BRIDE WARS * MOSTLY MARTHA * A WOLF AT THE TABLE

Bride Wars - I like these brainless chick flicks. They are so wonderfully predictable. Entertainment purely for entertainment's sake. It's just want you want and expect from Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway as two best friends who feud with passion as their mutual wedding date draws near. Fun and easy to watch.


Mostly Martha - You may remember that this movie arrived from Germany with much critical fanfare about a year ago. I never read reviews, and knew only that it was about a manic chef named Martha. It is, but it's also a story about a sister, a child, and a romantic Italian. I just discovered that in German, it's called Bella Martha, which I would have preferred to the "translation" Mostly Martha. Charming.

A Wolf at the Table - A Memoir of my Father by Augusten Burroughs - This is the story about Augusten's life at home with his parents before the events that occurred in Running With Scissors. I couldn't put it down. This guy knows how to write, and he's got a personal truth to write about that grabs you and doesn't let you go until you've read it all 'til the end. It's amazing that they all survived.



Today my plan is to possibly take a cold walk to the library in order to get some pre-Thanksgiving day-food-fest exercise. I don't really like the foods of this holiday, but love a good dessert, and therefore am going to make a fabulous Pumpkin Cheesecake. After much thought and deliberation, I've chosen the Paula Deen recipe over the Martha Stewart. They are remarkably similar, but Paula's seems to have a little more oomph.Taking the advice of the reviewers, I hope to bake it in a water bath to prevent it from cracking. I'm working on ideas for a thin topping that will give it a bit more of a punch.....Perhaps a simple sour cream-swirled with cinnamon sort of a thing. I'll put a picture of it here tomorrow. The cream cheese and eggs are out on the counter sliding down to room temperature even as I write. The shelves at my little Jewel were empty of pumpkin last week, with a sign saying essentially "sorry". Even so, I asked three employees whether the larger Jewel in town might have any pumpkin left. They thought "no", but the third person I asked, said he'd call them for me just to make sure. About 5 minutes later, he appeared with two large cans of Pumpkin in his hand. They were on his desk, and he doesn't know how they got there. Would I like them? I only need a cup or smaller can for the recipe, no matter which I make, so I decided to buy one can, and let the fates be kind to the next customer who asked. So this pumpkin pie will have that, too. A little back story of how it almost wasn't going to come into being. You can buy it on ebay, but no one is. Canned pumpkin, not my soon to be Pumpkin Cheesecake.