I'm bewitched!!

I've mentioned "Old Black Witch" several times now and how it's become one of Reina's favorite books.  This is my extremely well-loved copy.

 For those not in the know, this is the story of a mother and son who move to New England to buy an "old and warm and cosy" house to turn into a tearoom.  They end up with an old, musty, delapidated home that is inhabited by, you guessed it, an old black witch.  By the end of the story, OBW is helping out in the teahouse, making delicious blueberry pancakes.  Her magical recipe is on the back of the book, accompanied by the spell that must be repeated 3 times as you stir the blueberries into the batter.

The kids and I made these pancakes this morning.  I learned a couple things in the process:

1. I will never, ever, ever make pancakes from a mix again.  Homemade pancakes are so thick and dense and delicious and don't spread out all over the place.  

2. It's no newflash, but canned blueberries are a little unsatisfactory.  Especially considering just 5 short months ago, we were eating freshly picked blueberries in Maine.  I cannot imagine how good these pancakes will be up there.  Isn't everything better in Maine??!!??

3. Do not ever assume that your daughter will listen when you tell her not to touch the griddle because it's hot.  That's right.  Reina touched it to see if it was hot.  Poor thing.  She's ok, just a little blister on the pad of one finger, and I think the shock of it was worse than the pain.  

This is the single recipe....I recommend doubling it, then adding just a bit of blueberry juice for flavor and color. 

Here's the recipe from the book.  I doubled the recipe and it made 13 good-sized pancakes.

BEWITCHING BLUEBERRY PANCAKES

1 1/4 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 TBS granulated sugar

3/4 tsp salt 

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup milk

3 TBS oil

1/2 cup washed blueberries 

As you stir in the blueberries (this is the magic part) say three times:

Gobble dee gook

With a wooden spoon,

The laugh of a toad,

At the height of the moon!

Pour on a hot griddle and watch.  

I'm fairly certain that our pancakes were so good because we had Scotty saying the magic spell for us.  I wouldn't recommend skipping this step.  

OLD BLACK MONSTER

Last night, Reina and I were reading books and "Old Black Witch" has become our nightly favorite.  Afterwards, Reina wanted me to tell her a story.  This is what Reina and I came up with.  =)

Once upon a time, there was a big, scary monster who lived in a cave high on top of a mountain.  His name was Old Black Monster.  He loved to snack on little girls.  One day, he was terrorizing a small village, carrying all the little girls up to his mountain.  The townspeople were very sad, and called the best monster catcher they'd ever heard of to help them.  Her name was Princess Reina and she was the smartest, prettiest, bestest monster catcher in the whole wide world.

She arrived at the village and asked the villagers what was going on.  They told her that all the little girls of the village were gone, taken and eaten by Old Black Monster and that he lived at the top of the tallest, darkest, smelliest mountain, Poop Mountain.  So, Princess Reina started climbing the mountain carrying a big cage and a long rope.  The villagers were very worried about her.

When she got to the top of the mountain, she found a nice smooth spot, set up the cage and climbed inside. She was using herself as bait!  Then, she started calling the monster, "Old Black Monster, come out here!  I have a nice tasty treat for you!  Oh, Monster, come out here."  After a few minutes of calling, the monster finally came out.  He grinned excitedly when he saw the beautiful Princess Reina.  He opened the door of the cage, climbed inside and was just about to grab Reina when she pulled the rope, slammed the door behind the monster and escaped from a small, secret trapdoor in the back of the cage.

The monster was very sad.  He immediately started crying and moaning.  "Stop making all that racket,"  Reina said.  "You are a very mean monster.  You made all the people in the village very sad.   It isn't nice to take little girls away!"  Old Black Monster continued crying.  "I'm very sorry to make them sad.  I didn't mean to.  I just wanted someone to play with!" he sobbed.  Reina was outraged, "Play with?  SOMEONE TO EAT, YOU MEAN!"

Old Black Monster immediately stopped crying and looked up in shock.  "To eat??  I didn't eat those little girls.  The only thing I eat is SPAGHETTI!!!" he said with a wail.  Reina stopped walking, turned around and gave the monster a stern look.  "Spaghetti?  You mean you didn't eat those little girls?  Why did you take them?  Where are they?"

"They're living in my castle in the cave," the monster replied.  "We have tea parties, play dress up and put on make-up.  I'm so lonely up here on Poop Mountain all by myself, so I took the girls so I would have someone to play with."

Reina had a wonderful idea.  She let Old Black Monster out of the cage, told him to go and get the girls, and that she would meet him back at this very spot in a few minutes.  She ran down the mountain to the village and told them all the good news.  She also told them her idea, which of course, the villagers agreed to.  As Reina and the villagers climbed back up the mountain, they saw Old Black Monster and all the little girls coming down.  Everyone was very happy to be back together, and the parents remarked on how beautiful the girls looked in their fancy dresses and makeup.

Reina said, "Old Black Monster, the villagers thank you for taking such good care of their daughters and each family has volunteered to make spaghetti for you every night.  Every afternoon, you may play with the children, have your spaghetti and no one will ever be sad or scared or hungry again."

Everyone was happy, and thanked the beautiful, smart, wonderful Princess Reina for bringing the little girls home and Old Black Monster never had to climb back up that old Poop Mountain again.

The end.


P.S.  I just showed Reina the picture above and said, "Reina, look it's Old Black Monster."  She said, "No it isn't.  That's a cactus!"  hahahahahahahah

....and the winter doldrums are upon us...

I'm picturing you all clicking on the bookmark on your web browser (because I KNOW you have my blog bookmarked) and giving a huge gasp of surprise that you're finding a blog post....FINALLY!!!  TA---DAAAAA!!!!

No, I'm not dead.  No, I haven't been kidnapped by aliens.  No, my children haven't gagged me and tied me up in the bathroom (although they've been close a time or two) and no, I haven't given up on this darn thing.  The problem is that this is a crappy, crappy time of year.  As happy as I was to see the holidays go, my motivation went with them.  

There hasn't been anything drastic going on in the last 3 weeks, so I'm going to fill you in on all the booooring stuff I've been doing and what monotonous stuff has been going on in my life.   I mean, besides the 2 near-miss snows (damn you weather channel for getting me all excited), the hoopla over the astrological signs (not actually) changing, the fact that I quit smoking (again, I know, I know...) and that we got Jax neutered.  

AREN'T YOU GLAD YOU BOOKMARKED ME????  Darn tootin'!

I've been watching a lot, I mean,  A LOT of television.  I remember when I was younger thinking that I couldn't wait to be an adult so that I could eat dessert before dinner and I could watch all the television that I wanted to.  Well, most nights, the dessert was in proper order but I certainly watched a lot of TV.  

Remember me posting about Dexter and how we added Showtime to continue watching?  Well, we still have Showtime, and even though Dexter is over, I've successfully watched the entire first season of "The Big C" starring Laura Linney and Scott and I have both watched the whole first and three-quarters of the second season of "Nurse Jackie."  Now, for my disclaimer, I am a dyed-in-the-wool HBO fan.  I truly am. But, I have to say that I am very impressed with the Showtime shows.    (Aside: Big Love, I have not been neglecting you...I'm waiting so I can watch a bunch in a row, because I am extremely spoiled right now.) 

We've also watched several movies over the last few weeks.  And, I think I should become a movie reviewer.  That's an option for another blogpost though.  =)  

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time:    Great movie, great actors.  Even if you didn't play the video game (which I didn't) or don't know anything about the plot, I highly recommend it.  Jake Gylenhaal does a great job, as does Ben Kingsley.  The movie is beautiful, the plot is unique, has a great twist at the end (literally and figuratively!) and is highly entertaining.

The Social Network:    You have to take this movie with a grain of salt...like most "based on a true story" movies, it is a MOVIE.   Everyone who made it is trying to make money, and boring doesn't make money.  I do not think that Mark Zuckerberg is exactly as portrayed, but Jesse Eisenberg was very believable and likeable, believe it or not.  And honestly, who doesn't love Justin Timberlake, I mean, really?  

Tangled:    A great spin on an old fairy tale.  We took the kids to see this in the movie theater and it was everything I expected it to be.  I loved this movie and I cannot wait to buy it for Reina.  Funny for adults (in a Disney way, not in a sexual-innuendo-laden-Dreamworks way) and funny for the kids.  Maximus the horse stole the show and in true "Me" fashion, I spent the last 6 minutes crying my eyes out.  Damn you, Disney movies!!!!

The Road:    Now, I would not recommend this movie for a date night, a cuddle night, or any night that you're feeling slightly optimistic.  It is a bleak, dark, tough movie set in post-apocalyptic America.  We don't know what happened to cause this situation, but you don't really need to know.  Viggo Mortensen, whom I love, does a great job portrayed a dirty, emaciated, grieving, ill man just trying to give some optimism to his son.  The world has become dangerous and vicious and he will do  everything in his power to protect his child.  While not visually stunning, it is a beautiful movie, believe it or not.  

HAHAH!  Now, we have The Crazies:    This kind of movie is my guilty pleasure.  It's cheesy and campy without any real redeeming qualities other than the fact that you can get lost in the story; yet, you're never in danger of falling off the edge of your seat.  I do love Radha Mitchell (of "Pitch Black" fame) and Timothy Olyphant is pretty easy on the eyes.  If you're not into gratuitous blood and guts, don't bother with it.

The Town:    My, oh my.  How much did I love this movie??  It's got one heckuvan ensemble cast including Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner (be still, oh my heart) as well as Blake Lively and Chris Cooper.  I also saw this a day or two before Pete Postlethwaite died, so that made it even more poignant in my mind.  This movie, set in East Boston, is like Good Will Hunting on steroids. Automatic handguns and bank robberies take the place of witty zingers and math equations, but it is very good.  I would definitely recommend this movie and I really wish Jeremy Renner would've won a Golden Globe for his role in this. 

I've also been, shockingly enough, spent some time online trying to find new, mindless diversions.  One of which has been www.stumbleupon.com  This site asks you to pick categories of things you are interested in, then you start stumbling.  It brings random websites, pictures, blogs, whatever, to you, based on the categories you've chosen.  You can then choose to like (thumbs up) or dislike (thumbs down) each one.  The more liking or disliking you do, the more the site learns what you want, and your stumbles become increasingly more interesting.  

I've also read a few books...

"Inside of a Dog" is written by Alexandra Horowitz, who is a cognitive behavior specializing in dog behavior.  You can read about it here for excerpts and reviews.  I would recommend it for any dog person.  It's different from Cesar Milan and all his dog-whispering because it's about her studies of dogs and how they interact with us, each other and their world at their level.  It's amusing, insightful and sweet.  Plus, there isn't all this crap about "pack behavior." 

"Cleopatra's Daughter" by Michelle Moran was a I-LITERALLY-CANNOT-PUT-THIS-BOOK-DOWN type of book.  It was pretty much made for me.  Not only am I crazy about historical fiction, but this told the story about Cleopatra and Marc Anthony's three surviving children and what happened to them after their parents' death, and how they were treated by Caesar Octavian after he took them to Rome.  Very good!  Michelle Moran's website is here

The other book is a lot less intellectual....I went to the bookstore looking for three things: the fattest book I could find that I hadn't already read, that wasn't a classic and had to grab me in chapter one.  That book was "Winter Rose" by Jennifer Donnelly.  Set in 1900 England, about a young woman who has just finished medical school to become a doctor and how her ideals war with her social position and demands.  A guilty pleasure read, but definitely kept the pages turning. 

Speaking of books, the kids and I spent one whole evening reading books.  After their bath, they got to pick out 3 books each and I picked 3 out, and we took turns reading.  We had so much fun.  My favorite part was reading "Old Black Witch" to them.  They were mesmerized by the witch living in the teahouse and how she turned the bad guys into toads.  My copy of the book is so battered and worn, I was afraid it was going to fall apart, and both kids were disappointed I wouldn't let either of them take it to bed with them.  I also read "Tikki Tikki Tembo" and "Cranberry Thanksgiving" to them.  All three were favorites of mine when I was little and I got a huge kick out of seeing their reactions to them.  

And, re-reading this doesn't really look like I've been all that bored or unmotivated, does it?  Especially considering that all I had to do to put this up was prop my feet up, look up a few pictures and write.  Maybe I'll do this more often....I wouldn't want you to waste a perfectly good bookmark, now would I?