favorite movie #97 - holiday edition: planes, trains, and automobiles & only the lonely

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #96 - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) & Only the Lonely (1991) - I really love these two John Candy films, which not only showcase his comedic talent, but how effecting he could be emotionally, too. In John Hughes's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, one of the all-time greatest road pictures, he is the thorn on Steve Martin's side as the two try to make it home for Thanksgiving. There are many memorable moments — especially "Those aren't pillows!" Martin and Candy are great together, and Hughes takes his typical Chicago affluent suburb setting and character played by Martin and lets Candy disrupt him for both big comedic and emotional payoffs.

In Only the Lonely (produced by Hughes and again set in Chicago, but written and directed by Chris Columbus) Candy is a policeman who is torn between his loyalty to his overbearing mother (played by an amazing Maureen O'Hara) and a blossoming romance with a funeral home worker (Ally Sheedy). You really feel for Candy as he struggles to break away from his tough-as-nails mom and maybe, finally, live his own life. He and the film are truly wonderful.

Link to Christmas: The movies takes place during the holiday season

happy throwback thursday thanksgiving

In 2008 my mom, the kid, and I were in New York for Thanksgiving. We had a blast checking out the parade — the first time I ever saw it live, even after years of living in the city. We dined out on turkey day in a restaurant in Rockefeller Center, and generally just had a good ol' time.

happy thanksgiving

I'm thankful for my family and friends. I wish I got to see them all more often.

I'm hopeful for the future. I know there are rough seas ahead, but I hope to weather them as well as can be expected.

I'm most thankful for my beautiful little girl. She makes every day better.

Happy Thanksgiving!

black (out) friday

I am so tired of hearing about Black Friday deals, with seemingly every store in America trying to pressure or cajole hoards of crowds to patronize their establishments on one shopping day. So today I am going to have a "black (out) Friday." A day to kick back, watch some movies, just generally relax. Because it's a holiday weekend, remember?

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915, Oil on Canvas, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

happy thanksgiving

I am thankful for very many things.

My beautiful daughter.

My mom still knowing my name.

My health.

The gorgeous place where we live.

The ideas that continue to pop into my head.

My crazy menagerie.

My interest in the world around me.

All the wonderful caring people that I know.

The ever-changing world we live in — I just hope that more and more people can be thankful for an increasingly diverse and evolving world.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

xoxoxo e

it's beginning to look a lot like ...

... Oh, you know.

Thanksgiving may be less than a week away, but the kid has gone full steam ahead towards Christmas. She has already drafted a list to Santa and scoped out our home for optimum tree placement. She has also been urging me to start putting up decorations. I am trying to resist, but her excitement is kind of contagious. And adorable.

We will be having family here for Thanksgiving, folks we won't be seeing over the Xmas holidays, so putting up the tree right before, or while they are here might actually be fun. The only question is, how long will I be able to hold out until she has me trimming the tree and decking the halls? Stay tuned. Holiday decoration posts are probably in my near future.

She's gotten a little too big for that pony.

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• push back the season

push back the season

We just took down our halloween decorations, which of course mean that the Xmas decor will soon be looming. I'm used to the fact that the Xmas stuff is already up and available at places like Target, but just when I thought I had become inured to the pushing up of the season, I got thrown another curve. Can someone please explain to me what all these early Black Friday ads are about? And why opening stores at ungodly hours the Friday after Thanksgiving still isn't early enough? Now many stores are planning to be opened on Thanksgiving Day.

Who do they think wants to shop on Turkey (or in some cases, Tofurkey) Day? Why should anyone? Can't there be one day where people can loaf around and overeat and argue with their relatives and watch sports or some other marathon-like programming on television and then a few hours later get up and raid the fridge again? Do we have to lose our Thanksgiving holiday to stand on line and get trampled at Walmart?

I say no. We should be giving thanks for being warm and safe, if we are lucky enough to be so. Or helping those in storm-hit areas that need us most, not trying to encourage horrible behavior at the local box store. Enough with all of this pushing the season. I say we push back.

guess what I'm making for Thanksgiving dinner ...

... Reservations! (yes, it's an old joke, but it makes me smile.)

Last year I tried to go all out and make a special turkey dinner. I followed a turkey in brine recipe and it came out perfectly, but my family really didn't like it. This year I'm spending the holiday with the like-minded cousin who also doesn't like to spend the whole day in the kitchen. We're all going out. To an Italian restaurant. And I'm really looking forward to it. This Thanksgiving we are making reservations.

"That will be a table for six, please."

Now don't get me wrong. I love all the traditional Thanksgiving meal stuff like turkey and/or ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie ... especially when someone else has been doing the bulk of the cooking. My childhood was pretty bereft of traditional American fare. No mac and cheese or pot roasts or casserole anythings. My mom joked that when she first got married she didn't even know how to boil water and had to ask her mother-in-law how. That may not have been that far from the truth. Luckily, my grandma was a phenomenal cook and my mom a fast learner in those days. But Grandma was also a Sicilian who had married a Northern Italian, so most of the dishes that were passed down were Italian. I still cook that way. I can't complain. Italian is one of the world's top cuisines. But that's my skill set.

One more word about traditional Thanksgiving fare. I loathe stuffing. I don't understand it. Maybe I've just never had any good stuffing. I've read recipes which mention sage and chestnuts and just about anything that you can imagine, but it still leaves me cold. I like turkey, but not the stuffing.

Over the past seven years or so my mom used to come up and visit my daughter and me while we were still living in Washington, D.C. I didn't want to cook a really big dinner for three or four people, so most of the time we made reservations. I guess that is my true Thanksgiving tradition, which now I'm finally coming to embrace and accept.

 So whatever your plans for the holiday are, I hope that you enjoy your own traditions, cuisine, family and friends. And don't forget to give thanks to whoever cooked your meal or whoever made the restaurant reservations.

Happy Thanksgiving!

crazy buffets

It's been a week of meals and it looks to continue. Oh well, November is never the month to start a diet. On Thanksgiving I brined my first turkey and glazed it with roasted garlic, honey and thyme. It was incredibly moist, but I think the natives were expecting more of that traditional roast turkey flavor, so the chef liked it best. My pumpkin honey pie and homemade cranberry sauce were crowd pleasers.





Today we went to Crazy Buffet for lunch, a local favorite of my daughter's. She loves buffet-style restaurants—being able to hop up and down every few minutes,  as well as the independence of getting her own food. I get a kick out of watching what she picks. As this is an Asian-fusion buffet, she gets to sample all sorts of items, but she usually goes for sushi, chicken sticks and fresh fruit. And of course the plentiful dessert bar ...





Tomorrow our cousin is supposed to visit and we are planning a Sunday dinner of fried artichokes and spaghetti and meatballs and homemade garlic bread. And I might concoct a parfait with some of the leftover cranberry sauce.

You know what ELSE everybody likes? Parfaits! Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "Hell no, I don't like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious!

... Parfait's gotta be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet!—Donkey, Shrek

The mantra for the rest of the weekend: pace yourself.

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• Leftover Cranberry Sauce? Put It in Your Pancakes! (thekitchn.com)