Movie Reviews

Did everyone have a good Father's Day weekend? I did, for the most part. It was a nice 3-day weekend for me since I had to work the Saturday prior, and Friday proved to be a great day to get stuff done around the house. Over the weekend, I managed to vacuum the living room, upstairs & hallway, sweep our hardwood floors, do some laundry, clean out my car, organize our coupon drawer --- well, you get the idea. I was productive! I need more 3-day weekends, but who doesn't?

For Father's Day, one of Buppy's requests [ok, his only request] was to see Toy Story 3 in theater. Since we met, we've only been to see 1 other movie in a theater because it's so hard to pay $7.50+ for a ticket when you can wait to see whatever you want on RedBox in a few months. Nonetheless, it was my present to him and the kids, so we saw a matinee yesterday. I don't really think I've seen all of Toy Story 1 or 2, so it was hard for me to judge against the others. It was kind of dark in my opinion, and Buppy agreed. Ok all in all, but probably something I wouldn't buy for myself. [Yes, I buy a lot of cartoons for myself!] Spend $1 on it at RedBox if you want to see it. [Don't tell my friend Heather I rated it this poorly; she loved it, so what do I know?!]

I rented When in Rome last week on Thursday [Buppy's night at work]. Standard chick flick. Funny in parts, but again not something I'd buy myself. It was pretty predictable, but the main man sure was nice to look at! Not high on my priority list to own. I'd say 2 out of 5 stars.

Buppy Cooks Comfort Food

First though, we shall start with a movie review. One of my new coworkers and I get along rather well and seem to have a similar taste in movies. We decided to trade a few that we were shocked the other hadn't seen; I lent him Team America and he borrowed me House of 1,000 Corpses (we'll call this one HC) as well as Fierce Creatures (FC). HC was awful. Horrible. As in, almost 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. FC was better, although still not something I'd watch again. He assumed I'd enjoy HC since it came out (and supposedly explains) The Devil's Rejects, which I love. I didn't. It doesn't. Don't do it. Period.

Now, onto better topics . . .

Because my hours at my new job are quite different from what I'd been working almost since I moved to MD, meals are different now as well. I don't get home until 7:10pm or so on weeknights, later if I get caught up with something at work. Because of this, Buppy usually feeds the kids before I get home, then he and I eat together after they've gone to bed. I've told him he can make the meal and I'll just reheat it when I get home (so that all 3 of them can have dinner together) but he chooses to wait for me. How sweet! This past week he and the kids were all pretty sick, so Wed. night I picked up some hot & sour soup for Buppy and I (as well as a few egg rolls). It was the first time I'd had that kind of soup and it was good; I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but I did. And man, they make some bangin' egg rolls at that Chinese place too!
Thursday night Buppy made Shepard's Pie, which is something I've never made but he's really good at. Granted it's a pretty simple recipe to throw together, but he makes it just right. Friday night was a chicken-broccoli braid, but that will be blogged about at another time. Super tasty too!

Buppy's Shepard's Pie

1 lb. ground beef or turkey (we use turkey now as it's healthier)
1 packet Lipton Beefy Mushroom soup mix
1 jar Heinz mushroom gravy
Corn (as much as you'd like)
Potatoes (enough to make as thick a layer on top as you'd like)
Shredded cheese (whatever kind you like)

So here's what Buppy tells me he does: He peels and chops up some spuds, then boils them to make mashed potatoes. While they're cooking, he browns (or whatever color ground turkey turns when it cooks) the ground meat with the soup mix in a large skillet on the stovetop. If using beef, he then drains off the fat; this step is not necessary if using ground turkey as there is nothing to drain off. From here he mixes in the gravy. He pours the meat/soup/gravy into a large casserole dish, then layers on the corn (as well as any other veggies I might let him add.) I think it'd be swell with some sauteed mushrooms and onions, but that's not how Buppy does it. I think he'd put green beans in, but I vetoed them on Thursday. I wasn't feeling bean-y enough that day. Anyway, at this point the potatoes should be tender, so he drains them and mashes 'em up with some butter (margarine, actually) and whatever other stuff he wants to add. This week he made them garlic mashers; yum! He heaps the potatoes on top of the corn layer in the casserole dish, then throws on some shredded cheese and pops it into the oven. I'm guessing he bakes it at about 350F for half an hour. After all, he's really just making sure everything is nice and hot and the cheese melts. We like to broil it for a few minutes after the half hour is up to get the cheese a nice golden color. I'm so glad he can (and likes to) cook!

I was too busy eating to remember to take a picture. I'm such a bad dog.

I got the idea to try and make this as a vegetarian dish too, using a variety of mushrooms instead of meat and adding in some chopped onion (I love onion!) too. When I make it happen, I'll post how it goes. Doesn't that sounds like a delish vegetarian dish!?!

Note: I'm linking this up to Life as Mom’s Ultimate Recipe Swap for January 13th, 2011; it's about how we make it easier for our families to swallow veggies. Not hard, 'cause I love veggies, but check out her website for more great ideas.

Movie Review: The Orphan

Well, lets just say I'm glad I didn't waste the money to go and see it in a theater like I'd wanted to.

While not a bad movie, it just didn't live up to it's hype. My ex-coworker had told me how good it was, how I should make a point to hit the theater before it was gone to see it. To that I say, "meh." It was ok. I don't plan to buy it. Was it worth the $1 at Redbox? Sure.

A Recipe & a Movie Review

Last night was our scallop dinner, accompanied by The Haunting in Connecticut. First, a brief movie review.

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, it's a decent movie. Most people I know who'd seen it said it was "really good." Well, I'm not sure I'd go that far. I'm a huge fan of scary thrillers and will watch 'em even if I think they'll turn out to be cheesy. This wasn't cheesy, but it just wasn't as scary as I'd expected. Will I watch it again? Probably not. Would I buy it? Definitely not. But it was still good to see. And now I'm interested in doing a little more research to find out just how much of it is true and how much is embellished.

Dinner turned out pretty tasty, although not as flavor packed as we anticipated. We adapted the recipe from allrecipes.com to suite our tastes, and even after we'd cut out 1/4 c. of the recommended maple syrup, it still made a lot more marinade than necessary for 12 large scallops. The recipe suggested marinating for at least an hour, but there were many conflicting reviews regarding this. Some said that the longer you marinate, the sweeter the scallops get (I'm not huge on overly sweet meat/seafood). Several said that they get rubbery if marinated too long, although Buppy and I guessed this had more to do with overcooking. I had partially fried all the bacon we used the night before while Buppy was at work, so that was a skipped step for us last night. Also, we baked them on a broiler pan instead of a baking sheet. We're not sure if this is why they didn't hold a lot of their flavor; maybe they were supposed to bake in the goodness that was the marinade, but then they wouldn't have gotten as crispy as I like 'em!

Marinated Bacon Wrapped Sea Scallops
Adapted from Gabsmom on allrecipes.com

1/2 c. maple syrup (yes, we used the fake-me-out kind and it was still good)
1/4 c. soy sauce (we didn't have low sodium on hand and used regular)
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard (I eyeballed this)
12 jumbo sea scallops, halved
12 slices smoked bacon, halved (we used thick cut)
toothpicks

The bacon, in my opinion, should be partially cooked for this recipe or else, as I said in my previous post, it'll be sloppy and not crispy as I like it. I partially cooked mine the night before and just took it out of the fridge when I started marinating the scallops so it could come to room temperature and be pliable when I needed to wrap the scallops. If you haven't done that yet, be off on your merry way and partially cook your bacon. Come see me when you've finished your homework.

All done? Ok then. The first 3 ingredients get mixed together, then the scallops should be thrown in (well, not literally thrown or that would fling sauce all over your kitchen!) We let ours marinate for about an hour, which yielded a very faint hint of flavor. Mostly the kitchen just smelled like pancake syrup. I love scallops regardless of how they're cooked, but more time in the marinade probably wouldn't have been bad. Probably would have made 'em even yummy-er.

So after however long you marinade your scallops for (I wouldn't go longer than a day), the next step requires gettin' dirty. I made Buppy do this while I fixed the salad. He's a great in the kitchen! Since the scallops are halved and the bacon is halved, whatdaya think comes next? Yup, wrap a slice o' bacon around each scallop half and secure with a toothpick or 2. I don't recommend the colorful toothpicks; a chicken dish of mine once turned all sorts of fabulous colors and I haven't used them since. Talk about tasting the rainbow....

Ok, we're almost there. Place all bacon wrapped scallop halves on a broiler pan and bake at 375F for about 6 minutes per side (give or take), depending on their size. I flipped my oven over to broil towards the end for an additional 2-3 minutes or so to get the top a little crusty and to really crisp up the bacon edges. Then pull 'em out and eat 'em hot!

Like I said, ours were good but didn't have nearly as much flavor as we thought they would. I think next time we'll marinate them for 5 hours or so and I'll play around with the ingredients (and add good stuff like garlic); then we'll see what happens! These scallops were served with sliced garlic bread and green salad.