One can almost hear the

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1 A Valentine cookin' with auntie dee by Donnie Jay Photo GrahamStudioOne.COM February 14th, a day for romance, a day for lovers and nothing says love in my book more than a special dinner for two. Here is my special menu whether it is to celebrate a long relationship or to start a new romance. CREAM OF ROASTED GARLIC SOUP 2 large heads garlic 1 tablespoon olive oil ½ cup finely chopped shallots 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1 ½ cups buttermilk 1 cup whipping cream ½ cup cubed cooked red potatoes ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon minced fresh thyme freshly ground pepper Home made croutons (recipe follows) Cut off top ¼ of each garlic head, discard. Place garlic heads, cut side up, on aluminum foil, and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap foil around garlic heads, sealing foil at top. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Remove from oven and cool. Remove papery skin, and squeeze soft garlic into a small bowl. Set garlic aside. Sauté shallots in butter in a saucepan over medium heat until tender. Stir in buttermilk and whipping cream. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, five minutes. Remove from heat; set aside, and cool. Process garlic, buttermilk mixture, and potato in a food processor for one minute or until smooth. Return pureed mixture to saucepan; stir in salt and minced thyme. Cook over medium heat until thoroughly heated, stirring often. Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and homemade croutons. Yield: 3 ½ cups. Croutons: 2 slices white bread 1 tablespoon butter, melted 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese ½ teaspoon dried basil Trim and discard crusts from bread slices. Brush melted butter over bread; sprinkle with cheese and basil. Cut each slice into four squares. Cut each square into two triangles. Place on an ungreased baking sheet; bake at 350 degrees or until croutons are dry and browned. Yield: 16 croutons. STEAK AU POIVRE 1 ½ tablespoons cracked pepper 2 (8-ounce) rib-eye steaks 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 shallot, finely chopped ¼ cup cognac ¼ cup whipping cream 1 tablespoon butter Press cracked pepper into both sides of each steak; cover and chill one hour. Heat 2 tablespoons butter and oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook steaks three minutes on each side or until brown; cover and keep warm. Sauté shallot in skillet over medium heat until tender. Wipe out excess oil from skillet with paper towels. Pour cognac into skillet and ignite. After flames die, stir in whipping cream. Simmer until thickened (four to five minutes). Add one tablespoon butter, and swirl to blend. Serve over steaks. Yield: two servings. EASY STUFFED POTATOES 4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled 2 medium-size baking potatoes ¼ cup cheddar cheese ½ cup sour cream ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon pepper 2 green onions, chopped Scrub potatoes and prick several times with a fork. Place potatoes, I inch apart, on a microwave- safe rack or on paper towels. Microwave at high eight minutes, let stand five minutes. Cut a one inch lengthwise strip from top of each potato. Carefully scoop out pulp, leaving shells intact. Mash potato pulp; stir in remaining ingredients. Mash potato pulp; stir in cheese, sour cream and top with green onions. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Sprinkle bacon on top. Yeild: 2 servings. GINGER ASPARAGUS ½ cup rice vinegar ¾ tablespoon minced fresh ginger 1 tablespoon sugar ½ pound fresh asparagus 1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil ½ clove garlic, minced ½ teaspoon soy sauce Combine vinegar and ginger in a small saucepan, bring to a boil. Boil until liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Snap off tough ends of asparagus, place in a large skillet; add cold water to cover. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Plunge asparagus into cold water to stop the cooking process; drain. Arrange asparagus on a serving plate. Combine vinegar reduction, vegetable oil, and remaining ingredients, stirring well; drizzle over asparagus; cover and chill one hour. Yield: 2 servings. CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE MOUSSE 8 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate ¼ cup light corn syrup ¼ cup butter 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten 1 cup whipping cream, divided 2 tablespoons powdered sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract ½ cup fresh raspberries ½ cup whipping cream, whipped Garnish: chocolate curls Combine first three ingredients in a heavy saucepan; cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate melts. Combine egg yolks and 1/4 cup whipping cream. Gradually stir about ½ cup chocolate mixture into yolk mixture; add to remaining chocolate mixture, stirring constantly. Cook over mediumhigh heat or until mixture reaches 160 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Beat ¾ cup whipping cream at medium speed with an trodding the boards...from 21 over-the-top We Won t Pay! We Won t Pay!, Cripple Creek has set the bar very high for NOLA s 2009 theatrical season. All Shook Up at Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré One can almost hear the original pitch for All Shook Up: It s a combination of Momma Mia and Footloose with a little bit of Hairspray and all the songs of Elvis Presley. How can it miss?! Well, it did. Big time. It opened on Broadway about four years ago to dreadful reviews and lasted only six months. Having already missed one local production of it, only a sense of duty took me to see its newest incarnation at Le Petit. And you know what? I m happy I went. Very happy. For in these wintry days, two hours of mindless fun done exceedingly well allows a welcome escape, however brief, from these troubling times. Eschewing New York Times critic Ben Brantley s observation that a campy young cast might make All Shook Up a moderate hoot, director Gary Rucker has instead guided his cast to be as heartfelt as possible allowing an audience to be drawn into and actually care about their, admittedly, goofy story. (Elvis Presley-like character brings life and love back to folks living in a joyless Middle American hamlet loosely adapted from Shakespeare s Twelfth Night. Very loosely.) Likewise, Judy Claverie s costumes and Joshua Palmer s set replace the Crayola-colors (Brantley s words) of Broadway with a more natural, even electric mixture until foamy, gradually adding powdered sugar, beat until soft peaks form. Stir in vanilla. Stir ½ cup whipped cream into chocolate mixture to lighten it; then fold in remaining whipped cream. Spoon into four stemmed glasses. Cover and chill at least eight hours. Top each serving with fresh raspberries and a dollop of whipped cream. Garnish. Yield: 4 servings. Don t forget to have the dozen red roses delivered to your significant other. Have a valentine day s card on a breakfast tray and serve their coffee to them before they get out of bed. A box of their favorite chocolates awaiting them on their return from their workplace is also a nice touch. To spice up the end of day, strew the sheets with rose petals and don t forget to bring any left over whipped cream to bed with you. I don t think that you need any further directions on what to do with it. You may contact me at donniejay@hotmail.com. drab color palette so as to evoke the numbing day-to-day life of a small younever-heard-of-it town somewhere in the Midwest circa And unlike Broadway s dance numbers, whose main achievement seemed to be that they were fully synchronized, Kelly Fouchi s endlessly inventive choreography individualizes the characters. Within every dance, Fouchi gives each dancer, or pair of them, an opportunity to do their own thing, a variation on a theme as it were, that makes for incredibly vibrant stage images. I assume that Le Petit is using Stephen Oremus Broadway arrangements which blend these songs into such a bright, brassy blur that it s hard to distinguish one from another. (Brantley again) Yet musical director/ conductor Jonne Dendinger brought out as much pizzaz and ping as possible from her musicians and led the vocalists to some exquisite singing. Other than Joshua Peterson, who does as best he can with the wan pseudo-bad boy Elvis that the script enforces upon him (he appeared to much better effect last year in Thrill Me), the cast fulfills the innocent spirit of the piece with grand style and overflowing talent. It s great to see Ambie Award-winner Keith Claverie, with his leading man s chops in a sidekick s body, back front n center again on a musical stage. Joan Spraggins, another Ambie winner, is touching as the love-deprived owner of the local bar and in great voice as always. Idella Johnson brings her inner joy and vivacity to Spraggins teenage daughter in an absolutely perfect melding of actress and role. Leslie Castay [continued on 28] 26 The Official Mag: AmbushMag.COM February 3-16, 2009 Official Gay Mardi Gras Guide GayMardiGras.COM SouthernDecadence.COM

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3 trodding the boards...from 26 lends fine comic form to the town s resident sexpot cum culture maven. And as a love struck mechanic who goes through a personal transformation, Leslie Limberg comes into her own as a triple threat leading lady singing, dancing and acting with flair, wit and aplomb. Unlike the colorless sets and costumes, Scott Sauber and Nancy Macko s lighting uses lush purples, pinks and oranges to express the transcendent warmth that eventually embraces All Shook Up s characters. You have until February 8 th to be similarly enveloped. Krapp s Last Tape at Flava Having lost his lease at the Voodoo Mystére Lounge, the enterprising and peripatetic Michael Martin recently alit at Flava, a soon-to-be new restaurant on North Rampart, for a limited run of Beckett s Krapp s Last Tape. It was actually the cluttered back room of Flava that served as what must be New Orleans smallest theater (11 seats). In this disheveled lair strewn about with statues representing various religions, Martin portrayed a man who relives very specific parts of his life by listening to old reel-to-reel tapes he had made thirty years ago. At times Krapp dourly reassesses the memories these tapes evoke; at times, these YouTubes of an earlier generation seem to have an almost libidinous effect on him. Under Ed Bishop s direction, Beckett s ever present references to vaudeville are here represented by a balletic pratfall on a banana peel. And if we worried a bit for Martin s safety as he carried a tower of boxes on stage, it merely demonstrated Becket s view that we are always tottering on the edge between comedy and tragedy. That Martin/Bishop s interpretation emphasized Krapp s anger and frustration is certainly valid. One could argue, however, that a lighter, more ethereal touch might have been more affecting, bestowing on Krapp a greater poignancy. Certainly, Martin well-conveyed an agitated worldweariness. Yet, while one can overlook some technical problems that sometimes eerily made it seem as though a voice was emanating from a tape machine that wasn t playing, Martin s voice on the tape seemed a little too studied, as though Krapp s younger self was recording for an audiobook rather than putting down for eternity a recollection that would affect him forever. Regardless, I applaud Martin s determination to present modern classics to New Orleans audiences. Along with Cripple Creek, he is filling a vital role here. New in New York There were some empty balcony seats at the Imperial Theatre when I saw Billy Elliot on a bitterly cold night in January. Yet as the weather warms up and Billy starts its expected march to collecting all the major awards this year, if you re planning a trip to New York, you might want to get tickets now for what well may be the best musical of the past 25 years. And don t wait if you want to see New Orleans own David Bologna before he outgrows one of the featured roles! In this adaptation of the Oscar-nominated movie, librettist and lyricist Lee Hall avoids any hint of sentimentality in this tale of a young boy from a blue collar background who finds his true self in a ballet classroom. Set against Northern England s Thatcher-era coal miners strike, Hall allows his characters hard won enlightenment that conjures a huge smile on your face and, simultaneously, a lump in your throat. Elton John has written a sublimely brilliant score no pretty pop melodies or power ballads here, but rather melodies that come out of the characters natural musicality and the region s folk tunes, barroom songs and holiday ditties. Stephen Daldry s outstanding direction gives the whole production a cinematic flow and, without any sense of manipulation, can turn on a dime from humor to drama, from heartfelt emotion to social protest. Peter Darling s superb character-based choreography brings together such unlikely partners as coal miners, policemen and young girls studying ballet to stunning effect. Three young boys rotate in the role of Billy; I saw Trent Kowalik who not only sings and dances phenomenally but truly acts the role so that you wholly believe that, at first, he s never danced a ballet step in his life. As the dancing teacher who discovers Billy, Haydn Gwynne, who I saw 3½ years ago in London, continues to give as vital and fresh a performance as when the show was still new; if anything her portrayal has deepened. As for Bologna, he brought down the house in his Expressing Yourself number, receiving some of the biggest applause in an applause-filled evening. Yet while he does well by his character s showier, more humorous aspects (and, of course, the singing and dancing), he also strikes just the right understated note for a child on the cusp of adolescence who has a same sex attraction. Conductor David Chase brought out all the colors of this variegated score without ever overwhelming the performers; this is that rare Broadway musical where you can understand virtually ever word. To be sure, NYC s Billy Elliot seems a touch broader than it did in London, a concession perhaps to Americans tastes. And if you sense it starts off a little [continued on 35] 28 The Official Mag: AmbushMag.COM February 3-16, 2009 Official Gay Mardi Gras Guide GayMardiGras.COM SouthernDecadence.COM

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