“It doesn't matter what size or shape you are. Burlesque is about feeling positive about who you are, about knowing how to shake what you have and being proud of it.” Baby Doe

My daughter and I had the opportunity to attend the premier of Burlesque this past Wednesday night. Although I  will not receive any compensation for this post, I felt the need to describe how this movie left me feeling.

I have always been a fan of Christina Aguilera's incredibly haunting voice. That girl can sing! If you have ever seen a stage performance by Christina, it is not a far stretch for the performer to snag a part in a Burlesque show. But can she act?

My quick answer would be yes, she pulled it off. Definitely not an Oscar performance most pointedly a crying scene where she seemed forced and fake. However overall, she was very believable. Possibly as she may have faced some similar obstacles in life as her character. The singing and dancing however- incredible! It is what she does best. In one scene she is stunning in a form fitting sequined gown, flawless close-up skin and her first note actually sent chills up my spine. She is in her prime!

Cher, in her sixth decade in life, plastic as she is, was stunning. Not too bad with the pipes herself. A solo scene shows that she still has it. A beautiful woman and a beautiful song.

Julianne Hough from Dancing with the Stars fame made her debut and proved that she is more than a dancer. She holds a soft place in my heart as she grew up in the same city as I. Way to go Julianne.

This movie was everything I was expecting, hoping for and more. Loads of energy keeps your interest. Awesome talent and interesting and beautiful costumes leave you wanting to visit a seedy underground burlesque venue. It is set in LA but has a bit of New York flair.

Because it was a premier, we were elbow to elbow in a packed house. Before the film began I was concerned about the seemly lonely chatterbox to my right. But when the show began, even she was mesmerized by the fabulous music and energy and never spoke another word (except for the three incontinent riddled dashes from the theater).

I too was transformed by this movie. In addition to the music that drives you to jump up from your seat and dance, makes you yearn to belt out the tunes yourself and run to the nearest Burlesque, it is hilariously funny. The best one liners I have heard in a while.

The male eye candy does not disappoint. I dive into Cam Gigandet's cookies, but then you will not understand that until you see the film. Eric Dane of Grey's Anatomy is always great to look at. But his character is not as nice.

Stanley Tucci is in the perfect role. I have not seen him in a role I didn't like but as Cher's best friend he is fabulous, they pair together nicely.

I highly recommend this movie. It has been a while since I have walked out of a theater ready to send all my friends in to see it. This year, I have been lucky enough to find two.

Red  with and all-star cast and a terrific plot and direction. It was my favorite film of the year.

But it just lost its first place standing with me.

Go see burlesque! it opens Thanksgiving day. You will not be disappointed.

Oscars, Chinese Food and Girls Night

Every spring I try to catch at least part of the Academy Awards, even if only for a few moments. I like to see short synopses of movies that I have yet to see, and that I may like to see. I also love to watch the telecast so that I might see some of my favorite actors and actresses receive recognition for stellar performances. Most years I am unable to choose a favorite movie to cheer for. Although I was only able to get out to see one of the films nominated for Best picture this year, The Changeling starring Angelina Jolie. But the other films nominated look wonderful and I will definitely be adding them all to my Netflix queue. I don't even think MILK was shown in this conservative state. Flashbacks to Broke back mountain (2005) (small shout out to Heath ledger much too young a life to be taken- for any reason)

In true form, last night, we (my girls and I) decided to put together our own intimate Oscar party, just us girls. My latest issue of Cosmo (can I say that?) had a couple of tasty looking, Asian inspired recipes (which I changed up a bit more to my liking). More about the menu (and recipes) at the end of this post. We cooked up in the kitchen together while watching the Barbara Walters pre-Oscar interviews, and later settled in on some large pillows using the coffee table as our low dinner table and eating a dinner worthy of the Oscars. Yum.

The Academy Awards were great! Hugh Jackman is such a hottie, but seriously he can't carry a tune to save his life. But that is OK because most of his musical numbers on the AA's had a bit of humorous touch to them anyway. We watched the first half-hour of the awards, and a few of the entertainment numbers, then began to feel a growing boredom of the long thank-yous.

But lucky for us, on another channel, at the same night and time as the Oscars, was one of my favorite reality shows. The Amazing Race.
So, during each of the commercials, we began a bit of remote control surfing. I know- we have mental issues in this family....I love The Amazing Race and watching the differences of each of the teams and how they interact with or not with the other teams. Every season I am pulled in by the strength of love between team members, balanced with the intensity getting on each others last nerve. And the physical, intellectual and emotional strength they must endure with these partners. Many years as a single mother, living through a divorce and attempting to blend a mixed family, I have known challenges of living with another person with differing points of view and ideas. It is a challenge on some days and most rewarding in others. However, doing this while racing other teams, while running into cultural, physical and mind-blowing challenging obstacles and being with that person 24-7 without an outlet, without ability to 'leave the room' so to speak, cannot be easy. No matter how much you love your teammate, it has to get tough.
Oh! But I have gotten a bit off-topic. Back to our Sunday night party.
We continued to rally between the two shows, Cheering on the teams from Amazing race while catching some wonderful performances from Queen Latifah, Beyonce, and many other acts between awards. Changing channels, and keeping up on two separate shows was a bit crazy but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. My daughters were not at all annoyed by my strange habit of dual-viewing, rather, they were reminding me, when I was distracted, to turn it back to see if Linda had found her way back onto the trail... (on the race) Poor Linda, and Steve was so supportive of her but also so emotional, they really weren't ready to be sent home.

It was all-in-all a great night, good food- TWO great shows and my beautiful babies at my side. We had so much fun! And I didn't even get the least bit sore sitting my 39 yr old body on a floor pillow for a couple hours. Only drawback? I ate so much I will have to figure out some new exercises this week.
Here is the great food we had to eat:


Pot sticker Dumplings with Ginger-Lemon Dipping Sauce-
I created this recipe on the fly (using the cosmo recipe of course). I began by browning a pound of ground beef. (Ground chicken or pork might have been better for this recipe but I didnt have any on hand).

Finely chop some button mushrooms, and water chestnuts. Add them to the beef.

When the meat is warm, add some chopped green onions.

Add a teaspoon of chopped ginger

and a teaspoon of oyster sauce (found in the Asian food aisle of most markets).

Stir well and remove from heat.

Lay a stack of approximately eight egg roll wraps onto cutting board and slice in two parts diagonally creating two triangular pieces from each. (sorry didnt take pictures here)
Using a basting brush, swipe outer edge of the wrap with cool water to moisten.
Place one teaspoon of meat mixture onto center of wrap.
Fold one of the longer corners over onto the other longer corner forming a smaller triangle covering the filling. Pinch tightly all edges making sure there are no open sections.
Set onto plate or cookie sheet separating to avoid sticking. I am sure you could dust them with a bit of cornstarch or flour to help with stickiness.
Heat ( I used Olive) oil on medium heat in a shallow skillet until it begins to sizzle. Add dumplings to the oil. Frying takes only a few seconds on each side. Less time is needed the more you cook as the oil gets used up and heats more. Allow to drain on paper towels.

Ginger -Lemon Dipping Sauce-
In a bowl combine the following: 3T Soy Sauce, 2T lemon juice, 1t. fresh ginger- grated, 1T. Sesame Oil, and 1 scallion thinly sliced. Stir and pour into a shallow dipping bowl.
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Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps-
(Bonus! You get to eat these with your hands, unless you are like my baby and love chopsticks so much that you balance a wrap between the sticks).
Cut two boneless- skinless chicken breasts into small cubes, fry in skillet with 2 T olive oil until no longer pink. While the meat is browning,

Ccombine one packet of stir-fry seasoning, 2T soy sauce, 2T lemon juice, and 1t. sugar in a small bowl. Add 1/2 yellow and 1/2 red pepper-diced, 1/4 c. water chestnuts-diced, 2T scallions- thinly sliced, and a pinch of red pepper flakes to the meat. Cook 5 minutes on medium heat until peppers are tender. Stirring often. Stir in seasoning mix. Until meat is coated.

Continue cooking until liquid is absorbed.
To serve, wrap chicken mixture with individual leaves of romaine lettuce, garnish with bean sprouts, cilantro, mint or peanuts to your individual taste.

I didn't get pictures of the finished products... we were starving! here is a picture of my girls eating it. you can see the dumplings and the lettuce boats.

Although the wraps are generally low-cal, I think I ate enough of them and the less lo-cal deep fried dumplings to triple a single serving. But it was so worth it!

Enjoy!

And congrats to Sean Penn and Kate Winslet!!!

Stress Relief

Valentine's Day this year is just the girls and I. As I am sitting here typing, they are yet to awaken and see the cards and candy I make sure to give each year. They will be working tonight so I will just curl in with a good book or a movie. And that is OK. Sometimes peace and relaxation is just what we want for a holiday right? But last night we had a mom and daughter night and a lot of pent-up stress was released inadvertently.
My younger daughter was not able to go out with us so my older daughter and I decided on dinner and a movie but being the spontaneous and unorganized, indecisive Libra that I am, we didn't yet know where we were eating or what we were seeing when we left the house.
Dinner was nice, we ate way more than we should have and then waddled out to the parking lot.. chats like that, one-on-one, mom and daughter are the best. I still love moments like that with my mother and am glad that I can pass the same on to my children. Then we headed to the best of the movie theater's in our nearby towns. This particular theater has very comfortable, reclining seating. The next best thing to being at home. I don't often go out to the movies but when I do, I prefer this establishment. Because of our delay in getting out of the house, and the wait at dinner, we arrived at the shopping mall where the theater is housed at the time directly between the showings of any of the current films. We decided to do some window shopping and wander the stores of the mall while waiting. Which turned out to be quite fruitful as we found awesome clearance sales and bargains and ended up with quite a few essentials and barely made a dent in the savings. We are talking $50 for about 35 items!- But- I digress.
After some shopping and a bit of awesome people watching, we had decided on the new movie shop-o-holic we found it ironic that we were the only people in the theater with shopping bags below our seats. (as far as we know)
Even though the theater was filling up quickly when we arrived, the 'perfect' row in the middle of the theater was open sans two women at the far end. My daughter was ecstatic. Apparently it is best to have the very seats we were in, she took the time to count and ensure that she was in the exact center seat in the aisle. We chatted a little more before the movie began. My daughter was a bit wound up and rocking in her seat to show me how her seat was perfect.. haha
While she was settling in, she mentioned that her seat felt a little bit odd, a little tilted to one side. We joked about who or what might have caused the 'tilt' then the movie began. It was hilarious and we were laughing nearly to snorts.
As the movie progressed, she - and I- would lean back, or rock, settle in. At one point we were giggling at the movie and giggling at the fact that she was nearly leaning into me in her 'broken' chair when suddenly we heard a crunch. This sent us into a further fit of giggles, the kind that makes your entire body shake, and you cant catch your breath. We continued to watch the movie. The movie turned a bit less humorous and more somber for a few moments between laughs, my daughters chair chose that very moment to give out! I turned and saw her panic-stricken face as her body in the seat fell a good 3 inches lower, and sideways. The side of her seat closest to me had given way and she was hanging sideways into my seat.. which threw us into a fit of uncontrollable laughter reminiscent of slumber parties of my youth when we laughed until our Coke came out of our nostrils. We couldn't stop. Fortunately for us, there was more comedy on the screen as we could not get ourselves under control. Then she shifted in uncontrolled giggling and we heard the 'pin' or bolt or some part of her chair clank on to the floor below her chair... which set us off again. Giggling so hard it felt as though we had just completed sixty-one sit-ups, so hard that tears were forming in the corners of our eyes. All we had to do was look at each other and we would lose it again! As I type this now, it isn't nearly as funny as it seemed at the time.
She moved to the seat on the other side of me for the remainder of the movie, afraid that someone would see her move and 'turn her in' for breaking their chair. Worried that there were security cameras pointed on her the entire time. I assured her that she would not get in trouble because their chair broke while she was sitting in it. After the movie ended, we were still giggling out of the theater and out to the car, and even all the way home. Good thing we saw a comedy! We joked how awkward it could have been if we had seen our second choice of movies- Grand Torino. We might have been shot!
All-in-all the nights events made it one of the best nights with my daughter. Nothing beats an uncontrolled, crazy, make you light headed giggle fest with your daughter. My only regret was that my younger daughter didn't make it. I love being a mom.
It was a night of stress relief, and with the past weeks events, I needed it. I think it was good for my daughter too. As they say- laughter is the best medicine.
And the movie was pretty good too: Isla Fischer is a crack-up!

Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent. - Marlon Brando

I never met a dame yet that didn't know if she was good-looking or not without being told, and there's some of them that give themselves credit for more than they've got. - Marlon Brando, A streetcar named Desire

Since beginning my Netflix account last year, I have a whole bevy of movies available to me at the click of my mouse and a days mail. Lately, my youngest daughter and I have begun watching some of the old black and whites. She even received a few musicals for Christmas.

Last night, I watched a movie I have been wanting to see since I was about 15 or so. Our family had just signed up for cable television and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons my mother and I would settle in and watch movies. One day, she was watching an old black and white (which in my teen years was a bore!) so I had only watched a few minutes then headed off for more exciting teenage things such as flipping through a teen beat or something.

But that small glimpse of the movie stayed with me. I later heard about what a great icon Marlon Brando was, and heard that the movie itself was a classic!

I had to see it!

And the verdict? Not a bad show at all, interesting, great writing.

But- Brando! oh my!!!

(although I cannot find a picture that is not copyright)

He was definitely a man's man. I realize that this man could be my grandfather. And I realize too that he is no longer living.

But that didn't stop my heart from going pitter patter.

Sigh!