Binging With Babish — A Webseries About Recipes from Movies and Television

Posted on May 15, 2017 at 7:36 am

Binging With Babish is a cooking webseries with Andrew Rea creating the most luscious and delectable food dishes from movies and television.

Remember the Moistmaker from “Friends?”

And have you ever wanted one of Bob’s Burgers?

And how about some ratatouille from “Ratatouille?”

Bon Apetit!

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Shorts Television

Laura Shumaker: One of the Sisterwritereaters

Posted on May 14, 2017 at 7:57 am

I am so proud to have an essay (about cookies) in Sisterwritereaters, the marvelous new book of essays about women and food, and so lucky to be a part of the extraordinary group of wise, funny, and smart group of contributors. Laura Shumaker, who also wrote about cookies (really, the topic is endlessly interesting), has another story about cookies on her blog, and kindly allowed me to share it.

When I was in the 4th grade, I took a cooking class with my friend Linda, which was dangerous because whenever we were together we giggled uncontrollably with little provocation. Linda and I both had serious face altering braces and wore our hair in pigtails tied with fluorescent yarn.

The first assignment was baking chocolate chip cookies. The ingredients– butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips– were lined up on the formica counter of the kitchen of our school cafeteria in the order they were to be used.

Linda and I worked the assignment together, giggling like always as we scooped the flour and sugar from one gallon bins with metal measuring cups, leveling them off with a knife for precision.

“No licking,” said the instructor sternly as we scooped the batter on to the cookie sheets. We baked the cookies as instructed for 8 minutes. I remember thinking that they looked perfect, but didn’t smell like the cookies that I baked at home with my mom.

After the prescribed 5 minuted cooling time, Linda and I sampled the cookies simultaneously–then spit-sprayed them out. They were not just salty, they were salt cookies.

We had confused the sugar bin with the salt bin.

“What a waste,” I heard the instructor say under her breath. “Spoiled brats.” Did she think we did it on purpose?

I felt terrible, but I couldn’t stop laughing, and neither could Linda. It can really hurt when you can’t stop laughing when you know you need to.

__

I started to cry when I told my mom the story, and was relieved to see her stifling laughter. She told me I’d feel much better if I wrote the cooking instructor a note of apology, that it was also the right thing to do and that of course I should always be respectful. Even when cooking instructor makes the obvious mistake of putting salt in a one gallon bin right next to the sugar.

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Books

Coming to Television: By the Book, About a Man Living Biblically

Posted on May 13, 2017 at 10:18 am

“Big Bang Theory’s” Johnny Galecki is behind a new television series called “By the Book,” based on the bestselling book by Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

“By the Book” will star Jay R. Ferguson, Lindsey Kraft, Ian Gomez, David Krumholtz, Tony Rock and Camryn Manheim.

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Television
Kid-Kon — A Comic-Con Just for Kids and Their Families

Kid-Kon — A Comic-Con Just for Kids and Their Families

Posted on May 12, 2017 at 3:50 pm

Comic Conventions, which now encompass not just comics or even just sci-fi/fantasy but all of popular culture and lively arts, are thrilling but even the hardiest adults can find them overwhelming. Now there’s a Kid Kon just for children and their families, at the Pasadena Convention Center June 10-11, 2017, and it even has a quiet room (San Diego Comic-Con, take note); a special place for parents with babies and toddlers to chill out. There is a princess party, a superhero gathering, Jedi training, a superhero bash, and yoga for children. Special guests include “Yo Gabba Gabba’s” DJ Lance Rock!

Copyright Kid Kon 2017

Founders Jose and Jessica Prendes write:

Kid Kon is the first-ever fan convention of its kind; a convention with the young fans in mind. As fans of popular entertainment ourselves, we take our two kids to conventions all the time, and half the time they are bored out of their minds because the programming is usually skewed toward an older audience.

We decided that this needed to change.

The goal of Kid Kon is to throw the biggest fandom party any kid has ever seen, celebrating the popular arts like comic books, movies, books, video games, and tv shows that kids are rabid fans of, and giving them a once in a lifetime chance to meet their favorite celebrities in person.

Join us at Kid Kon, where kids of all ages can kick the summer off right!

Get more information and tickets here!

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Elementary School Festivals
Snatched

Snatched

Posted on May 11, 2017 at 5:30 pm

B-
Lowest Recommended Age: Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating: Rated R for crude sexual content, brief nudity, and language throughout
Profanity: Very strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking and drunkenness, drug references
Violence/ Scariness: Extended action-style comic peril and violence with some disturbing and grisly images, characters injured and killed, graphic medical procedure
Diversity Issues: Stereotyped portrayal of South Americans
Date Released to Theaters: May 12, 2017

Copyright 2017 20th Century Fox
Copyright 2017 20th Century Fox
Emily Middleton (Amy Schumer), pulls an old scrapbook out of the closet in her childhood home and leafs through old photos of her mother, Linda (Goldie Hawn). Like Emily, those images bring back memories of happier times and remind her how much she misses her once-adventuresome mom. Unfortunately, they also bring back our memories of better movies and how much we have missed Hawn’s irresistible effervescence in the 15 years since her last film. Schumer has been everywhere talking about how much she adores Hawn and how thrilled she was to get a chance to co-star with her in “Snatched,” directed by Jonathan Levine (“50-50,” “The Wackness,” “The Night Before”), and written by Katie Dippold (“The Heat,” “Ghostbusters”). It is too bad she relegated her to the dreary role of the risk-averse mother. And it is too bad that Schumer continues to relegate herself to the almost-as-dreary role of the immature, millennial.

Emily gets both fired and dumped (both for good reason) just as she is about to take a vacation in Ecuador, so she retreats to her childhood home, where her agoraphobic brother (Ike Barinholtz) still lives with her divorcee mother, whose character traits come straight out of the cliche drawer: she sips white wine, loves her cats, has four locks on her front door, does not know the difference between a private message and posting on a Facebook wall and needs help unlocking the CAPS key. And Schumer’s Linda is the same self-centered and childish but raunchy character we’ve seen Schumer play too many times already. Emily is too careless. Linda is too careful. Got it? The opening crawl warns us that the movie will feature “violence, mayhem, and a reckless disregard for human life…the kidnappers did bad stuff, too.” So, another “Hangover” variation in the jungles of South America (but filmed in Hawaii).

How does Emily persuade the hyper-cautious Linda to go to Ecuador with her? Wheedling and guilt don’t work, but the magic word is “nonrefundable ticket.” (“Put the ‘fun’ in ‘nonrefundable!'”) So the next thing they know, they are at an elegant resort, where, just to make sure we did not miss the point, Emily lounges by the pool in a bikini and Linda comes out dressed, as Emily points out, like the sun-sensitive character in “Powder” — or a beekeeper. And she slathers sun block on Emily like she’s a toddler.

Emily and Linda get kidnapped for ransom, bicker, escape, get captured again, bicker, escape, etc. Pretty much every South American is a servant or a criminal. The State Department is useless. There are pratfalls and shoot-outs and one very disgusting medical procedure. Various encounters along the way are funny in the usual raunchy comedy mode, especially Christopher Meloni as a khaki-wearing guide who is up for adventure but maybe not up to it, and the invaluable Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack as American tourists with some special ops skills. The movie would have been better if it was about them.

Parents should know that this film includes very explicit sexual references and crude humor, very strong language, brief nudity, graphic medical treatment, extended peril and violence, some humor about mental illness and disability, characters injured and killed (played for comedy), and some graphic and disturbing images.

Family discussion: Who changes more on the trip, Linda or Emily? Why is it hard for Emily to be nice to her mother?

If you like this, try: “Trainwreck” and “Inside Amy Schumer”

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