OK, we have been waiting to blog about Christine’s award-winning bundt cake for a year. Literally! See, by the time we finished making it for Christine’s work Christmas party, it was already too late in the season to blog about it, so, we skipped it. Well, not this year!

Actually, there isn’t much to this thing…all you need is a Nordic Ware Bundt Pan, Gingerbread cake mix and all kinds of crazy candy for the outside. We bought our Bundt pan the year before at an after-Christmas sale at Sur La Table, and from what I can gather, our exact style is no longer available on most sites. But I did find a similar pan at Wal-Mart that would work just as well.

For the cake itself, we used Trader Joe’s Deep Dark Gingerbread Cake and Baking Mix, which is freaking delicious on its own, but even better in tiny Christmas house form. Yum!

As you can see in the second picture above, the cake comes out of the over kind of rounded on the bottom, so, we cut that part off and promptly ate it. Then, with the bottom of our Gingerbread house flattened, we placed it in the center back of our cake plate (gotta leave room for a big, snowy front yard, yo!) and got down to decorating the outside of our house.

Aside from the little jelly candies we used in the windows — which we found in the candy aisle at our local CVS — we stuck to pretty traditional candy decor: M&M’s, Red Vines, candy canes, and marshmallows.

The most expensive “building materials” we used were probably the Williams-Sonoma chocolate covered peppermint sticks (aka North Poles) we used for the fence. They weren’t cheap, but we only needed a few of them and since we had them in the house already, we used them.

The snowy ground cover in the yard was powered sugar mixed with water and, lemme tell ya, that stuff was hard to work with! You have to wait for it to kinda half-dry before anything will stick to it and if you wait too long, it gets too hard and you’re screwed. Trust me, this is where having two people working on the house came in very handy!

After plopping down a marshmallow snow woman in the front yard, we dusted the entire house with more powdered sugar and hurried off to the party where, lo-and-behold, we actually won a prize! Hooray!

But even cooler than the shiny award certificate or the $20 Target gift card that went with it, was the fact that the people at the party positively devoured our Gingerbread house. I’m not kidding, man. I saw a dude scraping the sugar snow off the plate…crazy!

I’m not saying everything we used wasn’t edible, because it totally was, but, wow, we never thought anyone would actually eat the whole thing. Yikes…guess the pickings on the buffet table were slim.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a quick, easy-to-make Gingerbread house this holiday season, Nordic Ware has the pan for you. Happy Baking, amigos!

That’s right, amigos…after premiering at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival and playing to packed houses and rave reviews across the Southwest and in Los Angeles and New York City, “Not Forgotten” is finally available on DVD and Blu Ray wherever DVD’s are sold. If you’re looking for a deal, Amazon has the best online price ($14.99) but I bought mine this week at Best Buy for the same price.

“Not Forgotten” is also for sale at Wal-Mart — thanks for the heads up, Minnesota kinfolks! — and available to purchase and rent at Blockbuster Stores nationwide. So, check it out today!

Oh yeah, and aside from the audio commentary that I mentioned before, and my brief cameo in the movie, you can also catch a glimpse or two of my sweaty mug in the “Making Of Featurette” in the special features. I’m the dude with the gigantic head that says “awesome” a lot, you can’t miss me…

]]> http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/not-forgotten-is-on-sale-now/feed/ 2 yeti9000 "Not Forgotten" on the shelf at Best Buy!! "Not Forgotten" Blu Ray on the shelf at Best Buy "Not Forgotten" Blu Ray at Best Buy! http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/not-forgotten-to-debut-on-dvd-and-blu-ray-113/ http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/not-forgotten-to-debut-on-dvd-and-blu-ray-113/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:40:20 +0000 yeti9000 http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/?p=4976 ]]>

Just wanted to remind you guys that my movie “Not Forgotten” is debuting on DVD and Blu Ray next Tuesday, the 3rd of November. You can rent or buy the movie anywhere DVDs are rented or sold or you can even, as I just discovered, burn an illegal bootleg copy of your very own on a number of sites online.

Hmm…I guess I should be honored that someone took the time to upload a bootleg copy of the DVD (complete with the bootleg cover art pictured on the Blu Ray box below) but, I think I’d rather have you guys buy a regular copy instead. Besides, I think the new cover art is much cooler.

Ooo…and if you do buy a real copy next week, not only will you get to see “Not Forgotten” in a beautiful widescreen transfer, but you will also be able to listen to the super cool feature commentary I recorded with the movie’s director, my co-writer, Dror Soref. We had an awesome time recording it this past summer, and let me tell ya, we kept it very real. So, it should make for a pretty good listen.

Either way, mark your calendars, amigos, because next Tuesday is truly a day NOT to be FORGOTTEN. Urgh. Sorry, I couldn’t resist…

Got word earlier this week that my movie “Not Forgotten” will be opening in New York City and three theatres in El Paso, Texas this Friday, September 11th, 2009. Which is like, tomorrow…so, yay!

Not sure what triggered this late-game release strategy, but I do know that “Not Forgotten” will be playing in the heart of New York’s legendary theatre district at the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd Street. If it does as well in the big apple as it did in Los Angeles, Austin, and Phoenix, “Not Forgotten” could expand into other markets, which would be very cool. No word yet on which markets we’re talking about, but, I’m still pulling for you, Santa Cruz!

In the meantime, to make way for the expanded theatrical release, our distributor (Anchor Bay) has pushed the DVD release date back from October to November 3rd. Sorry, Dad…you’ll have to wait a little longer.

But as for the rest of you, if any of y’all know anyone in NYC or El Paso…spread the word. Because starting tomorrow, “Not Forgotten” is back on the big screen, amigos! For complete ticket and showtime information check out the movie’s official website at: www.notforgottenmovie.com

After talking about it for months, Christine and I are very pleased to announce that today is the official launch of our first-ever Make.See.Eat.Do spinoff blog, Planet Greta. Hooray!

A photo/video blog dedicated to all things great about our daughter Greta (I know, biased much?), Planet Greta won’t feature traditional blog posts or our usual sparkling wit and wisdom, but it will be so loaded with cute-ass pictures and videos that you’ll hardly notice. Seriously, wading through all the cuteness here will take hours…even if you’re not one of her grandparents!

And best of all, since it is strictly a photo/video blog, Planet Greta will be super easy to update — something that we’ve found to be very important in the last few months! –which means you’ll be getting up-to-the-minute, front row seats to all the Greta action pretty much as it unfolds. Yay!

So, fasten your seatbelts, ready your RSS feeds and bookmarks, and click on over to http://planetgreta.wordpress.com today!

OK, I don’t mean to sound like the annoying new Dad bragging about how smart his daughter is or anything, but Greta has been doing something the past couple of days that really blows both Christine and I away. No, she’s not reading yet and her first novel (or screenplay!) is no doubt months away from completion, but what she has been doing since the Fourth of July is taking her own picture on our Macbook’s Photo Booth application.

For the non-Mac users out there, Photo Booth is a pre-installed program that uses the built-in iSight webcam on your Macbook to take pictures and/or video of you like in a real life photo booth. It’s really kinda awesome.

Anyway, I knew kids dug the program because my niece and nephews fire that thing up every time we visit them. What I didn’t know was that babies would love it too. So one day when Greta was getting a little fussy, I flipped open the Macbook and introduced her to Photo Booth.

And from the minute she saw herself on the screen, she was hooked. Like most babies, Greta is totally in love with her own image right now — seriously, mirrors are her new best friend — but unlike most babies she learned that if you press down on the big white bar on the Macbook’s touchpad, you can actually take your own picture.

That’s right, amigos, every picture you see here was taken by a four month old. Man, I can’t even figure out how to take pictures with Christine’s cell phone and Greta is already the Photo Booth master…Crazy, huh?

Friday night was the Hollywood premiere of my new movie “Not Forgotten” at the Mann’s Chinese and let me tell ya, it rocked! We had an awesome audience, great food and drinks at the after party at The Grill, and best of all, the movie played to packed houses all weekend long. Yay!

No official word on what that means for future distribution plans, but according to the fine folks at BoxOfficeMojo.com, “Not Forgotten” did manage to beat the pants off heavy-hitters like “17 Again”, “Hannah Montana” and even “Wolverine” (again!) on a per screen average, so, I’d say we kicked ass!

Also, I just found out that we will be moving to the Mann Beverly Center 13 on Friday, so, if you missed us last week at the Chinese, check us out this weekend at the Beverly Center by clicking here.

In the meantime, back to the premiere! After mingling with the cast and crew in the lobby, I walked the press line outside the theatre for a few pics and then Christine and I headed upstairs to our sweet-ass leather seats in the VIP section. Yep, I said leather seats, amigos. Honestly, I didn’t even know the Mann’s had a VIP section, but it was awesome.

The funniest thing was that Christine and I — who have both seen the movie a gazillion times — were completely freaked out by the kidnapping stuff this time around. I know it sounds crazy, but we both kept looking at each other like: “Should we call home just to make sure Greta wasn’t taken by Santa Muerte?” Wow, I guess that’s what being a parent is all about, huh? Weird…

Without giving too much away, all I can say is that if any of that spooky shit ever happens to my daughter…I might just go “mental” too. Yikes!

Immediately following the screening there was a super cool party just around the corner at the swanky Hollywood Grill. In keeping with the Tex-Mex setting of the movie, the food was all Mexican — right down to the never-ending bottles of Corona with lime! — and though the chicken tostadas were kinda weird, the carne asada was out-of-this-world fantastic. My brother, Ryan, and I went back for that like, three times. Awesome!

Of course, the company was even better. Although neither Simon Baker or Paz Vega could make the premiere — she’s eight-and-a-half months pregnant and lives in Spain, and Simon is supposedly filming a movie in Australia, although he appeared on both “Regis & Kelly” and “Jimmy Fallon” on Monday night, so, who knows? — the rest of mi buen amigos from the supporting cast were there in spades and we had a blast.

And though there were several cool celebrity sightings — Marion Ross from “Happy Days” came with her son, Jim Meskimen, who is the nicest guy in the world, even if he plays a child molester in our movie! — my favorite had to be Oscar-nominee and 70’s icon, Karen Black.

Miss Black was supposed to appear in an AFI student film of mine, “The Lone Star Letters”, way back in the day and I had always wanted to meet her in person. So, when I saw her noshing on tacos near the bar, I stumbled over. Being the geek that I am, I started with: “Are you Karen Black?” Lame…I know, but I was completely starstruck.

She was beyond cool and of course had no memory of my nerdy student film or why she couldn’t appear in it, but really, who cared at that point…I mean, I was talking about my movie with Karen-freaking-Black, how cool and totally Hollywood is that? Crazy!

Anyway, we all stayed way too late and drank and ate way too much, but, wow, what a party! Thanks to everyone who came to the premiere to party down with us and most of all to those of you who went out and actually paid to see “Not Forgotten” on it’s opening weekend in Los Angeles. My Aunt Linda and Uncle George actually drove down from the Fresno area to see the movie on Sunday afternoon. Wow!

So, thanks again for all the “Not Forgotten” love, amigos. You guys rock!!

OK, I am so not the “leaker” on this one, but someone leaked this super-cool, super-gory scene from our movie, “Not Forgotten”, to YouTube today and it’s been popping up on cool horror movie sites ever since.

So, seeing as you can already watch the scene in all it’s blood-soaked glory online, I thought I’d post a few of my favorite behind-the-scenes pics from this awesome fight scene exclusively for you.

Oh, and, don’t worry, amigos, nothing you’ll see below is as gory as the clip. The first couple of shots are of mi buen amigo, badass actor Zahn McLarnon (Calvo) rehearsing his fight with an unseen Simon Baker.

These pics were taken from my cushy co-writer/associate producer chair behind the monitor in “video village”, so, forgive the quality…

The next couple of pics are of the amazing set designed by our Production Designer Craig Stearns and his top-notch team. We shot this scene in a former high school gym in Santa Fe and as you can see, there is the fake mirror Zahn is so memorably thrown up against before having his head smashed against the filthy toilet pictured below. Cool, huh?

And yes, that is fake grime on that toilet…I checked. The final three shots are of the stuntman who pinch hit for Zahn, complete with his rocking, full-chest Santa Muerte tattoo. Zahn himself in his gore makeup and myself with Zahn just before he left for the night.

If you look real close in the picture with me, Zahn still has fake blood stains around his eyes and oozing from his ear. Now, if that shit doesn’t get people in the theatre, I don’t know what will…

“Not Forgotten” is now playing in Austin and Phoenix and opens on May 15th-17th in Los Angeles at the Mann’s Chinese in Hollywood and the Mann’s Plant 16 in Van Nuys. Check it out!

OK, technically, the fine print should read…”at one theatre in Austin“, but still, how freaking cool is that? And not only did “Not Forgotten” rake in the dough on a per screen average, but we managed to double the combined box office take of the other three movies playing at the complex. Yee-haw!

That means that we beat the pants off X-MEN: ORIGINS WOLVERINE, GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST, and ADVENTURELAND. Crazy, huh? But even cooler still is the fact that we more than tripled the performance of the current worldwide, number one blockbuster, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, in its opening weekend at the Dobie. So, yay for us!

And thank you to everyone in Austin who got out there on opening weekend to support our film! Looking forward to seeing you this week at the AMC Deer Valley in Phoenix and most of all, next weekend, May 15-17th in Los Angeles. As you probably remember by  now, “Not Forgotten” opens at the Mann’s Chinese in Hollywood and the Mann’s Plant 16 in Van Nuys on May 15th…so, if you don’t wanna incurr the wrath of Santa Muerte, you best show up!

See ya at the movies…

Just found out that my movie, “Not Forgotten”, will be opening theatrically in Los Angeles on May 15th at the Mann’s Chinese in Hollywood. Wow, from Slamdance to the Chinese…who knew?

No word yet on when the premiere will be, but I do know that the movie will open next week (May 1st) in Austin, Texas at Landmark’s legendary Dobie Theatre near the University of Texas. This is the same theatre were a young Richard Linklater launched his career with the indie sensation “Slacker”, so, I’m hoping some of the good vibes in the joint rub off on our movie too.

After opening in Austin, “Not Forgotten” will slowly roll out in a number of cities across the Southwest before landing in Los Angeles on the 15th. Aside from screening at the Chinese, the movie will also be playing in the Valley at the Mann’s Plant 16 in Van Nuys.

For updated information on screenings near you or to read our rocking-good reviews from the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, check out our homepage at: NotForgottenmovie.com. And in the meantime, pictured below, is the final theatrical poster for “Not Forgotten”. Enjoy!

]]> http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/not-forgotten-to-open-at-chinese-theatre-in-hollywood/feed/ 6 yeti9000 NOT FORGOTTEN theatrical poster (final) http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/gretas-first-easter/ http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/gretas-first-easter/#comments Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:04:03 +0000 yeti9000 http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/?p=3752 ]]>

Christine and I spent Greta’s first Easter with Grandma Linda and Aunt Courtney at my brother Ryan and sister-in-law Laura’s house on Sunday, and though the wee one stuck to breast milk, the rest of us feasted like kings. Seriously, it was a pretty amazing spread…

Spiral-cut ham with an amazing Ryan-Romero-original glaze, Christine’s world-famous, cheeseless Potatoes Au Gratin — which are actually Nigella Lawson’s world-famous, cheeseless Potatoes Au Gratin, but are crazy-good either way — and my Mom’s homemade Key Lime Pie for desert. Yum!

After mostly eating out for four-plus weeks, a home-cooked feast like that was, well…kinda drool-worthy. And the ham sandwiches on white bread with a cold beer a few hours later was even better!

Oh yeah, and best of all, we got to pick at the goodies in Greta’s first Easter basket, because, well, newborns can’t eat Peeps (yet!) so, that was fun too!

And though I think one sickyly-sweet Cadbury Creme Egg is enough for a year or so, I gotta tell ya, those little Lindt carrot-shaped chocolates were incredible! Wow…so glad Christine spotted them at Target last week!

If you’d like to see more of the many pics we took yesterday, click here. And, in the meantime, Happy Easter everyone!

OK, first she made a splash on Evite with this adorable pic, but now, barely three weeks into the world our baby girl has made her mark in another way. As of late last week, her nursery was featured on the rocking website Unique-baby-gear.com. Yay!

And not only did the fine folks at Unique Baby Gear ask me to write up a brief description of the products featured in Greta’s nursery, but they also entered our nursery design into their nursery theme design contest! Cool, huh? The award isn’t given out until the end of the year, but first prize is a whopping $200 Amazon gift card, so, we’re keeping our fingers crossed…

If you haven’t explored the website for yourself and have a baby on the way you totally should. Hell, even if you don’t have a baby on the way, the site is pretty fun. There are tons of very cool baby gear ideas. And while you’re there, feel free to comment on our page as part of the contest is based on user comments and we could use the votes, yo!

To read my description of how Christine and I cobbled together the design elements for Greta’s funky baby nursery, click here. And to see more pics like those above, check out our Flickr site here. And if you wanna swing by and see Greta’s room for yourself, come on down to Burbank and we’ll hook you up…

Since our usual Day of the Dead menu is a bit of a hodge podge — one year we had tuna casserole and taco salad! — this year we decided to make something a little more unified. So, though it took a while to prepare, I ended up making some kick-ass chicken enchilladas and beans. OK, I didn’t actually make the beans, but I did make the enchilladas, and they were awesome.

Christine’s been having some problems with spicy foods lately, so I toned down the hot chiles this time, but, even milder than usual, those things were delicious.

Another kind of weird thing happened in the drink department…usually we serve something sweet and yummy for my little sister Brittany, tuna juice or milk for our cats Frida and Lourdes, something non-alcoholic for Christine’s Dad, Buster, and beer for my Grandpa Romero.

So, I’m looking through my fridge for some Mexican beer for Grandpa and there, in the very back of the fridge is a San Miguel that I have no recollection of ever buying, just waiting to be opened. Crazy, huh? I’m sure my brother brought the beer over sometime when he was housesitting or something, but it was odd to find one lone bottle of Mexican beer just when I — not to mention my Grandpa! — wanted it most. Weird…

Per tradition, Christine and I served up one plate of food for our loved one’s to share, set out some pictures and mementos from their lives, poured them their favorite drinks and got down to some serious eating.

Another change this year was that we left our Halloween pumpkins on the table this year too, which, aside from looking pretty damn cool, also made the whole thing much more festive.

And though we bought the ingredients to make Pumpkin Pie ice cream milk shakes for dessert, we were so full by the time we finished eating that we just had a couple slices of that amazing, pink-sugar-coated Pan de Muerto (pictured above) and called it a night.

Feliz Dia de los Muertos everyone…and to our family and feline loved ones who have gone before, hope you liked the grub and see ya next year!

Farmer’s Daughter Bean here. I know it’s been awhile…but it’s too hot to bake during the summers in LA, so I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen. But now, with the harvest season in full swing, I figured it was time to make some goodies, and since my husband likes to say that Halloween wouldn’t be complete without my cupcakes…cupcakes it was!

First, I looked up some tasty recipes in one of my favorite cookbooks, Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans and came upon the Spiced Pumpkin recipe. Once I saw the pictures inside, I knew that I had to try these out! The batter looked so good I was dying to try some, but in my current state, I wisely resisted the temptation.

Tomás and my sister-in-law Laura — who were playing “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” all night while I baked — said the batter on the beaters was “delish”, so, I kept baking. Trust me, it took a lot of willpower to wait for the final product with Cream Cheese Frosting and cinnamon frosting spiderwebs, but it was definitely worth the wait.

The cake was very light and had just the perfect amount of pumpkin spice. I did switch it up a bit by omitting the crystallized ginger from the recipe, partly because I didn’t have any on hand, but mostly because I just kind of needed immediate satisfaction at that point. But the cupcakes still tasted great.

The other cupcakes I made that night didn’t turn out as cute. For that batch I used the Butter Cupcake recipe and the Cream Cheese Frosting from Cupcakes! again. They were supposed to look like little pumpkins, but the Tootsie Roll stems didn’t really turn out as well as I had envisioned them.

They still tasted good though, but Tomás and Laura (and later Ryan!) raved about the pumpkin spice…so, I’ll definitely make those again.

For those of you who have never baked from scratch, you must try it. And with the holidays approaching, there is no better time to crack open your favorite cookbook and give it a whirl. It takes a little longer, but if you like to bake, the results are totally worth it. Just ask the nerdy gamers in my living room!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

This picture was taken on June 27th at 9:26PM. For the mathematically challenged — myself included, pregnancy math is weird, yo! — that makes Christine 18 weeks pregnant with a due date of March 8, 2009. Hooray!

And since babies can supposedly hear what goes on outside the womb at this point, we are already hard at work on a wicked-cool, mellow jam mix tape for the little one. Man, I sure hope baby digs Radiohead…

Hey all, Farmer’s daughter bean here with another “make” post.

Believe it or not, I’ve been knitting this blanket since February! So, you can imagine how happy I was to finally finish it a couple weeks back and get it mailed off to Oregon…yeah! Even though I haven’t even seen a picture of him yet (get on the ball, folks!) I made this blanket for my new nephew Colton, who was born on April 9th. Ironically enough, Colton was born on the same day as his father, my younger brother, Mike.

The pattern was altered a bit from a larger one found in the book Debbie Bliss Home where it is simply called the “Seaside Throw.” I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, which helped to keep the cost of it from sky-rocketing as the pattern calls for a lot of yarn. Five skeins to be exact.

It’s also the first time I’ve knit a guernsey pattern — which is based on a traditional English pattern used to make sweaters for fishermen — which wasn’t exactly hard to make, but boy was it ever time consuming. I did get to learn how to cable and make a bobble as well, which was actually quite fun.

But again, it did take a LONG TIME to make this blanket. So long in fact that the girls in my Stitch ‘n Bitch group started giving me a hard time about finishing before he outgrew it…ha! But, now that I am done, I think it was well worth the journey…however long it took!

I haven’t heard what the family thinks of it yet, but since I’m still waiting for the birth announcement, I’m not going to hold my breath!

For now, I can just hope they can get some use out of the blanket before it gets too warm up there and then I’ll take my own pictures of Colton with his new “blanky” when I visit them in July.

If anyone out there happened to catch the Mike Meyer’s-hosted MTV Movie Awards last night, you might have caught a couple of trailers for my upcoming MTV musical “The American Mall”. I wrote the first draft of the original screenplay while I was still in film school at AFI, so to have it finally coming out now is kind of crazy exciting!

Produced by the guys who exec-produced the “High School Musical” movies, “The American Mall” is set to air on MTV on Monday, August 11th @ 9PM, followed the next day by the DVD and original soundtrack release online and at Wal-Mart stores nationwide.

So, mark your calendars, and in the meantime, enjoy these rocking “Mall” posters I found on the movie’s official site at: www.theamericanmall.com.

Not sure yet if the DVD’s will have three different covers or not, but if they do, I like the orange one best. The bad-ass on that cover is the villainous Madison Huxley character and though I totally dig the posters featuring Ally and Joey too, I think Madison’s is the most dramatic. So, rock on mean girl!

Oh yeah, and if you squint really hard, you can almost make out my “story by” credit on the bottom of the poster. If I find a higher resolution pic somewhere, I’ll post it soon, but for now…enjoy!

Farmer’s Daughter Bean here again with some online obsessing of my own…

My friends Tevana and Nic have been trying to get me to join this thing for months and this week I finally did! Join Ravelry.com that is! Ravelry is an online knitting/crocheting community where you can keep track of your yarn, tools, and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.

The content on Ravelry is all completely user-driven and though the site is still in beta, so far it has been super easy to use. And now…I am hopelessly addicted! All I think about is adding my stash — yarn stockpiles for those of you not in the “know”– books and pictures of my completed projects to the site.

Another thing I really like about Ravelry is that you can see what other people have made from the same patterns you have or the same yarn. If you even ever thought about knitting or crocheting before, you have to check this site out…it’s quite fascinating!

So far I’ve listed all of my books (shown in the pic of my virtual library shelf above) and about 50% of my needles (below). As for adding my yarn stash inventory, I haven’t even skimmed the surface of that yet. Maybe that’s because doing so would require that I finally clean out my overflowing craft closet! Eek…

I think my favorite thing about Ravelry right now is that it gives me something to “nerd out” on while Tom re-watches the “Lost” Season Finale for the fifth time and obsesses over tracking down our “missing in action” Wii Fit — which still hasn’t arrived from Amazon!

So, while Tom fires up the Tivo one more time, off to Ravelry I go…

Farmer’s Daughter Bean here again, and this time, I made something really good…hooray!

So, after my sunken cupcake debacle yesterday, I was a bit worried about trying out another new recipe, but I had picked up some really beautiful beets at the Farmer’s Market by my work and didn’t want them to go to waste. So after finally selling Tom on the idea of a roasted beet salad for lunch, I got to work…

First off, I should mention that I’ve never cooked beets before. But after scouring the internet for recipes, I cherry picked my favorite elements from each and then hoped for the best. And thankfully, my second experimental dish of the day turned out to be one of the tastiest things I’ve made in a long time.

And the healthy factor is kind of through the roof with this meal as beets — although not technically a “super food” — are amazingly good for you. I highly recommend them!

Now, the recipe below is a little time consuming, but, trust me, it’s not a lot of work and the pay off is amazing. My skeptical husband Tom liked it so much, he even had seconds! So, happy cooking!

First, roast the beets at 400º F. I used 2 bunches and cut any that were larger than a golf ball in half or quarters. You can peel them before or after they’ve roasted, but I’ve found it’s easier to peel them after. Plus, that way they retain all that juicy beet skin flavor.

Cover them with foil and cook for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for an additional 15 minutes. When they are done cooking, peel them with a paring knife and cut into smaller pieces.

For the greens, cut or tear into 2 inch pieces, then thoroughly wash and dry (they can be a little wet). Mince 2 cloves of garlic and slice 2 – 3 green onions. In a large pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the onions and cook for 1 minute, then add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the greens and some salt & pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes or until tender.

Combine the beets and the greens in a bowl and add more salt and pepper to taste. Finish it off with 1 tbsp each of balsamic vinegar & olive oil and then toss to combine. Plate and then crumble some feta over the top and serve. Delicious!

Serving sizes can vary, but this recipe above served the two of us for lunch. If it was a side dish, it would probably be enough for 4 people. Anyway, let me know if you try it and, as always…happy eating!

Hey again, Farmer’s Daughter Bean here with another “make” post. Only this time, what I ended up making was a bit of a disaster.

Earlier this week, Tom came up with the brilliant idea of making some “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” cupcakes. I would make the cupcakes, he would make tiny crystal skulls out of marzipan to put on top and we would have “Indy 4″ cupcakes to enjoy while waiting in line to see the movie. It all sounded so fun…in theory. The reality was something much worse.

To start with, I have given up sugar and white flour, so I needed to come up with an alternative. Sounds easy, right? Plenty of people substitute agave nectar for sugar, so I picked some up at Trader Joe’s and got to work. I figured the white flour shouldn’t be too hard to replace either, so I used some oat bran and almond meal instead. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

Oh yeah, and did I mention that the cupcakes were supposed to be Peanut Butter? But since I’m not eating that either, I just switched it out for some tasty Trader Joe’s Almond Butter instead. So far, so good. Everything went smoothly and even Tom agreed that the batter tasted really good. Sorry I didn’t take pictures of the process, but I was too wrapped up in everything to even think about bringing a camera into the mix.

Coming out of the oven, they didn’t look half bad. I’ll admit the tops were a bit sunken in, but they still looked like cupcakes. So, I let them cool and decided to taste one before frosting them. They didn’t taste bad, but the spongy texture was kind of strange. Tom said they tasted like “hippie” and something tells me that was not a compliment.

To me, they had more of the texture of a bran muffin than a cupcake. In hindsight, I think oat bran is just way too course of a substitute for white flour. Sadly, instead of Peanut Butter Cupcakes, I ended up with “hippie” Almond Butter Muffins, and weird one’s at that.

I did make some frosting too but that was an even bigger disaster, so I won’t even get into that. Tom called it “chocolate soup” and even I had to admit that’s kind of what it looked like. It tasted great, but when you coupled it with my sunken cupcakes, it was not a pretty sight.

As you can probably imagine, Tom never did get around to making those crystal skulls either (sorry, Indy). As for me, I think I’ll skip the substitutions in my cupcake recipes and stick to dark chocolate and fruit when I’m craving something sweet. Or better yet, I’ll just make proper oat bran muffins next time out!

Seven months ago Christine and I started our blog with the hope that maybe, if we were lucky, our very close friends and family would read our nerdtastic ramblings…and seeing as we just passed the 15,000 hit mark, well, I guess they kind of did.

So, although we are still constantly amazed that anyone reads us at all…we gotta give y’all a huge shout out for your support. Thank you for not just reading our posts, but also for your rocking-good comments. You guys have made this whole process way more fun and rewarding than we would have ever expected…so muchas gracias for everything!

Aside from our crazy-loyal daily readers (you guys seriously rule!), we also know that there is no way in hell we would have gotten nearly as many hits as we have without kick-ass link-meisters like James & Tim, Nina, Will, Dan, Tevana, Natalie, and our newest hit-maker, becauseweloveit. You guys have sent some awesome cyber traffic our way and it is greatly appreciated, so, thanks!

And finally, thanks to those original close friends (especially that fervid blog pusher, Ginger) and family we started this blog for to begin with. You guys are way too numerous to name individually, but, wow…just wow. Without your eyeballs, “make. see. eat. do.” is nothing, baby! So, thanks again and here’s to the next 15,000 hits…whenever they may come.

In the meantime, enjoy these screen caps I found online of some strange Google Language Tools translations of our blog posts from days gone by.

We knew that Italians had kind of an Elvis Presley thing going on, but wow…who knew that the French had such mad love for the Chenbot? Mon dieu!

Hey guys, Farmer’s Daughter Bean here again with a new post for our blog’s often neglected “Make” category. Enjoy…

I should start by telling you that ever since Tom and I saw the movie “Waitress”, we have been obsessing over fresh-baked pie. And though The House of Pies in Los Feliz comes pretty close, we have yet to find the perfect slice in Los Angeles — though Tom is inexplicably fond of the banana cream pie at the nasty Marie Calender’s by our house, which I will never understand.

So a few months back, I bought a pie cookbook from my store, “Killer Pies: Delicious Recipes from North America’s Favorite Restaurants” by Stephanie Anderson. And although I have looked through it many times, I was still a little hesitant to take the pie-making plunge.

I love to bake, but pie crust seemed very daunting for some reason. So when Tom requested a pie for his birthday instead of a cake, I decided to give it a go. He picked out his favorite pies and gave me the top three: Banana Cream (stop with that already!), Lemon Merinque and Wild Blueberry Pie.

Fortunately, I was able to talk him into a “seasonal” fruit pie, so he settled on the delicious sounding Wild Blueberry Pie recipe from a restaurant called Westville in Manhattan’s West Village.

Even before I bought the ingredients, I was worried about the crust (this was my first solo pie venture, remember) and called my mom to get her expert opinion. She was very helpful and patient (thanks, mom!) especially when I was trying to describe the consistency of the crust over the phone!

And although I was sweating it the whole time, Tom and the rest of our guests thought the pie came out great. The crust was flakey and the filling, which consisted of half fresh berries, half frozen and some lemon juice and zest, had a wonderful tartness that kept it from being too sweet. Overall I’d say it was a pretty decent first pie. So, happy Birthday, Tom!

Next on my pie making list…the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie from The Ham Shoppe in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. This one’s all for me though…no occasion necessary!

I know I’m going back in time a bit here, but it was also here in Las Vegas, New Mexico where I wrote my first words — blogging and texting aside — since the WGA strike began in November of last year. Yeah!

I wish I could say they were in service of something really cool like an action sequence or something, but alas, my first words written on February 13th, 2008 (the day we returned to work) amounted to little more than filler dialog for our female lead, Paz Vega, to read at a vigil for her missing daughter, Toby.

Sadly, I did not manage to get a pic of those pearls of writerly wisdom, so here instead is the second filler monolog I was called upon to write that day. These words are for “Borat” star, Ken Davitian, who plays the Del Rio, Texas parish priest, Father Salinas. Yes, the fat naked dude from “Borat” is playing a priest.

And he rocks at it too. Seriously, just look at the picture below…is this dude not convincing as a kindly, west Texas parish priest? Amen.

Anyway, the funny part about both filler dialog assignments is that there is so much going on in the foreground of the scene — which takes place in a crowded Catholic church with tons of extras — that you’ll probably barely be able to hear either Ms. Vega or Mr. Davitian’s stirring recitations of my “beautiful” filler dialog onscreen.

Ah, the glamorous life of a Hollywood wordsmith. Ha! Either way…it was really fun just writing again, even if it was just background chatter nobody’s ever gonna hear in the actual movie…

While he is probably best known for his work on the Golden Globe-nominated CBS series, “The Guardian” and his more recent turn in “The Devil Wears Prada”, our lead actor, Simon Baker also has a rabid, über-geeky “fanboy” following based on his work in “Red Planet”, “The Ring II” and “George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead”.

So, because of that, our distributor recently released a pretty rocking international teaser poster for our movie to the nerd-tastically awesome magazine, Fangoria. When Ryan and I were kids we used to live for Fangoria magazine…it was totally geeky, totally gory and totally awesome! So, needless to say, I was kind of stoked that the first leak of the poster was to them…

And, hey, if our international teaser poster is good enough for the horror and sci-fi fans of the world, than I figure it’s probably good enough for you guys too. So, here it is…enjoy!

]]> http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/not-forgotten-teaser-poster/feed/ 7 yeti9000 NOT FORGOTTEN teaser poster! (2008) http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/funky-knitted-necklace-scalloped-scarf/ http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/funky-knitted-necklace-scalloped-scarf/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:54:04 +0000 farmersdaughterbean http://beastandbean.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/funky-knitted-necklace-scalloped-scarf/ ]]>

Wow, I know, 2 in a row from Farmer’s Daughter. I have been busy fulfilling my “Make” duties! These again are for girls I work with. The necklace was started in August. I even brought in the car on our Music Highway tour of Tennessee. It was a bit difficult to make. I’d like to challenge anyone to knit closed a ball while holding the stuffing inside it!

Once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t so bad, but it still was awkward. Natalie had seen the pattern in a book I checked out from the library called “Domiknitrix”. She showed some wicked enthusiasm (Tom’s words, not mine) for the necklace, so I had to make it for her.

The scarf was crocheted for Sarah. I haven’t done a lot of crocheting, so it started off as a bit of a challenge too. I had tried to knit several different scarfs, but every one was coming out too manly. I wanted something pretty and feminine for her, so I pulled out “The Happy Hooker” and found this pattern. It’s made with organic cotton yarn and is really soft.

Both girls really seemed to like their gifts, so, yeah for me! Now if I could just finish that scarf for Yeti9000, all would be right with the world…

Farmer’s Daughter here again. I’ve been waiting to write about some cool Christmas gifts that I made this year. I didn’t want to give away any surprises before the gifts were given, but now it’s safe.

These were all made for girls I work with at The Library Store. The 1st two are from “The Cute Book”, which has lots of sweet things too. The ones I chose just happen to be more on the sinister side. The one holding the bag is called the Kidnapper and the other one is Bad Guy.

They are made with felt, most of it handsewn together, a few pieces glued on, and stuffed with polyfill. They are as tiny as they look, so it was definitely difficult to stuff them. I used a toothpick, but even that was hard. Alyssa appreciated them and said they were her two favorite characters from the book.

The tooth was for Natalie who loves teeth things. It’s a bit bigger and so it was easier to make. It’s made the same way, but no gluing on this! Those face details are embroidered! It’s from a book called “Softies” which has tons of cool toys you can make and includes patterns for most.

On Friday night, Christine and I celebrated the second day of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with a feast of our deceased loved one’s favorite foods!

Traditionally, Dia de los Muertos is a festive two-day celebration of friends and family who have passed away, with the first day (All Saints’ Day) reserved for celebrating children who have died, and the second (All Souls’ Day) dedicated to remembering the adults.

We aren’t always literal with which day we celebrate Dia de los Muertos, but we do roll out a pretty tasty (and many would probably say…eclectic) array of our loved one’s favorite foods for them to enjoy with us from the afterlife.

Although we took a ton of pictures, I decided to post one from last year’s feast in honor of another dear friend we recently lost, our former kitchen table. As you can see below, he was still very much among the living this time last year!

This year I made my world-famous tuna casserole in honor of my sister Brittany (who went inexplicably wild for it while visiting us one summer when she was a little girl!), poured plenty of beer for my Grandpa Romero — even toasting him with his patented “Arriba, abajo, al centro y al dentro!” — had plenty of sweet, delicious Pan de Muerto — Bread of the Dead, pictured above and purchased at our favorite Mexican tienda in NoHo — on hand and even filled a tiny shot glass full of cat food for our departed feline friends, Frida and Lourdes.

Although I’ve seen Dia de los Muertos celebrated a number of different ways (in Cuernavaca, Mexico they ban liquor of any kind for the entire two days, which kinda sucked) what we usually do is gather a bunch of our loved one’s belongings (pictures, gifts they gave us or we gave them, Brittany’s old toys, fun stuff she loved, etc.) and create a small shrine around the items in the bookcase.

Lighting a bunch of candles, we pour them some beer, orange juice or milk — for Christine’s Dad, Buster, who never drank hard alcohol — and even some fresh-squeezed tuna juice for the cats!

We then prepare them a heaping plate of food, set them a place at the table with us and eat! Just one plate by the way…we don’t pull out the leaf or anything.

I know it sounds totally somber, but Dia de los Muertos is actually the exact opposite of that. Rooted in native Mexican culture, it is supposed to be a time when the walls between the living and dead are so thin that the dead are free to come home to visit.

And rather than show them how sad we’ve been without them, the idea is to celebrate the lives of our departed loved ones, treat them to some of their favorite foods and drinks and just generally live it up.

I’m not saying it’s not emotional, because, Lord knows, sometimes it’s emotional as hell — and let me tell ya, tuna casserole is not what you wanna be eating when you’re sobbing between bites, yikes! — but celebrating all that was beautiful and amazing about those who are no longer with us is really kind of wonderful.

And, man alive, that strange-looking pink bread is delicious!

Although our favorite pictures of Buster and our beer-swilling cat Lourdes — seriously, she loved the stuff, probably too much if you know what I’m saying — are, sadly, pre-digital, we wanted to post some our favorite pics of Brittany, Grandpa Romero and Frida in honor of the good times we had with them all.

Until next year, feliz Dia de los Muertos a todos!

Hey everybody, Farmer’s Daughter (aka Christine) here. Before I begin my first post, let me explain something about my new user name. Our friend Justin, who used to be impressed if I boiled water correctly, began calling me farmer’s daughter every time I did anything remotely domestic. And since Yeti9000 was taken, I guess the name kind of stuck.

Most of you know how much I love to bake, so when I heard they were having a Scary Dessert contest at the LAPL Halloween party on Saturday, my heart started to race. I was immediately full of ideas and couldn’t wait to start baking.

I decided on cupcakes (I know, shocking!) and looked to an old issue of Martha Stewart’s Kids magazine for inspiration. I decided to do mummies with a yellow cake and monsters with chocolate (both baked from scratch of course!), using a cream cheese frosting.

Although next time, I would probably use a butter cream frosting because it holds its shape way better than cream cheese.

The mummies were VERY time consuming, so as you can see, I only made six of those, and the rest were monsters with green frosting.

Unfortunately, we were running late (no surprise there, except that it was my fault this time!). So by the time we got to the party, they had already judged the desserts. My friend Dora, one of the young adult librarians and the head judge, was nice enough to give me an honorable mention. Thanks, Dora!

But had we gotten there earlier, I’m sure my cupcakes definitely would have made at least 2nd place, probably 1st if they tasted them too! I’m sorry, but some of those deserts were seriously lacking, although the first and third place entries were pretty cool looking.

The 3-D first place cupcakes are shown above, but the real gross-out star of the contest was the kitty litter cake (served with a litter scoop from an actual litter box, below) which took third place.

Yuck, I don’t know how anyone could eat that!

My cupcakes proved pretty popular though and I was happy to notice that they were the only one’s completely gone at the end of the night. So, yeah!

Saturday night, Christine and I attended a massive LAPL (Los Angeles Public Library) Halloween party at the Central Library in downtown L.A..

Although technically not city employees, Christine and her staff (who work for the Library Foundation) usually crash these shindigs since her store is located inside the Central Branch.

And what a party it was! Not nearly as crowded as the LAPL’s annual Christmas bash, the turnout of costumed Library staffers (from every branch in L.A. county!) was still pretty damn spectacular. But most impressive of all was Christine’s hand-made Master Yoda costume!

Working without a pattern (s0mething she hates!) Christine crafted her headpiece and ears from one of my old Yoda-colored sweatshirts.

Using pipe cleaners and batting to fill the ears, she then knit them onto a simple white headband ($3.99 @ Target!) tucked under the headpiece and pulled the ears through two small slits in the fabric.

Aside from the make-up (two shades of green for $4.99 a piece @ the rocking Cinema Secrets nearby) and the dark cloak underneath (which is a monk costume we bought at Party America for $14.99) everything else Christine wore was handmade, including her awesome, full-length Jedi cloak!

It took kind of a YEAR to make, but as you can see, the results are, in the words of Lord Vadar himself: “Most impressive.”

In keeping with the “Star Wars” theme, I wore the super styling Anakin Skywalker costume Christine made me (once again, from scratch!) for Halloween 2005.

Sadly, we didn’t win any awards in the costume contest — a Simpsons family in cheesy store-bought masks won first place! Huh? — we were pretty stoked with the way our handmade duds turned out and had a Jedi-tastic time at the party.

And though our filmic counterparts never actually battled one another onscreen, our Yoda and Anakin did manage to squeeze in a kick-ass “Duel of the Fates” on the steps outside the Getty Gallery.

But the best part of all was when Christine started quoting Yoda (accurately and in Yoda-speak!) on the car ride home, wow, what can I say…I never loved that little green-faced woman more!

The Force will be with her…always.

This week marks the passing of a very dear and beloved member of our family, as the kitchen table and chairs that Christine and I have owned for the last sixteen years have finally passed into immortality.

The first pieces of furniture I didn’t inherit from my friends or parents and actually bought with my own money, that table has seen it all…sixteen Oscar parties, dozens of Thanksgiving dinners, more Christmas enchilada spills than you can shake a churro at, and years and years of shaggy cat loving.

Already well-used when I bought it in the fall of 1991 from my SFSU film school bud Robert Anderson, the table was a steal at the low, low price of $30.00. That’s right, five chairs and a table for thirty bucks! Top that, Ikea!

After investing another $50.00 in paint and upholstery fabric, Christine, our friends James and Marcie, and myself spent one long weekend fixing that baby up. We were such nerds we actually wrote our names and the date underneath the chairs and legs we worked on (pictured below).

But what a payoff! That big ass table was the hub of our rambling Fell Street flat for years. We ate there, we fought there, we danced on those chairs like drunken fools…literally. I still have the head wound to show for it.

And when we packed up and moved from San Francisco to Burbank with James and our friend Melissa, that table came with. Big as it was (and with a built-in, expandable leaf, it got even bigger!) that table came with Christine and I every time we’ve moved since then.

But despite another major renovation of the chairs, paint job and upholstery in 1997, our old friend began to show its age in the last few years. So, a few weeks back we socked the table and chairs away in the garage and replaced them with a smaller, newer and dare I say, cooler, dining table and chairs from Ikea.

When we finally cleaned out our garage last weekend, the table emerged once more into the daylight and made its last lonely trip down the driveway to the curb. I swear, if you listened hard enough you could hear someone calling out: “Dead man walking!”

And that night, as our table and chairs waited on the curb for Burbank’s bulky item pick-up to whisk it away, a miracle happened! Someone took the legs and all the chairs! Yeah! Spared from the brink of death yet again, our chairs and table legs were about to reinvent themselves in a new home! Hooray!

The table top itself didn’t make the cut and was left behind. But later that day, the table did get a super cool send off when some skater dudes propped it up against a milk crate and used it as a skateboarding ramp. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would not have believed it. What a way to go, used and loved till the very end!

They finally picked up the table top on Monday and though neither of us could bear to peak out the window as it disappeared into the garbage truck forever, we slept well knowing that our table and chairs had a nice, long life both here and in San Francisco.

Thanks guys, we’ll miss you!