This weekend included sev­eral of my favorite things. First there was pie on National Pie Day. My fiancee and I made banana cream pie – some­thing she’s been asking for. Instead of the usual recipes, which employ pud­ding mix and pre-made whipped cream, we made our own cus­tard and whipped some organic heavy cream. While I’m not sure this improves the flavor of the final product, the end result is much more sat­is­fying. The pie doesn’t require that many ingre­di­ents: milk, eggs, flour, sugar, butter, vanilla extract. I had pie dough already made (a side ben­efit from last weekend’s berry pie).

Today, we finally saw Avatar in 3d. The movie-making tech­nology brought to bear on this project is impres­sive. It is one of the most tech­ni­cally amazing movies I’ve ever enjoyed. Plot-wise, the movie is not that much more than “Dances with Wolves”. The story is based on two won­derful ideas: a planet where all life is lit­er­ally con­nected in an organic elec­trical net­work; and the pairing of a human “driver” with a bio­log­ical “avatar”. Unfor­tu­nately, James Cameron really fails to explore either idea in any depth, relying instead on the story devices that are easier and proven in big-budget Hol­ly­wood movies. Ulti­mately, the movie is enjoy­able but I felt as though it missed some oppor­tu­ni­ties. At best, the movie is com­pletely worth the big the­ater expe­ri­ence and was not ruined by poor casting and hor­rible dialog – the crimes that derailed “Titanic”.

This evening I made another batch of home-made pasta. I’m get­ting much better at it. I was inspired by the pap­pardelle I had last week while I was in North Car­olina. The dough was rolled out as thin as pos­sible – I think I’m going to break my rolling pin soon. I cut broad noo­dles from the dough (which is much easier than trying to cut thin noo­dles) and paired them with a home­made meat sauce. Each time I make the pasta it becomes easier. This time it cooked just as it was sup­posed to and was fin­ished in the sauce.

Now I’m watching the end of the Saints-Vikings con­fer­ence cham­pi­onship game. This is easily the best game of the whole post-season. Never a blowout, lots of good plays, some drama. Who­ever wins will deserve it. It’s been a great game. I think I’ll go cut myself a slice of pie and watch the finish.