I'm too tired to do a real post

If you're not watching this, you should be.



Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Made by Joss Whedon. Quite possibly the first musical made exclusively for the internet.....starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion. Watch it or we probably can't be friends any more.

And so it begins.....

Yes, folks, it's that magical time of year. The time where New York restaurants open their doors to the poor, the tired, the soon to be unemployed (like me), or at least those of us who have at least $35 to spare (plus tip). If you don't know, it's New York City Summer Restaurant Week! That means that lots of restaurants (ones that would usually be pricey) put out a pre fix lunch for $24.07 and dinner for $35. You get an appetizer, entree and dessert.

I started off the week (ok, it's two weeks, mon-fri of this week and next) by having dinner with Zack at Butter. Butter is a place that is known more for Lindsay Lohan sightings than the food, but I'd never been there, so I decided to check it out (okay, and it was also on Gossip Girl. I'm pathetic, I know).

We got seated downstairs in the Birch Room, the "more casual" room. Not quite as fancy as the upstairs which I'll show you now:


I started off with a passion fruit bellini. I'm a sucker for anything with champagne. It was very nice - light and bubbly. The waiter recommended the warm goat cheese salad, so that's what I got. I was a little disappointed - there was nothing wrong with it, but it was basically like every other breaded goat cheese salad that you can get anywhere. Oh well. Zack had a clam chowder that was very creamy and tasted faintly of curry. He liked it a lot.

We moved on to Braised Short Ribs (him) and Grilled Pork Tenderloin (me). The pork came with delicious potatoes and handmade pancetta - there also were some crispy mustard greens that I liked quite a bit. Zack's short ribs also tasted of curry - weird coincidence? Maybe.

We both had Dark Chocolate and Creme Fraiche "Sandwiches" with Vanilla Bean ice cream. The ice cream was nice and reminded me of a marshmallow. The sandwich was a bit much - neither of us could finish it.

Overall, it was a perfectly nice evening, but nothing overly spectacular. The ambiance is better than the food, but the food is solid. I felt very trendy, which can be fun every once in a while.

[post about self referential musical]

Last night, Ana and Sarah took me to see [title of show] for my birthday. For those of you who don't know, [title of show] is a musical by two guys (Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen) who decided to write a musical about two guys writing a musical. The names, places and characters have not been changed. They are literally recording exactly what they said at the time and repeating it in the show (or at least I assume they are). "Wait, so everything I say from now on could actually be in our show?" "Yeah." "Like this?" "Like this." "And this?" "And this." It's all very meta.

This is the kind of musical that's written for people like me - giant musical theatre dorks. There's a reference to "Henry, Sweet Henry" in the first five minutes of the play. (I assume that most of you have no idea what that is, and so, I recommend that you watch this. But back to the point.)

I enjoyed the show, especially the first half. The second half veered off into a fairly typical "showbiz drama" plot line, which was a little predictable, but what can you do. The whole "will we compromise our ideals to get to Broadway?" thing was a little silly. I mean, they're already on Broadway. They left in all the swearing and nakedness and insider jokes. Obviously, it all was fine.

A lot of the show really resonated with me - especially the song "Nine People's Favorite Things." The lyric goes "I'd rather be nine people's favorite thing than a hundred people's ninth favorite thing." If only the rest of the song had touched me so much. But I couldn't help but see this show, just two ex-temps who dreamed of making a Broadway show, finally doing their Broadway show, and think, "maybe that will be me some day." And then I felt very naive.

I would really like it if someone who doesn't like musicals (or at least, doesn't have an insane fan's knowledge of it) would see this show and tell me what they think of it. I'm so curious to see if it really is a universal story or if I just think that it could be since I'm so close to it. That's your homework for the evening. Go see it and let me know.

How to make a really good salad in 5 easy steps

1. Buy really good produce.

2. Wash said produce. Hopefully, some of it will be lettuce. Rip it up and put it in a bowl.

3. Chop some vegetables - I used cucumber. Throw it in the bowl.

4. Add whatever else you like - I added blueberries and goat cheese. Delish!

5. Add some dressing. I just mixed together olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper with a fork and threw it over.

Voila! Easy-peasy.

If you don't have plans tonight....

Tonight there will be no cooking because my short play goes up at The Flea Theater with 4 other short plays. Read about it here. It's a part of "Two Evenings of Pataplays" (one of which was last night).

Patty Montesi directed it (as always) and she's great. This is our fifth collaboration as director and playwright (which seems a little crazy to me). It features Miyoko Conley, Elizabeth Romanski, Eva Visco, Kelvin Ortega and Mark Turetsky.

The Flea Theater
41 White St
Friday, July 18 at 7 p.m.

Oh sweet summer ice cream

This is a good one, my friends. Even Meredith, who doesn't like store bought mint ice cream, liked this. The fresh mint is delicious and who doesn't love chocolate? Or ice cream? Try it.

Fresh Mint Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks - adapted from Serious Eats

6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
2 cups fresh mint leaves, loosely packed
1 cup heavy cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Before I start, look at how yellow these egg yolks are - cage free organic eggs, you are my long lost friend.


1. Whisk egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar.


2. Heat whole milk, 1/4 cup sugar and mint over low heat. Here it is.


3. Ladle 1/2 cup of the milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. You don't want your eggs to scramble. That would not be right. Mix it slowly into the pan and cook over low heat, stirring a lot. Here it is again.


4. Strain the solids out. Here are the solids.


And here's the mixture! Cool it in the fridge until it's completely chilled. Cover it with plastic wrap - I like to press it down into the mixture so that it doesn't make a weird skin.


5. Freeze in your ice cream maker! Mix in the chocolate right at the end of the freezing process. Put in the freezer for about 3 hours and eat it. Here's Meredith enjoying it with cake - don't worry, my friends. The cake recipe is coming. And it's good!

Who's Got the Pain When They Do the Mambo?

I would suspect Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon have got the pain when Jane Krakowski does the mambo in City Center's production of Damn Yankees. Don't get me wrong - she's not horrible in any way. She gets through all the singing and dancing just fine, her leg extending not quite as high as her dancing partners, her voice tiring just a smidge, but she just can't shake the ghost of Gwen Verdon - especially when she's stuck slavishly recreating the show's original choreography. I'm getting a little ahead of myself though - let's back it up.

Damn Yankees, for those of you who don't know, is one of those "classic" musicals from the 1950's. The basic plot is an old (and by old, I mean 50) guy trades his soul to the Devil so that he can be a great baseball player and save his team, the Washington Senators (who eventually went the way of the Brooklyn Dodgers and disappeared), so that they can win the pennant and beat the Yankees. However, he has an "escape clause" that allows him to trade back one day before the season ends. It is just as silly as it sounds.

As far as the current version goes, it's not bad. The dancing shines in numbers like "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo" and "Two Lost Souls." Basically, any group number looks great. I felt sorry for poor Jane Krakowski though. She's immensely talented (I love her on 30 Rock), but she just can't quite inhabit the character of Lola - particularly when she's dancing. The movement seems inorganic in her body - which makes sense, since it was modeled after Gwen Verdon's specific mannerisms.

Sean Hayes makes an entertaining Devil. He can't quite separate himself from "Jack" on Will & Grace, but I didn't really expect him to, so I wasn't let down. His big number "Those Were the Good Old Days," broke away from the mold and showed off his piano playing, which was a nice surprise.

One thing that really turned me off from the production was the tongue in cheek, wink-wink-nudge-nudge attitude of the whole thing. Yes, the book is silly. Yes, the material is dated. But if that's what you're working with, respect it and try to take it as seriously as it was taken when it was first written. Hey, it worked for South Pacific.

If you enjoy classic musicals and Fosse dancing, by all means, go get a ticket. If not, this is one for you to skip.