Post 1 of 3: Frankenstein and Downtown DC (and personal stuff)

Completely Doctor Who - free post, as I was gone all day yesterday and haven't seen it yet. Later today there will be a Who post and there will be a foodie post (unless the recipe really sucks.)

Why wasn't I home? Because M and I decided to do the Frankenstein livecast double feature. That meant seeing CumberCreature again at the matinee, followed by MillerCreature in the evening.

I was very surprised at the differences. Some were simple differences between nights - actors skipping lines or shifts in blocking... although the actor playing the father - who was stiff and shouty in both productions - turns out to have skipped an extremely important line during CumberCreature's version!

Some were differences in style - I liked the young boy playing William in the MillerCreature version much, much better.

But some were surprisingly big personal choices. For one thing, I'd assumed that the beginning creature choreography had been worked out between the two actors and the director and would be much the same. Instead, it seems that the direction was "You've got 10 minutes to figure out how to stand and run circles around the stage. Go." Very, VERY different interpretations of how to do that, and how to play the creature in general

In short, I'm terribly glad that I ended up seeing both in close proximity so that I could really do a comparison. And to be honest, I preferred Cumberbatch in both roles.


In restaurant news, I'm so loyal to District Chophouse that M practically had to drag me to Legal Seafood up the street for lunch, where we had amazing food (mine was salmon with hummus and tziki, a combo I wouldn't have thought of, but was delicious.) Also, the service was beyond superb. When M asked about onions, the server went right to "is it an allergy?" determined what foods were permissible, double-checked my needs with me, and made menu suggestions. Absolutely above and beyond the call.

For dinner we'd planned on Chophouse, but there was a Caps game and loads of red-shirted fans flooding the area. Even if we could have gotten in or thought to make reservations, the kitchen would have been slammed, so we headed off.

In retrospect, I wish I'd put my foot down and said "we're going to Cafe Atlantico." I've been there before and liked it very much, and it was far enough away that I don't think it would have been overloaded. Where we ended up was The Caucus Room, where very friendly staff eventually got around to serving us very mediocre food at a very high price. And M found onions in her mushrooms - we hadn't thought to ask about mushrooms, although we had asked about another dish - something the server hadn't twigged on. Legal Seafood's excellence only made Caucus Room's deficiencies stand out more glaringly.

To ice the failcake, we stopped for an overhyped and overpriced cupcake at that new cupcakery on the way back to the theater. For nigh onto $4, I expect a cupcake with a little dang flavor!

Post 2 of 3: Reactions to Doctor Who

No plot talk, ( but since some folks consider reactions to be spoilers, cut anyway )

ETA: Spoilers in comments

Post 3/3: 15-minute Lamb Feast for One

The Miami Herald LA Times printed an article for stuffed lamb leg that sounded good, but far too much effort for one person.

So... I deconstructed it, ending up with feta-topped lamb steak on a bed of wine-sauteed spinach. And the whole thing took about 15 minutes from walking into the kitchen and sitting down to make moany noises over my plate.

PAN #1: Lamb steak. Pan-fry in good olive oil with about 1/4 teaspoon fresh chopped rosemary, roughly 3 minutes per side (more for a thick cut.)

Simultaneously, PAN #2: Bring white wine (I used May wine, natch, about half to 3/4 of a cup) & butter (I eyeballed this, maybe a tablespoon & a half) & the juice of a lemon to a boil for one minute, then turn down to medium heat.

Add by the fistful: 2 bunches/~1/2 or 3/4 lb of spinach. As the spinach wilts down, add another handful. Scramble in the pan until all the spinach has wilted and is coated with the sauce. There will be almost no liquid left in the pan.


Line your plate with the spinach mixture, plunk the lamb steak on top and, while the steak rests for a couple of minutes, liberally crumble feta cheese over all.

For a side starch, I had a couple of buttered hot cross buns. (Bought this year, but next year I'm going to use a recipe that calls for mashed potatoes in the bread.) For dessert, since lamb needs mint, I've got a bowl of mint-chocolate chip ice cream. (Other ideas would be vanilla ice cream or even chilled Greek yogurt with a tiny splash of creme de menthe.)


Also, have paper towels and a good grease-cutting cleanser on hand, because pan-fried lamb is... messy.


That was so filling that the second side dish is now going to be made later for dinner: rough-diced fingerling potatoes (blue, yellow, redskin, white all mixed together) and asparagus roasted in olive oil.

Random Saturday Sherlock Spam Bullet Points

Since this is more of "watch Nea react" than a book club, I'm going to make 3 fiat announcements

1) Saturday Sherlock will pick up next week.

2) When I'll only be discussing one or two stories at a time, because three are taking a daunting amount of time to type up.

and

3) I'm gonna shift Hound to the end. Yes, that's out of order, but I know I like Hound and I know I don't like Valley of Fear and the "oh, God, why can't this character DIEDIEDIEDIE fine fuckit, I'm sending him off to keep bees SHUT UP ABOUT HOLMES AND LET ME WRITE OTHER STUFF" is already leaking into the shorts I'm reading, and I'm not expecting that to get better over time.

So, end on Hound to end on an up note.

(no subject)

Again, the curse of me rooting for a team makes them lose the Amazing Race. I don't think I'd be this angry if almost all of the other teams hadn't cheated in the previous task.