Domestic Thursday: Whoopie Pies and Stout

American Thanksgiving has passed. The piped-in carols have arrived. The Christmas season is upon us. Truth is, I have always loved Christmas, in spite of my atheist cred. But even those who don't get as excited as I do by the sight of holiday specials on the TV schedule likely appreciate the baked goods and booze. Recently, I made a recipe that combined them both.


Meet Gingerbread Whoopie Pies with Rum Filling, the star of this week's domestic Thursday. The cookie base comes from this McCormick's recipe, which uses lemon crème for the filling. I ignored that part. Not nearly boozy enough. Instead I found a recipe online for rum buttercream icing, which seemed like an awesome idea, especially since I had some Kraken Spiced Rum in the cabinet. With a slightly I've made these twice this season. Paired with a Dark and Stormy made from the same bottle of rum, they've been making my spirits bright and it's only the first of December. Just imagine how jolly/bloated I'll be when the 24th comes around.

Instructions:
Cookies: This recipe, with some minor alterations:
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling: Slightly adapted from this recipe:
1/2 cup softened butter
1 package powdered sugar
4 tablespoons rum
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves and salt) in a medium bowl. Set aside. Beat butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with your mixer until nice and fluffy. Add molasses, egg and vanilla; beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. (I've found I've had better results getting cookie spread, and thus more manageable cookie sandwiches, if I press the balls flat-ish before baking.)
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies just begin to brown. Remove and cool completely. COMPLETELY. Otherwise your icing will melt all over the place.
4. Beat butter for the icing with a mixer until nice and creamy. Slowly add about a cup of the powdered sugar, beating slowly until blended. Add the liquid ingredients (rum, milk, extract), beating until blended. Add powdered sugar until you get the consistency you like.
5. Assemble whoopie pies by taking one cookie, topping the flat side with a decent amount of icing, then adding another cookie on top. Then eat.


And here is this week's domestic beer, the Smoked Oatmeal Stout from Trafalgar Ales and Meads. Since my last experience with a smoked beer was like drinking a liquified charcoal briquette, I was wary. But this was only subtly smoky, and as hearty as any good stout. While we're on the topic of stouts, I was shocked to find out that most "chocolate" or "coffee" stouts are rarely brewed with either of those foods, with the flavour coming from the darker roast of the malt instead. There are exceptions, and I hope to talk about one of them next week. But oatmeal stouts are brewed with real oats, which makes them smooth instead of particularly oat-y. So, drink this or McAuslan's, and you won't be drinking A PINT OF LIES.

Guilty Graphic Pleasure: Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

Is it possible to describe something as a "guilty pleasure" without condescending to the object you find so pleasurable? I ask because I have been searching for a better term to describe Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., one that makes it clear that I both acknowledge its silliness while deeply respecting Jeff Lemire's writing. Yeppers, R-E-S-P-E-C-T even though it contains such gems as:

"Khalis took out the spider-like forms on this continent, but we still need to take care of the ogres and the sea monsters before this thing makes it to Earth!"

In fact, especially because it contains sentences like that. Frankenstein: AoS is smart in the way Raiders of the Lost Ark is smart- it distills something essential about old-fashioned entertainment, tempered with enough modern humour so the result is something fresher than a simple pastiche. Think Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, with the cast of the Munsters instead of human soldiers. Max fun.

Save Our T-Shirts First: The Made in America Store

Thanksgiving is a day of tradition and ritual for Americans. And Black Friday is a day of tradition and ritual for some Canadians, that is, my family. On Thursday Americans carve a turkey, and on Friday the Hunters order fried chicken. On Thursday Americans give thanks, and on Friday the Hunters curse LSU's irritatingly deep football team. On Thursday many Americans ignore the troubling colonial baggage of the holiday, and on Friday the Hunters ignore the moral bankruptcy of the NCAA, the BCS, and the culture of collegiate athletics in the US as a whole. But on both days all parties watch football, because that is the American way. And if you don't love it... you can leave it!


That's a product from the Made in America store. Store motto: "Because China is a Long Drive to Work!" Store location: Elma, NY. There were ads for this place during commercial breaks on Buffalo, NY television, so it's not an elaborate Internet hoax. There's really a faux-Colonial outlet where you can buy confusing (but 100% American-manufactured) shirts that have a picture¹ of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima and the slogan: "The United States of America... Love it or leave it!" But leave what? Iwo Jima, which is a Japanese island? Shouldn't that ellipsis be a colon? Perhaps not? Ah, questions.


But while I would love to sit here and play smug Canadian about this store and its products... I can't. Well, at least I can't until I mention this artwork depicting Jesus comforting a crying Santa in front of a memorial to the victims of 9/11. That's just whack. But the store is a reaction to a real problem, as the manufacturing sector has crumbled in the US, taking the middle class down with it. Writing up a protectionist shopping list may not be the solution to the problem. And a quick glance at the online store shows just how untenable it would currently be- ladies wanting closed-toe shoes are shit out of luck, for starters. The only footwear they sell "for her" are the Okabashi Maui Hot Pink Sandals. But this store's existence is still a sign of engagement with the problem, even though direct political action might be more efficient than purchasing a pair of Maui Hot Pink Sandals before a long, cold winter.

There's also an emotional fulfillment that the Made in America store is selling, along with its t-shirts. In oh so many ways, the MIA store aesthetic of stars, stripes, and servicemen is the complete opposite of Etsy's "put a bird on it"² look. But deep down, the motivations of shoppers may not be so different. Not only is it easy to go through life without making anything yourself, it's almost required. And without those manufacturing jobs, you may not be making anything at work either. Divorced from the labour needed to produce stuff, even though not from the labour required to buy it, we value our stuff less. We don't feel connected to the stuff. But through these two means, shoppers can experience that connection with our stuff again just by "knowing" the maker. At the MIA store: an imaginary community decided by the country of manufacture. In Etsy world: the redheaded chick with the severe bangs who makes felt hedgehogs.

1. Actually, it may be a photo of a stature of the iconic photo of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, which is just confusing to write.
2. Portlandia, IFC.

Arkham City and Bonus Bats

Buy one, get one free

An interesting thing I've noticed in TV commercials: In spots for the video game Batman: Arkham City, the 1994 movie Batman Forever is being offered as, essentially, a bonus feature. Buy the game and the Schumacher flick is yours to download and keep in the cloud... if you haven't torrented it already. I'll admit that video games aren't really my bag, but that has more to do with my upbringing, where they were banned, than with any assumptions I hold regarding their artistic merit. I'm no Roger Ebert. Theoretically, I think video games could be art, but I still think it's unfortunate to package a feature-length film as an extra on something that's not even a movie.

First, because I'm not sure how much use the players of Arkham City and the pleasures (interactivity, control) I'll assume it brings will have for the very different pleasures of a film (surrender to spectacle, rubber nipples on batsuits.) Second, because it seems vaguely insulting to sell a separate creative enterprise as the superfluous add-on of another. My favourite DVD extras are those, like documentaries or commentaries, that comment on the work itself. Even when manufacturers throw in another film as filler- God bless public domain- it's usually at least an earlier, silent version of the same story. I don't know. I just have this vague dread that it's setting a bad precedent. And that I've spent too much time worrying about a movie that features Jim Carrey in Spandex.

Domestic Thursday: Squid, Cables and Ginger Beer

Whoah, did another week really go by? It seems that today is Thursday, which means it's once again time to get domestic in here. My week hasn't been too eventful, the highlight (or lowlight) being a botched interview Wednesday morning. Everything I learned in the past year fell out of my head and slithered away halfway through. Only a slimy trail of shame was left. I would dwell upon it all- what am I saying? I do! I do!- but as the saying goes*... "Onward and upward with the arts."


First up: this year's Christmas card theme is "A Squid Fails at Christmas." Also, pink. More specifically: "Shades of Holiday-themed Papers My Mom Wouldn't Use, and So Donated to Me." So far the series has four cards with four different doodles. They confuse my Mom, which means I'll be giving her the oddest one (I'm seeing 3D flocked tentacles) for Christmas.

Also, the back of my Beatnik sweater is finished and in the process of being aggressively blocked. If it's still too small when it dries, I might just concede defeat on this New Year's Resolution and start my Owls sweater.

Finally, more domestic beer fun: Mill Street Brewery's Traditional Ginger Beer. Not to be confused with the Jamaican kind of ginger beer that you use to make a Dark and Stormy (the drink of champions.) Instead, it's beer first, with a kick of ginger second. It's not nearly as distinctive in its ginger notes as the version you can buy from Phillips, seasonal whims permitting. But it's still a well-balanced spicy beer, and I'm sad I tracked it down just at the end of its annual run.

*Yes, I already said this on Twitter. It's like "Keep Calm and Carry On", but it doesn't appear on so many throw pillows.

More Domesticity: Muskoka Brewery Mad Tom IPA

Another domestic thing I forgot to mention yesterday- beer! One of the best things about returning to my home province has been discovering its wide world of local brew. I do miss biking to the Phillips brewery to get my two growlers (nicknamed Rock'em and Sock'em) filled up, and in the process living up to a certain BC stereotype. This week's selection, Muskoka Brewery's Mad Tom IPA, is a nice reminder of all that. West Coast brewers love their hops, and this IPA has enough of them to make your face scrunch. Well, at least mine. I enjoyed my glass, especially once the initial bitter taste faded and a strong citrus taste came through, but I couldn't pound it all night. I could, however, go for a pint of this with drunken noodles from a Thai restaurant.

Domestic Thursday: Juliana Wrap and Some Sweaters

I am now booking Thursdays on this blog to talk about matters domestic. Not politics domestic- check out Rabble.ca for that, I guess. But if you've long felt that the one area Rabble was truly lacking in, between its columns from union leaders and coverage of Occupy Toronto, was knitwear photos, check here once a week. Knitting, baking, sewing, I have a lot of free time and so you can expect a lot of completed projects. Hopefully.
First up, an accidentally "artistic" composition (got a little excited with the image filters there) of my first completed crocheted object, the Juliana Wrap made using two hanks of Montoya Beach Space Dyed linen yarn in Blood Red. The yarn has a really lovely drape post-blocking, though it spewed half of its dye into the water during the process. Below you can see me wearing the scarf. I kind of love the tassels. They're almost tacky. But not quite.
Flouncing around in the scarf keeps me from focusing on other, less-pleasant fibre-related business in my life.
This pile of knitting in need of steeking and finishing for example. Over a year has gone by and I still don't have the courage to cut the yarn.
And this cabled tragedy, a version of Knitty's Beatnik boatneck sweater, doomed as it is to be too small. I can only knit on, hoping some really aggressive blocking can solve the problem.

Book Pile for November 16

1. Creepy CanCon Reading: Ravenna Gets, Tony Burgess
2. Normal CanCon Reading: Canada's Hollywood, Ted Madger
3. Current 19th Century Novel: Middlemarch, George Eliot
4. "Yes, I Joined a Book Club, Shut Up" Novel: Annabel, Kathleen Winter
5. Current Graphic Fiction History: The Horror! The Horror!: Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read!, Jim Trombetta

Behold the Cloonling: Three Ryan/George Films

Of the past three recent releases I've watched, one starred Ryan Gosling, another George Clooney, and the third co-starred them both. I'm sensing a theme, let's call it The Societally Prescribed "Thinking Women's Sex Symbol" Film Festival, James Franco flicks optional. Anyway, this season's TWSS programming was Drive, The American and The Ides of March. The first two share some gross plot similarities (professionals redeemed and compromised by the love of a good women) and some fine differences, and will likely also make a fine compare and contrast essay for a film studies course in a few years. American versus European settings, youth versus age, ideals versus cynicism, techno beats versus golden realism etc. etc.

The Ides of March is also a decent movie, which goes as much for its morals as its quality. It can feel a little creaky though, and will be best for those raised on rentals of The Sweet Smell of Success and All the King's Men. Drive was my personal favourite, looking and sounding like urban myth, although the music that sets the mood also nearly ruins it. As the movie ends, the synths kick in and for the second time a vocoder tells us that the Driver is a "real hero" (as well as a "real human being"). Got it. Thanks. But they forgot the missing fourth verse: "And you, have proved, to be/A real human being, and a real hero/AND A TOTAL DREAMBOAT..."

Crimes and Crinolines II: Inferno!

Sorry, I've either been busy or in Toronto for the past few days. But I will share with you all the hilarious conclusion of the British Period Drama I was describing in my last post. Our poor Scot never did get the girl, but it wasn't because of his long concealed capitalistic tendencies. Robert Carne didn't marry Sarah either, although it wasn't his mysterious heart ailment that got him. Instead he rode his horse too close to the edge of a cliff during a dramatic thunderstorm, and coastal erosion did the rest. I appreciated the unromantic realism of this ending. Too often have people gone too close to the edge because of turmoil in their innermost selves, or so the director could get a nice shot. Good aesthetics are no protection from severe head trauma. Perhaps the next Period Drama I borrow from the library will deal with my other perpetual annoyance: dozens of lit candles in single rooms. Seductive? No. FIRE HAZARD.