Julie & Julia - the Movie.

(I started writing this on Saturday, but due to an impending migraine and some Tylenol PM, I promptly passed out at 8 and woke up at 7 this morning.  Hey, at least I got a good nights' sleep!)

I took Hannah to see Julie & Julia today.  Hannah shares my love of food and cooking, so I figured we'd both enjoy the movie. 

Before I tell you about the movie, let me tell you how excited Hannah was to go see it.  She, like me, is a list girl and had written down where the movie was, what time it was, when we were leaving, what time she needed to get up, etc., etc.  She even had her clothes ready last night.  She got up at 7:30 this morning and was raring to go. 

If you go to any AMC Theater and see a movie before noon, the tickets are only $5.  We went to the 10:40 show.  :)  We did sneak in some candy (candy before lunch?!?!  I must be crazy!) and I even got a huge Sprite to share with her.  Hmmm....this might partially explain the slight pain in my head right now.

Back to the movie.........

I cannot, cannot, can not say enough good things about this movie.  I laughed, I cried, and I blocked Hannah's eyes a few times.  ;)  She loved it and said her favorite part of the movie was the whole movie. 

I was little when Julia's show was on TV, but can remember watching it with my Mom in the kitchen.  Oh how we would laugh at her sometimes when she messed things up. 

(I will say that I am normally not long-winded on my blog, but prefer to put up pictures.  However, this movie made me think about a lot of things, and I might break out of my mold today.  Be prepared for pictures after this, though.)

While watching the movie and on the drive home, I had about a million things running through my little head.  In no particular order, they were:

1.  I want Julia's cookbook (Mastering the Art of French Cooking) and an Orange Le Cruset Dutch Oven.  Watching them both cook in the same Le Cruset pot just made me want one, badly. 

2. I don't have to try to be so dang perfect when I cook.  I hate it when I mess up, I always think that that should never happen.  Okay, we all make mistakes, but there's a reason I feel this way.....which led me to #3.

3.  I don't have a paying job.  My "job" is to take care of my family.  I wear many hats in this house, and one of them is a chef's hat (though I do not claim to be a chef!!!).  I don't want to screw up when I'm cooking, because my family needs to eat and I don't want them to be horrified when they do so!

4.  Food should not come out of a box.  If something is worth doing, it's worth doing well.  I say this to my girls every day.  There isn't always time to make a huge meal, but even with limited time, your food can be fresh and free of cardboard!  Potatoes don't grow in flakes and in boxes.  Consider this - if "you are what you eat" is true, do you want to be crap in a box?  I take care of my family, in part, by feeding them things that are good for them.  I'm trying to get the words in my head out of my head right now.........what I'm trying to say is that if I thought Alex and the girls were crap, I'd feed them crap.  But they are fabulous and wonderful - shouldn't they eat the same?  It's easy to open a box of easy-whatever, heat, and serve.  I just think that people are worth more effort than that.  This doesn't mean that every night you should be cooking for hours; you just need to plan ahead.

5.  Eating processed foods cost more money!  With the state of our economy, is that really where you want to spend your money?  Processed, chemically laden, expensive "food?"  That, in turn, raises your medical bills.  Yes, it does. 

6.  I need to take my girls out individually more often.

7.  I need to spend more time in the kitchen.  Sure, I just said that you don't need to cook for hours every day.  And you don't need to.  But I think I do.  I think I need to make more use of the things I have here, make more from scratch, and thus lower my grocery bill even more. 

8.  I need to find more things that I love.  I love to cook.  I love to sew (and haven't done much of that lately).  I love to run.  I love to homeschool (most days!).  I love taking pictures.  But sometimes I feel like I need something else, too.  Maybe I just need to do more of the things that I love.

9.  SPRINT SUCKS.  If anyone needs a new cell plan, DO NOT go with SPRINT.

10.  Julia and her husband were head-over-heels in love with each other.  He said she was the butter to her bread. 
Alex and I will be married for 9 years next month.  And while I'm sure we drive each other completely batty, he is the butter to my bread, and the sanity to my insanity.  I love him. 

11.  Food taste better when you share it with people you love.  Even burnt toast. 

12.  Y'all need to go see this movie. 

13.  I need to stop spending so much time on this damn computer. 

More food.

I really should weigh 500 pounds. Thank goodness for the ability to say "no" and that crazy running I do.

I tried out the french toast loaf from the Magic Kingdom bakery. Remind me next time to put it in a larger loaf pan! I ended up having to run a cleaning cycle on the oven that day.





Yes, it was yummy. :) However, my vote is still for the french toast from the Crystal Palace. Of course, that one was nearly deep fried and probably had 2x's the calories in it.

Then I tried the baked corn dogs from The Food Network. They were good, too! They were more like a bread-dough wrapped dog than a corn dog, but you could definitely taste the cornmeal in it.




Hannah decided that they had to have honey-mustard dipping sauce for these. Since I didn't have any, she grabbed her cookbook, (yes, she has her own) found a recipe for it, and made it. I like that. She decided that "hey, I don't have any, so I'll make it myself." That's my girl!

Then I looked at my nifty calendar that I laminated for my fridge, and decided that it needed a grocery list next to it.


So I found this. It works great for jotting down those things you run out of and forget about by the time you get out the big grocery list. I'm now a laminating fool! Watch out girls, mama might laminate you, too!

I cannot wait until we finally get some cooler weather down here. (Oh wait, that will be somewhere around December or January!) Running in the summer is UGLY! I was out this morning at 5:30 and it was nearly 80 already. I'm still running, though just not as far as I want to be right now. Come on, fall!

Food & Education - all in a day's work.

I decided that I needed to play with some new recipes, so here's a new one for you!  Tonight I made this recipe  for dinner.  Oh my.  I will definitely add that to my "make it again" pile!  Alex isn't a huge fan of chicken salad to begin with, but he said it was pretty good.  Hannah thought it rocked; Kali was with daddy.  I served it with grapes and plums and then Alex grabbed the loaf of bread that just came out of the oven and smacked some butter on it.  I thought we could have done without the bread, but he thought otherwise.  :) 


The picture doesn't do it justice.  Of course, this was before I realized I forgot to add the paprika!  Not to worry, it got in there before we sat down to eat.  :)

We went to the new Target today.  It's a cross between a Super Target and a not so Super Target!  They have everything a Super Target has, but just a little less of it, and no bakery or deli.  Works for me!  We were in the school supply section and I eyeballed this dry erase monthly calendar.  It was really cute and I thought it would work great on the fridge for my menu planning (before the menu finally gets on the chalkboard!).  However, I was not going to spend $7 on it.  Then I came home and did this:


Nothing that some self-adhesive laminating sheets couldn't do for me!  Thanks, again, Grandma.  ♥  Now I need to find some really fine point dry erase markers.  Someone will have them on sale shortly!

And speaking of laminating sheets, I was working on yet another school project recently.  I started using workboxes for the girls (if you homeschool, go Google it - I'm totally hooked!) and needed to re-do the schedule strips I had for them.  Basically, what I do is sit down every night and put together their work for the next day.  In each folder is something else that needs to get done that day.  Once they're at the end of the folders, they're done for the day.  Keeps them from asking me how much more then need to do, and helps them to work a bit more independantly. 

Here's what I was working on:


I found the schedule strip file on a workbox forum that I'm on.  It was too cute not to print!


Hannah's


Then I take the number off the strip......


And put it on the folder.


Once Hannah (or Kali) is done with what's in the folder, she'll put the number back on the strip. 


This is what is in Hannah's first folder for tomorrow.  She'll watch the lesson on the DVD (it helps to have someone else explain it to her, too) and then do the first page of the lesson.  Some days she'll do more than one page if she wants to, but she only needs to do one page a day. 


If they can't do it by themselves, then they'll see this on there - "work with Mom."  Keeps them from constantly saying "hey, can you help me?!" 


All done and waiting for the morning.


We start at 9:30, break for lunch around 11 - 11:30, and come back at 12:30.  Normally we'll finish up for the day around 1:30 or 2, depending on what we're up to.  Some days are longer, some days are shorter.  And some days we're playing in Downtown Disney!  As soon as all the public schools start back up, we'll have to head over to Busch Gardens.  Right now it's wayyyyy too hot, and wayyyyy too crowded! 

And just for an FYI - tomorrow I'm making baked corn dogs and sweet potatoe fries.  Alexia has some spicy sweet potato fries that we love; makes for a nice, easy cooking night for me!  All I have to do is make corndog dough, wrap 'em up, and stick 'em in the oven.  Yeah!

Conversation with Hannah

This was so sweet, I had to share.  I was working on some school stuff last night, and Hannah came in and sat down with me.  This is pretty much what happened next:

Hannah - Um, mom, you do this every night?

Me - Yes, dear.

H - Every night?  You mean you come in here and put all our stuff together every night?

M - Yes, dear.

H - Then you get up at 5 to run?

M - Yes, dear.  (I'm so chalk full of words, aren't I?)

H - Then you come home, shower, make your coffee, and turn on the Today Show?

M - Yep.

H - Then you make us breakfast?  (Though sometimes daddy does)

M - Yep. 

H - Then you help get us ready and then we start school?

M - Yep.

H - Then you teach us, and then you make us lunch, and then we do more school work?

M - Yep. 

H - Then you make dinner?

M - Yep.

H - Then you put our school stuff together again and then start all over the next day?

M - Uh huh.

H - Gee, mom, you do a lot.

OMG - Someone noticed!!!!!!!  ;)  Okay, so Alex realizes it (at least I hope he does!), but it's really nice to know that one of my children notices part of what I do around here.  She's so sweet - most of the time.  And then when I told her there was a history test today, she got out her history book and went to study.  STUDY!  A child of mine voluntarily studied.  Amazing.  It's not like those tests are anything major; it's really more for me than for her.  Wow.  A child of mine voluntarily studied, noticed what the heck I do around here, and even cleans stuff without me asking her.  Either I'm being punked or the planets are in alignment at the moment.

If you can't be at Disney all the time, just bring some of it to you!

Okay, I fully admit it....I would live in Disney if they'd let me.  I don't even need to live in the castle, just stick me over in a corner somewhere in a tent.  I'd be happy. 

But if I can't be there all the time, at least I can eat like I'm there!  I have a bunch of Disney recipes, so this week is Disney week.

Sunday Breakfast was Puffed French Toast from The Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom:



And yes, it was very, very good.  We ended up having leftovers and ate it for breakfast this morning.

Dinner was General Tso's Chicken from Epcot:



And yes, that, too, was very, very, very good.  We had leftovers for lunch today.

Tonight's dinner brought us over to Shutter's at Caribbean Beach:

Once again, this stuff rocked.  OMG.  I'm going to have to roll out the door to run in the morning.  I need to run about 20 miles to work off all this food!  But it was all very, very good.  We have enough left over for dinner tomorrow night - yay!

This morning the mailman brought me a box.  At first I thought I knew what it was, but then I realized I was wrong.  When I opened it, this is what was inside:


A beautiful garlic pot.  OMG.  I cried.  I knew instantly that my friend Jenine sent it to me.  :)  She rocks.  I cannot wait to use it.  Someday I'm going to show up at her door; hopefully someday won't take 10,000 years, either.  Once again, thank you Jenine.  You totally made my day.