Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Thankful for Family, Local Theatre, Sweet Dogs, and Homemade Vegan Ethiopian Food

We had a low stress more "traditional" vegan Thanksgiving this year. We started a tradition years ago of making an Indian food feast for Thanksgiving with our neighbor friends, Gita and Seth and their girls. They moved a few years ago and since then Thanksgiving has not been the same. Some years Rob has taken Dema and Josie to NC for Thanksgiving while Parker and I stayed home. With the dogs I care for and the theatre Parker was always involved in, getting away around holidays is always tough. This year was no exception with Parker finishing up his run in The  Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 at his college. He got to play a cross dressing homicidal German maid, Dieter Wenzel. It was quite fun!
Parker with a meat clever on the set of The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940. Kind of ironic for a vegan actor. 
Parker is working in the scene shop now at his college so not only did he get to act, he got to help create this wonderful set with secret passages and fun effects!
We had some of the sweetest of our canine friends as guest over the holiday.
Ruth Bader Greyhound in her new pajamas and our dog, Gracie. They love to snuggle on the slumberball.
Romeo spends a lot of holidays with us and makes us so happy!
Rob decided to stay home since he's been to Germany twice in the last several weeks for work and could use some time at home. It was so nice to have the entire family home and relaxing.
This year Dema asked for things like mashed potatoes and gravy so we made country fried tofu and garlicky kale to go with. My sister, Karen, and her husband, Stuart, brought the best dressing I've ever tasted (I'm not usually a dressing fan) so I will try to get the recipe. My sister also made a seitan roast and I talked her into bringing the dessert since she is so much better at desserts. I sent her the recipe for Vegan Irish Cream Cheesecake and she had to make her own Irish Creme since we don't seem to have the Bailey's Almonde locally. It turned out beautifully and so delicious! Sadly, I have no pictures since I was living in the moment. But, we were invited over to our neighbor friends', Katie and Wade, house for dinner on Saturday. They are vegetarian and Wade is always cooking up yummy food and inviting us over. This was a special treat since he's been on an Ethiopian food kick lately.
Wade is still trying to get the injera bread down, but it was really great! I hope he keeps working on it so we get more Ethiopian dinners! Our closest Ethiopian restaurant is a couples hours away.

Friday, October 26, 2018

First Solids

I was on a liquid diet the last two weeks (long story) and I also didn't feel like eating much for the first week anyway. Then I had an outpatient surgery and wasn't supposed to eat solid foods for a week after that. Rob was gone for most of the two weeks (North Carolina beach trip with his brother, trip to Germany for work, and then working on his sailboat in Virginia). This meant I was cooking for the kids, but feeling pretty bad and not being able to taste or eat anything. Not fun for many reasons.
Our CSA share pickup was Wednesday and Rob got back that day too so I roasted some beets and a misato radish and made garlicky kale. There was some left over by the time I was off the liquid diet so the leftovers (and a vegan carrot cake muffin my sister made with the carrots from her CSA share) were my first solid meal for two weeks. It was perfect!

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Vegan Cabbage and Sausage - Instant Pot

This week's CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share included a large cabbage, potatoes, and yellow onions so I made this recipe I watched recently. Josie and I were on our way out to see a play, Rob was out of town, and the boys were home to fend for themselves. I threw this together so they had something good to eat and Josie and I ate it after we got home. Thumbs up from everyone.

I used No Evil sausage and added yellow sprinkle for seasoning, it would have been fine without, but it also adds some nutrition. I can see this becoming a common meal around here.

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Eating Out Vegan at Chain Restaurants

When Brixx Pizza closed in our town, it left a bit of a hole for our family. We don't eat a chain restaurants much, but Brixx was an easy option when we were eating out with friends or nice place for the boys to take their girlfriends on dates. Parker has never dated a vegetarian and Dema dated one vegetarian, but it was still nice to go someplace where everyone had easy, yummy options. 

Fortunately, Blaze Pizza was being built as Brixx closed their doors. Blaze is even better, in some ways. Most of my family loves to pile on the toppings so it is nice to not have to pay per topping. The staff has always been great about the vegan thing and since you talk to them about what toppings you want they can put just the right amount of everything on your pizza.
Josie likes to add a lot of toppings to her pizza. This one has red onions, mushrooms, spinach, pineapple, zucchini, kalamata olives,  chopped garlic, artichokes, vegan cheese, spicy red sauce, and oregano. She loves that they also have healthier drink options like hibiscus tea.
Dema is more of a simple topping guy with black olives, pineapple, and vegan cheese.
 Dema is the one in the family who just wants two or three toppings on his pizza and they can do that too.
This was my pizza and was very similar to Josie's.
This was our first visit so I didn't know about the arugula and other post-cooking toppings. I always add arugula now. We like talking to the friendly staff and deciding in the moment what toppings we want, but we've also used the online app to order ahead.

Josie had a birthday sleepover for her 11th birthday. Usually, we are at the beach for Josie's birthday so she hasn't had a party with her friends for years. Only one of the girls was veg, but I ordered vegan Blaze pizzas online and picked them up. All the girls loved them and it was much cheaper than other pizza options we've done for other parties in the past!

At the same time Blaze was being built, there was another restaurant in the same area with a similar look. Rob and I finally checked it out. CoreLife Eatery is now added to our go to list. It was so nice to be able to grab a quick bowl of veggies and quinoa goodness! It isn't as vegan friendly as you would think but the handful of options seem pretty solid.
Sriracha Ginger Tofu with Ancient Grains from CoreLife Eatery.
The kids, especially Josie, have been asking to check out CoreLife. I'll let you know how they like it.
Update: Huge thumbs up from Josie. We went just the two of us and we got a Sriracha Ginger Tofu with Ancient Grains bowl (see green beauty above) and a Shiitake Mushroom Roasted Tofu broth bowl. We "shared" them both, but Josie definitely ate more than half of both. So good!

Friday, September 28, 2018

Ugh!

Anyone else out there feeling frustrated, angry, hopeless, or triggered by the craziness happening in the US these days? I need to vent and don't feel like FB is an appropriate space right now. I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said, just need to type it out.

So the grown men who report being sexually abused by priests when they were children should just sit down and shut up? They should never come forward? If they couldn't do it at X age, then so sorry so sad? Get over it? Take the political aspect out of it for a second. I get that this is very politically charged. Those of us with daughters, let us think about our daughters for a second (or sister or female friend...whatever you can relate to). Can we imagine a horrific scenario where something could happen to them and they didn't want to tell us? I can. I've been that teen and I had a mother who was trained to deal with situations of abuse, who was extremely understanding, and her job had her working with people who were abused. I still didn't want to say anything. Fortunately, because many women (and some men) have paved the way so my daughter feels comfortable telling me (because things have already come up...nothing to this extent, but inappropriate comments or touching that made her uncomfortable and she has told me right away) right now. But, will she feel the same way when she isn't living at home or if I was no longer around? What if I was the type of parent who blamed her for what she was wearing or if she drank alcohol or just being around men or not going home early enough or all the hundreds of reasons we put the blame on the woman (or man in some situations)? Or the type of parent who didn't want to make waves and didn't want to upset a powerful family in my community. I'm not talking about this particular case, but I can completely empathize with women who do not come forward or come forward years later.

What I don't understand is the men who I know have treated women in similar ways (or worse) who are acting like they are "allies" without dealing with their own behavior. Don't pretend that you are "one of the good guys". I'm not saying you should all be locked up and throw away the key, but just come clean, look at your past behavior, vow to do better. Then you truly can be a good guy and can be there for others.

I am guilty of not coming forward. So many different times. For myself, for my friends...I was there to listen, but I never believed anything good could come from me "getting someone in trouble" or "ruining someone's life". Here we are. My sons and my daughter are growing up with the same misogyny and culture that values "powerful" white men over all else. It makes me want to scream. It makes me very angry at my young self. I makes me want to hide in a hole and never speak to another human being again.

So, here are pictures of the wonderful canine beings that I am so fortunate to care for and have in my life. They are helping me through these days. I hope you have someone or something helping you through. I hope you know you are not alone. I hope we, as a species, can come out better on the other side of all this stuff.

Unity, a sweet greyhound we care for and she cares for us right back.
Ruth Bader Greyhound, a gentle soul who was pretty skittish when we first started watching her and her lab mix sister, Hadley, but it has been such a joy and privilege to see her fun-loving personality emerge as we get to know her better.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Pens to Lens 2018 - The Monster Who Ate the Boy

Speaking of food at our house, we don't usually allow any non-vegan food in the door. We also have several short films and music videos shot at our house over the last few years. We were kind of shocked when one of the directors brought meat, as a prop,  to a shoot at our house. Dema was in the film, but didn't actually eat the meat. It was still tough for us to even let it in the house. This director is lucky we love him and believe in his vision. So, if seeing meat consumed in movies bothers you, please don't watch, but if you can get past that...check out a short Pens to Lens film from this year called The Monster Who Ate the Boy. Dema plays the boy. Because of everyone's crazy schedules and Brian, the director, not wanting to come back on multiple days...we ended up shooting into the the wee hours of the morning. We all got a little punchy and a lot tired. Parker was working as crew and did the lighting. Josie stayed up very late entertaining the actors between takes. It was a long day for Josie and Parker because they got up early that morning to work on another film, but they love it so much! Dema was a great sport about one of the very messy scenes which was shot at around 3am!

Monday, September 17, 2018

Brunch Brussel Sprouts

We went on a pretty long hiatus from any real entertaining. Many friends moved away, life got busy, the house was never in good enough shape, cooking for others seemed daunting, but then I made a promise to myself to get out more to support local bands which led to a promise to myself to have people over...nothing big like we used to do, but two or three families. I'm so glad I made both promises because I never regret either. Some days I feel like canceling or some nights I don't feel like leaving the house, but I am so glad I push myself through.

 We've had a couple brunches with a couple neighbor friends and friends we met from doing films. They are all great people and we always enjoy their company. I have to keep myself from taking pictures because I also want to live more in the moment.

However, I do want to remember some of the dishes we make because just like before, I love to try new recipes when we have people over. One of my favorites from our brunch this weekend was Maple Syrup Roasted Brussel Sprouts. One of our friends is gluten free, avoids soy, black pepper, and cucumbers. The cucumbers are pretty easy, but the rest makes me get outside my comfort zone. Especially, the gluten free. I've baked a few gluten free coffee cakes, but since I am no baker, I still have a long way to go on the gluten free vegan baking road. 

We omitted the black pepper in the recipe above, but I don't think we lost anything. I will definitely put this recipe in our normal routine and try it with the black pepper. These brussel sprouts are a perfect addition to any brunch!
Our sweet old rescued greyhound, Gracie. She is super happy to have people over for meals again. She especially loves the younger kids who tend to drop more goodies on the floor for her to snack on.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Blog Like No One is Reading

I'm going to be blogging more. I need an outlet and I want to have a place for my kids to have memory reminders. This means I am blogging for me, not anyone out there. I will keep this public because I don't have anything here I don't mind sharing, but if no one reads it...that's fine.

Here is where our family is right now. We live in a small Midwestern college town where I was born and we've lived here 19 years now. Whoa! It seems crazy when I type it out. We moved here from Maryland (DC area) when I was pregnant with our first (was supposed to be our only) child. 

So that makes Parker 18 years old. He is attending a fabulous community college so he can save money living at home and he has a theatre scholarship (yay, for saving even more money). He homeschooled K-12, except for sixth grade at a public school and, as a lot of homeschoolers in our town, he took classes at the same community college during high school. He used to be a nanny for two awesome kids, but quit this fall to concentrate on school, theatre, and film. He is in a local improv group, interns at a local film production studio, and runs several role playing groups. He amazes me every day and he is so much more mature than most of the adults I know, but I'm hoping he lets go a bit and has some immature fun from time to time, while he still can. He has yet to experience being vegan living on his own, but he has been learning how to cook since he was little and is hoping to find some vegan-friendly roommates at some point.

Dema (Demetrius) is 14 and attending public school for the first time. He homeschooled all, but 4-6th grades (private school) and is now a Freshman at high school. He has OCD and this makes some things more challenging, but he makes friends easily and is a talented singer so this opens a lot of doors. Dema is also very involved in theatre and music so he was able to experience being on stage with his brother several times before Parker graduated. Dema approaches his veganism much differently than his siblings and his time socializing after different productions has taught him how to navigate the vegan choices in fast food/chain restaurants. He likes to bake, but has very little interest in cooking, at this point.

Josie (Josephine) just turned 11 this month and she is still homeschooling. She would be in 5th grade in public school, due to her birth date, but she does mostly 6th grade at home. She is very focused on athletics and tends to be the most competitive person in the house. She is going to guest post soon about her experience at a very well known gymnastics camp and their lack of vegan options, food waste, and more.

Swim/Gym Smoothie - What We Did This Summer

This is from our crazy summer. Josie was super girl giving her all to two very competitive sports and having a blast doing it. Vegan athlete style!
Some days Josie's post-swim pre-gymnastics smoothie matches her leo.
I don't usually make daily smoothies anymore, but Josie swims for two hours and then works out at gymnastics for 3.5 hours. Some days she doesn't feel like eating much between her two sports (she has only an hour between each a couple days a week) so a big smoothie filled with fruits and veggies is in order. This day she noticed that she just happened to match her spinach and blueberry smoothie. The swim/gym smoothie had frozen blueberries and peaches, raw spinach, beet juice, alma powder, ground flax seeds, and unsweetened soy milk.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Local Resistance

Our musician friends, Elsinore, made this timely song/video.  Warning: it is political and there is some language. Please, those of you in the US, get out there and vote!

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

New (to us) Frozen Vegan Pizza - Convenience Food

We don't buy frozen pizza very often, but I was leaving my 18 (Parker) year old and my 14 (Dema) year old home alone during a very busy week for them. Rob was working on his sailboat in Virginia Josie and I went hiking for a couple days (more about that in a future post) so I stocked the freezer so the boys wouldn't have to cook much while we were gone. One of the things I found was Sweet Earth Veggie Lover's Pizza. It didn't look bad nutrition wise for a frozen meal and they were on sale! The boys didn't get up needing the pizzas while we were gone so Josie and I got to sample it as well.

The verdict? Very tasty and we would definitely buy again. Parker gave an enthusiastic thumbs up and Dema thought there could have been more cheese. I like the unusual toppings and the amount of cheese is just right to keep the toppings on the pizza, but not overpower the taste of the veggies. I haven't had corn on pizza since I was in the Dominican Republic many years ago. Parker was skeptical about the corn, but now he is a convert. Josie is not a huge frozen pizza fan, but liked this one better than most.

Monday, July 2, 2018

The Red Herring - Fusion Dinners

For a college town, we have a sad lack of completely veg restaurants, but we have one mainstay that has been here for decades. It changes a bit every year or so, trying new things with different students getting involved. Some years they are only open for lunch and only during the normal school year. This year, The Red Herring is open for dinner once a week, even during the summer, for fusion dinners. They use as much local produce as possible and highlight different cuisines each week. We've only been a couple times this year because Josie had gymnastics during the dinner hours until her gymnastics schedule switched for the summer. Josie would go every week if she could.
Indian fusion night at The Red Herring; vegetable biryani,  tofu paneer saag, massor dal, and salad.
Four of us made it to the Indian fusion night and I was surprised how much Dema enjoyed it. He is not the biggest Indian food fan, like the rest of the family, but I think he appreciated the subtle Indian flavors of fusion night.
For fusion night, they just have one platter (usually with a gluten-free option too)  for everyone, but you can choose the extra sides or appetizers.
Desserts at The Red Herring are always a treat!
Josie has swim team practice in the evenings on fusion night so we usually go directly to the Red Herring. This means she is tired and starving so we order everything we can. This night was Americana and she got the roasted cauliflower buffalo dip. It totally held her over until the main course.
We don't use cauliflower enough at home. I need to remedy that. It is such a nutritious and versatile vegetable! This is one of the benefits of eating out at The Red Herring, I get some great ideas of things to make at home! The burger was my favorite and I'm not a huge veggie burger fan these days...too often it is the only option at restaurants so I avoid them now. I'm so glad I didn't miss out on this eggplant black bean burger, it was the best burger I've eaten in a long time! I love veggie burgers with actual veggies and with good spices. I totally understand some people want a vegan burger that mimics meat...no judgement, but that isn't what I like.
Yes, she ate everything!
Josie always gets dessert at The Red Herring. It goes back to when she was younger and The Red Herring was one of the only places in town to serve vegan desserts. Now we have too many options, but she still loves the slightly healthier inventive desserts at The Red Herring. This evening it was the dried coconut bacon chocolate cake. She shared a bit with me and it was quite good, but not overly sweet and it was a great end to a wonderful dinner packed with local produce!

Thursday, June 28, 2018

A New Driver in the House

Our eldest was born in a hospital and he had a several day stay in the NICU due to an congenital heart defect, diagnosed prior to birth. I remember very vividly, even over 18 years later, how we felt when we got into the car to drive the 1.5 hours home with our newborn. After fighting to get Parker released, having to jump through hoops, strangers telling us how we were allowed to interact with our child...we finally had him to ourselves...we were terrified! Everything in the hospital was setup to protect the child, but makes the parents feel less than competent to care for this fragile life.
I was reminded of that feeling yesterday when Parker finally got his drivers license. He was never in a big hurry to drive. He understood from a young age the huge responsibility driving a motorized vehicle. We were all in a car accident when Parker was 8. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, but it affected each of us more than we realized at the time. I'm sure the accident also had something to do with his lack of enthusiasm for learning to drive. We were car-light or car-free for a good portion of his life and he knew how to bike and use mass transportation where he needed to go. My sister's husband is in his 60's and he never learned to drive. I think for a while Parker would have been happy following in his uncle's footsteps. Parker is also extremely frugal and the price of car insurance, etc. was also a factor. While he was ready to get his license yesterday, there were the hoops and the paperwork and the tests that can make one feel incompetent. Then bam they hand you this piece of paper and send you out into the world.

Life is a series of "you aren't ready, you aren't ready...go fly" moments. I'm so glad I was there for so many of them with Parker, but I also look forward to him sharing them with me from far away.

Friday, June 22, 2018

What We're Sipping, RBG, and Produce Turned Dessert

We've had some brutally hot weather already this summer and it just officially started yesterday! We are beating the heat with hibiscus tea (I just buy dried hibiscus in the bulk section of our co-op and steep the petals overnight refrigerated in our glass pitcher) with lemon puree ice cubes. I got the ice cube idea from How Not to Die Cookbook. I buy lemons when they are on sale, peel a bag of them, blend in the Vitamix, and freeze in my silicone ice cube trays Rob bought for me. We were never big ice cube users before so we don't have the ice cube maker hooked up in our freezer and we never had any trays. Now I use them all the time! Pureeing the lemon gives you all the vitamin C, etc. of the juice, but also maintains the fiber. It ends up being cheaper than buying jarred organic lemon juice and the ice cubes are the perfect portion for most of my recipes.
Parker, Josie, and I finally were able to see RBG at our local co-operative theater. Loved it!
In previous weeks, we received a lot of delicious fresh carrots from our CSA share. The kids, Josie especially, love carrot sticks so most of our carrots were used as snacks between activities or during swim meets. My sister doesn't have children and she and her husband weren't consuming their share as quickly. So she asked if any of the kids wanted to come over and help make a vegan carrot cake. Josie was the only one available and she was more than eager to help Karen bake!
The carrot cake was so fresh and light tasting with just the right hint of sweetness. I really need to bake more or the kids just need to make this themselves because it was scrumptious! They followed the recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking.
Josie got the last piece since she helped make it and she decided to cover her slice with fresh blueberries. She said it was even better that way. CSA produce is great, even when turned into dessert!

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Summer CSA , Grease, and Daily Dozen

My thoughtful sister, Karen, bought my family a weekly CSA* share this year from one of our favorite local farms. Karen worked on the farm last summer and it gave us a new appreciate for what it takes to grow the food we all need to survive.

It has been a few years since we've had a backyard garden and since we've had a CSA share. I was a little worried some of the produce would end up in the compost, but so far we have used everything we've received. The kids have a renewed interest in cooking and using produce we don't buy on a regular basis. Especially, Parker, my 18 year old. He's going to be moving out in the next year or so and he is soaking up everything he can about buying food and preparing it.

Yesterday's CSA share: 
  • 1 head of broccoli
  • 2# tomatoes
  • 1/2# scapes
  • 1/2# baby bok choy
  • 1# mixed summer squash
  • 1 bunch parsley
I've already used a big portion of the CSA share and picked it up less than 24 hours ago! I already had some bok choy, the last leftover from last week's share, and I had Tofu Broccoli Bok Choy Stir Fry with Garlic Sesame Soy Sauce and Soba Noodles bookmarked. I hadn't made it yet because I need the broccoli. This week's share provided the broccoli so I knew I had to make this dish for dinner. I doubled it, but the five of us could have been satisfied without doubling. We were happy to have enough for second helpings and a little leftover. I used udon noodles instead of soba because that is what I had on hand. Everyone loved it! I was a little worried it was going to be too time consuming for a busy weekday night, but it really came together quickly and easily. Parker had to DM** so he didn't get to eat until a couple hours later, but it was still good. Before Parker left, he cleaned and chopped the bok choy for me since I was at swim team practice with Josie (10 years old). Having the kids do a little prep is really helping me get delicious nutritious meals on the table. 
Dema learned how to play guitar for this role as Doody in Grease.
Dema was super nervous opening night so he forgot something and I had to bring it to him.  It was okay since I was able to get a sneak peak at his costume.
Dema (14 years old) is currently Doody in a local production of Grease so he only ate a small serving before he ran out the door for rehearsal, but he requested we save him some for when he got home that night. This almost NEVER happens. He's been going out several nights a week with his friends from the musical and they often go to fast food places (he is the one in our family who could tell you every vegan option at any chain restaurant). This means he has been craving pizza, burritos, or take up more than normal. Once you start eating that stuff on a regular basis, it gets a bit addictive. So, I was thrilled that he enjoyed something homemade and asked for more!

Normally, all three kids have swim team practice for a couple hours in the morning so lunch is often something quick before Josie goes off to 3.5 hours of gymnastics team practice, Parker goes to work as a nanny, and Dema does yard work for our neighbor or goes out with friends. Today a storm rolled through during swim so it freed up our morning. This meant I was happy to use up more CSA produce for lunch.
I re-introduce Parker to garlic scapes. It has been a long time since I've used them. I happened to be cooking up some brown basmati rice in the IP*** when Parker came downstairs to ask if I was cooking Chinese. I decided to spice up my rice during cooking by adding turmeric, black pepper, and garlic and apparently it smelled like Chinese to him. I was just cooking the rice to have in the refrigerator as a staple during the week, but I decided a Chinese inspired stir fry sounded good for lunch and I would use the garlic scapes and summer squash. I also found a can of baby corn to add to the mix. Parker loved the scapes and I saved some to make into pesto later in the week. All three kids loved the stir fry. There for a a while Dema and Josie would complain if I was making stir fry AGAIN, but using produce we don't use all the time is key to keeping it fresh.

*Community Supported Agriculture
**Dungeon Master
***Instant Pot

Parker and I both have Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen app on our phones. I used to use it all the time, but I got lazy the last couple weeks. I decided to keep track again.
How Not to Die/Daily Dozen Score for broccoli bok choy dinner:
Beans 1
Cruciferous Vegetables 1
Greens 1
Spices 1

How Not to Die/Daily Dozen Score for lunch stir fry:
Beans 1
Other Vegetables 2
Spices 1
Whole Grains 1

Monday, April 23, 2018

All in a Day's Work - Easterseals Disability Film Challenge

Parker helped The Prompting Theater (a local acting troupe for adults with disabilities) with their Easterseals Disability Film Challenge again this year. It is very entertaining and he loves working with this group! The more views and shares they get, the closer they are to winning the challenge so please watch, like, and share. Thanks!

Monday, March 26, 2018

Vegan Haluski with Smoky Tofu - College Recipes

 After a few days in Chicago and eating out a every day, I came back home craving simple, but healthy homemade foods. I also am trying to simplify our house by donating things we don't use and minimizing my electronic clutter by closing open tabs on my phone/computer. This includes lots of recipes. One of the recipes was Vegan Haluski with Smoky Tofu. Parker helped me cook this and we decided to go for brown rice instead of noodles since we had pasta yesterday. We used red cabbage and red onions so it made for fun spring color. I'm starting to make a note of recipes that are good for Parker to make when he moves out and this one is pretty inexpensive too so it makes the "college recipe" list. It is easy, flavorful, and full of crunchy brassica goodness!

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Short Films: A Thief Named Skip is Driving Me Nuts

Parker was involved in a short film for a young budding film director. It was a lot of work and fun, but filming at night with weapons is always interesting. Always make sure your director has notified the local police and sometimes even then things can get interesting. I believe this is Parker's first role as a thief and he got to "kill" a friend of mine from high school, Eric Sizemore. I love that my kids have worked with Eric in several different projects.



This was a 48 Hour Film Project short film. We didn't get to participate as much as we usually do, but the boys have been in non-stop, overlapping live theatre productions and Parker was sick during the 48 film weekend. He had promised, Brian Hagy, the director weeks previously so he was able to put in a few very cold hours before he had to get to the theatre for a performance. He was running a fever and was losing his voice, but the show must go on. I'm always amazed what the groups can come up with in just 48 hours!

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Closer - Music Video

Parker and Dema are in so much theatre right now that I almost forget about the films/videos. The two of them are in three shows, two together which is fun for them and me. Anyway, between rehearsals, Parker was able to sneak in some time for a music video shot by one of our favorite directors, John Isberg at Swede Films. Enjoy this flashback to the 80's, references to Pretty in Pink and Patton, and the song is quite catchy!

Parker's rehearsal schedule didn't allow him to be part of the dance sequence, but it was apparently quite fun and a little too much fake fog/smoke because the fire department was called. Never a dull moment on a shoot.