Sunday, February 25, 2007

Happy Birthday, Alan Rickman/ Severus Snape

Today we celebrated Alan Rickman's 61st birthday at our house in NC with this nice cake. That is, the Typist ate the cake after I helped her make it by sitting on her feet as she stirred the batter.
She prefers that I do not sit on her feet while she is cooking, but they are warm and she may move toward the cat food shelf at any time, and I wouldn't want to miss that.

We like Alan Rickman and watch his movies often. My personal favorite is "Truly, Madly, Deeply" because Juliet Stevenson is brilliant with Alan... strange human/non-feline romance.

The Typist likes Harry Potter...at least, the first three films are her favorites. The fact that Alan Rickman keeps this Severus Snape character so nastily alive and with such swishing style makes the films enjoyable.
The typist also likes his creative work with the Rachel Corrie story. For that alone, Alan should get a cake...with frosting, but no frosting for the nasty, Severus Snape's cake.

RECIPE FOLLOWS



Severus Snape’s Birthday Cake (no frosting for you Snape!)

recipe created for -- Alan Rickman’s Birthday 2/25/07

Ingredients:
One 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs or substitute
1/4 cup water or orange juice
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup orange marmalade

Beat cream cheese, butter, and brown sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer with paddle attachment (if you have one) until smooth and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, then the orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla, beating it until smooth.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; add to cream cheese mixture, beating at low speed until well blended. Spread the batter into greased and floured 9 x 9-inch baking pan. Dollop with marmalade and swirl with a knife.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until the cake is browned . Cool slightly on a rack and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into squares. Skip the frosting for Snape, but Alan might like a whipped cream dollop or two.

Variations: Blueberry preserves and lemon zest, or whole-berry cranberry sauce and lime zest, or raspberry or blackberry preserves with lemon zest. Or skip the zest altogether

Yield: 6 to 8 human servings

1,000,000 Blogs for Peace

After a brief discussion followed by free food--we prefer Deep Sea Delight at my house-- we unanimously voted to support the blog-o-sphere (is there such a place?) push for peace by US Withdrawl in Iraq. We signed up for the One Million Bloggers for Peace.
You can join by going to: http://blogsforpeace.org.

I don't know if it will help, but anything to get the attention of those asleep at the wheel may do some good.
Also, I worry about all those cats, my distant relatives, in Iraq who are not being properly fed and housed.
This war must stop!

Note: I have not gotten more messages out recently because the Typist had right hand surgery. On her second hard cast now...comes off in a week. At first she refused to type at all and just slept and watched DVDs. And they say cats are lazy.
But, I have just now gotten her to do one-handed hunt and peck. She is so slow! I get bored and forget what I wanted to say. No, I can't fire her. She's the one who leads the discussions and open the packs of Deep Sea Delight for me and Buddy Budd. Try some...

Fond regards,
PD Budd