Dinner and DVD Night

Tonight's entree was Sirloin Roast, served with sausage stuffing (compliments of my friend Jean), and corn. This recipe is perfect for cold winter evenings (it's about 10 degrees tonight) and dinner was basically ready when I came home from work. The peppery, fork-tender roast creates a tasty meal. Plus I have leftovers for a beef vegetable soup now.

Sirloin Roast

1 boneless beef sirloin tip roast

1 to 2 tablespoons coarsely ground pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons ground mustard

Rub roast with pepper and garlic; cut in half if needed and place in a slow cooker. Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and mustard; pour over beef. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours or until the meat is tender. My roast was approx. 1 1/4 lbs. I use a timer with my slow cooker so it doesn't cook to death.

Featured Attraction: Far From Heaven starring Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, and Dennis Haysbert.

Plot: Cathy (Julianne Moore) is the perfect 50s housewife, living the perfect 50s life: healthy kids, successful husband, social prominence. Then one night she surprises her husband Frank (Dennis Quaid) kissing another man, and her tidy world starts spinning out of control. In her confusion and grief, she finds consolation in the friendship of their African-American gardener, Raymond (Dennis Haysbert) - a socially taboo relationship that leads to the further disintegration of life as she knew it. Despite Cathy and Frank's struggle to keep their marriage afloat, the reality of his homosexuality and her feelings for Raymond open a painful, if more honest, chapter in their lives.

Pam's Review: The music and look of this film, was a homage to films of the 1950's and Julianne Moore reminded me of Carol Brady from the Brady Bunch, sugary sweet, a time when things were "simple". But looks are always deceiving, and I thought I'd fall asleep through most of it, but Moore, Quaid and Haysbert deliver in their respective roles. Moore, especially, after discovering her husband, played by Dennis Quaid, kissing another man and then she falls for Dennis Haysbert's gardener character (isn't he the Allstate guy?).

Definitely not the most entertaining movie, but it is a relevant social commentary. Quaid sees a psychiatrist about his attraction to men and Moore defies convention, by accompanying a single father from a different race (Haysbert). Overall this is a good not great drama. I liked the unhappy ending and the "what could have been" if it were acceptable at that time. Director Todd Haynes has at least reminded the public that "acceptance" of certain behaviors is still incomprehensible to many people, even if half a century has gone by.