Ol' Time Dinner and a Movie

Hey Kari,

Thought I'd share with you a movie review and my recipe for beef stew which I prepared for my guests as I hosted an old movie night at my Westside apartment.

First the food!

~2 lbs beef cut up into cubes about 1-2 inches and season with some olive oil, garlic, paprika, black pepper, salt; fry it up in until meat is lightly browned.

Toss in onions chopped up (I used 2 big sweet onions) and fry until the onions are lightly cooked.

Chop up 3 medium tomatoes and add to the mix.
Add in seasonings:
garlic
3 T paprika
1 T vinegar
1/2 T marjoram
1/2 T caraway seed
1 can tomato paste
1/2 T salt

Add water so there is enough to allow the whole mix to simmer and stew! I also add a little sugar to tone down the slight tartness from the tomato stuff. And at the very end I throw in a package of frozen peas and carrots. Serve with your favorite carbs: rice, pasta or bread.

For the movie, I went with Laura (1944). Have you ever seen it? It is an Otto Preminger directed effort starring Dana Andrews (as the detective), Gene Tierney (as Laura), Clifton Webb (as Lydecker) and Vincent Price (as Carpenter). Webb clearly stole the show with his performance. I'd say Andrews and Price were tied for second with some great lines and convincingly inhabiting the roles they had. Tierney was probably the weakest performance. But her job was merely to look pretty as Laura and be loved by all the men around her. And so since she was such a knockout in her day, she had no problem doing that.

Nifty little murder mystery with snappy dialog and the Laura theme by David Raksin. One pretty big plot hole at the end but I won't give it away since you or our readers may have not seen it.

Thumbs up. 2.5 stars out of 4.

Look forward to hearing about NASCAR and bratwurst and sauerkraut and other cultural things from your weekend.

Cheers,
Rene

P.s. Love those CUBBIES and I'm impressed by the FISH!