Author: Snoskred

Movie Catch Up 4

1 Comment Posted on May 17, 2017May 15, 2017 by Snoskred

Something different this week – here are 3 movies I loved. The more movies I watch, the more I notice they tend to fall into the loved or liked category. Is that good choosing on my part, or on the part of my most favourite actors?

Queen Of Katwe

“A Ugandan girl sees her world rapidly change after being introduced to the game of chess.” IMDB

I know absolutely nothing about chess. I do not understand the game and I have never taken the time to learn about it. There just always seemed to be other things to do. This is a movie about a girl who becomes a chess champion. So I was quite worried going into this that I would not understand what was going on for much of the time. I should not have worried.

This was truly one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen and I do not mean that in a way like a feast for the eyes, tricky camera angles or amazing photography though there was some great shots in here and I loved the use of colourful costumes and landscapes. I mean beautiful in the story it tells and the people it tells us about. The entire cast is wonderful. David Olewayo and Lupita N’yongo lead a cast of actors who are new to acting but certainly incredibly good at it.

I am a HUGE Lupita fan but my love for her began thanks to her amazing choices fashion wise. Some stars just take the red carpet more seriously than other stars do and Lupita became a fashion icon for me a few years ago when she was nominated for an Oscar for her incredible performance in 12 Years A Slave. She did win it and quite rightly so.

I loved this movie so much, but I particularly loved the ending and then the gorgeous part where they put the actor next to the real person. I cried happy tears, it was so wonderful.

The Girl On The Train

“A divorcee becomes entangled in a missing persons investigation that promises to send shockwaves throughout her life.” IMDB

Wow, this movie got some terrible reviews and I am not quite sure why. Maybe because I came into this knowing absolutely nothing about it, I had not read the book, and I had no expectations at all other than knowing I usually enjoy movies with Emily Blunt in them.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Rebecca Ferguson in this movie, I loved her in The White Queen mini series. Alison Janney snuck in here as a surprise to me as well. I actually really enjoyed this movie. And at one point I looked up at the clock and it was 8:30pm, the next minute I looked up to see an hour had gone by and I had not even noticed it, so entranced and enthralled was I in this story.

I am not going to tell you anything about it at all. My hope is you know as little as I did if and when you see this.

Black Mass

“The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston.” IMDB

So the thing with Johnny Depp movies is – it will either be one of two things. Incredibly brilliant, or deeply Not Great. In this instance he is ably supported with a great cast including Jesse Plemons, Joel Edgerton, Dakota Johnson, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kevin Bacon. And that is a good thing, because I found Johnny Depp incredibly creepy in this role. The blue eye contacts certainly made him look different.

I have loved Jesse Plemons ever since his epic role as Todd in the final season of Breaking Bad. I was very pleased to see him in this movie – when I sat down to watch it the only cast member I knew about was Johnny Depp. Sometimes that is the best way to watch a movie – completely cold with no idea who is in it. Jesse is very Matt-Damon-Esque in this role, though there is not *quite* enough of him for me.

I was amazed at how you could see almost every single pore and wrinkle on the face of the actors in this movie. The focus was SO deadly sharp! I am afraid my screenshots have not done any justice to the levels of focus in this film.

There was one scene which had one of the best shots of people talking in a car that I have seen in a movie, ever. And we have seen that shot a lot of times, haven’t we?

This film did an amazing job of taking great actors and making them super creepy. In particular Joel Edgerton. Whitey killed quite a few people so there are a few murders in the movie. Realistically though they could easily have made this movie without including any of that. There was more than enough story here to fill two movies let alone one.

I loved this more for the sheer quality of the acting and the technical aspects – that sharp focus and what it could do for the film drew me in. If you are a fan of any of the actors involved you might enjoy this as much as I did, otherwise you might want to give it a miss, especially if you do not want to see violent scenes. Well, I don’t want to see them either but I understand their role and purpose, so I tolerate them when they appear.

movies

Take That & Party

2 Comments Posted on May 15, 2017May 14, 2017 by Snoskred

When I began working after leaving school, I had a fair bit of disposable income. I bought myself a cheap car and put an expensive stereo system into it. My main aim at that time was to make the music loud enough that I could not hear my tone deaf friend singing in the car. I did succeed.

Each week on payday, I would drive to Castle Plaza after work and go to the music store. CDs were the format of the times, we are talking 1992-1993. I would buy enough cd’s to fill my 6 cd stacker each week, maybe two music “albums” and four singles.

One week I stumbled upon a new group I had not heard of before, an band from the UK known as “Take That”. The music shop had a super special deal – buy the CD and you got a free music video with it. The moment I bought that deal, my fate was sealed. I was to become a Forever Take That fan.

My Mother found it somewhat hilarious that it was a UK group. She had been a huge fan of the Beatles back in her day. She remembers going to Adelaide Airport to greet them. The sheer pandemonium caused by the Beatles trip to Adelaide was pretty crazy.

I became a collector of Take That items. Whatever I could get my hands on, I would collect it. Even the dolls which as I recall were considerably Up Money as they were imported from the UK. Soon my room began to look a little.. crazy, with posters everywhere. I started to run out of wall space and had to blu-tak things to the roof.

My favourite band member was Mark Owen. This was due to the fact that he always seemed to put the most energy into his performance, especially the dancing. Any fan of the band would always have their favourite member and for many people their favourite was Robbie Williams.

In 1995 it was announced the band would tour Australia. I got my tickets as early as possible, I do not remember how that all came about or where I had to go to buy them. But for any self-respecting fan with disposable income aplenty, attending the concert would not be quite enough.

We planned to stay at the same hotel as the band though we had no idea which hotel it would be. Back in those days the two big 5 star hotels in town were the Hilton and the Hyatt, so we made a booking at both of them. We were there to meet the band at the airport, where they were mobbed by fans and loaded into two Toyota Tarago vans.

I do remember vividly that fans were thumping the vans with their fists, so hard I thought the windows would break. I did not do any thumping, in fact I remember I was pretty angry with the people who did that and the saner fans among us us told them to stop. They did not listen, though.

We raced back to the car like crazy people and took off to “follow” the band – of course miles behind them by the time we got out of the carpark. When we drove past the Hyatt, the two Taragos were out the front, so we knew where we would now be staying and cancelled our booking at the Hilton.

We were not the only fans who had this idea – in fact there were so many fans who stayed at the hotel, plus all the fans camped out the front, we were all asked to wear our room keys around our necks so they could tell we were guests and not just fans trying to sneak in.

Here you see Gary Barlow and Howard Donald in their Tarago, taking off from the Hyatt. I’m thinking they were on the way to sound check before the concert but I really can’t recall exactly when this was taken. This was back in the days before digital cameras.

Mark Owen did get into our lift. I cannot remember anything about this moment except how shiny his hair was. I know he talked to us and asked if we were going to the concert. The rest of that lift trip is a complete blur. The concert is a complete blur.

The only other thing I do remember is when the band went to the pool – we heard they had gone but it was closed so they could use it in peace. Our room had a view of the pool, but we were on a very high floor. Here we all are, trying to spot them.

And here is my very blurry photo of them at the pool. I used to be able to tell you exactly who was where in this photo, now I cannot remember.

Robbie Williams went on to be the more well known artist in Australia after he left the group. The group did break up not long after he left the band and all went their separate ways. They reformed as a foursome in 2005 and went on to write and perform some excellent music much of which we never heard here in Australia. But those of us who are fans, we followed along from afar.. :)

The band recently announced they are touring Australia in November. I happen to have a good friend who lived in the UK, she has always been a fan and she had went to quite a few of their concerts.

When they did a live cinema event a couple of years ago here in Australia, she asked me to go with her and of course I did, it was great. So she was the first person I spoke to as soon as I heard about the tour, and of course both of us wanted to go. I bought the tickets on pre-sale a couple of weeks ago.

So there you have my crazy teenage fan story. ;) I guess I was lucky that by the time I became a crazy teenage fan, I had my own car, I had a job, and I could afford my obsession.

Take That

Quick Note

3 Comments Posted on May 10, 2017May 10, 2017 by Snoskred

No movie post this week, we have been too busy to watch movies. Part of the busy was an overnight trip to Canberra. We went to IKEA and picked up a few things, including another HODDE.

One presently resides on the floor in front of my recliner. Something about this rug just makes me happy. If I could, I would cover the entire house with them!

For now, I have settled for replacing an older rug in the Kitty Hang Out Area. This is a spot where the sun shines for much of the day. There are places for cats to sleep at varying levels, many including floor mats placed inside or on top of cardboard boxes.

There is a pot of all the vegetables we did not eat over the last two and a half weeks bubbling away on the stove. Red capsicum, leek, one lonely carrot, cauliflower, zucchini, brussel sprouts and potato. It will be ready for lunchtime. Happy moments here!

Home

Sweet And Sour Chicken

3 Comments Posted on May 8, 2017May 6, 2017 by Snoskred

This was the second Chinese dish I ever learned how to make – the first being Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup. For some reason – probably laziness and the fact that KanTong makes a sweet and sour sauce in a jar – I stopped making it from scratch. I would love to know why that is, did I think this was harder to make than it actually is? Never, ever again will I use that jar sauce because this recipe is so simple and easy and incredibly delicious. It is taken from the Golden Circle website but I have changed it slightly to suit ourselves.

You will need –

600g chicken breast fillets chopped how you like them.
your choice of cooking oil to cover frypan (I use half coconut/half olive)
1 leek (chopped how you like)
1 green capsicum (chopped how you like)
2-3 carrots (chopped how you like)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tin pineapple (somewhere between 400-500g) – reserve the pineapple juice
1/4 cup Beerenberg tomato sauce
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

First cook the chicken – you can dust the chicken in flour if you like, you will find that thickens the sauce slightly. I’ve done it both ways and probably won’t flour it again. Remove the chicken from the pan once browned.

Then sweat the garlic, leeks, capsicum and carrot for a few minutes. While this is sweating, into a bowl place the reserved pineapple juice, the tomato sauce, the white wine vinegar and the soy. There, you just made your sauce! It will look brown and that might seem odd.

Once your vegies have sweat up a storm, add in your chopped pineapple and stir around a bit, mix it all together.

Add your chicken back in. Pour the sauce in, allow to simmer. You will see the sauce change colour It will go from brown to that traditional pink-red colour..

Serve over rice. This makes enough for us to have dinner plus 2 lunch serves. You could also double the amount of sauce and have that over rice as a snack or lunch, if you like. You could add in other vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy, snow peas, brussel sprouts chopped finely, zucchini, water chestnuts, baby corn, cabbage might be good, too.

If you look at the Golden Circle recipe it uses a much larger tin of pineapple, and it also says to use Worcestershire sauce. We do not use that, and it is fine without it. I think any more pineapple would be too much for us, and I would steer in the direction of adding other vegetables instead.

This meal is on the weekly rotation for a while because we are enjoying it so much. The only other recipe I need to learn to make from scratch is a version of Honey and Mustard chicken – I will be giving that recipe a try in future weeks. We used to use the Chicken Tonight sauce but it is far too salty for The Other Half to consume now. I would like to try some other Chinese style made from scratch sauces as well. ;)

recipes

Movie Catch Up 3

Leave a comment Posted on May 3, 2017May 1, 2017 by Snoskred

Loved

The Founder

“The story of Ray Kroc, a salesman who turned two brothers’ innovative fast food eatery, McDonald’s, into one of the biggest restaurant businesses in the world with a combination of ambition, persistence, and ruthlessness.” IMDB

I absolutely loved this movie even though it is basically the story of how Ray Kroc stole pretty much everything from the *actual* founders of Mcdonalds. It was incredibly well done, the script was engaging and it grabbed me right from the start. In the latter half of the film, though, at the exact same time as I was loving it, I was so angry about the story it was telling me so beautifully.

This is probably the best role I have ever seen Michael Keaton perform, and he does it incredibly well. The entire cast is fantastic but especially the Mcdonald Brothers, played by Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch.

My favourite part of the movie is when the Mcdonald brothers were telling their story of how they came up with the “speedee” system. I don’t normally put clips from the movies up here but this one was so brilliant I am going to share it.

I almost feel like the Mcdonald brothers could have been a great movie just on their own. I deeply loved those guys and I wanted to spend more time with them. It felt a bit like Mike Ehrmanraut from Breaking Bad – I just want to watch that guy do anything, for hours on end. And in Better Call Saul they are indulging me – I got to watch Mike take a car to pieces last week, it was everything I dreamed it could be.

The phone calls back and forth between Kroc and the Mcdonald brothers were pure gold. It is very hard to make that kind of stuff play on screen as well as it did.

Nice guys finish last of course, and that is exactly what ended up happening to the Mcdonald brothers. But even though you know from the get-go that this will be the eventual outcome, you spend the movie wishing it would turn out differently for them – and that Kroc would get what he deserves, which was NOT a massive fast food and real estate empire.

I do recommend this movie. You will love it yet hate it but there is no doubt you will enjoy every minute of it, especially the precious minutes you will get to spend with the Mcdonald brothers.

Liked

The Invisible Woman

“At the height of his career, Charles Dickens meets a younger woman who becomes his secret lover until his death.” IMDB

I was torn about whether I liked or loved this. 91% of it was loved- the costumes, the locations, the acting, all of this was brilliant. I did not like how it was told in flashback, it made the story quite confusing to me and especially how it ended quite abruptly and never really explained what happened to Charles Dickens or their relationship.

As with so many movies now, I had to go and do some research afterwards to know more. And rightly so, how do you condense a 13 year affair into a movie? This is a story which might have been better told in miniseries form.

This is a movie I would need to watch several more times to decide how I feel about it, so for now it sits squarely in the liked column. I will watch it again just because the costumes were so great.

Disliked

It’s Complicated

“When attending their son’s college graduation, a couple reignite the spark in their relationship. But the complicated fact is they’re divorced and he’s remarried.” IMDB

I never thought I would hate a movie with a cast as great as this, but BOY did I hate this. Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, this should be a winner. It was most definitely not. I spent much of the movie cringing and debating whether I should stop watching this. Deeply terrible. Why did I keep watching this for an hour? WHHHHHYYYYYYYY? For the sake of completion? Because I wanted to know what happened to the characters?

Thankfully, I did switch it off at 1 hour 7 minutes, and I deleted it from the hard drive soon afterwards so I could not be tempted to watch the rest of it. The movie did run for another hour and I am glad I did not waste that time watching it.

When I checked it on IMDB I was unsurprised to find it was written by the same person who wrote The Intern. So now I have a writer to avoid permanently. One stinker is bad, two and you are OUT.

movies

A Day Out & Il Locale, Berry

3 Comments Posted on May 1, 2017April 30, 2017 by Snoskred

I’ve had laryngitis and bronchitis this past week so I have been sticking close to home. But now The Other Half has two weeks off and this past Saturday we got out of the house.

At first we were just going to the chemist and to Bunnings, a local hardware store for those of you not in Australia. But one look at the carpark of Bunnings and we decided it was a HELL NO situation. Even the chemist carpark was packed, so much so the other half chose to stay in the car.

When I got back to the car we looked at each other and said what now – do we go back home? My outfit was not quite ready for that, so I suggested we head over to Berry to pick up some hand cream I have been wanting to get.

I am a member of a local food group here in the Shoalhaven – it is usually how I find all the local gems – and someone had recently posted photos of their meal from Il Locale. So as we were wandering about reading menus, I suggested we check out the menu at Il Locale. It turned out to be a great choice.

Il Locale is best known for the amazing gelato they make on the premises. In fact strolling past you might not be aware that they do actually serve delicious food and coffee and they do it at very reasonable prices for Berry. Berry is the kind of place where a simple ham and cheese croissant could cost you more than $10. It is a bit “Up Money” on occasion.

The Other Half chose his usual Egg and Bacon Roll. For $8, it was a bargain. The tomato chutney was *incredible*. It was so good I actually would have liked to buy it and take it home. I am not sure if it is for sale and they were quite busy when it was time to leave, so I couldn’t interrupt and ask. Next time.

I went for the BLAT – Bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato. It was so delicious. We also had coffee which was the perfect temperature and so, so good.

There are a couple of side rooms with tables for people to sit and eat, which you would not necessarily know from the street.

They also have take away sandwiches ready to go. And sorbet and gelato. Don’t forget about the gelato! It was a nice – and rare these days – treat. We do not eat out very often since changing our diet to low sodium.

We went for a stroll through our favourite shops, I got my hand cream, and by the time we were done the Bunnings carpark was suitably empty. Win win all around! Happy moments for all.

Berry

Seen @ Aldi

2 Comments Posted on April 28, 2017April 27, 2017 by Snoskred

Sometimes you see the strangest things for sale at Aldi.

shopping

Movie Catch Up 2

2 Comments Posted on April 26, 2017April 25, 2017 by Snoskred

Loved

The Infiltrator

“A U.S. Customs official uncovers a money laundering scheme involving Pablo Escobar.” (IMDB)

Bryan Cranston is one of my favorite actors of all time. Team him up with John Leguizamo who is yet another favourite and chances were this was going to be a winner even if the script is terrible.. but it wasn’t terrible. It was great. I loved everything about it. It felt slightly like a bit more upmarket version of Donnie Brasco.

The costumes, the lighting, the amazing homes on occasion contrasted with the reality of the lives of those undercover. Underneath it all there was this great tension, like at any minute everything could go very wrong indeed, and now and then things did go very wrong.

This movie did receive some mixed reviews elsewhere. Diane Kruger was impossibly gorgeous, Benjamin Bratt appears in a very silver foxy role – and silver suits him – Juliet Aubrey was great as the long suffering wife of an undercover agent and Olympia Dukakis has a small but effortlessly fabulous part especially delightful for those of us who have loved her since the mid 80’s.

I do feel the need to read the book this was based on now.

Liked

Life

“A photographer for Life Magazine is assigned to shoot pictures of James Dean.” (IMDB)

Dane DeHaan and Robert Pattinson together on screen. I should have been literally glued to my chair, laptop lid closed, watching this. I’ve been fans of both of these guys for years now. Sadly the movie did not grab me. I found the runaround that James Dean gave Dennis Stock far too annoying. In fact the way he treated everyone deeply irritated me.

I think the truth is, Dane was doing way too good a job here of almost inhabiting the skin of James Dean and I just did not like that guy. It probably does not help that I know almost nothing about him and have never seen any of his movies. I am sure if you are a James Dean fan perhaps you would have enjoyed this movie far more than I did.

The one time this movie did grab me was when James went to a dance at his old high school. On that occasion he was charming and lovely to the people there. If this movie had been about that guy I saw in that moment, I probably would have loved this. But by all accounts, that is not who James Dean was at all.

Robert Pattinson has a habit of choosing not great projects. I sat through a couple of really deeply terrible movies just because he was in them. I mean, hello, The Rover. This one was ok and he was ok in it. But not ok enough to keep my laptop closed for the entire movie.

The costumes were pretty great, as were the locations. In general this movie was very well done. It is just a shame the person it was all about was so annoying.

Disliked

Patriots Day

“The story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists responsible.” IMDB

Obviously as this is based on a real event where people were injured and killed, his movie is NOT for anyone who can’t deal with gory images. I understand they are kinda sorta telling the story of what happened but I think they could have gone a little lighter on showing the injuries.

Also I think if you are going to put an actor as well known as John Goodman into heavy makeup and dark eyebrows to resemble someone else, that is a Not Great idea. Every time I heard his voice I was freaked out by what he looked like. It also has Kevin Bacon which is never a bad thing.

Mark Wahlberg is pretty incredible in his role, but I am a fan of his. If you don’t like him you are probably not going to enjoy this movie, because his character is central to everything that happened – and it is a completely fictional character. There was no one police officer involved in almost every aspect of the bombing and aftermath. There were many wonderful people who did not have their part of the story told here.

That is where the film falls down for me – it is impossible to suspend my disbelief. I would have preferred a version with the “real” police officers played by actors, but then it would not have been so Wahlberg-esque. This is an important story and I feel it would have been better to stick to facts not make up a convenient character for “movie” reasons.

I was quite horrified at what they did with the “interrogation” of the wife, especially holding up a printed out photo of her dead husband which I do suspect may have been the real image, I never saw it myself though so I can’t be certain. That was unexpected and quite gory and unnecessary.

On the plus side, I did think J.K. Simmons was amazing as Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese especially in the Watertown shootout scenes. Alex Wolff as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Themo Melikidze as Tamerlan Tsarnaev did some amazing work in tough roles as the terrorist brothers. Jimmy O. Yang was incredible as Dun Meng and that particular aspect of the story is one many are unaware of.

Would I recommend it as a movie to watch? That is such a difficult question. Probably not and that is a shame. This was a missed opportunity to tell the real story of what happened, not some half-real half-fake version.

All of these movies are older movies from 2015 and 2016. They would now be available on DVD as well as via various movie streaming services.

movies

Herby Baked Chicken

13 Comments Posted on April 24, 2017April 23, 2017 by Snoskred

I like to call this one “every herb and his dog” though that is not really true. If I used all the herbs I happen to own thanks to the great Aldi spice packs it would turn out weird I expect and it would take a long time to put the marinade together.

I have made this several times now and I believe this will be the final recipe though it could always change. The orange juice was an addition this week because we bought some – the previous attempts did not have it – but now that I have tried it I would always add it. If I switch some of the herbs it can make this a totally different recipe too. EG if you add in some cumin that would take this in a Mexican direction.

This makes enough chicken for the other half to have 220g of chicken for lunch for 5 days – I often make a potato bake to go with it, or he can have a boiled egg and some cheese and crackers. Plus a leftover bunch of chicken for me to have as a snack.

This is so simple, it takes me maximum 15 minutes to prepare the marinade then everything goes into a baking tray covered with alfoil for a couple of hours in the oven. Here’s what you need and how I do it.

2kg chicken breast – you can use thigh if you like but you would want to reduce the cooking time somewhat, if you used wings and drumsticks you might cook it slightly longer.

The marinade –

put the following together in a bowl –
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon mixed herbs
1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt – you can use minced garlic if you prefer
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon rosemary

Whisk ingredients together. Pour a small amount into the baking dish, layer the chicken on top of that, then pour the rest of the marinade on top. You can add up to 500mls of liquid chicken stock if you like. The liquid will reduce down as it cooks.

Cover baking dish with alfoil. Do not skip this step, it is super important!

Cook in the oven at 200C (390F) for one hour.

Remove from oven, flip the chicken over. Put the alfoil back on. Return to the oven at 200C for another hour.

So why do I cook it for so long? Two reasons – so that all the flavours can seep into the chicken creating major awesomeness – and so the chicken completely falls apart when you touch it with a fork.

I like to make this into “pulled chicken” and I do that in the pan it cooked in so the chicken can soak up the maximum marinade.

recipes

Speedy Rosie

8 Comments Posted on April 21, 2017April 14, 2017 by Snoskred

So fast she sometimes appears as a blur in my photos. You can see how eager she is to get to her lactose free yogurt treat. She is incredibly fast. :)

Chickens