Apple Chicken Crepes and Suddenly

Hello and happy middle of the week!
We are now in the double digits of our dinner dates and it is very exciting. The movie we watched this week is Argentine like half of my background (my daddy's half) and the dinner we made was French (sort of) like the language I set my phone to in hopes that I'll learn it and then have a lot of trouble setting back to a language I actually know.
That's all I've got, here's the video.
-Lore

When my mother used to make this she more often put the filling in those little crispy pastry shell things, but if you can't procure those crepes are also delicious. Plus leftovers are good for dessert.

Crepes
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 cup flour

Make sure your pan is hot and has a little butter or something in it. Tilt the pan around once you put some batter in so it'll spread out thin. You may think it's too thin, it's probably not. Don't wander off as it needs to be flipped over pretty quick.

Filling
Truth: I never actually measure when I make this. And you don't have to either! (but here are guesstimates)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup diced chicken (usually I boil it, but I'm sure baked leftovers would work fine too)
1/2 cup of chopped onions
1 cup diced green apple (seriously, delicious)
handful of raisins

Cook the onions, then add everything else. Although if you don't like your raisins rehydrated wait to add them near the end. Don't forget to add water if you are using condensed soup. Let it all heat up and stew a bit, then pour it in your crepes! Voilá!

Suddenly (Tan de Repente) 2002
Directed by Diego Lerman
Trailer

I don't know what I was expecting, but not this. The tagline on Wikipedia is "A young, naïve clerk at a lingerie store learns about love and her own identity." Netflix says that two lesbians kidnap some girl and I think shit is going down; and for sure stealing a cab is serious business, but then the rest of the movie does not go where you would expect it. Moving from slightly edgy to a sort of deadpan comedy, the ending comes as a strangely sweet surprise. Hence the "suddenly" I guess.

The kidnappers/lovers are an odd pair, and not only because they call each other Mao and Lenin (which is kind of cute in a weird way). One turns out to be kind of a jerk, the other one is actually quite nice. The kidnappee is probably the least interesting of the characters and is more of someone for the other two to play off of. (ok she has her own story, but she is not that exciting)

At risk of detracting from your experience of this winding art-house movie I will leave it at that, but if you watch it please do discuss that ending in the comments. Also: "I'm not a lesbian." "I'm not either!"

-Syd

Queer Rating
Lore: 1/4 of a crepe
Syd: 3/8 of a crepe

Overall Rating
Syd: 3/8 While we were initially joking that that black & white is very Clerks, this actually does remind me of Mallrats in that it's all about random little scenes and not really a plot. They connect of course, but there is no "driving force" so to speak, so depending how you like your movies you might want to know that.
Lore: 1.5/8  Yeah, I know weird rating, but that's how I felt. I didn't really dislike it that much. Thinking back I think I definitely enjoyed it... I really did.

Hasta la próxima semana!

Cilantro Pesto Appetizer and Tomboy

Heyyy youuu guyyyyssss,
Sorry, anyway, here we are! I've been meaning to watch this movie for awhile so it's nice we got around to it. Queer children seem to be a very happening topic these days—the J.Crew lady lets her boy paint his toenails, a few parents have refused to tell the sex of their child and everyone was making a fuss about it ruining hir identity but pretending to be progressive (pft, please), there was even a New York Times article (although I could not actually get through it, ught) about trans* kids. But then I read something awful and remember that I frequently lurk on the queer side on the internet, where it is easy to forget that Fuck Yeah Trans Parents is not a sentiment the majority stands behind. 

But I guess you hang out there too, because here you are!   -Syd


Cilantro Pesto
This recipe is for a very satisfying appetizer that turns out different every time I make it.

Ingredients:
Cilantro bunch
Handful of almonds (or other type of nut variation)
A few garlic cloves
Olive oil
Bread (I would suggest a nice baguette, but any bread sliced into fun shapes will do)
Possible extra ingredient *

Chop up all of your ingredients and put them in a food processor. Drizzle in olive oil and mix to your desired consistency. (In the video we mixed our ingredients in a blender, making the end result a bit chunky, as opposed to a more creamy pesto that the food processor creates.)
Scoop spoonfuls of pesto onto the slices of bread and place them in (preferably) a toaster oven, or normal oven if you don't have the former.
In about 5 minutes your impressive appetizers will be ready to be enjoyed by you and your date!

*In the past I've also topped the pesto with pureed carrots. Feel free to experiment with different things.

Tomboy (2011)
Céline Sciamma
Trailer

It's summer somewhere in France. Mikhael and his family have just moved into a new home. Though a little shy, he is befriended by a neighborhood girl who introduces him to the rest of the kids in the building. He soon becomes one of the group and joins them in their daily outdoor fun. Life seems good; innocent and uncomplicated.

We come to find that Mikhael is actually assigned female and is referred to in her house as Laure. She has an adorable (and very intelligent) little sister and two wonderful parents. Her mother is pregnant with a third child and stays at home with the kids, while their father is at work. Once Laure steps out of the house she is able to secretly (and very craftily) pass as Mikhael to the neighborhood kids, until the inevitable happens, and the secret is revealed.

What's interesting about this movie is the different perspectives we get. We see gender and identity through the eyes of all these characters of varying ages and experiences. We see Mikhael's very conscious observations of boy and girl behaviors, as well as the moments of discomfort and satisfaction he experiences trying to fit into his identity. We see how the other children, the little sister and the neighborhood kids, perceive and accept gender in different ways. And we see the individual adult's reactions and behaviors in response to Laure's "pretending."

This is a wonderful movie that will definitely inspire some thought provoking dialogue. Enjoy!

-Lorena

Queer Rating
Lorena: 8 - I just love the way this movie gets into the simplicity and complexities of gender.
Syd: 7.5 - sidenote, I am not sure why I referred to the main character as "she" the whole time except that that was how the premise of the movie was presented when I encountered it, but clearly Laure would choose to be "he," but is that because then he gets to play soccer and take his shirt of or is it because he "feels like a boy" or or or….

General Rating
Lorena: 7 - Amazing acting from these kids.
Syd: 6 - Seriously, what does the casting call look like, "Awesome emotionally developed children?"

Unspoken (short) and Poached Egg (tips)

Helloooo!!
So, Syd went out of town somewhere*... which means no vlog or normal length movie/review this week.
What I am offering instead is this short film called "Unspoken" that I found on Autostraddle.
This film is exciting because Troian Bellisario plays a teen lesbian. You might know this actress from a little show on ABC Family called Pretty Little Liars. I love PLL. I also love all of the actresses on it.
I don't love this short, but I enjoyed seeing Spencer loving on a girl non-platonically.
See for yourself:

                                   Unspoken. 2006. Directed and written by Fie-Fie Wang.

As for this week's recipe, I will actually be giving you tips on how to make a poached egg.
I don't really know why people make/eat poached eggs, I personally prefer any of the other types, but I enjoy being able to say that I can do it. This is how:
1. Crack the egg into a little bowl first, not directly into the water.
2. Bring the water to a level of heat that is just below a simmer. DO NOT boil it.
3. Pour a little bit of white vinegar into the water (they say this helps keep the egg together and cook and what not ... I don't know if that's all true, but I do it because it never fails me.)
4. Once your water is at a temperature just below simmering, gently TIP the egg into the water.
5. Use a spoon to nudge your egg together before putting a lid on the pot and letting it do its thing.
6. Wait like 3 minutes or so.
7. Scoop it out with a spoon or ladle ... season ... yum.

If you're still having difficulties, you can come over and I can demonstrate for you. I have this thing with eggs. I like to make them. There are so many different ways...
-Lorena

*By "somewhere" she means Maine, where my sister is getting married! Also all this discussion of eggs only makes me thing of one thing- "HOW YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS GIRL?" Sorry. -Syd

Quinoa Casserole and Plan B

What up cool kids? This week we got our act more or less together in order to bring you a delicious and easy recipe (I think this is a theme…) and a nice Argentinian movie. 

This casserole is very flexible and flavorful, but it is way better with the sauce, so I suggest taking the time for it too. By flexible I mean today we made it with just quinoa and beets and it was still good. Not as good, but I'm just saying—quinoa is already a complete protein so you don't need the chickpeas. 

Quinoa Chickpea Casserole

1 ¼ cup   uncooked quinoa

1 cup        vegetable stock (or soup, like butternut squash is good)

2 cups      water

1 ½ cup   cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

1 ½ cup   fennel bulb, julienned (can be omitted, but then you should add dried fennel)

1 cup        red bell pepper (medium pepper baisically)

4              cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp      olive oil

1 tsp        fennel seeds

1 ½ tsp    dried basil

1 tsp         dried rosemary

½ tsp        dried thyme

½ tsp       sea salt

½ tsp       allspice

1             dry or fresh bay leaf

                freshly ground black pepper to taste

¼ - ½ cup chopped basil or parsley

Preheat oven to 400. In lightly oiled, deep casserole dish combine everything  and stir. Cover and bake for 50-60 minutes, stirring occasionally, until quinoa is cooked and all liquid is absorbed. Remove from oven and add a little lemon juice if desired. Or add balsamic maple sauce.

Balsamic Maple Sauce

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

2 tsp earth balance butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)

3 tbsp tamari (teriaki w/ water, or soy sauce, or breggs works fine too)

In a saucepan on low heat, combine all but the tamari and arrowroot. Let heat while mixing arrowroot and tamari. Add the arrowroot mix to the saucepan and whisk everything and heat to a boil for a minute, continuously stirring. Remove from heat and cool, it should begin to thicken. Or if you're lazy like I often am, you can get away with splashing some maple syrup, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar together. 


Plan B (2009)
Written and Directed by Marco Berger
Trailer

So, Bruno breaks up with his girlfriend because he "got bored," but when he sees her several months later with a new guy he decides he wants her back. Despite sleeping with Bruno again, she flatly refuses and he decides to hatch a new plan—seduce her new boyfriend instead! I won't spoil how that unfolds for you, but with a premise like that and a blog like this I think you can guess how things might go (although perhaps not in the way you're expecting.)

Despite it being kind of a jerk move, can I just say that I really enjoy that Bruno thinks this is a reasonable idea at all? It is treated sort of as a joke, it is a "funny" premise because "haha straight-looking man pretending to be gay! It's home-wrecking but it's silly!" but that is also sort of the reality of the world and makes his movement past that all the more of an interesting change/conflict. 

The movie itself is quite long. Not because a lot happens per se, but because every scene feels like it has an extra ten seconds or something, and there are a lot of silent, still city shots (which are nice but…). This is very good for capturing awkward moments and gives the whole movie a very mellow feel, but just maybe don't sit down to watch this after you're had coffee or something. There is also an excellently done high scene. 

So all-in-all, an ok film if you want an off-beat romantic comedyish thing with some Argentinian Spanish thrown in.

Queer Rating:
Lore: 6 out of 10 beets
Syd: 5 4 beets, I remembered I gave Bound a 5, and this is definitely less queer.

Overall Rating:
Lore: 4 beets
Syd: 6.5 beets

See you next week! (in some capacity, I am leaving mid-week for a wedding, but we'll figure something out.) 

Drinks and Bound, With a Guest!

This week we are bringing in our good friend Audrey! She is a pretty cool person/poet, as you can see for yourself at her blog: audreykuo.wordpress.com. She also has discerning alcohol taste, so I thought instead of making food we'd mix some drinks—impress your date by doing more than showing you know how to use a waiter's key!

This video is a little longer than the others, but I challenge you to edit three alcohol-fueled and digression-prone people down to five minutes and keep any fun and cohesiveness.

The drinks:

Dark and Stormy

1 shot rum (of the darker variety)

6 oz. ginger beer (Ginger ale is ok, but less gingery.)

dash of lime juice

serve over ice

There are fancy detailed recipes out there, but this quick-and-dirty method is plenty satisfying. 

Off-label penicillin:
2 oz whiskey or scotch
1.5 oz honey-ginger syrup
1.5 oz lemon juice

(Penicillins are typically topped off with Laphroig. If you’re on a budget, generic-brand meds should cure what ails you just as well.)

Make the honey-ginger syrup before you want to drink. Mix one part honey with less than one part water. Boil with sliced fresh ginger, and let it cool in some kind of jar-like apparatus. For the drink: put those things together. Shake with ice. Decant. Imbibe.

Title: Bound (1996)

Written and Directed by: Lana and Andy Wachowski

Trailer

Hi! So I’m not Syd or Lorena, and I also made a drink, not dinner, but I hope that doesn’t make you less inclined to read my recap. I feel like I should post a disclaimer that I am anti-spoiler, and I feel bad about including any details in here. Maybe you should pause here and go watch the film, and then we can discuss it together. I'll wait here.

Ready? "Bound" is about two ladies. Corky, "a tough female ex con," is butch-esque, in that she has tats and fixes things. We open with Corky riding in an elevator. Violet, who we read as feminine, in that she is wearing lady clothes and sleeps with dudes, is also in the elevator. Violet elevator eyes Corky, then decides to seduce her. 

Corky fixes some things in the apartment next door to Violet. Violet seduces Corky by bringing by a cup of coffee and saying mad flirty things. When she decides that’s too subtle, she drops an earring down her sink to lure Corky over and tell her, "Hey, I'm seducing you."

Sexy time ensues. Turns out, Violet is only with her mob boyfriend Caesar because that’s how she makes her money. She's into ladies. She thinks Corky should help her steal $2 million from the mob. Violence ensues. 

OK, that's enough plot. "Bound" is cinematically beautiful; there are some fantastic scenes contrasting patches of vivid color against a relatively grayscale everything else. There’s some excellent acting bits, even though most of the dudes are a bunch of stereotypical mob characters. 

I think the most interesting part of the conversation Syd, Lorena, and I had, though, was about whether "Bound" is a queer movie. There isn’t a ton of dialogue around what the relationship means, or consideration of what their place is within society. On the one hand, you miss out on typically lesbian movie dialogue, but I enjoy that the couple is actually queer (as opposed to one lesbian + straight girl with crush).  Also, during sexy time, there’s an extended shot of Violet topping Corky, and I love that subversion of expectations, that the film queers the idea of butch/femme and the viewer’s expectation that Corky will do the seducing and give pleasure. I actually enjoy that the film isn’t about coming out or dealing with lesbian couple as lesbian couple -- they just get to be characters caught up in an action film who happen to be queer, instead of having to be characters placed in the film as queer. 

All that said, though, I think my major critique of “Bound” is that Violet and Corky both feel underdeveloped, and you don’t get a strong sense of why their relationship works, other than the sexy time. It feels like we get rushed into all of the action and suspense, at the expense of richer character development.

Overall Rating:
Lorena & Audrey: 7 out of 10 shots.
Syd: 6.5 shots

Queer Rating:
Audrey: 7* shots
Lorena: 8 shots
Syd: 5 shots

Hope you'll enjoy or have enjoyed this classic. How queer do you think it is? Does Violet's voice sound like a higher-pitched version of Batman to you? Make your opinion known in the comments!

Mini Cherry Pie and (original) D.E.B.S.

So it's another busy week—my first week of classes and I am volunteering with Outfest (woo!), and Lorena has the GRE—so we're going to go with another condensed post. Lucky for me actually, since with no video you don't get to see how I awkwardly dyed the side of my face when I re-did my hair. 

I couldn't decide on a simple recipe to share so instead I am going to link you to Fresh Cherry Hand Pies as explained by Dessert for Two. That whole site is probably relevant to your dinner-date interests since we don't do desserts but a thoughtful something-sweet can definitely improve your score for the evening. (or even help you score. Hah, ok let's agree to forget that I said that.)

Well hopefully you're doing productive things with your week too. Next week we will try to do our boozy guest post for reals, until then (and always), stay gold!

-Syd

"Why don't you want me to meet your friends... Are you ashamed of me?"
Before becoming one of my favorite lesbian oriented movies of all time, D.E.B.S was a delightful 10 minute short. DEBS are an elite group of female super spies/crime fighters. Their arch nemesis, Lucy in the Sky, is constantly kidnapping a particular squad's leader, Amy. We come to find that the two have a much more complicated relationship than that of everyday villain and hero...
You can watch DEBS the short film by clicking here
(The feature film is also hilarious and easily found on the internets)

Cool things to note:
Tammy Lynn Michaels. 
Jill Ritchie, the wonderful actress who plays Janet, is kept on for the feature length version.
Both the short (2003) and the feature film (2004) were written and directed by Angela Robinson (The L Word, GirlTrash!)
Jordana Brewster (Fast and the Furious) plays Lucy in the feature.

The characters are wonderfully written, the plot is absolutely silly/amazing, and if you don't love it... then I don't want to be your friend.

-Lorena

Amazing Teriyaki Meatballs and Weekend

Guysss, we reached 1,000 pageviews! I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty exciting. 

This week might be my favorite so far; excellent movie and deliiiicious dinner. Both being rather straightforward, so on to how you can recreate the fun: 





















So the story of this recipe starts last winter when a friend showed me a little Japanese food place in New York where you just order skewers of things. I ordered some teriyaki meatballs that turned out to be dipped in magic, and so the mission to recreate the sauce began. There were many enjoyable iterations, but not until a few weeks ago did we discover that the secret ingredient is mirin—so don't leave it out! It is a sweet cooking sake that you can probably procure somewhere with international goods or at a Japanese grocery store.  After you find the ingredients this recipe is plenty easy and crazy tasty, definitely appropriate for wowing others. (I should note, this is not your gooey sweet teriyaki sauce, this is flavor I cannot even describe.) 

Bring ⅔ cup mirin to boil in a saucepan/small pot and simmer for 5 minutes.
Reduce heat and add:
               1 cup soy sauce (or tamari, for the gluten-free)
               4 ½ tsp. rice vinegar
               1 tsp sesame oil
               ⅓ cup white sugar (honey or maple syrup have also proven delicious)
               4 cloves of garlic, minced (give or take, your call)
               1 tbs. minced fresh ginger (I only had powdered on hand and it was fine)
               Dash of red pepper flakes and black pepper (to taste)
(initial recipe from allrecipes)

Now that you've got that, I suggest pouring it over some ground meat (we went with turkey) and letting it marinate for about half an hour. Then fry it up! You kind of want to squeeze the extra sauce out of the balls when you make them so they firm up.* Serve along side rice and broccoli for full dinner effect. 
                 -syd

*ugh, meat. Don't forget to wash it before you start. And freeze leftovers. Since I went vegan before I really started cooking I never learned how to deal with meat and sometimes I forget these things.




Weekend (2011)
Written and directed by Andrew Haigh
Trailer

I was hesitant about this movie at first because the trailer made me think "too boy-centric and seemingly boring," but after I watched it I was blown away because it is just a REALLY good movie.

True to the title, the movie takes place over a weekend in Nottingham, England. After a night hanging out with his straight friends, Russell ventures off to a gay club to find some company. He meets Glen, and what starts off as a potential one night stand becomes something a lot more meaningful.

The two have this wonderful balance. Glen, the outspoken artist who doesn't "do boyfriends," is radical and constantly challenging social conventions. Russell, who is kind of awkward and shy, seems to be weighed down by his internalized homophobia, but has his own introspective views on life, happiness, and sexuality.

If you're hard of hearing or have trouble understanding accents, I suggest putting on some subtitles because the conversations are the best part of this movie. We found ourselves nodding and knowingly glancing at each other throughout. I actually teared up quite a bit with my hand clenched over my heart.

Overall rating
Syd: 8/10 teriyaki meatballs
Lore: 7/10 teriyaki meatballs

Queer rating
Unanimously 10 out of 10 teriyaki meat balls.
There is a part where Glen is talking about straight people not seeing gay things because "it's not their world, they'll go see murders, pictures of refugees, but gay sex? Fuck off." And it's so true! Make your straight friends watch this with you to questions their inherited story lines. 

I tried reviewing this the best that I could without giving too much away. If you're into discussion and/or talking about norms and queerness, watch the movie and let us know what you think!

-Lore