Tonight, I choose to honor those behind, behind-the-scenes folks who are never acknowledged in red-carpeted ceremonies. The ones who write the permits, granting production companies access to film in photo-worthy locations, with gold statues in mind. Here’s to you Mom!
How do the Academy Awards have anything to do with this blog? Well, the backdrops for many car commercials and TV shows, magazine layouts, music videos, and feature films are set in National Parks. How does this happen? Well, permits have to be filed with government employees, like my Mom (now retired), to make this possible.
Death Valley ’49ers Cookout
Like any skilled civil-servant, Mom receipted, filed, and submitted special-use permit requests to the NPS’s powers-to-be. These permits ranged from seemingly simple photo applications to intricate film requests. Like any amazing clerical assistant, Mom wasn’t one to mess with. Impatient, enthusiastic assistants to high-dollar movie executives learned the hard way to be nice to Mom. Incomplete paperwork = no permit = lost movie production money! For years, Mom also wrote the paperwork for car companies, like Mercedes and Land Rover, to record commercials and perform extreme-weather tests. She’s still waiting for her cheap ball-point pen to be upgraded to a car!
In light of any yearly Academy Award and Grammy Award nominees, I’m celebrating Mom’s silent achievements. Please hold your applause until the end because she’d rather you just simply read this and forget the nominees!
Here are the nominees….Ultraviolet (1992). This low-budget, cinematography nugget featured Esai Morales of La Bamba fame. Its highly intricate plot-line has a ranger making amends with his doctor-ex, a crazed kidnapper, and slow-motion RV chase scenes across the desert. Gripping isn’t it?! At least the movie’s scenery sounds fascinating…Death Valley‘s Devil’s Golf Course and the ghost town of nearby Rhyolite, Nevada.
Our next nominee…a raging feminist, battle-cry for an equally upset generation, Alanis Morissette’s debut album, Jagged Little Pill (1995). The title track from this album, “You Oughta Know,” was filmed in iconic locations, such as Zabriskie Point in Death Valley NP and inside the Cook Building at the nearby ghost town of Rhyolite. The NPS ranger assigned to this film proclaimed it “was a lot of noise,” well before my college roommate yowled along in a continuous loop. Now you can buy front row seats to the Broadway show!
Our final nominee features a distraught widow, friends on a road trip and getting ashes to a funeral. Bonneville (2006). Revolving around a road-trip in a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville, Jessica Lange’s character (Arvilla Holden) scatters her husband’s ashes at various places they visited during their marriage. So when it came to releasing part of the dearly departed in Bryce Canyon NP…well, the production crew had to get creative! Flour, coffee grounds and other kitchen food-stuffs were dropped in front of an industrial strength blower fan. The final screen take? Hot chocolate powder!
The award goes to you, Mom! We honor you with peanut-butter and chocolate deliciousness, Brownie Peanut-Butter Cookies. The one award you’re willing to accept and relish! We know you will continue to sneak through the kitchen to scoop out spoonfuls of this batter LONG after these gems go into the cinematography vault!
Brownie Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
A comforting blend between a brownie and a cookie, chocolate peanut-butter-chip cookies will warm your heart!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 80 minutes
- Yield: 18–24 cookies 1x
Ingredients
2–1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt (kosher or table)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1–10 oz. package (1–2/3 cup) peanut butter chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line cookie/baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream brown sugar, granulated sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. On low speed, add the flour mixture and peanut butter chips to the butter mixture. Blend until just combined. Do not over mix, but make sure all ingredients are combined completely.
Using a #24 ice cream scoop (3 tbsp.) or a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets, 3 inches apart. Bake for 23-27 minutes. Remove from heat and allow baking sheets to cool completely on cooling racks.
IMNPB
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