My Super Short Thanksgiving Stop Motion Video

done

I created this 30 second stop-motion video in honor of this year’s Thanksgiving celebration at the Shady Dell. I’m entering the video into WordPress’ 30-second Giving Thanks video contest! It ranks up there as one of the best Thanksgivings ever!

Thanks for watching and thanks for reading my blog! Happy Thanksgiving!! 

 

Thanksgiving 2009

 

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake With Bourbon Cream

 

 

I’ve been bragging for the last week or so about how I’m going to whip up an epic pumpkin cheesecake topped with bourbon cream for the massive Thanksgiving potluck we’re having here at the Shady Dell tomorrow. So this evening, accompanied by one of my favorite retro music playlists for baking (check it out below the recipe), my friends Jen and Justin let me loose in Dot’s Diner.

Jen and Justin in Dot’s Diner

I actually borrowed this recipe from Rachelle Lucas, a fellow Travel Channel shortform journalist/innkeeper/foodie extraordinaire. When she’s not filming for the Travel Channel, Rachelle and her husband run an inn in Florida and she blogs about her favorite recipes from her favorite bed and breakfasts. Check out her website, Inn the Kitchen!

Me at Dot’s Diner

So without further ado, I present my soon-to-be-legendary pumpkin cheesecake!!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then…

Mix together the following ingredients:

THE CRUST:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup finely ground ginger snaps

1 tablespoon brown sugar

4-6 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter

Tip: If you don’t have a food processor (like I don’t), you can put the graham crackers and ginger snaps in a sealed plastic bag and crush them with your hands or a rolling pin.

Press the crumb mixture firmly into a pan. Put it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, bake it for 10 minutes and then let the crust cool on a wire rack while you make the filling. Now for the ingredients that make this cheesecake extra special…

 

My Kitchen Friends: Jack Daniels and Pureed Pumpkin

THE CHEESECAKE FILLING:

Two 8 ounce packages of cream cheese (softened at room temperature)

3 large eggs

1 can pumpkin puree

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Note on pumpkin puree: Pumpkins retain a lot of water, and in order to make the cheesecake firm you’ll need to drain some of that water out. Place a few paper towels on the counter, scoop the pumpkin puree onto the towels, cover it with several more paper towels and then pat it to remove the excess water.

 

 

 

After draining the pumpkin, mix the cream cheese and sugar together in a bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs and pumpkin, then add the spices and vanilla. 

Pour your filling onto the crust, fill a separate cake pan with water and place it on the bottom rack of the oven to keep the oven moist. Pop your cheesecake in the oven and let it bake for an hour. Let it cool for an hour, then cover and place it in the fridge for the night.

While your cake is baking, it’s on to the super simple bourbon cream topping!!!

BOURBON CREAM TOPPING

One 16 oz container sour cream

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp bourbon (I doubled this and used 2 tsp after tasting)

Beat together the sour cream and the sugar. Add the bourbon and taste:

 

Jen Says, "More Bourbon!!"

I’m planning to serve the bourbon cream on the side tomorrow. I’ll also post some photos of the cheesecake served up with the cream at our grand celebration! 

 My Vintage Music Playlist:

When I bake I love listening to this vintage music playlist, inspired by the Shady Dell, where life remains frozen in the 50’s:

1. Moonlight Serenade (Glenn Miller version)
2. At Last (Etta James)
3. Blue Moon (Mel Torme)
4. Moon River (Henry Mancini)
5. Trust in Me (Etta James)
6. Beyond the Sea (Bobby Darin)
7. Black Coffee (Sarah Vaughan)
8. Sleepwalk (Santo and Johnny)
9. Lover Man (Billie Holliday)
10. My Dearest Darling (Etta James)
11. Sincerely (The Moonglows)
12. I Love You For Sentimental Reasons (Nat King Cole)
13. Body and Soul (Coleman Hawkins)
14. Misty Blue (Dorothy Moore)
15. Feeling Good (Nina Simone)
16. My Baby Just Cares for Me (Nina Simone)
17. These Arms of Mine (Otis Redding)
18. Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (Duke Ellington and his Orchestra)

 

 

 

 

 

The Tiger Dreamz Dog Blanket

Cosette and her blanket on the road

My older brother said I should blog some more about pet travel since Cosette (my dog) and I spend probably 80% of the year on the road while I’m filming or working on various projects. I keep thinking I should start a list of all the different places we’ve spent the night, but I digress.

At any rate, while the hotel rooms seemingly change on a nightly basis I still like to bring along a few familiar things–especially for Cosette. So when I was in Santa Fe earlier this year, I stopped by a very impressive doggie store called Teca Tu and bought her a Tiger Dreamz faux fur doggie blanket. Actually it’s called a “luxury bed,” but it looks more like a blanket to me and is SUPER SOFT. Either way, Cosette has developed an intense attachment to it.

If I toss it on a sofa, she hops on it. If I place it on a bed, she starts kneading the blanket into a little nest. If I use it as a mat for her in the car, she heads right for it.

Most of all she likes to be swaddled in it, and I think the idea of something familiar makes her feel at home no matter where we happen to call it a night.

Filming with Outside K9

Danger and Cooper

These two handsome gentlemen are Danger and Cooper, the two dogs most often featured on Outside magazine’s dog blog, Outside K9. On the drive back home to Bisbee earlier this week, I stopped off in Santa Fe to film some more dog blog video adventures. I’ll post links to them in the upcoming weeks as they’re made available on the Outside K9 website.

Danger, the chocolate lab, was the star of the first series of videos I filmed about a month ago. But this time Danger’s younger brother, Cooper, got in on the action and appeared in a skiing video. He’s quite photogenic and often stares right at the camera, which makes for some beautiful photos. Plus, I think Cooper kind of likes getting the extra attention. Although how you could pass up lavishing some love on a face like this is beyond me:

Super Cooper

A Weekend with the Travel Channel and World Hum

 

 

Yes, that’s an extremely goofy grin on my face. But that’s because I actually got to stand next to the Travel Channel’s logo sculpture in their headquarter offices in Washington DC. I only visit maybe once a year, and that giddy grin spills across my face every time.

And here’s a picture of Arthur, one of my producers and a resident computer and camera genius. Photos of Arthur are as legendarily rare as a valid Bigfoot pic (past tagged photos of Arthur feature just his shoulder or an arm slicing out of frame or his back while he’s scaling some mountain) so I feel like I pulled off a real coup with an actual Arthur photo:

 

Arthur in his office

 

While I was there I attended a travel writing seminar co-hosted by Travel Channel and their sister website, World Hum, home to some of  THE BEST travel writing on the web. Definitely check it out!

Two of my favorites from the site: Rolf Potts’ new series about his voyage on a Star Trek-themed cruise and World Hum’s Top 40 travel songs of all time (I created my favorite playlist based on picks from this list).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Museum Hopping in DC

The Mall in November

I’m in Washington DC for the weekend and this photo pretty much sums up what it looked like all day long. Of course, the Mall looks beautiful to me anytime of the year, and my favorite view of it is this one from the top of the Lincoln Memorial. When I snapped this picture today I was reminded of my last visit to DC, just over a year ago. I came through while filming some shortform videos about fall foliage road trips and happened to be in town the night of the presidential election.

My mom came along with me on that trip and we’d been following the elections on the radio over the course of the six weeks we’d been on the road. When we finally reached DC it was like a New Year’s Eve party downtown and I remember staying up late to watch Obama’s acceptance speech. We stayed at a Marriott just off the Mall and the next morning I got up super early to jog the Mall (one of my favorite things to do when I visit DC) and to sprint up the Lincoln Memorial steps. It was something I’ll always remember because when I reached the top the sun was just cresting over the Capitol Building and it was such a beautiful morning and there was kind of an electricity in the air. 

Today, however, was a perfect day for museum hopping (and a brief stop at the Lincoln Memorial because I love it and its beautiful view!) So after meeting up for coffee with the incomparable Lori Rothschild Ansaldi, my Travel Channel producer and fellow yoga fanatic, I headed out with an umbrella and no real plan other than a desire to see some museums.  I lost track of time at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and was enthralled by their new exhibit, Written in Bone, which was all about how forensic anthropologists are using human remains to discover what life (and death) was like in colonial Virginia.

Here’s a short video about the exhibit, courtesy of the Smithsonian:

Roadside Attractions

Since I’m visiting Colorado for a few days, I wanted to share a video I filmed here last year when I was doing a web series for the Travel Channel about unusual roadside attractions. I filmed this video in southern Colorado in the San Isabel National Forest, where one man has been building a castle for more than 40 years now:

 

Lazy Sunday with the Dogs

Slumber Party

Cosette and I arrived in Denver last night at 2 am after the 13-hour drive from Bisbee, and this is how we spent our Sunday afternoon: snuggling up to Jack, my older brother’s black lab mix.

Then we went to the dog park. Cosette gets a bit skittish there, especially around the bigger dogs:

Dog Park Frenzy!!

That’s Cosette on the right in the above picture, trying to make a break for it. Sometimes I think she actually prefers the company of her Bisbee neighbor/nemesis, Copernicus, to the melee of the dog park:

Copernicus Courting Cosette in Bisbee

Tools of the Filming Trade

Cosette and the Sony SPK-HCE Housing

I’m always excited when I get to add another gadget to my film kit. My newest addition is the  Sony SPK-HCE Underwater Housing. Although it’s technically made for Sony cameras, my Canon HV20 fits nicely into it, even with the wide angle lens attached. I plan to use it both for underwater filming and for filming in the rain and snow.

The next item I’m considering are the Litepanels Micro or MicroPro recommended by my friend Ted Warren, a photographer/videographer for the Associated Press. Lighting can make or break a film, so Ted used the Litepanels Micro when filming this story recently about flood preparation in Washington:

Halloween in Bisbee

With Jen and Justin on Halloween

Ever since moving to Bisbee last year I’d heard the talk about the legendary Halloween celebrations in this former mining town. How all the artists and hippies and free spirits (which pretty much describes myself and almost everyone else I’ve met here) converge on Brewery Gulch and Main Street and the Victorian Copper Queen Hotel and throw a wild rumpus unlike any other. So naturally I’d been anticipating this night for weeks. And it didn’t disappoint! This year there were parties all along the streets, plus an amazing benefit concert put on by Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta. 

And what better chance to celebrate Halloween in a truly outlandish costume, do the 70’s hip bump in 4 inch heels with a pirate, and spot Jesus, a human disco ball and a life-size cupcake all in one night? It took me a couple weeks and two drives to Tucson to assemble my costume but it was worth it for one night of debauchery.

Here are some pictures from the festivities:

With the legendary pirate Cobban

I'm still not sure who was inside the M&M, but he gave out candy and was very nice.

Jen and her mask were quite popular

The 4 inch "Mad Hatter Mary Janes" that nearly did me in

Superman Walks The Streets of Bisbee

Justin the silver cowboy? silver miner? silver....something?

And in case you were wondering about Cosette, she dressed up as a lobster. Her friend/occasional nemesis, Copernicus, dressed as the Dogtown mechanic. And yes, it’s extremely corny, I know:

Cosette and Copernicus