Another recipe finished! Last night I made Brownie Pudding from the New Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, and man was that good! I haven't had something that rich and chocolaty in a while, but I guess that's what happens when one uses a fourth of a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder. Making it was really interesting; I had no idea how it would bake with a layer of nearly boiling water on top of the actual batter, but somehow the pudding-like sauce ended up underneath the cake. Talk about tricky food chemistry! Brownie Pudding is definitely a dessert that should be accompanied by a tall glass of milk. Needless to say, I'm very pleased with how this recipe turned out!
Cooking: 12/75 completed
If I had any spending money, I am certain that I would spend it on Cartel's new album, Cycles. I've only been able to listen to the four songs they have available for listening on their website, but I really like all of them. I'm sure I can listen to the other songs if I looked on YouTube, so I'll probably do that later today. What's great about their songs is that they're all distinguishable from each other. So many bands have songs that all sound exactly the same, and Cartel avoids that. I also enjoy their mix of subject matter for their lyrics - some songs are softer and more melodic, others are fast-paced with socially-oriented lyrics, and others are more for fun. They didn't have any touring information, which is a shame because I think they'd be great to see live! The title of this post is taken from their song "Let's Go." I hope that others get into them!
I think I might actually add another goal to my list: watch 100 new movies this year. By new I don't mean that they have to be recently produced, I'm referring to movies that I have never seen or haven't seen in so many years that I've basically forgotten the entire thing. Since Matthew and I have Netflix I figure that it shouldn't be too hard to watch 100 movies in a year. I'll try to at least give them all ratings and small reviews in a timely fashion, but I've already seen quite a few movies this year, so let me try to remember them all:
1. The Departed - Talk about a great mix of good actors! The acting by Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, and Mark Wahlberg was superb, but I have to give a few more props to DiCaprio for giving us a truly tortured character without ever going over the top. The plot was incredibly intricate, but not too difficult to follow as long as you pay close attention to everything. The movie was a bit long, but I didn't notice how much time had passed until the movie ended, and that's usually the sign of a great movie!
Rating: 5/5
2. Under Siege - Matthew owns this collection of Steven Seagal movies as a joke, and we decided to watch a couple of them for laughs. What I love is that an entire Navy ship is overthrown by a few terrorists, even though the terrorists are vastly outnumbered. Why wouldn't the tons of Navy personnel just rush the terrorists? Granted, a couple of guys might've died, but the terrorists wouldn't have been able to kill all of them. Ah well, at least Tommy Lee Jones was in it, and man was he a funny hippie. Oh yeah, there was a boob scene as well. Can't remember much else about the girl.
Rating: 2/5
3. Under Siege 2 - Dark Territory - Yet another funny Steven Seagal movie, and it's really just Under Siege on a train. I had no idea that a little Katherine Heigl was in it until I recognized her face, and according to IMDb it's one of her earliest roles. I really love the scene where Seagal is hanging onto the train and someone shoots him in the shoulder, yet this doesn't faze Seagal at all. Nevermind that he was shot with a sniper rifle whose bullet would've ripped his arm off (or at least destroyed his nerves and vessels). He's Steven Seagal, and regular bullets cannot harm him! So many laughs in this movie. Oh Steven Seagal . . .
Rating: 2/5
4. The Prince of Egypt - It's been out for a long time, but I don't remember seeing this movie, and I feel like I would have remembered at least something with how good it is. I didn't expect a biblical movie to be so good, but I was pleasantly surprised by The Prince of Egypt. Although the plot is based upon the Exodus of the Hebrews, the main focus of the movie is the relationship between Moses and Ramses, which gives it more of a human focus rather than a preachy one. There were quite a lot of well-known actors in the cast - Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Val Kilmer, and Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort!). Great music and good portrayal of God. Overall, I think that this was a well-made and entertaining movie.
Rating: 4/5
5. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark - Before anybody goes crazy on me for not having seen the Indiana Jones movies, I must clarify that I did see bits and pieces of the movies a very long time ago, but I don't really remember anything specific about any one movie. That aside, I really liked watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. The action was nearly constant, the swooning female students were hilarious, and the Nazis were perfect villains. Of course it didn't have much depth to it, which is why I can't give it a perfect score, but I can see why it's a classic. Looking forward to watching the others!
Rating: 4.5/5
6. The Last Exorcism - For an exorcist-themed horror movie, I was fairly impressed. Many horror movies now just pile on the gore or action scenes, but this movie took a more subtle approach. For a while it seemed like there wasn't any paranormal activity involved, but I knew in the back of my head that it wouldn't be much of a horror movie if the good ol' devil or one of his minions never showed up. The documentary style was distracting at times, but done much better than Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity. I was not expecting the ending to take the twist that it did, but it only reinforces my rules about traveling: never go to the Deep South and stay away from isolated rural areas.
Rating: 2.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment