There should be a new genre

of movies that aren't necessarily scary (in The Ring sense), but are extremely disturbing.

But most movies straddle the line between scary and disturbing anyways, so it's easier to just group them into one.

However, there is one movie I recently saw that definitely fit the bill for disturbing - to the point that I was hiding underneath a blanket and squirming like a caterpillar stuck in a straw.

This movie is called Dumplings.

Has anyone seen it?

It's a foreign film (Hong Kong) that was originally part of a 3-movie compilation of horror movies. It ended up developing into a full-length movie, although the original retains much of the plot. I saw both the original short film of the 3-movie compilation and the full-length movie; however, I think the ending of the original was more haunting but you'll have to watch the movie to see why.

You can watch the original on "Watch It Now" on Netflix; if anyone really wants to see it, I can give you my Netflix account and password and you can watch it there!

Note: I'm about to reveal some information about this film. If you are queasy, eating something, or have a sensitive stomach, please reconsider if you want to read the following:

The movie is about this woman, Mrs. Li, who is married to a wealthy man but is losing his interest. He's cheating on her, and in a desperate attempt to recapture his attention, she visits a woman who is renowned for her "youth dumplings." It becomes evident that she stuffs the dumplings with a mixture of vegetables and aborted baby fetuses, which she claims "helps keep her young."

I know, I know - it's disgusting. But I what disturbs me even more is the fact that this movie is not completely fiction. It actually happens. It's been featured in newspapers, along with pictures that document each process (my mother told me about it - I have not seen the article). I think it's absolutely heartbreaking.

I've heard of situations like this before where people, in an effort to distinguish themselves from the "masses," would purchase aborted fetuses on the black market and cook them in dishes. I don't want to talk about their justification for this, as I don't think I can remain impartial in discussions like this.

Anyways, here's the link to the movie if you'd like to find out more about it, courtesy of Wikipedia: Dumplings (film).

In other news:

I received an ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid Artisan mixer! It was a promotional event, and I've been chilling the ice cream maker in the freezer for a couple of days now. Does anyone know any food ice cream recipes? Or any fantastic ideas for ice cream? I'm trying to decide if I should make a batch of Vanilla ice cream or something crazier... like Coffee Ice Cream with dried cherries and toffee swirls. Mm!

6:22 P.M. - 2/25/2009:

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THAT FABIO WAS ELIMINATED? :(

PB2 Giveaway Results

I haven't posted in a while but I haven't forgotten about the PB2 giveaway!

I divided the number of posts up into two, and selected two winners from each category. I wanted to have a more even distribution of numbers across the comments.

So, here are the winners:

#4 - Maggie!
#11 - biz319!
#17 - Erica!
#32 - Anonymous!

Please e-mail me your mailing addresses! I will send out the PB2 ASAP! :)

I'll be back with a longer post later. I've missed you all!

Responsibility

apparently has nothing to do with age.  However, age does prepare you for something that a lack of experience cannot: the ability to contemplate reality.

Will you all please read this link?  And please look at the picture?  That boy, Alfie, doesn't look like he's 13 - he looks like he's still in his single digits.  

I'm not sure what to say on this topic, as I know that many people will have differing views on this.  But the one question that I keep asking is, "How could this have happened?"

In food-related news (sorry, such a lame attempt for diverting the focus): I baked blondies for the first time today!  No pics, as I then rushed to Costco, then came back and cleaned up for the night, but I did add some peanut butter and semi-sweet chocolate chips to them.  Hmm... I think I would've probably preferred the chips to be a little bit more melty, as I had sprinkled frozen chips onto the blondie mix.  It reminded me of a huge, thick chocolate chip bar cookie, which makes me wonder if I did something wrong.  Are blondies supposed to take like chocolate chip cookies? 

Anyways... I have a seminar to go to tomorrow regarding Alzheimer patients.  I'm learning about how to take care of them, not in the medical sense, but rather, focusing more on improving the quality of their everyday lives.  Since dementia patients are the ones who really do live "in the now," I want to make sure that I know how to interact with them to make each day as best as can be.

Goodnight!

P.S.  Don't forget to enter the PB2 giveaway!  

Have a safe, wonderful weekend and a heavenly Valentine's Day!

My valentine!

This morning, I came home around 1:30 PM to a half-empty mailbox with one of those wretched beige notes.

"Sorry we missed you," it said.  "We shall re-deliver tomorrow, 2/12/09."

Noooooo!  Annoyed, I rushed into my house, changed into my work-out clothes, and got back into my car.  I sat in silence for a few moments, deciding that I would call the post office after my workout to see if I can come in and pick it up.  Then, I heard this low rumbling behind me.

I looked into my rearview mirror.  A boxy, white car had pulled up.  Squinting, I realized that it was the Post Office.

I tore the seat belt out of the buckle, flung open my car door, and stumbled across the street in my half-tied running shoes over to the post man.

"SIR!" I shouted, a little too loudly.  Startling that poor, nice man.

"SIR!!!!!" even though he had already heard me the first time.

"I'VE GOT... THIS... " I frantically waved around that little piece of paper, as if I were trying to fan out a fire.

"COULD I.. PICK IT..?"

He looked calmly at me, got out of his vehicle and smiled.  "Sure," he responded, then hopped into the back of his vehicle to grab the parcel for me.

"Were you home earlier?" he asked.  He probably meant, "When did they release you?"

"Oh, no, but my brother was.  He probably just didn't answer the door."  The postman chuckled.

I grabbed my parcel, thanked him, and then got back into my car (even though it was parked on the driveway) and tore the package open with my car key.  I spotted a gorgeous red envelope with my name "Pearl" written in curvy, loopy letters, holding an adorable Valentine's card from the sweet and beautiful Nicole at Deceptively Sweet.  Thank you so much, Nicole - you made my day that much brighter :).

Among the plethora of goodies, I received yogurt-covered pretzels (which are now my brother's and mom's favorite snack), chocolate-covered espresso beans, dark chocolate orange butter from Barefoot Contessa (ohhh my goodness), exquisite V-day spatulas (encouragement for even more baking), a V-day candy heart and a heart-shaped sandwich/pancake cutter.  I am now going to be making some heart shaped sandwiches for fun, even if it's not Valentine's Day.

Thank you so much, sweetie - you are so, so generous and have completely spoiled me this Valentine's Day.

And P.S. - I'm sorry for the lack of pictures of these lovely treats.  But with two brothers and their friends, it's hard to save any before the camera comes out :).

2 Cupids & a Giveaway

Okay, what a lame title.  Was I unconsciously channeling "Four Weddings & A Funeral?"  I'll never know.  Lord.  I just realized I don't even know what that movie is about.

Speaking of movies:  I recently saw Ghost.  Yup.  The movie with pre-Ashton Demi Moore and a rugged Patrick Swayze.  Now I understand why some ladies I know all swoon over Patrick Swayze.  I guess he's like the Jonas Brothers (all three wrapped into one) of today's generation.  Or more like the favorite Backstreet Boy of my generation (Nick - did you know that I was going to marry you?  Yeah.  Until you came out with your own reality show.  I think we might be better off as friends).  

Anyways.  So, this year, I participated in the blogger Secret Valentine.  I can't tell you who it is, but that person will find out in 2-3 days.  I decided to take on a second valentine, too (don't tell my mama - she'll be disappointed in me), but she knows who she is.  You're getting brittle, my darling.

In regards to the giveaway (did I just say "in regards?"  Really?  And what is up with the overly abundant parenthetical deliberations today?), it's about peanut butter.  Remember my post about PB2?  The crazy delicious powdered peanut butter?  Yes, well, Gina over at Bell Plantation has oh-so-generously sent me 4 jars of PB2 to use in a giveaway!  Now, instead of my brilliantly fantastic initial idea of sending one person 4 jars of PB2 (I have an excuse:  I had a Nyquil in my system.  And there I go again with those parentheses), I've decided to choose 4 people to each receive one jar of the original PB2!  

Would ya like to know how you may get a jar? 

Go ahead and comment on this entry.  Tell me this: What was your first ever memory of Peanut Butter?  What brand was it?  How did it taste like?  What did it look like to you?  Did you eat it straight out of the jar, or was it slathered on fresh, toasted bread?  

Since I'm asking all those incredibly deep, thought-provoking questions that are worthy enough to be asked in Philosophy 121, I'll answer them first.

I was sitting up, with my back board-straight, in the seat usually reserved for my grandpa, swinging my legs back and forth beneath the chair.  My younger brother was sitting to the left of me.  My mama was in the kitchen, telling me that she was going to make breakfast.  I wasn't a breakfast type of gal (can anyone really look back onto their childhood and honestly say that they liked eating breakfast?  I thought it was such a waste of biking time), but I had to sit there and wait.  My mama brought over two plates, and set each in front of my brother and me.  She then brought over two glasses of warm milk (we weren't allowed to drink anything cold when we were little cause it contributed to colds.  Shush.) and set that to the right of the plate.  I looked at my plate, smelled my food (yes, I smelled my food when I was little.  I actually put my nose against the dish and sniffed cautiously because my family liked to trick me into eating foods like eggs and tofu and cauliflower), and looked incredulously at my mother.  

"What's this?" I pointed to the piece of bread, folded in half.  "It's got brown stuff inside it."  

My mother returned back to the kitchen, and while wiping down the counter (my mama's a proud clean freak), replied, "It's hua-seng jiang."  

I stared at my plate.  My mama had just told me, in Chinese, that it was "peanut butter."  Of course, I had no clue what peanut butter was, so that didn't really help.  

"What's in it?"  

Clearing away the dirty dishes, she said, "Peanuts."

I looked over at my brother.  He was already chowing away at his piece of dried bread with the weird brown mix.  He seemed to be enjoying it.

Slightly comforted, I lifted up the piece of bread to take a bite.  Then set it back down.

My brother liked everything.

My mother was watching me.  She was so excited that, maybe today, she'd get me to eat my food without the usual 20-minute interrogation.  She'd become ecstatic when I lifted up my peanut butter sandwich to take a bite, and then felt the knocking blow of a close victory being snatched away.  So close.

It began.

"Does it have eggs in it?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"You didn't put an egg in here?"

"No."

"Does it have tofu in it?"

"No.  You'd know if you would tas-"

"Does it have cauliflower in it?"

"No, just tast-"

"Why is it so brown?"

"It's the color of peanuts."

"The ones that you eat aren't brown.  They're beige."

"This one is brown."

"Are there brown peanuts in the world?"

"I don't know."

"Did you mix this with something weird?  Why is it brown?  Did you mix the peanuts with the tea eggs?  Those are brown.  Did you mix the peanuts with the tea-eggs to try and get me to eat the eggs? You know I don't like those eggs. Eggs are gross. They smell.  I don't want it.  I want my pop tart."

"No, there are no eggs.  Why would I put in eggs?"

"I don't know.  You do it all the time."

"Eat it."

"So why do you?"

"Why do I what?"

"Why do you try and trick me to eat eggs?"

"Pearl, there are no eggs and no tofu in this sandwich."

I paused.

"Mama, where did you put the peanuts?"

"Why, do you want some?"

"Yes please."

My mother went and grabbed the peanuts.  I popped open a shell.  I crushed the peanut with a spoon, and made a crumbly mess on the table.

"Pearl, what are you doing?  You just made a mess on the tab-"

Convinced that there was something sneaky in it, I fumed, "If this brown stuff is made from peanuts, then why is it sticky? I can't get the peanuts to stick together!!!"

My mother stared at me, in all of my huffing, mad, self-righteous four-year-old pigtailed glory.  I looked back at her.  She took a deep breath.

"Just take a bite.  If you don't like it, I'll get you your pop tart."

I looked at my sandwich.  Weird.  Brown stuff oozing out and sticking to my fingers.  Ugh.  How incredibly messy (can you see the resemblance?).  

I picked it up.  I took a bite.

I swallowed.  

And then I took another bite.

"Thish ith fun!"  I proclaimed, "It sticksh to mah mouf."

<3 PB2

scratchy & itchy

No, don't worry!  I don't have a skin disease.  It's my throat, you see.

Apparently, someone in my lovely family had a cold.  And didn't tell anyone about it. And continued to share things (including the lovely virus) with me.  So now, I have a cold, too.  Lovely.

My throat is weak and I cough a lot.  Actually, my coughs sound more like wheezing, gasps for breath, which freak my mother out everytime she's in the room.  But then she turns around and sees that I'm just sitting there, frantically typing away at my laptop, and then she returns back to her work.  But poor momma, I think she fears that I'm going to keel over.  

So this week, I haven't been cooking very much at all.  Nor have I been baking very much.  We still have a ton of food and desserts left over from Chinese New Year, and we really don't have anymore room in our two refrigerators and single freezer. 

However, I want to share a few things with you.  The following will just be a collection of thoughts and past events, so feel free to skip on over 'em!

1)  I discovered that my satellite radio has this channel called "Books," which basically plays audiobooks the entire day.  How incredibly lovely!  I've been making long coffee runs to Peet's just to listen to the station.  Mmmm.  Peet's coffee.

2)  Speaking of coffee, I bought a brand new spankin' coffee maker!  It's a single-serve coffee maker, which serves us better than the one we had previously.  Before, when we had the traditional coffee maker, I'd come home to leftover, cooled coffee in the carafe.  Very frustrating.  And I had to clean that filter.  And the basket the filter rested in.  And clean out the beans every week.  *sigh*.

So instead, I started doing some research... and ended up purchasing the Breville Single-Serve Coffeemaker!  I like my coffee hot, and I liked how I was able to program the temperature for that.  I purchased some K-cups too, and came home with Butter Toffee coffee, Dark Magic coffee and hot chocolate.  It's so easy!  You just pop a K-cup in, press the pretty, illuminated blue "Brew" button, and watch coffee drip out into your cup!  You can also designate serving sizes... which is always a big plus, since sometimes I only want a lil bit o' coffee.  

And you know what?  This coffee is SO good!  It's not weak, nor is it watery.  It's good, bold coffee that provides the perfect serving size, to guarantee that there will be no excess coffee grounds going stale, and to make sure that no coffee is ever wasted!  I hate stale coffee.  Yucko.

Clean-up is even easier!  Lift the pretty cap, pop out the K-cup, and throw it away!  No more filters to take to the sink (while it leaves a trail of dripped coffee along the way), where I then have to scrub it down with soap and make my magic faucet shoot water through the little holes.  

And of course, then I'd have to wipe the floor from the coffee stains.  Anyways - with the Breville, none of that!

*coughs* x2

Sorry, I thought that I'd share my timing of symptoms with ya'll.  :)

Anyway... I stayed up til 3 in the morning last night.  Would you like to know why?  Cause I couldn't wait to try out the Butter Toffee coffee and ended up having a cup at around 10:00 PM while watching Top Chef.

Speaking of Top Chef - I'm incredibly shocked that Jamie was asked to leave!  She's always been a good chef, and except for a few mishaps here and there, it seemed like she had a really good chance of being the next female Top Chef!  

P.S. Isn't Chef Eric Ripert so adorable? Ohhh, that silver hair and those nice eyes and that genuine smile, even when critiquing their fish filleting skills.  I wonder how Ramsay would respond, if he were the one critiquing.  

Anyway - does anyone also own any of the Keurig machines, which require K-cups for coffee/tea?  If so, do you have any flavors of K-cups that you'd recommend?

So, I wasn't up til 3 AM bouncing around in my room.  Instead, I was reading this really interesting novel titled My Lobotomy, which is a memoir about Howard Dully, one of the youngest patients to ever receive a lobotomy from Dr. Walter Freeman.  It's co-authored by Charles Fleming, and seriously, it is one of the most disturbing and shocking pieces I've ever read.  It really makes me wonder just how the lobotomy was accepted as a practice to "cure" mental illness, and makes me wonder about such medical ethics.  I ended up wikipedia'ing a lot about the lobotomy, and the information I came up with was absolutely horrendous.  I won't talk about it on this blog, since I don't want to really gross anyone out, but the information is there on wikipedia if you are interested. 

Anyways, onto a lighter note.

Yesterday, I went to the market and bought lots of almonds for my Cupid.  Yup, that's right - I'm going to be sending my cupid some brittle!  Along with other things, of course :).

I wanted to wait til the very last moment to make them to ensure that they'd be fresh.  I swear, I wasn't procrastinating - I just wanted to make sure that my Cupid received yummy batches!

Okay, I'm off to start cooking some brittle!