One Ingredient Challenge: Hummus

Part of an ongoing series of cooking from scratch. That is, we cook something from basic items that don't have multiple ingredients (e.g. store-bought spaghetti sauce includes all sorts of spices and maybe other stuff too; we'd start with tomatoes and individual spices and add them together to make our own sauce). See other challenges here.

Finding an especially good hummus is not as easy as you might think. Having bookmarked a hummus recipe from Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, we decided to make our own to see how it came out. The book is all about various foods that can be made at home and whether it is cheaper to make or buy those foods. We've had plenty of success before with the book (though vanilla bean prices have gone up, making the store-bought vanilla extract more cost-effective) and were hoping for another positive outcome.

The recipe starts with chick peas,which we soaked overnight.

Soaking peas

The next day, we prepped other ingredients, like lemon zest and lemon juice.

Zesting a lemon

Juicing a lemon

Blending the ingredients was a fun process for our daughter.

Mixing ingredients in our little food processor

Adding tahini

The final batch was a lot of humus. The taste test worked out very well!

Testing the final product

Approved!

Book Review: DC Comics: Bombshells Vol. 1 by M. Bennett et al.

DC Comics: Bombshells Volume 1: Enlisted written by Marguerite Bennett and art by Marguerite Sauvage and others

The DC universe is reimagined in a World War II setting. While all the men are off fighting World War II, the women have to rise to the occasion and take on typical male jobs. For Kate Kane, that means working her day job as a baseball player for the Gotham Knights and her night job as Batwoman, crime fighter. The first thing we see her do is stop the mugger before he kills Thomas Wayne, so Bruce Wayne becoming Batman is definitely out of the picture.

Meanwhile, step-sisters Kara and Kortni join the Night Witches, a Soviet all-female air force. The sisters have kept their superpowers secret until now. An accident during training forces them to reveal their superhuman abilities. At first, the Soviets think they are traitors but then use them as propaganda--the Supergirl and the Stargirl. They have an uneasy relationship with their Soviet commanders, eventually fleeing the USSR.

Also meanwhile, U.S. spy Steve Trevor crashes somewhere in the Mediterranean, discovering Themyscira, home of Wonder Woman. She pretty quickly decides to leave the island and join the war effort. She's helped by Mera, second daughter of the king of the sea, so she has no royal commitments to hold her back.

Everyone is recruited by Commander Amanda Waller, who plans to end the war by putting together a super-group--The Bombshells. Which is good, because the Nazis have the Joker's Daughter on their side. She is summoning supernatural zombie forces to the side of evil.

For all the creative reimaging going on, I found the book disappointing. The focus for Batwoman was on her lesbian relationship with the Gotham City detective who deals with her superhero persona regularly (which is certainly a conflict of interest, among other problems!). She's sent to be a spy in Europe though she does not have any real spy skills. The plot line with Supergirl and Stargirl does not make any sense at all. Wonder Woman's story follows the usual line with the interesting addition of Mera (who is Aquaman's bride in the regular continuity) as her pal. The only male characters to show up are Alexander Luthor, the Luthorcorp businessman trying to squeeze as much money as he can out of the war, and John Constantine, who gets turned into a talking rabbit and winds up as Zatanna's sidekick (which is pretty funny). She's stuck working for the Joker's Daughter but I imagine Zatanna will betray her or run away soon.

Overall, not recommended--I will not keep reading this series.

US Lightship Chesapeake, Baltimore

The Lightship Chesapeake is one of the four ships featured in the Historic Ships in Baltimore. The downtown harbor is a crowded place, so the ship is not the easiest to spot.

The Chesapeake hiding in the harbor near the Aquarium

Lightships wers used as a floating lighthouses. The US Lighthouse Service used such ships from 1820 to 1939, when the US Coast Guard took over the Lighthouse Service. The Coast Guard used them until 1983. The ships served as beacons in dangerous waters where a lighthouse couldn't be built. These ships were replaced by lighthouses or buoys when the technology became available.

The Chesapeake served in the Chesapeake Bay. It was built in 1930 and served in the bay until 1971. After decommissioning, the ship was given to the National Parks Service which opened it to the public at a Potomac River berth until 1982. Then it was loaned to the City of Baltimore and became part of the Historic Ships in Baltimore.

Ready to visit the Chesapeake

Close up

Going up the gangway

On board

The ship was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 and is quite fun to tour.

NPS plaque

Diagram of the ship

Like most ships, space is at a premium, so the stairways are steep. The ticket taker said adults should go first and guide younger visitors down. I dutifully went first.

The way down

The ship has narrow passageways that lead into larger rooms. The first room we found was the Officers Wardroom. It looked very comfy, with a large table and a plush couch at the back. We couldn't sit on the couch since it still has original upholstery. It served as the officers' mess or dining area.

Officers Wardroom

The ship typically had a crew of seventeen, with individual rooms for the officers and two-man staterooms for the regular sailors.

Officer's room

Crew's quarters

The ship has plenty of historical information on display. I enjoyed reading what I could as the kids looked at what caught their interest.

History of the boat

I saw a porthole with a view of the harbor and downtown Baltimore.

Porthole

View with nose pressed up against the porthole

The engine room was off-limits to visitors but we could peek in and see the heavy equipment and some of the diesel-electric propulsion plant (including a nifty diagram) which was state-of-the-art back in the day.

Engine room

Engine design

Further back in the ship is the crew's mess with the kitchen.

Messing around in the mess hall

The on-board kitchen

The ship had two anchors, the main and a spare, to keep it on location. In 1936 and 1962, it had to ride out hurricanes powerful enough to break the anchor chain, requiring the crew to drop the spare anchor and run full ahead into the winds to stay on station.

The anchor windlass

I was less fastidious about the "adults first" rule when it came to going up stairs.

Climbing up to the pilothouse

The kids enjoyed pretending to steer, check the radar, and the compass in the pilothouse.

Turning the big wheel

Doing a Spock impression

Checking the compass bearings

The pilothouse seen from below

The harbor looks nice from the deck of the Chesapeake.

Downtown

Federal Hill

Ship's bell

Our next visit was to the USS Torsk, a World War II submarine! Coming to the blog soon...

First Saturday at Savage Mill and 202nd Anniversary

Being fans of Savage Mill, we went to the final Summer First Saturday celebration on September 2, 2018. Most of the festivities were held in the courtyard. Businesses set up tables with demonstrations and activities.

The first table we came to was the Family Game Store's table, where we tried out Dr. Beaker and Dr. Microbe. Dr. Beaker had us stirring marbles in a beaker in order to match patterns on cards. Dr. Microbe had us picking little colored plastic microbe pieces out of a petri dish to match patterns on cards. Both were fun.

Beakers and microbes!

Further down the courtyard was a wheel of fortune dispensing various gift certificates. Our older son won a five dollar gift certificate to any store at the Mill; our younger son won a free appetizer at Rams Head; our daughter won a free sample at Faces by Brandi.

Wheel of fortune!

Rams Head also had a cornhole game in the courtyard, which occupied a lot of time as our young one tried to get a bean bag in the hole wholly on his own. He insisted on not being helped!

Just short

Still too short

One way to solve the distance problem

A new player

We went inside and had lunch at Say Cheezz Grille, the grill and ice cream bar that is also part of the Sweet Cascades Chocolatier. Naturally, we had dessert there as well. We wandered around a bit and headed back to the courtyard for the balloon guy. He was very charming and made a dragon for my young son.

Starting with green, a good start for a dragon

Adding wings

Presentation of the critter

The courtyard also had live music. We weren't in quite the right clothes to dance and the songs were mostly pop cover tunes (including Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, which we had just watched on YouTube). It was a fun afternoon.

Music al fresco

We didn't make it to the earlier First Saturdays because of other obligations. We hope they will keep up the tradition next summer!

Later in September, we went to the 202nd "birthday" celebration for the Mill. It was built back in 1816 and had the 200th anniversary celebration two years ago (see posts here and here).

The Mill's back entrance

Plaque

We saw a weaving demonstration and an old music box that was the fanciest, most complicated music box we'd ever seen. It has volume control, the ability to switch songs (each cylinder has 24 songs!), and other nifty adjustments. It was the iPod of the 18th century!

Weavers in action

Big ol' music box

We had ice cream at Say Cheezz and played a game at the Family Game Store. We tried out the deluxe version of Hey, That's My Fish!, which has bigger tiles and fancier penguins.

Playing the game

My older son grasped the concept of the game quicker than the preschooler and I did, so he managed to isolate our penguins as we slowly removed bits of the iceberg.

It was fun but brief second visit to the Mill in September.

Movie Review: Hostiles (2017)

Hostiles (2017) written and directed by Scott Cooper based on the manuscript by Donald E. Stewart

Grizzled Civil War veteran Captain Blocker (Christian Bale) has one last assignment before he starts collecting his pension. He's ordered to escort Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) back to Montana so he can die among his people after a long imprisonment. Blocker is notoriously harsh to his enemies, especial Native Americans, so the assignment doesn't sit well with him. Chief Yellow Hawk also has a history of brutality against Americans. President Harrison has ordered Yellow Hawk's return, so the mission is politically unavoidable. Blocker reluctantly agrees. Almost immediately after they set out, they come on a burned-out ranch where only the mother (Rosamund Pike) has survived a Comanche attack. She's in a bad place mentally and is further shocked when she's brought back to their camp and there's more natives (the Chief's family were also in prison). The mother joins the long trek northward, sharing in the extreme hardships of the trip. The first among many obstacles is the group of Comanches who are still nearby.

The movie is fairly grim and joyless, which follows naturally from the theme of blood enemies needing to reconcile in order to make any forward progress for themselves or for society as a whole. Yellow Hawk and Blocker have basically the same history of bloodthirsty anger at another group of people. Yellow Hawk is at the point where he realizes it doesn't matter anymore; he's made peace with his fate and has learned to treat others as humans. He and his family make several compassionate gestures to the Americans taking them back home. Blocker is at the end of his military career and still carries the hatred but has lost a lot of the zeal for killing. He puts Yellow Hawk in chains as soon as they are out of sight of the fort and it's a long while before those chains come off. The two do come to a mutual understanding and respect by the end of the journey.

The beautiful theme is undercut by the hamfisted delivery. Some of the minor characters are anachronistically over-apologetic for the treatment of the Native Americans, making them sound more like paid political advertisements rather than actual people. Yellow Hawk comes off as the "native wise man" stereotype rather than a leader with a bloodthirsty past, also undercutting the theme. The performances by Bale and Studi help to mask the flaws of the script, but if you are politically sensitive to messages in films, the film will seem either really preachy or really great.

The movie's pacing is fairly slow. The countryside is beautiful and lovingly filmed. The actors have plenty of time to emote visually rather than verbally, which is good in a film. The pacing also gives the audience plenty of time to think about what's going on (maybe too much time).

Mild recommendation--the movie may be too slow or too political for some. I found it okay but not exceptional. I'm glad I saw it but don't feel any need to revisit it.

Book Review: Ant-Man/Giant-Man: Growing Pains by S. Lee et al.

Ant-Man/Giant-Man: Growing Pains written by Stan Lee, Steve Englehart, George Perez, and Christos Gage with art by Jack Kirby, Don Heck, George Tuska, Jeff Moore, and Tom Raney

This anthology of stories focuses on Hank Pym, the scientist who discovered Pym Particles and was the original Ant-Man. The first story reintroduces him as Giant-Man--he uses the particles to make himself bigger rather than smaller! In the second story, he renames himself Goliath. In the third story he's going by the moniker Yellow Jacket. In the fourth and fifth stories, he's back to being Giant-Man (with occasional moments of being ant-sized if not Ant-Man).

In case you didn't deduct it, Hank Pym is both a brilliant scientist and a man suffering from a massive insecurity complex. So he has to fight both super-villians and his own feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt--often at the same time. The balancing of the two is hard to do from a story-telling perspective. The fourth story is the longest (a four-parter, the rest are single stories) and most successful at telling a story that combines outer conflict and inner conflict. Hank is working with a partner to use a variant of Pym Particles to end world hunger. Some side-effects cause monstrous insects to appear and various other characters exposed to Pym Particles (like The Wasp and second Ant-Man Scott Lang) to have serious difficulties with their powers. The overall problem is labyrinthine and eventually Hank Pym figures it out, but not until he's gone through a lot (including a stint in a straight-jacket).

Mildly recommended-the book is interesting but full of hits and misses.

Book Review: Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child by Terrance Dicks

Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child by Terrance Dicks

As boldly announced on the cover, this book is the "First publication of the very first Doctor Who story." Having never seen the very first episode, I was intrigued to read the book. The story has many elements that have lasted throughout the years--kidnapping of the Doctor and his friends, escaping and being re-kidnapped, co-ordinating various skills in the group, discussing the "it's bigger on the inside" nature of the TARDIS, and traveling to an exotic time.

The story starts with Susan, a brilliant school student who doesn't know some of the basics, like how pre-metric English money works. Two teachers, Barbara and Ian, are concerned about her and follow her home to the address the school has--a junkyard in town. In the yard, they don't see Susan but they do see a perfectly serviceable police box and an old man fussing around. Soon enough, they are inside the TARDIS and wind up in pre-historic Earth where a tribe of cavemen fret over the invention of fire. Action and excitement ensue.

I enjoyed the story though the writing is very plain. It's the perfect sort of beach-reading fun novel. The Doctor Who connection is a bonus. Now I must hunt down the original episode on DVD or streaming somewhere.

Mildly recommended.