THE BEST CRANBERRY SAUCE EVER



Ingredients:

1 cup orange juice
1 cup white sugar
1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries
1 orange, peeled and pureed
1 apple - peeled, cored and diced
1 pear - peeled, cored and diced
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, bring orange juice and sugar to a boil, until the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat to simmer, and stir in cranberries, pureed orange, apple, pear, raisins, pecans, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries burst. Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature.

Delicious as a side dish or a dessert. (It's FANTASTIC served over vanilla ice cream.)

I'm in the process of combing through my book shelves for a local holiday book drive. When it comes to books I'm a bit of a pack rat; so many books, so little time, as they say. But after browsing the first shelf even I knew there were titles that did not merit precious space in my permanent collection.

Hannibal? The Celestine Prophecy? Dieting with the Duchess?

And then there were these finds, from what I like to call my "How to Stay Single Forever" shelf.

The Boyfriend Within. Outing Yourself. Finding True Love in a Man-Eat-Man World.

Despite the fact that the cover model is wearing pleated pants, one of the books I'll be keeping is The Unofficial Gay Manual: Living the Lifestyle (or at Least Appearing to), by Kevin Dilallo & Jack Krumholtz. The book was published in 1994, and one of the stops on the authors' book tour was at the now closed Barnes & Noble bookstore in Astor Place. I know this because theirs was the first gay book signing I ever attended. Inside the book Dilallo & Krumholtz wrote:

"To David: A man of exceptional taste, especially in books."

The purging continues.

TKTS Booth, Times Square.

The night I saw Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire the movie theater was sold out. The crowd was made up of 75% African American women, and the other 25% were the gay men who love them. Oprah herself couldn’t have planned it better.

( MORE )

If you were to look at the “Recently Played” song list on my iPod you’d see that Adam Lambert’s new song, “For Your Entertainment,” is close to the top. Judge me if you will but it’s a catchy song, and I was listening to it this morning when I boarded the subway to Manhattan. Little did I know then how perfect the song's title would prove for the events that were about to take place.

Gather around, everyone. I have a CRAZY story to tell.

( MORE HERE )

"Something Old, Something New"

I passed this building in Hell's Kitchen a couple of weeks ago and couldn't stop staring at it. It reminded me of the musical RENT. Before long I was making up stories in my head about the people who once called this building home. From the looks of it now it will soon transition into something else, perhaps a a brand new structure entirely. Good or bad? I can't decide.

My good pal markgharris is challenging his flist once again to compose poems, poems based on previous LiveJournal posts of Mark's choosing. HERE, still reeking up my blog, is the poem I hacked out last year, and HERE is the post Mark has chosen for me to defile for 2009. (As Juno herself might say, "It's giving me the stinkeye.")

Forgive me, Diablo Cody.

( PAULIE BLEEKER BLUES )

40 years old today.

I am so anxious about what's happening up in Maine today. I'm trying to stay optimistic, I'm trying to think positive thoughts. I'm trying to understand why someone hasn't knocked this witch off her broom yet.



MARRY ME, MAINE!

11/04/09 - I still love you, Maine. You broke my heart, but I still love you.

This one's a bit long -- 6 minutes and 20 seconds -- but I wouldn't cut one creepy moment. What could be more spooky this time of year than a mash-up of scary movies set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller"?



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I just finished reading Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist. A passage toward the end of the novel - published in 1985 - made me long for the days of air travel in the "Just Say No" years, when hardware and pesticides were peculiar carry-on items, but certainly no cause for a full body search, or even the removal of one's shoes.

"He took his place next to a window and was joined almost immediately by an elderly couple speaking French. The man sat next to Macon and gave him a deep, unsmiling nod. Then he said something to his wife, who passed him a canvas bag. He unzipped it and sorted through its contents. Playing cards, an entire tin of Band-Aids, a stapler, a hammer, a lightbulb...Macon was fascinated. He kept sliding his eyes to the right to try to see more. When a wooden mousetrap tumbled out, he began to wonder if the man might be some sort of lunatic; but of course even a mousetrap could be explained, given a little thought."

Grand Central Station. (No, you cannot drive a car inside Grand Central Station. However, you can apparently win one.)

This cracked me up, a Lego animation of a classic bit by British comedian Eddie Izzard. If you like "Supermarkets and Trolleys" be sure to check out "Do You Have a Flag?" and "Death Star Canteen."

No, this is not a picture of Sheep Meadow. It's Les LaLanne on Park Avenue, one of the current exhibits presented by Art in the Parks.

What made me smile today? A YouTube mash-up of STAR WARS and the "Dallas" TV-series opening theme.