u/epidemicsaints

My first proper babka!

I have baked my cinnamon rolls into a loaf before, where I twisted it into a figure 8 and baked it without slicing... but have never braved slicing the whole thing in half and twisting it with all the filling exposed.

This dough was MUCH softer than I am used to, but after slicing the log everything worked so well it felt like being under a spell. I started the twist from the middle by making an X and then both ends were just a couple turns.

Springform pan saved me here. The dough was so soft, I don't know how I could have lifted it into a standard cake pan.

With the sides off, I coaxed the first end of the dough onto the base, and was then able to spin/rotate the base along the log, easing it over just a few inches to make it on.

RECIPE: https://joeats.net/home/pumpkin-brown-sugar-babka/

I followed this pretty faithfully but I can never taste vanilla in dough so I diverted it to the filling. I also added about two tablespoons of blackstrap molasses to the dough.

It took almost an entire half cup more of flour and was still very sticky but easy to handle after the bulk rise.

I skipped the icing for simple syrup - but still not satisfied with that idea by the time it was in the oven: I made a dry caramel with half a cup of sugar in a skillet, whisked in two tablespoons of butter, and added a half cup of water to make more of a very thin caramel syrup which was 100% absolutely the right idea.

This went really well but the filling was very sloppy to work with. Next time I would remove some moisture from the pumpkin in a skillet before making it. Doing so would also allow me to use the whole can instead of having about 1/3 cup left over.

I would also up the spices and add molasses for more visual impact, because that was a let down.

This one is most notable for being the final appearance of Bette Davis. Close your eyes, and her voice is 10/10 but it is obvious she is having trouble and the material isn't really worth it for such a star anyway.

She left mid production so the entire thing had to be retooled, and a lot like Churchill after his trip to the Pet Sematary, it STINKS.

This is one of the most mixed tone feats I have ever seen. From screwball to made-for-network Disney special, it pivots on a dime 30 minutes in but still tries to maintain its half baked raunchy humor. Sometimes it works, but I only laughed when it didn't.

The moment of Bette's departure is painfully obvious but it somehow remained watchable. Like it was made out of scraps from Teen Witch with some "aw shucks" domestic terror from Smart House, with gags from those kooky parent/child body swapping comedies.

It kept being weird or funny enough to keep me interested, and I actually lmao'd at a rage bait shot of meat in the fridge stocked full, only there to shock the vegetarian stepchildren of the titular stepmother.

The ending comes out of nowhere with multiple side characters gaining supernatural abilities to tie it all up, an absolute groaner but worth the watch.

Wicked Stepmother on IMDB

Wicked Stepmother on Tubi

Really difficult but enthralling watch on youtube.

Cinema vérité style profile in isolation, obsession, and mental illness. Jeff and Kelly are two people obsessed with the 80’s singer Tiffany.

Tiffany had a unique fame - similar to social media stars of today in a way - with a homegrown audience, since she was a pop star but worked for years touring local malls and performing live, meeting fans.

She existed in her own market away from radio long after her few hits faded from air play. This type of fame created an atmosphere where fans felt they had access to her personally. A celebrity that came to their town, that they could reach out and touch. There was only a front row. You got to stand in line to meet her. It gave everything a parasocial glaze that is now the norm.

Jeff and Kelly take this to its extreme, still twenty years later. Tiffany employs guards at her shows to keep Jeff away. He thinks it’s because she wants to protect him, as proof of her love.

Jeff gleefully reads from his scrapbook of news clippings about his many arrests and incidents with Tiffany. Including waiting outside of a courthouse during her custody trial to gift her an enormous Japanese sword. He speaks in a matter of fact tone punctuated with giggling.

On the wall next to Jeff’s bed is a photo of one of Tiffany’s other stalkers, Robert Bardo. Along with a police evidence photo of Bardo's gun, and a portrait of the actress he ended up killing, Rebecca Shaeffer. It was after Rebecca’s murder that Tiffany got a restraining order against Jeff.

Kelly is an intersex woman transitioning after a male adolescence. She is blunt from alcoholism and has only a few social contacts helping her keep control, even though their ability to understand her is limited. She feels she is owed Tiffany’s love, and that Tiffany’s ex-husband has stolen her away.

The two of them are shown very plainly and the end result is still pretty brutal.

It’s a slow onslaught of some of the most off the wall and disturbing things you will ever hear someone say calmly.

It’s also a sort of grim signal of what was to come to prime time, with gawkable sensationalized life-ruining reality tv from the likes of TLC. The subject matter here was obscure at the time but has only gained relevance: the presence of celebrities in our daily lives, autism, and gender transition.

I Think We're Alone Now on IMDB:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152828/

This Argento wannabe piece of trash made my week. I'm still reeling from it. You know you're in for it when the generic 90's sex beat trying to be Enigma starts up in one of these (related video attached).

It has a made for TV stiffness barely spiced up by Suspiria styled washes of color making it look like you are channel surfing between Forensic Files and Single White Female.

Drew Barrymore plays a young woman fleeing to LA from NYC escaping a murder charge, with her only lifeline being a psychiatrist treating her for multiple personality disorder - her brother is in an asylum and her parents are dead.

Did SHE kill her parents or is it her maniacal lookalike stalker that did it???

This is unabashed Drewsploitation, she is a recently emancipated 17 year old and we jump right into a shower scene, and an entire madonna/whore situation with some "is it real or not?" intrigue about her delusion? A haunting? A real stalker?

Her personality switches from goody goody to succubus with a nosebleed being the telltale sign something is afoot.

I was utterly unprepared for the climax and finish of this shitcase. It had me actually rolling around shouting "OH MY GOD!" and I went straight for rewind to watch the last 20 minutes all over again.

We called this Jump For Your Heart but I guess we were wrong. You got friends and family to pledge an amount for each jump - like 2 or 5 cents - then spent a ridiculous amount of time jumping rope in the gym.

Every track on this disc was made on a Roland MC-505, the same unit Peaches and M.I.A. started with. Buffalo Daughter and Cibo Matto are also on this disc. There is a Sonic Youth track but don't get excited, it's just weird crackling noises through a resonant filter.

( on Youtube )

Seeing it all laid out in one place is very grim and helped me understand each betrayal better.

She's responding to a video showing a woman who left baked chicken in a bag on her counter for months(?) and wondering why it didn't have visible spoilage.

In basic terms, water activity refers to how much moisture is able to evaporate out of food in a package, condense, and get reabsorbed by the food.

It's not about how much moisture is IN the food, but about how much can LEAVE and RE-ENTER the food. Controlling this prevents mold and bacteria growth.

In the case of the chicken, it was the fact that it was soaked in a solution of sugar and salt by the manufacturer and overcooked by the consumer.

Original video with full chicken context: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/egSkrwhqmD0

I watch this over and over please don't judge me.

As this episode reached its crescendo I was kind of scratching my head... ghosts haunting her, people that died because they couldn't get the medical care they needed because malpractice lawsuits were driving up the price of procedures.

This premise is so off the wall to me. This show is usually so universal about the gotchas, but this one seemed like it was based on a fantastical grievance from AM radio.

It was funny to see today, because I feel that this general attitude of hating / not trusting lawyers is an extinct sentiment in culture now. Maybe not extinct, people still dunk on high profile attorneys. But comedians are surely no longer doing entire "Attorneys, am I right?" sets.