Last Holiday - Movie Review

Last Holiday did not make a huge splash at the box office; but for me it's keeper. Maybe it'll become a cult classic.

Watch it on Amazon Instant Video, too

Queen Latifah's character, Georgia Byrd, starts out as a self-depriving good girl from New Orleans. She rushes home from her job in a department store, making gourmet dishes while Emeril gives instructions on TV. Then she feeds them to her grateful teenage neighbor while she microwaves herself a diet dinner.

Pronounced terminally ill, Georgia cashes in her savings and flies off to a posh resort in the Alps, where others mistake her for a jet-setter. There she lives out her dreams, yet manages to keep her values and speak her truth, with some hilarious moments as a result. She gambles in a high-stakes casino, base-jumps, and shows such an appreciation for Chef Didier's cuisine that he invites her into the kitchen to cook with him.

Spoiler
The happy ending involves a realization of her dream to create beautiful food, in a way that affirms her local (hometown) community.

Summary
A fairly predictable vehicle for Queen Latifah - but so delightfully executed that I didn't care. Tellingly, the bad characters don't appreciate good food but only see dining as an extension of personal power.

Supporting Cast
Gerard Depardieu, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, and Susan Kellermann particularly sparkle.

Holiday Tamales de Elote

Gathering in the kitchen to craft hand-made tamales with fillings to suit every taste is a time-honored family tradition for the holidays. Not my family, and not only the Christmas holiday.

Sweet corn tamale with a sprinkle of cheese, plus crema

Still, when I saw sweet corn tamales for sale in the local mercado latino, I knew right away what the perfect Christmas breakfast would be. Tamales de elote can be eaten as lunch or dinner, plated elegantly on a thin layer of salsa verde and drizzled with crema.

Or they can be found at street markets, like the one where I first tried them. Fresh off a plane from Seattle, I wandered the market overdue for breakfast. The sweet corn tamales smelled so good, I couldn't resist - and what a revelation!

Most of the time, one finds tamales of simple masa harina filled with savory or spicy meat or cheese mixtures. Whether in an open air market, at home, or in a restaurant, the sweet corn variety are a rare find. For me they will also be a treat, and especially good as a late morning breakfast.

Fiber35 Diet - Book Review

During the holidays and other times of year when celebratory foods all seem to be high-fat, simple-carb, and either sugary or greasy, I take refuge in simple snacks like baked yams, steel cut oats, or apples with peanut butter. What do they have in common? Well, besides being yummy and satisfying, fiber.

When I saw Brenda Watson on PBS giving her seminar on the Fiber35 Diet, I thought, "This is so simple - I don't need her book." I jotted down her key tips, researched the fiber content of foods we routinely eat at home, and made a few healthy changes. Focusing as recommended on good eating rather than self-deprivation, I dropped a few pounds, felt better, and re-established some good habits.

A year later, I found and consulted the book for a 'check-up.' Reading it provided useful reminders, detailed medical information, and much better instructions than the ones I had scribbled down. Once I got past the "Amazing! Secret! Miracle!" self-promotion, and the touching vignettes about Watson's clients, I found the nutrition and fitness facts well-explained.

For me, these are the parts that make the book worth owning as a reference:

• A thorough,understandable physiological explanation of how dietary fiber promotes weight loss
• An easy-to-follow plan to assess your current nutrition and achieve personal health and fitness goals
• Sections on boosting your metabolism, exercise basics, detoxification, supplements, hormones, phytonutrients, and disease prevention
• Charts on numerous foods and their fiber content per serving
• Dozens of simple recipes

A Vegetarian Noche Buena Feast

Years ago, our Cuba-born friend Ariela Boronat (yes - the artist) introduced us to a rather different Christmas tradition than my Protestant family's. Christmas day is for going to church, eating leftovers, and resting. Epiphany (January 6, when the Three Wise Men brought baby Jesus marvelous swag) is for exchanging gifts. And Christmas Eve, or Noche Buena, is a family holiday feast night.

A traditional Noche Buena feast may include dishes like arroz con pollo, roasted pork loin, and flan; but it must include these three staples:

• savory black beans and rice (aka Moros y Christianos, the gentle inside-joke name)
• crispy, garlicky fried yucca
• sweet, luscious platanos maduros

Once you've got this trinity covered, serve whatever you like as an appetizer, dessert, or optional additional protein. Just add friends and family, and you've got a feast worthy of Noche Buena.

Spring Chickens

Ever wonder why eggs show up in so many religious and cultural events of the springtime?

If you ask a Christian the link between Easter and eggs, there is usually a short story about new life, re-birth, etc. On the seder plate, an egg appears with a rather different symbology. And in many varied places, people color them or make egg-rich dishes for spring festivals.

The answer, from a food perspective, lies not with the egg but the chicken. When they live normal, non-factory-farmed lives, chickens slow down production as the days shorten. Eggs in winter become scarce for  locavores - less protein, no custards, no egg breads, etc. And then spring arrives! The chickens celebrate, waking earlier, scratching in the new grass, and laying again. If you live near chickens all year, it's a real joy to behold, and a boon to the table.

Feast for Freedom

As a gentile, my understanding of Passover has come along bit by bit, nurtured mainly at the table of Jewish friends. Of course there is much more to the 8-day holy week; but the seder dinner is the part non-Jews are recruited to participate in (more than invited, less than roped into). And for good reason - sharing a long, reflective meal of laughter, teaching and a few tears is a beautiful and powerful way to welcome those who would be your allies to a greater understanding of your experience.

The meal is highly ritualized, with a set structure and symbols, prayers and readings and playful traditions to engage children (also helpful to the adult goyim like me, who may need what they are hearing broken down to the level a child can understand, especially the first time around). But it's also a home holiday; so everyone's family traditions color and shape the interpretation and execution.  I've been to an "express seder," shortened and sped up to accommodate the attention span and bedtime of small children, and also to the five-hour meal of legend, where the wine flows, the songs and readings and prayers stretch out, and someone falls asleep at the table.  Everyone's got their own stories of memorable seders, whether about the food, the people or the contemporary events tied into that year's teachings.

One Purim, a dear friend explained that almost all Jewish holidays boil down to nine words - "They tried to kill us; they failed; let's eat." Food as a celebration of life? No wonder I feel at home - no translation needed for what it feels like to share gratitude at a common table. But the seder in particular touches me, wherever I share it, wherever it falls on the express-to-epic scale, because it specifically addresses gratitude for freedom.  And solidarity for those who cannot enjoy it today, whether they are struggling for civil rights in the US or democracy in Yemen, Syria, Libya and Egypt. The tales of enslavement, surviving plagues, being refugees and finally establishing a free home in a new land may be over 2,000 years old, but the truths about humans, their needs, and their resilience are timeless. My favorite seders made me cry as well as laugh, recognizing how lucky I am and what responsibilities that implies.  My favorite seders challenge me to be ally, and to think about how to express that role today.

New Year's Nosh

As a great good friend once sagely pointed out, people are portable. And so we spent today on planes rather than in the kitchen, arriving just in time for Shabbos dinner and a grand celebration ushering in 2011.

As if to review all the tastes of the year, or perhaps to sample the coming year, it was a night of nosh. The pre-supper spread was perfect for visiting - chips, crackers, crudite, dips sweet and savory, hummus, olives, nuts, and grapes.  Plenty to nibbles without requiring a pause in conversation.

The blessing were said with the help of multiple challah - plain, pumpkin, and chocolate chip.

Supper began with a lovely lentil soup, piquant with balsamic. As the bowls were cleared, all 16 of us filed into the kitchen to serve ourselves from a bountiful buffet.  Most dishes were served hot: curried brussel sprouts, cous cous with spicy vegetables, butternut squash with apricot puree, and roasted yams.  The morrocan carrots, bean and egg salad, and potato and olive salad were served cool, either at room temperature or chilled.  Once seated, conversation ebbed and flowed as attention was diverted to our plates.

Definitely a night to pace oneself, I was pleased to have saved room for a taste of desert - almost literally a bite of each.  The blood orage salad with cured black olives, the watemelon and mint salad, the vegan rosewater cake, the pistachio rice pudding, and even the mango slices, all whispered of travels to new and exciting lands.  For an accompanying after-dinner drink, it felt only right to choose chai tea.

A meal this grand requires marvelous company; and the gathering of friends old and newly met perfectly matched the table offerings - no two the same, plenty to sample, and everyone a delight in their own way. May the new year live up to tonight's auspicious beginning!

Two Front Teeth . . .

My being notoriously anti-stuff frustrates some of my family and friends at this time of year. Even the ones who don't find shopping recreational ask for a hint. When "what do you want for your birthday/Christmas/Channukah/solstice?" is asked plaintively, "I dunno" just doesn't cut it.

This year I have a better answer prepared. I would be delighted to receive recipes (your own, or adapted by you) for healthy snacks, drinks, or dishes. Not sure what qualifies? Check the Bite-Size Green site for examples, and to find gaps to fill. Let me know if I may give you credit; and if you have a couple sentences or a whole story to share for context, even better.

With an anthropological eye on the winter holidays, it seems as though people from every culture need to come indoors during the short, cool days, which creates the perfect opportunity to slow down, hang out with loved ones, tell stories, and share food. The relatively recent commercialization actually runs counter to this slow-food style celebration of community. So, if this request adds one more demand to your late autumn chore list, defer the task to any convenient time in 2010. The note telling me to expect a lovely surprise later will give me something to look forward to as the days grow long again.

The Perfect Hostess Gift

During the holidays (whichever ones you celebrate that involve going to other people's homes), the question of what to bring the host or hostess always comes up. Flowers are a popular standby; and wine is a common fallback. But why not invest the same effort and expense in something local, hand-crafted, and nicer than you would buy everyday for home? Something like a small round of Harley Goat Farms chevre, for instance.

We made the pilgrimage to Pescadero (CA) this summer, and bought a stock of gorgeous fresh cheese selections. At a grocery store, the purchase would have overwhelmed me; but there near the coast, watching the happy goats in their field, it felt like a worthwhile investment.

The pleasant store staff assured me that the chevre freezes well; so I laid my fears of wasting any aside and indulged (the tasting samples are wicked enticements). One particularly beautiful round went into the freezer; and I we didn't think about it much until it surfaced in October. By then I knew which special occasion it was for - Thanksgiving. I appreciated so much not hosting the supper this year that I wanted to bring something really delightful. And it fit the bill.

Thanksgiving for Christmas

Every year, I make a mental plan for getting through the commercial Christmas season (that is, the day after Halloween until mid-January). Usually, the way consumerism overwhelms the spirit of the season - and the way it dominates the airwaves and public space we all share, whether we credit the birth of Baby Jesus as special or not - makes me want to simply leave north America for a few months. Even then, though, I know the deeply ingrained drive to buy useless stuff for friends, family and acquaintences would follow me, gnawing at my sub-conscious. What I really want is to celebrate Christmas the way I do Thanksgiving.

No matter where I am or who I am with, Thanksgiving includes:

• Spending hours with loved ones, visiting, and relaxing
• Remembering and actually doing something to help our neighbors
• Reflecting on all I am grateful for, and expressing it out loud
• Sharing the experience with old friends who have become family over time
• Making room at the table for new friends
• Creating a meal that weaves our traditions together
• Taking a walk in the autumn air

The best of Christmases have felt just like Thanksgiving, but with a few presents added. So this year my plan is to skirt the edges of the shopping mania, write my thank-you's to friends and family far and wide, and create great meals with the loved ones on hand. There will be a few small gifts and stocking stuffers, but mostly time shared. And for New Year's? More of the same. Might as well ring in 2009 with hope and gratitude.