Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Last night, I came home from work and made a delicious shrimp scampi (not one of my cookbook recipes) and enjoyed with a nice tall glass of water on my roof. It was about 80 degrees out and I was loving it! After dinner, I jumped into Levels 2 &3 of the 30 Day Shred (which I'm almost finished with!) back to back and then showered, poured myself a glass of Blueberry Port (from my favorite Long Island vineyard), grabbed a dish of dark-chocolate covered blueberries (from Trader Joe's!), through on my pajamas and curled up to watch:

 (#58) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood and Kirsten Dunst; Directed by Michel Gondry. As soon as I saw that this was directed by Gondry, I knew I would like it. I studied his music videos in my Mass Media class in college and loved his work. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is about a couple who undergo a procedure to have all memories of one another erased from their minds after their relationship turns sour. I really liked this film. I love how it started and how the film made a full circle from beginning to end. I felt, however, like the end was a little bit anti-climactic and how the Kirsten Dunst storyline could've  been eliminated and the ending would've played out the same. The editing was spectacular though and it really was a great film! I definitely recommend it!

And while I was doing a whole lot of nothing this past weekend, I also took time to watch:
(#90) All About Eve (1950) starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and Marilyn Monroe. What can I say? I love old Hollywood films! All About Eve is about a famous theater actress (Bette Davis) and a young woman (Anne Baxter) who worships her and ingrains herself into the theater scene. This old B&W film is vindictive! The acting is unbelievable though and it's films like this that make me wish I lived in the 1950s sometimes - when theater was still an occasion to get all dressed up for and people worshiped theater stars just as much as film stars - if not moreso! I really liked it - although it was surprisingly long for an old film (over 2 hours!) - if you're into old movies, definitely check it out!

I also cooked 2 more recipes out of Real Girls Eat over the last week:
1. Porridge with Apples, Pears and Crispy Walnuts - The description of this recipe reads: "Fiber, fiber, fiber! Many a ski race - and other races we're sure - have been won on a tummy-full of porridge, "so naturally, I thought it would be a great breakfast at 5am before my race last week! I did not like it at all. I'm not a fan of milk and this recipe called for making the oats with A LOT of milk, so the bowl tasted like hot milk with chunks of oat in it. It also called for lemon juice and zest which were not a pleasant addition to the milk. The dish didn't look very pretty either, so here's the photo copied from the book. If any of you are interested and think it sounds good, I'll be happy to share the recipe but it wasn't for me!


2. Spiced Chickpeas - These were definitely spiced! They were such a great treat! I made them and brought them to work as an afternoon snack and then took the leftovers and used them in the Chickpea and Spinach Curry recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and they were a great addition! That's the great thing about chickpeas, they're so versatile and they're high in protein so they're a great thing to add to any meal for veggie folks who are afraid of tofu (guiltily raises hand). Here's a picture and a recipe!

Enjoy your evening everyone!