Movie Food

No, I'm not talking about popcorn and Junior Mints!  I just discovered this awesome website "Movie Recipes: What you watch is what we cook".  Like they say, they cook all those beautiful on-screen foods and put them on their website, with the recipe, by movie.  It's pretty cool!  Of course, my favorite so far is the Godfather spaghetti sauce.  Because you  never know, you could have to cook for 20, 30 guys some day!

 

 

I'll definitely have to try this recipe, while watching the Godfather - my favorite movie.  (I own the box set of the trilogy but recently bought parts I and II on blu-ray!)  My only question to movie recipes is this "Where's the cannoli?"!

Hello Panda

One of the things I'd like to do to improve my blog is feature more "Hawaii foods".  Here's a snack that I grabbed at lunch the other day that I've never seen before.  They're from Japan but are popular here in Hawaii, as many Japanese items are.  

I grabbed these little "biscuits with milk cream" at the drug store on my lunch break because they looked... well, interesting!  Hello Panda.  Being fairly sure they weren't actually made from cute cuddly panda bear meat I decided to try some.  They had both milk cream and strawberry flavor.  Where's the chocolate?  As you can see on the packaging, these aren't just any Hello Panda Biscuits with Milk Cream, they have NEW SPORTS PRINTING!

And that was not a gimmick, you can clearly see the little pandas playing golf, soccer, football, and even shooting a bow and arrow!  I'm not sure what all of the activities are but I know no American snacks look anything like these!  Is the bottom right image a sword?

Not only are these cute and creative, they were pretty tasty!  They weren't as sweet as I expected them to be but they were a nice little snack.

Has anyone ever heard of these or tried them?  Let me know if you want some, I'll mail them to you :)

Kitchen Fashion

Six weeks ago I didn't own a kitchen apron or feel a need to have one.  Do people really wear aprons, or is that only what Desperate Housewives puts on Bree?  Of course, I had an apron as a child...

Actually, I had another one that my Pap made me - Mom & I had matching, homemade aprons from Pap!  (Read more about Pap here.)  I grew out of those and haven't used an apron since I've been cooking as an adult.

For my birthday my dear friend Christine got me an adorable apron and I was really excited about it!  A week later Bryce's Mom's birthday gifts for me arrived and, yet, another apron!  The two were totally different and both so cute.  Just a few weeks after that, John & Brooke sent us thank you gifts for helping with the cookie table at their wedding (which I still need to blog about!) and my gift was another apron!

So now I have three adorable aprons.  My problem is I always forget to put on one and they're so cute I'm afraid to get them dirty!  They're just too cute not to show off.  Thanks ladies for the aprons!

The Red Ripe Strawberries and the BIG HUNGRY BOYFRIEND

Once upon a time, in the wonderful land of online shopping, I came across these adorable sports themed chocolate covered strawberries.

I knew my Prince (aka Bryce) would love these.  Sports and chocolate all in one, it was perfect for his royal dessert!  6 berries would cost $25 plus shipping to Hawaii, that's more than a new pair of glass slippers!  This princess knew she could make them herself, when the right time came along. 

Garlic Knots

Since I started this blog I have discovered many, many good food blogs.  One of my favorites is In Erika's Kitchen.  Her most memorable post, to me, was the one about Garlic Knots as comfort food in which she makes her crappy day at work much better by making, then eating, delicious garlic knots.  Erika, Julie Powell, and I are all in the same boat here.  A BAD day at work, or otherwise, can usually be forgotten once you're busy creating delicious foods in the kitchen.

Over my trip home to Pittsburgh in December, I finally got the chance to make these lovely little knots.  I used crescent roll dough which eliminated the letting-the-dough rise portion of the recipe, since that's all I could find at the store.  I knotted them in no particular fashion, as you can see.  That made no difference once they were baked.

Just a few minutes later they were golden brown and... naked.

Until I added the butter and garlic, yummmmmm.

And finally - the parsley.

I should have made more, though, because they were gone in no time!  This one was a hit with the kids, which by now you know are picky eaters, 8 year old Morgan said to me "What was that buttery thing, it was good!"