Monday Movie Review

That's My Boy
You know those movies that are so bad that they're good? In a lot of ways that was this movie. Don't get me wrong there still were some really funny scenes. (Plus I loved the rose petal aisle in the wedding scene.) But about halfway through the movie the boy and I were sitting there bored asking each other how much longer the movie would really go on.

There was a cute cameo by Adam Sandler's daughters. And it was fun knowing the teacher Adam Sandler had an affair with was played by Susan Sarandon's daughter, especially since Susan Sarandon played the character in the modern day. But it wasn't a movie I really want to see again.

But if you're looking for an R-rated comedy (and with the amount of nudity this was definitely R-rated), I'm hoping that Ted, which opens in a few weeks will be the better bet.

The Final 50

Fifty Shades Freed by E L James
Going into this series I never would have expected the way the the final book would end. Although knowing the books are based on Twilight, and the way those books end, it really shouldn't have been a surprise. (And for those in the know, there's even a little Midnight Sun feel to parts.) Knowing everything that happens in book 2 especially, it's hard to write this without any spoilers, but I'll try my best.

The first 3/4 of the book actually felt a little frivolous, and it some ways while reading it I thought it would have been better to end the series at just two books. Finally the relationship had gotten to a stable point, and it felt like James was through hurdle after hurdle at the characters almost to see how they'd react each time.

But the final quarter of the book picked up, and I just sped through it. The book really does wrap of the story, and yet James still manages to end the book teasing that she might write another. And while there were times where I thought Ana's story really only needed 2 books, if there if a 4th, I would most definitely run out and buy it.

4/5

Today I'm linking up with Blonde Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday!

Pinterest for Dinner

I know we're all guilty about pinning food on pinterest in hopes of someday making it. Take for example these meatballs from the pioneer woman...

Source: thepioneerwoman.com via Shoshanah on Pinterest

I pinned these 39 weeks ago, which means almost an entire pregnancy. But after almost a year I did finally manage to actually make. I do have the Ree's cookbook as well, so maybe it wasn't completely pinspired, but I still pinned it so it counts. I'm not going to post the recipe here since it's attached to the pin, but I will at least post the photos I took making it to give you a visual.







As for any variations, I did use the full amount of oats, mainly because I was skeptical of adding them at all. Also because I had old-fashioned oats, and the recipe called for quick oats, and I was scared it was going to be an AWFUL substitution. But you really couldn't taste them at all, and it basically takes the place of breadcrumbs in a normal meatball, so next time I'd probably add them all.

Now since meatballs by themselves don't quite make a meal, I decided to go back to my pinboard for these pesto filled mushrooms (pinned a mere 12 weeks ago).

Source: gimmesomeoven.com via Shoshanah on Pinterest

These are so easy you don't really need a step-by-step but here it all is together on the plate.
As for a final verdict, I loved the meatballs and would gladly make them again. (Good thing too because we still have a ton of leftovers.) But I wasn't as big of a fan of the mushrooms. To be fair I didn't use our normal pesto, but that's because they either stopped making it or our store stopped carrying it, so I had to find a substitute. The pesto itself wasn't bad, but I think there was just too much pesto in a single bite. I think they would have been better with less pesto, and maybe one that's a little less liquid-y, or maybe just more bread crumbs. But they definitely have potential.

How often do you ever make things you wind up pinning? And is it crazy to anyone else that we've been pinning stuff for almost a year? I feel like I just started using pinterest!

Tasty Tasty

This past weekend we had our official tasting at our venue. And, of course, not only did we get to try the food, but we decided on our menu. As I've mentioned before, our venue is a historic plantation, and besides hosting events (like weddings) a lot of their income comes from tours of the home as well as the surrounding gardens. But on top of that there's also a restaurant. I've been there before for brunch, and since our tasting was on a Sunday morning (or afternoon depending on your definition of morning) we were eating in the restaurant along with our wedding planner (or DOC whatever you want to call her). But let's get to the food!

These are all the appetizers we tasted, and while it isn't everything available it does include enough options to give you a feel for the ones we didn't taste. (At least that's what we were told.)
Starting from the left we have jumbo lump crabcake canapes with chipotle remoulade sauce, beef wellingtons (fillet of beef wrapped in mushroom duxelle and puff pastry), chicken satay with honey creole mustard dipping sauce (these are ones on sticks near the back and the only dipping sauce you see), jumbo Louisiana shrimp wrapped with apple smoked bacon, sesame seared tuna with wasabi aioli, and finally spicy poached gulf shrimp served atop roma tomato, herb cream cheese and fresh basil.

Yes, that's a lot of writing, and it's hard to see them all, but I do have close-ups of almost every option in case you're dying to see more. The only one I don't have a close-up image of is the spicy poached shrimp, which I'm guessing is because I only at the shrimp and gave the boy my cream cheese filled pastry cup. I guess in my hurry to get the cream cheese away from me, I forgot about pictures.

For our choices, we'll start with the ones we didn't get to try. I said we had to have their phyllo pastries stuffed with spinach and feta, because I'm obsessed with feta. Plus it also gave us at least one vegetarian option. The boy insisted on prosciutto wrapped goat cheese lollipops for a similar reason. (Minus of course the vegetarian bit.) And since I thought it was fun, the lollipop stick is actually a pretzel so it's 100% edible.
We then went with the bacon wrapped shrimp, which isn't the prettiest of options, but it tasted really good.
Our final choice was the seared tuna, which was probably everyone's favorite. And it doesn't hurt that it's the prettiest one as well.

At that point our waitress happened to walk by with a bread basket, and coordinator told her that since this was our tasting we didn't need any bread, unless of course any one wanted any. I think from the photo below you can guess what happened, and I'd like to point out that bread didn't move from the boy's side for the rest of the meal.
From there we moved to the soup course, which on the day of the wedding will actually be first. The way it normally works is after the ceremony the guests would walk through the house and on their way to the reception would each be handed a small cup of soup. The options we had were chicken & andouille gumbo on the left and bisque of curried pumpkin, crawfish, & corn on the right.
These were both actually really good, and I'm pretty sure when I went to brunch with my parents my mom had the bisque for an appetizer and the gumbo for her main dish, so I've tried them both before. My personal favorite was the bisque, but I think that for a lot of my family and friends being in Louisiana for the first time, gumbo made more sense. And just because I liked the bisque better didn't mean I didn't like the gumbo. The boy was actually disappointed that I finished all my gumbo, since he wanted to have another serving.

I did want to mention that I was a little concerned with how a hot soup would go over on a hot day, but was told that they do this all the time, even on the hottest days and people still take the soup. The thought was that since it's really only a tasting, it isn't too extreme.
But finally to the main course starting at 12 o'clock on the plate and moving clockwise, we have Louisiana seafood pasta (crawfish and shrimp swimming in Creole tomato cream and tossed with penne pasta), crispy fried catfish fingers with tartar suce, grilled breast of chicken with saffron and tasso butter sauce, roasted breast of duck drizzled with praline sauce, and crawfish etouffee served over flakey pastry sauce.

Again starting with the choices we didn't get served, we'll have sliced roast prime rib with rolls and condiments for sandwiches, creamed potatoes, a vegetable medley, and a fruit and vegetable display. We also asked for jambalay, which isn't actually one of their official options. But when we started looking into venues, the boy said his only requirement was that they would serve jambalaya. So while jambalaya isn't on their official menu, we will be having it served. They're also going to change the seafood pasta into a vegetable pasta giving us a vegetarian option.

Finally we'll be serving the duck. This was easily mine and the boy's favorite out of all the main course options we got to try. Granted I'm a big fan of duck in general (and it reminds me of my grandfather since he used to always order it at restaurants) but even so, the duck along with the sauce was just really good.

Now that I've written a novel about food (but would you really expect any less from me?), I'll finally bring this post to an end. But if you had to pick from these options, which ones do you think you'd choose?

Everything's Coming Up Roses

The last time my parents visited me was in October, and during that trip my mom stumbled on an article (I believe in Southern Living, but it was a magazine she had picked up at Barnes & Nobles here, in Louisiana) about Confederate Roses. She read the article and thought, "I need to buy Shoshanah one of these plants" except decided to look in out backyard first to find this...
It's a Confederate Rose bush in case you couldn't guess. But what is so special about these flowers, and why did my mom want to make sure we had one? Well this is what they look like as they bloom.
Obviously these haven't bloomed yet, but you can see how white the petals are. Well, this was that same flower 24 hours later.
And here it as about 24 hours after that.
In case you're more of a word person, the flowers start of white and slowly fade to a dark red. The article my mom read, and most gardening websites say it happens of the coarse of a day, but mine seem to take slightly longer.
If you're curious about the name, the story is a Confederate soldier was fatally wounded during battle and fell on top of a rose bush. As he lay dying, his blood fell on the roses slowly changing their color from white to red. Through magic all of its descendents continued to have their blooms slowly turn red. So it's not the most romantic of stories, or truthful, but still interesting.
But back to my rose bush... until my mom pointed it out I had never seen it bloom, or even noticed the bush, or the fact that all of my neighbors happen to have them as well. And it just so happened that the week my parents were there it was blooming. It recently started blooming again, which surprised me because it was only May. Hopefully that means it will continue to bloom throughout the summer, which could mean it will be blooming the week of the wedding.
Now we already have a florist to make the bouquets, and I'm planning on diy-ing our centerpieces, maybe using fake flowers, but I think it would be fun to somehow use these blooms in someway for the wedding. (Assuming of course it's blooming. Considering I've never bother to notice it before I have no idea if it will stay blooming till October, or if maybe it just blooms in May and October.) But maybe we could use the petals for the flower girl basket. Or maybe I could leave a cutting on the chair that would have been my mom's in remembrance.

But even if this doesn't make an appearance at the wedding, I'm grateful to my mom for point it out to me, and now whenever I see Confederate flowers I'll think of my mom.

Monday Movie Review

Madagascar 3
What's funny is I saw the 2nd one of these with the boy back when it was in theaters, but I don't believe I ever saw the first. Now there's a lot of kid's movies I love (Recent hits were The Lorax and The Secret World of Arrietty and, of course, love everything by Pixar and can't wait to see Brave), but sadly this was not one of them. I actually came close to falling asleep in the movie. (And if I was close to sleep I have to image a TON of kids slept through it.)

Still, there were parts I enjoyed. I really liked the circus parts (think Cirque du Soleil and you'll get way), but there just wasn't enough of them. I think unless you have kids dying to see this, I'd skip it and wait for Brave. And even if you have kids dying to see this, I think you'd probably be best waiting for dvd.

Show Us Your... Kitchen

I'm back again this week linking up with Kelly's Korner sharing my kitchen. To be honest not a lot has changed from 2 years ago when I last did this link up. But there are a few minor changes and if you're really interested in comparing and contrasting this is my last post. But back to the now.
This is looking into our kitchen. The living would be almost directly behind you and the dinning room area on the left. The LSU plate front and center was a gift from my parents and the fleur-de-lie salt & pepper shaker was a gift from the boys's sister.
Zooming into my favorite part of the kitchen. My keurig was a birthday gift from the boy last year (and hence not in my last link-up post). It's sitting on top of my k-cup organizer which was a gift from the boy's mom. I'm not able to fit every k-cup in there, but I do at least have a selection of all the different possibilities. The blue sugar and creamer jars my mom found in an antique shop for me. The cans on the window still were the boy's great aunt's. And while I love their look I haven't really figured out what I want to do with them or where I want to put them.
Moving right is out makeshift (at least for now) spice rack and linen holder. We also have a tiny wine rack here, and my old coffee maker (which NEEDS to be thrown out). From here you can also see our utility closest. Although the previous owners built on a laundry room, so instead it basically functions as a closest.
A messy closet, but a closest nonetheless. Facing the closest (and in the wall behind the spice rack to give you perspective) is our pantry.
Again, somewhat messy, but I do love that you can side all the cookbooks inside.

I love doing these link-up because of all the new blogs I discover (and also just because it's fun to see where everyone else lives) so if you're new to From L.A to LA, be sure to leave a comment and say hi!