Baba Wawa--Warning--Can't Stand Her

Is it just me, or is Barbara Walters getting creepier as she gets older?

I have never been an enormous fan--merely indifferent--but lately when I see her in an interview with somebody, she just sort of makes me feel uncomfortable. She makes my skin crawl.

It seems that she is just out to mine the most lurid, sensational, shameful, embarrassing bits of her subjects, then she brings them to light under the thin guise of actually caring, with the grand prize of bringing the subject to tears on camera. I get the strong impression that she feels it is more valuable to pander to the lowest common denominator than it is to educate as a journalist. Why teach us something we didn't know when you can force-feed us a second helping of trash? Yessiree, this is real journalism. I just think she is generally out of touch with what is interesting to us these days. She insults my intelligence.

I know, I know..trailblazer, feminist icon, etc. I'm sure she had her day, and I give her props for being great when she was great, but those days are gone and she has now evolved into somebody who, in my opinion, is cheap and shallow.

I laughed like crazy when Bette Midler recently commented on Barbara's tell-all biography. She said something like, "Well Barbara has a new book out and apparently she slept with everybody--I never knew she had it in her--so to speak."

OK Facebook, I Give.

It seems that if I want to be able to find people, it is necessary for me to be on Facebook. It is the year 2009. Do I do this grumpily? Hell yes, but I am in the theatre world and I have all sorts of occasions to hunt people down. Facebook is just plain useful for that. I don't have to love it, I just have to be polite.

But check out this very very funny Facebook send-up I got today from a kindred spirit (where Facebook is concerned, at least):

http://www.much-ado.net/austenbook/

My Dream Wedding (as discussed with Jan Guarino)

I have already been married and had the nice church wedding with the gown, the man--what was he called--oh yeah, the groom, the flowers and the gifts. I ran out of steam halfway through the thank you notes and I'm pretty sure I never finished them. I just hope that time has erased this from people's memories. Or that a lot of those people who gave me gifts are now deceased.

Anyway, if I ever get married again, I'm going to do something totally different. I'm going to have the wedding in my front yard, like a yard sale. I am going to post signs on the telephone pole at the big road at the end of my street labeled WEDDIN' with a big arrow. Furthermore, I am going to have a whole bunch of our old stuff sitting out on tables. Instead of bringing us presents, I will ask the guests to pretty please and for the love-o-gawd, take something with you when you leave. I mean, what a festive way to get all your friends to help you clean out your attic!

I give thanks to Jan Guarino, who helped me formulate this idea.

Bye, Steve P.

We had a little farewell party after work tonight for Steve Perigard, who has been our Associate Artistic Director since longer than I have been at our company. He has always been so busy and pulled in so many directions, that I can't really say we ever spent loads of time together at the office, and yet I will miss his presence and I have a hard time imagining the place without him.

I'm glad he has agreed to still direct and act in some of our shows. It's a real honor to be in a show with Steve or directed by him. He's just one of the most gifted people I have ever had the good fortune to come in contact with. I have always been in awe of how he can find the very center, the sweet spot, the essence of a play and really nurture the actors to make it shine through in the performance. Damn, I wish I had that skill.

My boss gave a great farewell speech that was just perfect. He talked about how Steve has been his artistic compass all these years, always reminding him that the most important thing to our company was artistic excellence, even when it was tempting to succumb to just looking at the bottom line financially. It wasn't sappy and long, and I wasn't secretly longing for him to shut up. My boss is a very engaging man to listen to. I actually enjoyed the speech, and at the end of a workday I probably have the attention span of a toddler.

Anyway, I'm sure I speak for the whole theatre community in wishing Steve the very best. We all see nothing but promise for him!

Washington D.C.

I am in our nation's capital, right near the Capitol. I'm holed up at the Hyatt Regency at the Kennedy Center Educational Partners Annual Meeting. I have been going to lots of really long meetings--like 4 hour long meetings. And then a meeting afterwards to discuss the meeting, then another meeting to discuss the discussion of the 4 hour long meeting. I am schmoozing around with lots of really sharp people, and I am trying to act like a grownup to the best of my ability.

Now I have to primp because I'm going to the Kennedy Center to see the Alvin Ailey dancers and have dinner. Whee!

Paella!

We have been watching this travel/food show on public TV for weeks now. I actually don't know what it's called, but it's Gwyneth Paltrow, Claudia Basols, Mario Batali and Mark Bittman travelling through Spain and eating food. I have had so much fun watching this show! Plus, a companion book has been published, and Andy's son got it for him for Christmas.

I was out of town last week, but I told Andy that I wanted us to try making paella when I got back. Well my excellent boyfriend stepped up to the plate in a big way. I came home to discover he had gone to the snooty kitchen store and bought a paella pan. The pan was really reasonable, but then the special fancy rice was more expensive than the pan!



The paella turned out deeeeeeee-licious and I can't wait to try it again. Of course we made a non-traditional version because I don't eat swimmy things. We made a vegetarian version, but followed the traditional method. Paella pans are very shallow and wide. This does not lend to even cooking on a stovetop. We had to straddle the pan over two burners and stand vigil and rotate the pan to ensure even cooking.

I now want to buy a charcoal grill just so I can cook paella. It's the perfect thing and they're not terribly expensive. Actually, you can buy paella burners, which hook up to a propane tank and are perched on a tripod, which costs extra. Very expensive when you add it all up, and you can only use them for cooking one thing!



But a charcoal grill would do just great.

This dish is traditionally eaten straight out of the pan. Everybody gathers around the table. You put the paella in the center, and you go to town. Doesn't that sound fun? I love the communal arrangement. No place for germophobes.

The dish is cooked to perfection when the rice has absorbed all the liquid and has formed a chewy crust on the bottom. Kind of like when you scrape that last bit of mac and cheese out of the pan. That's why you must eat it out of the pan! And, hey, not too many dishes to do. Not a damn thing wrong with that!

So here's the basic drill. This will feed 2 to 4 people.

Use a generous amount of oil! This will help facilitate the crusty bottom layer later on. I used 1/4 cup.

Let the oil heat until it smokes, then add onion and saute for about 8 minutes. Add a few cloves of minced garlic, a tablespoon of smoked spanish paprika, and any vegetables that may take a long time to cook, like carrots or green beans. Now add pureed tomato, about 3/4 cup. Add a cup of paella rice. Stir this mess around until the rice is nicely coated and incorporated with the tomato mixture (called the sofrito).

Now, you'll add 2 cups of broth. I used vegetable broth infused with 1/2 a teaspoon of saffron threads. If you don't have saffron you can sub with 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric-the purpose is the lovely color it imparts. Add the broth slowly, and gently arrange the rice and veggies so they are evenly distributed across the pan. The goal is a nice thin, wide layer of rice, with the veggies attractively arranged.

Now comes the hard part. Leave it the hell alone for about 10 to 20 minutes. No stirring! Otherwise you will not get the hallowed lovely crust on the bottom. Cook it uncovered. The surface should look bubbly and it will make a crackly noise, and you want that!

As I mentioned previously, we had to straddle 2 burners and keep rotating the pan. Yes, high maintenance, but worth it. I won't have to be concerned with that when I buy that charcoal grill I am dreaming of.

When all the liquid has been absorbed, add any additional quick cooking veggies, like asparagus or artichokes or peas. Cover the pan with foil, turn down the heat and give it another 10 to 15 minutes.

What you want to end up with is rice that is cooked but has a little resistance when you bite into it. Squeeze a little lemon juice over it before you dig in. Grains should be separate, not gummy. The whole pan should have a nice crust all over the bottom. Yum--crusty bottom. What a lovely phrase.

PS! I got a great little charcoal grill at Lowe's for $28! Tried the paella again the next Sunday (today) and the grill is brilliant!



It's just the right size for the pan and it cooked evenly and was nice and crusty on the bottom!

Cleveland's West Side Market

If you're ever in Cleveland, and you are interested in food, you MUST visit the West Side Market. If I had a market like this in my city, I would never set foot in a supermarket again. This place has everything I need in the way of food, and it's all spectacularly fresh and good quality.

First of all, baked goods. I have never seen so many gorgeous baked goods in one place. Breads, cakes, pies, pastries, sweet and savory. Each stall was more beautiful than the last. I like to bake my own bread, but if I had a West Side Market, I wouldn't bother. There's no type of home baked bread you can't find.

Meats. Now, as you know I don't eat meat, but there is a huge array of butcher stalls with all kinds of fresh meat. Lots of home made sausages, big thick sliced bacon, all kinds of steaks and chops and ground stuff, and some huge whole dead animals. I was a bit grossed out by the meat, but I can imagine that if you were a carnivore and liked to cook meat, this would be a paradise.

Cheese! There were 4 or 5 outstanding cheesemongers. (I love the -monger suffix.) I was stymied by the selection, and ended up with a huge hunk of Petit Basque and a hunk of Stilton.

Produce. The produce has its own big L-shaped wing. The stalls are jam packed with fresh fruits, veggies and flowers. If I weren't an out-of-towner I'd have stocked up big time. Everything was super fresh and the prices were great. The selection was, once again, huge and ranged from the mundane to the exotic.



I bought some Lebanese olive oil from this Lebanese lady. Her shop is called The Olive and the Grape, and they have a satellite stall at this market. She recommended this olive oil to me because she is friends with the family in Lebanon who owns the olive grove from which this oil is produced. I can't wait to taste it!

Urban Herbs has every spice you could dream of and lots of spices you've never heard of. I bought whole nutmeg, Tellicherry peppercorns and real cinnamon sticks. Did you know that most cinnamon sticks you buy in the grocery store are actually not cinnamon at all, but something called Cassia, which is cheaper and easier to come by.

And lastly, I couldn't leave the market without buying a big hunk of chocolate for my sweetie.

I give the West Side Market a big A+. The vendors are extremely friendly and the whole place has a wonderful upbeat feel. If you are ever sent to Cleveland, don't despair. This will be the highlight of your trip!