Horror Movie Love

You may or may not know that I....love horror films. I love them all the time, but there is a special place in my heart for scary movies watched during the cooler, darker, autumn months. I usually go on a major slasher binge during the weeks leading up to Halloween, but for some reason I've felt the urge earlier this year, and my own personal film fest has been well underway since early August. (Have I suffered a few sleepless nights lately? Maybe). Over the next month or two I thought it'd be fun to feature a few of my favorites - as a little ongoing theme of sorts.

I guess I'll start by getting the most obvious one out of the way...

Halloween
As classic as they come. John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) is credited with taking the slasher genre in a whole new direction, although many elements seen in the movie can also be found in earlier films. I guess this one just has it all.

This was my Halloween costume a couple years ago. Creepy, I know. I learned the hard way that scaring trick-or-treaters causes them to simply run past your house, not stopping for candy or anything else. Wussies.

I'd love to hear some of your favorites -- suggest away!

Read On

Gotten any good reading in this summer? I just finished this book for my book club. How about you? What have you been reading lately?

photo from the sartorialist

Sweet Cat Eyes

Oh, I heart, heart, heart these little frames so much! I always get so frustrated at the fact that I can't have just any frames I like...I am oh so blind-as-a-bat and require a prescription that causes my glasses to have thick, thick lenses. Boo! Will there be some laser eye surgery in my future? (Kinda skeptical about that...)

Sunday morning

This weather is heaven.

That's all.

Sweetgrass

Just watched this beautiful film and loved it so much.

An unsentimental elegy to the American West, “Sweetgrass” follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana’s breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful yet unsparing film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.

Summer's Bounty

Last night I finally had the chance to use up some of the pounds and pounds of zucchini I just couldn't resist buying at a recent trip to the farmer's market. For dinner I made one of my favorite (light?) pizzas -- zucchini and kalamata olives with red onion and mozzarella cheese. While that was in the oven - and while I was still on my gin & tonic buzz around the kitchen, feeling super motivated - I finally decided to have a go at making the zucchini bread recipe that's been in my plans for a week. I'd heard that using a food processor for the zucchini works fine, and I still can't find my loaf pan from the move, so I opted for the bundt (I do love bundts so very much). An hour later, the fragrant, sweet bread emerged from the oven. Now there's the problem of what to do with the two-recipe's worth of zucchini bread (that it took to fill the bundt pan in the first place). I do recommend the recipe. Come on, you know you have some sqash to use up. ;)


Zucchini Bread Recipe from smitten kitchen

Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins (or one bundt)

3 eggs
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally. (See those pictures of the cakes inside their non-stick pans? Yup, they’re pretty much hanging out in there for the time being.) Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.

photo via smitten kitchen

Living in the Dark

Ok, so I'm really jealous of the thriving plants on the balcony of this London home. Right now, I'm jealous of pretty much anyone who is able to successfully grow anything at home - inside or out. While my new apartment is fab in many ways - and an overall improvement over the last place - one huge drawback is the almost complete lack of sunlight due to being located on the first floor, in the back, under enormously tall trees with very heavy leaf cover. I have a little back porch and a good-sized yard space, but esentially it's like being on the floor of the rainforest. Every plant I've purchased and attempted to keep has died within a matter of days due to lack of sunlight. I've become very frustrated, to say the least.

Are there any plants that I can find easily at a store that DON'T require sunlight? I had dreams of filling my back porch with pots of varying foliage, but now I'm afraid that isn't possible. Any siggestions?