I just finished watching Prayers for Bobby, a made-for television movie that premiered tonight on the Lifetime television channel. I don't usually do reviews, especially of movies, and this probably isn't going to be a review in the traditional sense.

I'll just say this about the movie: I only caught the last half of the movie, or maybe the last 45 minutes. But what I saw was very moving and it was over way too soon. Those 45 minutes barely seemed like 10, that's how engrossing this movie is.

This is a movie based on a book, which itself is based on a true story about the life of Bobby Griffith, and how his life affected his family, in particular his mother, Mary Griffith. (Has anyone read the book and seen the movie? Just seeing what I saw of the movie has made me want to get the book now...)

I'm not going to give anything away (isn't that what a good review does?) but I will say that the speech Mary Griffith made at the end of the movie left me sobbing (literally sobbing and not just in tears). I'm certain that the 1.25 hours of the movie I missed would have left me in tears on many other occasions.

And on a personal note, this movie is very, very close to me; I almost became another "Bobby." If only this movie were around when I was coming out eighteen years ago...

BTW, I think it's great that Sigourney Weaver received a Trevor Award from the Trevor Project for her role in this film, which was her first made-for-television movie.

I don't know when this movie will be shown again and whether it will be available on DVD (if it is, buy it--seriously!) but if you can, definitely see this movie! I mean, how many movies out there want to make you run out and get the book (this one did, for sure!)???

UPDATE: Prayers for Bobby will be on again tonight, Sunday 25 January 2009 @ 8pm EST!!!

P.S. I had made some modifications to this article and spent nearly three hours picking out the groups that this should belong to but because of a web error that was all lost. I can't remember what the edits are and right now I'm too effing pissed off and frustrated so I'm just posting this to everything I belong to, so sorry if I'm posting to the wrong groups. I really, really, really despise Gather right now for not making their group posting easier, and I've previously written articles on Gather about how to improve their group function and they said that it was in the works over a year ago -- it doesn't take that long to make such a simple change! Oh, and BTW, the change I suggested was sort of implemented for posting photos! :p

P.P.S. It took me over 1.5 hours to mindlessly click on all of the groups I belong to in publishing this............

Keep up with the world of cuisine with the upbeat, in-depth, at times outrageous "Gather Round the Table" with outspoken Real Food advocate Kurt Michael Friese.  With 30 years of experience in the food industry, Gather Round the Table brings you a fresh perspective on real food without the elitist gibberish.

		Kurt Michael Friese, Gather Food Correspondent
	Gather ‘Round the Table is a regular feature of Gather Essentials: Food. Chef Kurt Michael Friese is a freelance food & wine writer & photographer. He is also the co-owner - with his wife Kim - of Devotay, a restaurant in Iowa City, serves on the Slow Food USA Board of Directors, and is owner/publisher of the local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley. His book, A Cook's Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland has just been released. He lives in rural Johnson County, Iowa. Keep up with Kurt Michael's food series by joining his network, or subscribing to his content.

Sunday morning we met some friends at the Hash House A Go Go for brunch before we went to the Walking With Dinosaurs show.  I had never been to Hash House before and was excited to try another famous San Diego eatery.  You have to admit that San Diego has some amazing restaurants, right?

Anyway, we arrived earlier than we had planned to meet, expecting a crowd and we weren't wrong there were quite a bit of hungry people milling about outside the restaurant.  We put our name in and took a pre-brunch walk around the block while we awaited the arrival of our friends and our name being called.

First, it's good to know that they will not seat you until all of your party is there, but once everyone arrives its very quick to get to your seat.  Hash House has indoor and outdoor seating and we were seated outside.  After walking through the inside, we were pleased with this because it was very loud in there and outside we coul actually hear each other.  The brunch menu is amazing everything from different hashes, to giant hotcakes, to stuffed burgers.  But, what is more amazing is the SIZE of the food.  Now, I have to admit I am not a proponent of ginormous portions.  I really think that restaurant portions are making us all fat, but there is something magnificent about a giant platter stacked with deliciously fresh foods and garnished with stalks of fresh rosemary.  I don't think I can even describe the dishes I saw being placed in front of hungry patrons.  But I'll try.  The man behind me ordered what I had been considering ordering, Andy's sage fried chicken benedict with spinach, tomato, mozarella, bacon, chipotle cream, and scrambled eggs.  I would have to say that the dish this was served in, a shallow bowl, was about 13 inches across and the food stacked to about 10 inches high.  It looked good, but I knew it was going to be too much for me so I started looking for an alternative.  I ended up choosing the Sausage Gravy Pot Pie which the server said was really good.  It was basically a pie type crust filled with mashed potatoes, covered in sausage gravy and scrambled eggs with some diced peppers.  It was a hard decision what with the BBBLT, House Hashes, and Farm Scrambles available, but I am a gravy fanatic and thought I'd give it a try.  My husband went with the old standard, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and a hotcake, well it was a mango and coconut hotcake and by the way, when it arrived it was about 14 inches across!  I am so not kidding.  That should give you an idea of how big the plate was!  My huband did not, in fact, eat the whole hotcake - I think he made it through about 1/2.

One of our friends ordered the mushroom, artichoke heart, sundried tomato and spinich hash and it looked delicious.  While it too was giant sized, it was a little more manageable compared to our orders and she said it tasted fantastic.  Our other friend ordered a waffle, which was large, but not quite the size of the hotcake.  My bowl was at LEAST 15 inches across and frankly, appeared to be a fruit bowl.  I enjoyed my meal, although I certainly couldn't eat it all, but I was a little disappointed because I didn't care for the very crunchy piecrust.  Maybe the whole thing on one of the giant biscuits would have been better - oh, they serve that and I almost ordered it, it's called biscuits and gravy! 

They have so many dishes that sound yummy that I am dying to go back and try some more, but we will definitely have to do some sharing because I'm telling you, we're talking portions for giants here.  This isn't a place for one on a diet as it will be hard to stick to your guns, but all of th food seemed to be really fresh and the produce was lovely.  A side of fruit was big sized, too, but nice to have a fresh slice of cantaloupe rather than some tired old cantaloupe cubes!

For the size of the portions, I didn't think the prices were too bad.  Our whole bill for the four meals, plus a child's pancake meal, and orange juice, chocolate milk, a pomegranite mimosa, and a latte came out to $100.  The entrees ran about $12-16 on average.

I highly recommend checking out this funky neighborhood favorite and from what I understand on their webpage, they've branched out and have a location in Las Vegas.  We're on our way there tonight, so who knows, maybe I'll have a second round this weekend!

For all the details and menus - Hash House also serves breakfast lunch and dinner - visit the Hash House A Go Go website at www.hashhouseagogo.com/home.html.  If I'm lucky I'll post some more dining reports soon!

This is the holiday season in just about every culture. I was born and raised a Unitarian Universalist, thus of the Judeo-Christian background, so in my house it's Christmastime. For some folks, Christmas is about peace and good tidings. For others it is a joyous celebration of the birth of their savior. In my family it was, and still is, all about the food. It's about presence rather than presents.

There are many items that must be on the table, or else it simply is not Christmas. Among these are the clam dip, the wild-rice dressing, grandma's cranberries, and mom's bourbon pound cake. I've shared all these recipes before in this space and others, save the pound cake, which is a very closely guarded family recipe. The secret is to ... nope, still not going to tell you. I will say this, however: Last year my mother learned that you can't make up for not having the last 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour by replacing it with 3/4 cup of bread flour -- unless making a doorstop is your intended result.

My wife Kim's family had different food traditions, including oyster stew and tamales (odd for her Scots-German heritage) as well as some more Midwest-conventional items like green bean casserole and a lemon Jell-O mold of pineapples and carrots that was on every holiday table at her grandmother's home in Decorah, Iowa. But the best tradition of her family, and the one that made it so easy for us to combine our holiday traditions when we married more than 20 years ago, was cornbread and beans.

Kim's mother and grandmother both used Jiffy Mix for their cornbread, but Kim married a chef, so now we make it from scratch every Christmas Eve. We are all the more grateful for the rich and luxurious feast on Christmas Day, which offers a counterpoint of good fortune alongside the prior night's nod of respect to a time not so long ago when our families could afford no more than cornbread and beans for their holiday supper. We must always remember that our family was not always so fortunate, and tomorrow once again may not be.

Our cornbread ritual is also intended as a symbolic reminder of the far-too-numerous people in this country and around the world who are, as the current vernacular would have it, "food insecure." Through Slow Food, much of my time is occupied with these issues. My kids, however, have grown up never knowing the fear of wondering where their next meal would come from. I was fortunate enough to grow up the same way. But my father was born to immigrants during the Great Depression, and that experience influenced much more about the family than simply making it frugal.

The tradition in which I was raised teaches of the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and also of justice, equity, and compassion in human relations; lessons preached by nearly every religious belief in one way or another. But learning these lessons and applying them are different matters. To apply them we must do more than simply see that there are a billion people starving in the world and a billion more paradoxically overweight and undernourished. We must insist that something be done. To that end we donate time, money, and resources, and we advocate for change on a local, national, and global level. One example of an organization we support, one we hope to help spread nationwide, is Local Foods Connection.

This innovative approach uses a number of techniques to provide CSA shares to underprivileged families. They do more than merely supplying fresh food, though. They provide education on how to prepare it, how to grow it at home, where it comes from, and why it's better for you. Families visit the farms and participate from plant to plate. Imagine the impact if this idea were to spread nationwide: struggling families receiving healthful, locally produced food instead of empty calories.

So many people are focused on their own finances, their own concerns, wondering how to get the Wii console when they don't know if they'll be employed next month. While I believe firmly that the philosophy we all learn on airplanes -- put on your own oxygen mask before helping those around you -- can be useful in everyday life, sometimes the right thing to do is reach out and help others no matter what your own situation may be. That might be as simple as inviting someone to your table for some cornbread and beans.

Like all good holiday traditions, the ritual of production, presentation, and consumption must be adhered to in order to experience the full effect. The cornbread must be served warm, sliced horizontally, and spread with butter (not margarine). The beans must be navy beans, cooked simply in salted water, and ladled piping hot over the buttered cornbread. The dish is then garnished with diced yellow onions, hand-chopped pickled hot peppers, and white vinegar.

The only exception to this rule belonged to Kim's brother Scott, who since he was a toddler refused the cornbread and beans, so his doting grandmother made macaroni and cheese for him. Today homemade mac-and-cheese is an odd, starchy, but satisfying side dish on our Christmas Eve table.

Iowa Cornbread

Though it divides in half easily, this cornbread recipe makes a large batch, because I hope plenty of family and many friends surround your holiday table.

Preheat oven to 425 F and grease a Pyrex dish (8" x 10" x 4" or equivalent).

Combine all dry ingredients thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. Separately combine the beaten egg, buttermilk, and melted butter or lard. Add the liquid to the dry (and add the cheese and scallions, if desired) and fold to combine until just evenly moist.

Spoon the mixture into the greased dish and bake in center of oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Allow to stand 15 minutes before serving. Makes 10-12 healthy portions.

		Kurt Michael Friese, Gather Food Correspondent
	Gather ‘Round the Table is a regular feature of Gather Essentials: Food. Chef Kurt Michael Friese is a freelance food & wine writer & photographer. He is also the co-owner - with his wife Kim - of Devotay, a restaurant in Iowa City, serves on the Slow Food USA Board of Directors, and is Editor-in-Chief of the local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley. His book, A Cook's Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland has just been released. He lives in rural Johnson County, Iowa. Keep up with Kurt Michael's food series by joining his network, or subscribing to his content.

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