You died in 1989, wanna get back to that morning...

This weeks music selection is Ludo. This is the second Ludo album featured on my blog. Yeah, I kind of love them. If you haven't checked them out yet I suggest you do. Who knows you may love them as much as I do.

 

    Broken Bride

              Ludo

 

Part I: Broken Bride

Save Our City

Part Ii: Tonight's The Night

Part Iii: The Lamb And The Dragon

Part Iv: Morning In May

 

Release Date: 09/27/2005

 

I love me a good rock opera. This single by Ludo is a great example of telling a story through music.

I don't really know when it was that I started loving rock operas, but for some reason they just fascinate me.

According to Tim Convy, keyboardist for Ludo: “It tells the story of a man’s wife dying, it destroying his life and leaving him feeling isolated, and him doing everything in his power to get her back.”

It's tender. It's a little heart breaking. It's full of emotion and adventure, and huge imagery. Time travel, dinosaurs, zombies, the end of time, dragons, the four horsemen... it's a vast story that you can't quite absorb by only listening to it once. I have heard it a thousand times and I still catch new bits that I may not have heard before.

Roll Roll Roll in ze Hay.

Last night John and I finally got to use some of our season tickets to Capitol Theatre again. This time it was to see The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein - "This wickedly inspired re-imagining of the Frankenstein legend follows bright young Dr. Frankenstein (that's Fronkensteen) as he attempts to create a monster--but not without scary and hilarious complications." 

 

My review of it: Rent the movie it's so much better. The musical was just plain dirty. Now, I can do a little dirty, that's not a far stretch for me, but, really, everything was dirty. Every reference, every song, nearly every action. I don't really find that necessary to be entertaining.

It was entertaining enough, and the music was catchy even if the words are all innuendos. I don't think that this is a musical soundtrack that will be in my collection.

Like I said, go rent the MOVIE. The movie may have been racy for 1974, but by today's standards it's rather innocent and I'd much rather watch Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle and Madeline Kahn enact the silliness of the spoof than to subject myself to the musical version. I'm not a huge fan of the works of Mel Brooks, but Young Frankenstein the musical was beyond what I thought it needed to be.

I think John may have enjoyed it more than I did, although in the end he agrees that it was rather inappropriate. We did both agree that the performers seemed like they were trying too hard to imitate past great performances rather than trying to make the part their own. Elizabeth was trying too hard to be a combination of Megan Mullally and Madeline Kahn. Doctor Frankenstein reminded me of someone but I can't quite put my finger on it, and I prefer the Igor from the movie.

 

So far this season we've (or I) have seen:

The Color Purple

Spamalot

Young Frankenstein

 

The Color Purple was alright, Spamalot was offensive, Young Frankenstein was a bit raunchy

Eating with Liz 2011 - Zeppole

This week we are making Zeppole. What are those you ask? Well, they're unsweetened doughnuts that are deep fried and then doused in powdered sugar. Sound good? Well, they are. I first has Zeppole's at New York Pizzeria when John and I stopped there for dinner before a movie. Our pizza took all of our time we had for dinner, but I wanted dessert so I opted to order and whatever I got would have to be snuck into the theater. I opted for the Zeppoles "Our special dough fried, then drenched in your choice of powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar and served to you in a paper bag." I thought that sounded handy so that's what we got. I walked into the theater with greasy paper bag in hand and not one looked twice. I don't know why I'm so paranoid of sneaking stuff into the theater in all my years I've never been called out on it... Anyway - This greasy paper bag was full  of little doughnuts swimming in powdered sugar. Nom Nom Nom. It was hard not to eat them all before the movie ever started. I fell in love with these little treats, but unfortunately we haven't been back to NY Pizzeria to get more (or try the other desserts.) The other night I wanted something good. I thought about making Chocolate Chip Cookies but once I had the bowl attached to the Kitchenaid, I decided that I wanted doughnuts. I pulled out my handy "Grandma Mac doughnut" recipe, but that makes a HUGE batch of dough, and I didn't need that many. Then I remembered the Zeppole and googled a recipe. I'm so glad I did. Even my often unseen sister came over to have some.

Zeppole

 

1¾ cups    Flour

½ tsp         Salt

1 cup         Warm tap water, about 105 degrees

2½ tsp       Yeast

4 cups        Oil (good oils for deep frying include canola, grapeseed, peanut and safflower.)

Powdered Sugar, Regular Sugar, or Cinnamon Sugar 

 

Mix flour and salt together and set aside.

 

Pour water into a medium bowl and whisk in the yeast. Let sit for a moment to allow the yeast to activate. Once the yeast/water is bubbly, stir in the salted flour with a rubber spatula until you have a rather wet dough.

 

Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature for about an hour, or until dough is double in size and very puffy. 

 

Heat oil to 375 degrees F., and line a cookie sheet with paper towels or brown paper for draining.

 

Dip a tablespoon into the hot oil, then quickly use it to spoon up some of the risen dough. Use another spoon to scrape the dough off into the hot oil.

 

Fry two or three fritters at a time keep them from burning. Fry until they are a deep golden color. Drain on prepared pan.

 

Dust generously with confectioners' sugar before serving.

 

Makes about 24

We ate all but three that night, and I finished off the rest the next morning. These are yummy little things and you can make them as big or small as you want. I think next time I'll make mine a little smaller.

I fried them in vegetable oil, because that's what I had in the house. It worked just fine, but it has a very low smoking point. by the time I was done with my batch of zeppole my entire house smelled like burnt vegetable oil and I even set off the fire alarm.

Nice.

Like I stated above in the recipe, good oils for deep frying include canola, grapeseed, peanut and safflower. I usually use canola, but I bought a bottle of peanut oil to try with my deep fried scones I asked for for mother's day.

Trust me, I'm the Doctor.

It's no secret. I LOVE Doctor Who. I always have. I've been hooked to Doctor Who since I was a kid, hiding behind the couch on Saturday nights while my dad stayed up to watch. The couches in our living room were these big clucky things made of wood, and the cushions were these fabric bags of fluff. They never sat just right and were so uncomfortable.  Seriously the entire couch was just made up of 2x4's bolted together, but they did create a great hiding place when mom would try to rearrange the furniture and the loveseat often ended up in front of the bedroom doors, making an ideal place to hide out and watch TV after bed time. The Doctor Who theme will always be Saturday nights to me. The opening theme makes me smile and takes me back to those days. Anyway, hiding behind the couch or lingering in the darkness just beyond the doorframe, I watched the adventures of this Time Lord. Some times he's an old man. Some times he's young and quirky, but always, always he is The Doctor. He's brilliant. He's fantastic. He's amazing. He's packed full of emotion and heart. He meddles in the lives of humans. He makes us better people by association. He has two hearts and countless faces. He's over 900 years old. He's not one of us, but he fights for the human race. We're like his pets.

My doctor is # 4 – Tom Baker – with his red velvet blazer, silly hat and yards and yards of scarf. His adventures with K-9 (his robot dog) and Sarah Jane are my favorite memories. Tom Baker was my first Doctor. I love him. I remember seeing his regeneration from # 3 to # 4 and then from # 4 to # 5. I also loved Doctor # 5 – Peter Davison – He wore celery and stripped pants, and glasses just because they made him look smart.

Through the years without Doctor Who I held onto my love of the show. I'd often pretend that I was with him, in the TARDIS. I'd fight aliens and travel through time. I wanted to be the Who Girl. I had a friend who even suggested that I'd make a good one, with no prompting from me.  I can't even begin to say how excited I was when I learned that the BBC was bringing Doctor Who back to the small screen. I unfortunately didn't get to watch any of the new series until 2010, but let me just say – The wait was worth it. We started watching the revamped series when PBS started broadcasting them on Saturday nights (so fitting) at 11 PM.

First there was Doctor # 9 – Christopher Eccleston – He was alright. Not my favorite, but he did a good enough job of bringing The Doctor back to life. He was only The Doctor for one series before he regenerated into Doctor # 10 – David Tennant – He was a brilliant Doctor. He was the Doctor for four years – three series' – His time was filled with emotion, drama, huge story lines, and love. He had three Who Girls during his time and two men (his "companions"). He finally met his end (he'll knock four times) and regenerated alone in his TARDIS (I don't think he ever regenerated alone before) and turned into Doctor # 11 – Matt Smith -- I do not like this incarnation of The Doctor.. He's just hasn't gotten to me. I'm not a fan. He doesn't seem like "The Doctor" there are personality traits and story lines that have carried over in all his other forms, but with this Doctor it seems like the other's didn't exist and the writers are trying to hard to make you believe that he IS The Doctor when there really is nothing else linking him to the past. He just doesn't fit the mold… maybe he'll grow on us. Maybe he wont. Maybe he'll regenerate soon and we wont have to worry about it for long. No one but the writers know.

 

One man, many faces.

 

I do love all of David Tennant though. and Rose. Ah! Such a great story arch. I personally didn't want the 10^th Doctor era to end at all. :( The way it ended broke my heart and I didn't have much hope for Matt Smith after David Tennant. I loved Martha Jones. I wasn't a super fan of Donna, but we recently bought series four and are watching it from the beginning. I had only seen random episodes from this series and so Donna annoyed me. And I had never really seen the Christmas episode where she and the Doctor met so I really had no idea where she came from. But now that I'm getting the big picture of who she is and how she's relating to the Doctor I'm a little more fond of her and the end of her travels is a bit more bitter sweet now then it was before. I liked her grand dad a million times more than I liked her. But like I said, she's grew on me. I think for most of the episodes in series 4 I ended up in tears by the end.
Can I just say though that I LOVE the Master. He's so deliciously nuts... always has been.

 

I ♥ ♥ The Doctor

 

 

Sadly, Elizabeth Sladen died on April 19, 2011. What does this have to do with my Doctor Who post, you may be asking? Well… She is better known to Doctor Who fans as Sarah Jane Smith. She reprised the role several times over the years since 1973 up to the most recent incarnation of the show. But for me, mostly I remember her as Tom Baker's Who girl. Just like most people say "You never forget your first Doctor." Well, I have never forgotten my first "Who Girl" Sarah Jane will be missed. I had been looking forward to seeing if she'd pop up somewhere in the newest incarnation of the Doctor… but now she wont. The Who-niverse has lost a favorite.

Eating with Liz 2011 - Greek Skillet

I wanted to share last nights recipe. It was not so bad. But, as John has pointed out, all these meals (the edible ones) from www.e-mealz.com are missing …something… it's like they're almost good, but there is just something, some taste, missing that would make it just a little bit better. We haven't decided what yet, but we're working on it. Again, this is cooking for two. This turned out to be about 3 ½ servings.

 

Greek Skillet Supper

Parmesan Garlic Bread

 

½ lb ground beef

¼ c onion, chopped

1 t oregano

½ t cinnamon

sprinkle of garlic salt

14 oz can beef broth

14 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

1 T tomato paste

¾ c egg noodles, uncooked

¾ c frozen spinach, thawed and drained

½ c feta cheese

 

In large sauce pan, brown ground beef & onion over medium heat. Add seasonings, broth, tomatoes, tomato paste and noodles. Cover and cook until pasta is nearly tender, about 10 min. Stir in spinach and ¼ c feta. Cover and cook until heated through. Sprinkle w/ remaining feta.

 

½ loaf French bread

(Parmesan, butter, garlic salt)

On a baking sheet, slice French bread in half, lengthwise. Spread each half w/ butter. Sprinkle garlic salt and top w/ parmesan. Slice and bake @400, 10 min, until crispy.

 

I was impressed with this recipe (aside from the "missing something" part.)

I am not a fan of feta cheese, but being determined to try the recipe as is I bought some and used it like the recipe said to. Still not a fan of feta, but when added to the recipe I really couldn't taste it.

I'm working on being a spinach fan. It doesn't seem quite as gross to me now as it used to. I am really not a fan of the precooked frozen stuff. Perhaps next time (if there is one) I'll use fresh spinach instead. It should wilt up nicely in this hot pot. In this case I did use the frozen spinach. I microwaved it until it was mushy and then used a paper towel to squish the excess liquid out.

 

What did I do differently:

I did not drain my diced tomatoes. I just dumped in the whole can. I don't know how well this would have worked if I hadn't. The 10 minutes of cooking time pretty much boiled out all the liquid. Maybe I was cooking it to high, but I don't think so.

I added pepper. A few good shakes of pepper in the recipe didn't hurt it. It probably helped a little. Maybe what these recipes are missing is more spices. (i.e. salt and pepper) I should have used the pepper mill and given it a few good turns of fresh ground pepper. That probably would have been tasty.

I had precooked my beef. I used ½ lb of beef for the recipe the night before so I just cooked the whole pound and put half of it in the fridge. This worked well for this to be a quick meal. 15 minutes from start to plate -- Not bad at all.

Dried Onions. I think I may have figured them out. I use 1/8 cup or less of the dried onions and that seems to work out well. For this recipe I used my Pampered Chef wooden Spoon and just scooped enough to fill the spoon well with onion. That was just about the right amount. I'll figure these dried onions out yet.

I didn't measure my egg noodles. I just added two handfuls.

 

We didn't eat this with garlic'd French bread. I don't have any French bread and I didn't feel like garlic. We had crescent rolls from a tube. Yes, the store brand.

 

SIDE NOTE: I've been craving buttery carbs lately and these have been a staple in the fridge for a while. If I'm not eating the chocolate chip cookies that I posted not to long ago. (I think I have used more brown sugar in the last two weeks then I think I EVER have in my life.)

 

This probably would have been good with a nice green salad as a side. John suggested that instead of noodles that it may be good on a pizza crust.

 

This also would have been good as a soup. As it was it was kind of a hamburger helper texture with just a little extra sauce in the pan. I'd suggest an extra can of Beef Broth if you'd like it more soupy.

 

CHEF'S NOTE: Buy your tomato paste in a refrigeratible tube. Buying it in the can is such a waste. I have never used an entire can of tomato paste and it always ends up being thrown away. Just like the open can I have in my fridge today.

 

If you try this tell me. If you can decide what the missing "something" is I'd really like to know.