Films to Eat By

Where I work, I can basically watch movies all day. I know what you're thinking... "That's not a real job!" Well whatever you want to call it they pay me to watch three channels of movies. I do do a little bit more than just watch movies all day but that's what I usually tell people. Explaining that "I work at a playout facility for a cable movie network" is usually followed by vague and confused expressions and a lot of "That sounds great... what is that?" So it's much easier to say that I watch movies for a living, and when you have access to approximately 1000 films at any given time, you come across some that involve food. If you're hungry, it can be either very satisfying or extreme torture to watch. Or if you are experiencing cravings of any kind you might want to exercise caution before watching a food flick...because it may lead to extreme bingeing.


I recently watched a movie called Tortilla Soup, it's about a Mexican-American family whose tradition is to regularly sit down together for a lavish banquet despite what hardships life throws at them. Its somewhat reminiscnet of Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman, without the insightfulness, Hector Elizondo plays the likeable father and passionate chef who is at the centre of all these feasts. The movie is ok, its watchable, but it is defnitely worth sticking around to watch the scenes where Hector's character Martin is preparing all the meals. All of the food looks just divine, its one of those lick the screen opportunities and will no doubt leave you hankering some good ol' hearty soul food.

Here are some other movies to watch if you are wanting a bit of audio-visual chow, but if you can't be bothered I suggest a quick flick to the Food Channel should do the trick:

Babette's Feast, should warm your heart and soul.
La Femme du Boulanger (The Baker's Wife), haven't seen this one but I suspect it has a lot of bread making.
Chocolat, need I say more..
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, an oldie but a goodie, Gene Wilder is great.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
God of Cookery, hillarious Hong Kong flick, has shades of Iron Chef
Tampopo, Japanese noodle western
Simply Irresistable, reccomended if you like desserts.

Im sure there are countless more I've forgotten so I'd love to know what are your favourite foodie flicks?

Super Sized Ginger Chewies

These cookies turned out quite beautifully, the aroma of ginger and cinnamon wafting through the kitchen was almost intoxicating. The photographs are rather lacklustre and do not do the cookies justice, nonetheless most of them were devoured not long after baking. Jack was hoping to get a few crumbs but alas no one was prepared to give theirs up.

These ginger cookies were polar opposites of an undocumented baking disaster last week. What were meant to be choc chip oatmeal biscuits became horrendous looking brown rocks. They were dry and tasteless, like what chocolate styrofoam would taste like or maybe baked bark with chocolate chips. I don’t know what exactly went wrong; choc chip cookies are fairly straight forward but I suspect it could have something to do with the fact that I used dark Muscovado sugar as opposed to regular soft brown sugar as it stated in the recipe. I may have had to change the ratio between the Muscovado sugar and butter or perhaps add some molasses for chewiness. I don’t know but I am prepared to move on from them.

This recipe for Ginger Chewies was from Elinor Klivans' Big Fat Cookies. The picture on the cover of the big fat choc chip cookies sold them for me straight away, and the pictures inside the book look so delish. Also her recipes are very easy to follow so they are guaranteed foolproof. These cookies were part of the Big Chewy Cookies chapter, and I must say they turned out as expected. I loved the chewiness of the centre juxtaposed with the crunchiness of the edges. The ginger wasn't too overpowering, and the hint of cinnamon and cloves was just enough. They were just the right combination of sugar and spice.

INTRODUCTIONS

I had never entertained the idea of creating my own blog, let alone one that is food related. However, after being an avid reader of many other great food blogs, and a growing interest in photography, I have been inspired to start my own.

So as you can see I am completely new to the wide world of blogging, I am an amateur in every sense of the word- in blogging, in cooking and in probably a lot of other things. So I must warn you all I am no culinary expert, I have no skills that would warrant some sort of esteem in any foodie sense but I'm interested in food and I do love to eat.