DARK WATERS! My son is in it. Go See It!

Maybe you've been following this blog for years (since 2006, omg?!?!!), but guess what ... my 7-year-old son has officially surpassed me in fame and I LOVE IT SO MUCH! I will never stop making art and writing and singing and playing, but right now my son is part of telling maybe the most important message of the millennium.

I won't spoil the movie, but little Graham (www.imdb.me/GrahamCaldwell i think it helps if you click on that link for some reason, but i don't really understand IMDb) plays the son of Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway. He looks more like them than he does like us. He's got two lines, and they are both funny. The movie, however, is a drama, a thriller, and so so so so important, and will give you so many different feels, ranging from ha ha to ewwww to omg to no fucking way to i'm so fired up!

Go see it. Then check back and tell me (or tell GRAHAM) how you're going to help him change the world. He's ready, he's motivated, and he told me he wants to be an actor-vist  ha ha ha ha.

Wanna be our best friends?? Follow Graham in Instagram because he LOVES that media and also it's apparently how casting directors actually find young actors these days, who knew? He's also on Twitter, which is pretty funny because he writes his own tweets (i obviously supervise). And he has a Facebook page, though i don't really let him look at Facebook unless someone sends him a nice comment because Facebook is scary.

 

Best sugar cookies ever, seriously!

I'm terrified of the impending holidays. My dad's 75th birthday is in a few weeks. Hanukkah is in a few weeks. Christmas is in a few weeks. They are all the same week, and I will not be home for any of them.** I will be with my boys and my in-laws and they are all kind and thoughtful and beautiful people, but I am afraid of how I will just want to retreat to my room because I will not be good company.

I'm also afraid that if for some reason the grief ball doesn't hit its target (have you seen that analogy)  then I will just look like an unfeeling freak. Grief is weird, y'all. It's especially weird to go from two-parent holiday season to zero-parent holiday season within a year.

You know what makes me feel better? Comfort food. It's called that for a reason. Brigid's 90-Proof Kitchen here for the rescue!

Since I'm on a recipe kick, I'm gonna share my favorite awesome sugar-cookie recipe. I've had a sugar-cookie craving (but am on a doctor-ordered gluten-free trial for a few weeks for my arthritis: LAME), so rather than baking them I will just write about them. I like this one because it tastes amazing, but also because you only have to chill the dough for an hour, so you don't have to plan in advance to make them:

2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp bourbon
2 tsp baking powder
5 cups flour
1 tsp salt 

Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and bourbon. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt. Cover and chill for an hour.
Preheat oven to 400*. Roll out dough (I like to make it thick, like 1/2"!) and cut into fun shapes. Add sprinkles if you want. Bake for 6 minutes (They'll look undercooked, but when they cool, they'll be soft not crispy.) Cool and decorate even more!

Go ahead and print this out because someone will ask you for the recipe, I promise!

Also, here are some badass Hanukkah cookie cutters that I love*:


**Robbers: all travel bloggers hire multiple house-sitters, so don't even think about trying to break into steal all those shitty old Derby glasses my mom left behind. I'll actually just leave them on the porch for you if you can take them to Goodwill for me, 'mkay thanks)

Also, it's Giving Tuesday. Give to an artist who makes you smile or to an organization that does magical things or share a post on the internets if you don't have the actual dollars to help!

Enjoy my blog? Here’s how you can show your love:

www.patreon.com/brigidkaelin
(i've been putting backstage photos with Elvis, Damaris, and more on that site)









* it's some sort of Amazon affiliate link? I don't really know what that means, but I think I'm required by law to tell you that or something.

My dad's famous Mac N Cheese Recipe.

David, digging into the MAC N CHEESE!

Hope everyone had a merry Thanksgiving! For my readers abroad, Thanksgiving is just a random Thursday where Americans cook too much food, try to manage their time attending 2-8 family functions (depending on how many grandparents are still alive), and eat a lot of comfort food. My family never had the beautiful tablescapes that I see on Pinterest, but I've now seen plenty of people who do. 

Thanksgiving was pretty difficult this year, particularly because, while Graham located my dad's special mac-n-cheese recipe on his left-behind iPad, the mac-n-cheese I cooked did not deliver. I assumed his secret ingredient was extra butter, but I think it's extra-sharp cheddar and extra salt. In the mean time, I'm waaaaaaay too cheesy-noodled out to even think about a do-over, so I'll wait until next Thanksgiving.

I had some pretty overwhelming moments of grief, some heaving sobs, and some sweet hugs and kisses from my little guys who have seen too much.

Thought I'd share my dad's mac-n-cheese recipe today, since SO many of you have asked for it:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
1 tsp salt (pretty sure he used a lot more than this)
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar (i think he included extra-sharp!)
2 cups (7 oz) elbow macaroni, cooked, drained 

Make a sauce with butter, flour, milk, salt. Stir in 1-1/2 cups cheese until melted. Layer the cheese sauce with the cooked macaroni in a 1-1/2 quart casserole. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on the top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serves 6-8, or one Brigid.

Pretty pretty tablescaping by 7-year-old Eleanor.

- Graham's movie comes out in theatres across America on Friday December 6! 

- I'm working on sorting out management and coastal representation for Graham while trying to manage my own art (apparently, if i don't make art, i become a crazy person!!!). Graham is begging to audition and work more.

- I love you. If you're reading this, I probably really do love you.

Enjoy my blog? Here’s how you can show your love:

www.patreon.com/brigidkaelin
(i've been putting backstage photos with Elvis, Damaris, and more on that site)