CRAZY HEART * JULIE & JULIA * NEW YEARS EVE PREPARATIONS

It's 2:00 on New Year's Eve day, and probably the last thing I have time to do is blog, and yet, since it's my favorite thing to do lately, here I am! This has been a wonderful vacation....reading, watching movies, lazing around, even a great little shopping opportunity the past two days. Yesterday I decided to use up a free movie pass I had, so I went to the Evanston Theater to see Crazy Heart, and then at the very end of the movie, the sound went out. So although we sort of know what happened, we don't really 100% know. And they gave us another free pass, so I'm back where I started in terms of things to do that won't go away. Like free passes, gift cards, etc.

Crazy Heart - Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal and the music. This was wonderful. Back to that great genre about a guy in the middle of his life living day to day. In this case, he is a singer songwriter driving from town to town living hand to mouth. The music is lovely. It's a good old fashioned story, age old; Remember all the talent is not always out there in front of us, being recognized by the media; sometimes it's driving around the country in a beat up Silverado, living in crusty motels and playing in bars.

Julie and Julia - I made myself and the people at the library crazy for a few days trying to get this dvd. I think Amy Adams is one of my favorite actresses. This is a great little movie about a woman who decides to blog about cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking every day for a year. Every other scene takes us back to Julia's life as the wife of an American diplomat in Paris. She's fun and curious and a learner and looking for something to do with her time. Since she loves to eat, she takes a course at Le Cordon Bleu. The rest, as they say, is history. As a bow to Julia and to the film, I just made the Chocolate Almond Cake from Mastering for our New Year's Eve party tonight. Everyone reading is invited. If you want to show up, just get here around 9 tonight. Have your kids bring their X Box controller...New Years Eve will be a Modern Warfare 2 free for all if you're a teenaged boy at our home tonight. The rest of us will enjoy cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and the chocolate cake. I'm still planning to make a Vasilopita, which is traditional New Year's Day greek bread. I'll bake a coin into it, and the person who gets the slice with the coin will have good luck for the rest of the year.
The timer is going off on the Julia Chocolate Cake. I have to take it out of the pan to cool on a rack now. Here it is baking in the oven:Oh no, it's quarter to three and I haven't got my table ready, read the paper, nothing, let alone the bread. At least I can get those bread ingredients going to room temp.
I still have to frost this cake, too.