Pasta with parmesan and mint and Paul Newman

This is a case when peer pressure prevailed.  I read this recipe and thought "meh" but read the comments and there was not one bad comment. So I made it.  You know when you want comfort food, but most comfort food is winter food because it involves roasting or heating up the kitchen?  This is like comfort food but with so little effort and other than boiling water for the pasta, no heat.  It didn't sound like it would work but it totally does. It's filling and comforting (especially after a long day/week/month) and yet light and fresh.  I made it just as it said with the exception of the amount of pasta, a pound for 3 people?  That's just way too much.  I used a handful and a half of penne, enough for one person, and cut the rest of the stuff in half and it was more than enough.  I think for one person a short quarter cup of chopped mint and a half cup of FRESH parmesan grated (don't bother to make it if you are using pre-grated parm, it won't work) two tablespoons of butter and a dash of salt (parmesan has a fair amount of salt) but a good amount of pepper at the end.  The addition of a bit of the cooking water makes it saucy, but make sure your bowl is preheated.  I just tossed it in the pasta bowl I ate out of and it was lovely. Yes, I know two tablespoons of butter seems a lot but if that bothers you then just shut up and go eat some plain boiled kale.  

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11397-pasta-with-mint-and-parmesan

Gotta love Mark Bittman.....

If you watch movies through Netflix, one of the best Paul Newman movies is leaving Netflix on August 1, so watch it now. Even if you saw it years ago, watch "The Verdict" again. We all loved Paul Newman, and we love to remember him as sexy and cool and bulletproof. Here he is rundown and getting craggly and plays a drunk crappy lawyer who is handed a wrongful death case that he almost blows.  Almost. His stellar acting is so clear in this movie. I could go on, but do yourself a favor and watch it.  Yes, it seems to drag about half way through but only for about 20 minutes and we all owe Paul Newman those 20 minutes for what his screen career has given us in entertainment and pure amazement at his gorgeousness and his ability to be anyone, from the Hustler to Butch Cassidy to this guy.

That's it.  A bowl of pasta and a movie.  Life is good.  Oh, and a nice Pinot to pair well with the parmesan and mint. Seriously, I can't think of a better match.

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"Dunkirk"

How amazing it is to watch a Christopher Nolan movie! No matter what the subject, be it memory loss ("Memento") or subconscious infiltration and theft of memories ("Inception") or time-travel through galaxies ("Interstellar") or super heroes ("The Dark Knight") Nolan knows  how to hook you, suspend you and let you down not gently. He is a master at fucking with your mind in the guise of entertainment. 

Not so entertaining is "Dunkirk," however.  It's a straight-on war movie, so if you don't like that genre, you won't like this movie. But it is masterful, it is genuine and it is amazing. Did I like it? I liked all of it except the subject, war. But you can't go see a war movie without being immersed in that subject. I was knocked out and exhausted by its scope and its depth.  It is so difficult to watch at times, not for the blood and guts (of which there is little, a lot of death but not a lot of blood) but for the human factor. The gut wrenching terror in a boy's eyes, the massive fear of being killed, the immediate realization that one has zero seconds to live.  Difficult to recommend but it would be a shame to not experience this movie.

There is no preface, no narration, no big stars on the screen, no familiar faces (except Kenneth Branagh, who has short screen time) to distract you. The movie just begins and within a minute, you are deep in the pain of war. 

Nolan likes to play with time, forward and backward, and there is a bit of that in this film.  You see the same scene from a few different angles and perspectives, four or five or ten minutes apart.  It sounds distracting, and it is a bit, but it also increases the tension and the suspension of reality. (It's odd to use that phrase "suspension of reality"
 in a movie based on fact, but I imagine war suspends reality while imprinting reality at the same time.) For example,  Steve and I disagreed on something that happened, I said one thing, he said something else, until we realized we were both wrong, it was something totally different seen from two different sets of eyes at two different interludes of time. Nolan is a master at that, making you question what you just saw.

Bottom line, it's an astonishing achievement in every way. Nolan has made one helluva movie here. His craft and technique are flawless.  More than that, it is a tribute to men and women of war, of survival and of fear and bravery, of doing one right thing at one moment.  It's a testament to the British soldiers, who came home from Dunkirk feeling like failures but who went on to fight the long fight of the war.  And in the end, it's a look at war, a very short snapshot of the thing no one wants to see, to endure, to live.  "Dunkirk" is, as all war movies should be, a plea for survival, for peace. Not that Nolan puts that on the screen, but if a viewer can't find that, then that viewer is blind. 

"Here I Am"

I am listening to "Here I Am" by Jonathan Safran Foer in my car as I go back and forth to work.  It's an amazing story of Jewish families, Israel, divorce, generations of bickering and of love, growing up, growing old, staying the same.  I am loving it because it's funny and it's sad at the same time, I laugh out loud and three minutes later there are tears in my eyes.  Great one-liners, great commentary on life in general, not just Jewish life, although there's a lot of that as well. I sometimes avoid books with a Jewish slant, I don't know why, but this is so rich and vivid and real. The characters, Jacob and Julia and their three sons and a grandfather and great grandfather and some others, are in turmoil all the time, much like all of us. They have no idea how to navigate down the dark and dangerous rivers of real life, much like all of us. They fuck up, they try to do better, they sometimes believe in a god of sorts, sometimes they don't believe in anything. Often they know nothing, they believe nothing and they either admit it or they deny it. Much like all of us.

I am not sure I would like this book as much if I was reading it.  Sometimes the voice that narrates (i.e. reads) the story makes it so much better.  (And sometimes the voice makes you turn the car around and take that book on CDs right back to the library.) The voice is Jewish (and I mean that in the best possible way) and he knows how to phrase the phrases perfectly, when to give weight and when to make it light. It's a great  book to listen to, but since  many of you who read this blog (well, many is too hopeful) don't drive great distances, you probably will never listen to this book. Too bad. It's a joy.

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"Baby Driver"

Totally fun summer movie. Lots of action, amazing music, over-the-top characters and plot, an evil Kevin Spacey (is there any other kind) and just pure, mad, silly, bloody fun.  If you are looking for something with authenticity, integrity, realism, altruism, thoughtfulness and inspiration, something with real people, real situations and honest dialogue, this will not be that.  This is the opposite of that.

"Baby Driver" is basically a heist story, with guns and lots of swearing, with a corny love story and with a humorously psychotic and unkillable Jon Hamm character named Buddy. There are a couple of gory scenes, the kind that make you cringe and squirm in  your seat and say "oh, yuck" but they aren't offensive because they aren't real!  It's a movie!  Plus it's a bit amusing as well so you get to chuckle now and then at the absurdity of it all. 

I can totally, 100% recommend this movie but don't bother if you hate guns, swearing, blood and really loud and fast car chases.  That's the entire point of the movie, that and the amazing music and the goofiness of the entire film.  I loved it.

The miracle of a window AC unit, revised

At this moment, it is 96 degrees outside.  It is hot.  But inside, it is a nice, refreshing 73 degrees and hopefully getting cooler.  My little window AC is working quite nicely, and I don't care what my electric bill looks like this month, this puppy is going to get me through this awful heat of summer.

It has a timer, so when I leave for work in the morning, I set it to come on around noon.  When I return from work, it is on and is blowing its cold air around the room. Sometimes it's a little too cool for Cooper, the dog with little fur. He sits on the couch and shivers a bit, I cover him with a light blanket.  Big baby.  I love it.  I only wish I had one in every room, but one never gets what one wishes for, one just gets what one pays for.

This is the best thing I have bought all summer, after the half case of French rose wine, and since they compliment each other, we are all happy here.  For now.  You know me, I am never happy all the time.  Just now and then, sometimes, and this is one of those times.   YAY!

Addendum:  now, at closer to 6:00 pm it is 80 degrees in my place, still cooler than outside, where it's still over 90.  I have the AC unit on, ceiling fan, floor fan, other fan in my bedroom.  Again, the concrete bunker box I live in absorbs the heat and holds it like a dog with a dead rat. Clamped jaws, nothing getting out.  But still, without my little AC unit, it would be 90 in here, so it's still working for me.  Might have to turn it on when I leave for work in the morning and let little Cooper shiver his way through the 8 hours I am gone.  Too bad, little buddy, go hide in the wine closet where it's always a toasty 80 these days.  Sad for the wine, but not for me, it means drinking it quickly before the heat ruins it!

I was planning on grilling a chicken tonight, but it will wait until tomorrow when it won't be quite as hot, close but a few degrees cooler. Standing over a charcoal grill when it's 92 in the yard is an unnatural act, and we all know I hate those!  It's like being on the bike today at the gym and a guy comes and sits on the bike next to me, and I don't know if he has Tourette's Syndrome or what but after less than ten minutes I had to leave.  Shouting out weird noises, unintelligible phrases and making really strange sounds, it was disconcerting and somewhat alarming.  Why that has a connection to grilling in 92 heat, I don't know, other than both are a bit unnatural.

and on that, I say good night. 

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Nectarine vinaigrette

My neighbor has a nectarine tree and she has been putting them out in a basket on the sidewalk.  They are small, red, really juicy and very delicious. They don't last long on the sidewalk (word has gotten out) and they don't last long in the kitchen either.  Especially if a person, like me, has taken a dozen of them and then three days later takes another ten, that person has a lot of nectarines that need to be eaten.

Cut them up, freeze them and add them to your smoothie with a dollop of unflavored yogurt.  Great lunch.

Eat them at the kitchen sink, juice running down your arm, makes you feel virtuous.  And happy.

Grill them.  If it's not too hot, sprinkle with some streuselly topping and bake them.

Make a vinaigrette:  toss a couple of them into the blender, pit removed, of course, duh.  Whirl up until they are liquid, add some white wine vinegar, whirl again, drizzle in some good olive oil until it emulsifies and is the thickness you want.  Add salt and pepper, and that's it.  It is delicious.  I just made a salad with some peppery arugula, a nectarine cut in small bits, same with a cuke and a few snap peas that I am growing in my front yard of weeds.  So, so good. In fact, I am considering having the same thing, but in a larger size, for dinner.  Maybe add a piece of salmon......

Tastes like summer!  I will be disappointed when her nectarines are gone, but for now I have a half pint of their lovely pinkish vinaigrette, seducing me to eat more salad.

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