Cinco de Mayo….or Y Tu Mama Loves Chocolate

No, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day and, apparently, more popular here than in Mexico.  And ever since some ex-patriot Mexicans living in California decided to turn it into a holiday to celebrate the French getting their asses kicked by the Mexicans in the Battle of Puebla, Cinco de Mayo has become (for…

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Whitewashed…or It Ain’t Fusion, it’s Confusion

I’m big fan of Benedict Cumberbatch (though I would never use that dreaded moniker “Cumberbitch”), so I was excited to see the new trailer for his upcoming film Dr. Strange, based on a popular Marvel comic.  Unlike Rina, who lives and breathes comics, I’m not all too familiar with the origins of these Marvel characters….

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Small Dice Challenge: Spring Rolls and Chicken Wings

I was grocery shopping when I came across the above.  I always love ordering Vietnamese spring rolls when I go out to Vietnamese restaurants, so I wanted to see if I could make them at home.  I remembered that I had bought shrimp meat a couple of days ago and figured I could use that…

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Retro Baking…or What I Learned From Betty Crocker

When I was a kid, at around seven or eight years old, my mom brought home this vintage 1950’s Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook from a garage sale.  I was instantly captivated by the vivid photographs of (what I considered at the time) all the “fancy food” and the depiction of this idealized domestic world from…

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On the Set: The Grass is Greener

Many moons ago, I self-published a comic series called Namby Pamby. This is from the last issue from 2008, and marks the first of a series of comics that will adapt excerpts from movie star memoirs. What I like most about movie star memoirs is learning the behind-the-scenes moments during the making of my favorite…

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Nora Knows Best

Nora Ephron is my spirit animal.  There, I’ve said it.  I’ve felt this way ever since I first stumbled across her poignantly funny, biting, foodcentric autobiographical novel Heartburn (1983) back in my twenties.  I instantly related to Nora’s brand of edgy humor…and her obsession with food.  Watching her son Jacob Bernstein’s insightful HBO documentary Everything…

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Small Dice Challenge: Chocolate Cookie Pie

Easter is not Easter without the story of a fall and rise of a being.  This is such a tale.  We were getting ready to visit our good friend, Rina.  I had promised her a hollow Easter bunny because she likes to break their heads off and put ice cream into them.  It is quite…

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Small Dice Challenge: Buttermilk Salmon

Let me tell you a little story.  It involves love, betrayal, and possibly….muuuurder.  It was a chilly night.  My husband ran to the corner store because alas we were out of milk. I wouldn’t be going to our regular store until the next day, and it was a milk and cookies emergency. After dinner, I…

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Rites of Spring

Although I wasn’t particularly thrilled about “springing ahead” and losing an hour of precious sleep (yeah, who’s lame idea was it anyways and why are we still doing it when it’s universally acknowledged to being rather pointless in the modern world?!), I was, nevertheless, done with Winter.  And you know what really puts me in…

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Irish eyes are smiling…after you’ve stuffed yourself with food

Visions of shamrock shakes, minty Oreos and green bagels are dancing in our heads once again, all of which has us thinking about our favorite Irish-themed movies.  If you’re looking for tour de force performances, there’s always that award-winning one-man powerhouse known as Daniel Day Lewis–My Left Foot (1990), In the Name of the Father…

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