Maile Hernandez

It was a fantastic weekend over here in my world.

Friday night Conrad went to a football game and I hung out with Max.  He was being so sweet, it was unbelievable.  We snuggled and watched boxing (I really don’t mind so much watching his stuff over and over if I have gossip magazines to read, which I did).  When Conrad got home we had kind of a Friday night pajama party.  We all stayed up late and just goofed around.

Saturday Conrad let me sleep in and I woke up at 11:15 a.m.!  I don’t think I’ve slept that late since I was a teenager.  I was up till about 3 though.  Conrad and I watched “The Search for the Next Iron Chef” after Max went to sleep, and Conrad wrote his article.  He always wants to write his articles about games he’s attended that very night so that they’re up the next morning. 

And by the way he’s doing really well with that.  Check out his articles - if you’re a football person.  Because if not it’ll all be totally lost on you as it is on me. 

After I got up I cleaned like a madwoman while Conrad napped a little while.  Max was gracious enough to let me. 

How to work with your kid, not against him

Then, I took Max to a birthday party.  It was at a park and he had a great time.  He didn’t know any of the kids because it was for the son of a lady at my work, but he didn’t care in the least.  They had one of those blow-up bouncy houses and pizza and cake and he loved it all.  He would hang with the party for a few minutes, then run to the playground, then come back.  It was nice.

I’m finally feeling like I’m getting into the rhythm with Max.  I’ve stopped thinking “How can I control him,” and started thinking about it more like going with the flow of the tide.  It’s not that I’m permissive, it’s that I’m working with the ebb and flow of his needs and desires.  Man, it saves a lot of heartache.  And I felt very serene and secure in my parenting him, and not “on stage” as if all the other parents were watching and judging - something I’ve really struggled with for years.

I guess I’m evolving with him.  It’s about finding that rhythm and learning to go with it.  If you go against the rhythm and constantly judge yourself, you will lose the rhythm and fall.  But if you half-close your eyes and go with the natural flow, believe in yourself and what you’re doing, the cooperation between you and your child all comes much more naturally.

“Staring through the cage of those meticulous ink strokes - at absolute beauty.”  - Salieri, Amadeus

THEN we went to the Arizona Broadway Theatre to see Anything Goes.  I will be writing the official review later today, but it was a really nice evening.  Good food, good show, good times for all.

So what I’m about to say is going to sound like a criticism, and it’s not. 

I saw Anything Goes at the Vivian Beaumont, and although I didn’t see Patti LuPone, I listened to the CD like 850 billion times.  I’ve seen the show twice now locally, with perfectly talented and capable casts.

And yet, it underlines so much the true superiority of those cream of the crop Broadway performers.

When Patti sings those songs, it’s like there’s a great wildness that’s barely contained within the structure of the performance.  When your other actors do it, they’re bringing talent TO it.  It’s like they start at zero and work themselves UP into the performance, through smarts, technique, and the like - while the greats like Patti - it’s already THERE, and they use the techniques of performance just to harness it into the confines the show and finesse it for the audience.

It’s just a whole other level.  Hear Patti sing ANY given line from the CD at all, and it makes it so obvious.  Certain people, it’s just magic.  That’s what makes Broadway so infuriatingly special.  There are a few locals who have that too, and it’s exciting when you find them, but in the big leagues, it’s like you’ll see something amazing much more quickly.  It’s like those certain areas of the country where you have so many more chances of seeing a shooting star.

The greats can bring so much complexity to one simple phrase of a song.  It just kills me.

Really, kills me. 

So it’s not an indictment of a perfectly good, even excellent, polished local production - it’s just that it makes you appreciate that other world of performing all the more.  That unexplainable, uncapturable world that somehow completely far and away transcends so many very, very good performances by highly trained and talented people.  There’s something else there, and it’s so mysterious to me.  I think it will vex and enthrall me till the day I die.

“Cooking with Mrs. Hernandez”

Sunday I COOKED.  Oh, did I cook!  Ever since I finished “Cooking with Mr. Latte” I’ve been itching to try one of Amanda Hesser’s recipes.  Sunday I tried four.

I should have taken pictures.  Oh, well.

I made: 

Deviled eggs with smoked paprika.  Oh my God, they ROCKED.  And neither Conrad nor my dad, who was our guest, really care for deviled eggs.  I knew this, I made them mostly for myself, and it’s glad I am I did!  Now I have tons left over and I’ve brought them to work for a fantastic nosh.

Caesar salad.  From scratch, baby.  I needed to dry the lettuce a bit better but otherwise it was great.  It occurred to me that I need to get one of those spinning lettuce dryers.  If I used to like to play with them as a kid, imagine how much Max would!  It’d be like his idea of heaven, all that spinning.

Haricots verts with dill.  Simple but good, and I never would have made them without Hesser’s guidance.

And finally — Rigatoni with White Bolognese.  I felt like such a chef!  The complex aromas were wafting through the house for an hour.  I don’t think I’ve ever made something so fancy and flavorful in my life.

WHAT a feeling of satisfaction.  I so want to start cooking more.

And ironically, I find I eat less too.  I think it’s because I get so much food stimulation between the planning, the cooking, the smelling, etc., that I don’t have so much of a drive to just consume, consume, consume.  It becomes more about quality than volume, and I’m physically and spiritually satisfied with far less actual mass of food.

The only thing I have to watch is it can get kind of expensive.  Maybe Amanda Hesser can buy 3 bags of dried porcini mushrooms at seven dollars a pop but that’s a bit rich for my blood!  So that’s another layer you have to take into account when picking recipes and shopping.

I wonder if it’s possible to grow up to be a gournet critic and writer if you’ve had an underprivileged childhood?  I mean not that I had one, but in real life it’s hard to take the time to ponder the merits of smoked paprika versus regular.

Though if you work it in like your passion, maybe you can find the time and inclination.  I’ll say this, those deviled eggs were FANTASTIC with the smoked paprika.  No wonder Hesser raved about it.

Hmm, now I’m inspired.  I think I’ll look for more recipes on the internet. 

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 11:24 am and is filed under Max/autism, TV, books, family adventures, food, homespun philosophy, social experiences, theatre people, vices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.