Fairy Tale Friday--Red Hot Riding Hood (Tex Avery, 1943)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

 

This week we look at a cartoon from 1943 entitled Red Hot Red Riding Hood. It was directed by Tex Avery. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked MGM cartoon on the list.

The story begins in the traditional manner with a young, innocent girl skipping through the woods, on her way to her frail Granny’s house while being pursued by a wolf. Suddenly the wolf breaks the forth wall and explains to the director that he doesn’t want to to tell the same boring tale again. The little girl and the granny concur and all refuse to act it out unless it can be told in a new, more interesting way.

 The story begins again with the setting being upgraded from a forest to downtown Hollywood. We see the wolf (now representing more of a male sexual predator) cruising up and down the street in his limo cat-calling at women he passes. Grandma’s house is no longer a cottage, but a penthouse apartment complete with neon sign. Little Red has made the biggest change of all from small child in bloomers to sex goddess with the stage name Red Hot Riding Hood who sings at nightclub. This character is clearly the precursor to the curvaceous Jessica Rabbit.

The wolf follows Red to the club where she is performing, and goes mad with desire. He whistles and pants, pounds the table and howls and goes completely stiff all over with a *BOING* sound. It is said that the original animation was much more graphic. Tex Avery said censors made him edit out a shot where the wolf actually became physically aroused with lust. The uncut version was shown overseas to military officers who apparently went wild over it.  

At the end of her set, he forcibly grabs her and brings her to his table and tries to woo her. She claims she is “terribly shy” and insists she is not interested.  She excuses herself by saying she is going to her Grandma’s Place and points to the skyscraper. The wolf, off like a shot, manages to get there first. (His limo drives faster than her taxi.)  It turns out that Red's grandma is an oversexed man chaser who likes a “bit of rough.” Upon seeing him, she whistles and says, "At last, a wolf! Yahoo!"

The Wolf tries to escape, but Grandma blocks the exit and asks him, "What's your hurry, hairy?" She locks the door, drops the key down the front of her evening gown, and poses provocatively for him. She chases him around the room, oblivious to his terror. Moments before the wolf was predator and now he is the prey. He does not like it when the tables are turned. The wolf eventually escapes by leaping out a window and crashing painfully on the pavement below. He hobbles back to the nightclub, bruised and bandaged vowing, "I'm through with women. Why, I'll kill myself before I'd even look at another babe." Immediately Red Hot Riding Hood takes the stage and begins to sing. The Wolf pulls out two handguns and commits suicide, but his ghost rises from his dead body and whistles and howls at Red as he did earlier.

The original ending was that the Wolf and Grandma were forced to be wed in a “Shotgun Wedding” with a caricature of Tex Avery as the justice of the peace. There would then be a scene of hybrid human/wolf children running around. This ending was blocked by the censors for implied bestiality and making light of marriage. Apparently sexual harassment was acceptable and not a cause for concern.

This film is interesting because it portrays multiple stereotypes such as the man who can’t control his lust and the sex starved older woman. Interestingly, despite being very curvy with a deep, smoky singing voice (but a baby speaking one) the least sexual character is Red Hot Riding Hood.

This film raises all sorts of issues, but I can’t decide if showing a woman who feels sexual desire is a good thing or not. It is a pretty unusual idea for the 1940’s that women have desires too, it is just a shame that they have to show it in such an exaggerated way. But either way, the sexual harassment and lack of consent worry me on both sides. No one should have to be pursued without their consent. I had hoped that the wolf would learn a lesson about what it feels like to be considered just an object. But alas, no.

Watch it for yourself;

CLICK HERE TO WATCH ON DAILY MOTION

Stay tuned next week or another Tex Avery take on this classic tale.

What We Ate Wednesday--Dal Soup

Hello lovelies! Last week I shared a recipe that I was surprised I hadn't shared before. This week is the same. I wanted to share another recipe that used curry paste since it was part of last week's recipe. I abhor food waste. When you are on a strict budget like us you can't afford to waste food. So I keep a list of recipes that use curry paste in my recipe folder so that when I open the jar I have a bank of recipes to choose from to help use it up in a timely manner.

First let me say...where has the summer gone? It has departed from Wales and left us damp and chilly. Oven time which had been temporarily suspended is back in business.

Soup is back on the menu, baby.

This soup is quick and easy to make.  It uses storecupboard ingredients like dried red lentils, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of coconut milk.  We now buy coconut milk for cheap from either Lidl or B&M Bargains but if you can't afford coconut milk or don't have any on hand you can wash out the tomato tin and measure out that much non dairy milk. Even better you can blend that milk with some dried desicated coconut and use that. It is not nearly as creamy, but It will do in a pinch. If you do buy a tin you can use regular or light. I buy whatever is on sale.

Dal Soup
1 onion, chopped
4 or more cloves of crushed garlic
1 cup dried red lentils (picked over for small stones and rinsed)
I tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin coconut milk
2.5 cups hot vegetable stock
2 TB Balti curry paste (or whatever flavour curry paste you have)
At the end:
1 TB toasted sesame oil
2 TB lemon juice (bottled is fine)

1. Cook the onion and garlic in a splash of oil or water. I tend to use water as the curry paste has oil.
2. Add the lentils, the tomatoes, the coconut milk,the curry paste and the hot veg stock and bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer.
3. After 20 minutes or so the lentils should be tender. Stir in the toasted sesame oil and lemon juice. Add some black pepper if you like.

This makes about 4 bowls which for two greedy vegans is 2 bowls each.  If you need it to be more filling or feed more people  then serve over rice or add naan bread.

Fairy Tale Friday--Betty Boop in Dizzy Red Riding Hood (1931)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

For the last few weeks we have looked at musical versions of Little Red Riding Hood as well as versions from musicals. For the next few weeks, I want to look at versions of our tale on film.

I am starting today with the earliest version I could find starring Betty Boop. Betty Boop made her first animated appearance in August of 1930. She was created to be the quintessential flapper of the Jazz Age and is often revered as a sex symbol. Boop was drawn to have short dresses, high heels and a garter belt. She had big breasts as well as a tiny waist. Male characters in many of the early videos were always trying to sneak a peak at her cleavage or up her dress, but Boop had a sort of innocent sexuality about her (she was meant to be around 15-16 years old)  and she fought hard against their lecherous advances. In 1932, there were two films which showed male characters trying to compromise her virginity. These portrayals of her fighting sexual harassment made her a sort of feminist icon. She appeared in this  over-sexualised format until 1934 when the Hays Code placed restrictions on sexual innuendo in film.  After that, Betty appeared in films dressed as more of a spinster housewife.

This film Dizzy Red Riding Hood is from 1931 and is full of sexual innuendo. Bimbo who is a dog follows her around like a love-sick puppy (no pun intended.) At first I was like "Why is a dog in love with and indeed allowed to get the girl at the end?" Isn't that weird? Well, as it turns out, the character of Betty Boop was originally an anthropomorphic French poodle. She features as a background character in several short films where Bimbo the dog was her sweetheart. A year later she lost the puppy ears (they became hoop earrings) and the black dog nose (it became a button nose) and she became fully human but kept her canine sweetheart. That explains it but doesn't excuse it, in my opinion.


In this film, Betty is on her way to go and see Grandma and is warned repeatedly about wolves in the woods by Bimbo but also by a frightening forest of sentient trees which reminded me of The Wizard of Oz. Betty does not listen to these pronouncements. Bimbo continually pops up like an annoying stalker and she repeatedly rebuffs him.   Later in the film, a wolf does find her and follows her (Bimbo knows this because he too is following her) and she seems unafraid. The wolf  salaciously offers her some flower seeds to plant which she innocently does, bending over and wiggling her bottom in the air unintentionally provocatively. The wolf ogles her rear while scraping a knife and fork together and singing about his plans to consume her. This harks back to those original stories where a wolf (meaning a male predator) was hungry to consume the innocent female and take her innocence. Betty Boop fits right in to those morality tales as her early career was also spent fighting off predators trying to compromise her virginity.

Bimbo sees the wolf and realises his intent so he kills it . In an effort to make himself into a more attractive bad boy. he covers himself in the skin of the wolf and declares "She loves wolves." So this begs the question-- Does she ignore Bimbo because he is a sex pest or because he is "too nice"? Does she subscribe to the stereotype that "good girls love a bad boy"? It's not clear, but what is clear is when she sees the wolf (actually Bimbo in wolf's clothing) she doesn't rebuff him like she did in his true form. We watch as her garters keep slipping off and she keeps bending down to slide them back up her shapely legs while Bimbo watches all the while making appreciative noises. Eventually in Grandma's bed (Grandma's absence is excused by saying she is at the Fireman's Ball) Betty confronts the wolf and sings, "Where'd ya get those eyes? Where'd ya get those lips?" and declares that his "big ears make him look so manly." In the song she claims to be afraid but also says how "big and strong" his arms are. Then Wolf-Bimbo scoops her up in his manly arms (and plainly holds her by the breasts) and sings "the better to eat you with!"

It ends with Bimbo kissing Betty and then being swung on a hammock made out of the crescent moon between two trees. Clearly, she has chosen Bimbo who has proved he can be a predator and devour her just as a wolf would have.

I can't help feeling like her protestations were very weak and contribute to that "no really means yes" mentality.

Also, there is a weird section where Betty Boop is picking flowers. She sings:
A violet for Grandma,
Grandma, grandma.
A Violet for grandma
and maybe a rose or two.

And here's a little tulip,
tulip, tulip.
Here's a little tulip
kissed by the morning dew.
(At this point the tulip flower gets a sneaky kiss in on an unsuspecting Betty.)

I think she'd like a pansy,
a pansy, a pansy.
I think she'd like a pansy
Other voice: the fairies like them too.

My first thought was "Was that some sort of jab at homosexuals?" So I had to go away and research when did words like pansy and fairy become words that were used to describe gays. I came across this really interesting piece of history about the Pansy Craze.  From 1930 to 1933, drag queen known as Pansy Performers experienced a surge in underground popularity. Gay subculture became mainstream during prohibition, but quickly waned when alcohol became legal again.  Who knew?

I feel this film fits in with many of the themes we have looked at with Little Red Riding Hood namely wolf as (sexual) predator and good girls get what's coming to them.

Watch it yourself and see what you think:

Next week we will look at more over-sexualised versions of our heroine in animated film.

What We Ate Wednesday--Curried Kale with Sweetcorn, Chickpeas, Toasted Coconut and Peanuts

Hello lovelies! This meal is one of our favourites. It tastes *amazing* with just a bit of prep work (the toasting of the coconut) and I couldn't believe I had never blogged about it before. As we were eating we had this discussion:

Spiderman: (nom nom nom) Are you sure you never wrote about this? We eat it a lot.
Me: (nom nom nom) I was sure I had but I did a search on the blog and can't find it.
Spiderman: (nom nom nom) Maybe you just couldn't get a decent shot of it with the camera?
Me: (nom nom nom) Yeah...that's probably it. (stuffs face)

Even this picture does not do it justice. You can't taste the sweet toasty coconut or the plump juicy raisins or or the salty crunchy peanuts or the spiced flavourful kale, sweetcorn and chickpeas. It is a veritable party in your mouth.  The hardest part is toasting the coconut and that's not really hard just boring.

Me: (Shakes the pan) Hurry up. It's been ages. (Stirs the coconut) Come on...hurry up and toast. (shakes pan again) OH FOR FRITH'S SAKE WILL YOU....oh wait! Nevermind. it's toasted.



This gets its punch of flavour from Patak's Balti Curry Paste. Even though I know that curry powder is cheaper than curry paste, I think paste has such a depth a flavour. You can make a fabulous curry by throwing all your vegetables that are left at the end of the week in a pot with some coconut milk or a tin of tomatoes and a tin of beans or some red lentils and a spoon or two of curry paste and have something really fancy tasting.  And it lasts about 6 weeks in your fridge after opening.

I make mine with brown rice so it takes 25 minutes to cook the rice. I toast the coconut first while the rice cooks and then when the rice is nearly done, do the kale bit. If you are having white rice then toast the coconut first, start the rice and cook the kale bit once you turn down the heat on the rice. Ya get me?

Curried Kale with Sweetcorn, Chickpeas, Toasted Coconut and Peanuts

Toasted Coconut:
5 TB unsweetened desiccated coconut
Toast in a dry frying pan over medium heat stirring and shaking the pan frequently until the coconut browns. Incidentally, toasted coconut tastes smashing on top of a vanilla cake. It will seem like ages with nothing happening but do not leave it unattended as it goes from white to brown in a matter of moments once it finally gets hot enough. When brown, set aside.

The green bit:
100g curly kale(about 4-5 cups), de-stemmed and torn into bits

200ml vegetable stock(about 3/4 of a cup)


The sauce:
the leftover veg stock (I will tell you about that in the directions)
a knob of vegan butter
1 TB Balti curry paste
1 TB lemon juice
1/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries


The rest:
1.5 cups of  frozen corn, defrosted with boiling water and drained
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
half a cup salted roasted peanuts

1. Toast your coconut first as described above.
2. In a large pot, boil your kale in the vegetable stock for 3 minutes, then drain the kale and SAVE THE STOCK. Press the kale in the colander to get the all the stock out.
3. In the same big pot add your saved stock and everything you needed for the sauce. Boil for about 2 minutes until the sauce thickens and reduces. The dried fruit will also plump up here.
4. Add in the corn, chickpeas, peanuts, kale and coconut and stir to mix together.
5. Serve over rice. You can't see rice in the photo, but trust me--it is under there.

I am telling you, the picture does not do this justice. It hits all the tastes--sweet, salty, sour and bitter and even umami.

Nom nom nom.

Fairy Tale Friday--Little Red Riding Hood (The Big Bopper, 1958)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

Last week we looked at a rather sensual version of Little Red Riding Hood, this week a slightly sillier version that upon close examination has some darker overtones. .

Jiles Perry (JP) Richardson is the real name of The Big Bopper. In case you don't know, he was part of "the day the music died" plane crash that killed him, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. His most famous song was probably Chantilly Lace. We had that song on an album when I was a child and I spent many hours lip-syncing it in front of a mirror due to its conversational lyrics. If I had known this song as a child, I am sure I would have been lip-syncing it too.

This song is a weird hybrid of Red Riding Hood and the Three Pigs. Clearly, they are the same wolf in both tales. The Big Bopper Wolf knows the Three Pigs who "flipped their wigs" when they saw Little Red because she's the "swingin'ist and that's no lie." The wolf is hammering on her door trying to get her to let him come in before Granma comes back. In the absence of a parental figure they can "have a ball" and "shake the shack." And if she won't let him in, he'll blow the house down.

To be honest, he comes across as quite the sex pest.

In 1958 the slight double entendres would have been seen as funny, but these days perhaps not so much. The implied threats of violence, the coercion to let him in while her (grand) parent is out, the not taking no for an answer and the description of how "hot" he finds her don't sit well with me these days.

And yet, as a child i would have loved it.

The lyrics that really struck me were these:

Hah-hah-hah

Now let me in now, honey

I just wanna talk to ya

Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaah

You know you're lonesome in there by yourself

So, put the key in the door

And go tick-a-locka, tick-a-lock

And let me in now, honey

It reminds me very much of the eerie short story WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? by Joyce Carol Oates which was made into a film starring Laura Dern called Smooth Talk. Basically, the young woman Connie is just exploring her sexuality and her effect on the opposite sex. She chafes under the strict rules of her house and the comparisons to her good girl older sister. One weekend she is left alone in her house while her family goes to a BBQ and an older man named Arnold Friend comes round and speaks to her through the screen door. Connie is alternately frightened and intrigued by him.Arnold Friend relentlessly pursues her with this same sort of persuasive smooth talk, pressure and threats of violence until he convinces her to leave with him where she will undoubtedly be raped and possibly murdered. (It is said that the character of Arnold Friend is based on serial killer Charles Schmid.)

In the song it it hilarious, but if it happened in real life it would not be so funny. 

Interestingly, I find last week's song more acceptable than this one. I am not sure why. Both feature a predator, clearly hiding his true nature, with only one thing in mind. Last week's version has a real sensual feel (as I said before, it sounds like music you could do a strip tease to.) This week's version has a fun feel that makes you want to dance and join in with the nonsense scat sort refrain of A-bing-bang-biddle-dee-bang, baby let me in. 

Listen to it here:

Stay tuned next week where explore Little Red Riding Hood in animated form.

What We Ate Wednesday--Pea and Mint Hummus

Hello lovelies! I am so easily suggestible when it comes to food. Mention something that sounds good and I will be OBSESSED with it until I can make it myself. FACT.

Last week my friend Bexy casually mentioned that she had eaten Pea and Mint Hummus and I was like Get in my belly!  I quizzed her about how it was made and she said it was a storebought one from Aldi. She said it was Lemony, refreshing and VERY green.

That settled it. I was making me some of that spreadable deliciousness.

I did some searches online for recipes...some used all peas, some used a mixture of peas and chickpeas, some used white beans instead of chickpeas but all used fresh mint leaves.

Now, Bexy is a gardener. When I said I didn't have any fresh mint she offered to bring me some in a pot. Then I laughed my head off and said I have yet to be able to keep a mint plant alive which she agreed was very impressive.

It is nigh on impossible to kill mint.

But I have done it.

Multiple times.

I am a mint murderer.

So I decided to use mint sauce. But if you are not a mint murder, then by all means use fresh mint.

I also decided to use white beans (in my case butter beans as they are cheaper than haricot or cannellini) instead of chickpeas as i find they make a creamier hummus without as much oil.

I also decided to use a fresh lemon rather than bottled lemon. Sometimes I interchange them, but I wanted the zest and a pop of extra lemony flavour.

Pea and Mint Hummus

In a food processor blend the following until smooth:

2 cups frozen peas, defrosted in boiling water and rinsed with cold water
1 tin white beans, drained and rinsed SAVE THE LIQUID 
1 clove chopped garlic
zest and juice of one lemon
2 TB tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 TB olive oil
small handful of mint leaves, torn small or 1 TB mint sauce
liquid from the tin of beans as needed

Blend everything really well, stopping to scrape down the sides occasionally. Add the bean liquid a few TB at a time until it is desired consistency. I used 4 TB to get it how I like it.

Spoon into containers. I love salsa jars. They are the perfect size. This makes 2 and a half salsa jars so just about 2.5 cups of hummus.

Did you know you can freeze hummus? You can. Just defrost overnight in the fridge.

I freeze two and put the half filled jar in the fridge.

Making your own hummus is way more economical as you can make a huge batch for pennies compare to those teeny plastic  tubs you get at the supermarket.

I make a lot of different flavoured hummus for my lunch, so will hopefully start to document them and share recipes instead of just stuffing them into my mouth.

DIM--Dumass Institute of Movement

DIM

Dumass Institute of Movement

Have you always thought of yourself as clumsy? Do you trip over your own feet several times a day? Do you struggle with co-ordination, balance and movement?

You may suffer from a condition called DYSPRAXIA which is a developmental coordination disorder (DCD) affecting fine and/or gross motor coordination in children and adults. It is believed that one in ten children show symptoms of being dyspraxic.

Dr Ima Dumass, founder of the Dumass Institute of Movement, has a identified a sub category of dyspraxia called DYSPRAXIC OVERESTIMATION where the dyspraxic individuals grossly overestimate their co-ordination abilities causing them to repeatedly injure themselves in absurd ways. Her research shows that one in every five dyspraxic people show signs of Dyspraxic Overestimation. Dr Dumass has devoted her life to this group of poor, deluded individuals.

The Institute works with Dyspraxic Over-estimators to help them be aware of their limitations and not take risks that will lead to injury. Here are just a few of our success stories:

Heather, Wales

I jumped off a rock in the park while trying to imitate Eddie Van Halen and fell and shattered my coccyx. At the time I was extremely confident that I could pull this move off. Thanks to the Dumass Institute of Movement, I realise that I am not a rock star and never will be.

Rosie-Mai, England

I was running on a beach with friends. In my mind I was picturing that scene in Chariots of Fire and so I decided I could skip across the sand without a problem until I fell over and my hand went purple. This was the first of many overestimation injuries I received before I found the Institute.

Here at the Institute we teach dyspraxic individuals to ask themselves these crucial questions before attempting a physical task:

1. Can I do this?

2.  Seriously, can I actually do this?

3.If I did do this, is there a way it could go horribly wrong?

Our motto is: If in doubt, don’t attempt it.

The Dumass Institute of Movement has helped countless people lead better lives by helping them to avoid daft injuries while messing about with their friends.

Lights....Camera...ACTION!

Well.

This will be interesting.

It was meant to be a post showing off my new Action Dress™ and ends up being a post that explains why I have been out of action for the last six days.

It wasn't supposed to be *that* kind of action. Sigh....

OK, the first question I kept getting is What in the world is an Action Dress™?

Well, I am glad you asked. Let's just begin with the history of me, shall we?

I have always preferred dresses. I like the freedom of movement they give you. They are cooler in sweltering summers and look great with tights and boots in the depths of winter.

As a child I liked wearing them but only if I wore shorts underneath so boys couldn't see my panties as I flipped on the monkey bars.

Even then I was an aspiring Action Grrrl.

When Spiderman and I spent three months as exchange students in 1990 on the LC/MC programme, I packed three long skirts (a black, a tan and a blue floral) lots of heavy sweaters and coordinating long john bottoms to wear under my dresses for warmth(oatmeal, red and bright blue).  I wore my skirts with either ankle boots or Converse high tops.

It may have not been fashionable, but it was comfortable.

These days as Quaker embracing the Testimony of Simplicity and rejecting sweatshop made clothes that make me spend too long obsessing on my appearance, I opt for a comfortable solid coloured dress with a practical apron in a lovely patterned fabric on top. The apron helps keep my clothes clean and has 2 massive pockets to keep all my bits and bobs (hankies, lip balm, prayer beads, asthma inhaler etc. the important stuff.) Plus I sewed them all myself.

I like these clothes. They suit me. I wear them with trainers (tennis shoes for my American peeps) and I get along just fine. I can wear these dresses anywhere.

Indeed I have. I have worn them to weddings, to funerals, to the theatre, on hikes up a mountain.

Normally, hiking doesn't matter. I just hoick it up slightly  if I need to go uphill. But last month we did a hike to a spectacularly waterfall and i had a little trouble crossing the river walking like an awkward crab over the wet uneven stones. I had a vision of me falling and tearing my thin fabric dress and it got me thinking.

What I needed was an Action Dress™. A dress made of heavy duty fabric. A dress that didn't matter if it got muddy.  A dress for action.

But why not just buy a pair of jeans like a normal person? my mother asked.

Clearly she doesn't know me at all.

Have you not paid attention for the last 48 years????

I hate jeans. All my life I tried to like jeans because jeans were cool and I just hated them. Every pair of jeans I have ever owned felt like they are slicing me in two and giving my vagina a wedgie. (Just try to get *that* image out of your head..mwa ha ha!) These days, since the Horrible Hysterectomy jeans (or any trousers with a zip in front) make my scar hurt like Voldemort is near.

That's why.

I decided I wanted to make an Action Dress™ out of some heavy retro curtain fabric my friend Susie gave me when she cleaned out her loft before she moved away. I wanted to make it like dungarees (overalls to my American peeps) at the top with side slits so no hoicking would be needed for uphill. I could wear action leggings underneath like I wear for exercise to provide a little modesty.

But mainly I wanted to look like someone out of Bananarama.

I am an 80's girl at heart.

So I made a spectacular dress for running, jumping, climbing mountains.

Then I met a lovely vegan named Nicky who offered to take some action shots of me in the dress.

Here is where the INCIDENT happened.

BI (Before Incident) Nicky and I had a delicious meal at The Warren and then toddled over to the park. We were having a good time. I was laughing and messing about on the exercise equipment.

I am pretending to be chased by a T-Rex here.

I am pretending to be Atlas holding up the world here.

Here I am a weathered old salt of a sea captain driving his boat. I love how my hair is spiked up by the wind to look like I am a parrot. It fits with the who sea captain/pirate motif.

I notice I am pulling faces in every picture. I am sure i didn't communicate any of this inner monologue about who my character was with Nicky. She must have wondered what in the world I was doing.

Then Nicky suggested  something.
"
Her: Why don't we go to the stone circle and have you jump off?
(her inner monologue:  that will make a great action shot.)
Me: Yeah! Let's do it! That will be awesome.
(my inner monologue: Yeah! That sounds fun. I'll make sure to leap really high and wave and pump my arms as i jump off this here shoulder-high rock that is wet from when it rained earlier and land on this grassy slope. What could possibly go wrong?)
(what SHOULD have been my inner monologue: Oh hell no. What are you thinking? You have a bad back? What if you fall? What if you land funny? Do NOT do this!!!)

First, let me say I have done many stupid things in my life. Too many to count. But this--of all the dumbass things I have ever done--ranks in the top ten. Possibly top five.

OK, who am I kidding? Top two.

I gleefully, like a small child, ran up the steps and did an epic leap complete with what was meant to be air guitar and then crashed HARD on the wet  grass right on my coccyx. The impact was so astonishingly painful that I could do nothing but pant and cry.

And swear. I said the F word about a dozen times. I am not proud of this. But it really hurt like f*ck.

The impact would have definitely been enough to shatter my coccyx and snap it completely off of my sacrum (see illustration above) had I not already had the pleasure of doing that in 1998 running down our highly polished wooden floors in my sock feet to quickly grab a drink between the commercial break of Law and Order.

So I suppose, lucky for me, it was already broken. Because for the last twenty years i have had chronic back pain and trouble sitting. I KNEW better than to leap off of some high object because LEAPING always results in LANDING and usually that mean landing BADLY.

But, in the excitement of the moment I felt like a kid again and I was having fun and I forgot for a few crucial moments that I have a weak, middle aged body with a broken coccyx.

AI (After Incident) a horrified Nicky (who I think in her wildest dreams never imagined things could go quite so pear shaped) helped me walk home while I sobbed and dry heaved and tried to reassure her I would be fine.

I got upstairs (oh yes...we live in a first floor flat which has 1.5 flights of stairs) and took some codeine and put some ice on my back and cried my little heart out over my stupidity.

My friend Laura (also in the broken coccyx club) bought me some topical pain relief creams like Ibuprofen Gel and left them downstairs for Spiderman to bring up when he got home from work.

It has taken me three days to type this as it involves sitting and my back currently doesn't like sitting.

But someday again it will. I will always have chronic pain. You can't have a broken coccyx without it. But it will get better. I have good days and bad days. This has been a couple of bad days, but after a few months they will be good days again.

But in the future I will resign my actions in my Action Dress™ to running, jumping climbing mountains.

Or maybe just walking. Or standing still. Sigh....

Fairy Tale Friday--Li'l Red Riding Hood (Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, 1966)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

Last week we looked at a version of this tale from the award winning musical Into the Woods, but this week i want to look at the song in popular culture.

In 1996, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (best known perhaps for their song Woolly Bully) had a hit with Li'l Red Riding Hood. It went to number two on the both the US and Canadian charts.

It is based on the version by Charles Perrault, blurring the line between the wolf as carnivore and the wolf as male sexual predator. In a reversal to the traditional tale, the wolf remarks on "what big eyes" and "what full lips" Red has. He declares "what a big heart he has" to her, but as an aside to the audience freely admits he is disguised in a "sheep suit" to lull her into a dropping her guard. The song begins with a howl and ends with him Baaaing like a sheep to conceal his true nature.

There is something deeply sensual about Sam the Sham's voice that makes this song sound raunchy and arousing, like you could do a strip tease to it. There have been many cover versions, but for me none capture that animalistic tone better than this one. If you are interested WIKIPEDIA has a list of other artists that have covered the song and many are available to listen on Youtube. There are punk covers (Bowling for Soup) and an a capella Doo-Wop cover (The Bobs), but for my money, this version beats them all (even the Rolling Stone's version.) There is only one version that comes close and we will look at it in a few weeks as it is tied to a film.

Listen to the Sam the Sham version here:

Stay tuned next week for a musical  version that also includes the Three Little Pigs.

What We Ate Wednesday--Roasted Tomatoes with Kale and White Bean Alfredo Sauce Pasta

Hello lovelies! This was a sort of spur of the moment dish we have eaten twice recently. We are lucky enough to have green-fingered friends who gladly give us produce from their garden. Twice last week they gave us some small home grown fresh tomatoes. These were beautiful--a deep red (unlike the anaemic ones you see at the supermarket)  and really juicy. They were all about the size of a small egg. I was trying to decide what to do with them when I dreamed a food dream and woke up knowing exactly what must be done.

They needed to be roasted under the grill in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I tend to have a rule NO OVEN UNTIL AUTUMN but I was willing to use the grill as it heats up the kitchen (and consequently me) less.

This was a super quick meal with pasta. I decided that it would go well with sauteed kale and a creamy sauce. I thought my GARLIC ALFREDO SAUCE would be great, but I was looking for a way to make it even cheaper than using cashews and get more protein and fibre into it.

Enter the humble white bean. The first time I used cannelloni beans, but the second time I used butter beans. Both worked equally well as they were a soft, mild white bean.

The result was a thick garlicky sauce (and it was saucy--just the way we like it. Ooo-er, Missus. If you want less sauce than add more pasta) topped with juicy bites of flavourful tomatoes.

 Roasted Tomatoes with Kale and White Bean Alfredo Sauce Pasta
Move your oven rack to the highest place and turn on your grill or broiler. I set my temperature at 220 degrees C/425F.

Ingredients:
100g curly kale (about 4-5 cups)
Before you do anything, prepare your kale by de-stemming it and tearing into bite sized pieces.

tomatoes (we used 9-10 egg sized ones, but could equally use less bigger ones or more smaller ones)
Slice in halves or quarters and drizzle with
1 TB olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
generous salt and pepper
Arrange cut side up in a roasting pan.

For the sauce:
1 onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup  vegetable stock
******************
1 tin white beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tb lemon juice
1/4 cup  nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan
1 cup unsweetened non dairy milk of choice (we did soya milk)
1/2 a tsp salt

pasta (we used 1.5 cups GF pasta for two people)

To get started:
1. While the grill/broiler heats, put the onions in a large pot  with the veggie stock and garlic and cook on med high. Cook until liquid is nearly absorbed, remove from heat and let cool for a minute or so.
2. Add to the blender with the rest of the sauce ingredients and blend until velvety smooth. The onion really thickens it up and add flavour.
3. While the onion and garlic are cooking bring your water to the boil for the pasta.
4. When the pasta water boils, add the pasta and cook according to package directions. When you put the pasta in the boiling water, put your tomatoes under the grill and set timer for 15 minutes. While they cook the tomatoes will collapse, release their juices and intensify in flavour.
5. In the same large pot you cooked the onion, cook the kale with a splash or two of boiling pasta water until cooked down and softened. When tomatoes are nearly done, add the sauce and cook until bubbling. Add the drained pasta and stir to mix with the kale. Top with roasted tomatoes.

This was so lush that I think it will be my Alfredo recipe from now on. And a tin of white beans are cheaper than cashews, so this is a win-win situation.

Fairy Tale Friday--Hello Little Girl (Into the Woods)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

For the last few weeks we have been looking at more modern versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Many of these versions hark back to the sexual nature of the original. The musical Into The Woods written by James Lapine with music by Stephen Sondheim draws its source material from the darker tones of the original Grimm's fairy tales. In the musical, the stepsisters slice off their toes and heel to fit into the glass slipper. The prince only notices when the shoe fills up with blood. Later, Cinderella's friends the birds swoop down and peck out their eyes.

notice the enormous phallus

Lapine and Sondheim really did their research about the origins of Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf's song Hello Little Girl is part hunger, part sexual---all appetite. In the original Broadway stage production the wolf wears a huge erect phallus as he sings. It is also interesting to note, that in the stage production the part of the wolf is played by the same man who enacts the role of Prince Charming. This also harks back to the idea that men are bestial in nature and "some wolves are hairy on the inside."

In 2014, there was a Disney remake of Into the Woods. I despise this version because it seems to mute all the darker themes of the source material and cut out the sexual undertones as well as the black comedy that is so clearly evident in the stage version. Not to mention how much I dislike po-faced Emily Blunt as the Baker's Wife. But that's a story for another time.

I have clips to share from  the Broadway production, the London production and the Disney film. I am biased towards the Broadway show. I find the wolf in the London production with his enormous mechanical head with motorised rolling eyes and moving ears too cartoon like (especially when steam comes out of his ears on the line "when you're talking to your meal.")  It seems to miss that deep sexual connection between man and beast and slide over into the ridiculous.  I find Johnny Depp in his "hat with tufty ears" unsatisfying, although I suppose it is an attempt to reflect the connection between man and beast. I just don't like his delivery of the song because he doesn't sing the line "when you're talking to your meal.". Give me a wolf with a big phallus any day.  And by that I mean   I vastly prefer the Robert Westenberg version.

You can watch all three and make your mind up for yourself.

The Broadway version with Robert Westenberg:

The London cast with Clive Carter:

The Disney version with Johnny Depp:

Stay tuned next week where we look at other musical retellings of our tale.

What We Ate Wednesday--Black Bean Tarkari with Peaches

Hello lovelies! I am not a recipe purist. I will happily substitute ingredients for vegan ones (chickpeas not chicken) or substitute for a cheaper alternative (mushrooms not tofu.)

This is why i love the chef and cookbook author Jack Monroe.  Jack spent a few years with a small child living in poverty conditions with £10 a week to spend on food and discovered she could make food from scratch for cheaper and keep them healthy. She has several cookbooks--two which are aimed at cheap and healthy cooking and a blog COOKING ON A BOOTSTRAP which is full of good recipes and tips for frugal eating. Jack has been vegan for about a year and while her cookbooks are not 100% vegan, they are about 80% with vegan options for everything as we all know plant based eating is cheaper than meat if you eat beans and lentils instead of fake meats that are processed and expensive.

We were one of the backers for her Kickstarter campaign and so we received an autographed copy of her cookbook Cooking on a Bootstrap. Jack, like me, is not afraid to substitute,

This recipe for Black Bean Tarkari with Peaches was adapted by her from a dish from a Nepalese takeaway. She substituted black beans for chicken and a tin of cheap peaches in light syrup for fresh mango.

This is my kind of cooking. The peaches I bought were the cheap Tesco brand ones. They were a bit soft and falling apart but that's ok--that's what you want.

Also, the recipe called for an onion and I had none. So I just left it out. If I had had a pepper I would have added that, but I didn't. I was seriously out of everything except a tin of beans and a tin of peaches.

I added a tsp of amchoor (dried mango powder) but only because I  had some. A friend gave us a tiny pot and I was eager to try it. You don't need this as I have made it before without it and it was still splendid.

Black Bean Tarkari with Peaches

I served mine over brown rice, so I started rice first.

1 large onion, finely sliced (or not)
4 cloves crushed garlic
pinch of salt
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp amchoor (optional)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 tin cheap peaches in syrup, drain and SAVE THE SYRUP
2 TB tomato puree/paste
1/4 cup water
1 tin black beans, drained and rinsed

1. Cook your onion and garlic in a splash of oil or water with the pinch of salt on low heat so it doesn't burn.
2. After a few minutes add your spices and stir to coat the onions.
3. Add the drained peaches (breaking them up a bit with a spoon), the tomato puree and and 1/4 cup water. Then add a TB  of the syrup. Bring to the boil.
4. Turn down the heat and pop a lid on the pan and simmer for 20 minutes until the rice is nearly done then add the black beans. The peaches will have broken down by now. Taste and see if it needs a TB more syrup. Simmer until the rice is ready.

This was easy and cheap and a nice combination of sweet and savoury.