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After looking over several recipes last week, I developed what I think is The Perfect Egg Salad.
8 boiled eggs
2 - 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
two stalks of celery, diced
1 handful of chives, diced
1 - 2 teaspoons curry powder, optional
My favorite and fool proof method of boiling eggs is to cover the eggs with cold water, bring it to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for fifteen minutes. After peeling the eggs - this is, I think one of the two keys to perfection - separate the whites from the yolks. And this is the second key: depending upon your tastes, work two to three tablespoons of mayonnaise into the yolks. Mix in the chives and celery. If you're going to add curry powder, add it now. I started with one teaspoon and then kept adding little sprinkles until I got it how I like it - a curry taste but not so overpowering that can't tell you're eating egg salad. Then dice up the whites, fold them in and serve with green leaf lettuce on your favorite bread.
Egg salad sandwiches seem like the perfect picnic food to me. And speaking of picnic food, I'm bringing this chickpea salad by Molly of Orangette to my next picnic (along with the blanket I made...if I ever finish it - I'm very close). This Almond Torte with Sugared Apricots looks really good, too, and had me eying the display of cute little apricots at the grocery store earlier tonight. If Jake hadn't decided this was his week to start getting back into shape, I might try to make it this weekend. If his friend comes down from Canada, I might just make it anyway. I mean, you can't exactly plan to eat healthy when you have house guests, can you?
-John Landis, director of "Family"
"Family" is the first of the Masters of Horror episodes that I've seen. As the website says about the series, "Thirteen famous horror movie directors direct a one hour short horror film for the Showtime television network."
It's about a seemingly normal man named Harold (George Wendt) with a strange hobby and a twisted definition of the word "family." The actors playing the couple across the street whom Harold befriends are less than stellar and the twist at the end is pretty predictable but getting there is quite fun. The scenes with Harold and his "family" made me wish it weren't just an hour long.
I'd forgotten and find it very hard to believe (which is probably why I've forgotten) that the same man, John Landis, directed this, An American Werewolf in Paris, The Blues Brothers, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Animal House and Jackson's "Black and White" video amongst other things. What a crazy mishmash of genres.
After watching "Family" (which is from the second season), I'm definitely going to look for other episodes. I've watched the trailer for the entire second season and none of the others seem to have the black comedy slant this one had but they look perfectly creepy and, especially according to the final scene in the trailer, absolutely gory. The downfall is that they package them as if there were actually horror movies - one episode per disc. I'm less likely to waste a spot in my Netflix queue for a one hour show - if only they'd at least put two episodes on each dvd.
Horror movies are something I've really developed an interest in over the past year or so and I've decided it's a subject I'd actively like to learn more about. But I've recently felt a little guilt about my new hobby. I read the Monsterfest Blog which is great for expert horror fans as well as someone like me who hasn't seen many horror movies but wants to learn more. The four guys that write for the blog (which is put out by AMC) are funny, amazingly well versed and they post like crazy - there's almost always a new post when I check my gmail reader (which is several times a day because I bore easily). I've added several horror movies to my queue thanks to them.
This post made me add the Japanese torture horror film Audition which is supposed to end with an absolutely stunning, shocking torture scene. Well, stunning if you like those sorts of things, that is. And here's where the guilt comes in. As we were scraping paint on Jake's patio last week I mentioned that I had added the movie to my queue and told him a little bit about it - mainly that it's known for it's torture scene - and he stated that I could watch that one without him.
He doesn't like, basically, horror movies that could be true. Vampires and zombies are great - serial killers and torturers? No thanks. 
Hell, if you want to quibble, there was even a bit of realism to "Family." I'm sure there's someone out there who is quite like Harold (who is quite like Norman Bates and I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't a few real life versions of him as well)....
Or is it okay because I know it's just a movie (well, a movie that could be true)? Why should I take responsibility for everyone else? I mean, I'm one of those that thinks a parent should decided what their children watch - some group of strangers shouldn't decide for them therefore deciding for all of us (although I've also always thought that maybe I wouldn't feel that way if I had kids of my own). I know that it's all fake - put out there for my own twisted enjoyment. And I do enjoy it. Bring on the torturers and serial killers. Bring on the buckets of gore and the scenes I have to watch through my fingers (not that other horror movies don't do that, too). After all, I'm the girl who wrote a love poem to Hannibal Lector my junior year (I think he ate me in the end of the poem - and, if your mind is in the gutter, that's not what I meant at all...I meant it literally)...come to think of it, I wrote a poem about the serial killer clown in It that year, too.
Anyway, I do feel a little guilty about liking this kind of gore but I think it's really just a little guilt. I'll comfort myself with the thought that I know it's not real and that it's for entertainment value only.
Ahem, and we'll just gloss over the fact that I had to call a friend after I watched Saw - at home, alone - for the first time so that I could be reminded that it was, indeed, just a movie....
Edit 6/26: Oddly enough, today there was a post regarding an article about nearly the same subject. From it I took this quote which perhaps sums it all up...
"If you’re going to show horrible events, let them be horrible.” - Rob Zombie
I've never had so much trouble taking a picture. Fifty-seven photos I took and not one of them post worthy! I'll have to have Jake take a photo when we get together next time. I made one of these this past weekend out of a fabulous pillowcase I found in Charleston.
And here's the best photo I could get - until I can get a better one you'll just have to use your imagination....
I got my Ravelry invite last week - it's awesome! If you're on, add me. I'll give you one guess what my username is and the first doesn't count....
This is what happens when a thrifted bear gets his clever paws on a garage sale button....
No, no, not like that. We've just been talking about it - emailing really - as merely a topic of discussion.
I'm not typical. I think there might have been a time when I had little girl dreams of big weddings and white dresses but I can't remember for sure. I do have a purple folder where I, years ago, saved an unusual invitation and a small handful of creative snippets from magazines about place cards, cakes flowers and dresses (this was shortly after this wedding, I think, while I was still living with Nate and thinking a wedding was probably in my near future). My favorite piece features two flower girls in deep purple and bright pink tulle skirts, each wearing a silver paper tiara - like a princess ballerina.
Anyway. Jake doesn't really believe in marriage. In fact, his first was common law (which was acknowledged in the state he moved here from - we haven't had it in Ohio for at least fifteen years or more). Today he wrote, "Getting married doesn't mean much to me. Being married, on the other hand is huge." I responded with, "To me, getting married is part of being married. They just go hand in hand."
But why? It's got me thinking - what really is so important about exchanging vows and a piece of paper? It makes me doubt myself because it does seem a bit silly but...it's what I want. And, as I said, I'm not looking for a big wedding. Instead I want something small, outdoors - maybe even in my parents backyard. I want to be married by a friend (something interesting: I recently found out that my dad was ordained for a friend's wedding years ago - long, long before they ever did it on Friends) and walk down the "aisle" to something completely unexpected. I don't want a white dress with beads and a train - I want a simple summer dress and bare feet. I'd elope if I didn't know that my parents - who did elope and were married by the justice of the peace - would like me to have a wedding of some sorts. So it's not the wedding. It's not the glamor and the day that's all about me.
Standing up in front of my friends and family and making a commitment to someone means something. I want to be Mrs. So and So. I don't think I'm all that traditional but that's one tradition I can't do without.
Honestly, maybe the fact that common law marriage isn't recognized in the state of Ohio is one reason why I'm having trouble with the idea of not actually getting married. When you live in Ohio you have to get married to be married and it's been that way all of my adult life.
This isn't an argument or a hot topic by any means nor do I feel like I have to defend what I believe (especially since it's pretty much the norm) - like, I said, it just has me thinking. I'd love to hear other opinions.* What do you think? Are you traditional? Do you feel the need to Get Married and why or why not?
And now I should really wash off the face mask I've been wearing for the past two hours and get myself into bed....
*Elizabeth: I know we talked about this recently and I tried to find that string of emails because you said something I liked and wanted to quote but, unfortunately, no amount of gmail googling could bring it back up.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
