Latest news with #Laurel
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
From the Farm: Duck Soup both a movie and recipe classic, served and savored at YOUYU
There's been much anger and lament (my own included) about this month's government budget cuts for support and funding for PBS radio and TV stations around the country. While growing up at the farm in the 1970s and 1980s, these were the decades of a rooftop tower antennae for the rabbit-ear television connection to just three major prime time networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, along with our three South Bend 'local TV affiliate stations,' and the added blessings of WGN-Channel 9 and WFLD Channel 32, plus our bonus of PBS Channel 11. (On a clear day, we might also get some fuzzy feed from Channel 34 PBS from Elkhart and Channel 44 from Fort Wayne, despite what we called 'a snowy reception.') Our prized public and government funded PBS channels were our true 'window to the world' because of both the children's educational programs like 'Sesame Street,' 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood,' 'Zoom' and 'Electric Company,' and also a full menu of cooking shows hosted by the likes of late greats 'The French Chef' Julia Child,' 'The Frugal Gourmet' Jeff Smith, 'Yan Can Cook' Chef Martin Yan, and New Orleans kitchen hospitality from Justin Wilson's 'Louisiana Cookin'.' Just a couple channel clicks from Channel 11 was station numerical neighbor WGN Channel 9 with a late night vault of favorite old black and white movies, from the weekly 'Creature Features' scary films on Fridays, to Saturday nights of classic comedies of teamed humor icons starring a parade of favorites like W.C. Fields and Mae West, the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy and others. My older sister Pam would occasionally let pesky little brother Phil join any late-night movie viewing fun during her weekend slumber parties and birthday party overnights with her elementary pals Robin and Melanie. One of my favorite Marx Brothers comedy films has always been the 1933 romp featuring the four brothers Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo titled 'Duck Soup.' The opening credits of the film have always remained emblazoned in my brain: four white live ducks bobbing carelessly in a soup kettle of hot water above a flame! I still wonder if this film is one of the reasons I have always loved roast duck and duck soup, the latter a menu rarity these days. Last weekend, my dad Chester celebrated his 96th birthday with our family and friends with an Elvis-themed ballroom dinner party featuring The King's favorite recipes, followed by a tribute artist concert. My sister Pam invited her school days pals Melanie and Robin to travel to the Region to celebrate Melanie's 59th birthday with duck soup, the recipe, not the movie. Director Leo McCarey provided the title for the Marx Brothers film by lifting it from an earlier directorial project he shared with Laurel and Hardy. Paramount Studios liked this 'animal title' because it stayed in the theme of animal titles of the brothers' previous three films: 'Animal Crackers' (1930), 'Monkey Business' (1931), and 'Horse Feathers' (1932). The term 'duck soup' is also American English slang referring to something easy to do, while conversely, 'to duck something' means to avoid it. The only place I knew to enjoy freshly made duck soup in this area is at YOUYU Noodle Bar at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana in Gary, which serves up a mouthwatering variety of Asian dishes as well as freshly made noodles in savory broths. The flavors are inspired by Asian street food, and guests have the advantage of enjoying these delicacies in YOUYU's sleek Hong Kong-like atmosphere in the restaurant's anchor location near the Asian gaming area at the casino at 5400 W. 29th Ave. in Gary. It is one of Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana's five restaurants. Pam and her friends had never visited Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, which opened in May 2021 and showcases an Asian gaming landscape, including an upscale Asian gaming lounge with a variety of exciting table games, including Pai Gow and Baccarat. The Hard Rock hosts speak a variety of Asian languages, including Cantonese, Taishanese, Mandarin and Vietnamese. Besides dining on their duck soup and other Asian delicacies, Pam's other prominent point of interest was to see the casino's new $1 million win possibility 'on a single spin' slot machines, just added last month, located in the 'high limit room,' starting at '$25 a pull.' The four 'Dragon Link' theme slot machines have a payout that winners can take home immediately. (It's $600,000 for the true winnings after taxes are taken out.) Hammond's Horseshoe Casino added the same gaming slot opportunity in March. The duck soup recipe at YOUYU involves quite a kitchen concerted effort, many rare and aromatic spices and menu patience. After reviewing a copy of the customized recipe I was kindly provided by the chef, I decided it best to enjoy that particular recipe in the intended dining landscape at YOUYU, where it is easily ladled up and always on the menu with other desired specialties. I have my own more basic variation clipped years ago and created by the aforementioned PBS TV kitchen claim-to-fame Jeff Smith, aka 'The Frugal Gourmet,' who died in 2004 at age 65. Smith explained in 1996 on his show: 'In 1873, one of the famed Yankee Clipper ships delivered a cargo of nine Peking ducks to Long Island, New York, and from these nine have descended the millions and millions of domestic ducks of these same species that we know today in the U.S. Despite its rich and distinctive flavor, duck has fallen out of fashion in recent decades but remains a prized bird in China.' 2 quarts fresh or canned chicken soup stock 6 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in 1 cup warm water, the water reserved Pinch of ground white pepper 1 cup Chinese greens (bok choy, Napa) Bones from 1 roast duck, meat and skin reserved 3 green onions, chopped 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 cup cooked duck meat, cut julienne Salt to taste 1-ounce cellophane noodles (sai fun, found in Asian markets) 1 raw egg (garnish) 1 tablespoon chopped Chinese parsley (garnish) Directions: Bring the stock to a simmer and add the mushrooms and the water in which they were soaked. Add the pepper, greens and bones and simmer for 1 hour. Drain the stock and discard all solids except the mushrooms. Cut the mushrooms julienne and return to the stockpot. Add the green onions, sesame oil and cooked duck meat and skin, taste for salt. Drop the noodles into the pot and simmer until they are just tender, about 5 minutes. Place the soup in a tureen and add the raw whole egg right from shell to garnish soup. (It will cook enough in hot broth before serving.) Add the parsley garnish, and stir the egg into the soup at the table as serving.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Eagle's Open diary: Security stooshies, Thai golfers and a striking Swede
The golf scribblers certainly earn their corn at an Open as they clatter away at their laptop keys like Little Richard thumping his ivories. 'You're doing the work of two men,' said the sports editor to the diarist. 'Laurel and bloody Hardy.' Getting into our place of hard labour, meanwhile, is becoming an increasingly tetchy business. The queues to get through the screening machines, for instance, are about the same length as the Causeway Coastal Way. One American colleague got embroiled in a crotchety exchange which led to a soor-faced security guard muttering something about 'media s**t.' Funnily enough, that's how the aforementioned sports editor greets the arrival of this diary. *It's an international affair at The Open. There are 31 different countries represented in the Portrush field, with the flags of Estonia and the Czech Republic fluttering for the first time. The diarist, on the other hand, is just flagging. And at half-mast. It's a long week. The presence of Sadom Kaewkanjana in the line-up, of course, allows yours truly to dredge up that hoary old press centre gag about golfers from Thailand never the missing the cut in The Open … because the qualifying mark is, ahem, 70 and Thais. *It's long been assumed that the most handsome man in golf is Adam Scott. Personally, the diarist always thought it was hard to beat the manly prowess, smouldering pouting and contorted countenance of Monty after a missed three-footer. For this week's Open, the wonders of Artificial Intelligence has ranked the best-looking players in the field out of 10 and Scott came in seventh with a rating of 7.4. Top of the looks ladder was the striking Swede, Ludvig Aberg, with a score of 9.4. As for the diarist? Well, forget Artificial Intelligence. I scored 10 out of 10 for Authentic Incompetence.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Terry McLaurin set a standard. Take care of him, Commanders.
Mark down July 15, 2025 as a landmark date for the Washington Commanders. Not because anything significant happened with the uniforms or the stadium or the roster. But because the first headwinds of the Adam Peters-Dan Quinn administration blew from Laurel to Ashburn and across the NFL. Maybe this Terry McLaurin situation will be nothing. In the week before the Commanders open training camp, it feels like something. McLaurin has set the standard at the team's Ashburn headquarters since the day he walked in the building in 2019 — back when a standard so desperately needed to be set. He debuted in the final days of Jay Gruden, rode out his rookie season with Bill Callahan, found a way to excel amid the Ron Rivera chaos, and so often returned to the huddle wondering who his quarterback would be on a given play.
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Terry McLaurin ‘pretty frustrated' by contract stalemate with Commanders
Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin said he's 'pretty frustrated' over the lack of progress toward a contract extension with the team, claiming there has been no communication for more than a month and there's 'not a lot of clarity.' 'Everything that's transpired to this point up to this point has been disappointing and frustrating,' McLaurin told reporters after a commercial shoot in Laurel on Tuesday. 'I've wanted to continue my career here. I've created my life here. … This has been somewhere where I've always wanted to be. I understand everything's a business, but at the same time I want to put myself in a position where I'm valued and I feel appreciated and things like that, and unfortunately that hasn't transpired the way I wanted it to.'
Irish Examiner
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Revealed: The pros' secrets to buying art for our home
Your spring cleaning, decorating or renovation project is done, and you're ready to enjoy the summer we appear to be having. Still, there's a blank wall reminding you daily that it needs and probably deserves a lovely artwork to adorn it. While you can buy art at any time of year, the summer months see a glut of fairs and commercial exhibitions, some taking advantage of the outdoors to bring a novel way of experiencing art. One of the highlights has been the Art + Soul International Art and Sculpture exhibition presented by Dublin and Belfast-based Gormleys for the third year at Cork's Castlemartyr Resort, where sculptures were shown among the 18th-century manor house's garden and parterre. Jenny Belton's "Flowers on Blue Tablecloth" from Gormleys. Acrylic on linen, 50 x 50 cm. Inside, walls were liberally hung with art from the likes of Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Banksy, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, along with Irish artists. Love or money Director James Gormley sees the art buying process beginning with whether your goal is investment or pleasure. 'We'll steer you if it's an investment,' he says. 'Original art will have a resale value if you get good advice. It's not like buying a car, which devalues. If you're buying because you love it, you'll appreciate it for decades. Alea Pinar Du Pre's 'Laurel' from Gormleys; acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 100cm. 'Take your time and try to enjoy the journey. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to pay a little more to buy something you love.' In print It's something Denise Donnelly, owner of Dublin's The Doorway Gallery, also flags up. 'Don't be intimidated, visit art fairs, find something you connect with,' she says. 'It's your wall. The biggest mistake is following trends. It's about what you like and what that art does for your home.' She recommends starting with a modest budget and availing of schemes to make art-buying more accessible. The Doorway Gallery, Dublin. 'Don't be afraid to ask about a payment plan and consider prints,' she says. 'We also have a small print shop in Stillorgan Village Shopping Centre, and it's really popular with the younger market.' Either way, acquiring art involves a financial outlay, but to mitigate the possibility of making a costly mistake is to consider a 'try before you buy' service. The Doorway Gallery allows clients to 'live with' the art for a day or two before they purchase. 'Take pictures of what you like and we'll bring the art to your home for a day or two, and you can see them in different lights,' says Denise. 'Sometimes art is lovely in the gallery,y but it doesn't work at home.' Right time, right place Sales are buoyant at the 195th RHA Annual Exhibition in Dublin, according to curator Davey Moor. 'If you are interested in purchasing art, timing can be everything,' he says. 'Enquire in galleries about the possibility of being added to their mailing list 'Open' exhibitions are an excellent place to start; many regional art centres have these if you can't make it to the RHA Annual.' 'Dusk Oro', by Jess Kelly, RHA artist. With prices ranging from €150 to €45,000 this year, Davey cautions against the impulse purchase. 'Some might say don't get carried away if you see something at an opening reception if you are afraid it will be snapped from your grasp as the red dots multiply, because, honestly, that's desire, it's panicked and impulsive, and when you fall for a piece of art you really want to make sure it's yours.' Site specific Going straight to an artist whose work you are drawn to is another option. Carlow-based contemporary abstract artist Jess Kelly has an eye for interiors and her work attracts buyers looking to add to their interior design projects, as well as personal commissions. 'Lots of clients are nervous, never having bought art before,' she says. 'They've seen my work or heard about it, or it's a referral. They could be looking for a very personal piece, or it might be just to finish off a room, so, say, you have a large wall, I'll mock up digitally with different sizes of art on the wall and see what works and won't swallow the piece.' 'The Aurora' by Jess Kelly. Her starting point often involves the client sending her photos of their room and swatches of their materials and colours when it comes to creating an interior design piece, but also for personal commissions where the client has a specific theme or colourway in mind. 'I'm quite collaborative,' she says. 'But you should trust the artist as well. Something is making you gravitate towards them.'
