September 8, 2004

Cinematic Snackables

Seattle Maggie would like to apologize for dropping off the face of the planet for a few weeks - although, embraced in the chilly darkness of Carlsbad Caverns some 750 feet below the New Mexican surface, watching with a mixture of amusement and horror as a bored kid tried to climb his mom out of sheer brattiness, it seems we literally had. This is not a comment on the state of the caverns, which can only be described by the mumbled phrase that kept coming to our lips, something like "wowlookitthatwow!" We don't blame the kid for being bored, but we do blame him very much for attempting to scale his exhausted parent in public. Mom, Dad, if your dear little one ever gets that gleam in his eye and starts fingering his grappling gear, it's time to call it a day. Take our word for it.

In movie news, we did not actually get any cinematic screen time in with all the road tripping around the great state of New Mexico. However, the plane ride did give us the opportunity to catch up on our magazines, and we are please to tell everyone to run out and get yourself a copy of the September issue of Gourmet. The theme for this month's issue is Food & Movies, two of our favorite subjects, and we happily immersed ourselves in pretty pictures of elaborate foodstuffs to block out the fact that our plane was jittering like a college student high on a four shot espresso buzz.

Some highlights of the issue include an interesting article on set catering, a fancy sloppy-joe movie night meal (is that an oxymoron?) and some recipes inspired by movies - we particularly craved the recipe for timballo, which is a slightly less grand version of the drool-inducing timpano from Big Night - at 30,000 feet, we even considered attempting this one ourselves before realizing that anything that required being cooked in a water bath could probably spell doom for our mailbox-sized oven. Ah well. cupcake.bmp
Also amusing (but less movie-related) was the Letters page, in which a healthy debate still rages about the controversial "Cupcake Cake" that was featured on the cover back in January - we think it looks both fun and tasty, but apparently many readers took offense to the fact that it was not "gourmet" enough to be featured on the cover on a magazine professing to be just that. An opposing party immediately raised its collective hackles and told them to lighten up.

If this keeps up, a major offensive will certainly whip up over this month's recipe for a movie snack entitled "Salami Crisps" which is...well...salami baked in an oven until crispy. Seattle Maggie is not sure how "gourmet" it is, but it does sound like something you could use to reward your pet for relieving itself in the appropriate square of newspaper. At any rate, choose your side wisely, for it may come down to a final battle of ganache versus devil's food any day now. Whip up some of the easy crunchable snacks from the back page, sit back and watch the fireworks - or a favorite DVD will do. By the way, who knew there were so many different tools for the sole purpose of slicing off the tops of eggs?

Something to consider during a quiet moment in your day: It takes 72 years to form a stalactite the size of the tip of your pinkie. That's all the time you get - a tiny nub no bigger than a marshmallow in your breakfast cereal. Seattle Maggie thinks we all deserve an extra helping of dessert tonight.

Posted by seattle maggie at September 8, 2004 9:21 PM