Olive Oil Baked Shrimp

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 lbs fresh large shrimp, peeled and deveined (tail on)
  • 3 tbsp. chopped garlic
  • ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. red pepper flakes
  • 3 tbsp. chopped parsley
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh tomatoes
  • ¼ cup white cooking wine

PROCEDURE

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  • Combine all ingredients in an oven-safe saute’ pan
  • Bake for 10 minutes

Notes:  The red pepper flakes makes this pretty spicy. Personally I would scale back the amount. I took the tails of shrimp.

Rock of Ages Movie Adaptation Lands with a Thud

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock of Ages movie review. Fans of the musical, Rock of Ages, are familiar with the tale of star-crossed lovers Drew Bolie (AKA Wolfgang Van Colt) and Sherri Christian who seek musical fame in Hollywood only to have their dreams hijacked along the way. Drew, whose dream is to be a rock god, instead finds himself in a foolish boy band while the only spotlight Sherrie finds is at the local strip club.

Unfortunately, Rock of Ages the musical was similiarly corrupted when it went to Hollywood to become a feature presentation.  The formula for a jukebox musical is pretty straightforward, jam some well known tunes into an entertaining story and let the music do the heavy lifting. Done well (Rock of Ages, Mamma Mia, We Will Rock You) and you have  an fun night at the theater, done poorly (Movin Out) and end up with a crap-tastic disaster.

The movie version of Rock of Ages cuts down on the music (!) and foregoes Lonny as the musical narrator (one the best the parts) for weak dialog exposition.

The resulting mess is boring slog of bad dialog. Much of the humor and cultural references from have also been completely excised. The changes turn a tongue-in-cheek romp into a bad a parody of Spinal Tap. Characters have been completely re-written and expanded in an attempt to get as much mileage as possible from the all-star (?) cast.

And here is probably where things went wrong in production. The Stacey Jaxx character while a memorable supporting character in the stage production is played by Tom Cruise, and here he’s the main emphasis of the show. You can imagine his agent sitting down with the producers…OK, Mr. Cruise is interested but we’re going to need some re-writes. First, the character won’t have a weird fetish for baby llamas…and rather than just being a stoned-out rocker he needs to be a on spiritual journey, and uh, the character needs a happy ending…

In a case of bizarre casting, Alec Baldwin takes the role of Dennis Dupree manager of the Bourbon Club. Baldwin does obnoxious well but seems completely miscast here.

The movie catches a little wind near the end but its not nearly enough to save it.

The stage musical worked by relying on music, humor, and ended with a nice moral-

Sherrie and Drew move to Glendale and start a family. Lonny notes that on The Strip, sometimes the dreams with which you enter are not always the dreams with which you leave, but they still rock.

The movie ditches this ending for feel good big stadium-sized finale. Big stars, big ending, big budget. It’s not enough for Sherrie and Drew to move to settle down in suburbia, they need to be big rock stars too! Stacey Jaxx needs to find love and a family! Dennis doesn’t die!

Amazingly this movie failed on two fronts. It’s hard to imagine that fans of the musical will enjoy the changes made to the story and equally hard to imagine that anyone would want to see the musical after this mess of a movie.

Chicken Scallopini Recipe

chix_scallopini

Great chicken dish with lemon sauce and artichokes. Compares to favorably to an item from Macaroni Grill.

Ingredients

Servings:  4

Lemon Butter Sauce

4 ounces lemon juice
2 ounces white wine
4 ounces heavy cream
1 lb butter (4 sticks)

Chicken and Pasta

6 -8 chicken breasts (3-ounces each) Or chicken tenderloins, flattened.
oil , for sauteing chicken
butter , for sauteing chicken
2 ¾ cups flour , seasoned with salt and pepper, for dredging
6 ounces pancetta , cooked center cut bacon
12 ounces mushrooms , sliced
12 ounces artichoke hearts , sliced
1 tablespoon capers
1 lb cappellini thin spaghetti pasta , cooked
chopped parsley , for garnish

Directions

Sauce

  1. Heat the lemon juice and white wine in a saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Bring to a boil and reduce by one-third.
  3. Add cream and simmer until mixture thickens (3 to 4 minutes).
  4. Slowly add butter until completely incorporated.
  5. Season with salt and pepper.
  6. Remove from heat and keep warm.

Chicken and pasta

  1. Heat a small amount of oil and two tablespoons butter in a large skillet.
  2. Dredge chicken in flour and saute in pan, turning once, until brown and cooked through.
  3. Remove chicken from pan.
  4. Add remaining ingredients to pan.
  5. Cover and heat until mushrooms soften and are cooked.
  6. Add chicken back to pan and let simmer for 5 minutes.
  7. Cook pasta and drain. * see notes

To serve

  1. Place cooked pasta on each plate.
  2. Add half of butter sauce to chicken mixture and toss.
  3. Taste and adjust. Add more sauce if needed.
  4. Place chicken mixture over pasta.
  5. Add a little more sauce to each.
  6. Garnish with parsley.

Source:  Food.com

Notes

  1. I’ve broken the directions into sections to make it easier to follow.
  2. This recipe makes a lot of food. Consider halving the recipe.
  3. I substituted center cut bacon for pancetta. I cooked it and then cut it into 1 inch pieces.
  4. The recipe calls for a lot of mushrooms. I used about 2/3 of what it called for.
  5. I used Riesling when the recipe called for white wine.
  6. That’s a lot of butter (!) I’ll scale it back a little next time. (try 3, 3 not enough)
  7. Originally the recipe called for the pasta to cooked earlier. But it stuck together while waiting to be served. It didn’t impact the taste but the presentation wasn’t as nice as it should have been. So I’ve moved it to later. Your pasta may vary.
  8. I use chicken tenderloins (not the breaded kind) but smaller pieces of chicken breast. If you decide to use full size chicken breasts, I’d recommend flattening them beforehand.

National Museum of the USAF Behind the Scenes

This is a great opportunity to see artifacts as they are being restored. Sometimes restoration is quick and sometimes you see things before they are put into storage.

Photos from the National Museum of the USAF

2011 Images


2010 Images


2008 Images


2007 Images


2005 Images


2004 Images


2002 Images


2000 Images

National Museum of the USAF

This is one the best museums in the United States. If you visit make reservations for the Behind the Scenes tour which show aircraft under restoration.

Photos of the Behind the Scenes tour.

2011 Photos


2010 Photos


2009 Photos


2008 Photos


2007 Photos


2005 Photos


2004 Photos


2003 Photos


2002 Photos


2000 Photos

Frita Batidos- Ann Arbor, MI

Tried a great new restaurant today.  Frita Batidos serves cuban cuisine in a casual atmosphere.

I had the pulled pork sandwich and it was outstanding.  Others with me had the cuban sloppy joe and chorizo frita (a cuban hamburger) and we shared an order of conch fritters.  All items got a great reviews.

Many items on the menu looked great but it the pulled pork sandwich was so good it will hard to pass it up next time I visit.

Today was the grand opening and there were a few bumps, but the staff was friendly and I would definitely recommend a visit.

http://www.fritabatidos.com/

Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert Review

Had a chance to the see the 25th Anniversary Les Miserables concert at our local theater here in Ann Arbor.

Les Mis is one of my favorite musicals and I’ve seen it performed a number of times from local touring productions, to Broadway and in the London West End so I brought many preference to how I prefer each part to be performed.

First the technical production was good, it was displayed digitally and the picture quality only broke up a few times and even then it didn’t detract that much.  I would have preferred a little more volume but overall the sound mix was good.

The cast was very accomplished, and did the material the credit.  My only disappointment was that I prefer the  Javert role to be performed by a “low” baritone to contrast with Valjean which is usually a tenor.

One annoyance was that the Marius role was played by pop sensation Nick Jonas whose pained facial expression is matched by the audience when he sings.  Seriously, I had almost convinced myself that he wasn’t *that* bad  until the concert cast was joined by the original 1985 cast in an encore, and the 1985 ‘Marius” reminded me what a truly talented performer could bring to role.

Overall the concert is well worth seeing and will be available on DVD.  One note is that this might not be the best introduction for someone who has never see the full stage production.  The show has been edited down (most of which I heartedly agree with) but some of the scene transitions may confuse someone unfamiliar with the stage production.

An added bonus is the previously mentioned encore where the 1985 cast joins the concert cast and members of the current London production.

A final note, as much as I love Les Miserable the Musical, anyone who enjoys it should really take time to read the original book by Victor Hugo which is an amazing work.  Knowing the back-stories and connections between the characters detailed by Hugo adds extra layers of depth to the musical.

You can video and images from the concert on the official site  here and many unofficial clips on youtube.