My Food Chain Gang

We had a great weekend, even though the weather on Sunday was horrid - so cold my Christmas teddy bear got frozen to the window!  Friday night was an all-night work session to finish up the planning and organization of our community theater’s awards show, which is where we went Saturday night.  But first on Saturday afternoon, it was a birthday celebration for our oldest who turned 9 on Sunday with a MUCH anticipated visit from family who live out of state.  We had a great time catching up and watching the kids open their birthday and Christmas presents, and the kids got to have a sleepover in the hotel with Grandma, Papa, and Uncle Bud while we went to the awards show.  The awards show was lots of fun, as always, and I got to watch 2 very good friends win much-deserved achievment awards.  Congratulations, guys!

It was lots of fun putting the show together, even if we didn’t have much time to do so due to last minute notice from the theater.  It was fun and also rewarding to watch the individual skits, shorts, songs, and awards presentations start as ideas on paper and then watch when they came together as a whole.  It’s also a fun excuse to get everyone together, and it’s always nice to see long-lost busy friends who are unable to get together but for this one night.  It might be fun to produce the awards show again next year, but then again, I’d love to have my best friend sitting beside me to watch them because I missed him this year - even though he did make an excellent host.  If there are a few individuals in the theater community who have a hard time because they don’t win awards, then let them have their hard time.  There is talk of cancelling this awards show, and I would be very sad if that happened.  It’s definitely a whole ton of fun for most of us, and I really don’t think we should let a few individuals ruin it for everyone.  That’s all I’m going to say on the subject for now, but expect to hear more from me once this very topic is discussed at the next production board meeting.

Sunday we had major Grandma-let-down, and because we didn’t want our oldest daughter to be depressed on her actual birthday, we let her have a friend sleep over.  During football season, we usually set aside Sundays for low-key stuff, like watching football, reading newspapers, and blogging, but we always end up with crazy kids so it’s never exactly low-key.  But I don’t usually cook dinner on Sundays, and today we ordered pizza.  Five minutes after the pizza was delivered, we noticed the delivery guy was still parked out front and that he was standing outside of his car.  Turns out, he had locked himself out of the car, and so we offered him a warm place to wait for his ride.  Since the temperature outside has been hovering around 0° all day, with wind chills near -20°, he gratefully accepted.  And he stood in our front hall for almost 30 minutes!  If he were outside, he would have frozen to death.  But it did feel a little awkward eating the pizza he delivered while he stood there.  We offered him a seat in the living room, but he opted to stand in the entryway, and I’m kind of glad because at least we were then eating out of his view.  Our 2-year-old kept asking about “the pizza guy”, and then he became scary to her - “I scared pizza guy” - probably cuz he was just standing there, doing nothing, and she’s never seen anyone do that in our front hall before.  But finally his ride came, thank goodness, and he left.  I wonder if he gets paid for the time he was standing in our house?  I wonder who pays for the gas that was used in his running car while he was waiting for his ride?  Should we have offered him some pizza?  It was kind of a weird situation, but it does make for interesting blog fodder.  Of course it had to happen on the coldest day of the year - that guy has a new story to tell!

As you may know, we are heavily involved in our local community theater.  For each play in which we were involved, part of the fun was to see what the newspaper critic would publish about it.  Well, the newspaper reviewer has been canned, and so my husband was asked to take over.  Not wanting the responsibility of the fallout that one might incur when writing about specific individuals in a small town (not to mention his extremely busy work schedule), he agreed to only do the review about the most recent play because he and I produced it.  The following is my husband’s review debut that was (supposed to be) published in the newspaper, and I’ll go ahead and give myself a secondary byline for editing.  I must note however, that those of you who have seen this particular edition of the paper might notice more than a few differences between the two reviews.  And my husband did not write the paragraph about his credentials that appears at the end of the print version - the newspaper wrote it with info my husband supplied when asked how he was qualified to do the review.  It’s just funny that for the past few years, we’ve been assuming the quirks of our play reviews were the fault of the reviewer when in actuality, the newspaper changes much and does lots of editing!

Don’t Hug Me is a Winter Treat

This past Wednesday evening my wife and I had the privilege of attending a preview of Don’t Hug Me, a comedy by Paul Olson.

As we took our seats, my eyes were immediately drawn to the brilliantly detailed set.  Just a quick glance at the rustic wood paneling, Paul Bunyan style restroom sign, and moose head beer tap and I was instantly transported to a northern Minnesota bar.

 The show opens with owners of “The Bunyan” bar Gunner Johnson (played to near perfection by Mike Roberts) and his wife and co-owner Clara (played by stage veteran Mary Beth Snider) caught outside in the cold.  We see Clara fumbling through her purse for the keys as a freezing Gunner becomes increasingly impatient, declaring he will break down the door if they cannot get in soon.  This first little scene sets the stage for the show perfectly.  Minnesota gets cold in the winter, and Gunner is tired of it.  He wants to escape the frigid temperatures and move to Florida, but Clara’s heart is in Minnesota .  This conflict is the basic central plot throughout Don’t Hug Me and Roberts and Snider deliver it with a very nice chemistry together.  Their bantering back-and-forth comes across as genuine and is also very funny.

 Ms. Snider does an excellent job portraying Clara with a wonderful balance between loving wife and strong-willed independent woman while Roberts is very effective in making the audience feel Gunner’s frustration, as well as the cold outside air.  In fact, even under the heat of the stage lights, the entire cast of Don’t Hug Me does a great job of selling the cold wintery theme. Whenever one of Don’t Hug Me’s colorful characters enters or exits the bar, you can almost feel the chilly Minnesota draft coming in from outside.

Shelley Scantlen portrays Bernice Lundstrom, a waitress at “The Bunyan” and fiancé of Kanute Gunderson, played by Keith Robinson.   Anyone who has seen Scantlen on stage before expects an outstanding performance, and she delivers.  Her accent is pure northern Minnesota, and she brings a naivety to Bernice that is delightful.  The sincerity in which she sings “I Wanna go to the Mall of America” is downright hilarious.  Shelley’s voice is amazing as always, and her duets with Clara and Aarvid are a riot.  Opposite Scantlen, Robinson is very strong as Kanute, a man whose world unravels with astonishing speed, although he’s quick to remind everyone “I played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls”.  Robinson takes us through Kanute’s transformation from, egotistical jerk who has it all, to loveable loser who lost it all (give or take five stores) masterfully.  When he teamed up with Roberts (Gunner) for the duet “You Dirty Piece of…” it was difficult to hear parts of the song over the sound of my own laughter. 

Enter Denver Henderson as traveling karaoke, err, “Life Style System” salesman Aarvid Gisselsen and trouble starts to brew (pardon the pun).  Aarvid wants to sell the LSS-562, a state-of-the-art karaoke system, to the Johnsons and claims it will save their bar which has been suffering in the customer department.  From the moment he enters, Henderson takes command of the stage.  He does an exceptional job, playing the role of a modern day “Music Man” with charm and panache.   Henderson is able to make Aarvid very likeable without compromising the character’s door-to-door salesman savvy.  He also gives a tenderness to the character that makes you root for him to get the girl; the girl being Bernice.  The moment Aarvid first meets Bernice is very well staged.  One look at each other and the ice begins to melt and the sparks start to fly.  Like Roberts and Snider, Scantlen and Henderson have great chemistry, and their duet, the Sven Yorgensen classic “Take a Chance”, is a hoot thanks in part to some hilarious choreography by co-director Crystal Bowers.

Complete with witty one-liners like “Oh, for spankin’ the neighbor’s baby”, hilarious songs like “Victim of My Y Chromosome”, and even a love triangle, Don’t Hug Me is fun from start to finish.  My wife and I had a great time, and so will you. Bravo to directors Zach McAfee and Crystal Bowers along with the cast and crew of Don’t Hug Me for putting together a real gem.  They take to you to Minnesota in the dead of winter and warm your heart. 

Don’t Hug Me is performing at the Little Theatre December 5 – 14.  Tickets are $12 for adults with a discount for students and seniors.  Reservations are recommended.

My friend Shirley is compiling a recipe book for our community theater group and says she’s short on salads.  Since I have to type this recipe into my computer to email it to her, thought I’d share it with you on my blog…  just in time for strawberries to go out of season.  Oh well, enjoy anyway!

Spinach and Strawberry Salad
makes 4 servings

1 - 5 or 7 oz. package of baby spinach or baby romaine
2 cups sliced strawberries
½ cup crumbled goat or feta cheese
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted

Combine greens and strawberries, add balsamic vinaigrette dressing and toss gently to evenly coat.  Sprinkle each serving with cheese and nuts.  Here is a recipe to make your own balsamic vinaigrette dressing from scratch:

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves or 1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
salt and black pepper

Whisk vinegar and olive oil in small bowl.  Add basil and season with salt and pepper.

I felt too restless to write blogs, but I’m too tired to take the kids anywhere, so it’s either write in my blog or sit here on my computer looking up scary ailments that could be afflicting my husband.  So blogging it is…

As you may have read on other tangents.org blogs, our community theater is about to open its production of The Nerd - an (I still hate putting the word “an” in front of hilarious, but oh well) hilarious comedy written by Larry Shue.  My husband is portraying the Nerd, a character named Rick Steadman, who is without any social ettiquette whatsoever, to put it mildly.  He does an excellent job at the part, if I do say so myself, and that’s a compliment, really it is - he’s not a nerd in real life!  In the play, Rick has an autographed picture of Hugh Downs, and all this time during rehearsal, I’ve been wondering, who is Hugh Downs?  The name sounds familiar, but I didn’t know anything about him, so I looked him up.  Turns out he is a fellow Ohioan, born in Akron, went to high school in Lima, and he’s still alive.  He anchored the newsmagazine show 20/20, hosted the Today show, was the announcer for The Tonight Show with Jack Paar, and he also hosted the game show Concentration.

So having an autographed picture of Hugh Downs is quite nerdy.  But then again, I looked him up on wikipedia, so what does that make me?

Halloween is right around the corner…  ok it’s 2 months away!  But Halloween stuff is out all over the stores already, and while we’re planning our Haunted Tour for our community theater group, our other friends in the theater are getting ready to stage an hilarious (TANGENT ALERT: I HATE using the word “an” before words that start with h, but I guess that’s proper English, so…) production of the play called Kitchen Witches!  Someone had a great idea to sell a Halloween cookbook as a fundraiser for the theater.  Being a stay-at-home-mom of 4, I have a few holiday-themed recipes in my vault that are fun for the kids and adults (to eat), so I’m going to contribute my favorite Halloween recipes.  Since I have to type them up to submit to the cookbook anyway, I thought I’d put them on my blog, along with a recipe for one of my favorite desserts: peanut butter bars - YUM!

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
large pumpkins
salt
seasonings (your choice)
butter

Extract seeds from pumpkin, separate from pulp, and discard pulp.  Put the seeds in a colander and run water over them to get rid of all the pulp.  Drain on paper towels.  Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter and toss pumpkin seeds in a bowl with the butter and salt and / or seasonings.  Spread seeds out onto a cookie sheet.  Toast seeds in an oven preheated to 350° for about 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes and adding salt occasionally.  Check the seeds to see if they’re done by taking a sample out, letting it cool, and tasting it.  If the insides are dry, they’re done.  Be careful not to burn - you want a nice golden brown color.
NOTES:  I use a clean, thin dishcloth instead of paper towels since I’ve had problems in the past with the seeds sticking to the paper towels.  Be creative with the seasonings; you can use popcorn seasoning, taco seasoning, garlic salt, onion powder, cayenne pepper, cajun seasoning, etc.  Pumpkin seeds are high in iron, vitamin A, and zinc; if you want to make them even healthier use olive oil instead of butter.

Rice Krispies Treats Spiders
YIELD: 3-5 spiders
3 Tablespoons margerine or butter
1 package (10 oz. or about 40) marshmallows or 4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups rice krispies cereal
food coloring
prepared frosting
candy corn
string licorice
shredded coconut

In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt margerine and marshmallows on high for 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute.  Add a few drops of food coloring and stir mixture until smooth.  Add rice krispies cereal, stirring until well coated.  Let cereal mixture slightly cool until it is safe to touch.  With buttered hands, shape cereal mixture into spider shape and place on wax paper.  Let cool.  Attach decorations to the spider with frosting using candy corn for eyes, licorice for the web, and coconut for the hair.  You can color the coconut by soaking in warm water with a few drops of food coloring for about 30 minutes.  Dry coconut on a paper towel before using.

Peanut Butter Bars
1 lb. powdered sugar
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 sticks melted butter
12 oz. peanut butter

Mix all ingredients together in a 9×13 non-greased pan.  Melt large bag of chocolate chips and spread on top.  Cut into squares in pan and refrigerate until cold.

Ok, so thespianism is not a real word, but it should be!  My husband has been acting in plays since an early age, and I was even in shows way back when before the stage fright got ahold of me, so it’s only natural that we’ve been waiting for the chance to get our daughters involved in plays and community theater.  Now that our oldest has finally reached the minimum age to participate in the local summer children’s theater, we find ourselves back in the world of rehearsals 3 nights a week - yuck to that part of it.

But we are greatly anticipating her stage debut in the Phantom Tollbooth…  though judging from her audition, she is more like me on stage than her father.  Hopefully she’ll overcome her shyness because she will have lots of fans in the audience!  Performances are August 1, 2, and 3rd in case you’re wondering!

We were privilaged to get to spend an evening without kids to take in a local community theater’s production of Little Women, the Musical.

I must be honest - the music in this musical is not my favorite.  It has nothing to do with how it was performed or who sang it; it just seemed to me to be words set to random music.  But I don’t know much about singing, music composition, or even good theater for that matter.  That being said, I will say that it’s definitely a production worth seeing.  The costumes and set were great, and the large cast of talented actors and singers seemed very cohesive and never crowded on the stage.  The play took me back into civil war times, and I do like to see stories from this time period played out live.  I was pleasantly surprised by a few of the characters’ performances since they were people I’ve worked with before so I thought I knew what to expect - but a few of their performances were much better than I even expected, and yes, two of those people read or are closely related to people who are regular readers of this blog

But I’m not being biased…  I really was impressed.  A few of the new people - performers who haven’t done much or anything for this particular theater group - were surprisingly talented also, though I have to say at least one was not.  And I might even say that the beautiful wigs almost deserve a curtain call of their own…  but don’t let the wigs steal your thunder, cast, because you can expect standing ovations from your audiences throughout the run of the show, I think.  Overall, it was a nice evening out - the show part of the dinner and show anyway.  I was so disappointed in my lack of a good meal last night that I composed this little ditty:

RIP - Maywood Restaurant in Montpelier, Ohio

They sold the restaurant but kept the name,
The tables and chairs are all that’s the same.
The food quality’s gone,
Bob’s recipes too
It’s a shame that my dinner
Tasted like old shoe.

It was once premium food
But now it’s soured my mood.
Advice I would give:
Eat here if you dare
Since I traded gourmet
For mere Sysco fare.

The ditty tells the story - basically we had this awesome restaurant nearby with very high quality food that was always cooked by the chef-owner personally.  I understand that people have to retire, but it is almost a crime that they still use the same name for the restaurant.  I mean, with a food quality drop this severe, it’s their duty to warn people before they are tempted to eat there!  Too bad dinner didn’t work out, but if the theater keeps putting on shows like Little Women, it will be enough of a reason to drive across the county to see them.

While serving on the board of a local community agency, a certain personality type came to my attention: teacher’s pet.  Yes, these people are alive and well and living as adults.  Surprisingly it’s not something one grows out of when he or she leaves school; rather, the behavior seems to evolve and follow the person into adulthood.  I use the term “teacher’s pet” loosely here because I don’t know how else to describe it, so I will try my best to give examples.  Back to this person on the board - it starts when the person stops the flow of the meeting to contribute to every item on the agenda.  I think it’s good when people participate and share their ideas, but there is a fine line when their comments and “helpful” suggestions cross the line into being disruptive.  Case in point - at a meeting recently, an item on the agenda involved discussing traveling to Chicago for a board training seminar.  The teacher’s pet of the group spoke up and went into great detail about how the board of this organization should actually be taking more than one vehicle on trips like these in case something happens to the vehicle.  He explained that if the vehicle carrying the entire board of the organization were to crash or something else horrible were to happen, we would no longer have a board if the President, Vice President, etc. were all riding together.  Good point, but a little extreme, I would say…  This board is not in charge of running a country or anything close to that scale.  I’m not saying that it’s not important or that steps should not be taken to safegaurd the staff involved, however, I don’t think dividing up into 2 vehicles has anything to do with preventative safety and actually seems like it might put a strain on the budget (insert another gas prices gripe here).  It’s a good idea for the President and Vice President of the United States and other heads of government to travel separately but when talking about this particular group it just doesn’t seem like a logical idea, especially not an idea that should have taken 20 minutes or longer to discuss.

A second example of adult teacher’s pet behavior happens often in community theater.  My husband and I are active in our local theater group, and while directing a few plays together, we’ve come across at least one individual who was a bit over eager to please the directors.  Again, don’t get me wrong, enthusiasm, especially for community theater, is a great thing.  But when you interrupt the process of producing a play in order to offer “helpful” suggestions that aren’t really helpful at all and just keep the entire group waiting for you to finish talking, then it’s probably better if you just let the director do what he or she needs to do.  It’s also especially annoying when people offer things to help with the show; be it labor, props, etc. only to not follow through and actually deliver the work and/or goods.  Makes me think they were just sucking up to the directors! 

So when I say ‘teacher’s pet’, I guess I just mean those people who are so overzealous about showing and proving to others that they are participating in the group that they come forth with ideas that aren’t always well thought out.  Like I said, it’s not that I discourage contribution, and by no means should people be made to feel that their ideas are stupid, however, they should use discretion in bringing up topics that are relevant to the conversations at hand and also make sure that they are going to follow through with what they say they will contribute.

POST DISCLAIMER:  None of the above comments have anything to do with anyone who is a regular reader of my blog!!!