What-What?! Week of January 17th

Today is momentous.  My youngest child has gone an entire week without wearing pull-ups.  The end of the diaper era is nigh.

I have somewhat mixed feelings.

On the one hand, screw diapers.  On the other, when did my kids get so big?

Time marches on.


In other news, Saffron has a new haircut:

It is short and poofy and adorable.  She'd been asking for such short hair for a while now, and we finally got around to making it happen.

Movie Review:  Mickey, Donald, Goofy:  The Three Musketeers

This is a film that's available on Netflix, and the kids just latched on to it.  It is the classic Three Musketeers, but (of course) completely different in every single detail.  For a direct-to-video film, it's actually quite good.  The jokes are funny and not irritating, and the plot is entertaining.  The part that I enjoyed the most, however, was the music; the film took seven classic songs, including excerpts from The Nutcracker, In the Hall of the Mountain King, The Blue Danube, and stuck new lyrics on them.  It also includes parts of The Pirates of Penzance as an opera that the characters attend.  It was entertaining, and I would recommend checking it out.

Disney's Frozen Concept Art versus Other Disney Films

I was looking through some of Frozen's concept art, when I was struck by how similar some of it was to scenes out of the other Disney films.  I assembled a few of the most notable ones, and made this:

Photographs from Rebloggy, Covering the Mouse, Fanpop, Disney Wikia, and Animation Source.

What-What?! Week of February 16th

This week, I don't know what happened.  Mostly, I think the household was in survival mode.  We received a box of packing peanuts and toilet paper.  It also had ork miniatures, so you know, there's that, too.  I posted a new article about children's board games, because we've accrued a collection of them.

I haven't felt much like writing lately.  I don't get a lot of time to cook, either.  When I do cook, it's mostly just quick and easy stuff, and because it's the end of the week, the cupboards are a little bare.  Yesterday, I made a quiche using leftover pork, frozen vegetables, onion, cheese, and Worchester sauce.  Basically, dinner from the freezer, without being a frozen dinner (ha!).

Food Review:  Ecopia Farms Salad Kit -- Farmhouse Citrus Salad

My husband came home with this for our dinner yesterday.  The photograph above really does not do this salad justice; it's not just a salad, but an experience.  The kit comes with the salad greens, fresh herb mix, glass canisters of quinoa, blood oranges, and feta cheese, cotton baggies of toasted sunflower seeds and sea salt, as well as a small glass bottle of dressing.  You open the bag and start pulling more and more ingredients out, each beautifully packaged.  Assembling the salad is easy, and because you are the one mixing it up, you can choose how much of each ingredient to include.

This salad truly made the meal.  The blood oranges had a great citrus flavor, and dark, deep red color.  The dressing was suitably light, and combined well with the other ingredients.  I enjoyed it greatly.  Once the salad is gone, you are also left with these nifty glass containers, which are perfectly reusable.  I see homemade spice mixes in my future, or perhaps I'll use one to hold miniature bits.

The kits are on the expensive side, but for a special occasion or as a treat, I can totally see buying one again.  Ecopia sells at the Los Gatos and the Saratoga farmers markets, and delivers throughout the Bay Area.  If it's near you, I highly recommend you try it.

Movie Review:  Disney Cars Movie

A few weeks ago, I got a special offer from Disney Movie Rewards, to get this film for the cost of shipping.  My kids love the Mater's Tall Tales shorts that are on Netflix, so I decided that it'd definitely be something to pick up.  We'd never seen the original film or any of the sequels, but I know that it'd largely received good reviews.

My kids loved it.  I, however, was sadly disappointed.  The story was predictable and pretty unimaginative, which I can forgive to a certain extent; Monsters, Inc. and Ice Age are basically the same story, as well as Rango and Flushed Away, and so on.  The worst problem in this film was that the main character, Lightening McQueen, was just too unlikable.  In some of the behind the scenes features on the first Toy Story film, Sheriff Woody was originally a very unlikable character, which was changed, because no one was going to root for someone that despicable.  I suspect that this same thing happened with Lightening, but the creators didn't go far enough in making him likable.  Even after he's been reformed, I still had a lot of trouble liking him.  Alternatively, the problem might be that Mater is too funny, and it's just too much for the rest of the cast to absorb.  Either way, I can't get past Lightening being a jerk.  I'll keep watching Mater's Tall Tales, but not so much Cars.

(images via Ecopia and Pixar.wikia.com)

What-What?! Week of December 1st

It's already December!  When on Earth did that happen?  I had this past week off from work (school's out on holiday), which was quite a nice break.

If you haven't noticed, I am now posting on Thursdays with one piece of my daughter's artwork.  I thought this would be great to both preserve memories and to encourage Saffron's creativity.

Food:  German Spaetzle via AllRecipes.com

On Monday, the husband and I made a German dinner, with schnitzel and spaetzle.  Spaetzle is a German noodle/dumpling hybrid, made out of a simple egg dough.  The spaetzle I made was "vom brett", which translates roughly as "off the board"; made without a spaetzle maker, just a wooden cutting board and a knife.  Here's a great (and impressive) video showing the technique for spaetzle vom brett, and while I didn't do nearly as well as that lady, it still came out well enough:

Rather than making plain spaetzle, I actually made kassespaetzle, which is a bit like the German version of macaroni and cheese; I layered my spaetzle with butter and shredded cheese, which melted and became absolutely delicious.  The spaetzle itself has a rustic, egg-y taste, and a soft, slightly-doughy texture.  If you haven't had it yet, then you need to try it; my children loved it, and it was a quick and easy side to make, taking no longer than regular noodles.

(A word from the wise on cleaning up after making spaetzle:  Whatever touches the dough needs to get rinsed off immediately.  I didn't do this, and had to spend a while scrubbing the bowl, board, knife, pot, and so on.)

Film:  Disney's Frozen Review and a Discussion of the PG Rating via Forbes

I read one article about Frozen before we went to see the movie, and while it didn't discuss the content of the film specifically, it did discuss the PG rating it had received... along with nearly every other children's movie in recent history.  In the films I grew up watching, characters were thrown off buildings, trampled to death, and so on.  These films were rating G.  Recent films have been rated PG for mild action and peril, which would obviously be in a movie, because what else is going to happen?  Beyond the ridiculousness of this, it makes it difficult for parents to decide which films to allow children to watch.  Some PG films are perfectly okay for my children, but many are not appropriate for young children at all.  At that point, why bother having ratings?

***MILD SPOILERS***

 

 

My daughter really enjoyed Frozen, which I guess is what counts in the end.  However, I have to admit to liking things as a child that, now as an adult, I can see are just terrible.  This wasn't terrible, but it had the potential to be a lot better than it was.  I went to this movie hoping for something similar to Sleeping Beauty, or Beauty and the Beast.  Instead, Frozen was more like Tangled, where the original story has been somewhat bungled in the effort to make it funny ("entertaining"?).  The comic relief character in this film, the snowman, did have some jokes that were genuinely clever, but it still didn't save him from being annoying.  Even my daughter didn't really care for him much (!!!).  There were two mild villains in the film, which confused the storyline a bit, and really they were all secondary to the main plot, the sisters' relationship struggles and the fallout from that.  While Hans was needed to move the story, the Duke of Weselton was completely superfluous; I think he was there only because someone became attached to the gags that could be played at his expense.  If they had removed those bits, then there could have been more time spent filling out the real villain -- maybe even make him actually frightening.

The other thing that bothered me about this film, is that when Elsa becomes the snow queen, she magically gains a slit on her skirt, high heels, and a hip-swaying gait.  While watching the film, I was honestly surprised.  Why does this character gaining her freedom have to be translated into looking sexy?  The point would still have been well made without those elements.  I think the best single indicator of the change was in her hair style.  Just that would have been fine.

Beyond that, I did very much like the scene in the lodge, because it was an actual dose of Scandinavian cultures -- a lutefisk joke(Norway), and the sauna (Finland).  But overall, I was disappointed.

What-What?! Week of September 8th

Had to get fingerprinted on Friday; this was another one of those things where I ran around trying to find a place, only to wind up waiting over a week to get them done.  Also, the scan area for fingerprints is tiny; my fingers barely fit, and I don’t have large hands at all.  How do they fingerprint people with large hands?  Do they just do one finger at a time, and that’s it?

News:  Chobani’s Mold Woes via BusinessWeek and ABC News

Chobani has apparently had quality control issues with about 5 percent of their greek yogurt products, causing the product to have mold.  Chobani’s handling of the situation has caused the FDA to open an investigation to see if they acted too slowly, putting consumers’ health in jepordy.  When I read about this incident, it was like a lightbulb went off; we had bought some Chobani brand yogurt tubes from Costco, and numerous tubes were inedible long before the expiry, possibly before we even took the box home.  While scientists have said that the mold isn't harmful to "most consumers", I’m not sure I’ll be buying Chobani again.

More on The Gamers: Hands of Fate via watchthegamers.com
*MORE SPOILERS*

The husband and I were able to watch the rest of the film earlier this week, and I’ve had more time to think about it.  Watching the film, I couldn’t help but think of an interview that Joss Whedon gave recently, where he discussed the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and it’s moment of self-reference where Indy tries to repeat the swordfighter versus gun scene in Indiana Jones and THAT ONE.  Hands of Fate has all these scenes that emulate or make inside jokes about Dead Gentlemen’s other projects, that, while funny, sort of devalue the originality of the film.  The last hour of Hands of Fate has a lot of self-referencing “look at this *wink-wink*” scenes; from a scene that’s basically the opening of Journey Quest, to Cass being pushed over by two guys, as he was in The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, and on.  While I think that some of it would be okay, this film kicks it up to 11, which is just too much.  It is enjoyable nonetheless, but I’ll probably stick with watching Dorkness Rising.

Disney Dream Portraits via insidethemagic.net

These would be awesome if they weren’t so creepy.   It’s surreal, which is fine because it’s fantasy, but there’s something else just a bit creepy about them.  The other problem is that some of these roles are so linked to their actor/actress that anyone else portraying them is odd.  For example, Whoopi Goldberg as the Genie, what?  Robin Williams will always be the Genie to me.

I guess the other thing that bothers me about the people they chose is that I look at them and think about their personalities – Taylor Swift doesn’t seem like a good match for Rapunzel, even if she’s got the blonde hair.  I could see Amy Adams; she was a fantastic princess in Enchanted, but of course, she’s a brunette.

I do very much like Lyle Lovett as the March Hare, though; it seems like it'd be a great fit.

'Til next week!

What-What?! Week of August 11th

This week, I actually started writing several posts, but they all turned into topics that were more suitable for stand-alone articles than for blogging.  Incidentally, I forgot to mention that I had two articles published last week, this time by Yahoo! Voices:  In Defense of New Grads, and Three Reasons Why the Job Market is Better than You Think – And One Reason it Isn’t.  I have another article that is currently going through the editing process, but should be published within the week, and another article that I’m still developing (featuring Jeremy Clarkson, of all people).

In other news, Netflix is no longer offering Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (UK); I watch that show for both cooking and business inspiration, which it really has in buckets.  I am terribly disappointed, and now I have to go find something else to watch.

Disney Planes Travel Posters via BuzzFeed

As part of the promotions for Planes, Disney developed these brilliant travel posters – however, I believe that the one labeled Japan is actually for China.  Otherwise, these are very visually striking posters.  Click the link above for the other five.

Food:  Cowboy Casserole

In searching for this recipe, I read it described as looking “like dog food”, and another that described it as a lazy man’s shepherd’s pie (which is pretty close, actually).

Overall, this was a winner.  This recipe would be great for large families or groups, as it makes a full 9 x 13 pan of food, and it is quite filling.  One could not mistake it for a healthy meal, however, so a side salad is a must.  The combination of the creamy meat with the crispy potatoes and cheese was delicious, though using two cans of “cream of” soup was too much fake-creaminess, so I would cut it down to one (or even none, and use a basic béchamel sauce instead).  My husband suggested added some chopped mushrooms next time, which I think we’ll definitely try.

News:  5 Reasons Every Job Seeker Should Blog via Careerealism

This is kind of a funny article; when I started this blog, I never did so with the intention of improving my chances of getting a job.  However, I’ve had several interviews where the interviewer commented about it; generally, the reaction has been quite good.  One of the things that this article brings up at the beginning is blogging missteps, like inconsistent timing, walls of text, and inside jokes – I think that a lot of people get grandiose ideas about blogging, but when it comes to actually doing it, it just doesn’t happen.  Blogging is a lot of work, requiring planning, research, writing, and editing.  When I started this blog in January, I decided to post once a week, because I knew, even when I was in the middle of finishing my senior project, it would be manageable.

(Note: That the “5” in the title of that post should actually be written “Five”.  I have a whole handout from one of my classes devoted to the rules of when you should write out the word for a number or the number itself; I don’t believe that many people are formally taught this, though.)

Until next week!

What-What?! Week of July 21st

I was really, truly going to cook this week, but then I didn’t.  Recently, my husband has spent more time cooking than I have; I’ve been tired and honestly rather uninspired by the ingredients I’ve had around.

Grocery News:  Appearing Clean versus Being Clean via Progressive Grocer

I have a subscription to The Progressive Grocer magazine, which covers grocery industry news and trends; along with that subscription, I also receive The Independent Progressive Grocer, which is specifically for smaller chains and independent stores.  I really like The Independent, because it discusses issues on a store-level, as opposed to more general trends and news.  This past issue discussed the topic of cleanliness, especially in how it relates to appearance – a store cannot just be clean, it has to look clean.  Many times, a customer can’t tell if the store is being cleaned properly, which creates a situation where customers are dependent on cues from how things look.  In the article, store owners talked about the importance of how employees are dressed, how the floors look, and designing a store so that customers can see the food prep areas.  By having sharply-dressed employees, the least important parts of the store looking great, and having transparency, it builds consumer trust, which is incredibly important in the food industry (I’d never buy food from someone I don’t trust, that’s for sure!).

News:  Tyrannosaurus Rex– Ruthless Hunting Machine via The Guardian

Now for something awesome!  A skeleton of a Hadrosaur was found with a T-Rex tooth embedded in its spine.  This find has the possibility of settling the long-standing argument of whether a T-Rex was a hunter or a scavenger.  I am very excited by this – I grew up watching dinosaur documentaries arguing about this, and would love to see it put to rest.

Food:  Stove Top Macaroni and Cheese

After last week’s post about instant mac and cheese, I decided to make some of the real deal.  The method that I use is adapted from White on Rice Couple, though I only followed the recipe once, then never bothered to measure again.  This recipe is brilliant because you make the sauce while you cook the noodles, in the same pot!  The downside is that it takes near-constant stirring for 15 minutes, which is difficult when I’m home alone with the children.

Ingredients:

• Noodles (as much as you want; I use 1/2 pound)
• Milk (enough to cover noodles in pot; I use 2-3 cups milk)
• 1 tablespoon mustard (Dijon, yellow, brown, whatever’s in the ‘fridge)
• 1 cup shredded cheese (Cheddar, Monterey jack, etc.)
• Salt
• Nutmeg, if desired

Add noodles, mustard, salt, and nutmeg to saucepot, and fill pot with enough milk to cover.  Heat on high until simmering, then immediately turn down to low.  Continue to simmer, stirring often, for about 15 minutes, until milk is thickened and noodles are nearly cooked (add more milk if needed).  Stir in cheese, then cover pot for 3-5 minutes – the noodles will finish cooking and absorb more of the sauce.  Give one final stir, then enjoy.

Disney:  Boxes with Humor
I had ordered some toys from Disney to put away for birthdays and Christmas, so when we received this box, we put the kids in their room and opened it up (because we like to look at toys, too).  When the husband started opening the wrong side of the box, we saw this beauty:

 “Open other end, Dopey”.  Someone, somewhere made the decision to put that there.

Next week, I’ll be reviewing Captain Bogg and Salty’s most recent album, talking pirate festivals, and perhaps a scone recipe that’s currently in the works.  ‘Til then!

(img via guardian.co.uk)