A Movie-ful Week

#13: Buy a new kitchen gadget and use it 10 times.
This goal is officially complete! I used my mandolin slicer for the tenth time earlier this week, and it was to make the one thing I was most excited about when I first bought it: french fries!

They turned out perfectly...well, the part that I used the julienne blade for, anyway. I probably should've baked them longer, 'cause they're looking a little...floppy. Anyway, just because this goal is done doesn't mean I'm done with my mandolin. It's been a huge help to me; I think I'll be using it for years to come.

#28: Watch every Best Picture Oscar winners from 1961-2013.
Thursday night, I watched Rain Man. Oh my goodness...I think that one might rival One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as my favorite so far. Dustin Hoffman was incredible. I never realized what a great actor he was, and then this year I've seen three of his best movies: Rain Man, Kramer vs. Kramer, and The Graduate (which wasn't a Best Picture winner, but whatev...it lost to In the Heat of the Night, which I can't really argue with).

#76: Go to a drive-in movie.
I've never done this, but I always thought it would be a lot of fun. Louisville actually used to have a lot of drive-in theaters, but they're all closed now. Fortunately, we found one that's still up and running about half an hour away, across the river in Georgetown, Indiana. We've been checking the website for months, waiting for them to show movies we actually wanted to see, and this weekend, we finally got the opportunity. It was good timing, too: they're just a few weeks away from closing for the season. Hello, date night!

In case you're wondering, we saw the two grown-up movies on Screen 2. :-p It was so much fun! The low temperature was around 40 that night, so we got to wear lots of layers and curl up in our slankets (that's a blanket with sleeves, by the way, but NOT a Snuggie...these were handmade by Tom's mom and sister). And we saw two pretty good movies for half the price of what we'd have paid at an indoor theater.

Workin' On It!

#28: Watch every Best Picture Oscar winner from 1961-2013.
Last week, we watched In the Heat of the Night. I think this is one of my new favorites on the list. I'd never seen a Sidney Poitier movie before, and he was great in this one...especially the famous "They call me Mister Tibbs!" scene. That was one of the AFI's Top 100 film quotes, and if you've seen the movie, you know why. Fantastic.

#13: Use new kitchen gadget at least 10 times.
We had roasted zucchini with dinner the other night, and I got to use my mandolin to slice them up. Then yesterday, I got to use it again, to slice cucumbers and tomatoes for a salad!

#1: 100 new recipes.
When people find out how much I love to cook, one of the questions I get asked most often is: "Do you make Indian food?" Well, now I can finally say "Yes, I do!" Behold: chicken tikka masala!

Ugh...I wish my phone had a better camera. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike this camera? I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture at home the day I made it; this was taken a couple days later, when I took it to work for lunch. Just trust me, the chicken tikka masala tasted a lot better than this picture makes it look.

Well, Labor Day was earlier this week! To celebrate, Tom and I went on a brunch picnic, and I made overnight blueberry french toast. Now, I know, I made overnight apple french toast awhile back, but I think this recipe was different enough for me to count it as a new one.

If you try this recipe, please do me (and yourself) a favor and make the blueberry sauce to pour on top instead of regular syrup. Oh my goodness. So good.

#60: Start a new family tradition.
Actually, we decided to go on a picnic because we did one for Labor Day last year, and it was so much fun, we saw no reason not to keep doing it every year, even after we have kids. *dun dun dun* Hopefully this is the first of many Duttweiler family traditions!

#36: Take photos to spell out our last name and frame them.

While I was out running the other morning, I noticed the end of a rail in our neighborhood and was pleasantly surprised at how much it looked like the letter R. On our way home from our Labor Day "bricnic" (term for a brunch picnic, coined by my mother-in-law), I finally remembered to take a picture of it. I might crop this picture or something before printing it out, but I thought it was a pretty good one, especially since I don't know how many other places I'm going to find this particular letter. R is a tricky one!

Slice of Happiness

#28: Watch every Best Picture winner from 1961-2013.
I can't believe this goal's already more than halfway done! The other night, I watched Crash. I didn't really know very much about it beforehand; all I knew was that it was about several different people's stories criss-crossing over each other. So I was completely unprepared for how race-oriented the movie was. But it was good...eye-opening, even. It's not one I would've pegged for Best Picture, personally, but I'm glad it won; I might never have decided to watch it otherwise.

#13: Use new kitchen gadget 10 times.
We had veggie sandwiches for dinner Wednesday evening, with sliced cucumbers, fresh baby spinach, and...sliced red bell peppers! I was pretty excited about trying the mandolin on the peppers; actually, I wasn't sure it would work, but they turned out beautifully! I'm glad Tom wasn't home yet when I did these; I was squealing pretty loudly. That's how excited I was. Gah, I love my mandolin. It's definitely redeemed itself since the thumb-slicing incident a few weeks ago.

Just look at 'em. I am still geeking out over this.

Attack of the Mandolin!

#1: 100 new recipes.
#13: Use new kitchen gadget 10 times.
We did "breakfast for dinner" at small group this week! I volunteered to bring sauteed apples as a side/topping for the pancakes we were having. This is definitely one of the simplest recipes I've tried so far, but somehow I managed to complicate it. I won't list all the things that went wrong; I'll just tell you about the worst one.

See, I was using Granny Smiths, which are super tough compared to other apples, and the only way to get a good slice on them with my mandolin was to hold them tightly and directly with my hand, as opposed to the grip attachment that came with the mandolin. Well, I guess it was inevitable; I got the side of my thumb caught in the blade. (Don't worry, though; I inspected each slice very carefully, and no apples were tainted in the making of this dish.) Thank you to Tom for being quick with a Band-Aid for me! By the way, I decided not to take a picture of my thumb to post here. You're welcome.

Anyway, I got through about two apples with my mandolin before I gave up and just used a knife for the other six, which is probably what I should've done in the first place. But I think they actually turned out okay...! I do wish they looked a little more uniform, but they tasted great; I guess that's the important thing.

Happy Feaster

#1: 100 new recipes.
For our Easter lunch, I made chicken alfredo in the slow cooker... yum.

#13: Use new kitchen gadget 10 times.

Our small group was about half its usual size this week, with so many people spending Easter with family. Those of us who were left got together for dinner at Scott and Amanda's place. We contributed a big dish of roasted vegetables, which included some sliced zucchini, among other things. So I got to use my mandolin again! Yay!

#31: Give up Facebook for a month.
I gave it up for Lent, which is actually longer than a month. (For those of you who might have seen the links I posted to this blog from Facebook, I did sign in, but I didn't check anything, so I don't think that counts.)

A Snack and a Knickknack

#1: Try 100 new recipes.
#13: Use a new kitchen gadget at least 10 times.
It was "dip night" at small group this past Sunday, and we had a bag of potatoes thanks to this month's Food Line, so we decided to make homemade chips! I had a recipe that called for seasoning them with black pepper, garlic salt, and some sort of herb (I chose thyme), and I took along some sour cream for dipping. Not bad!

#98: Get a fleur-de-lis Christmas ornament before we leave Louisville.

I know the fleur-de-lis is probably associated more with New Orleans than with any other American city because of the heavy French influence there, but it's all over the place in Louisville too. (The city was named after King Louis XVI of France, because he sent soldiers to aid the Americans during the Revolutionary War.) So what better symbol to commemorate the time we're spending here? OK, so I cheated a little and got one from eBay, but I probably paid a lot less than I would have if I'd gone to a local store. Besides, isn't it pretty? I think it'll look great on our Christmas tree!

I should also mention, we volunteered at Jeff Street again last week. It's awesome; I think we're actually starting to recognize certain visitors from month to month, and even better, some of them are starting to recognize us!

And finally, I just completed a month of working out on a somewhat regular basis! I think this might be the first time I've done that...ever. And now I know that it really is doable; I just have to be intentional about it. It's a pretty good feeling!

Into the Light

#13: Use new kitchen gadget 10 times.

In addition to slicing, my mandolin also has a julienne attachment, which I used the other day on some apples and carrots before sauteing them for dinner. They came out in these fun little strips; I realize that's what it means to julienne, but they were just so cute. I wish I'd taken a picture...! Wow, I'm such a food nerd.

#56: Say something nice about someone who makes me feel bad about myself.

This one speaks for itself, I guess, but I do have to mention that making me feel bad about myself is not a difficult task. I can't tell you how many arguments I've had with people over things they said that I misinterpreted as being something negative about me; what's worse, I tend to stay mad at that person for a long time, even if what they said wasn't meant to be hurtful. Messed up, isn't it? But by God's grace, I'm slowly learning to not only take people's words at face value instead of reading too far into them, but also to think of the person saying it in a positive light. I won't name any names, but suffice it to say that this goal is checked off, and it feels incredible.

One Delicious Weekend

#1: 100 new recipes. (5/100)

Our apartment complex has this thing called Food Line once a month, where all these local grocery stores basically donate food and the residents here can go through and get a bunch of free groceries; it's awesome. Anyway, thanks to Food Line, we recently wound up with a package of ground lamb. I had no idea what to do with that except maybe make burgers, which is what I did. I've never made any kind of burger from scratch before, but I think they turned out okay. Actually, I made mini burgers so we could use these cute little rolls as buns, and I kinda made up a tzatziki sauce (Greek yogurt, grated cucumber, lemon juice, garlic, dill, red wine vinegar, and salt) to go with them. I also made my first attempt at homemade cinnamon rolls for small group today. Yum!

#13: Use a new kitchen gadget 10 times. (2/10)
I used my slicer for the first time the other day! We had some extra yellow squash that I sliced up and fried (the only way to eat vegetables, in my opinion...j/k), and the next day I sliced tomatoes to go on the lamb burgers. It worked perfectly; I may never use a knife to slice anything ever again...!

Two More in Progress!

#10: Read 30 non-academic books. (0/30)
When we were in Charleston for Thanksgiving, my mom loaned me The Health Detective's 456 Most Powerful Healing Secrets by Dr. Nan Kathryn Fuchs. I just remembered I started this one about a month ago, so I'm adding it to the list of books I'm currently reading. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's actually pretty interesting. The "secrets" are not what I thought they would be; instead of weird extracts or supplements, it's more about hidden deficiencies and probiotics and things like that. Also, I'll go ahead and put this out there since it's probably on your mind already: the author's last name is pronounced "fyooks." Not what you thought, was it? Same here.

#13: Buy a new kitchen gadget and use it at least 10 times. (0/10)

I've been wanting a mandolin slicer for months now. I decided that I would get one if I got some money for my birthday, but I kept putting it off. No more! I got one while we were out running errands today, and I can't wait to start using it!