oscars

Oscar Night Party

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Sunday night the Hubz and I had a our friend Laura over to watch the Oscars and enjoy some yummy appetizers and play a few games.

We had lots of yummy eats the first of which was the trio of hummus recipes from Appetite For Reduction; I made the Curried Green Onion, Shabby Sheik and Roasted Red Pepper & Kalamata. All of us agreed that the Shabby Sheik Hummus was the best of the three.

The hummus was served with bread sticks, tortilla chips and salsa and olives.

Next we have the warm roasted artichoke and red onions salad which was tossed with Garlic Gold balsamic dressing, parsley and dijon mustard- served warm/room temperature and so good.

One of our favorite appetizers were the Truely Gritty Corncakes, this was inspired by the Hubz and True Girt and were delicious.  I made polenta and then spread it out on a sheet pan and let it cool and then used a biscuit cutter to make the rounds.  I then did a three step process to coat the corncakes–1. flour 2. almond milk 3. Italian breadcrumbs and then lightly brown on each side in a large skillet over medium high and then broil for 2-3 minutes to crisp up. SO GOOD!

Lastly are the Black Swan inspired cupcakes; the fluffy white coconut covered frosting is made to look like the white swan tu-tu and inside of the cupcakes is the black swan aka the chocolate hazelnut mousse.

In addition to yummy eats we played Oscar Bingo as well as filled out our ballots on who we wanted to win each category.

We all won a round of bingo.

But Laura was took home the big win by getting the most correct predictions!

Laura and her winnings

What did you do for the Oscars?

Weekend Wrap Up: Art Shows, Cooking and Movies

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The Hubz and I started off our weekend with a bagel and coffee from City Market and then headed to my G-Ma’s to visit, have lunch and then we headed to her art show.  Over the past 10 or so years my G-Ma has taken up painting and each year there is a seniors art show where she features her art work- check it out:

G-Ma's Art

G-Ma and Aunt Carol with G-Ma's Art

'rents and G-Ma art the art show

After spending the afternoon at G-Ma’s art show we headed to my parents house to visit with them before they head to warm, sunny Florida for 6 weeks *colour me jealous*. When we arrived we were greeted by this site:

The roof on the old barn at my parents house caved in last week due to the heavy, wet snow causing the entire barn to crumble.  It is a huge loss for them and sad to see.

We spent the remainder on the night relaxing, looking over old photos:

My G-Ma and Grandpa (Dad's parents)

I love looking back at old photos and checking out the fashion back then- don’t they look so classy? Whatever happened to nice dresses and suits?

For dinner I decided to try out some of the seitan that Upton’s Naturals sent me in one of the recipes from Appetite for Reduction for the Cookbook Club. I made the Caulipots and the Portabello Pepper Steak Stew – my first recipes from Appetite for Reduction and both I really liked and so did the ‘rents and Hubz.

The Portabello Pepper Steak Stew does not call for kale but my mom had some that needed to be used up so I added it to the stew and it was a great addition.  The stew was nice and peppery and the sauce was so tasty.  I have to say salt was the only thing that the recipe needed a little more of but that may have been do to the vegetable broth that I was using.  The Caulipots were good but I think I would try one of the variations that the cookbook includes because I really felt that there was a lack for flavor- again may have been partially due to the broth.  Overall though I liked both recipes an it is a good start to this months Cookbook Club.

Sunday we headed home early so that the Hubz and I could get some work done at home (on our computers).  We spent most of the day except when we headed out for groceries sitting on the couch enjoying leftover stew and caulipots as well as a few Oscar Best Picture nominated movies in preparation for our Oscar party next Sunday.  We watched:

Out of the four we watched Winter’s Bone was by far my favorite- the movie is not weighed down by A List celebrities and the acting and story is really amazing. I would recommend that everyone see this – it is really a powerful movie.  We still have to watch The King’s Speech, The Fighter, True Grit and Toy Story 3, however we are only planning to watch the first 3 and if we have time we will watch Toy Story 3 before Sunday.  So far my top three nominated films are Black Swan, Inception and Winter’s Bone. Which one is your favorite? Are you planning anything for the Oscars?