there was no sound and each scene started with a title card that gave the location and time of the scene like in silent movies. It was pretty fun to see. Next week I have a few movies on the schedule including My Fair Lady which I have heard so much about. Also, its not a Best Picture winner but I watched the Beginners with Trang after we baked our cupcakes and want to put it out there I now understand why Christopher Plumber is a shoo-in for Oscar gold. He is incredible in it, the film also has a nice balance of sadness and humor. Plus the little Jack Russel Terrier Henry could give the Artist’s Uggie a run for his money.

The 25 for 25 Project Week Two Update

In week two of the project, it was all about the movies. After screening Million Dollar Baby, I decided to see what other Oscar winners I could watch by using Netflix. Well, as it turns out a few. When I went on to Netflix there was around 12 or 13 movies for streaming. However, before I got through them all some were taken down. But, I was able to get through nine films, starting with All About Eve. It was my first movie, and so far its my favorite Oscar winner I’ve watched for the project. Bette Davis is amazing as an aging Broadway star who invites a starstruck fan into her fold as her assistant. The movie is a tale of betrayal and deceit, but compared to today’s movies it a simpler tale. Eve is cunning, but she isn’t over the top. If this film was written today, it would struggle to get made unless the writers made Eve a homicidal maniac hellbent on killing Margo. In the end if this masterpiece was made today, it would probably end up being a Lifetime movie. The other movie I watched that I really enjoyed was the Last Emperor. I had to watch it twice because it was so long that I kind of lost track of what was going on in the middle. But, it was a good story about the last emperor of China and how he went from being a prisoner of his royal life to finding freedom in his life as a gardener. This week I also crossed the English Patient, Kramer vs Kramer, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Patton, Midnight Cowboy, Oliver! and Down by the Waterfront. I enjoyed all of the films tremendously, except for English Patient, which might honestly be the worst film I’ve ever sat through. On the Waterfront which was the most recent film I’ve seen brings me to a grand total of 25 Best Picture winners viewed. I have 58 left to go. The Hurt Locker arrives today from Netflix and TCM begins its 31 Days of Oscar in a few days so the progress should continue nicely.

Now, I am so excited to announce that I have also devised a plan for another one of the items on my list. Number 21: Volunteer my Time for a Worthy Cause is something I’ve been thinking a lot about. I’ve been trying to figure out what I am going to do and who I am going to donate my time with. Then it hit me, 2012 is a Leap Year so we essentially have an extra day this year. So I take this extra day, and volunteer at least 24 hours. I hope to find a few different charities and volunteer with a few different causes. Something for equal rights maybe my favorite gay marriage charity and something for animal rights. I’ve also been reading a lot about this organization that does work with victims of sex trafficking. I mean there are so many worthy causes but I don’t want to spread myself around too much because I want to help. It would be pointless to divide my attention around so much that each organization gets enough time to train me before I leave for the next stop on the Brian Volunteer Tour. Although, I have a feeling that once I start volunteering and find a great place to lend my help that my volunteer hours will exceed the 24 hours in the Leap Day.

Now I am off to bake a batch of cupcakes and find a local blood drive so I can cross that off of the list. Please let me know if you want some cupcakes, because its going to be hard to get into shape (Number 2) if I am eating all of the goodies made from Baking my Way Through MS Cupcakes (Number 22).

25 for 25 Project: Week One Update

Last week, I launched my new project on this blog. After developing the project over the month of December I knew I was excited about it. But, after viewing the traffic stats for that day, I saw that I wasn’t alone. The day I posted the list was the highest day of traffic, since I broke the news that Colette and Dean were going to get together on Pan Am back in November. Along with the hits, I got some great feedback and lots of offers and invitations to do things on the list with different friends. I am really excited about upcoming movie days, a group outing to see Mamma Mia! and getting everyone together for a day at Yankee Stadium. Aside from planning, I actually did a few things so let’s get to that.

On Monday, I invited Alex over to do some baking. Before she came over, I looked through Martha Stewart Cookies to pick a few recipes for us to make. While flipping though, I noticed how many cookies there were that no one in the house would ever eat. Like Rosemary & Thyme tea biscuits and Cashew Bars. So I made a quick decision to switch Bake My Way Through MS Cookies to Bake My Way Through MS Cupcakes. Alex came over, we caught and drank coffee while getting to work on our cupcakes. They came out really great. But, they didn’t seem dark enough to be Devil’s Food, plus the original Chocolate Ganache frosting came out like pudding. Oh and our plan to make a second cupcake went out the window when we had to run to the store to get some forgotten ingredients. Oh well, there’s a whole 15 months to bake the rest and from the reaction I got I’m off to a pretty delicious start.

After my day of baking with Alex, Sara and I had a date to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. While it has not been on my list as long as Mamma Mia! Sara and I have been discussing going to see it since Darren’s run had been announced. I have to say, How to Succeed is not the best musical I’ve ever seen. There’s only one really fantastic musical number and the story is kind of blah. But, I was impressed by Darren’s performance. I had been assured by friends and even strangers who had seen it that Darren’s charm and charisma is obvious and that his dance moves are down pat. But, no one had raves for his voice. Maybe it was because they saw it in his first week and he was still working it out because, I was impressed. His voice is not Broadway but it was really great.  When you factor in that he had less than a month to rehearse/train and that its his Broadway debut I think Darren did a fantastic job and cemented his status as the Glee star with the brightest post-McKinley future. Seeing this show by getting rush tickets for $30 has inspired me to take in other shows, not just Mamma Mia! My next pick? I’m going to continue my hot guys from TV on Broadway tour and see Hunter Parrish in Godspell.

I spent Thursday laying low, making dinner for the family, catching up on DVR shows and even having a movie screening. The first film to be crossed off my Best Picture list? Million Dollar Baby. I heard so much about Clint Eastwood’s multiple Oscar-winning film about a boxer, that I even knew how it ended. But, never got around to seeing it. To be honest, it wasn’t the film I was most interested in seeing but I had rented it from Netflix a million years ago and never returned it. I thought I had lost it, but recently found it while moving the furniture around for Christmas decorating. (I promise to return it to Netflix when I am done with it.) There is honestly nothing at all I can say about this film that hasn’t already been said. Only that I enjoyed it and am excited to pick my next Oscar winner. I saw All About Eve is on Netflix Instant View. You know, I love Bette Davis… Well I love that song about her eyes, that counts right?