Choi to the World

Christmas taste titillations

Mom and I had a cookie marathon yesterday. Six varieties. 403 cookies! 33.5 dozen. Add in 5 Christmas CDs and you have one very festive, long, sweet day! We started with a pile of ingredients a little Vince Guaraldi and the Peanuts singers isn't it everybody's favorite. I can just see the whole gang oohing and ahhing with their little black outlined noses up in the air. I also love the ethnic sounds of this Putumayo classic, there is something joyous about hearing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen emerge from steel drums.

We have the flavor rainbow covered.

Spice. Ginger Crisps made from the adorable recipe card that has guided us to these simply the best spicy goody.

Almond and peppermint. The can't be skipped candy cane cookies. Mom discovered these when she was a young mother, I was about 3 or 4.

Nutty. Yuletide cookies. Have always been a favorite. The recipe was lost about 11 years ago and we have been a quest to replace them ever since. A truly vintage recipe. Mom remembers it came from the packaging of the now defunct Spry shortening. We have searched. So over the year we have experimented and we are so close to the delectable cookie we remember. Great with eggnog.

Lemony. Lemon snowflakes got added to the fold in 1997 when mom and I were home recovering together. I from a planned surgery and mom from a life threatening illness, Wegener's Granulomatosis. She was quarantined because of a compromised immune system and I couldn't walk! This cookie appeared in the newspaper we had all the ingredients then and has been a regular ever since. Snowflakes? because they melt in your mouth!

Chocolate. Mayan mystery cookies. YUM. The mystery? I don't think I'll tell.

Fruity rainbow. Cut outs. My dad always wants them. Mom hates to make them. We limited ourselves to stars, I have 5 sizes! Kool-aid frosting give these a fruity sweet/tart twinklers a colorful taste bud pirouette. When I graduated from art school, my portfolio had a fish theme. So for my party I made fish cut out cookies. I found a pile of long unused Kool-aid packets and used them to color and, as a tongue titillating by-product, flavor my frosting. Chopsticks become the paintbrushes creating stripes, swirls dots and other twinkly designs.

 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

***I am adding some new thoughts. I woke up this morning thinking about this movie. The last week or so has been a rush and I really didn't get to really think about this movie until this morning. This story was totally new to me, I never read the book and one thing I think that may be unique about the movie over the book, is the power of the visual element. Immediately the viewer is presented with a wrinkled person with thinning hair, arthritis, and crackled voice -- it is the first thing you see and therefore "know" about him and just like any other stereotype there are certain assumptions to be made about people of advanced years. Even though he was young, people assumed he'd "been around the block" or needed to have an experience because they assumed he was too old not to have had it. On the opposite side, because he appeared young it was assumed he wasn't as wise about life, and seemed he shouldn't have been dying as he grew younger. Because he was old first, people around him were forced to see his character first and he grew physically beautiful/young with age, and we know what a jackpot that would be to see Brad Pitt emerge from your old wrinkled spouse! WOOT! WOOT!  I have seen so much written that says his life was running in reverse but the only thing that was reversed was his appearance and they way people (aside from his mother) treated him based on that appearance. It is a human movie about love, life and death presented in an exquisite, quirky and eloquent way. It seemed more like an art house film albeit executed in a huge budget Hollywood way. I loved the movie and love it the more I think about and recall it.

The preview piqued it, now I am curious no longer. I have seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was a beautiful thought provoking film. Now yes, Brad Pitt was in it but for most of it he wasn't his physically beautiful self, he was the inwardly beautiful character possessed of a whimsical charm and wisdom. We loved the movie. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. I am usually a purveyor of small art house films but this was a delightful and poignant film. We laughed out loud and cried sniffly tears. It was an inspirational movie offering perspective and a quiet calm.

I don't know how I missed this book but thanks to F. Scott Fitzgerald for creating such a sage tale. I'm adding it to my reading list.

It opens Christmas Day. My family always goes to the movies on Christmas Day, this would be a great flick if it is a tradition for you too.

Well speaking of great movies we also saw Happy Go Lucky. A quirky British film that has us thinking about it even a week later. Not as artistically inspiring as Benjamin Button, however the title character's fashion sense was a hoot. With an inspirational and often hilarious outlook on life the main character was surrounded by damaged people who allowed that damage to affect there lives in detrimental ways. It is about her interaction with those people.

Both movies are a must-see, in my most humble opinion.

Beatin' to a pulp

I don't know why I haven't blogged about this before. I took a paper making class. I have done quite a bit of paper making -- all self taught. I decided I wanted to learn from the pros. Back when the RIT had a printing program they offered courses in paper making. Now those former instructors are the jewels of the Genesee Center of the Arts Printing and Book Arts Center. There is something so satisfying about taking an old piece of paper completely destroying it and then creating a new gorgeous piece of paper in about 3 minutes*. Instant gratification! You get to destroy and create in the same breath.

Here are some of the results.

*Of course three minutes is a bit of an exaggeration. It takes about 3 minutes to form the sheet, but then it has to be pressed and dried and ironed. If you are pouring it takes more time than if you are pulling. 

This class was about experimentation. I have already done papermaking but this class taught me lots of new tips and techniques, not to mention tools and different deckles and a great community of talented people.