Movie Night: Eclipse & food

I've been planning this movie night for a few weeks now. My parents were going to watch the kids. Hubs was able to get the day off from work. Many thanks to LF who covered the last half of my mission at work. Manette, my sis, Hubs and I were going to watch an early premier of Eclipse.

For those of you who enjoy photography, Manette has a blog too.

To make a long story short, Hubs was not able to attend. I'm sure he was sooooo disappointed. None the less, I was going to go and hang out with the girls. Don't worry Hubs, I want to see it again. Guess who is going to take me?

I was the first to arrive approximately 2 hours before show time. The whole afternoon I was in constant communication with Manette and my sis. Nothing else was going to fall through. Hubs already took one for the team.

Of course, there was already a small group of people already in line. If I had to guess, I was probably the 10th person. If it was anything like last year, the line was getting wider and wider from people letting others cut in front of them. This year's movie premier was much more organized. Kudos to those that were involved in the planning of this.

Manette and I waited in line as my sis was bringing us food. Sis did not disappoint. Our first course was pizza. It's from a local pizza joint called Bronx. The pesto pizza is my favorite. You can buy pizza by the slice or the pie. They offer a variety of different toppings. The pizza is NY style. I've never lived in NY. The last time I was there was over a decade ago. I'm not sure how authentic this place is but it's delicious.

Eating pesto pizza in line

If the pizza wasn't enough, sis made it a complete meal by bringing in dessert. Cupcakes from Babycakes. My favorite cupcake from this place is there signature "babies'. It's marble cake with chocolate chips and cream cheese. Unfortunately, sis did not purchase these but brought my second favorite from this place....the red velvet.

Illegal cupcakes brought in using very large bag

One thing I don't enjoy about the red velvet from this place is the actual cupcake part. It's a little too dense in my opinion. The frosting makes up for it. The frosting is a yummy cream cheese base frosting that is creamy and not too sweet. Regardless, the cupcake made me happy.

My contribution was what the girls were calling a chocolate tampon. I handed these to the girls and both hesitantly took it from my hand. The white package speaks for itself. Let me tell you, I didn't hear them complaining once they opened up the package and took one bite of this delicious morsel.

Yummy tampon packaged wafers

Now to the actual movie, Twihards. It was great! The movies get better and better...just like the books. Of course, no Twilight movie would be complete without the crazy fans. There was the usual barbaric yells as the shirtless Jake appeared on the screen. There were some hot make out scenes that left the three of us a little tense and awkward due to the young, innocent eyes that were seated next to us. I think Hubs would even appreciate the action scenes...I'm speaking for him here. The humor between Edward and Jake was entertaining. Charlie Swan had some good lines that made everyone chuckle. The movie will not disappoint.

"@bretterlich: Twilight's like soccer. They run around for 2 hours, nobody scores, and its billion fans insist you just don't understand."

Fair Day

We took our annual trip to the fair today. Before the day even started, I was expecting to have some turbulence to occur. Most of the time, it's my emotional 3 year old, Princess Ninja. Chubs, the 1 year old, is pretty mellow. As long as he's fed and entertained, he's a happy guy. Well my magic crystal ball made the wrong prediction. Princess Ninja gets an A for today. Chubs gets a D-. I'd give the guy a F if he wasn't my own flesh and blood and so darn cute.

Dada, Princess Ninja, & "D-" Chubs

Yes, Chubs gets a big fat D-. He wanted to have his own Fair Day without the family. He refused 9 out of 10 family activities. He refused to sit in his stroller. He wanted to explore on his own without even holding Mama or Dada's hand. He tried to escape out of all the rides except for a truck ride than went round and round. He was semi-good on the Ferris wheel. I did have to hold him down so he wouldn't fall out of the seat he was supposed to be sitting on. Also, he kept trying to reach outside the seat box. Can you say amputation?

More naughty stuff. Sticking hands in dirty canoe water.

Beautiful view on the Ferris Wheel. That's the ocean in the back.

Mama holding down Chubs

Princess Ninja on the other hand gets an A. She would have had an A+ if she would have taken the $1 toy I won for her. It was a smiling banana. I had to cough up $5 to win her a whale shark. Other than that, she met all safety precautions for riding the rides. She obeyed the simple command of getting in and out of her stroller as needed. There were no major tantrums other than not wanting a smiling banana.

pic of the whale shark that lost the A+ for her

Overall, it was a great family day, minus the fact that Chubs did not want to spend time with the family. I know this is the first of many attempts to try and ditch us, but I didn't expect it so early in life.

One of the other things I love, love, love about going to the fair, other than hanging out with the family, is the food. Fair food always intrigues me even though I know I won't eat it (I don't eat meat).

Everything is fried and/or on a stick! I've come to the conclusion if you can either fry it or put it on a stick, it's probably good! If you can fry it AND have it on a stick, it's golden! The newest creations this year was the fried Klondike bar, fried Pop Tarts, and fried butter.

Can you believe fried butter? Here's a picture of the stand. It's called the Heart Attack Cafe. I like the picture of the nurse with the defibrillator paddles.

deep fried butter stand plus other fried foods

closer pic of the stand

The Texas Tater Twisters intrigued me. It's a hot dog on a stick, wrapped in a spiral potato and fried. It's like eating a hot dog and chips without it being too messy. Fascinating!

what else can they fry and put on a stick?

I did get my hands on some Aussie chips. I have absolutely no clue what makes them Australian. The potatoes are cut chip style so you don't confuse it with the French fry. Let's not get the two countries mixed up. Do you think it's the decorative Australian flag they top it off with that makes them Australian? If there are any Australians out there, please let me know if you guys eat this in your country.

The Aussie chip plate is basically deep fried potatoes with your choice of toppings. You can either get ranch, cheese, sweet chili, and/or sour cream. I choose ranch and cheese. I ate 2 chips and was starting to feel my arteries clog.

I am a little upset I didn't get my hands on Funnel Cake on a stick and my yearly Cheesecake on a stick. The lines were too long and Chubs was already getting a D-. I didn't want to push for that F.

Yummy Yummy in my Tummy Cheese Danish

I made this oh-so delicious recipe last weekend and I plan on making another batch. It was fast and easy. Did I mention delicious?

I couldn't wait for it to cool, so I ended up burning my tongue. Luckily, Familybites suggested I have a glass of cold milk ready. Good thing I did, because it came in handy. Sadly, the minor burn did not stop me from eating 3/4 of the pan myself....no joke! Guess what I'm going to be making again?!

The other 1/4 of the pan was consumed happily by family and friends. My daughter loved the cream cheese filling. All had rave reviews!

Here is the recipe from the Familybites blog. You can also visit her blog directly to read the history behind this danish. It's on her April 16, 2010 posting.

I had to substitute in vanilla extract for the almond extract, since I ran out. I'm going to get myself another bottle of almond extract for this weekends batch.

The Cream Cheese Danish
Adapted by: Me

2 tubes crescent rolls*(I have found Pillsbury works best...I know, I seem like a brand name snob, but I'm telling you, it's worth it)
2 (8oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened
1 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract

For topping:
5 T. butter, softened
1/2 C. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Grease a 9x13 pan. Take one tube of crescent roll dough and roll out so it covers entire bottom of pan. Blend the cream cheese, sugar and extract until smooth. Take cream cheese mixture and spread on top of the crescent roll dough. Take the 2nd tube of dough and cover the top of the cream cheese mixture. Then combine the softened butter, sugar and cinnamon and crumble (or spread, depending on consistency of your butter mixture) on top.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Cool before cutting.

Here's your warning: have glass of cold milk ready for fresh, out of the oven danishes!!!! They also taste great with a cup of coffee.

Emergency food

I'm glad it's Friday! After a 50+ hour work week, I'm afraid I have not gone grocery shopping. We are scraping to figure out what to eat. It's times like this I have my go-to items. One of them is Bertolli Frozen Meals. They even have some that cook in 10 mins. Accompany them with some Texas Toast (cooks in toaster oven) and maybe a salad (if we actually have vegetables) and you have yourself a meal.

I must warn you that I could probably eat an entire bag of these frozen meals myself. Depending how many mouths you have to feed and how large their appetites are, you may have to cook a few of these bags. When there's no food around and you have hungry mouths to feed, it's quick, easy and a no brainer. Plus, you can store a few bags in the freezer.

Another staple I have around for the kids are the Gerber Graduates for Toddlers: Pasta Pick-ups. These cook 25 seconds! My kids enjoy them.

dinner...aka lunch for tomorrow

It's 9:00pm and we're still deciding what to eat for dinner. Husband was busy with the kids all day and was able to get them fed, bathed, and ready for bed. I just came home a hour ago after a busy day at work. We finally decided on spaghetti. This isn't going to be slow simmer, get the flavors marinating spaghetti. For me, this is going to be 5 mins to cook fresh pasta and a jar of sauce. Forget about dinner, this is lunch for tomorrow!

I still have a list of "things to do before you can sleep" check off.

1.) get blog started

2.) 1 of 2 kids are still up...get them to bed

3.) get kids daycare bags ready

4.) get my lunch packed for tomorrow

5.) bathe myself

With all of that said, it's time to start checking off items from this list.

Dinner:

Classico spaghetti sauce: caramelized onion & roasted garlic

Buitoni fresh pasta (takes 5 mins to cook). Started boiling the water when my husband went to the store to buy ingredients.

Add ins for husband (on the side) sausage

my husband eats meat and I don't