Demon Barbers and Tortilla Soup
Saturday, January 5th, 2008 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forchancookieI went to see Sweeney Todd with my mom and Aunt today. We got stuck in traffic so we missed the matinee! Darn. We ended up going over to my aunt's apartment to hang out until the next show. She has a five toed cat called Mittens. I let is sniff me and it'd sniff, but every time it bumped its nose into my finger it winced and jumped. Then it decided to just scratch me D= Bleh. We watched part of What Women Want on tv before heading back to the theater.
I saw the stage production while I was in San Francisco and thought it was pretty awesome. I know there's been lots of drama here and there about purists and such, so I definitely wanted to give the movie a shot. I did. I liked parts of it, but on a whole, I was unimpressed. Why? It was mostly the fucking blood! It was candy apple red and not transparent in the least. It looked like they were splashing red paint around the whole time! I was so not impressed. From the first time the "blood" started dripping in the credits till the pool at the end, I couldn't stop shaking my head.
I did enjoy Johnny Depp's singing, though his white skunk stripe was dumb looking and I was having serious Edward Scissor Hand flashbacks. I liked that they had a cute kid cast as Toby. Alan Rickman made a slimy slimy judge XD I wasn't impressed at all by Miss Helena Bohnam Carter. I was totally biased by the smashing performance I'd seen on stage. Mrs. Lovett should have been older and plumper, not young and anorexic like that. And what was up with her hair? All those crappy visuals, I blame on Tim Burton. Sorry, not a fan. I didn't appreciate the dark heroin rings under their eyes or the overly white faces or the super red blood. It threw me out of the zone.
So it was good. They were working with some interesting source material. The cast, other than Mrs. Lovett, was good and the actors did a great job. The visuals they provided were not as impressive. Too much goth and crappy fake gore. The music good too. Johnny Depp can sing and does it well. His and Alan Rickman's duet just cracked me up. I mean, c'mon! Duet! XD Anyway, worth a view if you like the music or story and don't mind the ridiculous red blood.
Brian used to work at J. Alexander's and they had this delicious tortilla soup that was really creamy and cheesy and full of tortilla and chicken. I really wanted to find a recipe, but when I looked up tortilla soup, I found out that J. Alexander's had obviously made their own version as tortilla soup is not a cream based soup. It meant I'd just have to figure out how to make it myself. And I did. This will be an evolving recipe as this is version one and I want to try some things next time. It's also a recipe that relies strongly on your taste to prepare it. Quite a few of the ingredients are "to taste" so there's plenty of room to get it how you like it.
J. Alexander's Creamy Tortilla Soup Take One
Ingredients:
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 bottle of green sauce (Salsa Verde)
3 or 4 soft corn tortillas
1 cooked chicken breast cut into pieces
1/4 cup of Sour Cream plus some
1/2 cup of Cheddar Cheese plus
1. Prepare the cream of chicken soup according to the can. Depending on if you want a very thick creamy soup or a thinner one, you can adjust the water, but don't use less than the can calls for.
2. Crumble your tortillas into the soup. Add the cut chicken and mix well.
3. Add green sauce to the soup. A few drops for a mild spicy taste, more for more kick. This step requires numerous tastings until you get it just right. If you added too much, don't worry.
4. Stir in a quarter cup of sour cream and a half a cup of shredded cheddar (these can be adjusted to taste). Stir until melted and bubbly. If you made it too spicy, you can adjust it with additional sour cream or some milk.
5. Serve with an extra sprinkle of cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.
And there you have it. A creamy, cheesy, yummy soup with a nice spicy kick. J. Alexander's served theirs with very fine strips of tortilla chips on top. I had some corn chips but decided to forgo that, though it can definitely be served with corn chips if you'd like.
I saw the stage production while I was in San Francisco and thought it was pretty awesome. I know there's been lots of drama here and there about purists and such, so I definitely wanted to give the movie a shot. I did. I liked parts of it, but on a whole, I was unimpressed. Why? It was mostly the fucking blood! It was candy apple red and not transparent in the least. It looked like they were splashing red paint around the whole time! I was so not impressed. From the first time the "blood" started dripping in the credits till the pool at the end, I couldn't stop shaking my head.
I did enjoy Johnny Depp's singing, though his white skunk stripe was dumb looking and I was having serious Edward Scissor Hand flashbacks. I liked that they had a cute kid cast as Toby. Alan Rickman made a slimy slimy judge XD I wasn't impressed at all by Miss Helena Bohnam Carter. I was totally biased by the smashing performance I'd seen on stage. Mrs. Lovett should have been older and plumper, not young and anorexic like that. And what was up with her hair? All those crappy visuals, I blame on Tim Burton. Sorry, not a fan. I didn't appreciate the dark heroin rings under their eyes or the overly white faces or the super red blood. It threw me out of the zone.
So it was good. They were working with some interesting source material. The cast, other than Mrs. Lovett, was good and the actors did a great job. The visuals they provided were not as impressive. Too much goth and crappy fake gore. The music good too. Johnny Depp can sing and does it well. His and Alan Rickman's duet just cracked me up. I mean, c'mon! Duet! XD Anyway, worth a view if you like the music or story and don't mind the ridiculous red blood.
Brian used to work at J. Alexander's and they had this delicious tortilla soup that was really creamy and cheesy and full of tortilla and chicken. I really wanted to find a recipe, but when I looked up tortilla soup, I found out that J. Alexander's had obviously made their own version as tortilla soup is not a cream based soup. It meant I'd just have to figure out how to make it myself. And I did. This will be an evolving recipe as this is version one and I want to try some things next time. It's also a recipe that relies strongly on your taste to prepare it. Quite a few of the ingredients are "to taste" so there's plenty of room to get it how you like it.
J. Alexander's Creamy Tortilla Soup Take One
Ingredients:
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 bottle of green sauce (Salsa Verde)
3 or 4 soft corn tortillas
1 cooked chicken breast cut into pieces
1/4 cup of Sour Cream plus some
1/2 cup of Cheddar Cheese plus
1. Prepare the cream of chicken soup according to the can. Depending on if you want a very thick creamy soup or a thinner one, you can adjust the water, but don't use less than the can calls for.
2. Crumble your tortillas into the soup. Add the cut chicken and mix well.
3. Add green sauce to the soup. A few drops for a mild spicy taste, more for more kick. This step requires numerous tastings until you get it just right. If you added too much, don't worry.
4. Stir in a quarter cup of sour cream and a half a cup of shredded cheddar (these can be adjusted to taste). Stir until melted and bubbly. If you made it too spicy, you can adjust it with additional sour cream or some milk.
5. Serve with an extra sprinkle of cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.
And there you have it. A creamy, cheesy, yummy soup with a nice spicy kick. J. Alexander's served theirs with very fine strips of tortilla chips on top. I had some corn chips but decided to forgo that, though it can definitely be served with corn chips if you'd like.
