Me too. I don’t really post recipes on her, leaving that to my sister blog Mysterious Eats.
Weeeeeeeeeeelll…with one exception. If it has to do with Jane Austen or a tea party, I review and post it.
Last year I helped put on a tea, and fashioned it after a teahouse I used to go to when I lived near Santa Rosa. They would always serve scones (I did the Cheddar-Thyme Scones and the Harvest Pumpkin Scones) and tea sandwiches. You could also add on tarts, little turnovers, salad, or soup.
This soup may not be a real “tea soup”, but I thought it was tasty, easy to make, and fancy looking.
Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons of Onion, finely chopped
5 Tablespoons of Butter
5 Tablespoons of Flour
1 14-oz can of Chicken Broth
1/3 Cup of Cheddar Cheese, grated
1 Baked Potato (6-7 inch baker), cold, cut into bite-sized pieces.
2 Cups of Half-and-Half
1 Cup of Milk
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
1/8 Teaspoon of Black Pepper
6 Slices of Bacon, cooked, broken into bits (Or use Bacon Bits)
Cheddar Cheese, to go on top
Directions:
Sauté the onions in butter.
While stirring, slowly add the flour and then the chicken broth.
Cook until it thickens.
Add the cheddar cheese, stirring until it melts.
Then add the potato, leaving the skin on the pieces.
Finally stir in the half-and-half and the milk.
Season with salt and pepper.
Top each serving with crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese.
It is a fantastic tasting soup, and having cooked the potatoes it takes like no time at all.
Yay!
The only thing is that you have to be careful when adding the milk or half-and-half. The lactose sugar in them can burn and ruin the dish, so you have to keep stirring. The more you stir the less likely it will burn.
One time I had my niece hep me and I felt like that scene in Goodfellas when Henry Hill keeps telling his brother to watch the sauce. Just like Michael she didn’t enjoy the stirring.
No more stirring.
But it was easy, delicious, and will be a great addition to any future tea parties or dinners.
First I want to say happy 50th! This is my 50th post! I never thought I would make so many in such a few months 😀
So I know this isn’t really a Halloweeny film; but it has aliens in it so it counts. I was up early this morning and was flipping channels and this came on. I remember when this first came out in theaters, I never saw it as I thought it was going to be extremely dumb and full of childish slapstick comedy. It was full of that, and it was pretty dumb at times; but it ended up being better than I thought it would be. I actually only came in at the end of the film, so it took a while for me to get a sense of what was going on.
So these aliens invade, and only the kids are aware of this; as always the adults are stupidly blind to anything going on.
When I came into the story, the aliens had attached these mind control devices to one of the kids, Bethany’s, boyfriend Ricky. There was also one attached to the Grandma, but the kids were controlling it. The twin boys were incredibly adorable and remind me of my nephew who is obsessed with video games.
The fight between the two, was purely structured to garnish cheap laughs from children as they watch an elderly lady kick butt.
The only thing that makes this scene even funny is the lovely Doris Roberts. I love her so much!
Bethany comes in at the end and sees her boyfriend kicked through the basement. The other kids tell her that aliens have invaded which she finds hard to believe. She goes to talk to her loser boyfriend, which we find out is a liar and cheating on her. He breaks up with her and takes off.
The adults discover the worn-torn, destroyed room and immediately yell at the oldest kid in the room, Tom (Bethany is in the basement). All the kids get sent up to their rooms as they are being punished for destroying everything.
Bethany reconvenes with them upstairs trying to do something. Tom has given up, as he feels they can do nothing to save Earth. Bethany tries to get everyone to go fight, but they won’t follow anyone but Tom.
Tom I thought was very attractive. Super sexy as he was played by Carter Jenkins. Anyways, Tom is now encouraged and they go down to the basement to defeat the aliens.
When they get there they discover their cousin Jake, played by Austin Butler. (Where has he gone? I haven’t seen him in anything recently.) He was kidnapped by the Zarkonian aliens and knows they are trying to create some kind of machine. The kids had become friends with one of the aliens, Spark, and he is the techno one that they are forcing to build the machine.
They are about to give up again, when Jake comes up with a mentos/cola bomb. They shoot them at the aliens which knock them all out except for the commander. Tom takes him out with his potato gun, which accidentally knocks him into the machine they were forcing Sparks to create.
Everyone cheers at this, but then Sparks tells them that it is not good, it makes the commander big!
They have to try and battle him while the other kids handle the small aliens. Jake is able to distract the commander while Tom calibrates the mathematic equation to shoot the commander with a mind controlling device. While he is doing this, one of the other aliens increases his size and the commander and him have an epic fight.
While they duke it out Sparks reverses the machine, making anything that goes through it little. Tom sends them both through the machine, with the “ugly” alien going off with his girlfriend, while the commander is seemingly zapped into nothingness.
They have stopped the aliens, but there is still an invasion coming. One the adults stupidly think are a meteor shower.
Sparks calls the aliens and tells them to retreat. After a tearful goodbye, he goes home to be with his family. All the kids enjoy the rest of their vacation, having finally bonded and become a perfect unit.
Cheesy, yes. The very, very, end was hilarious though. 😀
Hope you enjoyed that lighthearted post. More posts to come. 10 days until Halloween!
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you
I love Archie Comics, as I grew up reading them. My mom introduced me to them as she used to read the comics when she was a kid. The TV show based on Archie’s Weird Mysteries is based off a spin off series of the same name, and they used to air the animated show every Saturday morning.
So the episode starts out with Jughead and Archie driving down to the TV station. Jughead had been watching a B Horror film movie marathon the night before, and saw that they were having a contest. He answered the questions correctly and became the big winner. As he can’t drive he asks Archie to help him collect his prize.
When Jughead gets to the station it turns out that his prize is a POTATO
Jughead isn’t that happy about it, but like who would be? You can get those at any grocery store. But Jughead is nicer than I as he takes his freebie and goes on home. When Jughead gets home, he parks himself back on the couch and starts watching more TV, getting into the “zone”. He is so focused that he fails to realize that the potato is not your average spud. It starts to take over, creating its own Jughead creation, very much like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, when they make the pod people.
The next day, Jughead is acting strangely. He is standing in a pot trying to “absorb nutrients”; he hands out potatoes to everyone, calling them his “friends”, and when Reggie starts eating French Fries Jughead freaks out. All are shocked at this behavior as Jughead has eaten more fries than anyone they’ve ever known.
That night at Betty’s house, Archie and Betty are watching a television program. Betty gets so engrossed in the show that the potato Jughead gave her earlier catches her off guard and she is about to be taken over, but Archie manages to save her. Afterwards, they decide to talk to Jughead about his new potato ‘friends’.
Soon Jughead’s potato friends have sprouted and taken over everyone in the town.
Eventually even Betty gets trapped and the only ones who are still “alive”, are Archie and Dilton. The two team up and discover that the potatoes must be coming from the TV studio, that is where it all began.
When they get there, unfortunately the potato zombies are there and attacking.
Archie and Dilton try to climb up the tower, but Dilton is taken down by one of the potatoes.
It’s up to Archie to save the day. He tries to climb up, but is caught by a potato; he reaches up; attempting to hit the button to destroy the potatoes…..
And he is barely able to make it, but does. All the potatoes burst and are destroyed. Everyone wakes up and are okay. No one knows where the Great Potato came from or where he has gone, but for now they are safe.
It’s a great story, the perfect amount of creepy and campy; all the tropes you desire.
To buy your own copy, click on the image below:
janeaustenrunsmylife 