Good Food & Good Film

Recipe Guidance

I’ve included three delicious recipes tonight:  Rosemary Focaccia Bread, Chicken and Roasted Pepper Stew, and Low Country Cookies. Rosemary Focaccia Bread is a variation of the famous Italian bread. There are several recipes for Focaccia online, but this one is simple and tasty. When you use Fresh Rosemary, it makes a huge difference.

It doesn’t take very long to make. You can finish it in a little over two hours. For yeast bread, that’s pretty fast.  The recipe instructions seem long, but I’ve learned that it’s important to be more descriptive with bread recipes.

It’s frustrating when you carefully follow instructions from a bread recipe, and it turns out looking like baked dung. I don’t know what that looks like, but there are reasons why recipes don’t always turn out the way they should.

Measuring Techniques

One reason is that we generally rely on volume measurement rather than weight measurement for recipes.  There are countless variations and sizes of measuring cups. Yes, a cup should equal 8oz(6oz for coffee pots), but measuring cups can come in 1 cup, 4 cups, 8 cups. . .etc.

When you dump 2 cups of flour in an 8-cup measuring cup, you use your eyes to judge whether the flour is perfectly level with the 2 cup line. Someone else, using the same recipe, may decide to use a ½ cup to scoop out the flour.

They may not sift the flour like the 8-cup cook, and they may not level off the flour the same way. Some people shake the cup slightly, and some use their hand to scrape the flour level.

This difference in measuring tools and techniques plays a role, often only a minor one, in how results can differ in recipes. Another reason is that some people tend to shorten or skip an important process described in the recipe.

The Importance of the Process

For instance, some of the more complicated bread recipes require you to knead and fold the dough every 30 minutes. If you wait an hour each time to knead and fold the bread, the results will differ from the author’s.

With bread recipes, following the process closely is often more important than precisely following the ingredient measurement.

This also applies to recipes in general. The process is more important to follow in more complicated and time-consuming recipes. If you don’t marinate the pork loin for the same 12 hours that Frankie Barbecue marinated his, it may not turn out the same.

The fault of recipe confusion cannot always fall on the consumer. The author of the recipe can often forget to include an important part of the process. Even a famous chef and author can forget to write something down.

Maybe, after draining ten bottles of wine, a celebrated chef may forget to mention pounding the filets before breading them.

The differences in measuring techniques and recipe processes may make cooking seem more daunting. Challenges and possible disappointment may not appeal to everyone. The thought of an important dinner party being ruined by an imperfect recipe scares the hell of many amateur cooks.

One important tip, when attempting a new recipe, is to taste it and modify it before serving it to other people. If you want to change an ingredient to suit your needs, do it. I usually change something from the recipes I’ve read, and I make a note of the changes.

When a recipe attempt leads to disaster, don’t worry. If it didn’t work, try something else. You can spend time backtracking to find out what went wrong, but that’s crazy. 

No one needs to waste time investigating what happened, just move on. You can rip that recipe out of the cookbook and set fire to it. Then you can turn on your exhaust fan, grab the fire extinguisher, and move on to the next recipe.

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Creating recipes and cooking is a profession and a hobby.  When I’m finished in the kitchen, I like to dissolve into the couch to watch a good movie.

My film reviews will not include the SPOILER ALERT heading above a potential spoiler. I hate that. I try not to include spoilers in my reviews, but if I do I will use the simple heading, Further Reading May Ruin the Movie for You, Don’t Read No Mo!

Today’s Film Review:  Suspiria ꙳꙳꙳꙳꙳

Dario Argento’s Suspiria premiered in 1977 and changed the nature of horror films forever. Suspiria is visually stunning, extremely violent, suspenseful, and hard to get out of your head once you’ve seen it.

It is a great film and one of the creepiest ever made. The first fourteen minutes are an endurance test for the viewer. If you can tolerate the tension and horror established in the opening, you may be able to make it to the end.

The story involves a young American woman, played by Jessica Harper, who travels to Germany to join a famous dance academy. If you dislike films that focus on ballet dancing, that’s OK. Dance plays only a small role in this film.

Two of the dancers notice strange things occurring at the academy and wonder if witchcraft is involved. The actors deliver strong performances, but they are outshined by Argento’s nightmare world.

The atmosphere of Suspiria relies on the director’s experiments with color and sound.  Unlike most horror films, bright, primary colors stand out in nearly every frame.

Color, most notably a red glow, is used to make the ordinary seem a little strange. From the opening scene of the picture, the airport passengers and the airport itself, at first glance, appear normal.

The Airport

A sinister, red light greets the passengers as they depart the plane.

Most of the passengers wear grey or black, but some, walking behind Suzy( Jessica Harper) look like Crayola models- if there is such a thing.

A woman in a bright red suit, a father with a bright green tie that matches his young son’s bright green purse, and a woman with a blinding, red blouse and yellow pants contrast Suzy’s look of innocence.

Suzy, in white, looks out of place compared to the rest of the colorful fools around her. As she walks toward the airport’s exit, she becomes uneasy and seems frightened by an unknown presence surrounding her.

I mention the airport because it’s important to notice how quickly the tension and suspense are established during the first five minutes of the film. The slightly-off set design and insane music soundtrack act as separate characters themselves.

The soundtrack, by Goblin, is a pounding, rhythmic, and sometimes repetitive force that drives the narrative along. It increases in intensity and volume when something nefarious is about to happen.

It is not easy to listen to, but it complements the film’s frantic nature.  If you want to scare the neighborhood kids at Halloween, play the Goblin soundtrack and you’ll have plenty of leftover candy.

The Taxi Ride and Red Building

Suzy takes a colorful cab ride to the academy when she leaves the airport. Her cab coasts through the city and enters the forest while the lightning casts strange shadows on the barren trees.

One shadow resembles a hand holding a curved blade. Although this was intentionally created by the filmmakers, you can miss it if you’re not focused on the film.

As Suzy approaches the academy, a bright red building comes into view. It is one of the most haunting and beautiful shots of the movie.  Argento has a talent for creating a scene that can be both disturbing and attractive.

The building has ornate, gold trim around the entrance. Its red paint seems to glow under the pounding rain and lightning flashes.  It is pretty, but not inviting.

An unknown voice behind the academy’s front door instructs Suzy to leave. She reluctantly returns to her cab and drives away. The events that follow lead to the film’s first, gory murder.

The Violence

The murder sequences in Suspiria are brutal. Argento forces the viewer to witness every action that the killer performs. Every stab of the knife, slice from a razor, and bite to the neck are on display.

I haven’t mentioned, besides Suzy, any of the character’s names in this review. I don’t want you to know who was murdered before you watch the film. However, I can mention some of the violent sequences. You should know what you’re getting into.

Some of the ghastly highlights include:

– A close-up of an exposed beating heart with a knife plunging into it

– A victim falling through stained glass while being hanged

– Maggots raining from the ceiling

– A witch snoring

– A victim falls into a room filled with barbed wire

– An animal attacks at a city square formerly occupied by Nazis

The violence is not for the faint of heart. However, it never feels like a B-movie slasher. The violence is stylish and exaggerated, but it’s never gratuitous.

The dubbed English in the dialogue may irritate some viewers, but it’s overshadowed by the psychedelic imagery and deafening soundtrack.

If possible, turn off the lights before you watch this film. Enjoy it, if you can!