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Come Party With Me: Movie Club Meeting - The Look

partysugar — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:30:47 -0700

The colors of corn - green, white, and yellow - inspire the look of the movie club meeting. Since the screening will be followed by a dinner, arrange two areas: one where the movie is watched and appetizers enjoyed, and another where dinner is consumed.

Set the table before the party begins with grass placemats and white napkins. The corn chowder looks delicious when served in a simple white bowl.

Place a pitcher of drinks and the glasses near the entranceway. Invite guests to help themselves when they arrive. Stack small appetizer plates on a coffee table in the viewing room. Create mood lighting with glittering candles. Fresh bouquets of yellow flowers are lush and fragrant. Floral-print throw pillows add a much-needed punch of color.

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Come Party With Me: Movie Club Meeting - Drinks

partysugar — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:15:00 -0700

Although every dish on the menu for my movie club meeting features corn, I couldn't find a corn cocktail recipe. Thus, I looked for a refreshing concoction that would pair with the corn cakes and corn and zucchini pizzettas. This tequila sunrise punch is quick and simple to make for a crowd. To meld the flavors and infuse the tequila with citrus, let the mixture sit in the fridge for longer than ten minutes.

After the movie and during dinner, serve a buttery Chardonnay or light Tempranillo. Don't forget sparkling and still water, beer, and a selection of sodas. For the punch recipe, read more.

Tequila Sunrise Punch
From Ingrid Hoffmann

Ingredients

1/2 cup silver or gold tequila
33 ounces citrus-flavored club soda
2 limes, quartered
1 small unpeeled orange, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 small unpeeled grapefruit, cut into 1-inch chunks
Ice cubes

Directions

Pour the tequila and club soda into a pitcher. Add the limes, oranges, and grapefruit and set aside for 10 minutes.
Add enough ice to the pitcher so that the punch rises to the top. Serve in chilled glasses with some fruit in each glass.

Serves 4-6.

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Come Party With Me: Movie Club Meeting - Dessert

partysugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:00:23 -0700

For my movie club meeting, I've planned a corn tasting menu. Each of the dishes feature corn as an ingredient. Since sweet corn is available, the dessert will be no different.

Made with pureed corn, this creme brulee recipe is silky and delicious. Guests will be awed by the creamy texture and subtle corn flavor.

If you have time, make a batch of caramel corn clusters. Fill plastic favor bags with the clusters and give to friends as they leave. To look at these corny dessert recipes, read more.

Corn Creme Brulee
From Gale Gand

Ingredients

2 ears sweet corn
1 tablespoon butter
3 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
8 egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup coarse sugar or raw sugar

Directions

Remove the husk from the ears of corn and cut the kernels off.
In a nonstick saute pan melt the butter and saute the corn kernels until they cook and have a few brown specks on them.
In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, milk, and half the sauteed corn kernels over medium heat, stirring occasionally, just until it comes to a boil.
Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse at least 15 minutes.
Puree the mixture with a hand blender until smooth.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the granulated sugar. Whisking constantly, gradually pour in the hot cream mixture. Strain the mixture into a pitcher.
Sprinkle the remaining corn kernels into 8 (6 to 8 ounce) ovenproof ramekins.
Pour the cream/corn mixture into the bowls and arrange in a hot water bath.
Bake at 300 degrees F, in the center of the oven until almost set but still a bit soft in the center, 30 to 40 minutes. The custard should "shimmy" a bit when you shake the pan; it will firm up more as it cools. Remove from the water bath and let cool 15 minutes. Tightly cover each bowl with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic does not touch the surface of the custard. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. Or refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 24 hours.
Preheat a broiler to very hot (or fire up your kitchen torch). Uncover the chilled custards. Pour as much sugar as will fit onto the top of one of the custards. Pour off the excess sugar onto the next custard. Repeat until all the custards are coated. Discard any remaining sugar.
Place the bowls on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan and broil until the sugar is melted and well browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Or brown them with a blowtorch. Let cool 1 minute before serving.

Serves 8.

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Caramel Corn Clusters
From Gourmet magazine

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup popcorn kernels
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
11/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup salted peanuts (5 oz)
Special equipment: a candy thermometer

Directions

Heat oil with 3 kernels in a 3-quart heavy saucepan, covered, over moderate heat until 1 or 2 kernels pop.
Remove lid and quickly add remaining kernels, then cook, covered, shaking pan frequently, until kernels stop popping, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and uncover.
Line bottom of a large shallow baking pan with foil. Lightly oil foil.
Melt butter in a 6-quart heavy pot over moderate heat. Add brown sugar and corn syrup and bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring, then boil, without stirring, until syrup registers 300°F on thermometer, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pot from heat.
Using a wooden spoon or a heatproof spatula, stir salt and baking soda into syrup, then quickly stir in peanuts and popcorn to coat. Immediately spread mixture in baking pan as thinly and evenly as possible.
Cool completely, then break into bite-size pieces.

Makes 12 cups.

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Come Party With Me: Movie Club Meeting

partysugar — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:45:00 -0700

The foodie documentary King Corn will be shown at my movie club meeting, so the menu features a variety of vegetarian corn dishes. During the screening, let guests nibble on corn cakes and pizzettas with corn and zucchini.

After the movie is finished, invite everyone around the table for a light meal of cheddar corn chowder with an arugula fresh corn salad on the side. The soup can be kept warm during the movie, while the salad can be assembled in advance and dressed just before serving.

For these delicious recipes that highlight the sweet flavor of corn, read more.

Corn Cakes With Fresh Corn and Chives
From Better Homes and Gardens magazine

Ingredients

1 fresh ear of corn or 1/2 cup frozen whole kernel corn
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup milk
1 slightly beaten egg
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon snipped fresh chives or cilantro (optional)
1/3 cup dairy sour cream

Directions

Cut corn kernels from cob and measure 1/2 cup. In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl stir boiling water into cornmeal to make a stiff mush. Stir in milk until smooth; then stir in fresh or frozen corn, egg, and the 1 tablespoon chives. Add flour mixture and stir just until combined.
In a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat. Drop batter by rounded tablespoons into hot oil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden brown, turning once. Transfer to a serving platter; cover and keep warm.
Repeat with remaining batter, adding the remaining 1 tablespoon oil.
Meanwhile, if desired, stir the 1 teaspoon chives into the sour cream. Serve sour cream with the corn cakes.

Makes 6 servings.

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White-Cheddar Corn Chowder
From Martha Stewart

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 celery stalk, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 1/2 cups)
2 cups homemade or low-sodium store-bought vegetable stock
1 cup nonfat milk
3 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 6 ears of corn)
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, grated (about 3/4 cup)

Directions

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add celery, and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add coriander, cumin, and cayenne.
Raise heat to medium-high, and add wine.
Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes. Add potatoes, stock, and milk, and bring to a boil (skim any foam from surface). Reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
Add corn, and cook until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
Transfer 2 cups soup to a blender. Let cool slightly, then puree. Return puree to pan, and stir. Reheat if needed. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into bowls, and top with cheese. Chowder can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Serves 6.

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Arugula, Fresh Corn and Tomato Salad
From Food and Wine magazine

Ingredients

1/4 cup Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup minced shallots
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 ears white corn with small kernels, shucked
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8 loosely packed cups arugula or peppercress (about 3/4 pound)
3 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
8 fresh organic nasturtiums (see Note), gently torn into bite-size pieces (optional)

Directions

In a large bowl, mix the Champagne vinegar with the minced shallots and season the mixture with salt and pepper. Let the shallots stand in the vinegar for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, using a sharp, thin knife and working over another bowl, cut the kernels from the ears of white corn.
Whisk the olive oil into the Champagne vinegar and shallots until blended. Add the arugula and toss with the dressing.
Add the cherry tomatoes and the corn kernels and toss gently. Transfer the salad to a large platter, scatter the nasturtiums on top and serve.

Serves 8.

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Come Party With Me: Movie Club Meeting - Invite

partysugar — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:15:41 -0700

Recently my friend Kirin told me about her decision to start a documentary film club. The club will be similar to a book club, but instead of reading and discussing a book, guests will watch and chat about a documentary. I was excited by the idea and volunteered to create a menu for the first meeting, where King Corn will be the featured movie. Since the foodie film focuses on the lifecycle of the crop, Kirin wants the party to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Instead of wasting paper by sending hard invites, she's requested that I make a green email invite. To see how I made the one shown here, read more.

To make a similar invite you will need the following supplies:

image of corn or a corn field
computer

To assemble the invite:

Start by dragging the image into Photoshop. Create a new file and copy and paste the image into the blank file. Center the image to the left and write out the details of the party on the right. For my invite I used the font Calisto MT in size 18 to write the following message:

Dear Friend,

You’ve been selected
to be a part of my
documentary film club.

Please join me for
a screening of
King Corn

A green, vegetarian dinner and a lively discussion
to follow

Wednesday, August 20
6:30 pm

Kirin’s House,
San Francisco

regrets only 415.333.3333

Check for spelling and grammar mistakes.
If desired add a creative background or extra designs.
Once satisfied with the invite, save as a jpeg. Send attached as part of an email. When I send email invites, I like to send the invite to myself first to make sure it sends how I envisioned. Next I send to a mass email list of all invited guests. You can also upload the image to an online invite service like evite or pingg.

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Casa Interview: Vern Yip

CasaSugar — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:30:47 -0700

Designer Vern Yip is a household name for many Casa readers, thanks to his judging on Design Star as well as his hosting and creativity on his tear-inducing show Deserving Design. Vern is currently contributing his design expertise to two very worthy community organizations, the Tenderloin Family Apartments, which are home to 4,000 low-income San Francisco families, and the West Oakland Boys and Girls Club, which has been serving youth in this neighborhood for over sixty years. I was thrilled to talk to Vern about his design renovations for these two community spaces.

CasaSugar: I’ve been out to both the Tenderloin Family Apartments and the West Oakland Boys and Girls Club, and they’re very excited about their renovations.

Vern Yip: This is such a wonderful and amazing opportunity for me. The renovations are being funded by Bank of America. This is part of their celebration of renovating their 118 Bay Area banking centers, so as part of the celebration they’re renovating two spaces for two Bay Area non-profits. Having been there, I’m sure you can tell that these are two organizations that are really deserving and could really benefit from a facelift.

To read more of the interview, read more.

CasaSugar: What's happening with the Boys and Girls Club?

Vern Yip: The Boys and Girls Club is providing such a huge service and a lot of these boys and girls would not have a space to go to otherwise. We’re giving them an activity room facelift so they can have a beautiful, and functioning place to hang out. That’s a really great thing. I’ve been talking to some of the people involved with the boys and girls club and gauging what they need . . . Initially I was looking at the floor in pictures and thought it was nice, but apparently it’s really worn, so we’re doing a top to bottom renovation including new flooring, new lights, and of course great new paint colors and a new space plan so this space can work much better with a new layout. We’re also going to do some really functional things like a new check-in desk and a new media corner. We’re going to use really durable materials so this facelift will hopefully last a good long time.

CasaSugar: I was reading up a little bit about your plans for the Tenderloin Apartments. What are you excited about with this project?

Vern Yip: You know, the really great thing about this space is that it’s used by the entire community. Everything happens in that space, from weddings to birthday parties to meetings and movie nights. So you want that space to really pull people together and feel celebratory. Right now it doesn’t feel celebratory. It’s a little dour and office-like, so I was talking to some of the Tenderloin Family Apartments staff trying to gauge who lives there and what are there needs. And it’s really a wide array of people, a mix of Russian, Asian American, Chinese, African-American, and Hispanic people.

I was doing some research to determine what were some key colors that represented all of those communities, and oranges and reds are two colors that are represented in all of those groups. So we’re putting in a new floor that’s going to be beautiful and patterned, but it will be made of VCT [vinyl composition tile], so it will be really durable. We’re going to do a custom mural on the wall that’s a tree with a large canopy done in a white silhouette on top of these wonderful warm orange walls, so it’s really going to stand out. A tree to me is really symbolic of bringing community together, it’s that life force. Another issue was, just like the boys and girls club, the residents didn’t feel safe hanging outside, so I thought, if we can’t bring them to the trees we’ll bring the trees to them. And then we’re hanging these incredible George Nelson lamps in a series, in two shapes, in a saucer shape and a cigar shape. We just want to make a space that the residents can be in and enjoy. That’s the goal and the purpose. I’m really excited that Bank of America made all of this possible because certainly these two non profits definitely deserve it.

CasaSugar: Definitely. And of course without outside funding they could’ve never done such an extensive renovation. Is this renovation going to be on Deserving Design?

Vern Yip: No! I wish it was. I wish we could fly our whole crew out and shoot this. I do hope it will be an inspiration to the show and network to tackle community-oriented spaces. We’ve been focused on individual spaces, and we’re just starting to branch out to community spaces. As you can imagine, it’s pretty cost-prohibitive to renovate such a large space. It really takes someone like Bank of America stepping up to the plate and saying, “We’ll do it as part of our renovation celebration.”

I’m very excited about this. My whole show and my heart and soul is all about giving back to the community through design, and the power of design to affect people’s lives. This is such an amazing opportunity to affect so many people’s lives in just two spaces.

CasaSugar: It’s going to make a huge impact. Thanks in advance for flying out and making such a wonderful contribution on the Bay Area community.

Vern Yip: I’m thrilled for the opportunity and thrilled that Bank of America brought me on board to do it. It’s a wonderful opportunity to change people’s lives.

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Biggest Headlines of 2008: Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson's Relationship

Molly — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 07:30:00 -0800

We've been counting down the biggest headlines of 2008, and we'll be revealing more throughout the month of December. We hope you enjoy this look back at some of the posts and stories that created the most buzz throughout the year.

Lindsay Lohan found love this year, only it wasn't in the form we were originally expecting. Instead, her friendship with Samantha Ronson turned into more as the two women went from attached at the hip BFFs to a lot more. You wouldn't know it from the way Lindsay finished off 2007 - a trio of men in Italy, drinking on camera, which had you all convinced she was on a downward spiral again. By Spring, however, we were seeing a lot more of her shopping and dining with DJ Samantha than falling out of the club at the end of the night and creating scandals. Still, it took her - and us - a long time to tentatively talk about the coupledom, until LL's independent streak and desire to speak her mind won out and everyone learned of Lindsay Lohan's new love.

This wasn't the first time that we saw Lindsay and Samantha spending a lot of time together, in fact Samantha got a bad reputation for facilitating her 2007 downward spiral and most of you didn't think she would keep Lindsay out of trouble. By May, it became more clear that if anything Samantha was a stabilizing influence on Lohan, as the girls were spotted meeting each other's families. At the end of the month Lindsay nuzzled up to Samantha at Cannes only fueling relationship rumors. It heated up over the Summer as Samantha joined LL on the set of Labor Pains and the girls celebrated birthdays and spent every second together.

To read more of Lindsay and Samantha's year together just read more.

By August, the only drama in their relationship seemed to be caused by Michael Lohan who felt the need to rant about Samantha to the media. The girls fought back on their MySpace blogs and just about the only upside to that was we got two of our favorite celebrity bloggers out of it. The girls have kept us updated frequently the past few months on how they're feeling about everything from politics to relationships to clearing up any breakup rumors.

From party to party, it seemed if you hired Samantha to DJ, Lindsay would be part of the package. The girls supported each other and their families like watching Charlotte Ronson's Fashion Week show. Lindsay's publicist tried to deny the girls were more than friends, but LL herself opened up about it eventually. Not to mention, of course, seeing them kiss.

At the end of September, Lindsay and Samantha headed off for a romantic weekend in Cabo together full of bikini lounging. While Lindsay Lohan's movie career is still in a bit of a rut, her legging line is selling well and she seems happier and more stable than ever with Samantha by her side. It may not be what we expected to see from Lindsay in 2008, but it's been a pleasant surprise to watch her genuinely in love with someone who cares about her right back. We'll see what 2009 brings for LL and SR, but for now they're just enjoying the ride.

Splash News Online, Source, Source

Pop Preview: Make It Happen

PopSugarUK — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:00:00 -0700

If you're looking for a likable summer film that has a comfortingly predictable plot but a load of music and dance sequences, then you can't go far wrong with Make It Happen.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Lauryn, a girl from a small town with a big dream; to leave her bookkeeping role at her late parents' garage and enroll at the Chicago School of Music and Dance. After she fails her audition - because she isn't in touch enough with her emotions - she gets lucky by meeting Dana, who gets her a back-office job in burlesque club Ruby's. What follows is a journey of self-discovery, as Lauryn gets in touch with her feelings by hooking up with music director Russ, becoming a burlesque dancer, and dealing with her grief and guilt over her parents' deaths.

The best thing about this film is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, which is just as well as she's in pretty much every scene! She combines her awesome dance talent with solid acting, and I was surprised to find myself genuinely moved in the scenes where Lauryn starts to come to terms with her grief. I can't pretend the movie is jam-packed with emotion and drama, and there are nowhere near enough conflicts to give the plot any real drive, but it chugs along steadily with a running time of less than 90 minutes.

To find out more about the movie, and to see stills from the film, read more

Although Ruby's is billed as a burlesque club, don't expect any raunchy strip tease scenes. Sure, there's a bit of glove-removing and suit-ripping-off action - which Mary told me was her favourite sequence in the whole film when I chatted with her last week - but the majority of the clubbers are cheering women not leering men, as will no doubt be the case with the cinema-going audience. Real-life Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts' inclusion as one of the original three dancers (below) lends credibility, but those of you hoping for any kind of engagement with the sexual politics of the burlesque scene will be left disappointed. That's not what this film's about.

Writer Duane Adler (of Save the Last Dance and Step Up fame) has created a character in Lauryn that I actually rooted for. If you're willing to suspend your disbelief, then the friendship between her and Dana is sweet, and her relationship with Russ is suitably sugary, if lacking much complexity. Lauryn's relationship with brother Joel is more intriguing, and the tensions between them give the film its dramatic moments. The pace is frustratingly slow but the music keeps pumping and the dance moves are impressive and hey, we all like a predictable ending now and again, right?

If you want drama and a fast pace then you'd be better off giving Make It Happen a miss, but take a look at the trailer and if it's your kind of film then give it a go, if only for the amazing dance sequences and thumping soundtrack.

View 7 Photos ›

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Mamma Mia! Stars Tell Us About The Singing And Dancing

PopSugarUK — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:00:00 -0700

When I met the stars of Mamma Mia! last week, the women told us about bonding on set and the men chatted about powerful women, tight costumes and Greece. With both groups of stars, one aspect of making the film kept coming up - the challenge of singing and dancing to those tricky ABBA songs! Here are Colin, Pierce, Stellan and Dominic's thoughts on the subject, as well as Meryl, Christine and Amanda's words.

Meryl, Amanda and Christine, was it hard singing and dancing at the same time?

MS - Here’s the hardest number: “Voulez-Vous”. It goes by like this [clicks fingers] in the movie, but it was so hard to get those dance steps.
AS - I mean, how long did we work on that?
MS - We worked on it three weeks before we began shooting. It was everybody’s bête noire, all the non-dancing actors, which is to say all the actors, except for Christine.
CB - Oh stop that saying that!
MS - It’s true! You got it. We were all [does a shimmying motion while singing in an out-of-breath voice] “voulez-vous…”. It goes so fast and there’s 150 people on the set, and it’s very cramped. It’s the only, well except from the ending, number when everybody’s dancing at once, the whole cast and every dancer in London I think. And it was really scary, fast and then they played those disco lights, eight hours a day, and the migraine sets in. But couldn’t wait to get there in the morning, right? And do it again, because it was so fun.

To see what the rest of the cast had to say about their experiences just read more

THE MEN:

Colin, was the singing and dancing side of this hard?

CF - Yes. People asked how we came together, got to know each other and became such a family. I remember turning up on the first day of recording terrified of meeting Benny and Björn, we were told we had three days to record a three minute song and my mind boggled. I could imagine myself in floods of tears while they shook their head and bossed me to do it again. Then I was introduced to Pierce, and I was staring into a vortex of fear and it was the same with Stellan and I suddenly realised that I wasn’t alone.

Dominic, after Mamma Mia! are musicals on your agenda now?

DC - It’s a really liberating, exciting although very exposing thing to sing. When you actually get something you couldn’t do before, when you finally feel you’re hitting the notes correctly it’s very very exciting. Whether it’s even remotely good enough to do a musical, probably not. It was terrifying seeing two bearded men behind a glass partition in the studio and realising it was them who wrote the music, that was a real test and very frightening but a great feeling to maybe have achieved it.

Stellan, you said you only normally dance when drunk.

SS - Usually when I'm dancing my whole body tells me, no this is not right! It was terrifying. But I realised pretty quickly that this was like a boot camp. For weeks and weeks we would just rehearse one song, "Voulez-Vous". I had an absolutely bizarre experience with that and I realised I'm never going to be able to do it.

Pierce, was there some discipline on set, or was it pretty riotous throughout?

PB - It was great fun. I had the time of my life from day one all the way to end. Apart from the terror of singing, but once you’d got that under your belt, and you came to the theatricality of it and you made peace with your voice, it was just wonderful to be in a company, you know a young company and to see Meryl there and to see this wonderful cast. It was great going to work every day. There was work to be done. Phyllida really created this wonderful platform for us all to make fools of ourselves and support each other.

THE WOMEN:

Christine, was it a daunting prospect to be leaping about for the movie cameras?

CB - Yes, in a word yes. I think it’s always challenging. Particularly when you’re mainly an actor and you’ve been given any kind of musical work to do, you feel humbled by it and properly terrified. Then it’s like, “Oh my gosh this is a great challenge, how wonderful”. And then when you actually do it you think “Why haven’t I been doing this my whole life? It’s so wonderful” [laughs].

Amanda, you’re the youngest member of the cast. Were you familiar with ABBA's songs? Were you surprised to be asked to do this?

AS - Yes, absolutely, I felt a little bit of pressure because I wasn’t so familiar with their huge success, I just recognised the music so much. It was just scary to kind of read the songs through in my own style. I didn’t know what to expect. I mean I got chosen also partly because they did appreciate what I had to give. It was kind of amazing.

Meryl, how much input did Benny and Björn have in how you performed the songs?

MS - They were there all the time, whenever we were recording. First we recorded a pre-record to work to on set, and then we recorded live with body mics when we were shooting. They were very generous, what Amanda was saying, about letting us own the songs. As long as we were exact on the words [laughs] and the timing. And to not lose the beat, I mean that’s really important. I didn’t want to disappoint them. I didn’t want to let down all the Donnas - there’s how many, 500 Donnas? - that are just going to be watching this. We’re in a club now and I didn’t want to let them down. There’s so many great songs. It wasn’t hard work, it’s a joy to sing this music.

Meryl, what was it like to begin a song in Pinewood and finish it in Greece?

MS - You know I think I’ve sung all of these songs about 70,000 times from starting in my closet, which was the only place my family would allow me to practice, all the way to Pinewood and in Holland Park where we were living, those poor neighbours. I never got sick of singing these songs, never never never. In my drama school they used to use ABBA to rev everybody up for dance class because you can’t not be excited when it starts. There wasn’t a big problem, reinserting yourself into the moment from Pinewood to Greece. Greece was … nicer! [laughs]

ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and the film's director and producer - Phyllida Lloyd and Judy Craymer - also shed some light on the terror and triumph involved in the actors' experiences on set. I'll be bringing you their words along with my review of the film later this week, so stay tuned!

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What's Yummy This Week - YumSugar Weekly Recap

YumSugar — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:00:11 -0700

My latest sandwich creation is inspired by a warm Summer night with friends.
PartySugar plans a movie club meeting, complete with a full corn tasting menu.
Could a Playboy Bunny ruin this restaurant chain's wholesome image?
For a different warm-weather refreshment, try this ginger beer cooler.
Summer stone fruit and a comforting dessert are combined to make my latest popsicle creation.
This week's nachos highlight the savory flavors of Spain.
Now that okra is in season, here are a few tips on selecting and preparing it.
Just how clean are restaurants across the country?