Thanksgiving Dinner

This past weekend our annual Turkey party. Last year it ended up being after Thanksgiving, so we put a Christmas theme on it. This year we got the timing right and had our turkey party as a pre-Thanksgiving celebration with friends.

I got a fantastic turkey from Trader Joe's, it was vegetarian fed and brined. The brine on a turkey keeps it moist while it cooks. If your turkey does not come to you brined, you can brine it yourself. Brining is the process of allowing your item to sit in salt water to push water into the bird. I would recommend buying a brining mix or adding some herbs to your mixture if you do this at home.

DON'T FORGET TO PULL OUT THE INNARDS! Most if not all turkeys come with the gross bits inside the body cavity. If you are a giblet gravy person, pull out the nasty bits and boil them then put them into some gravy. If you are grossed out as I am by the insides of a turkey, then you can simply toss them away. You can also turn a chicken stock into a nice turkey flavored stock by boiling the innards in the stock.

Once you have pulled out the nasties, and done what you will with them, you should stuff the body cavity with some aromatics. I recommend onions and an orange. The onions will supplement the flavor of the turkey; and the orange will steam the inside of the body and keep the meat juicy.

I always recommend trussing your bird. This simply means to tie the legs together and bind the wings to the body. This will ensure that everything cooks at the same time. Additionally, to this point, white meat cooks faster than dark meat. To prevent the breast from overcooking while the legs finish getting to temperature, you can place a double layer of tin foil over the breast during cooking. You can also stuff the breast between the meat and the skin This will keep the breast juicy during cooking.

For the outside of the turkey you want to ensure to use a fat and some flavor. Butter or oil will work well. For your flavorings use absolutely must include salt and pepper. After those key items you can use whatever you like. Sage, rosemary and thyme go nicely with turkey. I bought a turkey paste this year because the saleswoman at William's Sonoma was really convincing. It was truly delicious.

I am not one to stuff my turkey while cooking, it makes your turkey take much longer to fully cook. I do like stuffing, however, or I guess technically I like dressing. I made a sausage leek cornbread dressing that received rave reviews. Leeks have a very mellow and slightly sweet flavor. I have cooked with them several times, as I have detailed in several posts, and I always enjoy the results. I browned some sweet and spicy sausage in a sautee pan and then let it cool on some paper towels. In the sausage grease and some olive oil I sauteed the leeks until they started to become translucent. I combined the leeks and the sausage and then mixed in some cornbread crumbs. I topped the whole thing with my chicken/turkey stock and baked until it started to brown. Truly delicious.

I hope that you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy yourselves in the kitchen!

Potato Risotto and Caprese Chicken Salad

My roommates invited an old friend over for dinner the other night. I had never met this friend, but I have this uncontrollable need to impress people with my cooking. I am not gifted at singing, acting, or sports, but I can cook a mean meal. I wasn't sure what to cook for this mystery guest, but I was in a creative mood as I sculpted my menu.

I watch Top Chef almost religiously. In the one of the first episodes of the new season the chefs are challenged to create something awesome out of potatoes. Mike Isabella chose to make a potato risotto. I had never heard of risotto being made out of anything aside from rice, but there it was. Being the arrogant and adventurous cook that I am, I decided that I too could make potato risotto. To go with the potato dish I decided to do a play on the classic caprese salad. The salad would traditionally have fresh mozzarella, sliced tomato and basil. I decided to make my own pesto and coat chicken in the pesto and then stuff it with mozzarella and tomatoes.

The plan started to go wrong when I started making the pesto. Typically this would be done in a food processor, which we do not have. I have used a blender to make sauces before so I tried to make the pesto in the blender. The problem with the blender is that it doesn't actually reach all of the ingredients sitting in it. Especially when the items are small like basil leaves. Long story short, the garlic got chopped up very finely but the rest of the pesto didn't process as well. This resulted in a pesto that was overly pungent with garlic.

The plan for the potato risotto was to put a very fine dice on potatoes and then saute the pieces in oil before slowly adding liquid to cook. All the recipes I found called for using a julienne setting on a mandolin, I don't have a mandolin, but I do have a julienne peeler from Pampered Chef. Let's just say that these two items yield very different results. The peeler did not work easily, and did not yield thick enough julienne strips to dice. The tragedy continued from there when the potatoes did not cook as the recipe said that they would. What resulted was something between hash browns and potato soup.

With the potato disaster, I ran out of time for my elaborate stuffed chicken plans. I ended up dicing the tomato and the mozzarella and serving a tomato cheese salad of sorts on top of baked pesto coated chicken.

All in all, this was one failure of a meal. I learned a valuable lesson. When you are having company over for dinner, stick to what you know. When I was younger we would make what we called Mike's Lucky Chicken whenever we had people coming to the house. It was so tasty and easy, we had perfected our version of the recipe and it was a crowd pleaser. Stick to a menu you know you can execute well.

Hollandaise Sauce

Recently my roommate had her 26th birthday. We had just moved in to our new apartment, we had never broken out the China from our China cabinet, so we decided to throw a fancy dinner party. We kept the guest list pretty small, and the menu was fairly simple. We had roast pork with leeks, pears and figs, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, mashed red skin potatoes and chocolate mousse. We also made a lovely champagne and pear syrup drink we called "The Leslie" it was quite tasty.

I have written about the roast pork dish before on this blog, it is becoming my go-to dish. The addition of the figs was a request from the birthday girl, and a brilliant addition the leek and pear flavor combo.

This was my first attempt at a hollandaise sauce. I tried a few different recipes to ensure that I got the sauce correct. I have a new policy when it comes to food, especially in regards to entertaining. Never serve a dish you have not previously attempted successfully to people you don't live with. I learned this lesson when a high school friend of my roommate's came over for dinner. See the potato risotto blog post for a description of all the ways in which this meal failed.

Hollandaise sauce is truly disgusting when you look at it as its ingredients. The sauce consists of egg yolks, a lot of butter, a splash of lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Separately they sound like the bad makings of one of those cleansing beverages celebrities drink for three weeks to cleanse their chi. But when you whip the egg yolks over a simmering pot of water, and then slowly blend in the butter, you get something truly special.

The party was on Saturday night, so on Friday night I attempted Alton Brown's recipe for hollandaise. He instructs to chill the butter and cut it into small pieces. Whisk the egg yolks in a double boiler until they become lighter in color, and thicker in texture. Slowly add in small pieces of butter and whisk until they melt and incorporate, continue adding butter one piece at a time until it is all incorporated. You then add in the lemon juice and cayenne pepper. The result was an ok sauce, a bit heavy on the lemon. My arm was wicked sore from all the whisking, so the next day I decided to use a different recipe. The new recipe called to slowly add in melted butter. This was a little better on my whisking arm, but as i was making sauce for 15 people I did have to trade off with a friend half way through making the sauce.

My recommendation for those of you that would like to attempt this sauce is to use the melted butter approach. It will incorporate into the sauce a lot easier. I would also recommend using less lemon juice than is called for in the recipe. I would also recommend using a little more cayenne than is called for as well. This will add a little kick to the sauce, which is a delicious twist.

The Time Traveler's Wife

You may notice as you follow me through the blogo-sphere that my taste in films tends to lean towards films that are based on books. Stories I have heard of that are translated onto the silver screen hold a certain special magic in my heart. While I have not read this book, which I will soon remedy, this movie is no different.

The Time Traveler's Wife stars Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. I have loved Rachel McAdams since her Mean Girls days. She is a talented actress, and proved yet again what talent she has while acting alongside Bana. I have never been a big fan of Eric Bana, his portrayal in Munich was creepy and moving, but aside from that I have never felt a particular affinity for him as an actor. His portrayal as a time traveler was adequate, although to be fair the movie really isnt about him. Though the plot actually follows Eric Bana's character through time, the real story lies in his wife.

I have a big issue with time travel movies. As an engineer I am big on continuity in time travel. When a movie creates a loop of events that lead to each other, where every event is the cause of the next and the final event causes the original, it bugs the mess out of me. This movie does that in the introduction of the two titular characters. Aside from that I was actually ok with the sequence of events in the movie. They made logical sense, as far as time traveling movies can make logical sense.

The story itself is pretty evident from the title of the movie. Eric Bana plays a time traveling man. He has no control over when and where he travels to, but big events in his life tend to draw him back time and time again. He meets a young woman and they fall in love. The kicker is that she never knows when he will leave her, whether its carrying dinner to the table or on their wedding night. She loves him nonetheless. The story follows the formulaic route of problems that would arise from such a situation. The brilliance of the story again lies in the strength of Rachel McAdams character, to be her own person, chasing after her dreams, while still being the constant in a wild man's tumultuous life.

All in all I would call this movie a renter. It is a nice love story, and while a movie like this is bound to be a cryer, it definitely leaves you with a note of hope. It is a great rental for a rainy day when you want to believe in love. There is nothing ground breaking in this movie, but it is a solidly entertaining film.

Julie and Julia

Admittedly this movie is the reason I have started blogging and writing my own reviews of recipes and movies. I was very excited about going to see this. I usually steer away from movie reviews as they can ruin a movie before you ever set foot in the theater. I did read a review of this one prior to viewing Julie and Julia. All the reviews I read mentioned that the movie was really two movies in one, a fabulous movie with Meryl Streep and a bad movie with Amy Adams. I went in to this film expecting just that, something to put up with in between moments of Meryl Streep's brilliance. I got what I expected to some extent, however not in the way I expected it.

Julie and Julia could truthfully be two movies. The first would be the story of Julia Child, former OSS secretary who moves to France with her husband when his job requires that they do so. When trying to find a way to fill her days, she decides to take cooking classes. From here the story follows her journey to become the Julia Child that we know and love. The second movie follows Julie Powell as she tries to bring meaning to a life that feels a little lost. She decides to cook every recipe in Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in one year. She will chronicle her adventure in a blog. The critics were right in their assertion that the Julie parts of the movie are mostly tolerated in order to get to see more of the Julia part. This is in no way a reflection on the acting or the directing in the Julie parts. The truth is that the Julia parts are just so enthralling that nothing can hold a candle to it.


Meryl Streep was nothing sort of magical. I am a little young to have experienced the unique personality that was Julia Child. To me she is just a crazy lady with a funny voice. I grew up with Emeril Legasse and Racheal Ray teaching me to cook, granted they are both crazy. In my mind Julia Child was antiquated and stuffy. I wish I could travel back in time and meet this eccentric women who I now know embodies almost everything I love. So much of her story struck home with me that I found myself waxing nostalgic for a period of time I never knew.

Stanley Tucci plays Paul Child, and truthfully I have never been attracted to Stanley Tucci. That is until this movie. He was perfect as the overtly homosexual fashion editor in The Devil Wears Prada and that is how I have henceforth pictured him. It is a fascinating juxtaposition to watch Tucci and Streep as Paul and Julia Child after having watched their entirely different relationship in The Devil Wears Prada. Tucci and Streep portray a couple very much in love with each other, even after years of marriage. It is refreshing to see Hollywood portray a couple that can survive the dreaded M word and still be happy, so often we see Hollywood tell us that marriage is what ruins it all. Although to be fair i guess we can't blame cinema entirely for this notion, it date all the way back to the Bard himself. Read any of Shakespeare's plays, his comedies always end in a marriage, but his tragedies always start with one.

Julia Child has a triumph of spirit that Streep captures perfectly. If I could pick one seen that would be the scene to show everyone the joy that you are in store for with this film, it would be the one where Julia decides to attend French culinary school. While eating in a French restaurant she is discussing with Paul what she should do to occupy her time. She muses taking a hat making class, and a painting class, and he asks her what do you really like to do. Her response is simple: Eat. So from there she starts her upward battle into the world of being a chef, which is predominately a male world.

Julia Powell is at first what i would call the anti-Julia. She is not at all satisfied with her life. That is one credit you must give to Streep's Julia, while it is evident that she yearns to do something, she doesn't put off the whiny self indulgent vibe that you get from Adams' Julie. Julie works for a firm that is building the memorial for the twin towers. It is a thankless job, she answers the phones to get yelled at by people who are hurting. Its a no win situation, you cant get angry with these people, they have lost loved ones, but it is still crappy to get yelled at all day for something that you have no control over. Her friends are moving up in the world at their jobs and becoming more and more successful, while she toils at a place she hates. She takes no delight in the fact that she has a fantastic husband until he becomes something that she can brag about.

When a friend of hers has a blog picked up for syndication, Julie decides that she too could be a successful blogger. She doesn't want to just blog about anything though, so she gives herself a project: cook through Julia Child's cookbook in a year. From here cooking disaster stories unfold, as well as some personal disasters when her blog becomes her focus as opposed to her friends and family. The story is fine, it is a nicely amusing story. It just cant compare to Julia Child.

All in all I would say that if you enjoy cooking and stories of other people who do as well, then rent this film. Its a nice watch. Make sure you take snacks though because you will leave the theater very hungry.

Healthcare Reform Starts at Home

A couple of years ago I started doing Weight Watchers, I had pretty good results with the program and I really like the people at my meeting. When I changed careers I wasn't able to attend meetings anymore and I let the program slide. Fast forward a year and half and I have gained back everything I lost on the program. I am currently trying to get back into healthy eating and following the Weight Watcher program. I am starting very slowly, as I tend to get obsessive about things and I am trying to create a lifestyle that I can actually maintain instead of throwing myself into a routine I cant sustain and failing all over again.

The first week of my new program just required me to record everything that I ate. No restrictions, just write it down in the log if you eat it. Surprisingly I kept this up for a whole week, I am a terrible journaler. I must have about 16 diaries lying around various boxes in my house that have only 3 or 4 entries.

This week I am adding a step to record what I eat as well as the points associated with the food item. Again, I am not enacting any restrictions, merely trying to get a gauge of what I consume on a regular basis. My first day of recording points was yesterday, and it was very enlightening. When I was officially on the Weight Watcher program I avoided foods I knew were bad for you, so naturally that was what I craved. When I stopped following the program, those were the foods I went directly back to. Yesterday, I ate what I wanted to eat, what I would normally eat. Having to write down the points associated with those foods was like having a bucket of cold water tossed on me.

For those you that are unfamiliar with the Weight Watchers program, it works on a points based system. Foods have different points values depending on the number of calories, the grams of fat and the grams of fiber. Each person has a daily point target that they are shooting for. Men get more daily points than women, tall people get more points than short people, younger people get more points than older people and people who do physical labor daily get more points than desk workers. If you are trying to maintain your current weight and not lose any more then you get a few extra points a day. A moderately active person in their 30s of average height and build can have probably somewhere in the vicinity of 30 to 35 points a day if they are trying to maintain their weight. (This is equivalent to approximately a 1500 calorie a day diet.)

Keeping in mind that you shouldn't be eating more than 35 or so points in a day, the following numbers will probably shock you a little bit.

Sausage Biscuit from McDonald's - 10 Points
Large Fries from Chick-fil-A - 10 Points
1 Packet Chick-fil-A Sauce - 4 Points
2 Sticks Cheese Bread from Papa Johns - 7 Points
1 Slice Original Crust The Works Pizza - 8 Points
1 Small Peach Milkshake from Chick-fil-A - 16 Points

I will continue to add to this list as I move forward on my journey towards health. Stay Tuned.

1 Blueberry Scone from Starbucks - 11 Points

Roasting Pork

A good friend of mine and my roommates came over to the house a while ago to hang out and spend some time with us before moving to Missouri. She brought with her a fabulous William Sonoma recipe for Roast Pork with Pears. She is a great cook, and the pork was delicious. I have since tried to replicate the recipe and have learned a few things about roasting a pork loin.

The Williams Sonoma recipe calls for a pork loin split horizontally. You put a mixture of herbs and garlic on the top of one half and then tie the pork halves back together. Placing the herbs inside the roast allows the flavors in the rub to seep into the meat while it roasts. The pork loin is browned on the outside and placed on top of a bed of leeks swimming in stock and then surrounded with grilled pears before it is roasted. The pork turns out quite juicy and flavorful, the leeks wilt down until they are delicious bits of subtle onion flavor and the pears give everything a burst of sweetness to contrast with all the savory flavors. You can find this recipe on the Williams Sonoma website, and I highly recommend it if you want to make something special for dinner guests. The link to the recipe is at the bottom of this post. I have a few tips to add to the recipe, however, that I think will ensure a successful venture.

The first step in a fabulous roast is getting the pork. Most stores don't have pork loin sitting out except for the kind that come pre-marinated in a plastic tube. That pork is very expensive because it is just the choice part of the meat. You don't need to spend the money on a choice cut of pork because you will be ensuring the tenderness and juiciness of the meat with your cooking method. If you don't see other pork options, just ask your butcher to cut you a pork loin. You can also ask the butcher for some butcher string, mine just gave me a large chunk of it without charging me for it.

The last time I made pork I asked the butcher for a cut large enough for 4 people, I got a cut large enough for 8 so we froze half of the loin. If you end up in this situation, make sure that you thaw the loin entirely before cooking the previously frozen piece. Cutting corners here will result in an unevenly cooked piece of pork that is to done in places, and too raw in others. You can eat pork at a medium rare, but it is not recommended to eat rare pork. I also do not recommend microwave defrosting, I tried to speed the defrost process along and ended up with the corners of my loin fully cooked before I ever started the official cooking process. If time is an issue for you and you must enlist a microwave to speed up the defrosting process, cut off the cooked portions of the pork before continuing with the recipe. If the pork is fully cooked before you put it in the oven, it will burn while the rest of the pork cooks. This is definitely something to avoid; burning loins are only a good thing in trashy romance novels.

Leeks can be tricky to handle if you have not worked with them before. Leeks are essentially a really big scallion, or the green onions you often see in salad or on top of baked potatoes. They are grown in sandy soil and their layers are not as packed as a traditional onion, so the soil often will get lodged between the layers. Eating sand is never desired. Cut the white portions of the leeks off and then slice them in half lengthwise. Fill your sink with clean cool water and place the leeks in the water. The leeks will float and the sand will fall to the bottom. Separate the layers of the leek to ensure all the soil had fallen away. This recipe only calls for the white portion of the leeks but save the greens, they make a great potato leek soup.

One thing that I like to do is find a recipe and then change it while still keeping the basic idea of the recipe intact. I did that with this recipe and had quite wonderful results. The basic idea that I see in this recipe is to place flavor elements inside pork and then roast it on top of some aromatics. You can experiment from here with the flavors you place on the inside of the meat as well as what you roast it with.

For my variation on this recipe, I placed sliced peaches and onions inside the pork loin. I used hot spices on the outside of the loin (cumin, onion powder, and red pepper flakes) before browning the meat. I used chunked yellow onions and apples as the base for my roasting pan. I glazed the outside of the loin about halfway through the roasting time with a mixture of honey and orange juice concentrate. The flavors of spice and fruit contrasted nicely with each other, both seemed to pop individually in the mouth as you ate. I recommend serving this with a sweet wine wine, we used a Riesling and that was lovely. If that doesn't sound like the type of thing that gets your taste buds excited play around with different flavor combos at home. Once you get the hang of the basic steps, this can become a go-to dinner without getting stale because you can mix up the flavors however you like depending on what you have on hand.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipedetail.cfm?objectid=18361AE7-A94D-104C-7EE77833DFF8F77D

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

Grade: B-

"Truly delightful. Best Potter yet!" That was my instant review of the latest installment of the Harry Potter saga. It was 2:40ish in the morning on July 15th, and I had just seen what I still consider to be one of the better Harry Potter movies. I have read all 7 of J.K. Rowling's masterpieces multiple times, so it is impossible for me to simply view this movie as a separate entity from the books. Were I able to view this film purely as the 6th installment in a series of movies, I would have given it an A-. As it stands, I cannot say that I really liked this movie. I have to chalk my initial review up to excitement and exhaustion.

All in all, this movie was fine as the 6th installment in a long sequence of movies. As the embodiement of the 6th book in a series of fantastic tales it falls far below what was expected. The trailer for this movie depicts action and adventure, which makes for a good trailer but doesnt exactly depict an accurate portrayal of the film.

Please be warned that there are spoilers in this review. If you have not seen the movie please watch for the movie spoilers sign and stop reading. If you have not read the book, get off the internet and start reading something real. Seriously, what is wrong with you?

The 6th Harry Potter film starts where the 5th one left off. Death and destruction in the Ministry of Magic, Voldemort's return is now widely known, and rumors of Harry Potter's legend abound. The beginning of this movie was true magic. Harry Potter is growing up and it is undeniable. Daniel Radcliffe has played his role well throughout his Harry Potter career, and he is no longer the little boy with glasses. Sure the glasses are still there, but there is no way to look at this person and see a boy. If his physique and 5 o clock shadow dont convince you that Harry is all man, then his interaction with a beautiful waitress will do the trick.

This film covers Harry's 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The 6th year at Hogwarts brings new challenges to the students in the classroom, they are now on specific tracks toward their career aspirations. Harry's worst subject, Potions suddenly becomes a lot more interesting when he stumbles upon an old Potions book belonging to someone who calls themselves The Half Blood Prince. In addition to higher level N.E.W.T. classes, Harry is captain of the Quidditch team. Outside of school activities he is enlisted to help Headmaster Dumpledore on a quest to find out as much about the life of Tom Riddle, or Lord Voldemort as he is more commonly known, so that he may eventually be destroyed.


I think this movie falls into two categories, parts I liked because they depicted what I saw in my head when I read the book, and parts I hated becuase they purposefully went away from the well written story it was based on. There is, admittedly, a smaller more obsure portion of the movie that would fall into a third category: parts I liked even though they deviated from the story I love.





WARNING BOOK SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!





The beginning sequences of this film, in fact the first 15 minutes or so were spectacular! They perfectly set the tone for the rest of the film. The world is not a safe place any longer, even Muggles are noticing that something is not quite right in the world. The first scene is shot in Imax and that choice immediately throws the viewer into the action. Instead of sitting back and watching destruction, you are experiencing the destruction.

From here the movie takes a turn. A lot of people have complained that nothing happened in the movie, and to some extent they are correct. However this stayed true to the book, granted in the book you get a lot more ventures back in time to see glimpses into who Tom Riddle really is. There are two books in the Harry Potter series where Lord Voldemort himself does not appear, the Prisoner of Azkaban and the Half Blood Prince. They are also, interestingly, the only books whose titles refer to an indivudual person. These books are more character stories, than action stories. In the Prisoner of Azkaban we learn all about the friendships of Harry's parents and their fellow Maurauders. In the Half Blood Prince the story focuses more on Harry and his group of friends. The development of the Harry and Hermione's friendship on a fraternal level is key to elements in the last book. The development of Hermione and Ron's romantic relationship, or lack of one, is a story that readers have been yearning for.

If you have not seen the movie, and are the type of person who watches the Harry Potter movies without partaking in the joy that is the book series, I suggest that you stop reading here. For the film viewer, this movie is quite good. Go into it expecting to see a personal story of love and friendship and I think you will enjoy yourself. There will be more Harry Potter excitement in the next two movies, but this one is definitely a character study, or at least it is supposed to be.

If you havent seen the movie yet because you are like me and love the Harry Potter books so much that you have trouble really enjoying the movies, keep reading fellow Potterite, keep reading.

There were several classic scenes from this tale of complicated high school friends and enemies that were recreated on the silver screen very well. Ron playing Quidditch was hilarious, and Cormack McLaggon is the perfect specimen of the boy you love to hate. Jim Broadbent nails the role of Horace Slughorn, he hits that exact strange mark between good guy and power grubbing creep that is Horace Slughorn. Jessie Cave will thrill you as Lavendar Brown, her delivery of the line "Where is my Won Won?" is everything you faithful readers have been waiting for. I could truthfully go on and on about all the ways that this cast delivered the characters of this movie in ways that are still blowing my mind. The acting is superb, they truly transcend the characters off of the screen and into your hearts.

While the acting was spot on, the directing and screenwriting were shoddy at best. Scenes like Katy Bell's bewitchment and the cave will chill you to the bones, they are evocative of the graveyard scene in the Goblet of Fire where possibly the scariest moment in Potter history was brought to life better than we ever could have hoped for. Other scenes like Harry and Ginny's first kiss and the showdown between Death Eaters and Dumbledore flopped like lifeless fish as it seemed that the director just didnt nkow how to handle them. I have said before that the brilliance in Harry Potter lies in the details. JK Rowling paints a picture beautifully, tying together so many elements, really allowing the reader to live in the world she has created. When the creative team behind these movies decides to walk away from the scenes laid out by their Muse, they do a severe injustice to themselves.

And that's the way I see it.

The Ugly Truth

Grade: B

No offence to the big wigs in Hollywood but this summer has been a little lacking in quality movies. During a typical summer I would probably not be willing to shell out the cash for a movie like this one. Luckily for me the theater in my town offers $5 matinees and I was just in a movie mood this weekend. I truly enjoyed The Ugly Truth and so now I must thank Hollywood for failing to produce anything outside of robot and weird animal movies.

In addition to being slightly bored this weekend, I chose this movie because of the lead actors. Katherine Heigl has been a favorite since her days as an alien in New Mexico. I love Gray's Anatomy and particularly like what Heigl does with her character Izzy. Gerard Butler is incredible. He scared the mess out of me as the Phantom,even if his falsetto will never be on the same level as Michael Crawford. He won my heart as the author of letters from beyond the grave in PS I Love You. Going in to the theater I was looking forward to a nice standard chick flick, I was not disappointed.

The Ugly Truth gets it's name from a cable access television show where Gerard Butler's character, Mike, tells what he considers to be the truth. The gist of his program is that men want women with big boobs, round butts and who are willing to get on their knees occasionally. Well that would be the PG way to describe his advice anyway. Katherine Heigl plays Abby, a Type A television producer who works on a morning show with sliding ratings. She is actively seeking a boyfriend who will meet the criteria on her checklist of the perfect man, examples of which include being successful, liking cats and being into red wine.

Abby and Mike meet when Mike is added to the staff of the morning show in order to boost ratings. In addition to growing the show's ratings like crazy, Mike helps Abby by teaching her to be the kind of woman that a man wants. Through his advice Abby starts dating Colin, the handsome doctor who meets all ten items on her checklist. From here typical chick flick antics ensue.

Now in school you learned that a C stood for average work and that a B represented something that went a little beyond what was expected. You may be wondering what set this movie apart from it's hundreds of rom com counterparts. This movie sets itself apart in three ways for me. First, the lead characters are fantastic, you instantly like them. Next, the supporting cast does a great job of adding color and humour while not stealing attention from the main theme of the movie. Lastly the comedy in the film is superb. Often in a romantic comedy you get the romance shoved down your throat and the comedy falls to the wayside. This movie found a great balance of sentiment of humor.

The on screen chemistry between Heigl and Butler was surprising, I was unsure of how these two dynamic actors would merge on screen, but it worked well. Butler sends out this bad boy with a heart vibe that makes you want to slap him and kiss him all at the same time. Mike is definitely the type of character you want to cheer for. At first you hate him for being a pig and then you get these glances into his actual personality, as it contrasts with the person he tries to be on tv, and you end up rooting for him. This plays well off of Heigl's character who is looking for love on paper but doesn't really know how to deal with it in real life. Heigl is one of the most beautiful actresses in America, yet she manages to make you believe that her character has trouble finding men. You can imagine yourself being friends with this girl, sitting with her at happy hour and hearing the latest story of a date gone bad.

Another winning part of this movie is the supporting cast. The news anchors on the morning show, played by are fantastic and hilarious. They are exactly what you imagine Regis and Kathee were like when the cameras are off. Heigl's romantic interest, Dr. Colin, is the definition of the type of guy you always thought you wanted. The actor in this role did a fantastic job of being the perfect man on paper yet still not being Abby's Mr. Right.

The comedy in this scene comes from both situations and characters. Character traits reveal themselves in uniquely funny situations and are continually funny throughout the movie without getting stale. Abby has a happy dance that makes you want to laugh both with her and at her at the same time. Abby's control freak leaps out during a blind internet date with amusing results. There is also a scene with a personal pleasure device that is a must see. What sets this scene apart from others you may have seen is that the film directors know exactly where the line is and they moan and gasp there way right up to that line but dont cross it.

As a frequent viewer of romantic comedies I have become a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to endings. Going into a film like this, you know that 98% of the time that the leads will end up together. The trick to creating a good ending then is to bring that moment to you in a way that is unexpected or at the very least do so with minimal cheesiness. This movie leads you up to that moment with a lot of promise. The scene is set for a fantastic ending. I wish they had left it there and let us imagine why happened and what was said.

I believe that a lot of yours view of movie come from the mindset with which you go into the movie. If you go in expecting greatness and get something that is only good, you tend to think that it was actually bad. For this film you should go in expecting some stereotypical chick flick scenes. Expect foul language and some comments that would make your mom blush. This movie was good not great, cute not life changing. A decent filling for a few hours to kill at the cineplex when you have already seen Harry Potter.

And that's the way I see it.

Roast Chicken, Twice Baked Potatoes, Carrots and Apple Pie

When we lived in Germany I loved how often we went to the grocery store. I think the Europens have it right when it comes to food shopping, keep your kitchen stocked with some basics and then hit the store almost daily for your dinner ingredients. Usually when I head to the grocery store I already know what I need to get. I have a list and I try to map out my trip to not waste extra movements or time in the store, I am an engineer after all. There is something almost magical about those times when you are in a grocery store without a clock or a list hanging over you, the idea that your dinner can be anything you can imagine. I encourage you to hit the grocery store every once in a while without a menu in mind, there is a whole store full of ingredients waiting to inspire you and occasionally your best creations will come from stumbling across a sale on something you might not ordinarily think to purchase.

My roomates and I often email back and forth about what we would like to make for dinner during the day. Its a nice distraction from work, and it makes us feel like real people instead of office drones. This past week one roomate had a craving for rotisserie chicken, and we had some leftover store brand potato salad, so that was the plan for dinner. I had to go to the store to get a prescription filled, so picking up the required ingredients for dinner that night fell to me. The rotisserie chickens just looked sad that day, already dried out and kinda small, it did not look like good eats. So, as often happens, I decided to alter our dinner plans a little bit... ok a lot. In the meat section I saw that whole chickens were on sale, and that i could purchase a 6 lb bird for less than the 3 lb already cooked shriveled little guy up front. I grabbed the chicken and suddenly I was inspired. I was going to make a real old school Leave it to Beaver Sunday style dinner. I had never roasted a chicken before, but all those moms on sitcoms did it and they always looked to yummy, surely I could pull this off.

I decided that store bought potato salad would have never hit June Cleaver's table, and what better thing to go with hot roast chicken than a baked potato. A twice baked potato, that would be better. So I grabbed some bacon and cheese and I was all set to bake some potatoes twice. I must add here that twice baked potatoes are a favorite of mine, but we never had them at home. As I remember it, an excuse was given that they were too much trouble; I think secretly my mom just didnt like them.

Sepaking of my mom, we recently got to spend a good amount of time together. Time with family has been rare these days as my parents live in a different country. She was home for about 2 months before she had to go back oversees and I got a little spoiled having her around. I must have been feeling guilty about the twice baked potatoes, I knew she would frown on them. So to appease my guilt, and bring a little bit of her back home, I decided to make two of her specialties: carrots and apple pie. She is known around the world (literally) for her apple pies, and I have always loved the way she made carrots.

So there it was my perfect old school Sunday dinner: roast chicken, twice baked potatoes, carrots and apple pie. It must be noted that they only thing out of this list I have ever made before is carrots. The twice backed potatoes turned out flawlessly. There is not much to say about the potatoes. Anything flavored with cheddar, bacon, butter and sour cream is going to be good; end of story. My moms carrots recipe is to microwave the carrots with a layer of water so they steam, a tab of butter and some sugar for flavoring. I used a little of the bacon grease instead of the butter to add flavor to the carrots and I steamed them on the stove with a little sugar. Easy as pie, well actually the pie was a little more complicated. Granny smith apples, nutmeg, cinamon, butter and pumpkin pie spice completed the stuffing. I have to admit I used a store bought crust. The most important thing in makeing an apple pie is to make sure that your apple chunks are all the same size so that they cook evenly. The pie crust was a little big for the pie tin that we had so I ended up with some extra crust. I used part of the extra to make a flower design on the top of the pie. The remaining crust was spread with butter, sprinkled with cimamon and sugar then rolled up and baked. It's like a pie appetizer, or a chef's snack, a must have with any pie baking experience.

Three out of four menu items were exceuted without much trouble, all turned out really well and I was quite happy with them. The chicken was trickier. I dont know if you have ever purchased a whole chicken, it is a little gross. I have only ever made one whole bird prior to this exercise and that was a turkey during the holidays. It received wide acclaim from everyone at the party where it was served. To be fair, however, I must also state that everyone who consumed it had also consumed a fair amount of poinsettias (cranberry juice and champagne, kicks mimosas in the butt) before the turkey so they may have not been the best judges.

The chicken was covered with feathers, they were tiny tiny feathers smaller than a strand of hair, but feathers nonetheless. They were everywhere. I tried to pull out as many as I could but after about 30 minutes I just had to stop so I could get the stupid thing in the oven. I was, however, able to get out all of the feather shafts. They were hard little plastice like tubes that were embedded in several parts of the body. My hope was that the small feathers would burn off in the oven, but I knew that the feather shafts would be unpleasant to chew on. After stuffing the cavity with bits of apple and onion I gave the outside a nice rub with some butter and seasoning. Finally, I layered the breast meat with strips of bacon. Please stop before you judge me, adding volume to the chicken breast keeps the breast meat moist. Additionally, as I had already used bacon in my other menu items I thought it would be a nice way to tie the flavors of the meal together. The bacon fat bastes the bird while it is cooking, remove the strips about 20 to 30 minutes before the chicken is done and you will still get a lovely brown skin that is quite tastey.

All of this would have worked perfectly except for one tiny mishap in the cooking process. I started the oven at 450, to give the skin a good browning, and then the plan was to turn it down to 350 to continue cooking the remaining time. Our oven is a little tricky and when I turned down the heat I actually turned the oven off and never restarted it. Luckily I did not open the door to the oven at all for the next 30 minutes so the temperature did not drop below 250, however it did make for some undercooked chicken when we first attempted to sit down for dinner. Another 20 minutes in a hot oven did the trick and the chicken actually tasted pretty good, if slightly drier than I would have liked.

My tips for raosting any whole bird are simple. I recommend stuffing the cavity (after you remove the gross bits) with anything aromatic. Carrots, apples, oranges, onions, and lemons work best in my opinion. Always coat the bird lightly with oil or butter. This helps the skin brown nicely. Use simple seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder all work nicely. Add something on top of the breast meat. You can put stuffing between the skin of the breast and the meat itself if you do not want to eat the skin. If you are a skin person, add some stuffing to the outside of the skin and remove it before the final half hour of baking. Make sure to truss your bird. Trussing is simply tying the wings and legs so that they sit in close to the body, this ensures that they do not overcook while you wait for the body of the bird to come up to temperature. I skipped this step this time, but doing so led to wings that were quite dry.

Lessons learned from this cooking experience:
1 - Always check to make sure your oven is actually on
2 - If you are going to cook a whole bird plan time to defeather
3 - Don't forget to buy butchers twine, trussing is a must
4 - Bacon and cheddar makes everything better
5 - Apple Pie is America's dessert for a reason

Total Price of Meal: $30 (plus excellent chicken sandwhiches the next day)
Entrees, Wine and Dessert for 3 at a Resteraunt: $72

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: D-

The fact that I saw this movie is part of the reason that I wanted to start posting my own reviews of movies. I read on some review somewhere that despite the images the title suggests it was actually a cute romantic comedy. Seth Rogen is typically funny, he cracked me up as Bob in his guest appearance on Dawson's Creek. Elizabeth Banks is cute and funny, love love loved her on Scrubs. These things added up to me looking forward to this film.

I expected the leads to fall in love, I expected them to discuss having sex in somewhat graphic terms, I even expected to see nudity. What I did not expect was full on porn during portions of the film. This movie was as raunchy, and disturbing as the title would imply. I am not the kind of person who minds a little blue humor. I am actually the queen of That's What She Said jokes. That being said, you have to know when enough is enough. I dont believe that the word anal has ever been used in a movie more than it was in this one.

The movie starts out innocently enough, Zack and Miri live in a crappy apartment together. They have been friends since high school, they both have crappy jobs and they haven't paid their bills in months. At their high school reunion Miri plans to seduce the high school BMOC, and Zack plans to get hammer trashed and hook up with married ladies. It turns out the the high school stud is gay, and his boyfriend is a gay-porn star in California. He describes the things he does in movies with astounding detail. This scene actually made me dislike Justin Long, a difficulkt task considering Dodgeball is a go-to funny movie fave. When they find that their power and water have been shut off because they havent paid their bills they head to a bar. Surprisingly enough while they can't afford to pay for the services they use, they can afford to pay for several beers at 5 bucks a pop. Instead of choosing to make better choices with their money, because that would make for a more realistic and probably better movie, they choose to produce a porn film and sell it to their high school alums through the mialing list they got at the reunion.

From here the movie chronicles their attempts to find people to star in the movie. They hold auditions, which turn out to be akin to a sexual talent show. Their potential dirty names for the movie are uninspired and unhumorous, I could dream up funnier porn names and I dont get paid to write movies. This movie has made me lose my faith in Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen. I would list Dogma as one of my favorite movies, I love Knocked Up, this did not hold up to the high standards of humor that were estabilshed in those earlier films. Humor in this movie was only delivered through the "Oh my did they really just say/do that?" type of situation as opposed to anything that would actually qualify as a joke.

If I wanted to watch people have sex with each other, I would go to an adult video store and purchase an actual porno. I do not want to watch people have sex with each other, no judgment to those of you who do, it's just not my viewing option of choice. When I watch a movie I want to be able to invest in the characters, to feel like I could be freinds with them. With this movie you learn nothing about the characters (outside of the title two) outside of the fact that they are willing to have sex on film and they have special sexual skills. I felt no closeness to anyone in the movie, you dont get the glimpse into their lives that is needed to connect with a character. When I watch a movie I want to see a good story. The film leaves almost every story line unfinished. They wrap up the main relationship and that is the only closure that you get.

All in all this movie fell flat (no pun intended). It was awkward to watch, I thanked my lucky stars that I chose to view this alone. It wasnt more disgusting than it was funny. I felt no compassion for any of the characters as I was not given any motivation to feel so. The story had no ending. Can I please have the 101 minutes of my life back?

And that's the way I see it.

Hello World and Other Thoughts

Hello World! I am Audrey, a 25 year old engineer in Atlanta. While my job title sounds like I am a boring, pencil pushing nerd (and truthfully my job is exactly that) outside of work I am an entertainment junkie. Movies, books, music, television you name it I love it. I studied Industrial Engineering at Georgia Tech, but my favorite class that I took while there was called Shakespeare and Film. In that class I got the opportunity to write a movie review, it was so much fun. I decided that telling my more recent movie reviews to my little brother is not enough of an outlet for me, plus I think he is tired of hearing about movies he has no desire to see.

In addition to loving the world of entertainment, I love to cook. The food network is permanently on my tv. Inspired by the new movie Julie and Julia, I thought I would share my adventures in cooking as well. I have no desire to learn Frech cuisine, but I do love new recipes. My efforts dont always turn out well, but they are always entertaining.

Hope you like what you read, if you dont, well let me know. A lively debate over the merits of the latest romantic comedy sounds awesome! :)