November 2020 Coffee-Talk

Spudguns! it's been too long since I posted anything, and to be honest, with everything that's been going on the last while, I didn't even realize it's been as long as it has. Each day sort of blended into the other for a while. 

For those of you who have been following me for any length of time, you know I normally do my 13 Days of Hallowe'en on here, but this year, since it was all done as videos, I only did them on my facebook page. (here)  I did my usual mix of "what that movie inspired me to do" as well as straight up movie reviews, plus a few extra goodies.  Somethings turned out much better than others, but it proved to be entertaining either way. 

I think that's about all I have to say for today, just wanted to come in here since I realized it's been a few months. 

Till later

 

The Nosferatu Adventures s14 p2

The Nosferatu Adventures 

page 353, chapter 353

1955

Nosferatu stood in the kitchen of  the little townhouse, the kettle boiling in a hard whistle as she looked through the steam at Loki. She couldn't believe the last few hours but, there he was in living proof that they had happened.

5 hours earlier...

"So talk. Tell me how we can defeat the covens and Edmund?" our heroine said to the god Mercury as they stood in the middle of Astrid's kitchen in 1976.  The god tilted his head and smiled.

"Oh you can't. He's still going to be brought over to this reality by his devotees, and Grandpa Van Helsing is still going to find his coffin and hide it in his house and you lot are still going to end up battling him forty years from now. I just told you what you wanted to hear so you'd let me in the house without much bloodshed."  the sandy-blonde haired god replied licking his lips. He tilted his chin slightly as he looked over at the banshee before halfway turning towards the window. "Seems like we've got more uninvited guests." he commented just as Bacchus made his way towards the house. Grabbing our heroine, Mercury shimmered the two of them off into thin air.  When they appeared again, they were in the middle of nowhere, a large rock formation just to the left of them which seemed to stretch out for miles. "There, that's a little more private."

"What the shack!" our heroine ripped her arm out from his grasp. "What the hell is going on then? Where are we?"

"What's going on is that the universe is sort of out of balance right now. It's out of balance because Loki isn't around. You, sweetheart, might not realize it but, he was more than just the trickster god of shapeshifters." he gestured with his left hand out palm upward, bending at the knees slightly. "In fact, there is so much you haven't clued into yet. For instance, did you know you were supposed to have been Rolf's mate." Mercury nodded his eyes wide. "Oh yes. You were supposed to have been claimed by Rolf, in fact, you were supposed to have been sired by him. But, Bacchus knew that if that happened, you'd never have come into your vampiric side. So he did what he does and poof!"  he clapped his hands together creating a thunderous sound. "Suddenly Dagan gets the urge to snap your back like a twig and swap bodily fluids with you. Boom instant soulmate. And you know as well as I do that good old Ripper was nothing but your soulmate. Bacchus knew it, was counting on you two getting super close super quick. Because he knew about the big bad Frankenstein family curse. Only two children a generation. Knew that if you were sired by Dagan, knew that if you were Frankenstein by bloodline, you really wouldn't be much good to Loki in the grande scheme of things given Loki needed you to be the mother goddess for his Lycanthropes."  he took a step to her right turning to look out over the large rock formation before levitating a few feet above the ground. He looked down at her then, the brim of his page-boy cap casting shadows across his face. Mercury landing silently on his feet as he continued to walk around Nosferatu in tight circles making her dizzy. "Bacchus didn't kill Loki by the way. I know you think he did, but he didn't. As much as Bacchus might be pissed off at Loki for getting to you first, he loves him too much to do anything that drastic." his British accent heavy with the last sentence, his grey-blue eyes sparkling.

"Then who did?" our heroine was standing still now, her head down as she forced herself to stop watching the god as he danced around her making her feel lightheaded. His dark trenchcoat floating around him like it had a life of it's own.

"What kill him? No one. You'd have felt it if he were dead. The covens have him. Tucked away somewhere." he gestured again to the large rock formation as it seemed like it was rising out of the ground some more. "Now, there are some more blah blah blahs we can rehash, but I don't have the time or patience to do that so let's get to the point. With Loki gone, I need you to step up to the plate." he raised his right hand palm facing her, head down in honesty. "You can feel that can't you? The rushing of electric jolts in your veins as of late." he waggled a finger at her before grabbing her arm and tracing the veins in her wrist. "It's what you were designed to do. To be! A god. It's why you were created by both them. Now, you have a choice, you can either take Loki's place. Answering people's prayers, rituals and summons or..." he trailed off dropping her arm roughly. "Or you can help me rescue him." Mercury leaned in slightly towards her, his hands now clasped behind his back. "But, if you decide to take his place, you need to be able to shift. And you know the only way a shapeshifter can shift is to have their soul. So you'd need to take your soul back from the safety deposit box that is Rolf; which would leave him vulnerable to Odin. Not too mention you'd be all claimable again. And wouldn't that be a bit of a pickle given you technically have two mates in two different realities in Edric and Reuben." he licked his lips again as he stared at her chest. "So...what do you say? You wanna be a full on god...I mean you're going to be downline anyways...this would just speed it  up by about a thousand years or...do you want to play knight in shinning armor?"

An hour ago...

They fell through the portal landing hard in the middle of the street. Our heroine breathing heavy gasping for air, covered in dried blood from having fought both the amazon guards and the few coven members who had been holding Loki captive. Mercury was nowhere to be found. She felt something crack as she realized the full weight of Loki's unconscious body was laying across her leg. She didn't think she'd ever get the image out of her mind. Loki had been chained to the cave wall, half his body a skeleton. He reminded her of the character Two Face from the Batman movies, his jaw exposed, his one eye half out of the socket, his right shoulder nothing more than bones. His left side wasn't much better, only he'd begun at some point to shift. His left ear pointed like a wolf's but more gristle than flesh, his fangs exposed, his muzzle half formed like a stub, his left arm nothing but a paw to the elbow and scales like a reptile from the elbow to shoulder.  Our heroine felt her bones re-align when the weight was lifted off her. Mercury had appeared and grabbed Loki as if he were nothing, hauling him over his shoulder and nodded in the direction of the townhouse. It took Nosferatu another long pause to be able to stand when she realized from the look of the neighbourhood cars, that they were in the 1950's.  It seemed, she still could only time travel in reverse.

Loki lay on the sofa his body no longer a mismatched mess. He thought he'd been hallucinating again when he'd first seen her there in the cave. Something the god had done for how long? He wasn't even sure at this point, a decade or a month or a century?  This time when he'd seen our heroine's face, felt her touch, heard her voice she did something different. She told him "I've got you."  In the past whenever the hallucination had recused him, she'd had some quick witted remark about video tapes and old slasher movies. But, when Loki heard her this time, he knew deep down in his core that she was real. And with the last tendril of fading powers he could gather, he read her mind enough to remember how she viewed him. Saw himself through her eyes and shapeshifted to her ideal of him.   Or at lest he thought he had.

Nosferatu stared at the god from the edge of the kitchen as she poured the tea. The pain he must have been in she thought? Depending on what reality you were in, Loki had been gone anywhere from a few months to a few centuries. She shivered as she thought about how much damage the guards had done to him. How he'd been locked up behind those bars of magick like being in a prison cell no bigger than a cardboard box. It brought back memories of her own captivity in the well.  Walking across the length of the house, she placed the tea on the small table by the corner of the sofa; her slim pale hand hovering just above Loki's face. She desperately wanted to move his hair out of his eyes, to pluck the leaves that were still clinging to it's tangled dark knots. When  the god shapeshifted into what he thought was his old self, he accidentally created a hairdo that was shoulder length and half filled with leaves.  His brown eyes fluttered open halfway as he reached for her hand taking it.  "I always knew it would be you."  The words were never formed by the god's lips, but still managed to pass between them telepathically.  Our heroine didn't scream, didn't pull away when Loki's fangs bit deep into the soft flesh of her palm. Just like when he'd rescued her from the well and allowed her to drink his blood, the time had come to complete the circuit.

"Uhmm." Mercury cleared his throat causing our heroine to jump. She blushed as she realized their very intimate moment had been witnessed. "I need to talk to you over here." he gestured for her to move away from the edge of the sofa, from Loki. "There's something I don't think you're aware of. You don't need your soul to be claimed by...a god. So before you go any farther with this blood exchange..."

"Too late." Loki said as he stood on very shaky legs.  Mercury glanced at the other god sideways, his eyebrows knitted together in puzzlement. "She's been mine for a very long time. I've just never needed to announce it before now." Loki nodded towards her, his hair suddenly clean of the leaves as he ran his hand through it combing it back from his face. Mercury shook his head slightly in disbelief as he brought his hand up to Nosferatu's. He swore as he pulled his burnt fingertips away from the female.


Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me (straight up story. When things are left unsaid, there is nothing but chaos)

July 2020 Foodn'Flix Round Up

Spudguns!, it's that time when we see what's on the table, and who brought what to our Foodn 'Flix  movie and potluck.  The selection was Coyote Ugly from 2000, and first up is Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm. Inspired by a few different scenes and elements in the film,  She made a Breakfast Pizza.

Next up, we have Debra from Eliot Eats. She was inspired by a personal story to do with the film as much as the film being set in a bar, she made A Spiced Moscow Mule.

We're also joined by Amy from Amy's Cooking Adventures. She was as much inspired by the movie as she was with the fact it's based on a true life situation. And after digging for menus from the real bar, she created her Caprese Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.

And lastly, we have mine. I made for you just a good old fashioned pizza. I was inspired by the opening scene of the lead character working in a pizza place, as well as remarks she makes later on when asked about some burn scars.

That's all that's on the table this time around. Don't forget  you can join in with Foodn'Flix every month. August 2020 is being hosted by Tina at Squirrel Head Manor, and she's picked the first Harry Potter film.

Until next time.

Foodn Flix Recipe July 2020

Spudguns!, it's that time again, when we watch a movie and make something to eat inspired by it. I hosted Foodn'Flix again this month, and my selection was the 2000 film Coyote Ugly. 

plot: Violet wants to be a songwriter like her mother had been, and moves to the city in order to do so. Only thing is, she's got stage fright. The first few nights she's in town, she is robbed. This forces her to look for a job, and ends up working at a popular bar in her neighbourhood. Along the way, she meets Kevin, who works at a diner. They quickly start dating, and he helps her attempt to get over her stage fright.

Notes: pizza, pop, meatball hero (mentioned) oil, sat, pepper, chili flakes, parmesan cheese, dried herbs, beer, eggs, sausage (mentioned) Lean Cuisine (mentioned) coffee, juice, toast, fish heads, celery, chili peppers whole, nuts, crackers, rum, burgers, fries, ketchup, apples, mustard, pie, sugar, hot sauce, milk, cake, cherries, lemons, limes, fried chicken, lettuce, melon, olives, oranges, taco shells, pickles, bananas, whiskey, bread, buns, ice, kabobs, Seafood Market, Chinese food, wine, turkey sandwich with sprouts, MacDonalds, martini (mentioned) breadsticks, sub sandwiches, pears.

So I went with the obvious on this one and made a pizza.  I started with a basic dough, which can be found in the Joy of Cooking on page 607. 

1/2 c warm water
1 package yeast
3 and a half cups flour
2 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon salt

now, I didn't have any yeast on hand, so I substituted that for a Tablespoon of Baking Powder.
Mix, then let dough rise for about a half hour.  Then roll out, or stretch to desired size/shape.
Bake dough on a floured tray for 30 minutes on 375 degrees depending on your oven.

While that was pre-cooking, I made my sauce.  I used  one can of tomato paste, half a cup of grated parmesan cheese, 2 teaspoons of garlic salt, 1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper, 2 Tablespoons olive oil, and water.    

I then topped the pizza with black olives, chopped onions, spinach, and cheese. I used both shredded mozzarella, and a nacho cheese blend. I then added another 3 Tablespoons of grated parmesan.

I then baked it at 375dgrees for another half hour.

That's about all I have for you guys, don't forget to come back at the end of the month to see what else this movie inspired people to make.  And don't forget, you can join in every month with each Foodn'Flix host.  Next month we've got Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone  if you live outside the states) hosted by Squirrel Head Manor. 

Till next time.
  

2020 July FoodnFlix Announcement

Spudguns! guess what? It's a new season, a new month and once again, I'm attempting to host Foodn'Flix.  I've selected the 2000 film Coyote Ugly.   (I mentioned this film back in the first year of the blog, Day 91.)

If you've never seen Coyote Ugly here's a brief plot : Violet moves from her small town to a big city in order to become a songwriter and producer. Finding herself broke after being robbed her first few days there, she ends up getting a job at the hottest dive bar in town. Her time is split between her new friends, her relationship and dealing with some family emergencies.

To join in:  you have to watch the movie, and then head into the kitchen and bake/cook something inspired by it.
Blog about it with a link back to both this announcement post and a link to FoodnFlix, and then send me an email  at domesticanddamned (at) gmail (dot) com.  and one to Heather at "heather@foodnflixclub.com"  titled Foodn'Flix Submission with your name, name of your blog, name of your dish, a link to it, a photo of the finished dish or give us permission to grab a photo.
If you decide to Instagram your dish, make sure to tag me  @ardethblood  and tag Foodn'Flix and hashtag Foodnflixclub, FoodnFlix.  Instagram posts must include a short intro and the recipe.
If you decide to share on Facebook, tag FoodnFlix, All Roads Lead To The Kitchen, (that's Heather) and GhoulNextDoorCanadian. (that's me)

Submissions must be during the current month -in this case July 2020- and that means, it must be a newly made post.

Submissions deadline is Thursday July 30th 2020

I'll see everyone a day or two after that with the group Round Up.  Till later.

The Nosferatu Adventures s14 p1

The Nosferatu Adventures 
page 352, chapter 352

Bacchus's Day Off
Spring 2020

The sandy haired god shimmered into the parking lot. Glaring around at the faceless sheep before him, he let out a deep breath of disgust. It was training day for the company and he couldn't think of a better way to lay off some steam. Slowly he walked through the patches of crowded people scattered like forgotten weeds in the middle of some unkept garden. He hated it there. The smells of sweat and heat and cheep everything else invading his nostrils like rotten sewage backed up on a hot day.  The sound of his shoes crunching on the ground was almost soothing in it's rhythmic patterns. Squish squash squish squash crunch crunch squish squash crunch. The door to the back of the building creaked as he grabbed hold, feeling the metal bend in his fingers. He hadn't even meant to, but the god was so into his own thoughts. First thing first, he needed to find the man who he was being today. That wrestler dude from Detroit. Bacchus had always wondered if he'd just taken the image of the dark haired one instead of Loki that day when they'd probed Nosferatu's mind; would she have been his by now? Would the last decade have even happened if he'd just sussed out which one of the tag team she liked more? Probably not. The god had to shake his head as he scanned the darkly lit locker room. Seeing his prey he snapped his fingers as everyone else in the room fainted into oblivion. Tapping the wrestler on the shoulder, Bacchus didn't wait for him to even turn around, he just waved his palm in front of the guy's ear and watched him shimmer into thin air. The dude would wake up in the cinema reality stuck watching a marathon of some horrible sci-fi movies. At lest 20 hours of bad nerdom that would have the dude mindlessly employed. Bacchus sent him there frequently when he needed to shapeshift into him in this particular reality. Sighing, the god opened the wrestler's locker to see the outfit waiting for him there. "Shack."  He pulled the mask over his face a few minutes later as he headed out to the ring in the red and blue costume.  He couldn't see properly through the mask as it kept slipping down.  Running to the edge of the ring, Bacchus sprang up as if on a trampoline and hurled himself halfway across the ring to land mid-center on one knee. Spinning, he slithered out of the opposite side landing on his toes before grabbing hold of the rope and propelling himself back into the ring with a triple corkscrew. The crowd stood screaming for more. The god smiled to himself under the cartoon's mask, as he played along giving them the character's trademark fingers to the skull to impact his character's name. He did however, love the adrenaline rush that this reality provided. The bell sounded indicating the match was officially underway. Scanning the layout of the arena, he spotted three cameras indicating this was being taped. That gave the god a second boost of the giggles, knowing that while people watched at home thinking it was their favourite wrestler under this mask, he was really the one. Really the one doing the flips and spins and moves that seemed to defy gravity. They were not just witnessing greatness but an actual god. Over the centuries Bacchus had been so many things to so many people in countless realities, but being this wrestler in this reality always had him returning.  No; he thought. No, he was glad he'd chosen this one of the two that day when he'd entered Nosferatu's mind raiding her memories. This image, this man she respected and admired for over a decade was the perfect fit.  Bacchus rammed his knee into the neck of his opponent as he watched him stumble backwards a few steps arms flaying around before hitting the rope and sliding to his knees hard. Bacchus turned towards the far rope running at a speed too fast to be considered human but too slow for the god; using it to propel himself across the ring once more to land a perfectly timed low drop kick to the opponent's jaw. Bacchus hung there in midair for a long hesitation before allowing himself to fall onto his ass. He then sprang back up from a flat position flying over the opponent, landing on the top turnbuckle, and diving down on the opponent's chest in a backwards frogsplash. Pulling the opponent back up to a semi-standing position, he delivered a hard chop across the collarbone, causing the opponent to rock and bounce off the ropes once more. Grabbing him by the wrist, Bacchus used the age old Irish-Whip to send the almost unconscious opponent two steps and watched him fall flat. He forgot for a brief second that he was wearing the costume. That the dude he'd shapeshifted into was suppose to be playing a completely different wrestler for this match, as he lifted the opponent up and gave him the dude's trademark move. The cradle-shock. He wasn't even breathing heavy yet as the ref leaned down and told him he needed to cut the match as they were already at the time limit. Nodding, the god pinned his opponent. His arm raised in the win. The character's theme music sprang to life through the speakers of the building as the crowd cheered and clapped. Quickly the sandy-haired blue eyed god made his way back to the locker room, removed the mask and headed to the shower.

He sat in the little cafeteria not more than an hour later, rolling a paper cup steaming with coffee between his palms. It wasn't enough. Shapeshifting constantly into others to create his art, being onstage performing to the love and adore of humans. None of them ever knowing that he was more than what they thought they saw. More than the rock stars they'd loved back in the previous three decades, more than the painters they both scorned and worshiped for the last four hundred years, more than the movie stars or tv heroes that had sprung up in the last fifty years that they threw themselves at. Bacchus had let himself become complacent with the scraps of  pop-culture stardom. Had let himself be forgotten along side the other gods. Letting out a deep sigh, Bacchus snapped his fingers once more as the wrestler was returned to the locker room unaware of what had happened, as the god shimmered into thin air.

His back stiffened as he shimmered back into view in front of the house. There was a faint scent of a protection spell. Snorting, Bacchus squinted up his eyes running a palm across the fringe of bangs still flopping over his eyebrows. The wrestler needed a haircut he thought as he shook his head wildly. The too long shaggy do the wrestler favoured suddenly became an inch shorter allowing the god the relief from the itchiness of the long scruff always had against his neck. He walked a few feet towards the house, stopping for a half heartbeat before rolling his eyes and continuing on.  Astrid's grandmother had been a very powerful seer, but Astrid was still too young to have the kind of power her spells needed to keep the god out. Bacchus entered the house letting the door slam against the wall in a single huff as he did. Snapping his fingers, both Edric and Seward fainted on the spot into a deep sleep just as he entered the kitchen to see Mercury shimmer off with Nosferatu. Swearing, Bacchus tilted his head deciding to return to the other reality for another match.


Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. Miss me?)

FoodnFlix May 2020

Spudguns!, it's been a few months...I've had nothing to say the last two months. But, I joined in for the May Foodn'Flix...literally just crawling in under the finish line with my offerings. The May selection was hosted by Debra over at Eliot's Eats and she picked the 2011 Midnight in Paris.  Now, I've mentioned this on the blog way way way back in the first year of the blog, Day 75.  But, here's a brief recap.

plot:  When a writer suffering from writer's block goes on vacation with his girlfriend and her parents, he finds himself in awe of the city around him. As he ends up spending his nights alone wandering the streets dreaming about his heroes, he mysteriously travels back in time to the 1920's. Inspiration begins to strike as the midnight hour engulfs him, leaving him wondering if it's just a dream.

Okay, so as I mentioned, I've talked briefly about this movie before when it first came out, and I didn't care for it. I should have loved it. All the markings of my kind of movie was there. It's a Woody Allen movie, it's about a writer, it's about time travel, it's about art and magick.  Only, for me it missed the mark. Sitting through it a second time for group, I was halfway hoping I had missed something the first time around, that maybe since it's been almost a decade I'd discover something in it I liked. Nope. Still not doing much for me.

Notes: beer, baguette (mentioned) wine, bread, sauerkraut and frankfurters (mentioned) whiskey sour (mentioned) petit fours (mentioned) grapes, sweets, candied ginger, nuts, cheese, coffee, cake, Indian food (mentioned) pita bread (mentioned) jam, juice, melon, croissants, strawberries, blueberries, fruit plate, tea, cookies, chocolate, beef bourguignon (mentioned) pineapple, whipped cream, dates, steak, absinthe, honey, meat pie, pears, peaches, butter, lemon, pop.

Okay, so the food in this movie is sort of there but it's not a main concern, so it's pretty much in the far background most of the time.

There is a scene near the beginning of the film, where one of the characters mentioned the sauerkraut and frankfurters, and my mind right away went to that. So I went right out to the store and picked up a package of veggie dogs and ...could not for the life of me find any sauerkraut. It ended up being one of the crazy items that the stores in my city have not received since the whole isolation situation has been going on in the world.  Then I thought I would just go with it anyway.  I "assembled" my loaded veggie dog with cole slaw, mustard, mayo, cheese, onions and peppers.

But I wasn't happy with how it looked on camera. So, I started thinking about a second dish and my mind kept returning to the end of the film, where we see a very minor character who literally has two scenes near the end of the film, a detective who himself travels back into time to the Court of Louis XIV.  This seemingly unimportant character actually ends up being a key player. Through the whole movie till this point, you never know if the lead is daydreaming, or drunk or in a coma from a scene where he trips and hits his head or if he's actually traveling back and forth in time? That is until the detective finds himself trapped back in time.  The table of Louis XIV has a breakfast which consists of the pears, peaches and meat pie. So I decided to make a "mock steak and kidney pie".

Ingredients

1 can of kidney beans drained
two mushrooms chopped
half a carrot chopped
half a stalk of celery chopped
half a small onion chopped
ground black pepper
garlic salt
cornstarch
jackfruit
pastry
water

Drain the kidney beans, boiling them till soft.   Add mushroom, celery and carrots. Let simmer for about 15minutes.
Add onion, ground pepper and garlic salt. Stir and let simmer for another 10 minutes.

Add jackfruit, stirring in more water if needed.  Simmer for another 15minutes.

Prepare pastry.   I used a store bought ready made tart shell.
Fill pastry and cook at 350degrees for 35 minutes depending on your oven.

I've never used jackfruit before this. In fact, never even tasted it. I wasn't sure if the bitterness would work with the rest of the savoury ingredients so I only used three medium sized pieces. Thankfully it did.

There you go, two dishes inspired by very different characters. Don't forget to check out June's Foodn'Flix selection, being hosted by Culinary Adventures with Camilla. She's allowing the theme of Any Movie that is  Set or Made in Hawaii.

Till next time.