Fa-La-La-La-La, La-La-La-La... Day 4

Today's movie is I'll Be Seeing You starring Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Spring Byington and Tom Tully.


I've been unable to find a trailer for this film.


Plot:
Ginger Rogers has a secret. She meets and falls for Joseph Cotton while traveling by train to spend Christmas with her relatives. Joseph Cotton has his own secret to keep. Can these two overcome the secrets of the past and find happiness together?


PS: It's snowing this morning in Hairballville which is quite rare.

Fa-La-La-La-La, La-La-La-La... Day 3

Today's movie is Remember the Night starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, and Willard Robertson.


I can't find a version of the trailer that I can embed, but here's a link to it at Turner Classic Movies.


Plot:
Barbara Stanwyck is a thief who has been caught shoplifting for the third time. Fred MacMurry is the prosecuting attorney who fears that the jury might let her off easy because it's Christmastime, so he asks for a continuance until after Christmas. Fred MacMurry then feels guilty about Barbara Stanwyck staying in jail over Christmas, so he bails her out. He intends to drop her off to spend Christmas with her own family, but ends up taking her with him to visit his family. What will happen when they return to NYC for the trial?

Fa-La-La-La-La, La-La-La-La... Day 2

The movie for today is Miracle on 34th Street starring Maureen O'Hara, Edmund Gwenn, John Payne, and Natalie Wood.

I'll warn you know that the trailer doesn't tell you much about the storyline! Believe it or not, the film was released in May of 1947 and they decided to try and find a way to draw people in while keeping it a secret that the film is a Christmas movie.


Here' s the plot:
Maureen O'Hara is in charge of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and it is brought to her attention by Edmund Gwenn that the man she hired to play Santa Claus is hopelessly drunk.Luckily, Edmund Gwenn agrees to take over the role for the parade. He is such a success that he is asked to stay on as the department store Santa at Macy's. There's just one problem. Edmund Gwenn actually believes that he is Santa Claus. Maureen O'Hara and her young daughter Natalie Wood are both skeptics who don't believe in legends or fairy tales, while John Payne, who would like nothing more than to be Maureen's husband and Natalie's stepfather, believes that Edmund Gwenn really is Santa Claus. Could it be true? Could there actually be a Santa Claus?

Fa-La-La-La-La, La-La-La-La... Day 1

Well, December 1st is here, so let's get in the mood with a Christmas movie. The selection for today is Christmas in Connecticut starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Reginald Gardiner, and S.Z. Sakall.



For those of you unable to watch the trailer, the plot goes like this:

Barbara Stanwyck writes a popular column in a ladies magazine where she paints a picture of domestic bliss on a farm with her adoring husband and infant son. She writes of home-cooked gourmet meals and a beautiful home filled with antiques. The truth is she is an unmarried "career girl" living in a NYC apartment who doesn't know anything about cooking.

Her boss, Sydney Greenstreet, who is unaware of Barbara's deception, decides it would be wonderful advertising for the magazine if Barbara and her husband would invite Dennis Morgan to spend an idyllic Christmas at their farm. Dennis Morgan is a sailor who has just been released from the hospital after returning from the war. Sydney Greenstreet also invites himself to spend Christmas at the farm much to Barbara's dismay.

So Barbara needs to learn how to cook gourmet meals, as well as come up with a farm, husband, and a baby or she's going to be out of a job!

Ellery Queen!

I just found out that the 1975 television series Ellery Queen, will be released on DVD in 2010!


Ellery Queen

Michael K. | MySpace Video

If you are not familiar with this series, here is a website devoted to the show.

Does anybody know if Santa takes advance orders??

I Love The Muppets!

I know most of you have seen these already, but if not, enjoy!









Imagine if Snads had one of these!

Food Network Humor and Snads!

I haven't been watching that much TV lately, so I'm not up on what is going on with crazy Snads. Thankfully, Food Network Humor is helping me out by letting me know that Snads did a holiday special on HGTV. Here's a clip from their post:



Snads, in order to have life-like expressions, you must be able to move your entire face. When you raise your eyebrows and your forehead doesn't move, you don't look young and fresh, you look old and Botoxed.

Flashback Friday-TV4U

Recently, while doing a search to see if I could find a place to watch episodes of The Edge of Night online (the answer is no), I happened to come across TV4U. TV4U has lots of old TV shows, commercials, and movies that you can watch for free. It looks like the bulk of their programming is from the '40s, '50s, and '60s.

Happy viewing to my retro/vintage loving readers!

Whoot!! T-day is here!

By the time you read this, I should be cooking up a storm. Here's a link to my post from last Christmas with all my recipes. The only change is that I didn't make rolls like I usually do. Yep, I really suck for not making my own this year. *grins*

I've dug out some of my Christmas movies and animated specials for Mr. Hairball and I to watch/listen to while the turkey cooks. I will of course cry when Frosty melts and when the toys on the island of misfit toys think that Santa has forgotten them. I'll also sing along with Bing, Danny, Rosemary and Vera in White Christmas. After dinner, we'll put up our Christmas decorations and call the relatives to see how their day went.

Hope all of you who are celebrating today, have a lovely day filled with friends, family, and lots of tasty food!

EDITED TO ADD:
I made some changes to my turkey recipe because I now own a nice oven safe thermometer and wanted to try it out. Click the 'recipes' link if you are interested.

RECIPE: $plurge Cookies

This is a recipe I have been tweaking with since the summer. I shared some of these cookies with other people, and I've had several requests for the recipe so I think it is a keeper!

I started calling these $plurge cookies because they are a little more expensive to make than my usual chocolate chip cookie recipe. I like to buy my vanilla beans in bulk, which really helps to make using real vanilla beans in recipes an affordable luxury. Here's a link to the beans I bought last summer- JR Mushrooms & Specialties. The current price is $29.95 for a half pound of beans. If you scroll down on the product page, you will see that they are currently offering free shipping. JR Mushrooms & Specialties also offers their vanilla beans in other quantities as well.


You are going to need a food processor for this recipe. A large one is best, but if you only have one of the smaller kind, I'll tell you how to make these using that and your mixer. The recipe for these is at down at the bottom of this post.




For those of you with a large food processor, place your vanilla beans and brown sugar in the work bowl, and process until it looks like...




this. Click on the picture to enlarge it if you would like this up close. For those of you who only have a small food processor, see the starred portion of the recipe below.




Now, add your butter and process until it looks like...




this. Can you see all the little vanilla bean flecks? Mmmmm!




Now, add your eggs ( you know to crack those individually into small bowl first in case you get a bad one, right?) and vanilla extract to the work bowl and process until it looks like...




Holy Crap! Thank you Snads, for reminding me to add sunscreen and oranges to my grocery list. Meanwhile, you want to process your batter until it looks like...



this.




Next, add your flour, baking soda, and salt to the work-bowl, and once again, process until it looks like...




this.



Place your chips/candy and nuts in a large mixing bowl. My chocolate chips have that white appearance because they have bloomed. Unfortunately, my pantry is not air-conditioned so it does gets pretty warm in there most of the year. Sorry about that!




Scrape the batter into the bowl of chips/candy and nuts, and stir until combined.




Portion out your dough as indicated below. I prefer to bake these a few at a time because there is nothing better than cookies right out of the oven! Just store the remaining dough in a covered container in your refrigerator, and be sure to bake all the dough within a few days of making it.




Let them cool a bit, and scarf them down!


$plurge Cookies
3 whole vanilla beans
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup (1/2 lb.) butter at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups peanut butter chips or Reese's Pieces or replace all of the chips with 3 cups of the chocolate/peanut butter swirled ones
2 cups pecan halves

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, place your nuts and chips/candy and set aside.

Place the vanilla beans and brown sugar in the work-bowl of your food processor and pulse until the beans are finely ground. ( If you still have a few larger bits left don't worry!) Add the butter and pulse until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and pulse until smooth. Add your flour, baking soda, and salt and pulse until smooth. Scrape out the dough into the mixing bowl with the chips/candy and nuts, and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Drop dough onto ungreased baking sheets in (approximately) 2 tablespoon portions and bake for about 10 minutes. They should still be soft so let them sit on the pans till they stiffen up a bit before trying to remove them from the pans.

I use two 18" x 13" half sheet pans for these when I bake them all at once, and I bake each pan alone to get the best results.

*****If you only have a smaller food processor, place the vanilla beans and as much as the brown sugar that will fit, into the work-bowl, and process until the beans are finely ground. Then, place all of the brown sugar and butter in your mixing bowl and beat until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed. In another smaller bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat the flour mixture into the sugar/butter mixture until well incorporated.

If you have dough hooks, put those on and work in the chips/candy and nuts. If you don't have dough hooks or don't want to use them, just stir the chips/candy and nuts mixture into the cookie dough. Bake as directed above.