oscars – Peaceful Reader

Are you watching the Oscars?

We are and we had friends over to share the night with and it’s fun to watch with others as we “judge” dresses, hairstyles, and handsome guys! Neil Patrick Harris is doing a fantastic job of hosting-perfect amount of dry wit and silliness/underwear.

I was up early this morning making dough for homemade pizzas, cut up veggies, cheeses and cooked good Italian sausage + more to enjoy. Our friends brought salad, chocolates, wine, and beer. We filled out Oscar ballots and had fun watching everyone stroll down the red carpet in the rain.

This event is part of my NY’s resolution to have a new person over for dinner once a month and two months out I’m still going strong. This was a little bit more stressful event though as my husband had a play open last night, my stepmother was an overnight guest last night, and my amazing in-laws are arriving this week plus I’ve had a lot of balls in the air at work. We pulled it off though and I’m pretty sure everyone had fun.

My reason for making this a resolution; I worry about the cleanliness of my house. I don’t like to clean house. Why would I want to dust when I can be reading? I do love to cook though so I made a promise to worry more about what I could make for people instead of where dust bunnies are hiding. The pizza was a hit and nobody mentioned any dust. This is now my measure of success.

Also we made this kickass batch of mint fudge. It was delicious and we made a double batch (super smart) so we can share it with our incoming guests.

Our Oscar comments feed:

What’s with so many red dresses?

What up with Lady Gaga gloves?

The Lego movie rocks!

Lots of hair that really looks a lot like “bed hair”

So happy that Patricia Arquette won! And her speech was wonderful.

Reese and Anna Kendell looked fantastic.

Felicity Jones looked great.

Scarlett: amazing dress shade!

Mmmm. John Legend.

We all agreed we would like a Lego Oscar statue….

Thank you. That’s it. Good night.

Bring on the soup…

No hint of Spring here. It snowed more over the weekend-it WAS beautiful and slippery and yes, cold. Our house is cold. It is getting a bit depressing.

To tackle this depression I made a somewhat unhealthy soup recipe that my friend Mary Kay shared with me. She passed the recipe on to me from her daughter-in-law who creates the soup at work with friends; they each bring an ingredient and then share for dinner or lunch. I love that idea and would love to find someone at work who would like to do the same.

I used a pound of ground beef from my friend Farmer John and I created my own taco seasonings using this video. I’ve got to get better at snapping photos of my own food!!

{source}

Taco Soup

1 pound ground beef
1 package taco seasonings
1 package ranch dressing (I omitted-I didn’t have it and don’t know how to recreate)
1 can of pinto or kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes or can of Rotel
1/2 bag of frozen corn (I added a can of corn)
1 can diced green chilis
1 can black beans

Brown the hamburger in a skillet, draining any excess grease. Drain beans and can of corn. Combine all ingredients in to crock pot and stir. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serve warm with toppings; avocado, sour cream, blue chips, cilantro, or sprinkles of cheese.

Pretty easy. Next time I would double a few ingredients as I love leftovers for lunch. I made it on Sunday before I left for a play in the afternoon so it would be ready for dinner. I was happy I could substitute many items. I didn’t have even a a can of diced tomatoes so used the tomato juice my mom made from her garden tomatoes last Fall. I did have cans of black and pinto beans in the cupboard, which was perfect for this last minute choice. When I make it again I will try and soak my own beans first.

I enjoyed making the taco seasoning packet from spices I already had in the cupboard and if anyone knows how to make a healthy version of ranch dressing seasonings I would add that. I’m curious how the ranch packet would taste in the soup but not curious enough to buy a packet as they are just little containers of chemicals and flavor nubs.

The soup was delicious and we ate it during the Oscars; a very down home meal for such a festive occasion! And then last night Groovy Girl and I ate it again over baked potatoes (with small-ish dollops of sour cream).

Did you watch the Oscars? I thought for awhile Gravity was going to sweep it (one of them that I have not seen) and was pleasantly surprised when Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett won. I am extremely happy that 12 years a slave won and loved many of the speeches starting with Jared Leto’s tribute to his mother. Amazing.

We saw a lot of good movies this year and I loved in particular Philomena (and was sad it didn’t win anything), Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska (Bruce Dern was amazing also) and 12 years a slave. I have yet to watch Gravity but I will. I was sad Lone Ranger wasn’t nominated for enough as I loved that movie also. Our favorite dress was Lupita Nyong’o’s floating blue dress. She was a breath of fresh air!

Oscars and Food.

As we get ready to watch the Oscars I wanted to share this interesting animated Short nominee. We’ve had a busy weekend with lots of cooking and fun. Friday night Groovy Girl had a friend sleep over and I cooked a simple pasta dish with red sauce-you just never know what other people’s children are going to eat so this was an easy choice. I took a chance though and whipped up these broccoli bites I found on Maria Rodale’s website. They were a huge hit and it made a full pan so we had enough for two dinners. Now I’d like to change the veggie and see if still entices them in.

{Broccoli Cheese Puffs}

For a sleep over treat we made snow ice cream since we had plenty of fresh snow Thursday and Friday and been graced with a snow day on Friday. The girls went out and scooped up two big bowls of fresh powder and we added sweet and condensed milk (half a can), some vanilla, and we stirred in a little salted caramel sauce for fun. The flavor was good but it had huge ice chunks that we couldn’t stir out. I think the best part was in the making!

We do watch the Oscars at our house even though the are an example of over-indulgence (not peaceful or green) but my husband loves the movies as he is an actor and a director. We’ve watched almost all of the Best Picture nominees including my favorites: Beast of the Southern Wild and Silver Lining Playbook. I also loved Ben Afleck’s Argo. Today we watched Moonrise Kingdom which was quirky and should have been nominated for best cinematography. Denzel Washington and Jennifer Laurence are my choices for individual awards. Do you watch the Oscars? What movies are you rooting for?

Weekend Update; fun library picks and the Oscars!!

Groovy Girl and I stopped at one of the two public libraries we are fortunate enough to have in our adjoining small towns. She plunked herself down with a stack of interesting picture books while I ventured out to look around. I am always on the search for chapter books to capture her attention. She is a struggling reader and as of yet hasn’t really finished a chapter book on her own. One reading teacher told me I’m enabling her by always reading to her but I did this with our other children-the oldest one was already an accomplished reader by the time we met but she still loved listening to stories. Teenage Boy didn’t take off on reading until his 3rd and 4th grade years so I’m not worried but none-the-less ever the good librarian I seek a perfect reading fit that will send her to a quiet corner to read and marvel.

We picked Orphan Train Children; Lucy’s Wish by Joan Lowery Nixon, which I thought would appeal to her American Girl love of history and Amber Brown is Not a Crayon by Paula Danzinger, which is a 3rd grade character like herself and filled with fun.

I brought home only two treasures from the new section: In the Garden with Dr. Carver by Susan Grigsby; a picture book, and She Looks Just Like You; A Memoir of (Nonbiological Lesbian) Motherhood. Groovy Girl actually picked this last one out as we perused the new adult nonfiction. I’m not a fan of nonfiction and maybe I was looking for cookbooks but G.G. pulled this one out and liked the mother/daughter on the front cover. She was thrilled that I decided to check it out!

Tonight we go off to an Oscar party at a friend’s house. We usually sit home and watch them with our score pads. My husband is a bit obsessed with watching all the nominees. Luckily we can get half of them from Netflix. I hope that Winter’s Bone, The King’s Speech, The Kid’s Are All Right, and Black Swan do well. I liked Inception, 127 Hours and The Social Network also-so many good ones this year.

I can’t decide if The Illustionist, How to Train Your Dragon or Toy Story 3 should win for best animated movie-I loved all three! I don’t understand why Julianne Moore wasn’t nominated at all-I thought she should have been in best supporting actress category. In will all be over within the next couple of hours and I know it is not the Most Important Thing right now but it serves a purpose, just like going to the movies or reading a book for that matter-to escape, for just a little bit.

Happy Sunday.
and I’m off to the Oscars…