Hunger, Peaches and Leeks

This weekend we rented the movie The Hunger Games.  I thought T would sleep through it; he didn't pay close attention, but he did watch.  I think the movie was just fine -- not awful, but not spectacular.  Since so much of the book is driven by Katniss's internal thoughts, I knew it was going to be difficult to get much of the drama across.  I'm not even sure how clear it was to viewers that she is initially playing along with the lovebird storyline for the sake of survival, then begins to actually feel something for Peeta, and finally comes home unsure of her feelings for both Peeta and Gale. They also tamed down quite a bit of the horror of the Games, making the psychological impacts of the experience much less obvious.  I mean, in Hollywood, people kill each other all the time, so why should this girl be scarred for life?  The horrific tracker-jacker hallucinations about Glimmer are gone, I never got the impression that either Kat or Peeta were truly close to death, the creepiness of the Mutts mirroring the personalities of the other contestants is left out -- I don't think they even come off as that scary -- and, finally, Cato's torture is cut mercifully short.  I understand this was probably done for the sake of getting a larger audience of kids, and I don't typically complain that my movies aren't violent enough, but those experiences are the ones that continue to haunt Katniss through the remaining books, so it seems as though you need to get those ideas across somehow.

The actual casting was pretty good, in my opinion.  Rue wasn't much of an actress, but she was so young and was given such a small part, that is forgiveable.  Haymitch should have been a lot heavier than Woody Harrelson, but he does a good job in the role.  I feel like Katniss was cast well, since she is supposed to be a girl with a short temper who doesn't emote well, but Peeta should have been more classically tall, blonde and handsome -- they got the nice guy part right, but not the gorgeous-and-he-doesn't-know-it part.  All in all, however, it was a decent movie adaptation of a decent book.  MUCH better than the Twilight series attempts.

That night, I made my first ever peach cobbler.  We got a case of peaches along with our basket last week, and since I'm not a big fan of the fuzzy little guys, T has been having a hard time keeping up with them.  I found Paula Dean's recipe which was quick and easy.  The hardest part was blanching, peeling, and slicing the buggers, and that wasn't even that hard.  You melt butter in a big baking dish, pour in a very simple batter (I looked up online how to turn all-purpose flour into self-rising, by adding the right amounts of baking soda and salt), then you put the peaches on top and bake.  I pulled it out of the oven just before bed, and we had it for breakfast.  It was a little too sweet for my tastes, and a bit gooey, but T said he liked it, and that's what really counts.

The other high point of the weekend was a batch of potato leek soup, made by yours truly this afternoon, another first for me.  We got a pair of fat and lovely leeks in our Bountiful Basket this week, along with some gorgeous white potatoes, so it was a natural choice.  I got the recipe out of our trusty Joy of Cooking, and it was also quite simple.  I only had 2 leeks, so I tried to halve the recipe, but then I sliced too many potatoes, so I guessed on the volumes for everything.  I sweated the sliced leeks in butter for about 20 min, then added the thin-sliced potatoes, 4 cups of water (enough to cover the potatoes), and the appropriate amount of Better Than Bouillon chicken stock base.  That should have simmered for about 30 min., although in my case it was longer, because it took me a while to realize the "low" setting on my electric stove didn't sustain an actual simmer.  Then I added some salt and black pepper, and threw it in the blender to puree (just like a Top Chef!,  I was thinking to myself,  If only I had an immersion blender...).  The stroke of genius was topping it with bacon crumbles -- not in the recipe, but it definitely put it over the top!  It was good enough for T to have 2 bowls, and it disappeared too quickly for pics.  I may actually have to buy some leeks if they don't show up in our basket again.