Haines His Way

My mom wants to know what she should put in bean soup besides a ham bone, basil, bay leaves, onions, and garlic. Anybody know?

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I tried to get to you guys before Christmas but couldn't fit it in . I hope y'all had a good time. From today's notes, I'd say many of you ate too much smoling! We had - are you ready? - ELK! My brother tasted it while he was in Colorado someplace and raved about it, so...

To me, it tasted like beef, but what do I know?!?!

I just got around to seeing (on video) FAR FROM HEAVEN with Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. Elmer Bernstein was robbed!!! His score was definitely Oscar-worthy.

RE: MARTIN & LEWIS. The Shannon Center at Whittier College in Whittier, California is presenting the World Premiere of A SALUTE TO DEAN MARTIN & JERRY LEWIS on January 22, 2005. Here's the copy from the press release (written by yours truly):

This first-ever live show dedicated to the team of Martin & Lewis stars Danny DeLurgio as Dean Martin, David Wolf as Jerry Lewis, and features The John Peace Orchestra. The show encompasses Martin & Lewis' work, together and apart, in films, television, radio, and stage. All your favorites - along with some real surprises - are here; The Songs: That's Amore, Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime, Return To Me, Arrivederci Roma; The Comedy: The Nutty Professor, The Chinese Waiter, The Typewriter Song, The Follow Spot Sweep. More than mere impersonators, these performers go the extra mile to bring you a full evening of entertainment you won't soon forget!

The show's creators (David Wolf and John Peace) have gone way back in the archives to reproduce material from Martin & Lewis' club act and the Colgate Comedy Hour shows. I understand David Wolf is a dead-ringer. Lewis even had him on the MDA Telethon. DeLurgio is more a sound-a-like than an impersonator and has a dreamy voice.

The show is part of the Cabaret Series at The Shannon Center. Cabaret West is one of the sponsors. Our sponsorship is not in the form of money but promotion. Hence, my involvement. If you feel so inclined, tickets are on sale now. I'll be at the Cabaret West table in the lobby to meet and greet. Here's the link http://web.whittier.edu/shannon/Cab0405.html.

Have an enjoyable day.

P.S. Someday, will one of you explain to me the "ratio" thing? How can I tell if I'm seeing a film in the right ratio? I only know that I'm not always seeing the full image (which irritates me to no end). I don't own a DVD...everything I see is on videotape.

Beans?

She says: "D'oh!"

She says thank you.

Spent a nice afternoon with I, ROBOT and going insane and gainly back my sanity with Olivia deHavilland in THE SNAKE PIT.

IR was fairly fanciful and mindless entertainment with some super special effects and some that were just too CGI to suspend disbelief. The identity of the murderer was something of a surprise.

THE SNAKE PIT looked wonderful. Once again, Fox has done well by its Studio Classics. And deHavilland was just superb; I hadn't watched this film in decades, and seeing this breathtaking performance again was so wonderful. I just wish Paramount would get busy and put THE HEIRESS on DVD as soon as possible.

Having breakfast, which consists of scrambled eggs, which turned out very well, and hasbrowns...which didn't turn out quite so well, but are decent.  

DRAnn, I've always preferred hasbrowns to hashbeens!  I just the 3-hour BBC NICHOLAS NICKLEBY with Charles Dance and James DArcy.  It was quite wonderful, not so frivolous as the film with Dame Edna as Mrs Crummles, and not so long as the great Royal Shakespeare Company epic.  As the little bear says, it was just right.

OK- Nap time is over... Time to get ready for the show, Boys and Girls....

And so, with that...

Laters...

I decided to have a boxing day, too.  I boxed up some stuff and put it in the closet.

Well I've had a very nice Boxing Day so far.

 For some reason everyone comes early.

I don't know....
Could it be that people want to... beat the crowds?

Even though I don't see any good reason for giving the crowds such a treatment! Beats me!

And... Jennifer, I think you've been quite a Big Spender today!

Evening all.

I spent the afternoon playing computer games and watching all of the Terminator movies.  The movies were a mistake because they made me so sad.  They fought so hard to change the future and couldn’t do it.  

Mixed up Bean Soup

2 cups (1 pound) mixed dried beans or peas
8 cups water
2 cups cubed ½ inch cooked ham (or a ham bone with some meat on it—I’ve made it both ways and it turns out fine.)
1 ½ cup (3 medium) chopped onions
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon pepper
1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatos, undrained. Cut up.  (I just use a can of diced tomatos)
2 teaspoons chili powder (With MY stomach?—I think not.  I only use about ¼ to ½ teaspoon)
2 tablespoons lemon juice

In Dutch Oven combine beans and water.  Cook over high heat until water comes to a full boil (15 to 20 minutes).  Boil 2 minutes, remove from heat.  Cover and let stand for 1 hour.  Add ham, onions, salt and pepper to beans.  Cover cook over low heat until beans are tender(about 2 hours). Add all remaining ingredients. Cover; continue cooking until flavors are blended (about 1 hour). Season to taste.

That’s the official way.  Here’s the way I do it.

I buy the beans the night before and put them in a zip lock bag a couple of cups of water.  The next morning, I put everything into the slow cooker, cover it with water until it comes to the top, put it on low and let it cook all day long.  It works out fine.

They were just talking about the wind I heard last night on the news.  They said they were about 60 MPH!!  Wow!

Since my tummy was a little off, I made potato pancakes for dinner tonight.  They were very yummy and just hit the spot.  

Oh - and I said in the lost post that I don't expect bk to know who Jessica Simpson is.

Thank you all for the soup advice. I've made it before, but couldn't remember what all I put in it. It smells yummy.

DR Jane: Joshie was a feral kitten that wound up at the pound a couple years ago when we were one of their foster homes. He was lucky, because it was wintertime and there were only a few kittens, so they gave him to us to socialize, since we had room for him. He was as wild as they come, but we tamed him nicely. Unfortunately, he was very frightened at adoptions, and they called me to bring him home. We quit fostering at that time, since we had a teenager move in with us and we needed the space for her. Joshie just sorta stayed here, and the pound let me keep him for the cost of the rabies shot. He is my little ray of sunshine, and I'm glad we kept him.

Oh....on HGTV at 9 pm EST - a show about "The Games We Used to Play" - the promo is interesting, hopefully the program will be, too.

I still get confused about ratio.  Now...I thought widescreen had to be done with lenses.  So if a movie is shot in a couple of ratios - is it shot with lenses and projected with lenses but masked differently?  Or is it just shot with more information on the film and masked?

Not that it matters.

Since yesterday didn't seem like Saturday...this doesn't seem much like Sunday either.

Oh - and I said in the lost post that I don't expect bk to know who Jessica Simpson is.

I don't care who she is; but if the anecdote had been about Nick Lachey. . . . .  

I would foster cats and dogs but then Keith would keep them all.