Eliza Faria (aka ANNIE) cast as young Reneesme in Twilight: Breaking Dawn

Just a fun side note to the usual baking, knitting and writing posts I usually go on about:

The adorable and very talented Eliza Faria, who just so happens to play Annie in my web series, SiftingRealities, was just cast as the young Reneesme character in the upcoming Twilight movie: Breaking Dawn: Part One.

You can see Eliza in the SiftingRealities pilot: TRAPPED AT THE BACK DOOR and episode three: ZOMBIE IN THE GARDEN.

We wish Eliza much luck, and tons of fun, filming on a big time movie set!! So exciting!!

SiftingRealities: Episode Five: ALL THE WRONG PEOPLE

This is the sixth episode of my web series SiftingRealities.  At the end of episode 4, Belinda seems to think she’s got this whole “sifting” thing under control, but does she?



Oh, those are shortbread cookies she is making and eating in the final scene… I’ll post the recipe later on today.

Fudge Yogurt Cookies

These cookies are featured in SiftingRealities Episode Four: NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE (more info in post below).  They are super easy.  No mixmaster needed.  Just mix everything in the pot that you use to melt the butter.

Melt the butter, remove pan from heat, and mix all the ingredients straight into the pot by hand – easy!

Batter.  Mixed?  Check!

Fresh from the oven (note the parchment paper covered cookie sheet).  These are soft, chewy cookies – YUM!

Sifting Realities: Episode Four: NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE

In our fifth episode of SiftingRealities, Belinda attempts to exert some sort of control over the craziness she thinks her brain is projecting… if the pills won’t work perhaps she can find away to stop the other realities from bleeding into her own…

“I’m not as judgemental as you always make me seem.”  Ah, Marie (played by Valerie McNicol), you rock though you alone are enough to keep Belinda tiptoeing the edge of sanity!

Cookies: Fudge Yogurt Cookies

Gingerbread (Zombie?) People (Cookies)

As seen in SiftingRealities: Episode Three: ZOMBIE IN THE GARDEN (see post below for more info) Belinda, not knowing what to do with Annie once she has rescued her from the back yard, defaults to her comfort zone: baking, specifically, she bakes gingerbread cookies.  Here is the recipe I (therefore she) uses:

The dough (ready to be plastic wrapped and chilled) and a traditionally shaped (not the one I used for the episode) gingerbread man cookie cutter:

Naked gingerbread people cooling and getting ready for decoration:

Decorated cookies (still from Sifting Realities, Ep. 3):

**Note: it took an entire bottle of red food colouring (and a couple of drops of blue) to make the icing “blood” THAT red.  The yellow noose (middle top) is made out of string licorice.  The cookies on the right are decorated with the more “traditional” look I usually use.

These cookies are “soft” gingerbread and super tasty… the crew eyed them all day while we were shooting and eagerly gobbled them up after we’d wrapped.  There was some disbelief that they were whole wheat, which I take as a compliment to the cookies.  Eliza, who plays Annie, preferred the licorice “guts”, of course.

SiftingRealities: Episode Three: ZOMBIE IN THE GARDEN

This episode was my favourite on the page, a worry in the casting (boy, was I silly, because the cast additions: Eliza Faria, who plays Annie and Sebastian Kroon, who plays Courier/Zombie Stan totally rock), and took the longest to cut/tweak/colour but, through all that, I STILL think it is my all round favourite episode.  I have written a number of feature films that are based in the zombie or creature genre, but this was my first time shooting/directing a zombie piece and, I must reflect, the actors did all the great work and I just directed the camera and cut it all together.

Synopsis: Belinda (CARMEN BENNETT) is disturbed to find someone other than Lise at her back door to pick up cookies.  After a confrontation with this new courier (SEBASTIAN KROON), Belinda discovers a zombie in the backyard.  Issue: the child Annie (ELIZA FARIA) is hiding in a playhouse. Also featured is JESSE SCARF as D.

Cookies: (ZOMBIE) GINGERBREAD.  Recipe & pictures to come!

Almond Coconut Macaroons

These are the cookies featured in SiftingRealities: Episode Two: GUN IN MY TOILET (more info can be  found in the previous post).  In the episode, Rich thinks Belinda is presenting the cookies as a peace offering of sorts, but ends up just stealing her plate of comfort food.  The macaroons in the episode are sans ground almonds.

Above: egg whites (4 in this case as I am doubling the recipe), medium unsweetened coconut, ground almonds, sugar and pure vanilla.

Whip eggs and vanilla until soft peaks form, which look something like above.

Still beating eggs, slowly add the sugar and then continue to beat until (fairly) stiff, glossy peaks form (as shown above).  Some times this magic just doesn’t happen, make the cookies anyway, they won’t be pretty, but they’ll still be tasty!

Fold in the coconut and ground almonds, until just mixed.

Drop rounds tablespoons approx. 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake.

And… enjoy!

SiftingRealities: Episode Two: GUN IN MY TOILET

Um, ya, so I made this… with a lot of help (please see the credits), but yes, this is the sort of thing that comes out of my brain…

#2. GUN IN THE TOILET – Issue: Still attempting to maintain some normalcy within the chaos of her life, Belinda (CARMEN BENNETT) chats with Lise (LACI MAILEY) as Lise picks up baskets of cookies for delivery.  However, later, as she is cleaning her guest bathroom, Belinda finds a gun duct taped to her toilet and another man (Rich, played by ROB LAMPARD) in her shower.  Life, once again, is anything but normal for Belinda.

Starring: CARMEN BENNETT, ROB LAMPARD & LACI MAILEY

Cookies: ALMOND MACAROONS (recipe to come!)

Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube and let us know what you think so far!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

In lieu of the 2nd Baking with the Director episode (which we decided to not shoot so we could launch episode 2 of SiftingRealities) here is the recipe for the cookies that are featured in episode one: MAN IN MY BED (more details in previous post).  Of ALL the cookies I bake these are my absolute favourite.  This is my go to recipe, for every occasion (except maybe Christmas):

The finished cookies look something like this:

And the taste?  Like sex for your taste buds… at least according to Lise in SiftingRealities.