Tasty Tuesday - Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese!

I'm back after another crazy weekend!

A friend and I went to see this on Saturday:

It was actually really cute. I mean it's not going to make an Oscar list any time soon, but it was a cute, fun movie. Not to mention all of the amazing views of New York City, which is enough to make me happy. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I was very concerned that it was going to turn out like Valentine's Day, which was not so cute.

This weekend also included my 4th party lite party since September. I am literally drowning in candles. The bestest and I have decided that the power could go out for a year and we would be totally fine.

With all of these busy weekends I feel like December is flying by. We are already half way through and there isn't even snow yet! Today I could go out in a heave sweater and no jacket. As much as I hate snow, I want it for Christmas. I have never had a snowless Christmas and since there are only 12 days to go, I'm starting to get a little antsy.

With all of the craziness that December brings, I figured I would share a quick and easy recipe that Chris and I fell in love with a couple of months ago.

Chris and I both work full time, and I don't own a car, so he needs to pick me up before going home himself. After the drive, taking puppy out and finally getting ready to eat neither one of us wants to wait an hour for food to be ready, so recipes that are good and easy to make are very important.

I found this recipe on Campbell's website sometime last year and it became an instant hit. The hardest part is cooking the pasta, and then popping it in the oven for 20 minutes.

Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese:

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup

1/2 soup can milk

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/3 of a 1-pound package rotini pasta or medium shell pasta (about 1 1/2 cups), cooked and drained

1 tablespoon plain dry bread crumbs

2 teaspoons butter, melted

• Heat the oven to 400°F.
  
• Stir the soup, milk, black pepper and pasta in a 1-quart casserole dish.
• Stir the bread crumbs and butter in a small bowl. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the pasta mixture.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until the pasta mixture is hot and bubbling.

My Adjustments:

• I normally double the recipe (4 cups of pasta and 2 cans of soup) but I make them in separate trays to make sure the portions are right (and I may have once crammed it all into one dish and had a small exploding incident in the oven....not important...). This way we always have left overs the next day, meaning no one has to cook, and occasionally Chris has enough to take for lunch.

• Honestly, the breadcrumbs are the best part and a tablespoon isn't enough. You barely know it's there. I normally use about 2-3 heaping tablespoons of melted butter, and then add the breadcrumbs until it is crumbly enough to sprinkle over the top of the whole dish.

Other than that I just follow the directions. Watch the oven because it will sometimes take less than 20 minutes and your breadcrumbs will burn (Also learned that one the hard way!)

Enjoy!!

Weekend Recap

I'm procrastinating on studying for a midterm that I have tomorrow, so I thought I would give my weekend recap on time this week.

Friday we went to D&C's wedding. This was the final wedding of the wedding season for C and I, and as far as I know we don't have another one to attend until our own in 2012 (unless one of my friends decides to up and randomly get married one day.....??)

The wedding was beautiful and we had a fantastic time. I love getting dressed up and going out for a night of dancing with C. It's not something we get a chance to do very often, so when we do I always enjoy it.

C and I. I wore the same dress that I wore to SM's wedding, because after trying on 3 dresses and letting my mom and C vote, this one won unanimously. I think C may have been a little biased because he bought a new purple shirt specifically to match me in this dress.

The lovely couple, happily married.

Cake

Centerpieces.

It was a great way to conclude our 2010 wedding season. Big congrats to D&C!

Saturday was a day to recover. C made me the ribs and roasted garlic potatoes for dinner (sooo good!). I honestly don't know what I will do with myself if this boy ever stops cooking for me. I would probably starve do to my total lack of kitchen abilities. Anyways, I meant to take a picture of this fantastic meal so that I could show you all.....but I was hungry....and realized that I forgot to do so, about halfway through eating it. So no pictures, you will just have to trust me that it was one of the best meals I have ever had.

After dinner we went out to rent Night of the Demons, How to Train your Dragon, and 30 Days of Night part 2. We only managed to make it through Night of the Demons, which was really dumb. Not a great storyline, bad acting and way to much gore. I'm not a fan of scary movies, and I'm pretty much a huge wimp while watching them (seriously, C put on about 5 minutes of Friday the 13th part 4, and it gave me nightmares) so if your horror film doesn't scare me then you can pretty much assume you didn't do it right. Night of the Demons didn't scare me at all, more just used the gore factor for shock value, something I'm also not a fan of. I'll keep you posted on my thoughts of the other two as we watch them.

Yesterday was my mommy's birthday. So we had the family over for Chinese food, cake and presents. I was busy eating, and helping my sister (with the broken wrist) serve and clean so there are no pictures.

So that was our very busy weekend. I feel like it flew by, and after looking at my calendar, I realized that all of our weekends from now until Christmas are pretty much exactly like this one. Is it possible to take a vacation from life?

Day 17: An Art Piece

I'm not even going to pretend that I'm a person that is interested in Art.

I like photos. My room is covered with pictures of friends, family, my nieces, or C, but nothing artistic. I assume when I get my own house and have more walls to fill I will buy photographs of artistic scenes. I like landscape photos, things like beaches, forests, old cities, sunsets. Here are some examples:

*All photos were found through google. I do not claim to have taken any of them*

I think this is about as artistic as my walls will ever be.

I have a very busy weekend coming up. C and I are taking K and B to Wonderland tomorrow, then we have his grandfather's memorial and a birthday party on Saturday, plus soccer on Sunday, so busy, busy, busy. I'm hoping to keep up with my 30 days of blogging while all of this is going on.

I also managed to finally get out an see Charlie St. Cloud with a good friend on Tuesday. I read the book, and was less than impressed. I found the narration very sporadic, and confusing. Time jumped without any warning, and half the time I was questioning whether the characters were alive or dead. Overall I was pretty disappointed with the book. The movie was 10,000 times better (Zac Efron may or may not have had something to do with that). I found it really different from the book, but for once I thought it was a good thing. It flowed so much better, and just generally made more sense. I teared up several times, but you will recall from my list of 20 favourite things that I enjoy movies that make me cry, so this was a good thing. So for the first time in my life I am going to advise you to simply skip the book and just see the movie.

And I think I have gone on long enough for today.

Day 2 - Favourite Movie

This one is hard. I could probably give you my favourite movie by category.....

I guess my all time favourite movie is Grease

I've seen the movie a bunch of times, I've seen the play, I own the soundtrack. I pretty much grew up with this movie. I remember watching my older sister and her friends sing and dance to the soundtrack at sleepovers when I was WAY too young to understand. When I got a bit older, her, my mom and I used to do a Grease marathon yearly. So I guess its not just the movie that I like, but also the memories that I have surrounding it. I also secretly think that I relate better to that era. The clothes are adorable and the music is fantastic.

Since we are on the topic of movies.....C and I just recently saw Inception and Salt, so I figured I would give you my review of both.

Inception was AMAZING. It was so completely out there, and I was majorly confused for more than half of it, but by the end it all works itself out (kinda) and you are left blown away. I actually came home from watching it last week, and turned on the t.v and saw the preview for it playing. The voice over guy (lol?) states that you should see the movie twice, and I completely agree. There is just so much going on, and you spend so much time trying to sort out what is happening, that I'm sure I missed quite a bit. I think sitting down and watching it a second time would make it even better.

We saw Salt last night. My overall opinion was that it was alright. There was a lot of hype going into this movie, and I think it left me a little disappointed. The action scenes were good, and the storyline kept me guessing and interested, but the ending was weak. I'm not going to give it away, but it is obvious that the producers were anticipating large sales for this film, and wanted to leave their options open for a second one to make the same profits. I'm not a fan of cash grabs like that, and I find that it leaves the viewer with questions.

Overall both movies were good, but if your trying to decide between the two then go see Inception because it was 10,000 times better.

A little bit of Everything

Like usual, this post is going to be scattered, and probably long. Just giving you early notice.

Let's start with the weekend (I'd like to point out the the update is coming early, and I am slightly patting myself on the back).

This weekend was the first quiet weekend that I have had in what feels like forever. I really don't have a whole lot to say about it.

Saturday I worked from 9-6. I don't know if I have mentioned my crappy retail job yet. There really isn't a whole lot to describe other than I hate it more than anything else in the world and I am counting down the days to graduation when I can quit! So yeah, 9-6 at said job, working customer service, is enough to drive anyone nuts, meaning that Saturday night involved me putting on comfy clothes, renting movies with C and watching them cuddled in bed. We rented Valentines Day and Wolfman. Valentines Day was decent. I thought it could have been MUCH better given it's huge cast, but all in all it was cute.

Wolfman.......
....I fell asleep after about 10 minutes. So I couldn't tell you.

Sunday was a bit more busy. I had a really nice day with my mom. Me and her get along really well, but with me in school, working two jobs (technically), planning a wedding and maintaining an active social life, along with the fact that she owns and operates her own business, means that time spent together is sometime very spread out. We took my eldest niece K for her dance pictures (so cute! pictures will be posted as soon as I get them), went to Costco to pick up some pictures and then went home for Barbeque with my daddy. After that I met C and some friends for a pick up soccer game (I did not play, and actually wore the cutest blue and white high heels to the game to make sure I didn't have to).

Like I said, it was a well needed, nice, quiet weekend.

Other than that, C and I have seen some movies that I have yet to review.

Last weekend we Saw Shrek. Before I start, I need to mention that I LOVE this series. I normally fin myself leaving the theater in tears because I have been laughing so hard. This one....not so much. I was actually REALLY disappointed. I don't know if the characters have gotten old, or if the writers have run out of funny material but it just wasn't up to it's normal standards in my opinion. I can think of maybe two moments when I was laughing hysterically (I won't ruin it) and that's about it. The rest of the time I was sitting there hoping (praying....begging....) that it would get better, and it just never did. We also did not see it in 3D. Maybe that makes a difference??

We also went on a triple date with friends to see Prince of Persia. This was the complete opposite of Shrek. I did not want to see it AT all. I was mad that i was being dragged to yet another movie that I had no interest in. Well I'm am officially apologizing to C and my brothers girlfriend, pinkbilly, because this movie was awesome. It was like Pirates of the Caribbean in Persia. Lots of action, good storyline and of course a love story (that gets me every time). If you like the Pirates series then you will like this one, so go see it.

Other than the endless movie updates, I just took the cutest photo that I thought I would share

How cute is she?

B decided to become a mini homeboy for the day (no, I did not pose her like this). I feel like the more time I spend with these two, the more I realize that they are growing up SO fast. K is graduating from kindergarten in a matter of weeks. I feel like it was just yesterday when she was two days old and I was walking her all over the house, begging her to go to sleep. I just want to push pause and keep them this way forever (I can guarantee that my sister wholeheartedly disagrees)

But anyways, I'm getting sappy, I think that's enough of the random posts for today.

Another mid-week weekend update

I just can't seem to get these weekend updates accomplished early in the week. I think I'm just going to stop trying and make the mid-week weekend update the theme of my blog.

Anyways, for all of us Canadian residents this weekend was Victoria's Day weekend (better known as May 2-4) which gave everyone a well deserved three day weekend. I was SO busy, I feel like I didn't have much of a break at all.

Friday: I worked, and after work C and I went to check out some florists. The next bog thing on my list, at the moment anyway, is our centerpieces, mainly because there are quite a few "pieces" to them, some of which I want to get bought and out of the way now. I can't say our florist trip was all that helpful. It's kind of hard to get them to commit to a price for two years from now. That and I really didn't find anything even close to what my vision was, so I got slightly annoyed and discouraged. Which meant going home, flicking on the computer and searing the internet for the rest of the night for the perfect images of my exact centerpiece idea. So now, for next time, I will go prepared with said pictures and hopefully get farther.

Saturday: I worked. But after work was Taylor Swift! I have to say this concert was awesome. I went with some girlfriends:

Here we all are outside of the stadium ( I really have no idea what I'm doing with my arm and why it looks so awkward). It was fun going to a concert with just the girls. I love C, but I can't say that he is exactly the biggest Taylor Swift fan, so it was fun to go with a group of people who I knew were enjoying it just as much as I was. Here are some pics from the night:

Gloriana and Kellie Pickler were the opening acts. Kellie Pickler is the third American Idol contestant that I have seen this year (The other two being Carrie Underwood and Taylor Hick) and I love her. She is so cute.















Then Came Taylor:

You Belong With Me:

Teardrops on My Guitar:

Love Story:

Should Have Said No:

I took about a million more picture, those are just a few of my favourites (Songs and Pictures)

Which brings me to Sunday: The bestest had a small May 2-4 party at her house with a few close friends. I went there determined not to drink, not sure why. But of course we got there, and the first drink got handed to me and the rest is history. Details.....
It was fun though. V was there, and this was the first time since I saw her since the wedding, so it was nice to catch up. Between all of our busy schedules we don't get a whole lot of chances to all be together in one place anymore, so its always nice to just sit back, relax and catch up with good friends.

Monday: This was SUPPOSED to be rest day, but it turned into cleaning day. My room desperately needed it done, and my OCD was starting to trigger, so I had to do it. I'm happy I did, I can find everything now. I also got around to hanging a picture frame that I got for Christmas.....two years ago....I love it. It looks MUCH better on the wall then it did on my floor. My next goal is to get my engagement pictures developed, and placed in the frame that I bought forever ago and hang that up! Monday afternoon I saw Letters to Juliet (yes....again!) Apparently I told my mom that I would see it with her, but I don't recall the conversation and went with C instead. But I loved the movie so much I told her I'd go again. I will not gush this time, but I will let you know that even after the second viewing the movie did not disappoint.

Yesterday C and I saw Robin Hood. I didn't like it. I was confused and lost for a good portion of the movie and I found it WAY too long (I was bored roughly by the half way point). But don't take my word on this one. I was never a big Robin Hood fan so I'm not going to even pretend to be the best critic.

Which brings me to today! Today is exactly two years until my wedding day. This is exciting for me because it means that tomorrow I can say that my wedding is only 1 year and 364 days away, which sounds SO much better than 2 years. Agreed?

Other than that, right now I am sitting in my sisters house, in which her AC has crapped and its 30 plus degrees. This makes for very miserable children. So I'm thinking when K gets home from school and B wakes up from her nap, its outside, in the sprinkler and some prime tanning time for auntie, until it is time for the manicure with V and my mommy.

This post turned WAY longer than initially planned. If your still here, I apologize.

Hope everyone had an equally awesome weekend and an even better week!

Letters to Juliet

Hello All!

I'm back from a slight blogging hiatus. I just feel like there hasn't been much to write about these past few days. It's like my life went from crazy busy to really boring in a matter of minutes. But anyways, all that aside, I'm back.

Yesterday, C decided that he was going to take me to see Letters to Juliet. I have been talking about seeing this movie for months, all the way back to when I saw the first preview, so needless to say I was very excited. It definitely did not disappoint.

This movie has every element in it to make a very happy Leanne.

It made me laugh.....

....and cry.

It was set in one of the most beautiful places in the world: Verona, Italy.

Italy is definitely on my list of must see places. My dream trip would actually be Venice (TRYING to talk C into this for the honeymoon, but that's another blog for another day.) But Verona is close enough, and no less gorgeous.

It had a not to shabby looking boy, with a hot English accent (yeah I have a thing for accents..)

It ties into Shakespeare, and I am a major Shakespeare buff (I'll openly admit it, even if it makes me a nerd.) Not only does it relate to Shakespeare, it directly references one of my absolute favourite plays.....

...What can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic.

And last, but certainly not least it has Taylor Swift on its soundtrack (Love Story, of course) who, have I mentioned, I am going to see next Saturday with some girlfriends!!!

Anyways, I think you get the point that I love, love, LOVED this movie.

It's a predictable chick flick of course, but I'm into those kinds of movies. So if you are like me and you like the sappy, happy ending romantic stuff then I give Letters to Juliet five stars out of five and definitely recommend that you go and see it.

Wonderland

First of all....Happy St Patrick's Day everyone!!

I wanted to blog today because the fiance and I went to see Alice and Wonderland last night. I have to admit I was pretty concerned just because we all know just how addicted I am to Disney, and I'm not normally very fond of change (why mess with a good thing?) I was also told that people either loved this movie or hated it, the pessimist side of me was convinced that I was going to be on the hate side.

I actually surprised myself because I really liked it. Tim Burton directed this film, so as you can imagine it's not your typical cookie cutter Disney film, but it was definitely an interesting take on it. In this version, Alice is older and she is returning to Wonderland for a second time, but doesn't remember anything from her first experience.

It was interesting, with lots going on, and they also went out of their way to tie in several aspects from the original film (making this avid Disney watcher very pleased).

Also the cast was amazing. I'm not going to go through them all, but I am going to say that casting Johnny Depp (*sigh*) as the Mad Hatter was one of the best decisions that the producers mad. His quirkiness and slight level of insanity make him perfect for this role, my favourite part of the whole film was probably watching him (but I'm not going to lie.....my favourite part of most Johnny Depp film is watching him).

So my recommendation is for people to go and see this film....and see it in 3D! The movie was filmed with the intention of it being shown is 3D, so as far as I'm concerned your not getting the full effect unless you watch it in the proper format.

I can't say it was as good as Avater (when considering the 3D) BUT it is still worth it.

I have some catching up to do....

Wow!!

I can't believe that the last time I blogged was before Halloween! Time really gets away from you. So I guess I can start there, seeing as I showed you my adorable boots, but you never got the end result.

So here we are! "C" decided to go as a dirty old man, and I was a cow girl (Note the adorable boots!). The party was fun and crazy as usual, but I have to admit, as much fun as these parties are, my favourite part of the whole thing is the day after. "C" and I typically stay the night at my best friends house so that no one needs to be concerned with driving, and the morning after routine has pretty much been set in stone after all these years. We get up with just enough time to hit McDonalds for their breakfast (I guess you can consider this my "hangover" food) and then the rest of the day is spend relaxing in bed. Its nice to have nothing to do and just lay in bed all day and sleep, so this is really what I've come to look forward to when there are parties.

Other than this I need to be honest and admit that not much has happened. School has gotten crazy, and I am procrastinating BIG time. This year seems to be particularly worse than normal. It's my third year, and I can definitely see the light at the LONG tunnel that has been my education, but I just can't seem to find the motivation to put the work in that I normally do. I can't explain it, this year is no different from others, I like (most) of my classes, I just can't seem to force myself to do the work that is needed. Hopefully I'll snap out of it.

In movie news: I can't even remember what movies I have seen since I last posted. Couples Retreat comes to mind, and I'm probably going to be a major disappointment right now because I REALLY didn't like it. I found that most of the funny parts were in the commercials, and the rest of it I found depressing. Maybe this is because it is coming from a person who is getting married, and therefore watching four couples who pretty much hate each other and their lives together for two hours just isn't funny to me. Or maybe the movie just sucks, I dunno...you decide!
We also saw Law Abiding Citizen. This is a good movie, and I'm not only saying this because I think Gerrard Butler is drop dead gorgeous :). I found the concept to be something entirely different, not falling into the same old plot lines that we are all bored with, while at the same time not going to far and becoming unrealistic. Gerrard Butler did a fantastic job, he played his character perfectly, leaving you wondering for the better part of the film if he was insanely smart or just completely psycho. I one hundred percent recommend this one!

This post is bordering too long again, I have a real problem with that. BUT just to finish up, I have a book I want to talk about. We had to read a book called "The Raw Shark Texts" by Steven Hall for school, and I'm going to admit it is exactly the kind of book that I would never look twice at if wandering in a book store for myself. I was surprised when it actually caught my attention, so much so that I had trouble putting it down. I'm not going to give anything away, but will warn that it is different, probably unlike anything most people have ever read. It revolves around a kind of psychological shark that feeds on memories and knowledge, to the point where the recipient forgets everything and is forced to begin life and relearn everything all over again. Like I said...different. It is difficult to get into originally, but in the end it is worth it!

I'm also attempting to read Jane Austen's "Emma" for my Film and Lit class, and I am having trouble. I read fairly quickly, as long as the book interests me, and I have been working through this one for a good two weeks now and I'm not even 100 pages in. I had this problem with Pride and Prejudice when I attempted to read that about a year ago. I guess Austen is simply not my forte

Has anyone else had a problem with her novels??

Killing Time

I feel like I'm extremely bad at this whole blogging thing. I follow other blogs, and they seriously write something every single day, I just don't have time for that. Anyways this is completely unrelated to what I planned to post today, just thought I'd share my inner blogging thoughts.

Back to the topics on hand.....right now I'm at school in the middle of a three hour break and desperately looking for things to waste time on, as its only week two of classes and I have nothing better to do with my time. So I figured all of you were in need of an update on my interesting life! here goes.

I don't remember if I have shared this with you before, so if I have...sorry...if not.... the fiance works for a movie distributing company (I know, fascinating, right?) Anyways, the point of that little piece of insignificant information is that because of said job we get to see a vast array of movies...for free, due to screeners, free passes and whatever other little perks "C" gets from his friends at work. So last Monday, "C" informs me that he got a free screening pass for us to go and see "Paranormal Activity" in the theaters. Now here is a side note, I HATE scary movies,"C" loves them, causes some tension in the whole movie going experience. Anyways, me being the idiot I am decides that I will go with him to this movie, asking myself "how bad can it really be?" Yeah, the answer to that question was REALLY bad. The movie scared the crap out of me. I'm 23 years old and I slept with my door open and the hall light on like a big wimp. I also informed "C" that I hated him several times and that I was never going to another scary movie again. Anyways, since this screening was a premier of sorts, there were a bunch of media people there who were watching the movie in order to write reviews on it later. I made a joke that I should talk to some of them to help advance my career (writing of some sort.....I think....) and fiance decided that I should use my blog to write reviews about movies occasionally, since I need to write play reviews for a Shakespeare class I am taking and it would be good "practice." So I'm open and willing to try anything, but I'm not starting with Paranormal Activity, because I think the review would be highly unfair as I spent the majority of the film with my head buried in "C's" chest and my hands over my ears. (yeah yeah I know...chicken right?)

But I have managed to see two other movies since last Monday (like I said...we see A LOT of movies) and figure I'll try and give you my opinion on them. The first was "The Time Traveler's Wife." I saw the movie only after I finished the book, something I'm pretty big on. The book was amazing, and I recommend it to anyone. (oh, another side note....I HATE spoilers, I don't agree with them and I don't read them, so anything I write here will not give anything important away, just tell you my opinion of the work as a whole). The book is sad, but worth it, and managed to keep my interest throughout it's entirety. The movie was also really good, but I recommend reading the book before you see it. They left a lot out (most movies do now) which is understandable because the movie would need to be five hours long for them to include everything, but I felt like it was a bit rushed and they skipped over or changed some pretty significant parts, in my opinion. All in all it's still an amazing story, and worth reading (or watching if you really don't think you can make it through the book).

The second movie we saw this week was "Jennifer's Body," which I know is a total contradiction of my previous statement of "never seeing another scary movie again." Anyways, I saw this one with "C," my brother and his girlfriend, and it was probably the stupidest movie I have ever seen in my life. It was not scary at all (this is coming from me people!), the dialogue was horrible, and the acting (specifically Megan Fox) was even worse. The whole point of the movie was to put Megan Fox in slutty outfits, kissing girls and acting stupid so little boys can have something to get excited about (Oh and a note for the boys, that cute little outfit that they have her in on the movie poster, she doesn't wear it so don't bother!). Completely pointless and a waste of money, if an apparent horror movie doesn't give me nightmares than it doesn't qualify as horror.

Anyways, enough movie talk for now, my break has only an hour left! I think this was a good waste of time.

Wedding updates: there are none! I've gotten really lazy as far as this wedding is concerned. "C" wants to meet with more venues and it's my job to get in touch with them, and I was doing really good, and then something happened......
But on the plus side, I have been refusing to look at wedding dresses because I'm afraid of falling in love with one so early, but the dress that Rachel McAdam's wore in "The Time Traveler's Wife".....completely fell in love. Gives you an idea of what I'm thinking right now anyways!