Chai and Samosa

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Weekend Coffee Share

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Sunday Post

January 2023 - Toronto ON

January 2023 - Brookfield Place Toronto ON

Saturday morning we relaxed as usual. Fruit for breakfast and bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch.

I got everything set up for John to make a third loaf of the bread we like, knowing now what we do about our oven we tried using the bottom oven of our dual oven. We also proofed it in the air fryer as it has a proofing feature.

John commented after watching the video "that he deserved a degree after following those instructions", so I made him one.

My friend who moved to a retirement home, called as she was in her condo (closing day) and asked if I wanted her plant stand that I liked, so John scooted down and picked it up.

Sunday I did some Lunar New Year posts with photos from Singapore.

Sunday snowflakes around 1:30!!! And just a dusting, again.

Monday Mural was from Queen West last week.

John took some photos while out on Monday.

We have been having ice cream after dinner (John bought 4 last week), don't judge us, but we eat it out of the carton! I had an AHA moment and asked him to put it in a coffee mug so we are not freezing our hands off!

Tuesday I went downtown to take advantage of Rexall's (drug store) seniors' discount on Tuesdays. I also had $10 on my loyalty card that I cashed in.

When I got off the bus I noticed that the Royal Bank had a Lunar New Year Rabbit on top.

I was hoping for more Lunar decorations but I only saw this at the LCBO.

Walking by the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Wednesday

BTW we are being warned about a huge snowstorm today. It is called a Texas Low and coming up to us through the States.

Well, that was another non-event for us!

The kitchen guy brought his cabinet maker to do measurements. He had done an initial drawing suggesting moving the fridge, good idea but it would cut into my counter I like to use, so no to that. He will move the sink so that we have a little more room. The OTR microwave will be raised to follow the line of the upper cabinets.

We decided the dishwasher stays in the same place. 

Next steps: final drawing for approval, visit showroom to select materials, condo paperwork, schedule.

I decided to tidy up the bathroom cabinets. I wanted to put all the cold/flu items in one basket. Some pain medications are in short supply so I have been stocking up.

It's amazing what you discover while cleaning, I found I do not need a trip to Bed and Bath Works for hand soaps or air fresheners!

I had some golden pothos rooting forever in water and finally planted it into another pothos planter, it now looks much fuller.

I am also thinking about the kitchen redo and what I can rearrange. So far I have moved the slow cooker to cupboard under sink, that is the side of the kitchen that I usually use it on.

The breadmaker wouldn't fit on that side, it is too tall.

I spent time cleaning out the stationery basket, threw out pens, junk, envelopes  and consolidated everything into the desk (will sort that later)! I also found a bunch of keys that I have no idea what they are for, but just in case...note to self in sewing table drawers. Do I need to save elastic bands??

I then used the basket to store the tea towels in the kitchen.

John did a run to the butcher shop on Bloor for steaks and pork chops and picked up vegetables at a local store.

Friday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day so I did a post on some holocaust museums we have visited.

COOKING

Saturday roast pork, roast potatoes, oven roasted broccolini and a real mish mash of leftover vegetables, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots and turnips with garlic butter.

Sunday is Lunar New Year so I made moo shu pork with the leftover pork on lettuce leaves.

Monday I made a pot of pea soup for during the week.

Smash burgers aka hamburgers and potato salad. Smash burgers are smaller patties that are made by smashing the meat patty down on the grill. This creates a crispy outer crust while keeping the center of the burger juicy and moist. Instead of making two patties I made four.

Tuesday when I got home I felt like making gluten free cheese danish with lemon curd. I adjusted a recipe to my liking and added it to my recipe box. Recipe says to make 10, I got 12 and I would even make them smaller and flatter so that you could put more filling on them.

One sheet chicken fajitas

Wednesday ham and au gratin cauli potatoes.

I baked a favourite of John's, he made the topping, blueberry breakfast crunch cake.

Thursday last night's leftovers with beets.

Friday I made a batch of ham salad for my lunch and extra for the weekend, using this recipe from my recipe box (added today!) 

Steaks, lazy loaded baked potato and chimichurri.

WATCHING

OSCARS 2023

We are going to try and watch as many of the Oscar nominations as we can before the awards, it makes it a lot more fun.

So this week we watched Everything Everywhere All At Once

We have already seen:

Elvis

Banshees of Inisherin

Top Gun - Maverick

Blonde

OTHER

I watched a Prime series Whitechapel. It is a British police procedural in which detectives in London's Whitechapel district deal with murders which replicated historical crimes. The first series  depicted the search for a modern copycat killer replicating the murders of Jack the Ripper.

A second series depicted murders focused on the Kray twins. The third season is broken into 3 separate 2-part stories.

We watched The Iron Lady (2011) starring Meryl Streep. We had both thought we had seen this but it didn't ring any bells for us.

Streep does a fantastic job of playing the former prime minister of the U.K. at the height of her power and later as an elderly woman. There is a lot of use of flashbacks and we see the formidable woman become vulnerable with age.
However, just as in The Crown, it does not dive into the controversial issues, they merely mention them. For example, 10 Irish hunger strikers protesting Thatcher’s policy in Northern Ireland died in 1981. There is scant coverage in either.
While there are some images of violence as protesters clash with police and some surround Thatcher’s car, there is no strong analysis of her policies, again particularly with regard the coal miners.

 

The Princess - Princess Diana's story is told exclusively through contemporaneous archive creating a bold and immersive narrative of her life and death. It also illuminates how the public's attitude to the monarchy was, and still is. This was good as there was no added contextualizing text or talking heads. The media footage speaks for itself, as do Princess Diana and Prince Charles themselves.

The Raid: Redemption is a 2011Indonesian action thriller film. In the film, an elite squad is tasked to infiltrate a high-rise building run by a ruthless drug lord in the slums of Jakarta; among them is Rama (played by Uwais), a veteran member of the team. More John's cup of tea, than mine, I'll skip the sequel.

Vault is a 2019 American crime thriller film It was released on June 7, 2019. It is based on the Bonded Vault heist in 1975 in Rhode Island.
Two small-time criminals and longtime friends, as Deuce (Theo Rossi) and Chucky (Clive Standen), graduate from robbing pawn shops and jewelry stores and become involved in a plan to rob a mafia vault.

This was my kind of movie, we both enjoyed it.

Fauda (Hebrew: פאודה, from Arabic: فوضى fawḍā, meaning "chaos") is an Israeli television series The series premiered on February 15, 2015. It tells the story of Doron, a commander in the Mista'arvim unit and his team; in the first season, they pursue a Hamas arch-terrorist known as "The Panther".
The second season premiered on December 31, 2017. The third season takes place in the Gaza Strip and was aired in 2019 and 2020. 

We had watched this back on 2020 but since season 4 is now airing, we decided to binge watch the whole series.

READING

Very little reading done, still on The Palace Papers!

I did read a bunch of gluten free bread making posts and cookbooks.

It's Alive!

July 2019 - Toronto ON

ROM Royal Ontario Museum

A horror film is a film that seeks to elicit fear for entertainment purposes. Initially inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley, horror has existed as a film genre for more than a century. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction, and thriller genres.

Horror Movie - Skyhooks 1975

Famous guitarist Kirk Hammett, of the heavy metal band Metallica, has created one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of classic horror and sci-fi movie posters. This exhibition explores Hammett’s significant collection and examines the connection between artistry, emotion, and popular culture through a selection of works from 20th-century cinema.

It’s Alive! Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammett Collection is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

The exhibition traces how, decade by decade, horror and sci-fi cinema responded to a number of broad cultural events and developments. Each section of the exhibition uses poster art to convey underlying anxieties of particular eras, including the fear of mortality around the Great Depression of the 1930s; scientific progress in the mid-20th century; the fear of invasion and espionage post-1945; and the rise of feminism in the 1960s.

The exhibit was set in a series of darkly lit rooms with black walls, creating a sinister setting while at the same time making the colourful posters pop out.

The posters were organized by genre, There was a Frankenstein section, and a vampire section, and an alien section.

We were greeted by the sounds of crackling electricity, as if walking into Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. Surely enough, a poster from the movie Frankenstein adorned the little nook that makes up the entrance to Kirk Hammett’s magnificent collection of science fiction and horror movie posters.

Frankenstein is a 1931 American pre-Code gothic monster horror film from Universal Pictures. It is about a scientist and his assistant who dig up corpses to build a man animated by electricity. The project goes awry when Frankenstein's assistant accidentally gives the creature an abnormal, murderer's brain. The film was directed by James Whale, and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The created "monster" is portrayed by Boris Karloff in the film. A hit with both audiences and critics, the film was followed by multiple sequels and has become one of the most famous horror films in history.

Bride of Frankenstein (often incorrectly styled The Bride of Frankenstein) is a 1935 American science-fiction horror film, the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 hit Frankenstein. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest sequels in cinematic history, with many fans and critics considering it to be an improvement on the original Frankenstein. As with the first film, Bride of Frankenstein was directed by James Whale and stars Boris Karloff as the Monster.

William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor who was primarily known for his roles in horror films. He portrayed Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep in The Mummy (1932).

In non-horror roles, he is best known to modern audiences for narrating and as the voice of Grinch in the animated television special of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966). For his contribution to film and television, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Boris Karloff's suit from The Black Cat

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A famous scene from the 1922 German horror film Nosferatu.

 My favourite horror movie growing up. I also loved Wait Until Dark.

They had other movie props as well, including a zapatron – a lightning-generating movie prop to go with the electrical noises – and lighting effects aimed at the floor to create the illusion that it was working.

 

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Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956), better known as Bela Lugosi was a Hungarian-American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 film and for his roles in other horror films.

This painting was in the section with the guitars.

Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American stage and film actor, make-up artist, director and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces".

Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête – also the UK title) is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Starring Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as the Beast, it is an adaptation of the 1757 story Beauty and the Beast, written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and published as part of a fairy tale anthology.

The established precedent for modern horror is Hitchcock’s 1960 Psycho, which, David Thomson has argued, “taught America to love murder. Many others would follow Psycho's successful reinvention of the horror genre—locating it squarely in the Freudian family and showcasing newly explicit onscreen violence. “Hard-boiled action director Robert Aldrich would begin a new horror formula by casting Hollywood's aging leading ladies in roles as psychopathic gothic grotesques: Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Source

Another alcove contained a stage area where Hammett’s guitars, decorated with images of the posters, hung on walls, their coffin-shaped cases lying below them. Inspirational quotes were imprinted on the stage.

Kirk Hammett portrait with some of his collection.