Recipe for hot weather #3

Gazpacho!

Just the name sounds like summer, doesn’t it? It’s super-easy to make (or as Brüno, who I just saw at the movies would say: uber-easy), vegetarian, healthy, simple and cheap. Let’s go!

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

• 125 g toast (approximately 5 slices)
• 50 ml vegetable stock
• 240 g canned / strained tomatoes
• 25 ml olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 cucumber
• 1 bell pepper
• 1/2 onion
• red wine vinegar
• Tabasco

Preparation:

Rip up the toast and let soak in the vegetable stock for a while.

Chop up the cucumber, bell pepper and onion. Toss them in a blender. Add garlic, strained tomatoes and olive oil. Blend them all to a frothy pulpy mix, not too liquid. Spice up with mixed crushed pepper, red wine vinegar and Tabasco (careful with this one – it seeps in more than you think at first!). Set the mix in the fridge to cool.

Heat some oil in a pan, then roast the toast (hihi) till it’s crispy and golden-brown.

Fill the “soup” in soup bowls, sprinkle with roasted toast, serve, enjoy.

Little note on the side: you might want to roast the onions beforehand as well, or at least make sure the person in bed with you that night eats this as well. Because the raw onion breath in the morning – phew!

New series!

I was looking around on TV.com the other day, trying to find out when Project Runway starts back up, when I came across a new series I hadn’t heard of yet, that had just started six weeks ago, called Mental. It’s about this guy who’s been newly appointed as the head of the psychiatric department in a hospital in L.A. . I loooove this new show! First of all, this guy is not bad looking, and has a sense of humor that reminds me of House – although it’s more playful and less cynical. He always has a smirk in his eyes and a smile on his face, he’s like a kid in a candy store. When the others see something as pathological or even worrying, he goes: “interesting”. That’s what I would do! He has very unorthodox methods, which I think is great, and luckily also has the authority to pull them through. He comes to work by bike and would rather be in the mountains than in this huge city… So many similarities!

Speaking of the “others”: there’s a cast of psychiatrists – medical doctors, not medical deities, as he has to remind them – that portray the clichés I have encountered so far. There are no psychologists. Because we all come with a cloak of invisibility, don’cha know. The two undergrads are sent on missions to actually speak to the real live relatives of the patients – omg! – instead of purely working indoors on station. There’s the very arrogant, flamboyant doctor who specializes in addiction and deals with the pharmaceutical companies, i.e. lets them use the patients for case trials, and only thinks about the money. There’s the slightly insecure, sensitive women who always wants to stick to a schedule, and then there’s the boss – a psychiatric version of Cuddy.

What I like most about this series is the fact that they approach mental illness with some reality (even though they do fib on some diagnosis). The main character sees these illnesses as riddles that have to be solved, so he tries to get in the heads of the patients and see the world through their eyes. I think it’s important to understand that these people are not “insane”, that they have problems that need – and can – be fixed. And once you know that 1 out of every 2 people develop a relevant mental problem in the course of their lifetime, you can’t look down on them anymore. I’ve watched all the episodes I could get so far – and I can’t wait to see more!

goddammit

Just saw a trailer for a new movie coming in October (in the states) via a french blog – and goddammit, I am pissed. Probably more than I should be, I know. Look:

 

Yes, it looks like a good creepy story. Yes, there are good actors in it. Yes, the visual effects are surely impressive. BUT: I am sick and tired of psychiatric hospitals and mental illness being portrayed as such whack jobs. Sure, it plays in the past. But how many people will think that we still keep people behind bars, all wear white, etc. That these patients are just waiting for their chance to break out and attack you. Even the “criminally insane” are humans. They don’t just go haywire or buck wild. Goddammit.

Speaking of buck wild: The BF and I went to see Ice Age 3 yesterday, and I love the new character, Buck. The movie was funny as always and they managed to not repeat themselves or make it boring. All new ideas and – what I hadn’t expected – many many tangents to other movies! My head was exploding with references! The only annoying thing were all the women in the audience going “awwww” and “sooo cute!” all the time. I personally saw the kitsch overload as irony, but whatever.

Other movies I’m waiting to see include: Brüno, Inglorious Basterds and possibly Food, Inc.

I plan a big post series on the inner workings of a psych job, where I can detail all this. But because I’ll have to sit down and work those out, I won’t be able to write them until after my exam (and the following vacation). But I do have a lot to say on this subject!