Happy Halloween! October 31, 2007

Last night I was frantically making a coffee cake for a morning meeting, and I knocked over a grocery bag full of stuff. I looked inside and found the seasonal ingredients (decorative pumpkin candies and Kraft caramels) for two of my favorite autumnal treats that I should have been making the for the last month at least! I’m not sure I’m going to get around to them this year, but I thought I should at least share the two yummy recipes with my friends. These Pumpkin bars are really easy, and always a huge hit. I like to serve them chilled. Tomorrow I’ll share the Caramel Brownies that are to die for when served warm from the oven.

Pumpkin Bars

2 C sugar
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 can (16 oz) pumpkin
4 eggs, beaten
2 C Bisquick All Purpose Baking Mix
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C raisins (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat sugar, oil, pumpkin and eggs in large mixing bowl until well blended. Stir in baking mix, cinnamon and raisins. Pour into greased jelly roll pan and Bake until top springs back, about 25 minutes. Cool. Frost with cream cheese frosting, cut into bars and decorate with candy pumpkin. Refrigerate left over bars.

Cream cheese Frosting

1 small package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 C butter, softened
1 Tbl milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 C powdered sugar

Beat everything except the powdered sugar together until creamy. Add sugar and beat until smooth and of spreading consistancy.
Optional: You can also add 1/2 tsp of orange flavoring in addition to the vanilla.

me want! October 29, 2007

One of my sisters was in the same ward as Ken Jennings in college. I told her when Jeopardy history was being made that she should have flirted with him, and then maybe she would be married to the trivia king of the world. Now I find another reason besides fame and fortune that she should have been batting her eyelashes at ole Kenny. Look at the mural he’s painting in his daughter’s room! I love it! I want it in my room; it’s gorgeous.

ukelele Cate October 26, 2007

Several years ago (more like 4 or 5, holy cow!), I had a summer job at a factory. Consequently, I would spend my days working on the assembly line and obsessing about all kinds of random things all day long. One thing I became obsessed with was owning my very own ukulele, assuring myself it would be easy to become a master ukulele player, and then I’d go on to become the life of the party, and so on. I did eventually buy a ukulele that summer, along with a book entitled You Can Teach Yourself Uke.
Long story long, I have taught myself the same three cords over and over, and sung the same 6 songs to myself and unwilling neighbors. I’ll tell you, strumming doesn’t so much come naturally to me. I did even go so far as to try to find a ukulele teacher, but they’re not really listed in the phone book.
A while ago (this time only a month or two), I stumbled onto this blog entry that really made me wish I’d been more diligent in “teaching myself uke.” The good news is I have a renewed fervor to master the ukulele. The bad news, for anyone living with me, is that I have a renewed fervor to master the ukulele. Coming to a party (and a library!) near you…

have you met… October 24, 2007

Donna Jo Napoli? She writes all kinds of books, but my favorites are her fairy-tale retellings. She really has a knack for retaining the structure of old, well-known stories, but adding something special and new as well. My very favorite is The Magic Circle. It’s great, I really love it. Don’t read reviews or descriptions of the book, just read it.  I recently read this fun interview with Napoli which also provides some great links to learn more about her. Enjoy.

check it out, dude October 22, 2007

A coworker brought this site to my attention which is really a shame since I could easily lose hours at a time on this baby. Still, they’d be really fun hours, so I think you should go there too. Click on the picture to be transported to musical theatre heaven.

reading is a thrill October 19, 2007

I love reading a scary story, especially in the comfort of my parents house where all I have to do when I get to scared is run down to the kitchen and everything is nice and warm. One of the first “horror” novels I remember reading is Fog by Caroline B. Cooney. It was a gift from a friend for my birthday; I doubt very much my mother would have let me get it for myself. I remember it being fantastically scary, but I don’t know if it would seem so now. It’s the first book of a trilogy, and I found them all very thrilling as a teenager.
What scary stories do you like to read?

postscript October 17, 2007

I almost forgot to tell you one of the best things I learned at Bookfest! Someone asked about The Giver cover, saying it was off-putting. I was very interested in Lowry’s response because a) I felt the same – I put off reading The Giver for a long time even though people kept recommending it because I was scared of the man, and b) I had just noticed while sitting at Bookfest waiting for it to begin that the photo credit for the cover was Lois Lowry. I know from Shannon Hale’s blog that authors usually don’t get any input on covers (which is stupid if you ask me). So, the story is that Lois Lowry had written an article on this guy, and taken pictures to go along with it. She became friends with him, and liked the pictures a lot because he had an interesting face. So when she did The Giver, and she was a big enough author that she did get some input, so she said she wanted to use one of the pictures of this guy (sorry, she said his name, but I don’t remember it). She said there was another picture that was warmer, but his hand was in the picture and he had a band-aid around his finger which the publishers didn’t like, so she used this photo instead. She said that she never thought he was at all scary-looking; probably because she knows him. I will admit, after reading the book, I felt kindlier towards him too, but I did think he was scary to begin with.

best idea ever! October 17, 2007

Why, oh why didn’t they do this three years ago when I moved here? Besides the fact that you would inevitably have crowds of tourists blocking the entrance to the subway and staring at the ground (only a slight change from the usual crowds of tourists blocking everything and staring up), this is fantastic. I really hope they make the subway compass a permanent feature of NYC sidewalks.

a dystopian afternoon October 16, 2007

While I wasn’t too excited to have to be somewhere at 9:30 am on a Saturday, I really couldn’t complain upon arriving at Bookfest 2007. They had all kinds of breakfast treats (bagels, danishes, croissants, etc) and coffee and hot chocolate. We sat down and Lois Lowry spoke for a little over an hour about her newest book (not officially announced, I’m so in the know!) and her experience with having her books banned (The Giver is frequently challenged in school libraries, and Number the Stars has been as well). She is a wonderful speaker, very warm, funny and thoughtful. My one regret was that I assumed we’d be able to get books signed by her at the end (there were several illustrators speaking as well, who did stay for the book signing), but alas, she did not stay.
After that we split up into book discussion groups. Our group leader was surprised that most of us had read all the books which I thought was rather sad. Shouldn’t you be able to count on librarians to always read the book? I thought I wouldn’t say anything, just listen, since I didn’t know anybody there. Turns out, I have a big mouth – I know you’re all surprised. I don’t think I talked too much, but I was on the edge. I just can’t help myself – I love a good dystopian tale and always have a lot to say about them. We did that for an hour or so, and then we had a very lovely lunch over which I continued talking books with a librarian I had recognized from The Jane Austen Book Club movie screening (she works in the Teen Center at the Mid-Manhattan Branch and tried to steer me away from school librarianship since she didn’t like doing it).
Really, that would have been plenty of book fun for me, and apparently plenty of people agreed as there was a pretty steady trickle of people leaving throughout the next 90 minutes of talks from illustrators who use the computer to create all of their artwork now. I wasn’t familiar with any of them, but they were all fun to listen to. John Grandits creates concrete poetry (poems printed in the shape of the subject) and has a printing background. William Low was a traditional painter, who now is a digital painter and I was thrilled when he demonstrated his method for us. Lastly, the irreverent J. Otto Siebold spoke about his latest release, Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf, which I’m now tempted to buy.
Overall, a very lovely experience. I’m sorry they only do it once a year.

all things GC October 15, 2007

Let’s see, things are speeding up for the 12/7 release of The Golden Compass. Click on the picture to see the latest trailer. There’s talk of cutting off the book ending as it’d be too upsetting a way to end the movie. They say they’d put the ending on as the beginning of the second movie, which is ok, I suppose. I just remember the ending of the book being so shocking and thrilling, making me go directly to the bookstore to get the next book upon finishing the first. A safe ending could be a boring ending. I guess we’ll see.

As expected, the Catholic church is complaining about the movie, even though efforts were made to make it less religiously controversial than the books.  The Catholic League is worried that children seeing the movie may want to go on to read the books.  Let’s hope so!

tip of the day October 6, 2007

When you’re wondering if a business is open, so you call them to find out, it sounds really stupid to say when they answer, “Are you open?”  Guess what?  If they weren’t open, they wouldn’t be there answering the phone.  Instead, just say something along the lines of, “What are your hours today?”  That way you don’t sound like an idiot, it’s just as easy, and you get your answer.

a trailer for a musical with no music? October 4, 2007

The first Sweeney Todd trailer is available for viewing online (Click poster for the link).  I’m worried.  I understand that having a trailer with virtually no singing might seem a better way to draw non-musical theatre crowds to the movie, but it also makes me think that perhaps the actors don’t sound so good.  I don’t even know how they got so much footage without singing in it – am I crazy in thinking of Sweeney Todd as 90% sung?
 I am devoted to Tim Burton, but he has let me down before.  I hope he doesn’t fail me this time.  I would love to love this movie.